Like many words in our English language, the word “progressive” has been highjacked. In the political context, the word progressive makes you think of a liberal or Left-leaning person who believes that the Constitution of the United States is a list of suggestions for our government rather than the guiding star of our government. When it comes to social issues, our current culture labels the popularization of homosexuality, the acceptance of transgenderism, and the promotion of partiality in public policy “progress.” And our culture calls those who champion these causes “progressives.” In Christianity, the word progressive often conjures images of a hip pastor in tight jeans (are those still in?) and a floral shirt who perhaps treats the Bible as a self-help book rather than a sword of truth.
If I were to ask you, “Are you a progressive Christian?”, your first response might be, “No! I’m a Conservative!” But what if a Progressive Christian and a Conservative Christian are actually one in the same? As Christians, we should make sure we use words that accurately portray a given position.
In Jeremiah 7, God is confronting His people about something they had considered to be “progress.” They had accepted their pagan neighbors’ ideas and practices and integrated them into their God-mandated traditions. In Jeremiah 7:2, God told Jeremiah, “Stand in the gate of the LORD’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the LORD.” The setting of God’s confrontation is God’s own house! You see, the children of Israel hadn’t completely left their religion. They still entered the temple, offered sacrifices, and observed their traditional practices. Yet they had “progressed” beyond what God had commanded them and had added other gods and practices to their religion. As the Lord says through Jeremiah in verse 8, “Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit. Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not; and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations? Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the LORD.” God had given this same condemnation to their ancestors, but they had also responded with stubbornness. God reminded them of their ancestor’s stubbornness, saying, “But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.” (Jeremiah 7:24) While the children of Israel thought themselves progressive for conforming more to the image of the nations around them, God told them that they were going backwards.
Like the children of Israel in Jeremiah 7, our culture today defines conservatism and progressivism in the wrong way. To conserve means to keep in a safe or sound state. Conservation isn’t necessarily opposed to change. It’s simply opposed to changing the traditions or principles that need to be kept in a safe or sound state. Those traditions or principles would be the ones that God has clearly laid out for us in His word. A good definition of progress can be found in C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity. He says, “We all want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man.”[1] In other words, sometimes the conservative can be the most progressive Christian! That is to say, if we are heading down a path that God has not ordained for us, then to turn back to the traditions and principles He has ordained for us is progress. Going down the wrong road, conforming to the image of the world, accepting the world’s new normal, is not progressive. It is regressive! We may be making good time but, if we are walking in the wrong direction, we are walking backward, not forward. Often our culture tells us to follow the counsels and imaginations of our evil hearts and calls following our own hearts progress. But this creates a world in which, as Jeremiah said in verse 28, the “truth is perished.” True progress may mean turning back from the road you’re on and starting down the path that follows God’s instructions for life. As C.S. Lewis put it, in this case, “Going back is the quickest way on.”[2]
So, the question remains, how do we know if the traditions and principles we are accepting are actually progressive or just regressive? Well, we need God’s wisdom in order to discern this. As Jeremiah says in chapter 17:9-10, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.” We can’t trust our hearts or rely on what makes sense to us. Our “common sense” is often tainted by our culture rather than conducted by God’s commands. We don’t just need common sense; we need supernatural sense from God. This truth is also seen in the familiar verses, Proverbs 3:5-7, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; And lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: Fear the LORD, and depart from evil.” Rather than lean on our own understanding and trust our own wisdom, we are called lean on the Lord’s understanding and reverence His wisdom above all other so-called wisdom.
While our own understanding may not lead us to something inherently evil, it will eventually lead us down a path that goes backwards. If we make a habit of following our hearts, rather than moving at the impulse of God’s heart, this will eventually lead us to something that is evil. For example, our own understanding may lead us to define worship in a way that is more pleasing to more people. While our style of worship may not be inherently evil, it could lead us down a path that is going backward. We may consider ourselves progressive, but any step backward from God’s understanding and wisdom is regressive. Perhaps someone else who calls themselves a “progressive Christian” rewrites the gospel to include social work. While social work is a good and necessary work, it is not the gospel. Anything added to the gospel is evil. Anyone who adds to the gospel diminishes the finished work of Christ. There is nothing virtuous about leaving behind traditions and principles that have been handed down to us if those traditions and principles are solidly based in God’s Word. There is nothing progressive about integrating culturally acceptable traditions and principles if they do not align with and support the truth found in God’s Word. If other people are lauding us as progressive, but Christ is not pleased, then we are going backward, not forward.
In contrast, a truly progressive Christian is one who knows which traditions and principles are timeless and worth conserving. Progressive Christianity is about conserving God’s traditions, God’s principles, and God’s commands. Progressive Christians are concerned with pursuing the path forward, closer to God’s heart and plans for the Christian life. Those who care more about God’s thoughts on a given issue rather than the culture’s or other popular Christians’ thoughts are the truly progressive Christians.
As the children of Israel in Jeremiah 7 found out, inching closer to the world is not progress. Adding worldly ideas and practices to God’s traditions and principles is not progressive but regressive. As Christians we need to ask for God’s wisdom to discern between progress and regress. We need to use words that actually characterize a given position. Sometimes, what we might call “Conservative Christianity” is really the only true “Progressive Christianity.”
[1] C. S. Lewis. Mere Christianity, (New York, NY: Harper Collins, 2001), 28.
[2] Ibid, 29.