What is a Liberal?

I am not sure there is a single answer, anymore than fundamentalist defines all believers, even of the fundamentalist stripe.

There was a time, in my early days, when we were separated by liberals and fundamentalists. In those days it was those who accepted such fundamentals as the virgin birth, deity of Christ and biblical inerrancy, whilst liberals opposed those very things.

Cheers,

Jim

 

they range from minor to extreme

an example would be those that make up the methodist denoms and those who are unitarian.

many baptist are liberal religionists.

i do not know how far off doctrine the liberal can be before he or she has believed in a different jesus and or gospel. i suspect most if not all who are liberal are lost.

 

i also wanted to add those that are liberal in theology would make scripture to read as metaphors and some believe that satan and hell are not literal. some believe evolution and homosexuality is a permissible feature of scripture and other twisting of doctrine is common.
this type of misunderstanding of scripture would make most conclude that they are blinded and do not know the truth of Gods word.

 

here also is a quote that can help explain liberal theology>>>

“A God without wrath,
led men without sin,
into a kingdom without judgment
through the ministrations of
a Christ without a cross.”

H. Richard Neibuhr

 

some more things liberal theology has brought us is homosexual pastorates, women pastorates. a giganic porportion of biblical error too many to mention,
books like spongs >>1998 book Why Christianity Must Change or Die
liberal theology brings error in when ever possible and if it can water down truth, make no mistake it will.

 

It is monthly deja vu time
A search shows 9 "liberal" threads
in the Baptist debate forums
(that have not yet been put into the
archives)>

I believe "liberal" to be a direction,
not an absolute position. So i can
say things like "Massdak is more liberal
than Ed is; Ed is less liberal than Massdak".

And here is a song i like
that the Gaiter Quartet sang:

Loving God,
Loving each other,
Making music with my friends!

 

ed spouts>>>

that is a very liberal view of liberal theology.

you do show a good example of how this all works.

too many grey areas and not enough black and white seems to be the problem.

 

Most mainstream scholars would consider "liberal" those who deny the virgin birth, the resurrection and even the divinity of Christ, the inspiration of scripture. A liberal thinker generally will trust his/her senses and logical reasoning over an accepted biblical doctrine.

Now there are those who would say that anyone who is not a young earth creationist, a strict biblical literalist, or not IFB in theology is a liberal - but...

 

In my opinion, this thread linked below, would be a good example of a bunch of liberals (myself excluded of course... ) discussing the ideas of a bunch of liberal hairy ticks.

http://thinkingbaptists.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=3956#3956

Joseph Botwinick

 

A liberal is somebody who values new ideas and adopts them in without regard to any previously held ideas or doctrines

A pharasaic fundamentalist is somebody who rejects all new ideas without regard to their content based solely on traditional ways of thinking

They take turns being actually right or wrong on various issues, of course.

 

thinking baptist???????

that is a scarey site

 

a liberal is one who values new ideas and adopts them in without regard to the Lord
that would be a more accurate statement

 

In our circles liberal is a decidedly pejorative term. Just because someone does not agree with a certain traditional stance does not make him/her a liberal. Now Crossan, Borg, Spong - VERY LIBERAL!!

 

There's liberal and then there's beyond liberal. What I saw of the Thinking Baptist board looked like some were beyond liberal -- I would not even call some of the beliefs I saw there Christian.

I don't consider the Jesus Seminar or Bishop Spong liberal, but beyond liberal, which is basically non-Christian though maybe still using the Christian terms and referring to Jesus.

Theologically liberal to me is denying some or all of the following: the virgin birth, a literal Adam and Eve, creation of the world by God (vs. evolution), a literal hell as a place of punishment for the lost, that the Bible is wholly God's word, a literal Satan, and that Jesus is the only way of salvation.

What is disturbing to me is that among born-again Christians, there are some liberal tendencies in beliefs. Results of a George Barna poll:

 

Paul of Eugene: "A liberal is somebody who values new ideas
and adopts them in without regard to any previously held
ideas or doctrines"

Massdak: "a liberal is one who values new ideas
and adopts them in without regard to the Lord
that would be a more accurate statement"

Paul of Eugene: "A pharasaic fundamentalist is somebody who rejects all new ideas
without regard to their content based solely
on traditional ways of thinking"

Then here is a better definition also:
A pharasaic fundamentalist is somebody who rejects all new ideas
without regard to their content based solely
on their misconception of the Lord's will

 

The Precious Blood of my Savior/Redeemer,
Jesus, flows a healing stream to the nations
-- that Blood is red; nary black, nary white,
nary any shade of grey -- the precious
Blood of Jesus colors our salvation RED.

 

Well,

Not all of them are. Most of them, but not all of them.

Joseph Botwinick

 

[/QUOTE]

Excellent post. I too feel that liberalism is the denial of one, or more, of the essential Christian doctrines. You cannot take the clear teaching on any doctrine and rehash it to fit mans ideas or the world's "politically correct" system.