The Most Powerful Way to Transform Culture?
11/09/2005 02:01 Filed in: Faith & Reason
"You’re here to be light... God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill."
(Matthew 5:14, The Message)
Philip Yancy has written an extremely reflective column, "Exploring a Parallel Universe: Why does the word, evangelical threaten so many people in our culture?"
I'm still processing the message of Yancy's column, but it strikes a chord that I've pondered many times in my mind. How do we best reach a pagan culture? Where is the line between maintaining a moral voice in the culture and legislating morality? Yes, some morality will always be legislated (it will always be illegal to steal), but at what point do we start placing Christian values on non-Christians? Are we best served by loudly proclaiming moral positions or focusing on reaching individuals one at a time with the transforming message of Jesus Christ? If we are called to do both, to which do we devote more energy? How do we best fulfill Matthew 5:14?
The ancient Jews enforced their customs and moral particulars on themselves and those who had converted to Judaism. But to the remaining gentiles of the world, they only held them accountable to the so-called "Noachian commandments" which were prohibitions against idolatry, sexual immorality, and bloodshed. Are we sometimes guilty of expecting non-Christians to act like believers? Are our evangelistic efforts bringing non-Christians closer to faith, or are we pushing them away? I don't have any easy answers, but feel free to offer your thoughts.
I would encourage you to read all of Yancy's article, but I would like to close with his last two paragraphs:
...I remembered a remark by [C. S.] Lewis, who drew a distinction between communicating with a society that hears the gospel for the first time and one that has embraced and then largely rejected it. A person must court a virgin differently than a divorcée, said Lewis. One welcomes the charming words; the other needs a demonstration of love to overcome inbuilt skepticism.
I thought, too, how tempting it can be—and how distracting from our primary mission—to devote so many efforts to rehabilitating society at large, especially when these efforts demonize the opposition. (After all, neither Jesus nor Paul showed much concern about cleaning up the degenerate Roman Empire.) As history has proven, especially in times when church and state closely mingle, it is possible for the church to gain a nation and in the process lose the kingdom
(Matthew 5:14, The Message)
Philip Yancy has written an extremely reflective column, "Exploring a Parallel Universe: Why does the word, evangelical threaten so many people in our culture?"
I'm still processing the message of Yancy's column, but it strikes a chord that I've pondered many times in my mind. How do we best reach a pagan culture? Where is the line between maintaining a moral voice in the culture and legislating morality? Yes, some morality will always be legislated (it will always be illegal to steal), but at what point do we start placing Christian values on non-Christians? Are we best served by loudly proclaiming moral positions or focusing on reaching individuals one at a time with the transforming message of Jesus Christ? If we are called to do both, to which do we devote more energy? How do we best fulfill Matthew 5:14?
The ancient Jews enforced their customs and moral particulars on themselves and those who had converted to Judaism. But to the remaining gentiles of the world, they only held them accountable to the so-called "Noachian commandments" which were prohibitions against idolatry, sexual immorality, and bloodshed. Are we sometimes guilty of expecting non-Christians to act like believers? Are our evangelistic efforts bringing non-Christians closer to faith, or are we pushing them away? I don't have any easy answers, but feel free to offer your thoughts.
I would encourage you to read all of Yancy's article, but I would like to close with his last two paragraphs:
...I remembered a remark by [C. S.] Lewis, who drew a distinction between communicating with a society that hears the gospel for the first time and one that has embraced and then largely rejected it. A person must court a virgin differently than a divorcée, said Lewis. One welcomes the charming words; the other needs a demonstration of love to overcome inbuilt skepticism.
I thought, too, how tempting it can be—and how distracting from our primary mission—to devote so many efforts to rehabilitating society at large, especially when these efforts demonize the opposition. (After all, neither Jesus nor Paul showed much concern about cleaning up the degenerate Roman Empire.) As history has proven, especially in times when church and state closely mingle, it is possible for the church to gain a nation and in the process lose the kingdom