Another Gospel?: A Lifelong Christian Seeks Truth in Response to Progressive Christianity

by Alisa Childers

What did the earliest Christians believe? Let’s break it down. They believed that Jesus died for their sins. Within two or three years of Jesus’ death, Christians were affirming the Atonement. At the core, they believed Jesus had died to save them from their sins—that he died in their place. He wasn’t simply killed by an angry mob for speaking truth to power. Since the Atonement is one of the foundational beliefs of Christianity, we must think about what we mean when we say, “Jesus died for my sins.” To get this question wrong is to get Christianity wrong. We’ll dive deeper into this in chapter 11. They believed that Jesus was buried and raised from the dead. Without the resurrection of Jesus, you don’t have Christianity. It’s that simple. Paul says it plainly later in the same chapter, when he connects the Resurrection with the Atonement. He writes, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:17). In other words, if the Resurrection is not an actual event in history—if Jesus is still in the tomb—then it doesn’t matter whether he died for your sins. Christianity is false. Might as well pack it up and call it a day. And since Jesus predicted his resurrection, it would make him a liar if it didn’t happen, and not the sinless Messiah Christians have long believed in. They believed that Jesus’ atoning death, burial, and resurrection were inseparable from the Scriptures. Essential to early Christianity was a belief that...