The Christian and Culture

Newsletter article for February 2005

by Rev. Paul Wolff

© 2005 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

It has become something of a commonplace for Christians in our culture to believe that in order to win converts we must be sensitive to the culture of the people we are witnessing to, instead of seeking to replace the godless worldly culture with a true worship of God. This would only be true if the process of winning converts would only involve trying to please people. Holy Scripture rejects this view. Saint Paul writes to the Galatians, “Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.” (Gal. 1:10) If we seek to accommodate earthly culture in order to please people then we have made the people and their culture into false gods, which God condemns.

In the Old Testament God did not give the Israelite people the specific task of evangelism or making converts. God’s people were to give witness and testimony about God’s gracious kindness through their history and the blessings of life. There’s actually more directions from God about totally destroying the pagan idolaters who were inhabiting the land which God reserved for His people, Israel, than about converting other peoples. They weren’t told to destroy all pagan idolaters, just the ones living where God wanted His people to live. For those foreigners who saw God’s gracious dealing with Israel and wished to be a part of God’s people, God gave guidelines as to how this was to be done. In many cases foreigners were welcomed into the family of God, but they had to submit completely to God’s laws, including circumcision and the ceremonial and religious laws, and they had to completely forsake their previous way of life including all worship of other gods and even foreign dietary practices which conflicted with God’s Law.

In Deuteronomy 7:3 God forbade intermarriage with pagans because God knew that these spouses would tend to turn the people away from God, rather than vice versa. The Israelite people were a people holy to God and He wanted them to remain in His love (see John 15:9-10) and that is why He warned them not to accommodate the cultures of other people.

In Deuteronomy 7:7-11 God explains that He did not choose Israel because they were more numerous or more powerful than the other nations. The Israelite nation was small and weak in comparison with many of their neighbors. Actually when God chose them as His people there were only two of them: Abraham and Sarah; and they were already rather old at the time. This fact is also a good answer to those who question the validity of Scripture by saying, “What makes you think Christianity is the only true religion?” as if to say that “might makes right” or because two thirds of the world denies God this means that four billion to two billion – you lose. Four billion people can be wrong if they deny God’s Word.

One person who is faithful to God’s Word can stand against any number of those who deny God even if the odds are six billion people to one person. Jesus says, “If you hold to my teaching, you really are my disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” Notice that Jesus doesn’t make any concessions to cultural considerations, unless you count faithfulness to His Word as a cultural consideration, but that would be God’s culture, rather than earthly culture. When God chose Israel as His people He looked after them and gave them prime land to live on, and He defeated their more powerful enemies, and protected them as long as they were obedient to Him and kept His law.

When the Israelites took over the land of Canaan God told them to destroy all cultural artifacts which went along with the false worship practices of the pagans. God’s people were instructed by God not to have respect for the cultures of the pagans. These cultural artifacts were not some quaint reminder of the olden days without any deeper meaning, they were an ongoing threat to the true faith and a stumbling block which would lead people to forsake God if not destroyed. When Israel did as God asked He was pleased and blessed them and gave them victory and protection. When Israel disobeyed God and saved some of these foreign cultural artifacts, God was angry and He punished the people for their rebellion.

When God gave the Israelites the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20 & Deut. 5) He specifically stated in the preamble to the First Commandment that the authority of these commands comes from the fact that the one who spoke them is “the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.” This would be true and valid even for foreigners even if it were not specifically historically true for those who came from other nations originally. It would be true spiritually when the foreigners abandoned their cultures and were adopted by God and made a part of His people through His eternal covenant.

Even in the New Testament where Christ sends His Apostles to go to the “ends of the earth” to make disciples, and the ceremonial rules of the Old Testament have been fulfilled and completed in Christ himself, God’s people are not to make concessions to culture. Jesus commissions His disciples to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them … and teaching them….” Jesus commands His people to use the means of grace so that the Holy Spirit would change the worldly cultures into a Christian culture.

Peter writes, “once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God.” (1 Peter 2:10) Christianity has its own culture which supersedes all worldly cultures. Paul also writes to the Galatians, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Thus the cultural identities which we formerly had no longer apply to the Christian.

Should we be worried that we might offend people’s cultures? No, we should fear God rather than men. Are we going to offend? Evangelism always includes calling sinners to repentance. How can that not offend someone? St. Paul recognizes this reality when he writes to the Corinthian Church that the message of the crucified Christ is “a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.” (1 Cor. 1:23) Does this fact stop him from offending such people? Not at all. Only ten verses later in his letter Paul writes, “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”