Progress

Over Christmas I read an article on 'progress' in The Economist. It was interesting though rather inconclusive; predictably, if we measure progress in material, economic, scientific or technological terms we have advanced enormously in the last generation or two. If however we take into account quality of life then - are we any happier than people were when materially we were far less 'advanced'? Some kind of moral calculus is required, was the conclusion, but as far as I recall no further direction was given.

What help does the Bible offer on progress? Is it a Biblical concept? The following outline might be offered.

1. Objectively progress in the Bible is in terms of the advancing of God's purposes. From a garden to a garden; from Genesis to Revelation; from a 'temple garden' to a city that has no need of a temple because the Lord God is its Temple; from the presence of God who walks with Adam and Eve to the presence of God in the whole of a new creation; from a fellowship that could be lost through sin to a presence that will never be lost; from human existence on probation to life that is assured for ever; from life mediated through Christ as the medium of creation to life mediated through Christ as the Redeemer; from Adam as the first man to Christ as the last Adam and second man in whom all things in heaven and on earth are united.
These are the purposes of God. The movement of history is all progress under the supervision of him who has decreed all that comes to pass; his plans shall never be thwarted. Providence is one invincible success story. Progress at this level is the stuff of eschatology.

2. Subjectively, that is looking at it from man's point of view, the story looks very different. Men and women were supposed to progress from a perfect condition that could yet be lost to a perfection where the highest ideal, the inalienable freedom to do good alone, was attained. However the first autonomous attempt at 'progress' was an unmitigated disaster. Eve was convinced that God was holding her back; to eat the forbidden fruit was to spread your wings, have your eyes opened, become like God, know good and evil. For the first time human beings judged themselves able to assess right and wrong for themselves. What they thought was progress was unqualified regress. God was cast off. His Word was treated as a lie. Decay and decline in the material realm followed (Genesis 3:14f) and then in the moral realm (Genesis 4-6). But God had made sure that man as sinner would not eat of the tree of life (Genesis 3:22-24). Whatever progress human beings would make would not extend to eternal life while in a rebellious state.

3. Yet decline was not the whole story. Man made what we today would easily recognise as progress in civilisation and technology (Gen 4:17-22). Yet God's verdict on the evil that dominated existence is well known - earth was corrupt and filled with violence and God determined to make an end of all flesh. Progress in the City and in technology does not impress God if every intention of the thoughts of the heart is only evil continually.

4. So it goes on. God seems indifferent to what we today tend to call progress.Yet it is not to be dismissed. We do not despise the realm of common grace. We do not dismiss the providence of God over the unbelieving world. He is using it to further his purposes of redemption. Christians do not withdraw from the kingdom of the world but rather contribute to the peace of the city, to creativity, to living out what it means to be in God's image, that is worshipping him in every area of life and seeking to make others worshippers too. We rejoice in the immense influence for good that Calvinism in particular has exerted in politics, science and culture generally in the last half millenium. But although our life is in the world, the world is not our life. God and his kingdom are. We are to seek his kingdom and his righteousness first and all these things will be added unto us.

5. Sadly though the progress of the world will usually mean regress in terms of God's kingdom. As in Eden, progress is seen to be incompatible with respecting God's sovereignty and Word. Moral decay and material progress are familiar bedfellows. Look at the incipient decay even in the glorious reign of Solomon. Or the moral decay in time of great prosperity in Israel and Judah during the time of the prophets Amos and Hosea and later Isaiah. Progress is not inherently evil but as the world measures it, it tends to be bad news for the values of God's kingdom; perhaps because it creates or follows prosperity which is always the favoured substitute for God. As in Eden, progress in the world is intimately related to idolatry.

6. What,then, is progress for man? Surely to align himself with what is really progressing - the plan of God. The kingdom is always coming in the Old Testament and has come irreversibly closer in the New. The King has arrived. He calls people to himself and prays that they will progress in joy, in unity, in knowledge of God and love. 'I made known to them your name and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them and I in them' (John 17:24). Paul is committed to progress for himself and his churches: 'Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own...But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way...' (Phil 3:12-15). The 'this' that Paul has not obtained as he wants to is knowing Christ and the power of his resurrection and sharing in his sufferings, by any means attaining to the resurrection of the dead. (3:10,11). Progress for the believer is the experience of sanctification, perseverance and glorification. '..the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn which shines brighter and brighter until full day' (Prov 4:18).

7. Progress for the Christian, therefore, is knowing God in Christ and all the administration of his grace that accompanies that - growth in spiritual wisdom and understanding for example (Col 1:9). Strive for all the progress you can in the world as it is; but recognise its provisionality.

8. Progress can surely be seen most clearly in the life of Christ. He perfectly loved and obeyed his heavenly Father. He was obedient to death. He overcame temptations and was faithful in all his afflictions. He learned obedience through what he suffered, and 'was made perfect' through suffering (Heb 5:6, 2:10). As a reward for his obedience the Father exalted him (Phil 2:9f) and he sits at the Father's right hand. Progress for him as he represented sinners was in perfectly obeying and, because of sin, suffering, in doing the will of the Father. But glory was in the Father's gift.

So for us - the highest goal a man can reach is glorification; whilst we have the responsibility to trust and obey through life, 'perfecting holiness in the fear of God', at the beginning and end it is monergistic - God's work alone. The only human progress worth having is God's gift: '...he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus' (Phil 1:6).

9. If progress in terms of God's purposes (objective) is the subject of eschatology, how do our millenial views affect our understanding of it? The difference is in the extent we expect to see God's kingdom realised in the old creation in a visible sense. Postmillenialism will expect a considerable amount of visible progress in terms of a measurable conquest of the gospel before Christ returns. Amillenialism may vary between a position barely distinguishable from the postmillenialist to one barely distinguisable from the premillenialist who will expect Christ to return to a world marked by tribulation. The amillenialist however will say that then Christ will introduce the new creation; the premillenialist will say that Christ will first introduce the millenium.
Post- and some a- millenialists therefore expect the gospel to accomplish visible progress in this world; pre - and many a- millenialists insist that only the return of Christ will bring about widely visible progress and that will be first in a millenial reign (according to the premillenialist)or in the new creation itself (according to the amillenialist). Only then will the earth be filled with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea. But each position would insist on the progress of God's kingdom.


10. Will there be progress in heaven? We know what Calvin means when he says '...that our blessedness is always in progress up to that day which shall conclude and terminate all progress, and that thus the glory of the elect, and complete consummation of hope, look forward to that day for their fulfilment. For it is admitted by all, that perfection of blessedness or glory nowhere exists except in perfect union with God' (Psychopannychia,Tracts and Letters, Banner of Truth edition, p.463). Yet if God is infinite there must be progress in heaven, in knowing him and his love. How can there ever be an end of being filled with all the fulness of God? The new heaven and new earth will be a place where that and all the bodily progress we shall ever need or be able to bear, will be enjoyed forever.