My last post was titled, American Progress. I posted it for your consideration when I stumbled upon Gast’s painting and could not help but remember the Apple “silhouette” series of advertisements. What might Christian Progress be? What might that mean for an engineer? It is the freedom to make progress in the Christian sense of the word here at Dordt that gets me excited as I teach!
In answer to these questions I offer first a reference to a favorite book of mine, The Christian Mind, by Harry Blamires. You can read an outline of the book online. Or better yet, get the book (purchase or from a library) and read it. (It is unrelated to Blamires’ book, but there is also a famous sermon from 1853 by John Angell James titled, Christian Progress.)
We live in a world of conflict between good and bad. We depend completely on Christ’s mercy to provide salvation from the bad and knowledge of the good. That even includes provision of a sense of living a meaningful life every day. It motivates us to do work in which we strive to glorify God. Figuratively, Christians desire to work to create vessels that take people through time toward their final home with God. (Blameries, p73). Our work, and our entire being, has a religious orientation. Contrast that to “American Progress,” as you might find taught in a state university. There you find a self-sufficient world. All that matters or ever will matter is what we experience, what we humans can sense. American progress elevates people to the roles of gods and final judges over everything that is. Ironically, then there is no final authority of even purpose for life.
All things were created by God and and are under Christ’s rule. (Hebrews 2:8, Psalm 8:6, 1 Corinthians 15:27) Although everything we do and design is bound for obsolescence and death, what we do for the Lord will matter. “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” (1 Corinthians 14:54) Think of the salvation and purpose we find in Christ! That’s Christian progress.
The photo of the crosses is from http://christianbackgrounds.info/the-cross-sunshine/. The image of the dancer is a frame captured from an Apple ipod video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jwq12bL_GPQ.)