The Dangers of Liberal Theology

Systematic Erosion of Christian Truth

Liberal theology emerged as evangelicalism’s defining theological opponent since the eighteenth century[1], and its dangers extend far beyond academic disagreement into the very substance of Christian faith and practice. The core problem lies not in intellectual rigor but in the systematic dismantling of Christianity’s foundational claims.

Fundamental Reorientation of Authority and Revelation

While evangelicals believe liberals subtract from the Bible’s authority and thus commend a theology that is attenuated in every major respect[1], the damage proves more severe than mere reduction. Liberal theology views the Bible as a human book (not divine) in which people recorded their experience of God and the world, but which is fallible and not historically reliable[2]. This inversion transforms Scripture from authoritative revelation into a fallible human document—a shift that fundamentally alters what Christians believe they’re reading when they open their Bibles.

Collapse of Core Christian Doctrines

The consequences cascade through every essential doctrine. In liberal theology, the incarnate Son of God shrinks down into a “very, very, very, very good man,” and salvation becomes merely our imitation of Jesus’ example of godliness—without need of atonement[1]. Liberal theology denies penal-substitutionary views of the atonement and Christ’s imputed righteousness as the ground of justification, in favour of moral-influence and representative-trailblazer accounts of Christ’s death for us[3]. The cross loses its redemptive power and becomes merely moral instruction.

Spiritual Impoverishment and Institutional Decay

Liberal theology has, since its inception, tended to destroy the historic beliefs of many Protestant churches[4]. Liberalism is left with a thin theology and a merely moralistic (and perhaps mystical) piety wrought out of a thoroughly corroded Bible[1]. When churches embrace liberal theology, they sacrifice not merely doctrinal precision but spiritual vitality itself—replacing transformative encounter with God through Christ with ethical self-improvement and social activism.

Universalism and the Loss of Exclusivity

Liberalism is optimistic that people are naturally able to know God, and believes that all religions have true but partial perception of God. It opposes exclusive religious claims[2]. This relativism fundamentally contradicts Christ’s claim to be the way, the truth, and the life, transforming Christianity from a unique revelation into one option among many spiritual paths.

The Princeton theologian Gresham Machen famously declared liberalism not to be a branch of Christianity, but a different religion altogether[2]—a judgment grounded not in sectarian hostility but in the recognition that liberal theology has abandoned the essential claims that make Christianity Christian.

[1] John G. Stackhouse Jr., Evangelical Landscapes: Facing Critical Issues of the Day (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2002). [See here, here, here, here.]
[2] Jordan Pickering, Turn Neither Right Nor Left: Re-Centering Evangelicalism (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2019). [See here, here, here.]
[3] Sinclair B. Ferguson and J.I. Packer, in New Dictionary of Theology (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000), 385.
[4] Joseph E. Campbell, The Pentecostal Holiness Church 1898–1948: Its Background and History (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2016), 9.