Hi, my name is Rachel. I'm a wife and a mom of school-age kids from Northern Indiana.

I've been a Desiring God Ministry partner for 14 years, and you are listening to the Ask

Caster John podcast with John Typer.

Rachel has an important story to share with us, and I want you to hear it. It's about the

importance of Bible faithfulness, not in a moment. But on this theme of Carefulness with God's

Word, we have a question today from a listener named David about how progressive can a progressive

Christian get. Here's what he asks. Dear Pastor John, thank you for this podcast. I have a colleague

who would define himself as a progressive Christian. He believes homosexual practices holy,

and people engaged in such acts are qualified to be leaders in the church. He also believes

the Old Testament is completely metaphorical and cannot be trusted in any historical way.

I believe both beliefs fly against what the Bible teaches and teaches about itself. My question is

this, can you contradict the Bible at these levels and still be considered a Christian?

I know it's impossible to have an infallible understanding of the whole Bible,

and that we will err in many ways. I'm sure I do. But also, isn't there a line that cannot and

must not be crossed, Pastor John? How progressively Christian can a real Christian get?

So, let me think out loud with you for just a moment about a couple of the words used in this

question. And then I'll get right to giving his clear and biblical answers I can.

Let's take the word progressive. The reason this word has come to refer to people and views

that go beyond what has historically been considered true to the Bible is not because the idea of

progress is bad in itself. All of us want to see progress toward truth and goodness and beauty.

The reason the word progressive has taken on the meaning it has is because it has come to imply

a progress away from the truth and toward error, progress away from biblical holiness toward

...