Jellyfish Christianity

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires (2 Timothy 4:3).

The consequences of this widespread dislike to doctrine are very serious in the present day. Whether we like to allow it or not, it is an epidemic which is doing great harm. It produces what I must venture to call, if I may coin the phrase, a jellyfish Christianity in the churches. A Christianity without bone, or muscle, or sinew, without any distinct teaching about the atonement, or the work of the Spirit, or justification, or the way of peace with God—a vague, foggy, misty Christianity, of which the only watchwords seem to be," You must be liberal and kind. You must condemn no man's doctrinal views. You must think everybody is right, and nobody is wrong."

A jellyfish, as everyone knows who has been much by the seaside, is a pretty and graceful object when it floats in the sea, contracting and expanding like a little, delicate, transparent umbrella. Yet the same jellyfish, when cast on the shore, is a mere helpless lump, without capacity for movement, self-defense, or self-preservation. Alas! It is a vivid type of much of the religion of this day, of which the leading principle is, No dogma, no distinct tenets, no positive doctrine." We have hundreds of jellyfish clergymen who seem not to have a single bone in their body of divinity. They have no definite opinions. They belong to no school or party. They are so afraid of "extreme" views that they have no views at all. We have thousands of jellyfish sermons preached every year, sermons without an edge or a point. They are as smooth as billiard balls, awakening no sinner, and edifying no saint.

They are tossed to and fro, like children, by every wind of doctrine! They are often carried away by any new excitement and sensational movement. They are ever ready for new things, because they have no firm grasp on the old Scripture truths! 

Adapted from Our Great Redeemer: 365 Days with J. C. Ryle