Nothing can be seen as shining a light or as making “progress,” in the best sense of the word, in the beliefs of those who call themselves “progressives.” In fact, modern “progressives” are “regressive” in the simplest definition. Consider these definitions from Dictionary.com:
Adjective
“Happening or developing gradually or in stages; proceeding step by step.”
Noun
“A person advocating or implementing social reform or new, liberal ideas.”
Adjective
“Becoming less advanced; returning to a former or less developed state.”
Noun
“Taking a proportionally greater amount from those on lower incomes.”
The Bible describes people who tear down rather than build up this way: “Since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done” (Romans 1).
You see, progressives draw their basis for determining truth in the unstable and changing opinions of men. For them, there are no absolute truths, and “truth” is whatever each person determines it to be.
There can be nothing settled about it. It’s not unusual to hear a progressive say, “My truth is not your truth.” So then, any lie told for a convenient purpose is perfectly all right.
Today’s progressives deny the timeless truth of the Bible and dismiss its foundational part in the writing of the Constitution. Progressives want to deny what the Bible says is true about their thoughts and actions. To do so is to deny what has made our country great and what millions of true Christian believers and Bible-believing churches have held out as truth for millennia.
Progressivism is a philosophy. It promises many positive outcomes but delivers mostly negative things. So, let’s drill down a bit. Philosophy drives everything. The way to understand the so-called progressive phenomenon is like this:
- Progressives demand influence without presenting life-affirming, socially-redeeming values.
- Progressives believe information without context and accept hearsay and lies without facts as truth.
- Progressives are confused because they come from an ungrounded, ever-changing philosophy and therefore mentally blow in the wind.
- Progressives call good evil and evil good and what they advocate for others is regressive for our society.
- Progressives advocate socialism, which has proven over time that it has never worked positively as a governing platform, but rather, only the elites take the best from everyone and the poorest of our society gets left behind.
- Militant progressivism approves the killing of anyone when they are no longer considered useful; in its militant form is usually called communism.
So the question becomes simple. What is right?
Philosophy Drives Everything:
- A right worldview produces right philosophy.
- A right philosophy produces right thinking.
- Right thinking produces right planning.
- Right planning prepares for right actions.
- Right actions bring forth a good result.
Since the 1500s, the philosophy of covenant families and the truth of gospel-preaching churches have been based on the biblical principles of the five-part Latin phrases, sola scriptura, sola fide, sola gratia, solus Christus and soli Deo Gloria.
In other words, the firm and established principles of the Bible on which the Constitution and founding documents of our country were set are based upon the truth of the Bible. The scripture is the sole source for what is true about God, true about the nature of man and his need for Christ’s redemption, and the truth about God’s judgment to come. The five phrases basically teach:
- Faith is the sole way to believe in God and the way to receive salvation through Jesus Christ’s perfect sacrifice.
- Grace is the principle of what God does when he forgives our sins when we repent. Grace makes us just as if we’d never sinned.
- By Christ alone (or through Christ alone) is the way through which these truths were conveyed to us, as He graciously died on the cross that we might be forgiven all our sins—past, present and future.
- With Glory to God alone should be our response to what God has done for humankind to bring it back to Himself. He alone gets glory for this since there is nothing in us that should ever make God want to love us.
Are you progressive or regressive? What is your philosophy? Upon what are your beliefs and actions based?
St. Augustine said it best: “If we live good lives, the times are good. As we are, such are the times.”
The Hon. Sam Rohrer is president of the American Pastors Network, was a Pennsylvania lawmaker for 18 years and hosts the daily “Stand in the Gap Today” national radio program on 425 stations.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.