In a world feverishly engaged in an unrestrained pursuit of “progress,” the demarcation line between secular culture and shallow, cultural Christianity is not merely fading—it is being intentionally obliterated. To be clear, the line between the pagan culture and true, biblical Christianity, will always be clear and the world will continue to push those who hold to the unchangeable truths of God’s word further away. Even as the world continues to shun us, we must acknowledge that we’re not entirely immune to the wave of deception that’s assaulting us from every direction. We have to fight.

Modern-day false teachers, wrapped in the attractive but deceptive rainbow-splattered garb of progressivism, are marching forward in lockstep with ideologies that are diametrically opposed to Christianity. They’re not just flirting with danger—they’re courting catastrophe, dancing on the edge of a precipice that threatens to plunge the church into the abyss of moral decay. From Tim Keller and his promotion of theistic evolution, undermining the creation narrative and calling into question the truthfulness of God’s word, to the modern Evangelical church’s obsession with racism, feminism, and identity politics, the flood of secular ideologies veiled as progress is relentless.

Even denominations we would call “conservative” are now filled with leaders chanting pro-abortion mantras and advancing softened forms of queer theory that explicitly defy the biblical understanding of human sexuality. These false teachings are not merely slipping but storming into the church with an intensity that demands immediate action.

The threats are endless. Moral relativism, a mainstay of progressivism, which erodes the absolute truth, and secular humanism, which places human reason above divine wisdom, have infiltrated even many of the most well-established theological minds of our day. The voices clamoring for these ideologies are not a mere murmur—they are a roaring, insistent, all-encompassing thunder, a tempest that threatens to drown the voice of the Church unless we rise to confront it with conviction and fearless resolve.

Make no mistake, these are not superficial divergences of perspectives—we’re facing an existential theological emergency. To ignore the voices assaulting the Church as mere folly would be a fatal error. Their volume, persistence, and influence will continue to grow exponentially if left unchecked.

In Acts 16, we find the narrative of Paul and Silas, pursued by a slave girl with a spirit of divination. Paul, after his attempt at ignoring her, recognized the pernicious nature of even this seemingly inconsequential voice and ultimately had to confront and expel the spirit. Why? Because lies, no matter how trivial they may appear, gain force and disrupt if left unchallenged. They cannot merely be ignored—they must be faced, fought, and defeated (2 Corinthians 10:5).

The words of the Apostle Paul in Titus 1:10-11 echo this sentiment, speaking directly to our present predicament. The early church, though different in time, faced a similar battle against false teachings. Gnosticism, for example, was another obviously blasphemous and absurd attack against the doctrines of Christianity, yet still strangled the early Church with its pestilent influence. The apostles did not ignore it nor did the early church fathers (Irenaeus). These threats are not a mere inconvenience—they are like the venom of asps, lethal to the Church.

There is nothing new under the sun and today, we face a similar mix of all these false teachings under the guise of “progress.” Paul’s condemnation of these deceivers as “insubordinate,” and “empty talkers” is as relevant now as it was then. His call to silence these perverters of the truth, who were “upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach,” resonates with our fight today.

Our battle against progressive thinkers—or non-thinkers, however you want to look at it—who dilute and corrupt the Word of God, is one of eternal consequence. Their war cries for so-called enlightenment, inclusivity, and cultural adaptation are nothing more than thinly-veiled attempts to subvert the immutable truth of Scripture.

It is in this vein that we recall the compelling example of Elijah’s encounter with the prophets of Baal. With righteous indignation and confident trust in the God of Israel, Elijah could have ignored them and left them to their own devices. Instead, he mocked these false prophets. He did not ignore them, he engaged and confronted them. His stand against this evil is a clear illustration of how these modern-day Pharisees—false teachers, progressive Christians, social justice activists—must be faced. Their mouths must be stopped, they must be openly challenged, and, at times, answered according to their folly with mockery. But a lie unchallenged only grows stronger.

This must be our stand as this is our calling. We must not waver, compromise, or seek middle ground with these blasphemers and idolaters. Our stand must be firm and unyielding, bathed in grace but unwavering in commitment to the Gospel of Christ. The battle is real, and the stakes are eternal. We must silence these distorters of truth, holding fast to the Word of God, with minds not conformed to the world, but transformed and renewed by the Holy Spirit so that we may discern what is the will of God, and what is good and acceptable and perfect (Romans 12:2).