Countering Our Culture

by  Dr. Bruce R. Cole                                                                                                                                  Vol. XIX, No. 3, March 2006

      Pastor Hopeful Baptist Church Montpelier, Virginia

The two front-page articles in The Baptist Banner of February 2005 caught my attention: the critique of Dr. Mohler's message, "Darkness at Noon," and the one headed simply "A Baptist's Views." Both underscore the dilemma for the New Testament Church in a postmodern world.

Our postmodern culture is a culture of discontent. It is a culture rejecting truth, sinking into a morass of immorality, and yet desperate for spiritual truth. The impact of television programs, advertising, movies, and best selling novels like The Da VincI Code expose the road America is traveling and where it is heading, and the prevailing condition of the postmodern Church reveals the success it is having. Denominational leaders, educators, pastors, and laypersons must be alerted to and take seriously the measures needed to counter this cultural decline, and that can only be accomplished if Christians are convinced that what they believe is true. For that to happen there must be a greater emphasis in the following four areas.

First, Christians must be convinced of the "Wholly Otherness" of God. If God the Father is viewed as being in any way part of creation, mankind will change the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four footed beasts, and creeping things. It is not enough to say that God exists. Paul wrote, "0 the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? Or who has first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory forever. Amen" (Romans 11 :33-36). God is transcendent, and if His transcendence is not taught and accepted and believed, man's imagination will create the image of the god he wants, and the Judeo-Christian faith is headed for oblivion.

Secondly, Christians must be convinced of the reliability of Scripture. The battle for relevance in the area of divine writings is being heavily engaged. Far beyond the meddling of the Jesus Seminar is the impact of culture. The Gnostic Gospels, and best selling books like Holy Blood, Holy Grail and The Da Vinci Code which exploit these gospels and other pseudepigrapha, are grabbing the attention of a thoughtless and lost culture. These writings are offering today's young people a god they like, and a faith they can embrace because they can mold it to suit their lifestyle. Unless Christians understand the human effort and purpose beyond these falsely so called Secret Sayings of Jesus, and know fully the integrity of the biblical documents – when, why, how and by whom they were written and collected – we will have nothing but a weak argument and an insufficient defense against the purveyors of historical perversion. Men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

Third, Christians must be convinced of the historicity of their faith. What happened once is happening again. Jude wrote, "Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith, which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ' (Jude 1 :3-4). A new group of "ungodly men" are not only denying the integrity of the Christian Bible, and the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ; they are teaching that the whole body of Christian truth has been shaped by men intent on maintaining a powerful control over the Church. If Christian educators, pastors, and teachers do not identify the revelation and transmission of biblical truth, and do not defend the time frame in which it was once and for all delivered unto the Saints, their claims of authenticity will fall on deaf ears. Others will be equally able to claim, false or not, writings contemporary with the Life of Christ and his disciples, and Christian believers will have no historical ground for what they believe. Remove the history from the Christian gospel and Christians will have no gospel.

Finally, Christians must be convinced of the transforming power of salvation. The world is not only in eternal darkness; it is eternally doomed to destruction. If there is any hope to escape the judgment of Almighty God, it must come through the power of God in salvation. We dare not fool ourselves. Our nation is not exempt from judgment. The darkness is upon us, and if God's people, who are called by His name, do not humble themselves, and pray, and seek His face, and turn from their wicked ways; then He will not hear from heaven, and He will not forgive their sin, and He will not heal their land.

America is traveling the dark road to destruction. Moreover, unless we who are the Church are convinced of the "Wholly Otherness" of God, the reliability of our Scripture, the historicity of our faith, and the transforming power of salvation, we will give fuel to the spiritual failure. We must believe these four truths strongly enough to boldly confront the false religious teaching of our postmodern world. It must be done or we will lose the battle to counter the culture in which we live.

[Comment: This is a thoughtful, powerful article. Our country faces many challenges both external and internal. The dream, the vision that is America as a nation under God is under attack by foreign terrorists, yes, but much more dangerously by the attacks on the truth and authority of God’s Word from those in our universities, our government schools, the media, Hollywood, and aggressive religions intentionally attacking Christianity in our homeland. But this we know: God is faithful and just. Our duty is to stand faithfully for Him and His Word no matter the circumstances. We know that the ultimate victory is His. TCP]