From “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism–the New American Religion” By R. Albert Mohler, Jr., Christian Post Columnist
…religious beliefs held by American teenagers, they found that the faith held and described by most adolescents came down to something the researchers identified as “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.”
Moralistic Therapeutic Deism consists of beliefs like these: 1. “A god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth.” 2. “God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.” 3. “The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.” 4. “God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.” 5. “Good people go to heaven when they die.”
I am guilty of representing the gospel in a simplified moralistic therapeutic deism way.
Let’s go back to the true gospel, not an Americanized feel good version.
(More on moralistic therapeutic deism by John Ortberg, one of my favorite authors.)