Moralistic Therapeutic Deism (MTD) is the unspoken religion of modern American Christianity — the actual belief system underneath the official one. Smith and Denton, after interviewing thousands of American teenagers from every religious background, summarized what they actually believed in five points: (1) A God exists who created and orders 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 He is needed to resolve a problem. (5) Good people go to heaven when they die. MTD is moralistic because its god wants mostly moral behavior. It is therapeutic because its god exists to make you feel better. It is deistic because its god is mostly absent, summoned only when needed. It is not Christianity. MTD rejects the Trinity (too complicated), the cross (too violent), repentance (too negative), hell (too harsh), regeneration (too supernatural), and the lordship of Christ (too demanding). It replaces all of these with a cosmic therapist who wants you happy. What makes MTD especially dangerous is that it can wear the language of Christianity. Many who attend evangelical churches for years, sing the songs, quote a few verses, and consider themselves "Christian" are in fact Moralistic Therapeutic Deists. They have been inoculated against the gospel by a mild, vaccinated version of it. The antidote is the recovery of biblical Christianity in its full weight: the holy God, the fallen sinner, the atoning cross, the resurrected Lord, the indwelling Spirit, the call to repentance and faith, the narrow road, and the glory to come.
2 Timothy 4:3-4 — "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables."
Isaiah 30:9-10 — "That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children who will not hear the law of the LORD; who say to the seers, "Do not see," and to the prophets, "Do not prophesy to us right things; speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits.""
Revelation 3:15-17 — "I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. Because you say, "I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing" — and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked."