The BBC has a heart-breaking article covering a disturbing line of thought that is gaining acceptance in Dutch churches. The article, Dutch rethink Christianity for a doubtful world, focuses on Reverend Klaas Hendrikse and his Exodus Church in Gorinchem, Holland.  While the article does not directly call Mr Hendrikse an atheist, it does reference a study conducted by the Free University of Amsterdam which found 1 out of 6 clergy members in the Dutch Protestant Church (and other smaller denominations) were either atheist or agnostic.

According to the Reverend, God does not exist as a supernatural entity –  ”God is not a being at all…it’s a word for experience, or human experience.”   He goes on to state that the story of Jesus as told in the Bible is a mythological tale about a man who may not have been real.  (He apparently did not have to study any of the ancient non-Bible sources that tell of Jesus.)

The idea seems to be to mix God and atheism in a way that liberates people from the boundaries and structure God has put in place.  Why they would want to do this is anyone’s guess.  According to Dienie van Wijngaarden, an Exodus Church member for 20 years, “I think it’s very liberating. [Klaas Hendrikse] is using the Bible in a metaphorical way so I can bring it to my own way of thinking, my own way of doing.”

People who share his belief are starting to put the ideas into practice.  Rikko Voorberg, who helps lead an outreach program for young people at another church, stated, “You can’t preach heaven in the same way today as you did 2,000 years ago, and we have to think again what it is.  We can use the same words and say something totally different.“

Is this a glimpse of the churches future?  God surely is not happy about this:

2 Peter 2:1 (NIV)
But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves.

In a sad way, they’re helping confirm a small part of the Bible.