December 10, 2023
Bible-based, orthodox, historical Christianity is so countercultural today. There is less and less common ground between progressives and Christians.
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Christmas and Easter are the great holidays of Christianity, celebrating the birth of our Savior and his resurrection from the dead, respectively. You can venture into Hobby Lobby or dine at Chick-fil-A and be greeted enthusiastically with cries of “merry Christmas!” But progressives are aghast at the birth of an exalted child in the ignominious circumstances of an animal shed with a bed made in a feeding trough. Consistently, in most companies, employees may bleat out the bland secular salutation “happy holidays” instead.
Progressives believe in science, as long as it is consistent with their political science. Progressives are at war with nature, human nature, and nature’s God (see here, here). Christians believe in the supernatural and the natural, the latter comprising the goodness, beauty, and truth of God’s artistic creation, science, rationality, and critical thinking.
Christians believe the Bible when it teaches that God created the world and everything in it. Progressives, on the other hand, believing all men to be basically good, think education and re-education can perfect man with politically correct thinking. Turning a blind eye to evil, progressives have empathy for criminal perpetrators in social justice. But Martin Luther warned about the unholy trinity of the devil, the world, and our own sin nature. Only God can change a man’s heart to good (see here, here). With this understanding, Christians support criminal justice and have empathy for victims of crime.
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In The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky captured the zeitgeist, observing, “If God is dead, then all things are permissible.” Believing this, progressives know that life is meaningless. This imparts urgency in the here and now with attendant striving to create Utopian society. On the other hand, Christians know that the meaning of life is in the relationship with Jesus of Nazareth. There is this life and a next life. The declaration is that “His Truth endures to all generations.”
Christians cherish the fruit of the Spirit, which “is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” However, progressives futilely desire the fruit while shunning the Spirit.
Our culture today embraces the caricature of Christians as milquetoasts. Christians are expected to never push back, never defend doctrines, and be unquestionably inclusive. As the progressive philosopher Rodney King implored, “Why can’t we all just get along?” But Jesus stated, “Do you think that I came here to give peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!” Claiming to be the gatekeeper, Jesus taught, “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture.” Jesus denied there are many paths to God, claiming, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
Continuing their two-hundred-year infatuation with racism (see here, here), progressives endorse racist, hateful, divisive Critical Race Theory, which posits that racism is entrenched, oppression of minorities precludes escape, and there is no atonement for white privilege but rather only unending oblation of apologies. Against this, the apostle Paul taught, “He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings.” Embracing Christian teaching, which opposes CRT tenets, Martin Luther King, Jr., shared, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
Progressives recently buried the Defense of Marriage Act to raise up the abominable Respect for Marriage Act. This is one of the latest progressive actions celebrating LGBT behaviors. Thinking children to be little animals, there is progressive inclination to groom children for sexual exploitation.
In opposition, science, statistics, and the Bible indicate that LGBT behaviors are unnatural, abnormal, and immoral, respectively. Proscriptions against immoral sexual behaviors are extant because God has said, “I do not change.” Having created man and woman, God ordained the sanctity of marriage for the natural, normal, and moral behaviors of a man and a woman (see here, here). Knowing that children are made in the image of God, Christians want to protect childhood innocence as long as possible.
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In its original description of tenets, Black Lives Matter aimed to “disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement.” Disregarding consequences, an intact nuclear family is disparaged as white supremacy. There is no belief that children have the right to be raised in a family with both a father and a mother. In whatever the family structure, there is equality between partners, without a head of the family.
Against this, the Bible teaches that God ordained the nuclear family headed by the father as the first governmental structure (see here, here, here). Christian families have thrived for two thousand years, but progressives consider this family structure to be something between bizarre and reprehensible.
Considering it just another form of birth control, and birth control facilitating unfettered sexual activity, progressives support killing the innocent unborn even after birth. It has been posited that abortion could be driven by self-centeredness or narcissism. Apparently intentionally, abortion targets blacks and Hispanics at rates higher than their relative populations. On the other hand, Christians have learned the truth in poetry of the sanctity of life: “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.”
Slavery, including human-trafficking, is not uncommon today. Some cultures condone slavery. However, Western civilization has evolved from trafficking in slaves to using slaves to abolishing slavery. This has led to the abhorrence of the idea of slavery. In the King James Version of the Bible, published in 1611, the idea of slavery was so repulsive that translations from the autographa (i.e., from the Hebrew or ancient Greek manuscripts) substituted the word “servant” for “slave.”
Nevertheless, Christians know, “You are not your own; you were bought at a price.” For this debt, Christians are slaves to the Sovereign Lord. It is chattel slavery. The Lord is sovereign over mind, body, and soul. But the relationship is much richer between a Christian and Jesus. In belief, and through the Holy Spirit, a Christian considers Jesus the Shepherd of his soul and the atoning sacrifice sufficient for salvation. Not only this, but Jesus has taught that he is our friend, too. And, being adopted as God’s children through faith in Jesus, Jesus is our brother, and we will be joint heirs with him of his Kingdom.
Diametrically opposed to the violent fascism of (the misnamed) Antifa, Christians know they are to submit to government authorities (see here, here) except when divergence is required to obey God rather than men. Doubtless following St. Augustine, Martin Luther King, Jr. observed, “An unjust law is no law at all.”
Progressives believe in some synthesis of socialism with totalitarianism. Critical Race Theory posits that virtues and skills such as punctuality, planning, hard work, objectivity, rationality, causality, and quantification constitute a work ethic proving systemic racism and white supremacy. An ever-expanding welfare state is supported.
Christians commend capitalism with individual liberties. Capitalism rewards creativity and innovation. Christians have a good work ethic because they are to work as if for the Lord (see here, here). This commendable perspective has been described variously as the Protestant or Catholic work ethic. Similarly, against the welfare state, the Bible teaches, “If anyone isn’t willing to work, he should not eat.” This doesn’t preclude charity for those in need (see here, here, here) because the Bible elsewhere teaches, “Let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.”
Progressives espouse values such as diversity (excepting diversity of ideas — read: quotas), equity (read redistribution, equality of outcomes instead of equality of opportunities), inclusion (excepting whites, males, conservatives, Christians), and flexibility (to align quickly to the correct political position). They dislike virtues that Christians embrace such as courage, compassion, persistence, diligence, patience, honesty, and integrity. Progressives don’t think these should be taught to children.
Modern Monetary Theory is wondrous to profligate progressives. This discredited theory maintains there is no difference between money printed off a printing press and money earned by producing a good or service valued by someone else. And the specter of inflation won’t arise because of deterrence from higher taxes. In opposition, the Christian injunction is, “Do not owe anyone anything, except to love one another, for the one who has loved another has fulfilled the law.”
At the founding of this country, it was the Christian observation (see here, here) that God has given men freedoms that governments must respect and safeguard. Unfortunately, progressives subscribe to Anthony Fauci’s declaration, to “do what you’re told” by bureaucrats, technocrats, our political masters, and information gatekeepers.
The worldviews of Christians and progressives are worlds apart in the same country. Christians should finish the race by staying engaged in the culture and fight the good fight by enabling virtuous government, being faithful to the two Great Commandments, praying for nonbelievers, and trusting in the sovereignty of God.
For those who have been awakened by the grace of God, for those who have ears that hear and eyes that see, merry Christmas! May God’s peace rest upon you so you enjoy the good tidings of great joy.
Image: Darkmoon_Art via Pixabay, Pixabay License.
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