This is an important post from Kevin DeYoung. You may never have heard of the term “theological liberalism” (and no, it doesn’t really have to do with politics), but check out this list of what it entails, and see if you haven’t heard ideas like this:
1. True religion is not based on external authority
2. Christianity is a movement of social reconstruction.
3. Christianity must be credible and relevant.
4. Truth can be know only through changing symbols and forms.
5. Theological controversy is about language, not about truth.
6. The historical accuracies of biblical facts and events are not crucial, so long as we meet Jesus in the pages of Scripture.
7. The true religion is the way of Christ, not any particular doctrines about Christ.
These ideas get repackaged every few years, and trotted out, either by people trying to promote (what they see as) Christianity, or even sometimes by opponents of Christianity who try to nicely tell us to tone it down a little–and let’s all be humble and admit that we don’t really have a monopoly on truth.
I encourage you to read the whole post to see where these ideas come from, and what they really mean. De Young ends this way:
Liberalism is not a swear word to be thrown around. It is a diverse, but identifiable approach to Christianity, one that differs significantly from historic orthodoxy, not to mention evangelicalism and fundamentalism. Liberals believe they are making Christianity relevant, credible, beneficial, and humane. Evangelicals in the line of J. Gresham Machen believe they are making something other than Christianity. That was the dividing line a century ago, and the division persists.