Contend for What Faith?

Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 1:3).

Anyone involved in Christian Apologetics knows this verse. "Contend for the faith." Yeah, we like that. (And we ought to; it's a biblical command.) Did you notice, however, what faith is to be defended? "The faith that was once for all delivered to the saints."

Progressive Christianity or Liberal Christianity are two terms used today to indicate those who call themselves Christians and are willing to question Scripture, tradition, the Church and so on. The movement as a movement started up in the late 19th century, and "Evangelicalism" was the response -- primarily a call to stand on Scripture. Progressives tend to have a few points in common. First, they will deny that the Bible is not the literal Word of God. It may contain the Word of God or it might point to the Word of God, but, let's face it, it's a man-written book with problems, inconsistencies, and ... well ... mistakes. I mean, surely, from a 21st century perspective, we can be quite sure that the Bible was wrong in its stance on slavery, just as an easy example. Progressives tend to deny that Christianity is the only way to God. And while the primary focus of traditional Christianity seems to be more about personal conversion, Progressives have moved on to more pressing issues like social justice and environmental issues.

When the Reformers stood against the Roman Catholic Church in their day and started what is called "the Reformation", it was not their goal to make the Church better like we normally think of the word "reform". They weren't trying to send the Church to reform school, so to speak. The goal, instead, was more of a return. The goal wasn't progress, but actually regress. They argued that the Church had moved away from original, biblical Christianity, and the goal was to go back. This illustrates Jude 1:3.

Generally speaking it is often a very good thing to progress. To make improvements in science, agriculture, economics, all sorts of things is a good idea. I mean, surely it's clear that the progress that has been made in, say, computers in the last 20 years is a pretty good thing. In most areas progress is fine. But Jude says that "the faith" -- Christianity -- is a "once for all" thing. It doesn't progress. The Bible is not a living document. We don't have progressive revelation. The truth of our faith was delivered to the saints of Jude's day. It was delivered once and that was for all and that was the end of it. The only improvements we can make in Christianity is if we find areas where we've deviated from biblical Christianity and then return to it. Lots of things are improved by progress, but Christianity, according to the Bible, was once for all delivered to the saints and we don't have the right or responsibility to add to it or correct it. To suggest otherwise is an arrogance I cannot fathom.