It probably shouldn’t surprise us that our secular culture is being “wokeified” because a secular culture is what results when the people ignore what God has said.

When people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild.
    But whoever obeys the law is joyful.
— Proverbs 29:18 NLT

What might be more surprising is the “wokeification” that’s taking place among those who are supposedly paying attention to what God says. In the last few weeks there have been stories that are alarming examples of what happens when men and women who lead churches lose their sense of God’s revealed will.

Andy Stanley, the founder and pastor of North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Georgia, recently said that believers should not insist on biblical inerrancy because it’s an issue that keeps potential converts from coming to faith.

Without going into a long discussion about the inspiration and infallibility of the biblical texts, it is possible to agree with Stanley without agreeing with his conclusion about infallibility or inerrency. For instance, “Christianity rises or falls on the identity of Jesus.” That’s true. Our faith is not founded on the biblical text itself, but on the real, historical manifestation of Jesus, his resurrection from the dead, and his ongoing, current existence. As Paul says, “if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith” (1 Corinthians 15:14). It’s not the text that saves us (see John 5:39-40).

Someone who follows Jesus and is led by the Spirit but does not accept that the bible is without error is not committing an unpardonable sin. In other words, I believe that person’s salvation is secure. We don’t insist that someone who doesn’t accept biblical infallibility cannot be saved or cannot be a Christ follower.

However, such a person does leave themselves open to confusion and error because they cannot be sure what is and is not true in the scriptures, including what it says about Jesus. Such a view of scripture also leads to uncertainty about how to live as a believer, because you can’t logically determine what can and can’t be trusted in the bible. It would be very easy under the cultural pressure we face to simply declare that a biblical prohibition against homosexuality, for example, is an “error.”

While Stanley’s concern for those who are near-converts is admirable, I think he makes a dangerous compromise that unnecessarily muddies the waters for his congregants and for new believers.

Stanley’s theology is controversial but generally still within mainstream Christianity. Not so the next two stories, which take place in more radically progressive congregations.

First up is a female Lutheran pastor who led her congregation in reciting the “sparkle creed.“

The “sparkle creed” may be a “statment of faith,” but it’s not based on any biblical text that I know. This is what is called eisegesis, which means reading into a text one’s own ideas. Instead of coming to the text humbly and allowing it to inform you, you come to the text to inform it — you’re telling the text what it means instead of letting the text speak for itself.

It’s clear that the creed she cites is not biblical, and it is certainly not Christianity. I don’t know what you’d call it, but it is a false religion with a Christian gloss using made up creeds to patronize a rebellious “community.”

When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.” — Exodus 32:1

Then there’s the “problematic” use of “Our Father” in the Lord’s prayer.

Again, this is a case of taking cues from the culture rather than from the scriptures. These aren’t people who are serious about reverencing God and His Word. To say that the word “father” is problematic because some people had horrible experiences with their biological or adoptive fathers is to miss that our Heavenly Father is not a bigger version of our earthly father — He’s something altogether different. He’s the ideal of what a father should be.

To “correct” the terminology that Jesus used and taught us to pray is unimaginably arrogant. It’s a case of allowing our compassion for the misfortune of others to override our sense of propriety by changing the system or the terms or the story, as opposed to encouraging the wounded to come to the Father as he is and casting themselves on his mercy and compassion.

Never presume to come to God on your own terms. We come to God on His terms.

Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, contrary to his command. So fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.  — Leviticus 10:1-2

I sincerely wonder how it is that the Lutheran pastor and the Archbishop of York can still consider themselves part of the true Christian church, but they do. They seem to take a Darwinian approach to God’s relationship to man, meaning that our theology must evolve to meet people where they’re at today.

A recent article titled, “Queering Jesus: How It’s Going Mainstream at Progressive Churches and Top Divinity Schools,” examines “how progressive churches are moving beyond gay rights, even beyond transgender acceptance, and venturing into the realm of ‘queer theology.’ Rather than merely settling for the acceptance of gender-nonconforming people within existing marital norms and social expectations, queer theology questions heterosexual assumptions and binary gender norms as limiting, oppressive and anti-biblical, and centers queerness as the redemptive message of Christianity.”

It’s a perversion of the scriptures and all authentic, biblically-centered Christians must be on their guard against the insidious nature of the woke theology that threatens to destroy their faith and reject it with extreme prejudice.