Simply put: There’s nothing new under the sun.
Human beings have been around for about 6,000 years. But we’re really no different than we were at the beginning. We have the same tendencies, the same excuses for doing what we know we shouldn’t, and the same sin problem that started in the Garden of Eden.
It was that “original sin” that broke our perfect fellowship with a perfect God. And ever since, we’ve had natural inclinations to lie, cheat and steal to get what we want.
- What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.
- Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new”? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.
- No one remembers the former generations, and even those yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow them.
- –Ecclesiastes 1: 9-11
It makes me chuckle to hear people talk about supposedly new ideas – ones that I’m old enough now to remember the last time they were popular.
And I shake my head when I hear new terms for supposedly new things, that are really just new ways of saying something old.
Here are a few of my favorites at the moment:
- “Imposter Syndrome” – another term for self-doubt
- “Quiet Quitting” – another term for slacking off in one’s work (or “mailing it in”)
- “Misinformation” – another word for deceit, or lying
Still another is a deeper subject and deserves a lot more care and space than I can provide here. The term is “progressive.” This applies to politics as well as theology, in what is currently called “progressive Christianity.”
In politics, it’s a term used for the re-branding of ideas that were tried and failed horrifically in the 20th century. Policies that favor the adoption and promotion of socialism or totalitarianism.
In theology, it can mean many different ideas, but central to them is a questioning or an outright rejection of Scripture.
For an excellent book on this subject, I recommend Another Gospel? by Alisa Childers. Throughout her story of attending a progressive Christian church and through the quotes of leaders in the movement, I kept hearing the same theme, “Did God really say?” That’s literally the oldest deception in the world.
Even as we make technological advances and learn more about the world through scientific observation, the condition of man is no different than it was at the beginning. We are weak and fallible creatures. We each were born, and we each will die. We are still sinful from birth and in need of a Savior.
And we are dependent on our Creator for everything: Food and water, air to breathe, and direction for how to live.
It helps to have a humility that acknowledges people have lived on this planet for a long time before we entered the scene. We might not know as much as we think we do. Sometimes the great new idea we see has already been done. Or the thing that promises freedom and fulfillment might seem new because it hasn’t been done in a long time – previous generations having learned it didn’t work.
And the old “tried and true” things might just still be true, even in our generation. There is wisdom in learning from the past.
