What is the “Progressivism” in the church today and where did it come from? Many proudly claim, “I am a progressive” or “Our church is a progressive church”, not understanding what has happened through the years and where the ideals of progressivism comes from. Most would be shocked if they knew how the progressive ideals came about; some would bristle and vehemently deny the truth.
It began years ago -- during World War II when America was allied with Russia in defeating Hitler and his desires to conquer the world and eliminate "undesirables" from the human race. Communism was the political mainstay of Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution and the dominant power during the war with Germany (and years after as well). They, too desired world domination but their methods were more secretive and subtle than that of Hitler. Even while allied with America in defeating Germany, there were Russian spies actively working in the U.S. trying to steal military and any other secret they could in order to aid the "Motherland" in their world conquest. Those old enough remember Khrushchev declaring, "We will take over America without firing a shot." They had a plan and they were very patient and nefarious in the implementation of those plans. Many thought communism was dead when the Berlin Wall came down. And most of the people today younger than 55-60 do not know what communism is really like. It is still alive and well, but goes under differing names. It has morphed from Nazism into Communism (communism is really another form of Nazism) then into socialism; then it became liberalism and today it is called progressivism (Many deny this fact and while some adherents to progressivism are not communists, they espouse the basic tenants of communism -- unknowingly. The agenda is still the same as it was decades ago -- destroy America as it was once in its beginning -- and when you look at their stated goals and see how successful they have been, it makes you wonder how it happened without the patriotic and intelligent people of America realizing what they were agreeing to in their elections. There are those in public office that are complicit with these goal;s and many in office espouse these goals as well -- some are openly "socialist" in their views and political platform. Thin about the following stated goals of the communists of yesteryear.
In 1958 a former FBI agent wrote the book The Naked Communist in which he documents 45 communist goals to destroy America. Here are some of the goals; think about them and see how successful they have been.
Goal #28: Eliminate prayer in schools, have them declared unconstitutional. Goal #40: Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce. Goal #17: Get control of schools and teacher associations. Use them to transmit socialism. Soften the curriculum – achieve lower GPA among students. Goal #24: Eliminate laws regarding obscenity – call pornography “free speech”. Goal #25: Break down moral standards by promoting pornography in books, magazines and television media. Goal #26: Promote homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as natural, healthy and normal. Goals #20-21: Infiltrate the press, gain control of key positions in radio, television and motion pictures in order to promote immoral programming and indecency. Goal #27: Infiltrate churches and replace revealed religion with “social” religion; cease to declare individual responsibility for upright and moral living. Discredit the Bible; replace it with man’s ideas about creation and long-held Bible truths.
They have been successful in every one of those stated goals I have listed. They took their time, were patient and eventually accomplished their objectives. They put “their” people in each designated position to advance their goals. There may not be “avowed” communists in many or even any of the necessary positions of their goals today, but the damage has been done. They have so manipulated the minds of previous generations and planted the seeds of corruption and falsehood into every area necessary, so that today there are decent, unsuspecting people who espouse their ideals not knowing that they are communist in their roots. The church has succumbed to the liberal theology they proposed -- reject the inerrancy, accuracy, authority and inspiration of Scripture – and has made the church more of a social club instead of a refuge for the sin sick and a recovery center for those burdened down with sin. The clergy ceased to declare the holiness of God and the need for personal piety and made the social gospel the order of the day.
The only way for the church to get back to God is a Holy Spirit, sin-killing revival to sweep over the clergy, church and then the leaders of the nation. Minds have to be renewed through the study and application of Scripture and the pulpits thunder out the whole council of God without fear and favor. May God grant us one more such revival before His judgment falls.