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Bryan: A common complaint the world has of Christianity is that missions destroy the varied cultures around the earth to look like one culture. But what is Christian culture? Does making disciples of all nations require the nations to look the same? Today Chad Vegas answers an anonymous question that asks, "Is Christianity one culture?"
Chad: I really appreciate this question and I hate to do this it seems in many episodes, but I want to answer the question yes and no.
The word culture is fascinating and perhaps not understood well among many. It actually originates as an agricultural term— you can hear the word culture in there. An agricultural term deriving from the idea of cultivating a field. So you take a field and you prepare it so that you might sow it and water it and produce a crop. Cicero, the great Roman thinker, expanded that idea into cultivating a mind or cultivating a person. We cultivate a person by education and formation. In Christian circles, we would likely refer to this cultivation as discipleship. We want men and women to become like Christ, who is the image of God and true righteousness and holiness. In this sense, a cultus is a system of worship, a pattern of life walking with our triune God. So even with our children, we're commanded to inculturate them, to form them. Fathers, do not provoke your children, but fondly cherish them, Calvin says, or raise them up in the fear and admonition of the Lord, or the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
So yes, there is one Christian culture. We can see this one culture in that we proclaim the same God who saves His people through the same promised Savior into the same body that we call the Church, in every tribe, tongue, and nation. All men are created by God to find blessedness in communion with Him, irrespective of nation, tribe, or tongue. We're all from the lineage of Adam and Eve, guilty and corrupt in Adam. For in Adam's fall sinned we all— we are all transgressors of God's transcultural law. We're all under the curse of sin and death. We all find salvation in Jesus Christ alone, receiving Him by faith alone. And as those who know Christ, we all gather to sing the word and read the word and hear the preaching of the word and to pray the word. And we all participate in two visible words, if you will, two sacraments or ordinances–– baptism and the Lord's Supper— which are a visible sign of the promises, or the word of God, to save us in His Son. We've all been given a church government that includes elders and deacons. We're all given the same holy standard to walk by in God's law, and given the exercise of church discipline for those who will not walk in faith and repentance. We are all called to care for one another, to give generously, to share with those in need, and to participate in the same mission of making Christ known to the ends of the earth.
So this culture is the same in every tribe, tongue, and nation. The triune God, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the church which is His body are all transcultural in these ways.
However, there are cultural differences when it comes to the various circumstances among the peoples, tribes, and languages. So a circumstance that is distinct, for example, between my church in Bakersfield, California and the Yembiyembi church in Papua New Guinea is that my church speaks English and they speak Yembiyembi. We have buildings with air conditioning, the projection of sound, lighting. Our cultures struggle with distinct cultural sins. So pastorally, I may have to address the use of smartphones and social media for children, whereas an elder in Yembiyembi may not need to address that with his people. I could multiply these kinds of cultural differences— you understand where this all leads.
What's interesting is that the Westminster Confession of Faith, this document that comes from the 17th century Reformed church, really provided us with helpful language here. They did so in the first chapter and the sixth paragraph, in this chapter on the word of God. The 17th century Protestants were thinking about these kinds of issues.
Listen to what they said: "The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man's salvation, faith, and life, is either expressly set down in scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from scripture, unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the spirit or the traditions of men."
'So we have this transcultural, unchanging word of God that is necessary, sufficient, and authoritative for our life as we walk with God, for the cultivation of disciples, for the cultus— the culture of worship— of Christ's church. And we don't need to add to that, whether someone thinks he got a new revelation of the spirit or because of some long-term developed tradition.
Nevertheless, they say we acknowledge the inward illumination of the spirit of God to be necessary for the saving understanding of such things as are revealed in the word. So while we don't add to it, we do need the Holy Spirit to help us understand this word and to apply it. In fact, John Owen, one of the Protestant reformers, a Congregationalist in the 17th century, actually argued that if we don't have the Holy Spirit, we may as well burn our Bible so that the Bible is of no use to us apart from the work of the Spirit. The Spirit and the word always go together, because it is the Spirit-breathed word and we need the Spirit's help to understand it and apply it.
And one great example of the need for the Spirit to help us understand this transcultural word is that there are some circumstances— listen to what they say— that there are some circumstances concerning the worship of God and government of the church, common to human actions and societies, which are to be ordered by the light of nature and Christian prudence according to the general rules of the word, which are always to be observed.
So while cultural circumstances may change, the transcultural God, gospel, and church do not. The transcultural word does not. And wherever the varied cultural circumstances cause us to have to think through how to faithfully administer the commanded transcultural elements of the Christian faith in our worship and government, we must employ the light of nature as we learn from that Christian prudence and the general rules of the word.
So yes, there is one Christian culture laid down in the Bible. And no, there are varied cultures as to the circumstances of them, which we must credentially bring the Bible to bear in and among.
Bryan: If you want to learn more about the culture of the Yambi church, you can read about them in the Chronicles of the Yembi or you can watch videos about the Busers' mission work there at missionary.com. If you have a question you would like to hear answered on Ask Missionary, drop a comment on this episode, get in touch with us on social media, or send us an email through missionary.com and your question may be featured on this show. And don't forget to subscribe to the show to get notified when the next episode, where Chad Vegas talks about missions pastors' responsibilities, airs next week. Thanks for listening.