The Progressiveness of the Bible

Jason Upton – Beautiful People

I have heard different accusations against the Bible that is an just an old historical book that is outdated. Some people like to point out laws from Leviticus that seem odd or primitive in today’s culture. Recently the LBGT community has mocked the Bible’s laws against homosexuality by pointing out examples of incest, polygamy, “sexual slavery” and other examples of Scripture that seem off. Looking at the Bible as a textbook and disregarding cultural relevance and the changes in the New Testament, I can understand their views and mockery. After all, Christians who claimed to be obeying God partook in the Crusades, in the Inquisition, and have done all sorts of other evils. But if you really study  the Word and the history around it, you will see the Bible is actually the most progressive book ever written. It has influenced this world for the better more than any other book.

The Bible begins with creation. God gives only one law: not to eat the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden. That is it. And what do Adam and Eve do? They eat of it. Because of their sin they lose access to the Garden of Eden.

After their sin, God does not establish any laws or rules. Instead, He is silent. The world becomes more and more corrupt, to the point that God is grieved looking upon all the wickedness on earth. Humans, left to their own vices without law, have corrupted the earth. God essentially hits the reset button with the flood, preserving Noah and his family.

Obviously the reset button won’t fix the fallenness of man, but God seems to be making a point; a very long, drawn-out, point. God is patient with mankind, especially the people He chooses for Himself (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, etc). In Genesis, God is silent towards the polygamy of Jacob. When Jacob completely disregards God’s command to return home and instead goes to Shechem, God is again silent for a season. Jacob’s disobedience ends up making his family vulnerable, and after this realization God again appears and tells him to go home. But God doesn’t lash out at Jacob for his family having idols (Genesis 35:2) or for disobeying Him the first time. God is patient. Jacob realizes the idols are wrong on his own, after he has also realized his need to walk closer with the Lord.

The book of Exodus tells of the Israelites leaving Egypt after being captive there for 400 years. Moses leads these people out; people without a clear revelation of God, people who have only known the culture of Egypt and the idolatry and practices done there. It is in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy that God begins to share with the Israelites the Law. God begins to instruct them in a lifestyle that is set apart. The fact that God has to include things like “Do not sacrifice your children” (Leviticus 18:21) or “Do not have sex with an animal” (Leviticus 18:23) shows just how corrupt societies were at that time. The fact that the Israelites made a golden calf and worshipped it while Moses was gone for a period of time demonstrates the background of the Israelites’ upbringing (idolatry, sexual immorality, etc). The Israelites needed to learn how to be set apart from the cultures around them. The laws God implemented were GROUND BREAKING!

For example, Numbers 27 shares about women receiving inheritance from their father because their father had no sons. That was ridiculous considering the times (women got the right to vote in America just 100 years ago long after black males and it is hard to dispute that women have been the most oppressed people group in history). God also repeatedly listed laws for the Israelites to provide for the orphan and the widow (other horribly oppressed people groups throughout history), to not disregard or be tight-fisted toward the poor (Deut 15), and to provide justice and help for the foreigners around them (Deut 24). While God did not completely ban slavery in the Law, His instructions for ethical treatment of slaves and servants were RADICAL for the time period. Every seven years slaves were to be released and every 49 years there was to be a huge celebration for the Year of Jubilee.

The Bible continues to be progressive in the New Testament. “All Men are Created Equal” can be found throughout Scripture, including Galatians 3:28: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” In that verse alone three of the greatest prejudices in mankind are addressed: race, social standing, and gender. In Christ, we are all one.

Sadly, many “Christians” disregarded the Bible throughout history and even twisted Scripture to support their own wicked agendas. After Jesus’ death and resurrection Christianity spread rapidly across the Roman empire and miracles abounded. But soon the empire became “Christianized” with some of the Roman idolatry/culture seeping into the religion. Men in power began to manipulate the Bible for their own agendas rather than for God’s glory. Soon the Bible became banned BY THE CHURCH from about 500AD to 1500AD. Any Bibles found in possession of people would be burned and some people even killed (by the church!) for possessing the Word of God. The Bible was only allowed to be read by priests in Latin, a language that most people at that time could not understand. Injustices were rampant in society because of the church, the Crusades happened, and later the Inquisitions followed. The Dark Ages in history can easily be connected to the church removing the Bible from society. The man who first translated the New Testament to English (William Tyndale) ended up being condemned to death by “the church” and was strangled to death with his corpse then being burned in a fire. But his translations survived, were multiplied, and marked the end of the Dark Ages with the Renaissance soon following.

While “Christians” who twisted Scripture did horrible acts throughout history, those who did not twist Scripture spearheaded changes that would end slavery, bring justice to the oppressed, and break down walls of discrimination and prejudice. No one questions Martin Luther King Jr or William Wilberforce for being good men. Each of these men were heavily influenced by the Word of God. William Wilberforce led the charge for the freedom of slaves in England long before America’s Emancipation Proclamation. It was Christians in 1787 who began the fight against slavery, something so radical that it would take decades and decades for the change to finally happen.

So why didn’t God make all the sweeping changes at the very beginning? Why was He patient with Jacob’s family’s idolatry? Why was God silent with King David having a number of wives (something common for kings in that time period, with a king’s power often being correlated to the number of wives he had)? God never voiced His approval, or His disapproval (it wasn’t until 1Timothy 3:2 and 1Corinthians 7:2 that we see monogamy clearly emphasized in the church).

I believe the answer is because God is gracious. He is patient. God would rather for us to walk with Him and discover the truth than for us to just be robots. Also, if God had made too radical of laws and changes for Israel after their exodus from Egypt then the people likely would have rebelled immediately. While we all want radical change, God is gracious and patient. There is a reason why childhood spans over 18 years. To expect a child to learn all the correct manners and right way of acting before they are 5 would be ridiculous. It takes time. It takes progression. God is gracious with us. He doesn’t expect a sinner to be perfect immediately after professing his faith in God. Changes need to be made, but God is gracious when there are lapses and God is patient with us as we grow. His love is beautiful!

There is much more I could write about this, but I think this post is plenty long enough. Hope it blessed you!