# The Idea of Progress



## Peairtach (Mar 27, 2012)

I recently read an article on this important concept.

Does it have a biblical basis?

Should Reformed Christians believe in it?

Here are a couple of Wikipedia articles on it:

Progress (history) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Idea of Progress - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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## Tim (Mar 27, 2012)

Sure there is a Biblical basis. Progress is the extent to which:

we are fruitful and multiply;
we subdue the earth;
the kings kiss the Son;
all nations are discipled;
we mortify our own and collective sin; 
take every thought captive;

etc.


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## Peairtach (Mar 27, 2012)

I believe in Spirit-empowered progress in individuals lives and in history as a Reformed Christian and maybe belief in postmillennialism adds to that.



> And the LORD answered me: "Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end--it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay. Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith. (Hab 2:2-4, ESV)................Behold, is it not from the LORD of hosts that peoples labor merely for fire, and nations weary themselves for nothing? For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.(Hab 2:13-14)


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## Christoffer (Mar 28, 2012)

I think it is quite a dangerous doctrine. If you believe in progress, then you also believe that there is a goal for humanity (otherwise the term "progress" would be meaningless - it would be indistinguishable from "regress")

Now if there is a fixed goal for humanity, then some people will actually be conducive to it and some people will actually hinder it. For example if one believes that the future utopia will be one where all religions, sexual orientations etc. live together without anyone being "offended" then for sure there are some things that don't belong there, churches that preach "hate" for one. So at some point they will have to go. As long as they exist they stop progress.

Marxism is an example, I would say.


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## Pilgrim (Mar 28, 2012)

As noted above, the idea is not necessarily unbiblical. But too often, especially on a popular level, it has been annexed to what is essentially a humanistic "postmillennialism" that argues (at least in some cases) that human nature itself can be improved, among other unbiblical ideas. It was this kind of postmillennialism that was quite popular among Social Gospel advocates in the early 20th Century.


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## VictorBravo (Mar 28, 2012)

I think the fact that the "Idea of Progress" is fundamental to people in almost all cultures and history is a strong piece of natural revelation.

It plainly shows that people have innate to their being a fundamental yearning for perfection. The concept of the "ideal" pervades all our activities. The existence of that fact ought to be considered plain evidence that we were created by a Perfect Being.

And the fact that we routinely fail at perfection, that we have aphorisms like "the best laid plans...." ought to convince us of the truth of the Fall.

I say "ought" because we know from Romans 1:19-22 how willfully self-deceived unregenerate man is.

Still, the notion of progress, although twisted and perverted by our sinful attempts at implementation, points directly to the fundamental problem of Man: He was created to be perfect and in union with God; because of sin he isn't.


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## J. Dean (Mar 28, 2012)

Progress in and of itself is fine (anybody here prefer to travel by foot or horseback to another state as opposed to car or airplane?). It's the baby. The bathwater is sin in the name of "progress."


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## jwright82 (Mar 28, 2012)

I think the idea smacks of seculerism and Dewey's philosophy. If all we mean is that technology will make some things better than fine. But it has been used to mean that former ways of viewing the world will be replaced or overcome. So the previous christian view of things must be overcome for something "better".


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