Progressive or Conservative Christian?

I’m just going to come right out and say it- there is no such thing as a conservative or progressive Christian. Now, if you look at Christianity as one of many religions that are ultimately pointing to an evolving (progressive) or stagnant (conservative) monotheistic God then your ideas of progressive and conservative make sense.

The Concept of Build Your Own

In any build your own, you are given certain materials/ ingredients to use to produce an end product that you are satisfied with. For example, in the food industry, you can pick (from the available list of ingredients) what you want and how you want your food prepared. So for a burger you can have your meat rare, medium well, or well done with all, some, or none of the fixings (onions, mayo, cheese, pickles, special sauce). Even in some fast-food chains, you can substitute the traditional fries for fruit. If two people both order a number 2 but have different fixings on their burger — it is not the same meal. Now, you can say that at its base it is the same because the meat is consistent, and I will say that a number 2 isn’t a number 2 based on the meat but based on the preparation including the fixings.

The same goes for building your own house. You are provided with base materials that you can choose from to build your house. Though you and your neighbor were presented with the same materials the outcome of your house will be different because you two have different visions of how you want your house to look like.

So, whether in a restaurant or house we choose how we want our product to look, feel taste, & smell from the available list of ingredients/materials.

Religion is like the concept of Build Your Own. We are given certain materials/ ingredients; such as love, grace, mercy, forgiveness, justice, peace, obedience, and more and we try to pick and choose what we want based on what fits our taste buds. But being a child of God isn’t being part of a religion but a Kingdom.

Now some may disagree with this but this concept isn’t new. The children of Israel tried to build their own god right after God delivered them from Pharaoh. They created a golden calf so that they can have someone they can visually see and worship. Whenever you create something (paintings, statues, music, etc) you create it based on what you envision in your mind how it should be presented and how it should please our 5 senses.

How is it that a people who have experienced the power of God for themselves and heard the stories of His greatness from their parents and ancestors all of a sudden want a visual god that fits their taste buds?

Now on the surface, this sounds stupid. But truly we’ve all done it. We’ve wanted a God that fits in the confines of our understanding, likes, dislikes, and approvals.

Look at what they said:

When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.”

They wanted a god that will go before them. They appointed what the character their god will have and what role their god will play in their lives.

Here lies the issue with progressive and conservative Christians.

God has never changed. He can not change (Hebrew 13:8, Malachi 3:6). The blood nor the death, burial, & resurrection changed the character or personality of God. He is consistent in all of His ways, mannerisms, personality, and character. His character was the same before the creation of any seen or unseen creature and after. He was Love before the cross and Love afterward.

God doesn’t progress nor is He stagnant. When we study the teachings of Jesus what we come to realize is that Jesus talked about Kingdom. Inside of a Kingdom, there is a King. The Kingdom is a monarchy, not a democracy. When a King makes a law, decree, or says anything it is final and not for discussion or reinterpretation.

Getting To Know Him

The Holy Spirit isn’t progressing our idealogy in a direction that is opposite of the character, desires, and approval of God. If God changes in any way the entire universe breaks. The entire universe is staying together because of the Word of God and God is His word. Now, if our understanding of God hasn’t evolved it isn’t because of conservatism but due to our lack of pursuit of the depths of His presence. The place Moses and Paul was when they received supernatural revelation from God one on one.

People who identify as progressive or conservative have truly never met God. They’ve met religion. They’ve probably even got hurt by religion but they never established a relationship. And of course, people from both sides both believe that they have a relationship with Him but you can’t have a relationship with someone you don’t know. And you can’t know someone you don’t spend time with.

Our Duty

Jesus told the Pharisees “ You search the scriptures and they speak of Me.” John 5:39. You can read your Bible, go to church every day, spend time in what you may call praise and worship, and still miss God — and still not know Him.
We can never build our own God. The only thing we can do is submit to the Holy Spirit and allow Him to reveal Himself to us without the interference of our 5 senses and what we believe and think.

This is the difference between religion and relationship. Relationship says: “I will die to my beliefs, thoughts, feelings, and desires that I may know You from whom I come from.” Religion says “My beliefs, feelings, thoughts, and traditions will cause me to know You.”

The root problem with Christianity is the lack of a pure relationship with God. Instead, some have tried to build their own and completely miss God though they hit their real target — their feelings.

We can not progress without being willing to die to what we think, believe, and feel so that we can submit like children to our Father.