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What does the Scripture say about progress?
God isn’t looking for negative progress.
But evil men and imposters will advance to worse, deceiving and being deceived. ~ 2 Timothy 3:13 Berean Literal Bible
They advance to worse and progress toward wickedness, yet God is looking for a different form of progress and maturity as these Scriptures state:
“And we all having been unveiled in face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:18 Berean Literal Bible)
“For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it has been written: ‘And the righteous will live by faith.’” (Romans 1:17 Berean Literal Bible)
“to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, so that I may somehow attain to the resurrection from the dead. Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing indeed: Forgetting the things behind and reaching forward to the things ahead, Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been perfected, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:10-14 Berean Literal Bible)
“Now I say, walk by the Spirit, and you should not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. For these are opposed to one another in order that you should not do those things you might wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, contentions, dissensions, factions, envyings, drunkennesses, carousing, and things like these, as to which I forewarn you, even as I warned before, that those doing such things will not inherit God’s kingdom. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.” (Galatians 5:16-23 Berean Literal Bible)
“And this is love, that we should walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it.” (2 John 1:6 Berean Literal Bible)
“Because all of the people will walk, each person in the name of his God, and we will walk in the name of the LORD our God forever and ever.” (Micah 4:5 International Standard Version)
“Therefore Jesus said to them, “Yet a little while, the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, so that darkness might not overtake you. And the one walking in the darkness does not know where he is going.” (John 12:35 Berean Literal Bible)
“My children, of whom I travail again until that Christ shall have been formed in you” (Galatians 4:19 Berean Literal Bible)
“Therefore having these promises, beloved, we should cleanse ourselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” (2 Corinthians 7:1 Berean Literal Bible)
“But now, having been set free from sin, and having become slaves to God, you have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end is eternal life.” (Romans 6:22 Berean Literal Bible)
“But grow in grace and in knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.” (2 Peter 3:18 Berean Literal Bible)
“And we know that God works together all things for good to those loving God, to those being called according to His purpose because those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, for Him to be firstborn among many brothers.” (Romans 8:28-29 Berean Literal Bible)
“And He gave some indeed to be apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some shepherds and teachers, toward the perfecting of the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ, until we all may attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a complete man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that no longer we might be infants, being tossed by waves and being carried about by every wind of teaching in the cunning, in the craftiness of men with a view to the scheming of deceit. But speaking the truth in love, we should grow up in all things into Him who is the head, Christ” (Ephesians 4:11-15 Berean Literal Bible)
“Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, to those who rest on the mountain of Samaria— the famous men of the nations to whom the house of Israel came!” (Amos 6:1 International Standard Version)
As we read these Scriptures, we hear God speak to us of various kinds of spiritual progress. We see this progress has to do with spiritual maturity, dying to our fleshly nature, and having Christ formed in us. And we make this progress by walking in the Spirit, not by working hard to fulfill the Law. So if we walk, we make progress. We shouldn’t be like mimes who create an illusion of walking as they walk in place while not going anywhere. Well, mimes create this illusion, but if we’re honest as Christians, we’ll admit that we sometimes stay in the same place while giving the illusion of walking in the Spirit. And as we walk in circles, we’re busy with religion, but we aren’t really going anywhere.
To bring about His good purpose, God wants us to progress toward maturity in Him. However, our progress forms Christ in us (Galatians 4:19) and demolishes the fleshly nature as opposed to re-crucifying Christ in us and glorifying and catering to the fleshly nature.
“Therefore, having left the beginning teaching of the Christ, we should go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works, and faith in God” (Hebrews 6:1 Berean Literal Bible)
In conflict with this good progress, the other form of progressivism continues to work its puffed-up leaven into the Church. Deceptively, this philosophy uses the word “progress,” but it progresses away from God. In this sense, “progressive” can mean unholy things.
“God didn’t write the Bible. . . . not a few of the verses within some of those books contain bad theology that reflect pagan influences of the cultures that surrounded those ancient peoples.” (progressive theologian)
What authority is this progressive theologian using for his theology when he thinks his theology is greater than Scripture? He can’t be using Scripture. What, then, is his authority?
Some who call themselves “progressive Christians” claim that their preferred theology is superior to what they read in Scripture. Some deny the virgin birth, original sin, and the substitutionary work of atonement. Some claim that all religions focus on what’s important and claim that what’s important is human-generated works. These are doctrines of demons.
- “Progressive” can mean a way to self-generate fleshly or devilish wisdom, knowledge of lies, and lack of understanding.
- “Progressive” can mean following human emotion, though it may falsely claim to follow rational thought. It may even falsely claim to follow the Holy Spirit.
- “Progressive” can mean claiming that God doesn’t say what He says through the Bible.
- “Progressive” can mean denying the Bible’s authority or claiming that the Bible has errors.
- “Progressive” can mean adding to God’s words or dismissing God’s words.
- “Progressive” can mean trying to self-generate good works.
- “Progressive” can mean rationalizing political, governmental action to coerce unbelievers to contribute to public “good works” projects.
- “Progressive” can mean substituting secularized government for the church and the family.
- “Progressive” can mean saying sin is OK.
- “Progressive” can mean saying righteousness is whatever the fallen human mind says it is.
- “Progressive” can mean putting good for evil and evil for good.
- “Progressive” can mean arguing for new, anti-bible structures or orders for the home, marriage, or the Church.
- “Progressive” can mean blurring the difference between the Way that is Christ and all the other ways.
- “Progressive” can mean claiming that all ways lead to God.
- “Progressive” can mean dragging the world and the flesh into the Church.
If we define “progressive” this way, it’s not good to be progressive.
As far as progressing, as soon as we think about the Holy Spirit’s leading, Satan brings us counterfeits, often in deceptive books, TV shows, speakers, and videos that conflict with Scripture. Deceitfully, they affirm what Scripture denies and deny what Scripture affirms. For instance, they may affirm things like these:
- reincarnation
- God as imagination
- human goodness
- reliance on self
- karma
- pantheism
- economic systems based on envy
- governmental systems that distort God’s order
- moral relativism
- encouragement of sexual sin
- collective consciousness
They deny things like these:
- the devil’s existence
- the existence of original sin
- the existence of right and wrong
- Christ’s faithful presence, protection, and guidance
- the Holy Spirit as the One Who’ll teach us all things
- the need for discernment
- the distinction between good and evil
- the distinction between truth and lies
- the distinction between the human mind and God’s mind
- the distinction between human imagination and reality
- the fallen nature of humanity
- the distinction between God’s way and man’s way
These affirmations and denials are then falsely called “progressive.”
Then well-meaning Christian writers correctly see that these messages teach error, and they respond to Satan’s messages in fear. Fearing apostasy, they begin denying any Scripture that confirms Jesus Christ’s presence and availability. They think it’s safer to deny the kingdom of heaven’s availability and the Holy Spirit’s leading, teaching, and correcting. And, to their credit, they’re trying to protect the Church from possible apostasy. However, their reaction contradicts Scripture, and this inappropriate reaction to Satan’s progressive message is sometimes falsely called “conservative.”
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