The past several years, the country has begun to ask questions of its heritage. Does America have a past we should celebrate? Or mourn? Our politics have forced us to two sides of ring: those looking back and those looking forward. These totalizing lenses have robbed us of a fully orbed biblical ethical vision that directs our eyes forward, and backward, and straight down. And, above all, it focuses our vision on a person.

Are you progressive or conservative? It seems to be a simple enough question, but let me complicate it for you. The terms are both tethered to time. The term progressive looks forward. Progressives believe that the best is yet to come. We are growing, evolving and our policies ought to reflect our progressive enlightenment.  Conservatives, on the other hand, are trying to conserve that which is good from the past. America’s luminaries cast a compelling vision in their words and lives. It is our job to aspire to and embody the charter set forth by our founding fathers.

The past several years, the country has begun to ask questions of its heritage. Does America have a past we should celebrate? Or mourn?

Our politics have forced us to two sides of ring: those looking back and those looking forward. These totalizing lenses have robbed us of a fully orbed biblical ethical vision that directs our eyes forward, and backward, and straight down. And, above all, it focuses our vision on a person.

Drawing inspiration from the letter to the Hebrews, let’s consider how we are to look:

Backward.

As Christians, we are to look backward. God reminds the Jews again and again to remember. They were to set up cairns (stone monuments) in remembrance, their holidays were moments to recreate their history, and they were to recite their history to their children. In Hebrews 11, the author looks back at the history of faith among God’s people for encouragement and inspiration. He reminds us that by faith, “the people of old received their commendation” (Heb 11:2), and that these remembered faithful ones are those “of whom the world was not worthy” (Heb 11:38).

CS Lewis famously called our predisposition to disregard the wisdom of those who have come before as “chronological snobbery.” We would do well to heed the encouragement of the author of Hebrews and Lewis and not disregard or diminish those who have come before.

Forward.

As Christians, we are to look forward. We are told that Abraham “was looking forward,” (Heb 11:10), and urged to do likewise. “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” (Heb 12:1).

The best is not behind us, it lies ahead. We celebrate that we are those who live after Jesus, the incarnate Son of God has come and shown us the fullness of God in flesh. We rejoice that the Spirit of God has now come and indwells those who have put their trust in Jesus Christ. And we look forward to the second coming of Jesus, who will judge “the living and the dead” (2 Tim 4:1). For the Christian, the ultimate “good days,” lie ahead in glory, not in the past.

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