Genesis 4:26b …then began men to call upon the name of the LORD
Genesis is a book of firsts. When you get to Genesis 4, you find all kinds of progress. You find agriculture. Both Cain and Abel were in agriculture, one in herds and one in crops. You find the beginning of music as mankind used it. In verse 21 the Bible speaks of a man named Jubal, “the father of all such as handle the harp and organ.” So, God is the creator of music, but mankind finds out about music at the very beginning. You find technology. Verse 22 talks about a man, Tubal-cain, who instructed “every artificer in brass and iron.” Technology, weapons, and equipment were totally and radically changed because of brass, iron, and such things. Verse 17 says that Enoch “builded a city.” You find all kinds of agricultural, technological, and social advancement.
Now, what kind of progress did man make in Genesis 4? Progress must be defined. Sometimes we talk about a person who is “progressive.” You can argue there is a historical date where the Progressives were a party, but it is more than a party. It is a claim. It is not a claim to a political ideology. It is a claim as to virtue, that we are making progress. It would be like if I started a group and called it Virtue, and everyone has to stand up against us who does not agree with us by disclaiming virtue.
So, we use the terms progressive and progressivism, but what do they mean? If I am against the position of a person who calls himself progressive, does that mean I am regressive? If you don’t consider yourself regressive, I would never call anyone progressive because progress is indicating that you are moving in the right direction toward a stated goal. Now, that may be what those who call themselves progressive think they are doing, but I would contest that. I do not think they are going in the right direction. I don’t mean to digress. I simply mean that if I am going ninety miles an hour, but I am going south when I need to be heading north, then that is not progress.
So, in Genesis there is agriculture, music, technology, cities, and more. Is that progress? Well, you also find the first murderer in Genesis. Cain murdered his brother Abel. In verse 23 you find murder again. You find the first polygamy. Lamech took two wives. That was against the design of God. You perhaps find religion as it is first conceived. Cain offers to God a sacrifice, but he does it in his own efforts and not by faith in God.
What is the upshot of all this? The upshot is that there is no true progress for a believer without faith. I am not merely progressing because of agriculture, music, technology, or a city being built. What about where I am with God? In Hebrews 11:4 the Bible speaks of Abel and says, “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain.” So, whatever else was happening when Cain and Abel offered their sacrifices, we know that Abel was a man who did what he did because he was living by faith.
You see, God is the giver. He is the giver of life. You find this in the way Eve named her sons. She named Cain and said, “I have gotten a man from the LORD.” Again, when she named Seth she said, “For God…hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel.” She realized that life was from God. Produce is from God. The ground that was cursed because of man’s sin was blessed by the creation of God. Without God we are just living in a dystopia. We are living in 1984 or some other dismal view of the future.
There is another book called Pilgrim’s Progress. The book is called “Pilgrim” because this world is not our home, and “Progress” because Pilgrim had a destination. He was going in the right direction. He was following God. He had a vector. We misunderstand progress when we forget our destination. Whatever progress you make socially, academically, financially, or in some other area, does not matter if you are not progressing in your relationship with God. All of those things are powers that can be detrimental if they are not given to God. What good is my knowledge if I simply use it to devise things that can destroy human kind.
The bottom line is that it is not progress if we are not living lives of faith in our Creator, in the God Who made us for a purpose. So, if you are a believer, you have trusted Christ with eternity. If that is true, don’t you think you can trust God with today, tomorrow, and right now? There is no true progress for a Christian without faith and it is this faith that pleases God and gives victory in life.