Progressive Christianity

I was talking to some friends recently, and they were mentioning the curriculum that was being taught in a public school where their children attend.

Without getting into the topic,
I was taken aback by what it was.

I couldn’t believe that’s what’s being taught as normal, acceptable, or even natural. The first thoughts that entered my head was how perverse, twisted, and immoral it was to be pushing an agenda like that on children to mold and shape their future. I know culture is naturally progressive, and we see that from history and how much things have changed since our own childhood. My first inclination was that society was getting worse each day and these are new radical issues that future generations would have to deal with.

As I was reading through 1 Corinthians in my quiet time, I saw where this was specifically addressed:

Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple. Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.”| 1 Corinthians 3:16-20

There is an interesting phrase that is used in this passage:

“standards of this age”

I had to think about that for a second.

What were the standards of the age that Paul lived in when he was talking to the Corinthian believers? Surely it wasn’t as twisted as the standards of the age we live in currently, right?

Nope, I couldn’t be more wrong. Solomon says it most eloquently in Ecclesiastes:

All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing. What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new”? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time. No one remembers the former generations, and even those yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow them. | Ecclesiastes 1:8-11

Looking back at the history that the Bible recounts, those verses ring very true. Even in the time of Abraham and Lot, the same topics of morality were being twisted—just as they are now. We even see accounts in Genesis where Lot pleads with the people of Sodom and Gomorrah of how immoral their actions were, but they were blind to it (pun intended). What Lot considered wrong, the people considered right and good.

Lot’s surroundings weren’t much
different than what we experience today.

He was in a progressive city where people were blessed with the best resources and living in luxury. Out of all the people living there, he and his guests was the only ones who thought differently from everyone else in the city.

Sounds like a familiar story. Even in our culture today, following Christ and the Bible is not widely accepted, though so many of those folks call themselves Christians.

So what should our
response be? How should we
respond in the midst of this?

Stand for the truth! Though sin may take on different shapes and forms through history, God and His Word never change!

It even mentions in verses 16-17 of 1 Corinthians 3 that our bodies are God’s temple where His Spirit dwells! It goes on to mention that whoever destroys that temple will also be destroyed. God cannot and will not ever accept sin. It is not in His nature—it is impossible for Him to do. That is the message that needs to be shared to our society today.

God’s love toward each and every person will always remain; He has the desire for all to be saved. That does not mean that he can accept the sin that comes with it. It requires the acceptance of Christ and the transformation He offers in order to establish that relationship with the Father!

When we look around us, we see that technology has taken leaps and bounds. We can definitively say that we have more knowledge and understanding in our society today that any time earlier in history. But the truth of the matter is that knowledge and understanding doesn’t always equate to Wisdom! Our culture around us will continue to justify sin, though it may take on different shapes and forms.

Regardless of that, we as believers
must stand for what is right and share
the truth of the gospel to those around us.

We cannot accept the lies that are popularly accepted, even when progressive “Christians” around us conform to them. The only source of truth is the Word of God and we know that His Word will never change!