For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love. Galatians 5.6

Sound the alarm?

In recent months many Christians have begun to express heightened concern over the state of American culture. Words like “degraded”, “debased,” and “decadent” fill the Christian blogosphere, and calls for “cultural renewal” can be heard on every hand.

ReVision studies are designed for individual or group use and explore various aspects of the Christian worldview. All ReVision studies are available in free PDF format and may be duplicated for group use.

Come to prayer open and sincere.

What food are you offering to your soul these days?

Dominant narratives, evolution and religion, art and writing, the greatest temptation.

Persecution? What else is new?

I would have lost heart, unless I had believed
That I would see the goodness of the LORD
In the land of the living! Psalm 27.13

Culture for the glory of God

We have seen that culture is a gift from God, an indispensable resource for bringing fullness and blessing into human lives. Culture has power to accomplish much good, but it can become corrupted by the effects of sin and, if we’re not careful, actually end up harming rather than benefiting us.

Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10.31

Engaging culture

The idea of redeeming culture can be somewhat daunting. We may perhaps think of culture in terms that are so broad and complex that the idea of changing culture or redeeming it for the glory of God seems quite beyond the scope of our abilities.

“Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So the LORDscattered them from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. Genesis 11.7, 8

A name for themselves

The episode of the Tower of Babel demonstrates why it is so important that those who perceive the corruption in their culture do whatever they can to redeem and renew culture according to the purposes of God.

And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. And he built a city, and called the name of the city after the name of his son – Enoch. Genesis 4.17

Something culturally wrong

Human beings are made for culture. They take to it like ducks to water. We see this from the opening pages of the story of human history as this is presented in the Bible.

Therefore He says,
“When He ascended on high,
He led captivity captive,
And He gave gifts to men.” Ephesians 4.8

Gifts for every situation

Two aspects to Paul’s use of this quote from Psalm 68.18 I find fascinating, and they relate to how we should understand culture and its use.

The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. Genesis 2.15

Creatures of culture

Human beings are creatures of culture. There’s just no escaping the fact.