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Podcast
Cultural Transformation
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Hi, I'm Dave DeWitt, and today I'd like to say a few things about Christian cultural
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transformation. I believe it's such a crucial issue in the church that I'm going to do two
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podcasts on it. This one will focus on what's being taught in the Christian community, and
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the next one will be focusing on the answers from the Bible. Both will have references
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from the Bible. This one will focus on what many Christians are teaching. So, let's get
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started. One of the mega-movements of the 21st century is the promotion of cultural
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change on a global level. Of course, cultures are moving stream, always changing, but the
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new movements are purposely attempting to shape that change. Liberal progressives often
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call the movement social justice. For example, the United Nations said,
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quote, social justice may be broadly understood as the fair and compassionate distribution
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of the fruits of economic growth, close quote. Many Christian organizations have responded
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by calling believers to be involved in redeeming or transforming the world's culture towards
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Christian values, starting with the culture in which I live. I'll use the term transformationalism
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to identify the Christian movement, since it's a common term used in the literature.
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The reason I put Christian transformationalism in the same category with secular social justice
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is because they both have the goal of transforming the culture of the world, albeit in opposite
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directions. For example, transformationism would say Christians living in America should
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be involved in transforming American culture to favor things like the traditional family,
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heterosexual marriage, and protecting the rights of the unborn. It's not my purpose
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here to discuss the secular, liberal, or conservative ideals of social justice. My concern is only
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about the Christian form of it. My concern is that Christians are being deceived by the
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leadership of this movement. The leaders have changed the definition of the gospel with
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the result that believers are wasting precious time involving themselves in futile cultural
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projects. I shall develop a position that the Bible does not teach cultural involvement,
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therefore transformationalism, redeeming the earth's culture, is not a biblical idea.
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Defining transformationalism. Here's the definition according to Canadian pastor and
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reformed theologian Tim Chalice. Transformationalism is, quote, to impact the culture in ways consistent
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with Christian doctrine and piety, close quote. John Stonestreet, president of Colson Center for
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Christian Worldview, claims, and this is a quote from him, there has been incredible transformation
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in many aspects of our culture. For example, there are far more Christian academics in prominent
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positions than when Chuck and Nancy, he's talking about Chuck and Nancy Colson, wrote in 1999.
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That's good news. Also, global objective poverty has been cut in half the last 30 years. The
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biggest part of this has been the application of Christian notions to work, dignity, and the role
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of the state. This is good news, too, if Christian filmmaking is better than it used to be, and there
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are many involved in the arts. The pro-life movement is having amazing cultural success, too.
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That's a close quote from Stonestreet. But Stonestreet's list is problematic.
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True, pro-life objectives are biblical, but Stonestreet has to be very selective to cherry
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pick his few limited good news events. To conclude, there's been many incredible transformations
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in many aspects of our culture. Seems agenda-driven, not an assessment of what's actually
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obviously globally going on in the culture. There are far more examples of the church moving towards
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apostasy, as in 2 Thessalonians 2.3, and the world's culture following the God of this world,
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2 Corinthians 4.4, the Antichrist's great tribulation in Revelation 7.14, as prophesied
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in the Old Testament, predicted by the Apostle Paul, confirmed by Jesus, and described in Revelation
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6 to 18. According to the biblical definition of good and evil, the individual acts of people
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globally are becoming more evil. Consider sexual LGBTQ perversion, pornography, feminism,
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and the destruction of the family, lying, and blasphemy. There's hardly a conversation or a
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recent film made without trash talk and casual blasphemy. True, the sin nature of man remains
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the same. But in the 21st century, the morality of the world is getting worse.
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When I'm challenged about that statement, I usually make four points.
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The percent, not just the number, of evil, most evil character acts are greater.
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Number two, the tolerance of evil is greater. Number three, the opportunity for committing
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evil is greater. And number four, the condemnation of those who do not promote evil is greater.
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For example, the Bible calls homosexuality sinful, an abomination, a degrading passion,
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ungodly. Suppose you go to a small village in Europe in the 1500s and ask whoever you meet
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on the street if homosexuality is wrong. Almost all would say it's wrong. Then suppose you go
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to that same village today with the same question. Almost none of them would say it's
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wrong. In America, you would likely be condemned for hate speech just for asking the question.
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Transformationalism is the new evangelism. Harold Ockengay, founder and first president
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of Fuller Theological Seminary, is one of the fathers of what has been today's
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transformational Christianity. He called it new evangelism and said it differs from fundamentalism,
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quote, in its willingness to handle the social problems which the fundamentalists evade.
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There needs to be no disagreement between personal gospel and the social gospel, close quote.
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There should be no doubt that Christianity of many godly missionaries has had a positive moral
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impact on the culture where they ministered the gospel. There should be no doubt that the Bible
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consistently exhorts believers to care for widows and orphans and poor and needy.
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There should be no doubt that we are to create a biblical culture in our families,
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in our extended families, and our Christian organizations. But where's the biblical mandate
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to impact secular culture? In the Old Testament, attempting to impact the world's culture was never
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an assignment from God. Enoch walked with God in Genesis 5 24. Noah found grace in the eyes of the
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Lord in Genesis 6 8. But neither were told to change their pre-flood culture. Adam was never
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told to impact the culture of the Canaanites. Joseph was never told to impact culture of the
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Egyptians, even when he was in a position of authority. Neither Moses nor Joshua were told
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to transform the cultures of the Amorites, the Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, the Hivites,
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and the Jebusites. David was given no directive from God to impact the culture of the Philistines.
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Daniel suggested no cultural change for the Babylonians. Nehemiah suggested no cultural
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changes for the Persians. The New Testament gives no example, command, or suggestion for transforming
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the culture of the Greeks or Romans. Stay away from their cruel slavery, homosexual and heterosexual
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temple called prostitution or polytheism. Paul said believers were to be wise in making the most
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of your time because the days are evil, not attempting to change the culture so the days
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will be less evil. He told Timothy to fight the good fight of faith and take hold of the eternal
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life to which you were called, verse Timothy 6 12. Cultural change is not about eternal life.
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It's the wrong fight. In both the Old and New Testament, God's people were commanded to love
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your neighbors yourself, Leviticus 19.18 and Matthew 19.19. But nowhere in the Bible was that
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understood as an exhortation for believers to influence the culture of the world that surrounded
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them. If God wanted his people to redeem the culture of the world, you would think he would
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have mentioned it to somebody. Transformationalism defines the gospel as the so-called cultural
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mandate. Christian transformation called Genesis 128 the cultural mandate. Since there's a lot of
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talk about that, we'll look at it a minute. The passage says this, quote, this is Genesis 128,
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God blessed them and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and
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rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves
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on the earth, close quote. The claim is that the mandate for believers is for believers to redeem
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the physical and cultural structures of the world. As Greg Beal, professor of New Testament Biblical
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Theology at Westminster Theological Seminary said, quote, the cultural mandate is the first great
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commission. But Genesis 128 is not a cultural mandate. There's nothing to do with the culture
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at all. This command was given in the Garden of Eden before the fall. Genesis 128 is a command
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to subdue and rule over the physical creation of plants and animals. For example, we should
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manage the wolf and deer population, not kill all the whales or cut down all the trees without
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replacing them. But plants and animals don't have culture. Only humans have that. Genesis 128 is a
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mandate to rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing
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that moves on the earth, not to redeem human culture. There's nothing cultural about the
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so-called cultural mandate. If God meant for Genesis 128 to be understood as a cultural
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mandate, you'd think he would require his patriarchs, prophets, or apostles to pursue it.
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But it's never mentioned. Don't miss the significance of this. These people are not
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defining the gospel as getting lost sinners saved through the blood of Christ and going to heaven.
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The more conservative ones would include the salvation of sinners as part of their
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redeeming of the earth. But they understand the gospel to be restoring the earth to its pre-fall
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Garden of Eden condition. On November 21, 2019, I was in a group where John Stone Street,
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who I referred to above, was speaking. During a time of questioning, someone asked him,
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how do you define the gospel? His answer was about God redeeming the earth. I spoke up and
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said, and Peter said the elements will be destroyed with intense heat and the earth and its works will
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be burned up, right? Stone Street answered, well, people have different interpretations of that
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passage. I thought, but I didn't say, yeah, how about the interpretation that says the elements
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will be destroyed with dense heat and the earth and its works will be burned up.
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Our Reverend Michael Goldo, G-O-L-O-D-O, Reformed Theological Seminary, put it this way,
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quote, God gave humanity cultural mandate in the most simple terms so that the creation would be
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filled with its glory. We see a picture of creation as being something like the construction of a
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house, sort of like an ancient temple. And when the temple is built, the God who commissioned
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its building inhabits it. And so the biblical view of creation is that the whole earth is made
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to be a dwelling place for God, to be a holy sanctuary.
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But the apostle Paul said it is the individual believer who is the temple of God, not this world.
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Peter said the earth and its works will be burned up, not rebuilt into a temple which God inhabits.
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John's revelation was the first earth passed away in Revelation 21.1. It was not something made to
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be a dwelling place for God. Instead, transformationalists choose to believe the earth
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transformed into its pre-fall Garden of Eden, heaven as a place on earth. So the whole point
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is to make the earth into another Garden of Eden, return it to the Garden of Eden,
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and then Jesus will come back to this fixed up place. Dave Hunt said,
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in fact, dominion, taking dominion and setting up a kingdom of Christ is an impossibility,
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even for God. Millennial reign of Christ, far from being a kingdom of heaven, is actually
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the final proof of the incorrigible nature of the human heart, which Christ himself cannot do. He's
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talking about changing the nature of the human heart, what these people say they're going to do.
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Harold Horner said, I just can't buy that, their basic presupposition that we can do anything
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significant to change the world, and you can waste an awful lot of time trying.
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Hal Lindsey said, God sent us to be fishers of men, not to clean up the fishbowl.
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J. Vernon McGee said, you don't polish the brass rails on a sinking ship.
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John Wolvert said, the present age is one in which the gospels preached to all the world,
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relatively fewer saved. The world becomes, in fact, increasingly wicked as the age progresses.
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The premillennial view presents no command to improve society as a whole.
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Tommy Ice said, we will never be able to redeem society. And Charles Ryrie said,
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the commission to the church is to preach good news and to teach the word,
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not to affect worldwide justice. Well, thanks for listening. A paper on this subject with more
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quotes is available on our website, relationalconcepts.org. I've also done a second
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podcast on this subject, focusing on the Bible's teaching on the subject of cultural transformation.
