Online Reporter
Glen Scrivener
It’s the perfect symbol of progress. The United Nations headquarters was built in the aftermath of war and designed—appropriately enough—in the modernist style.
Since work began in 1948, it has stood as a symbol for how the world can live as one. The UN charter preamble states,
We the peoples of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and . . . to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom.
The UN charter perfectly captures how we feel. The past is dark. The future, we hope, can be better. That idea is baked into modern Western society.
You’ve probably heard somebody say “Get with the times,” “That was the Dark Ages,” “They need to update their thinking,” or “Those people are on the wrong side of history.” The progress story is so powerful nowadays that people try to win moral arguments by simply stating the date: “How can anyone believe that in 2026?”
In this way, even the most secular people believe in progress religiously. And we say religiously not just because of the force of this belief but because of its source: Progress is a biblical idea.
Biblical Vision of Progress
Consider a statue you can only see on the UN Headquarters garden tour. Unveiled in 1959, it’s called Let Us Beat Swords into Ploughshares, and it depicts a man beating a tool of violence into a tool of agriculture—moving from death to life. The statue is the perfect encapsulation of everything the UN is about, and it’s a profoundly biblical idea.
The image is taken straight out of Isaiah 2:3–4 (NIV, emphasis added):
This is part of the biblical vision for progress, and it begins on page 1 of the Bible: “And there was evening and there was morning, the first day” (Gen. 1:5). God sets everything in a direction, and then he methodically improves things day after day. He even gets humanity to methodically improve things by instructing them to work and keep the garden of Eden and to name its animals.
So we go from darkness to light. We go from simple to complex, from water to land, from seed to tree, from animal to man and woman, from nothing to good, to very good. It’s all progressing.
Read on in the Bible, and you see it in Israel’s story. First they’re slaves in Egypt and then they’re headed to the promised land (see Ex. 1–15). You later find them in exile, but they’re awaiting the Messiah, and when the Messiah comes, he first suffers and then is glorified. It’s cross and then it’s resurrection.
Some cultures think of time as a great circle: Round and round it goes with no progress. Other cultures have a decline narrative: We started with a golden age, but it’s all been downhill since then. But the Bible has an arrow: We’re going onward and upward. One day, God will wipe away all tears (Rev. 21:4), and we’ll beat our swords into ploughshares.
Progress is profoundly biblical. The drafters of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights admitted as much in their more candid moments.
That’s why the UN Declaration can speak of humanity with dignity and hope. These are Christian ideas with their biblical roots hidden. But what happens when you do more than hide the biblical roots of progress? What happens when you cut yourself off from them completely?
How do we discern the biblical idea of progress from all the counterfeits? Here are three questions you can ask.
What is the standard of progress?
When we say things are better now, what do we mean? Things have improved a lot by the standards of economics, technology, and health care. But have human beings improved? Is our moral fiber better? If we were to travel to the past, we might impress an ancient society with our iPhones, but we probably wouldn’t impress them with our moral character.
What’s the standard? In Isaiah 2, the standard is clear. It’s the Lord’s ways, his paths, his law, his Word, his light. He is the judge.
Who is the bringer of progress?
On the statue, they shifted Isaiah’s language from “they” to “us” or “we.” Let us beat our swords into ploughshares. We will bring about this brave new world. That’s a big shift.
In Isaiah, the focus is on the Lord. He will teach us his ways. The Word of Yahweh will flow out from Jerusalem. He will judge between the nations. According to Isaiah, the Lord, through his Word, is the agent of progress. And that’s actually how history has worked out.
Think of the moral changes that have happened over the last 2 000 years—the birth of charities, hospitals, and hospices; education for all; the outlawing of blood sports, infanticide, and child sexual abuse. Think of the whole concept of human dignity, worth, and rights that the UN’s Universal Declaration is founded on. Think of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade. These have been profoundly biblical movements—Christian movements. The Lord, through his Word and through his Spirit at work in his people, brings progress. – tgcafrica.org
