American Gospel - "Progressive" Christianity (Part 3 of 3)

The American Gospel, Progressive Christianity. Today is part three of our series right here on the Christian Worldview radio program where the mission is to sharpen the biblical worldview of Christians and to share the good news that all people can be reconciled to God through faith in Jesus Christ.

I'm David Wheaton, the host, and our website is thechristianworldview.org. Thanks for joining us today on the Christian Worldview. We have reached the final weekend of our three-part series on the American Gospel films. There are two of them, which expose the false teaching and the teachers that corrupt the biblical gospel and sound doctrine. Now, in part one, we examined film one on the errant teachings such as moralistic preaching, just be better, the works gospel, that faith plus your works earn you favor with God, the Attractional Church or the seeker-sensitive church geared toward the non-believer, and the health, wealth, and prosperity gospel, which says that when you become a Christian, God wants you always healthy and wealthy and prosperous. These four false teachings afflict so many churches. And then last week in part two of our series, we begin discussing film two, which is on progressive Christianity. Now, this is found in mainline Protestant denominations in the emerging church movement and elsewhere, where foundational doctrines of the faith, like the atoning death of Christ, nothing more core than that, are rejected as, quote, cosmic child abuse.

How could God kill his own son? And then they're reimagined into a kind of universal salvation, and there's no final judgment for those who reject Christ. So this weekend is the final part of our three-part series, and Brandon Kimber, the creator of the American gospel films, joins us again today to discuss more about progressive Christianity and its redefining of God and his word.

Let's get to the first segment of that interview. Brandon Kimber with us today here on the Christian Real View. One of the things you mentioned earlier that is a point of real contention with progressive Christians is the idea of penal substitutionary atonement. It's this big doctrinal phrase, but it's the core of the gospel, the penal penalty substitution. Christ was our substitute in our place. Atonement, his substitutionary death, satisfy God's wrath.

That is the most important concept to understand about the gospel. And I want to play a sound bite from the film showing the pushback from the folks in the progressive Christian movement. People like Tony Jones speaks in this film about did God kill Jesus? I mean, that just seems like cosmic child abuse.

They reject that. This sound bite also has more of Phil Johnson, Elisa Childers, and then it gets into how the shack, the book, and then the movie was a subversive attack on penal substitutionary atonement. Here's from American Gospel, the second film. Yeah, the title of my most recent book is Did God Kill Jesus?, which I use because it was a quandary I had myself and it was something that I had heard from a lot of people. And that is they're struggling with the understandings of the cross and Jesus' death on the cross, in which it seemed like God had to exact some kind of revenge or payment from Jesus. If God needs someone to pay the price for our sin, the question is, does he ever really forgive anyone at all? So how can he do that? How can he forgive sins?

Does he just overlook them? And the biblical answer is no, that's what the death of Christ is all about. He paid the price of other people's sins. Well, attacks on penal substitution have been around for a long time, but I think they made their way into the larger evangelical culture through the book, The Shack. Okay, Brandon, why is the issue of penal substitution, why is that so anathema with progressive Christians? They call it cosmic child abuse.

Did God kill Jesus? And this is something that's highly rejected. I think we know why, because they reject the gospel, they reject the faith, and this is the core of the faith.

But talk about that and how The Shack, that very, very popular book that many, many Christians read made into a very popular movie, how that was a subversive element on this issue. People somehow think that the love of God and the justice or wrath of God are somehow opposites, when really they're completely linked and compatible. If you are unjust, if you think that God can be loving instead of just, then you're saying that God was unjust in order to be loving. Well, if you are unjust, that's an unloving thing. Injustice is not loving.

A judge who allows evil to go unpunished is an evil and unloving judge. So you can't separate those attributes, and that's really, throughout the film, Tony Jones will refuse to acknowledge that God has to be both just and loving. And you'll see him go to the point of saying God doesn't need to be beholden to any attributes at all.

He can just basically do whatever he wants, which is crazy. At the core, really, people just hate the idea of a just God who punishes sin. Progressive Christians particularly may want justice in this world. They talk a lot about social justice, but when God's version of justice is aimed toward them or us, it becomes a completely different story.

Nobody likes that. We don't like the idea of hell or the wrath of God, and that's what you see in the book and movie The Shack. The author, William Paul Young, denies the wrath of God and kind of presents the idea that Jesus' death accomplished the reconciliation for all sinners. And we really see his views more clearly in a book that came out later called Lies We Believe About God, and in that he expresses his view that the idea that it was God's idea for Jesus to die on the cross, that that is us worshipping a cosmic abuser. So he's agreeing with this cosmic child abuse claim that this was actually first brought up in a book by Steve Chalk.

I think it's called The Lost Message of Jesus. And it's really a straw man version of the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement. I think people are rejecting these straw men versions instead of the actual real thing. And I think there's about maybe three different misunderstandings of this doctrine. They portray it as Jesus was this unwilling victim that was abused by his father. And scripture is very clear that Jesus wasn't an unwilling victim at the cross. He willingly laid down his life according to the Father's will. This was a part of God's plan.

And the second thing I would say is we need to remember that Jesus is God the Son, a member of the Trinity. So this is actually God in the person of the Son taking on his own righteous requirements. He's absorbing his own wrath against sin. He's not making someone else take the wrath.

This is God himself doing it for us. And so what you'll hear a lot is people will say, well, when humans forgive, they don't lash out in their wrath or anger and kill a baby or punch a dog before they can forgive. They just forgive.

And so that's really misrepresenting everything. In true forgiveness, the person who forgives turns the other cheek and instead of making the person who offended them pay the debt, if I'm forgiving, I'm absorbing the debt or the justice that's owed to another into myself. So this is exactly what happens in the gospel. We have God turning the other cheek instead of giving us the justice, which is our death, both physical death and spiritual death in hell.

He is absorbing that justice into himself instead of making someone else pay for it. So that's what forgiveness is even in human relationships. The final part I would say that people distort is we have to remember that the motivations of each member of the Trinity are the same. So the straw man version of this would be that the Father sent the Son so that he could love us. He couldn't love us until he had the sacrifice and the Son's blood. In the most famous Bible verse, John 3.16, we see that it was the Father who sent his Son because he loved us. He loved us while we were his enemies, and even under his holy hatred, he expressed his love for us by sending his Son. So all the members of the Trinity share the same motivation. It's primarily for the glory of God and the love of people.

There's no conflict between their motivations. Brandon Kimber with us today in The Christian Real View talking about the second film in his series. The title of the film is American Gospel. We're talking about part two today, Progressive Christianity. We have both films available on DVD here at The Christian Real View.

Just go to our website, thechristianrealview.org, and we'll tell you how you can get them coming up on the program today. A man that is brought out as being an influential person to progressive Christians is a person named Richard Rohr. I'm going to play a soundbite from the film about him.

He's actually quoted in this soundbite. You have some clip of him talking about his redefinition of Christ. He makes a distinction between Jesus and actually Christ. It's interesting error to listen to and how he portrays a type of universalism.

Here's from American Gospel. His influence is just profound. Recently, Jen Hatmaker had Richard Rohr on her podcast, and she referred to him as a spiritual father. I, along with just thousands and thousands of my listeners, have learned from you for so many years. We consider you a spiritual father. He's also influenced.

I know Brian McLaren. It says, Jesus said to him, to Thomas, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father, but through me. Now, this would be problematic for Richard Rohr normally, except that he says that Jesus is talking as the universal Christ here. And the reason we have so misused and misinterpreted John's Gospel is this is the eternal archetypal Christ talking. He can say, I am the way, the truth and the life.

This is Richard Rohr. But he's not talking about Jesus. He's talking about this mystery, this amalgam of matter and spirit, which is the way for everybody. His view of Jesus as savior is non-existent. Jesus is not a savior because we don't need salvation.

We don't need to be reconciled. Talk about Brandon, who Jen Hatmaker is and especially Richard Rohr and why he's been such a influential person amongst progressive Christians. OK, our guest today, Brandon Kimber, will answer that question after this first break of the day here on the Christian Real View radio program. If you just join us, we're talking about the second of the American Gospel films in this third part of our series.

If you're not confused after two films and three parts on the show, I understand. But anyway, we are offering this film, by the way, both films for a donation of thirty dollars or more to the Christian Real View. So you can just get in contact with us the usual ways at our Web site, theChristianrealview.org, or you can just purchase one film or the other. Each film retails for seventeen ninety nine. If you already have one, just want to get the other one.

Seventeen ninety nine. You can also rent the film online. I think you can watch it for forty eight hours or something like that, too.

But that's all linked at our Web site, theChristianrealview.org. Really highly recommend them. These films are substantive. I think the first one's two hours.

The second one's three hours. There's a lot of content in here to watch with your family, your church group, your Bible study group. So stay tuned. We have much more coming up today in the Christian Real View.

I'm David Wheaton. It is a pain to know that there are people who do not know Jesus. It is a greater pain to know that oftentimes Jesus and Christianity is being distorted. Your destiny is calling out.

It's time to start living large. I don't think God killed Jesus. That's a sick God and a sick story. This is the doctrine of Christianity.

This is the doctrine that separates Christianity from every other religion in the world. The American gospel films contrast the false teaching so prevalent today to true biblical Christianity. For a limited time, we are offering both films for a donation of $30 or more to the Christian Real View.

Regular retail is $17.99 each. To order, go to theChristianrealview.org or call 1-888-646-2233 or write to Box 401 Excelsior, Minnesota 55331. Be sure to take advantage of two free resources that will keep you informed and sharpen your world view. The first is the Christian World View weekly e-mail which comes to your inbox each Friday. It contains a preview of the upcoming radio program along with need to read articles, featured resources, special events, and audio of the previous program. The second is the Christian World View annual print letter which is delivered to your mailbox in November. It contains a year-end letter from host David Wheaton and a listing of our store items including DVDs, books, children's materials, and more. You can sign up for the weekly e-mail and annual print letter by visiting theChristianworldview.org or calling 1-888-646-2233.

Your e-mail and mailing address will never be shared and you can unsubscribe at any time. Call 1-888-646-2233 or visit theChristianworldview.org. Thanks for joining us today on the Christian World View radio program. I'm David Wheaton, the host. Our topic today is the third part in our series, the final part on the American Gospel films.

There are two of them. And the second film that we're discussing today is on progressive Christianity. Progressive Christianity is basically, I guess I define it as religious humanism, okay, so just a man-based religious sounding religion that merges or aligns with political leftism. And interestingly enough, in the lead up to this program this week, a perfectly timed article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune titled State by State, Anti-Trump Evangelicals Spread Their Message. I'm going to get into that, how they're not evangelicals, they're progressive Christians trying to convince evangelicals to vote for a Democrat this time around, not for Donald Trump.

We'll get into that later today in the program. And so before the break, Brandon Kimber, who is the creator of both of these films, was asked about Richard Rohr, a very influential person in the progressive movement. Let's get back to the interview with Brandon Kimber. And the reason we have so misused and misinterpreted John's Gospel is this is the eternal archetypal Christ talking. He can say, I am the way, the truth, and the life, but he's not talking about Jesus.

He's talking about this mystery, this amalgam of matter and spirit, which is the way for everybody. Talk about, Brandon, who Jen Hatmaker is and especially Richard Rohr and why he's been such a influential person amongst progressive Christians. So Jen Hatmaker is a popular progressive author, blogger. She's got a podcast called For the Love. I think she was also on HGTV a few times. In 2016, there was a news story about how she basically said homosexuality wasn't a sin and that we should include LGBT into Christianity.

And in response to that, LifeWay, the SBC's Christian bookstore, removed her books. In that clip, she calls Richard Rohr her spiritual father. Richard Rohr is a Franciscan friar. He's a Catholic. They call him one of the most popular spiritual authors and speakers in the world. He's been on Oprah a few times. And a lot of people in the progressive movement consider him their spiritual father or they've been influenced by him.

Rob Bell is a big name. He teaches, as you mentioned, universalism, that everyone will be saved. He denies the existence of hell. He's a perennialist, which means that all religions, even though they outwardly look different, they all share a single core divine truth that's the same across all religions. He denies original sin.

And as you brought up, his main and I would say most serious error is his understanding of Jesus Christ. He separates Christ from Jesus. So the historical Jesus is different from what he would call the cosmic or universal Christ. He believes that at the Big Bang, that that was the birth of the Christ, that Christ is actually another name for everything, everything in the universe, anything that's physical that we can see, can be called Christ.

This cosmic Christ is bigger than Jesus. I just want to read this quote from his website where he describes Christ as a kite, and I think this kind of helps you understand what he's trying to do. He says, If Christ is the kite, Jesus is the person flying the kite and keeping it from escaping away into invisibility.

If Jesus is the person holding the string, Christ is the great banner in the sky from whom all can draw life, even if they do not recognize the one flying the kite. So essentially he's saying that you can recognize Christ without acknowledging or even knowing who Jesus is. He believes there's really no atonement necessary, that everyone is already in Christ, so we don't need to be reconciled to God.

In that sense, that's kind of his logic and where his universalism comes from. Brandon Kimber with us today on the Christian Real View, the creator of the American Gospel films. Brandon, I want to play just one final soundbite from the film, having to do with the progressive Christian's rejection of the wrath of God, the atonement, they redefine that term. Everything you've been talking about is a redefinition of orthodox biblical Christianity. It's a battle for terms and what they mean. But here's audio talking about God's wrath and justice.

This has John MacArthur in it. Again, Bart Campolo who has now become a secular humanist and Paul Washer, the biblical Christian as well. Every sin ever committed by every person who has ever lived will be punished. That is required by divine holiness and divine righteousness and divine justice. The idea of justice, like punish the wicked. I don't want to punish anybody. I want to redeem everybody.

It will either be punished everlastingly in the life of the sinner, the impenitent, unbelieving sinner, or that punishment will be borne by Christ. John MacArthur might be right about it. That's not a guy worthy of my worship. I'm just not interested.

But first of all, you need to understand something. God's wrath is not like ours. Our wrath is primarily self-centered. It's coercive.

It's unrighteous. But God's wrath is pure and it is the result of His love for that which is right. If you love that which is right, you will hate evil. If you love life, you will hate death. If you love African-Americans, you will hate slavery. If you love children, you will hate abortion.

If you love Jews, you will hate the Holocaust. Why is it that we reserve the right as fallible human beings to burn with indignation when we see an injustice and yet we say if God does the same thing, that somehow morally beneath Him, His love is fierce, and in the same degree, His wrath is fierce against evil. Okay, that was a really powerful comment there by Paul Washer. Brandon, explain how this issue of God's love and wrath are so commonly misunderstood and also by taking it a step further by the progressive quote-unquote Christians, how they reject a God who is full of wrath, who will punish every sin, and who will sentence people to hell for rejecting His Son. Just as we talked about the love versus justice thing, wrath, as Paul Washer said, is God's hatred of evil. And the reason why he has a hatred of evil is because he loves righteousness.

He is righteous. There's a scripture that says, Love must be sincere, hate what is evil, or abhor what is evil. And that's true for us as humans when we see injustice, and that's true for God.

It seems logical that those attributes aren't opposites. They're pretty tied together, and they make logical sense even apart from what scripture says. But of course, what scripture says matters most, and we see God, we see His wrath and His grace in both the Old Testament and New Testament. So it's not that He has changed over time. It wasn't a God of wrath in the Old Testament, and now He's a God of grace and love in the New Testament.

No, He shows all those attributes on both sides of that divide. You hear a lot of, in the progressive Christians in the film, starting sentences with, I think, or I don't want to worship a God like that. Their own human reasoning is the foundation for what they believe to be right or wrong. There's none actually going to what the Bible says.

The authority of a biblical Christian is not their own human reasoning, but it's the word above their own word. Final question for you today, Brandon. Two-part question. In making these two films now, the first one on a lot of the false teachers and teachings going on within the Christian church today, and the second one on progressive Christianity, what do you see as the future? Not just Christianity in the most broad sense, but let's just narrow it down to, let's say, the evangelical church, the more professing biblical church. What do you think the future of the evangelical church is going forward?

And part two of the question is, how did these films change you in making them? Okay, Brandon Kimber will answer that question after this next break of the day here on the Christian worldview. I'm going to sneak in a little other soundbite from the film right now from Elisa Childers, where she talks about how progressive Christians redefine words, because that's what they do. That's how they sell their false teaching, and Christians often accept it, because they're talking about God and Jesus, but they're redefining what those terms mean.

Here's Elisa Childers from the film. Something we see very often in progressive Christianity is the redefinition of words. So they will take words that Christians have historically understood to be defined in a certain way.

They will assign them a new definition and then just use them in regular conversation, as if we all understand the new meaning. So a great example of this comes from Nadia Bolz Weber, who is a progressive Lutheran minister who wrote a book on biblical sexuality. And in her view, we need to completely have an absolute upheaval of the Christian view of sexuality.

In fact, she says we need to take everything that we've believed for the last 2,000 years and burn it to the ground. So one of the foundations upon which she builds her argument is her definition of the word holy or holiness. And so she defines the word holiness to mean something more like unity, being together.

It means there being unity between people and unity with God. And so this is why she can give an example of someone having a one-night stand and call it holy. Okay, that's how they redefine words right there.

And unfortunately, people get deceived. This is the Christian real view. We're talking about progressive Christianity today. When we come back, I'll tell you how you can get the films for a donation of $30 or more to the Christian real view.

Stay tuned, more coming up. The critical race theory and intersectionality are simply analytical tools. They're meant to be used as tools, not as a worldview, not a transcended worldview above the authority of Scripture. And we stand by the strength of this resolution. Is the Southern Baptist Convention diverging from biblical orthodoxy over issues of women teaching men, homosexuality and critical race theory?

Is this a bellwether of what's coming to your church? By what standard is a 110-minute DVD documentary about the battle taking place in the SBC? You can receive the DVD for a donation of any amount to the Christian worldview. To order, go to thechristianworldview.org or call 1-888-646-2233 or write to Box 401 Excelsior, Minnesota 55331. David Wheaton here to tell you about my boy Ben, a story of love, loss and grace.

Ben was a yellow lab and inseparable companion at a stage in my life when I was single and competing on the professional tennis tour. I invite you to enter into the story and its tapestry of relationships with Ben, my aging parents, with a childhood friend I would finally marry, and ultimately with God who caused all things, even the hard things, to work together for good. Order the book for your friend who needs to hear about God's grace in the gospel or the one who has gone through a difficult trial or loss or just the dog lover in your life. Signed and personalized copies are only available at myboyben.com or by calling 1-888-646-2233.

That's 1-888-646-2233 or myboyben.com. To sharpen the biblical worldview of Christians and to share the good news that all people can be reconciled to Christ through faith in Christ, reconciled to God through faith in Christ, that's the mission here of the Christian worldview radio program. That's basically to have a sharper biblical worldview and to proclaim the true biblical gospel. And we're doing almost a contrast today to what progressive Christianity is selling, liberal versions of Christianity that redefine words as we heard in that last sound by the end of the last segment there, how words are defined, holiness is redefined, who God is is redefined. And so it's Christian sounding language but with totally different meanings that corrupts and guts the core doctrines in gospel.

So it corrupts. You can't be saved through it because you're not believing in what, if you don't believe in the true gospel, you're believing in a false gospel. And that's why this is so serious and so important for Christians to understand. I didn't get to tell you at the end of the last segment how to get the film.

I ran out of time there. But we're offering both of these American gospel films. They're two hours and three hours long respectively. So they're substantive documentary films on DVD that each retail for $17.99.

You can buy one or the other that way or for a limited time. We're offering both films for a donation of thirty dollars or more to the Christian Real View. You can just go to our website to get it.

TheChristianrealview.org or just call us at 1-888-646-2233 or you can just write to us by mail. And all these contact information is given out throughout the program. We won't take more time to go over that right now. But we have one segment left with the producer creator of the film, Branding Kimber. And then we're going to get into an article this week that was written in the Minneapolis Star Tribune that exemplifies exactly what we're talking about.

Let's get to the final moments with Branding Kimber. In making these two films now, what do you see as the future? Not just Christianity in the most broad sense, but let's just narrow it down to let's say the evangelical church, the more professing biblical church. What do you think the future of the evangelical church is going forward?

And part two of the question is, how did these films change you in making them? I think from the very beginning, the lie of Satan has always been, you will be like God. And has God really said this? And both of those questions and the questioning of scripture and what God has said in scripture and the belief that we can be little gods. You find that in both the prosperity gospel and in progressive Christianity. In the prosperity gospel, it's this little gods thing where you can control your reality and create health and wealth.

Your dreams can come true. In progressive Christianity, you have Richard Rohr's view that everything is Christ. We all have the divine DNA and we're already in Christ and we don't need to be reconciled to God. Whereas the biblical gospel teaches that we are all dead and lost without Christ.

And we need Christ to come and rescue us. Whether the teaching is ignoring that or focusing on other things, they may acknowledge it in their belief statements on their website. Or may mention a brief thing at the end of the sermon, that gospel isn't the focus in maybe a prosperity gospel church. Or it's either rejected completely by subtracting away those parts of the gospel.

The wrath of God, hell, the atonement. In either case, whether you're adding to the gospel or covering it up or you're subtracting from the gospel, you have a different gospel. So I think false teaching will always be in the church. From reading scripture that there's a great apostasy coming and happening.

As culture changes to be more and more against Christianity, people are going to pick sides. If they're nominal Christian, they're going to probably be honest and give up their faith. They weren't Christian to begin with.

I would say Bart Campolo's case, that's what he did. He was honest. He recognized that he didn't really believe any of these doctrines anyway. And so why should I continue calling myself a Christian?

In the film as well, Bart tells the progressive Christians, Why don't you just come over and help me? It's better that you're honest than for these people to be in the church under the label of Christian and deceiving people. Just the process of making both films has definitely changed me even while making it.

I left a church I had attended for over a decade because I recognized that there was moralistic preaching and the gospel was being assumed and it was more about attracting non-believers into our church by making it more seeker sensitive and not wanting to offend people. And I got into a more solid church and I just pray that these films can actually wake people up to recognize that maybe they're in a church that they need to get out of and find a healthy biblical church that preaches the true gospel and doesn't try to hide it. Brandon, we thank you for making these films.

We've had a lot of listeners order these and for good reason. If you watch these carefully, you're going to be informed. You're going to have sharper discernment.

You're going to come down and understand key doctrines of scripture in a clearer way. Very well done on this and we appreciate your coming on the Christian Royal View, spending all this time with us and explaining some of the key aspects of the American gospel film. So we just wish all of God's grace and best to you as you go forward with your filmmaking career and we look forward to having you back on the Christian Royal View sometime in the future.

Thank you for having me. All right, that concludes our series of interviews with Brandon Kimber. If you missed any of them, you can go to our website, thechristianrealview.org. We have all three interviews up there and also you can get the films. For a limited time, we're offering them for a discount off the retail price, $30 or more for both films. They each retail for $17.99.

So you can get them on our website or just call us or write to us and we will get those out to you. That would be excellent for your church or for your Bible study group or just to watch with your family. It'll sharpen your world view for sure and help you to have better discernment as to what is being sold to us both in sort of these health, wealth and prosperity movement, extreme charismatic movement and then also from the progressive movement, progressive Christianity as well. So again, progressive Christianity just undermines, redefines and as they do that, they gut the core out of biblical Christianity. So it turns it into a non-saving gospel.

Of course, they don't think they're doing that. They always like to talk about Matthew 25. If you've done it to the least of these, you've done it unto me. You'll hear them whenever they reference that it's about a works righteousness gospel that if you do it to the least of these, that's how you're saved. You help the poor and the imprisoned and so forth.

And by the way, that's a great thing. That's an imperative for Christians to do as a result of their love for God and their thankfulness to Him is to help the least of these. But that doesn't merit salvation, which is what they try to sell progressive Christians. That is the core of the faith is doing that. And so they gut the core of the faith. They challenge the authority and inerrancy of scripture.

They redefine the character of God that He's just a loving God. He couldn't be wrathful. He's not a just God. And they always attack this substitutionary atonement of Christ as God killing His son. That seems like a wrathful, revengeful God, one that I don't want to worship, as Bart Campolo said.

They never believe in hell. That's disproportionate punishment. And they redefine the morality of scripture as well. The homosexuality, transgenderism, those are victims. Those are the oppressed. And so you can see there's an emerging there. There's an aligning with leftist political thought. And so this week, just in preparation for this program, there was an article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune that's titled State by State Anti-Trump Evangelicals Spread Their Message. And again, even the title there, Anti-Trump Evangelicals, these aren't evangelicals who we're going to read about in this article. That evangelical believes in the authority of scripture, the inerrancy of scripture, believes that the gospel is, that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven, believes in preaching that message to others, that there's individual conversion based on believing that. So these people aren't evangelicals. But you see, they're using the term calling themselves evangelicals as cover so that the defenses are down of other evangelicals they're trying to convince to not vote for Donald Trump.

And again, the end game of Christianity is not voting for Donald Trump. This is just an example of how progressives align with political leftism. So whether it's abortion, homosexuality, the redistribution of wealth, more of a socialistic system, a universalism of salvation and so forth, all under the guise of helping the victim, the oppressed, the disadvantaged. Again, what does that sound like?

Things we've covered in the program so many times in recent months. Social justice is all the same stew with just different terms and so forth. It always goes back to that worldview. So to start the article, the Reverend Doug Padgett. You're thinking, I've heard that name before, Doug Padgett. Well, he was a very well-known leader in the emerging church movement right from here in Minneapolis, St. Paul. He led a church called Solomon's Porch. And again, Tony Jones is another one who's from this area. Brian McLaren was another big mover in the emergent church movement.

Well, Doug Padgett now jumped on stage, the article says, at his former Minneapolis church, which is Solomon's Porch, he's no longer pastor there, with a message that he and his entourage are repeating across the country. Evangelical voters, you can stay true to your Christian faith, but still not vote for President Donald Trump. Their Vote Common Good campaign, let's name their campaign Vote Common Good. And you have to ask the question, common good, according to whom?

Who's the common that we're looking for good for? Conducted from a bright orange bus, making stops at every Democratic state primary, represents the small cracks in the evangelical base that helped propel Trump into office. We'll get more into this article from the Minneapolis Star Tribune about progressive Christians and what they're trying to do to real evangelicals after this next break of the day here on The Christian Worldview. There's an abundance of resources available in Christian bookstores and online, but the sad reality is that many of them, even some of the most popular, do not lead to a sound and strong faith. A key aim of The Christian Worldview is to identify and offer resources that are biblically faithful and deepen your walk with God. In our online store, we have a wide range of resources for all ages, adult and children's books and DVDs, Bibles and devotionals, unique gifts, and more. So browse our store at thechristianworldview.org and find enriching resources for yourself, family, friends, small group, or church. You can also order by calling our office toll-free at 1-888-646-2233.

That's 1-888-646-2233. Or visit thechristianworldview.org. It is a pain to know that there are people who do not know Jesus. It is a greater pain to know that oftentimes Jesus and Christianity is being distorted. Your destiny is calling out.

It's time to start living large. I don't think God killed Jesus. That's a sick God and a sick story. This is the doctrine of Christianity. This is the doctrine that separates Christianity from every other religion in the world. The American Gospel films contrast the false teachings so prevalent today to true biblical Christianity. For a limited time, we are offering both films for a donation of $30 or more to The Christian Worldview.

Regular retail is $17.99 each. To order, go to thechristianworldview.org or call 1-888-646-2233 or write to Box 401 Excelsior, Minnesota 55331. All right, final segment of the day here on The Christian Worldview radio program as we complete our series on the American Gospel films. Today's topic in last week's on progressive Christianity. We're reading this article, excerpts from it from the Minneapolis Star Tribune entitled State by State Anti-Trump Evangelicals. Really, they're progressives. Religious humanists is probably a more accurate term for them.

Spread their message. And we were Doug Padgett who was a former leader of Solomon's Porch here in the Twin Cities, an emergent church and part of that movement. He's the one leading or part of this campaign going around the country in a bus on this Vote Common Good campaign trying to convince evangelicals to vote for Democrats, not for Donald Trump. Padgett's campaign hopes to convince wavering evangelicals, the article said, that the president's character and actions are so out of sync with Jesus' teachings that it's a moral imperative to remove him from office. Quote, I'm a Christian pastor and God is the light of the world, unquote. Padgett told his audience earlier this month, quote, but not every light of the world should be president of the United States of America. We're not trying to make everyone a Democrat just to vote for one this time, unquote, the pastor says.

Now just think about that for a second. The president's character and actions are so out of sync with Jesus' teaching that it's a moral imperative to remove him from office. Now, I wouldn't disagree. President Trump morally is not the paragon of virtue by any stretch.

I think he might even admit that himself. But let's just analyze the candidates that Doug Padgett wants Christians to vote for. Every single candidate on the Democrat side is for abortion at all stages. Late-term abortion, post-birth, euthanasia, and maybe not all of them for that, but they're all for a radical view of killing the unborn. That would be enough in and of itself to completely challenge and overturn any kind of moral standing that any of these Democrats have. But it goes beyond that to their advocacy for homosexuality and transgenderism even within children before they even have a consensual ability to try to even think about making a decision like that, which a decision that can't even be done.

You cannot change from being a man to a woman or a woman to a man. Pete Buttigieg, one of the leading candidates, is an unrepentant homosexual. He is, quote, married, unquote, to a man.

Unrepentant homosexual. Mike Bloomberg, just this past debate, the former mayor of New York, he has all these non-disclosure agreements because of sexual harassment lawsuits with some of his former employees. Elizabeth Warren, senator from Massachusetts, she lied about her ancestry claiming Native American ancestry.

Joe Biden has never been investigated for the corruption that's taken place with his son and getting him, when he was vice president, getting his son onto sweetheart, highly lucrative deals over in the Ukraine and in China, making millions of dollars. Bernie Sanders, wish he had time to play the soundbite. His soundbite of him in the hearing before appointing, doing one of Trump's appointments, Russell Vote, and basically denying it based on Russell Vote's Christian beliefs is truly un-American and amazing to listen to. So where is the high moral standing that Doug Padgett and this Common Good campaign is trying to get evangelicals to not vote for Donald Trump? Just listen to what Pete Buttigieg had to say. This is exactly the progressive Christian.

That's what Pete Buttigieg is. He's an unrepentant, open homosexual talking about Christian things and the moral imperative of getting rid of Trump. At the last CNN town hall, you said if your faith calls upon you to help the marginalized, those who are afflicted, to comfort people, to strive for humility and decency, as the Christian faith does, and then I quote you, then I just can't imagine that that requires of you that you be anywhere near this president. Do you think it is impossible to be a Christian and support President Trump? Well, I'm not going to tell other Christians how to be Christians, but I will say I cannot find any compatibility between the way this president conducts himself and anything that I find in scripture. Now, I guess that's my interpretation, but I think that's a lot of people's interpretation, and that interpretation deserves a voice. Of course, he looks at Trump's moral behavior, doesn't see any compatibility with scripture.

How about looking at yourself, Pete Buttigieg, and seeing how you're living right now? President Trump has had, for sure, some moral sin in his life, and even now, his behavior, we've never condoned it on the program, ever. We look at it comparatively, his policies comparatively, to what he's trying to do versus what someone like Pete Buttigieg is trying to do, who's advocating for homosexuality, transgenderism, abortion, even in the late terms.

If I had time, I'd go into those sound bites today, but we don't. Very radical, anti-biblical, ungodly view of both morality and what government should do. And I sometimes wonder, you know, in hearing this kind of interview today, or watching these American gospel films, listening to the sound bites of some of these political candidates, reading this article about Doug Padgett trying to convince evangelicals to vote for a Democrat, professing himself to be an evangelical, Richard Rohr. I just wonder why churches and pastors don't more often talk about these kinds of things and help their congregants have sharper discernment, so they're not deceived by these kinds of false teachers and false teaching. Because it's all over the New Testament. Christ did it himself, talked about the Pharisees and Sadducees very strongly, warned people about their false teaching.

Jude spent the whole entire chapter of Jude writing about false teachers. 2 Peter did it in his second letter as well, and it's in other places throughout Scripture. So if the Bible points out these false teachers and their false teachings, why isn't this more done in churches today? It says in 2 Peter, And listen how strong this is.

When was the last time you heard this in your pulpit at church? False prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies. And that's what progressive Christianity does, it's destructive heresies.

Even denying the master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned. That's exactly what's taking place, the way of the truth is being maligned. And in their greed, they will exploit you with false words.

There's the deception of words. Their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. I mean, this is very, very strong language, talking about the destruction of these folks.

These, like unreasoning animals, born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed, reviling where they have no knowledge, will in the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed. And you can read the rest of the chapter for yourself, where it goes on, sentence after sentence, chapter, whole chapter. And then in chapter 3 as well, talking about false teachers and their false teachings.

How destructive it's going to be for them, and how harmful it is for those who listen to them. That's why churches and pastors need to point these things out. Thank you for joining us today on the Christian Real View. It's a good thing that Jesus Christ and His Word are the same yesterday, today, and forever, because we have a foundation, a base. God gave us a book to be able to go to, to know what His objective truth is. Stand firm on that, Christian. And until next time, think biblically and live accordingly. The Christian Worldview is a weekly one-hour radio program that is furnished by the Overcomer Foundation and is supported by listeners and sponsors. Request one of our current resources with your donation of any amount. Go to thechristianworldview.org or call us toll free at 1-888-646-2233 or write to us at Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota, 55331. That's Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota, 55331. Thanks for listening to the Christian Worldview. Until next time, think biblically and live accordingly.