Rebuke the Culture
Christians love the world…a little too much these days. This really is not a new problem. The Old Testament prophets rebuked Israel for this, from the time of Nathan rebuking David for adultery, to the time of Malachi rebuking the Temple priests for robbery. The world had won Israel to its ways. The way of the world is like a plastic mold. The world presses the church into its mold, and the product is the church conformed to the cultural image of the world (1 Jn 2:15–17).
Culture is what we make. We are made in the image of God, and God is the Creator (Gen 1:27). Men fashion things together to create culture. Cities create their own cultures, and they become famous or infamous. San Francisco has forged its own culture. Flint has made a name for itself, by what it has built. People tend to gravitate to the cultures they wish to engage and enjoy.
The world is a collection of cultures. The things we have made, even the ideas we have configured are cultural products. That being said, someone might argue for the neutrality of culture. People take the raw stuff of the world and make what they will with it. Cultures are not neutral, however. They are inspired by something or someone else. Sometimes cultures are copied from others. Singapore created a city culture, and Suzhou purposely copied it.
Tribes, villages, cities, countries, and even continents will strive with one another for superior culture. The Egyptians want their cultural artifacts back from the English. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) was notorious for destroying cultural artifacts, as they imposed their culture on the people of Iraq and Syria. There is nothing new there, either. Appealing cultures attract mimicry, while appalling cultures inflict submission. The god of this world is the inspiration behind all world cultures.
World cultures, the ideas and stuff we make, must be examined under the bar of Holy Scripture. Of course, the world is not interested in this examination and like a student opting out of taking the SAT examination, there are consequences. For instance, the Bible reveals the future of the world and all of its cultural constructions, “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its (cultural) works will be burned up. 11 Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! 13 But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells (2 Pet 3:10–12).” Peter rebuked the culture with the Word of truth, which revealed the end to all sinful human cultures.
ISIS may have deluded itself by thinking it was ushering in God’s judgment against sinful culture, but even its own evil culture will meet its end. The ironic thing about cultural artifacts is they are buried in a landfill by one generation, only to become the archaeological prizes of another generation. Junk poses as invaluable treasure in the displays of museums, which are themselves a cultural artifact.
Christians have long struggled to deal with our role as ambassadors in the doomed city of man (2 Cor 5:20). Whole cities can play the victim: one, because responsibility is no longer required in our safe zones and transgender bathrooms; second, because we just might trick responsible people to give us their money. There is now an on-going history of bailing out Democrat-run cities for every one of their horrendous administration blunders. When do we get our “fair share” from others…now that we have done this to ourselves? People know the truth, but they do not want to be free from their cultural concentration camps. What about the church?
The church will call for a conference on how to engage all of this malarkey. They will probably charge their Christian participants $175 to listen to self-styled hipster gurus of culture, teaching on how to intentionally build the missional bridge to change the culture for good. What does Jerusalem have to do with Athens, or Athens have to do with Jerusalem for that matter? Everything. They are both doomed cities of man with different cultures. Every Democrat city has some very nice suburbs. They are entirely different cultures, but their end is exactly the same. There is no heaven on earth…only a pledge for God’s people.
Instead of “engage the culture” conferences and seminars and livestreams, how about a conference on repentance or sanctification? Holiness? Really? Won’t we miss the twisting of Scripture to prove our relevance? Where will we buy our “Not of this world” t-shirts, bumper stickers, coffee mugs, night lights, and heavenly scent auto air fresheners?
When men claim to have the secret for unlocking the mystery of the culture, they, too, have created a bit of our culture. Do not worry about being, “Left Behind,” though, there is no such thing as “engaging the culture.” Culture is as diverse as the stars of heaven or the sand of the seashore. Somebody wants to sell you a book and make a name for herself. When Christianity Today changed its name to CT, it did so to compete with Relevant Magazine. CT is trying to be more relevant, but what could be more relevant than Relevant?
I may not be relevant in writing this to you. My cultural contribution and product distribution have been weighed, measured, and have been found wanting by my 7 billion+ non-readers. I give you my point: cultures cannot be engaged in the way our hipster brethren purport.
Heaven has a culture. The world has a collection of cultures. As ambassadors for Christ, with our citizenship in heaven, and our mission field here on earth, how do we address diverse cultures? Simple. Rebuke them.
The people of the world are not making the stuff of heaven. Like the silversmiths of Ephesus, men are crafting ideas and idols (a.k.a. consumer products) to take our minds, our money, and our time away from service to heaven. The Christian message is a heavenly cultural idea, and it is competing in the cultural marketplace of this world. At best, the world tolerates this heavenly product. Sometimes the world raises oppressive trade restrictions against it (ie. ban the Bible; prevent the church from gathering; ban prayer; arrest the baker, street preacher, and candlestick maker; etc.). Of course, there can also be the prohibition of our intangible cultural product, leading to imprisonment, persecution, and death, all of which are cultures of this world.
Salvation from the cultures of this world, and slavery to their endless cultural product lines, must begin with rebuke. A rebuke is a sharp objection to the undesirable normative practice. Rebukes were designed to send a message, both to Israel and the pagan nations. What the church and the world need now is a good rebuke.
Instead of engaging in spiritual adultery with the world, maybe it is time for the church to become faithful to Christ and our heavenly home culture. Holiness is the culture of heaven, and if we claim to be citizens of heaven, then the cultural products we produce in this foreign trade zone should be distinct, with heavenly trademarks.
Take love as an example. Love is a product of heaven (1 Cor 13; 1 Jn 4:8, 19), and love is a product of the world. One of them is the original, and the other is a cheap imitation made in a porn sweat shop in the red-light district of some hell-hole ghetto like Hollywood, California. See, that is a rebuke.
Two things happen when we tell the truth about this culture conflict. First, the people of the world are offended (ie. people from Hollywood reading this article). Christians are told about how the Gospel is offensive, even scandalously offensive. Most Christians have never experienced what that means because they have never preached the Gospel, in its purity, to know how offended people can be by the truth. Instead, having gone to their, “engaging” conference, they learn to call “sin” something like, “sickness,” or when a fallen mega church pastor is fired for “domineering.”
Second, Christians are rebuked when the worldly culture is rebuked. Call it a win, win. Maybe I am a conspiracy theorist, but I observe the world and I observe the church. When they say and do the same thing, I get confused by which is which. Pagan Halloween, Pagan Christmas, Pagan Easter are in the church.
Take for instance, the T4G conference. I confess I do not know anything about it, other than posted photographs of how big the venue was by people who actually attended it. Christians fill a stadium somewhere, while a stadium is filled with sports fans somewhere else. In both stadiums, the teams had their line ups. I stopped going to Christian conferences years ago, when I realized my $175 got me the same line up every time.
Both the NBA and the TGC have their all-stars. Who is in the lineup for the Christian team? Read the back of every evangelical book published, today. If I buy Pastor A’s book, it has an endorsement from Pastors B, C, D, and E. If I buy Pastor D’s book, it has an endorsement from Pastors A, B, C, and E. In the world culture, that is called, “collusion.” In evangelical culture, it is called, “coolusionary.” Christians have got to stop this nonsense.
We have a Gospel to proclaim, not a culture to change. Heaven never gave us the strategy to engage the cultures of this world. The King of Glory gave us the mandate to reconnaissance God’s captive people, enslaved and oppressed by the world’s cultures. Whether they are trapped in the homosexual community of San Francisco or in the terrorist community of Syria, we must rebuke the cultures of sin, and at the same time, redeem the people of God, through our call for all men everywhere to repent (Acts 17:30), from whatever they are thinking, doing, or making in this world. Most will ignore us. Some will hate us. Maybe a few will consider what we have to say, having received the grace of God to do so.
We do not need another conference. We need Christians to be obedient to what is written in the Bible. Someone might wish to harangue me for haranguing the world and the worldly church, but I will humbly receive that rebuke because at least that is biblical. Stop the charade of culture? It will not happen. Rebuke the façade of culture, and the world just might be a better place before it burns. Do you understand now why Solomon was distraught at the end of his days in Vanity Fair? Do you identify with Paul, who wanted out of this world? Do you join with the bride and Spirit in crying out, “Come, Lord Jesus?” Ambassadors engage the people and rebuke the culture. It is what they do.
David Norczyk
Spokane Valley, Washington
April 1, 2021
