Culture

I keep hearing over and over again that our culture is totally different from that of the culture in biblical times, and thus we can't present the Gospel like they did back then. When I first starting hearing this line, I agreed. I also didn't know the bible as well as I should have back then. The more I have studied the bible, I realize that this is a misnomer. Now, before you start up with me about technology and communication, know that I am not blind to the world we live in. Clearly, I get it. I am using that technology to the best of my ability to share the gospel with my friends around the world. What I am saying is that the neither the human heart nor the human condition have changed. Allow me to lay down some biblically sound ground work for my theory.

Ecclesiastes 1:9 tells us, "History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new." (NLT) To act as if our hearts are any different than they were in Sodom or in Rome or in any of the other towns we read about doesn't make sense in the light of Ecclesiastes. Throughout the bible we see Satan working basically the same traps over and over again. The people in the bible stories we read were just as lustful and deceitful and debaucherous as we. Maybe the symptoms aren't all the same, but the disease is. It was sin then, it is sin now.

My best example of how our cultures are similar is found in Romans 1. Paul begins in verse 17 talking about the "good news" of how God "makes us right". He then follows up by describing how God "shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who push the truth away from themselves." He speaks of how we instinctively know there is a God because of His works around us, but some will refuse to believe. Starting in verse 21 "they began to think up foolish ideas of what God is like. The result was that their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they became utter fools instead. And instead of worshipping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshipped idols..."

Confusion abounds in our culture with regards to who God is. We have made up all kinds of foolish ideas about Him. We flock to "brilliant minds" that claim God is the light inside of us or the spirit of the earth or whatever craziness abounds today.

Paul continues that God allowed the people to do "whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things to each other's bodies." (v.24) He said they chose to believe lies and "worshipped things created instead of the Creator." (v. 25) If this doesn't describe the actions in 90% of our reality television, I don't know what would. Young people devote their entire beings to becoming like a Kardashian or whomever the "star" of the day is. They are worshipping man, not the Creator.

In verse 26, God "abandoned them to their sinful desires" and they indulged in homosexuality and "as a result, suffered within themselves the penalty they so richly deserved." (v.27) I live in a country in which homosexuality is seemingly running rampant, and sadly, many churches have given up preaching against it out of fear of "offending someone". The fact that they engaged in this behavior after God abandoned them tells me He has no place in that lifestyle. It has become popular to say that God made someone gay. But if you read this, it sounds like this lifestyle was the mark of His voluntary removal.

After this, God "abandoned them to their evil minds and let them do things that should never be done. Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy murder, fighting, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They are forever inventing new ways of sinning and are disobedient to their parents. They refuse to understand, break their promises, and are heartless and unforgiving." (Romans 1:28-31)

This week a stir was caused when an American television personality said (in addition to other things) that homosexual behavior leads to more sin. At least on this one point, per the book of Romans, he was right. Our culture embracing this lifestyle is opening the door for every other sin to overtake us, but most frighteningly, God has already set the precedent that He will leave us to our own devices if we don't worship Him.

Lastly, Paul acknowledges, "they are fully aware of God's death penalty for those who do these things, yet they go right ahead and do them anyway. And worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too." (v.32)

Peer pressure is nothing new. We may do it via texting now, but the concept is old, as is everything else.

So, can we shift our methods? Yes. But to state that our world is totally different is for one, not in line with the scripture, and for another opens the gate to disregard scripture. When you start eliminating one part because it "doesn't apply today", it is a slippery slope before none of it does.