July 2019

Christianity And The Culture

Like many I was delighted at the victory Scott Morrison and his party have just won in the Australian Elections. There is no doubt that a significant contributor to this victory, against all odds and predictions, was the prayer and the actions of the Christian fraternity who got behind him in so many ways. I am convinced that it has enabled Australia to dodge a bullet in regard to a massive decline in morality and other such things, particularly in the school system.

This raises the question that has surfaced once again on Christian media recently. What role do we or should we, as Christians, have in the affairs of the world?

According to a recent video from John McArthur entitled, “Should Christians be Focused on Taking Back the Culture’?” the answer is none. He states that we are not supposed to be involved in the Culture Wars. He claims that God’s law doesn’t apply and that we live in the midst of two kingdoms where God’s Word only applies to the Church.

I disagree. I am very sympathetic to the views of Chuck McIlhenny, a pastor who started a church in San Francisco in the late 1970s, who fought against “domestic partnership” legislation and had his home fire-bombed.He claims that what we are facing today is nothing less than the life and death of our society. He states,

“The homosexual issue is a secondary issue. The real fundamental issue is a secular humanism which rejects Christ and the Scripture as the basis to society. And the ultimate end is always death–death to a society.”

I am not sure how else we can interpret the Apostle Paul’s instructions that we are to destroy speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God (2 Cor 10:5).

This inevitably puts us into a degree of warfare against the culture. In any form of warfare, a key teaching is that the best defense requires a good offense. Defending the Christian worldview against unbelieving thought requires an understanding that every worldview has a centralized guiding principle that serves as the head that directs belief and action to the arms and legs.

David understood this when he confronted Goliath. He went after the head (Goliath) and in so doing, completely defeated the attacking opposition, despite it being of great strength.

In my experience, a fundamental flaw in many Christian actions is a tendency to attack symptoms, rather than exposing the root that gives life to the tree. Jesus taught that,

“The axe is already laid at the root of the trees” with the result that “every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Matt. 3:10 – my underlining).

When God created the world, He said it was “very good” (Gen. 1:31). Then the Fall came but even after the Fall, the world is still described as “good” (1 Tim 4:4). God designed it to be cultivated in every way possible. Because of the Fall, there will always be those who will war against a biblical culture. The Bible is the story of that war. Dennis Peacocke describes this as “the war between two seeds”.

This brings us to the insight from the Apostle Paul that, we struggle not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places (Eph. 6:12).

Paul does not mean to say that Christians have no enemies among the people and institutions that opposed them. At the time they were often exposed to fiery persecution which has continued over the last 2,000 years. The point Paul as revealing here is where the spiritual origin of these forces lay.

However, just because there is a spiritual origin of these forces does not mean that they are not manifested in the flesh, governments, courts, politics, media, the art world, entertainment, and the new social media world. We need to realize that they are designed to impact our world and our ability to spread the gospel. This is what we must fight for, using great wisdom from the Holy Spirit.

There are many times when special interest groups, social media platforms, or a government and its courts attack God’s people and biblical morality. Defending against such attacks is what Christians war against, not with force of arms, but with the message of redemption and God’s moral law.

If we are going to maintain freedom of the press, speech, and movement, all which make it easier to express the Kingdom of God, we must fight for such things to remain.

May God help and empower us as we do this. God bless you.

Bruce Billington