Alisa Childers' new book, Another Gospel? A Lifelong Christian Seeks Truth in Response to Progressive Christianity, is a compelling and important look at a growing threat to historical Christianity. This threat comes from the rise of progressivism within the Christian church of today. The ideas espoused by these prominent Christian leaders are significant departures from the historic doctrines held by the Church since the beginning of Christianity. Alisa is uniquely qualified to address the issues raised by these progressive leaders and those holding to Critical Theory (CT), which forms a foundation for these theological errors. In this book she relates her first-hand experience of having her faith systematically deconstructed by a trusted pastor. This progressive pastor led her, and other innocents, down a path which nearly destroyed her faith on the rocks of liberal theology. This is her story of reconstructing her faith and the journey back to becoming a stronger, better-grounded follower of Jesus.
In addition, this book is a great introduction to the subject of Christian Apologetics. Apologetics, simply stated, is the art of sharing what you believe and why -- to make a defense for your faith. Alisa shares many of the insights she found by in-depth study of issues such as:
The Reliability of the Bible Manuscripts
The Authorship, Inspiration, and Authority of the Bible
Truth and Trustworthiness of the Bible
Why people are drawn to the progressive gospel
Moral Relativism vs. Christian teaching
The nature of evil, hell, and the character of God
Core Christian Doctrines such as historic Adam and Eve, the Resurrection, and the substitutionary atonement of Christ's death
The author makes the point that doubt and sincere questions are okay, even by mature Christians. However, it takes work and effort to seek out the answers. There are good answers and historic Christianity is on strong footing, both intellectually and theologically. She transparently relates how she was unprepared to handle the kinds of skeptical questions that were raised by her progressive pastor. But she also shares her story of overcoming those new doubts and questions, and thereby growing in the process. Was it easy? No. Was it worth it? Yes.
While this book covers a lot of topics that are addressed in much more depth by other Christian apologists (such as J. Warner Wallace in Cold Case Christianity,) it gives a great window into the kinds of challenges that are brought against our youth and questioning church members. This book ought to scare us a little (or maybe a lot), since aspects of this new "gospel" are easily seen prominently in Christian bookstores, heard from well-known pastors and speakers at Christian conferences, and acted out in the liberal social justice climate. It is important that leaders in our churches be prepared to address these kinds of questions and to give forums for questions and doubts. If we don't, we will be blindsided and will continue to lose people to the rocks of Progressive Christianity.
