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The Harvester Podcast is brought to you by the Florida School of Preaching. Listen weekly to take a dive into biblical topics and thoughtful studies on things that matter to our eternal souls.
We'd like to welcome you to the second season of the Harvester podcast.
This second season we will talk about
issues that face us in culture.
And I am a host, Brian Kenyon, and with me are
Steven Ford.
Forest Antemesarais
And we're glad that you're joining us Forest this second season of the FSOP Florida School
of Preaching Harvester podcast.
So we're going to, in this first episode, we're just going to kind of introduce this
subject of Bible and culture, Bible and culture.
And we don't have to look very far to understand how culture is affecting us in
Christianity, in the local churches of Christ.
We see it all around us.
One of the things about the topic is that it's always fresh and relevant because there's
always going to be new stuff in culture.
But the topic itself is as old as the scripture reveals back time.
There's always going to be some influence of culture on people.
yeah factors as old as adam and might get you could say in their original culture and the
government even
For sure.
And I think it's one of those things, there's that old joke where the, maybe you've heard
of it, where the fish are swimming in the ocean and the older fish passes by the younger
fish and he's like, how's the water today?
And the younger fish is like, what's water?
Yeah.
And it's something that like you're always around, but unless like you take a second to
stop and think about it, you might not be aware of it.
You know, and I think as Christians, when we try to have our minds renewed by the
scriptures, like we're commanded in Romans 12, one through two, we might even be more
aware of culture than maybe the people in culture around us, because we're trying to
actually test culture to the scriptures and not just accept it.
Forest what it is, you know what mean?
And I think that that's sometimes a difficult challenge is to, even if you are swimming in
or around it, to be aware of it and to think about it critically, which the Bible calls us
to do.
Yes, that's a very good point.
and I thought of just the other day in chapel you know the song Hilltops of Glory in
Florida and I'm sure other places that's sung two different ways depending upon the
culture of the congregation that you're in where they sing that song.
And so people who grow up in one culture think that's the way it's sung all over the place
but when you go to different culture and they sing in a different way it's kind of you you
kind of could throw you off a little bit yeah but that's exactly what you're saying with
the fish illustration because
if i've said that way my whole life that's all i know right i think that's that's it
everybody thinks that way right now that's not always true
i'm going to say flirting culture doesn't know what a hilltop is so that's what you have
that's really
The melody, the melody.
Or tune, or whatever that part is.
As we get started, was thinking, Carlis and I were having this conversation the other day
about culture, kind of in a different context, but the principle was the same.
Sometimes, unless we are really saturating our mind with the Scriptures, it can be
virtually impossible to tell that culture is influencing us, because you don't know what
you're thinking, because you know between the...
or the why you're thinking what you're thinking because between the people around you, the
commercials, social media and all those things, have our consciences and our imaginations
and our thinking formed.
And so it's hard to determine, well, was this idea original with me?
Or was it somehow kind of planted in there by the things that are around me?
So unless we kind of have this baseline of the scriptures to always kind of be there to
kind of get us back to center, it's hard to determine why our thoughts are what they are.
here that's a good point let's start a couple definitions here of culture one definition i
have here is culture is affecting the standard than really definition which is so he says
is affecting the standard but the standard of morality both within without the church over
the past decades we've seen you know homosexuality the role of women marriage divorce
remarriage transgender all these kinds of things kinda we we've seen them in course
I think even Forrest is old enough to see that where it was introduced, then it just
wanted to be accepted and then equal, and then you gotta have it this way or you're get in
trouble.
But I know I'm old enough to have seen all that and what we have now is like we wouldn't
have expected that 20 years ago to be, or even 10 years ago, to be as in our face as it is
now.
Yeah, it happened pretty quick.
Yeah, but culture, here's a Webster's definition of culture.
The ideas, customs, skills, arts, et cetera, of a people or group that are transferred,
communicated, or passed along as in or to succeeding generations.
And when you think about the ideas, the customs, the skills, et cetera, that are passed
on.
Yeah, I think an important thing there is like in and of itself, it's not right or wrong
with the idea of culture.
It itself isn't bad just by itself, but we have to judge it by the scriptures whether or
not these things are good or bad.
know, you can't just, most people just kind of take them on unassumingly.
And that's where the Christian comes in and say, okay, this is what we've, you know,
received from the Father, so to speak.
But is this legit?
Does this, you know, when we compare this to the Word of God?
is that is a good thing or is it a bad thing
Yeah, and that's the key is when we look at it in view of the Word of God, what the Word
of God teaches, and that's really the important thing that we have to do.
And it's kind of like, you know, I think we talked in our last season about things like
eating meat sacrificed to idols and all that kind of thing that just depends on, you know,
eating meat is a good thing.
The scriptures approve of that.
Yes.
But in some cases, Paul says, I'll be a vegetarian before eating meat.
Those are if it causes my brother to stumble.
or if it violates my conscience.
Absolutely.
Now when we look at scriptures, you know, an important element in interpreting the Bible,
and even in the Old Testament, is that their specific ethical codes are done away with in
Christ.
Some of them are, anyway.
And if we were to draw like circles, you know, like one circle's patriarchy, and then the
Law of Moses would overlap that, and then Christianity would overlap both of those, and
there are some things that are common, you know, to patriarchy in Old Testament, some
things common to
you know, mosaic and Christian, but those things in the middle, you know, like God's plan
Forest marriage, know, homosexuality is wrong, those things, you know, it doesn't matter
what the culture is, you know, what the covenant is, those things have always been wrong.
It's kind of these core ethical standards, if you will.
yes.
And so when we think about two extremes that people will take when considering culture in
the Bible, and this pretty much comes to play, I think, maybe in women's roles sometimes
when we talk about women's role, but one extreme is they say that all features of
Scripture, including its cultural institutions and terms, are just as binding as any other
injunction.
And then, and so this is from this, you'll get the idea of, know, since women in Corinth
were told to wear a head covering, everybody has to wear it.
Or I've even heard somebody say before, you know, I think all of us here I think would
say, you know greet one another with a holy kiss.
That was a cultural manifestation of a greeting I've heard somebody say like why don't we
obey this commandment?
Like why are we sinning by not kissing each other?
So I think that that's another example of that where that was the cultural Greeting back
in the day.
And then if you're gonna take that from that culture and try to plug it into our own
and say that's a commandment from God, Christians have to greet each other this way,
you're really binding an element of their culture upon us rather than trying to see what
God's saying.
Yeah, and I've found and we knew a guy, my first wife and I knew a guy, she passed away in
2010, but when she was a little girl, this guy believed in the holy kiss.
But when I observed him, he was just holy kissing the young ladies.
He wasn't trying to holy kiss the older ladies or a guy like me.
But I think that's a good point.
The sincere greeting is part of the principle in God's Word that does not change.
But the culture around it, how do we do a greeting in a different culture does change.
And I think that that's the easy way out because if I just, you know, it makes
hermeneutics or, you know, exegesis, whatever you want to call it, it makes it really
easier because it's just like if the Bible says it, no matter the context, I'm going to do
it.
Right.
And then I don't have to do the work of trying to wade through it and say, OK, what's
cultural, what's not cultural, what's binding on all ages, what's not, et cetera.
I can just open up my Bible and say, OK, it says holy kiss.
I'm going to holy kiss.
And I don't have to kind of do the work of trying to determine if this is something God
still wants me to do today.
Yes, and studying that out is really the hard thing.
And this is how, when you think about the authoritarian religions like the Roman Catholic
Church or, you know, some of the cults, you you have to do it this way or you're out.
Right.
Because it's a lot easier to say, do it this way, and I'm going to enforce it rather than
studying it out.
Well, what does the Bible teach about this?
You know, and it's a lot easier just to force it one way and don't even study it.
Ryan.
Alright, we also noticed that sometimes culturally conditioned descriptions in the Bible
are merely a report of a now obsolete system, Forest example, you know, God's Word, you
know, some people will take the, that's the other extreme, that everything described in
the Bible, there's nothing in the Bible that's, you know, applicable culturally to us.
It's like the two extremes, everything we have to do or nothing.
Yeah.
And so,
We find the truth somewhere in the middle.
These extremes are impossible to live, and thus the truth has to be found somewhere in the
middle.
I think you see that a lot too instances that come to mind my one is women's roles with
that one where people say well that was a cultural command in Corinthians or even you know
Paul and Ephesus like Paul's a patriarch and he was a Jew and da da da da da you know even
though Paul ties it to creation you know they'll say well that was just that culture today
we know better and I've seen it done with homosexuality and stuff too we'll just say well
homosexuality back then wasn't a love relationship
Today it's a love relationship.
Back then it was just like a fleshly relationship and that's wrong.
But if you really love the person, it becomes okay.
And again, that's just applying our cultural understanding of homosexuality and saying,
since they didn't have that same understanding back then, it doesn't apply.
But really, again, it's kind of a, it's an easy way out because you're not digging into it
and seeing, okay, where's the application?
This is what this says.
How does it, how does it apply today?
and said you're just assuming that it doesn't because times have changed the Bible doesn't
say anything about that and again I think both at least from my perspective both are kind
of like an easy way out I'm not saying everybody who believes that is doing that just from
my perspective you can you can either you know throw out the baby with the bathwater on
commands I don't like because they're culturally unappealing to me or I don't have to roll
up my sleeves and do
hermeneutics because whatever the Bible says I do.
There's another aspect too, just with, I was just thinking when you mentioned about
homosexuality or various things, it's almost a thing also that we rename things
culturally.
so renaming it, talking about loving relationships now and same-sex loving, however they
would call it, when you rename it,
in our common culture it sounds a lot different because then, well see they were talking
about something else back here, we called it something different.
And just because the culture is passed down in our culture now we might say, well this is
this thing, we dress it up, put a hat on it, we can't even recognize it anymore.
if we just say, that's why like I was saying earlier, it's important to keep the Bible as
a standard Forest what we need to be doing no matter what the culture is around us, what
the temperature around us, that'll help.
if we just kind of keep names and words in the biblical context, it'll be a lot easier to,
you know, see what, is this a right cultural thing, a wrong cultural thing?
Is it in fact something cultural that we can just ignore?
Is it a neutral thing?
How should we address this thing?
So terminology is a big factor too.
Yeah, and that gets back to testing all things, you know, you got to run everything
through what God says
Test all things, hold fast to what is good.
That's it.
Alright, well when we think about the Bible, it's interesting to notice that even, you
know, we have our Bibles Old Testament, New Testament, but even within the Old Testament,
you know, what was written in one culture,
applies to another culture Forest example we have roman's fifteen four course of passage
we all many of this usually to introduce an old testament subject but what's everything
Forest it before time were written paul says Forest our learning nasa paul's day of course
we're waiting Forest our learning that we two patients in comfort the scriptures might
have hope and then also in first christians ten six eleven when
Paul's bringing up and comparing the wilderness wanderings, he says that those things were
written Forest our admonition.
And so, you know, the things that were written in one culture do apply to another culture.
Hosea 12 verse 4, another one, Yea, he had power over the angel and prevailed.
He wept and made supplication unto him.
He found him in Bethel, and there he spake with us.
And that's Genesis 32, 24 through 32.
who see there's referring back to you're wrestling with the angel but he said that
incident in course of c is toward the end of the old testament and that that isn't
happening beginning the old testament but he said that that was he spoke with us in that
in that situation
Yeah, and there has to be, and I think that's where understanding a covenant helps us, you
know, because under Hosea, they're still the same covenant people as descendants of Jacob.
And then so when we turn to the New Testament, we're under the same covenant that these
Christians are under, right?
And while there may be cultural elements Forest sure, there are these principles that
apply in every age, because if you're part of this covenant, it's to you.
Or if you're in
If you're alive during the dispensation of Christ, which is everybody since 2000 years
ago, these things apply to you.
Yes, and Jesus, even when he was confronting the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 15-7, he
says, hypocrites, well, did Isaiah prophesy of you?
And so Jesus is addressing the people of his culture, his generation.
He said, Isaiah prophesied of you.
And then he goes on to quote Isaiah 29, verse 13.
And then Matthew 22, 31 and 32, but as touching the resurrection of the dead, have you not
read?
that which was spoken to you by Moses, saying, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob.
God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.
But notice he says that these things, he spoke to you.
And so Jesus is addressing his culture, his people, the people contemporary with him.
But he's talking about something that was written back in Exodus.
But what that...
what that event does is it speaks to you and so there's there's you know what applies in
one culture can apply in another culture
That's the important part about making sure that the Word of God creates our culture.
Because other than that, it will change.
It will get altered over time.
was thinking about, you referenced Jesus quoting from Isaiah in Isaiah 520.
Isaiah says, God's speaking through Isaiah, woe to those who call evil good and good evil.
and who put darkness Forest light and light Forest darkness.
And that is exactly what we see happening today.
That's what we see happening in Jesus' time.
That's what happened, that was happening in Isaiah's time.
And it'll continue to happen to the Lord returns because people will always try to find a
way to justify, you know, certain behaviors and justify the perversions of culture.
And no matter where we are, what we're doing in any culture at any time, unless it's gonna
be from the Bible, it'll always be an issue Forest the people around them.
Yeah, that's a good point.
think, just like you were saying, Brian, with the sort of like Venn diagram of, you know,
the New Testament age and the Mosaic covenant and the patriarchal covenant, how there'd be
overlap.
You there's always principles that will apply regardless of the culture you're in.
They like transcend culture.
These are more principles that it's always going to be right.
It's always going to be wrong.
And God helps us see those things.
And I think even some of those obviously go back to nature and you can see hints of them
in nature, but also in the scriptures are very clear that these are things that do
transcend culture and by which we can even judge culture.
And think that's another part of this, you know,
where some kind of in like moral relativism will say every culture is equally good and
I've heard people say that where like you can't say that that aspect of a culture is bad
like that's just their culture and there's cultures what you know it was the culture of
the canaanites to sacrifice their children just right that doesn't make it right just
because you know that's our culture or you know in egypt yeah we worship Horus it's just
part of our culture again that doesn't make it right and
if anybody has the right to say these elements of culture are wrong it's god who created
all things and who is himself the standard of right and wrong and you know so we're not
saying hey elements of this culture wrong in our cultures better we're saying elements of
this culture are wrong because of what god says and every culture stands bare before the
word of god it's not just some it's all of them
And I've heard people make that argument before about, you can't judge a particular
culture, but that argument falls flat because if another culture says your culture is
wrong, is that culture right?
Right.
So they can't all be right.
And usually...
At least in the experiences that I've had, usually it's people that just want to justify
their wicked behavior.
I want to be without rules.
I want to be unfettered to do whatever I wanted to pursue my fleshly appetites.
And so in order to give myself permission to do what I want to do, I've got to give
everybody free rein to do whatever they want, run a rough shot over any rules, anything,
and just say, well, it's just who we are as a people.
people don't even, they don't even follow that to themselves.
I couldn't say, it's my culture personally to physically attack you.
You know, because they didn't say, well, that's not right.
Well, why isn't it right?
That's my culture.
You know, it just kind of falls apart.
And it just, to me at least, is just a demonstration.
I just want to do what I want to do.
Yeah, kind of relativism.
yes and that's let's consider some things now about some you know how do we determine
whether a statement is cultural or whether it's something that's obligatory Forest us to
follow and uh...
you know there's basically about three options Forest bible teaching concerning culture
and obligation and this is kind of similar to some stuff we spoke about on last season
when it came to hermeneutics but in this context here uh...
you know either everything and we can talk about this is an extreme but everything is
either is is
mere custom or cultural.
The second extreme is everything is obligatory.
We have to do everything.
But then there's something in the middle there.
Some things are cultural and some things are obligatory or biblical.
We have to follow it.
And so that's what we really want to determine when we think about culture.
Which of these categories does it fall in?
And of course, we know the first two are impossible to live by.
Either everything in the Bible is
custom and we have to follow or we don't you know we can't whatever but it's some things
are cultural some things are not and so that's what we have to look at here and so
sometimes we can give it you know the possible versus impossible test Forest example
there's some things like in Exodus 3 verse 5 where Moses is told to take off his shoes
Forest the place where you walk or stand is holy ground now it's impossible Forest us to
you know
follow that today because it doesn't apply.
don't have God telling us that in His Word.
Yeah.
And then, you another example, Luke 5 verse 4, Jesus said to Simon, launch out into the
deep, talk about his boat, and cast your nets.
Well, you know, we're not...
Does everybody have to launch out into the deep and cast his net?
No, obviously.
He's talking to a specific person.
And then 2 Timothy 4, 9, you know, Paul says to Timothy, do your diligence to come
shortly.
You know, the cloak I left at Troas with carpus, when you come, bring it with you, and the
books, and especially the parchments.
Well, that's...
It's impossible Forest us to do that because we don't know where that stuff is anyway.
And so we have to just look at the use of common sense with some of this stuff.
That's why it's essential Forest us to really know how to study the Bible.
You mentioned the word hermeneutics early.
It's essential that we understand that because there's some things that you might read and
I've heard preachers preach sermons and they will cite a text that has nothing to do with
them present tense.
So if we were to just...
Look at one of the Gospel accounts where Jesus tells the disciples to go to Jerusalem and
tarry there in Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.
So we preach that text, I think that's Luke 23 or 24 in there.
If we were to preach that today, so should we all have to go to Jerusalem and just wait in
Jerusalem until there's a power from on high, or are there some applications that we can
draw from there, some points we can draw from there?
And so you have to know who's talking, who are they talking to, what are they talking
about, what's going on?
Is that a situation that applies to us right now?
So Jesus was talking to his chosen few there, but then he's talking to his chosen few in
Matthew 28 about going to make disciples.
So which one of those is applicable Forest us today?
How do know that?
That's why it's important to really study to know which ones are ones that we, one, can
keep, because we cannot keep going to Jerusalem until we get this power from on high,
because we're not going to get what they got.
But we can follow Matthew 28 and teach our nations.
And so kind of looking at what is applicable to us.
versus is not, and we know if it's impossible, if it's something that's impossible Forest
us to do, then we know it can't be applicable to us.
And so it's definitely a cultural thing or something that was done in a different
situation, different time.
But we can also examine the Bible itself Forest apparent areas of custom.
Like, Forest example, sometimes the Bible will tell us that a practice is a custom.
For example, we just mentioned the head covering on women in 1 Corinthians, but in 1
Corinthians 11, 16,
Paul writes, if any man seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the
churches of God.
And so that, you know, he's not, when he's saying that, he's not making a law Forest all
the churches.
Yeah.
And, but it's something that is a cultural thing.
And of course, when, when you look at the head covering back in Genesis 38, remember
Tamar, wore a head covering because in Tamar's day, in her culture, the head covering
meant you
were a problem.
were a prostitute in the harlot, but in the Corinthian culture, having your head uncovered
meant you were a prostitute.
And so we see the same, the head covering, but it meant different things culturally.
For sure.
But that principles is always the same, know, women are to be in subjection and those
things.
Yeah, that's a great point.
And I think people who, know, when you do, I've only been on one overseas mission trip,
but when you do that kind of stuff, you start to see this stuff quick where you're like,
okay, like that, that's a cultural thing.
You know, I'm thinking of Ghana when I was there and, you know, one of the guys who were
traveling, it just started holding my hand.
And I was like, what?
That's not something you do in America.
And I didn't have the heart to tell him like, hey brother, this is making me
uncomfortable.
Like this is not what we do in America.
Thankfully somebody gave me a heads up like, they might hold your hand.
That's just what men who are friends do.
And I know there's other parts of the world that do the same thing where it's like, okay,
if you really sit down and look at it, is there anything wrong about that?
No, it's like an extended handshake.
You know what I mean?
But what if we started doing that here, walking down the street, people would be like,
okay, those guys, you know, they might be in a relationship or something.
Over there totally different stories.
So like those things that really make you rethink, okay What's cultural what's not why I'm
uncomfortable with this what and but it makes you get into a God's Word I think at the end
of the day because it forces you to really Instead of just assuming everything's right and
wrong based on your culture.
You really got to go back and find the standard, you
in that ties back into the fish illustration using the very beginning if you live in a
culture where you know Forest us we like my mark makes a gap around my shoulder something
they just grab his hand and even if you're warned ahead of time happened to just freak out
but but but those who live in that culture that do it all time that that's what they know
they write they think our culture is weird right not doing right and so but that's that's
an interesting things i think about all the places and acts you know what was paul's
custom, his Paul, his custom was to go into the synagogue.
Well, does that, well I think there's a synagogue around Lake Hollingsworth.
Have you ever seen that?
Walking around Lake Hollingsworth?
But anyway, I wouldn't know where a synagogue is except Forest over there.
So if we had to go into a synagogue because Paul did that, I mean here's the example of
Paul.
He went into the synagogue.
But we realize that that's just a custom and the Bible identifies it as that, a custom.
And so some Bible pastors explicitly tell us that it's custom.
Yeah.
Also, we must examine the context, both the immediate and the remote context, to see
whether something is cultural or whether it's something that we have to do.
And we mentioned earlier the Holy Kiss, Forest example.
We do find the Kiss as a greeting in places like 2 Samuel 20, verse 9, Luke 7, 45, Matthew
26, 49.
And being a Holy Kiss, of course, Romans 16 talks about that, verse 15.
Oh yeah, Paul mentions that quite a bit.
Corinthians 16 20, second Corinthians 13 12, first Thessalonians 5 26.
There you go.
And so all over the place.
does that mean we are obligated to kiss one another when we greet?
Right.
Yeah, there are cultures that still do that today.
Right.
And there are people that still do that today.
mean, even when I see my dad, he'll give me a kiss, I'll give him a kiss.
But I don't do that with anybody else.
You don't do that with my dad.
And I remember even just as a little kid, of course I'm older than you guys, but I
remember the black and white TVs and during the Cold War and you know, Walter Conkrat on
the news would show the Russians getting off the plane and they would greet each other by
grabbing each other's shoulder and then like on each side of the face, know, like a double
kiss or whatever.
And I thought that was weird, just a little kid growing up and all that.
But my wife now, Jaji, she comes from a...
you know hispanic culture and when they greet each other you know the men will shake hands
and kind of do a little half hug and then the women uh will greet each other by you know
like a handshake and just uh you don't have to touch any skin just that uh when guys and
girls do that and so
I went to a family reunion one time and so I was greeting everybody like that, know,
kissing in the air.
And I come back to the congregation here and one of the sisters comes up to me and just
out of the habit I go, and I had to go back and apologize to her.
I trying get fresh with her anything, but she loved it.
She liked it.
She reset.
anyway, yeah, cultural reset there.
But that even exists, not just ethnic culture, but that exists.
We're from Detroit, so we're up north and we are in a big city.
And so when we moved to Memphis, it was more of a southern-ish culture.
And then we went to Arkansas, and that was a southern and kind of a rural culture.
And so every region kind of has its own way of greetings and addressing each other.
Those things, as I'm discussing, those aren't like moral things, but it's just cultural
things you have to get used to and to appreciate.
Some of them were very different Forest us, and some of them felt extremely odd and
difficult to kind of get into and make part of our daily routine, but it was just
something that was culturally acceptable and accepted and favored by most of people.
So it took us a while to kind of get used to.
And Florida is kind of a mix, so it's got all kinds of stuff, we kind of have to figure
our way here too.
Expected is expected.
Even like Japan, know, they bow down to people when they greet them Sure, if you bow down
to me, I'd be like, you know, what are you doing?
Why are you doing that?
Making me uncomfortable.
Sure, but it's just the cultural as part of their culture.
Yeah
in africa you know if you want to talk to the chiefs we were told i am always keep your
head lower than their head down so that meant sometimes you bad and go to freedom and i'm
everyone time when president obama greeted somebody from the middle east and kind of bowed
down like they get all kinds of flack but i mean you know he's just trying to follow
culture right which is right but anyway let's let's look real quickly
at false theories pertaining to scripture and culture.
And we looked at a little bit of this just in our discussion earlier, but sometimes people
will think the contemporary context sets the agenda Forest scripture to answer.
In other words, we have to look at scripture through our culture.
And so this view would say that the Bible is merely a historic example of the way God
worked at one time.
But the meaning of his will comes from the events God is shaping today.
so they would say that this approach Forest making the Bible culturally relevant
eliminates the Bible itself from being the final authority, because culture becomes the
rule instead of the Bible.
And so we can't have that and live pleasing to God.
Yeah, times have changed.
hear that all time.
Well, that kind of gets to the next one.
Yeah, the next one, dynamic equivalence approach, that is, Scripture is used to get to the
meaning behind the meaning, quote unquote.
And so the Bible forms of belief and behavior must be updated in order to preserve the
eternal message.
And of course, just an example of how this does not work is, know, creation versus
evolution throughout history.
You there was a time when almost everybody accepted the biblical
creation and i think it was like the late seventeen hundreds maybe eighteen hundreds
Forest sure but time darwin popularizes the theory of evolution and they start looking at
the bible through creations are through evolutions eyes organic evolutions eyes rather
than allowing the bible to speak to those other things right
Those first two are really popular, especially that first one.
I hear people discuss the scriptures and they'll be like, well that was just, they try to
look at the Bible through the lens of that culture's context and say, well that was only
because of this.
You know, especially as it relates to some of the kind of hot button issues of right now,
you know, whether it be gender roles, whether it be trying to swap your gender or
homosexuality or those sorts of things.
They'll say, you know, well, you know, back then they did things this way.
And so since we're kind of moving on and we've evolved as a people, as a culture, those
things are no longer applicable.
That's one of the ones I hear most often.
And it tries to antiquate.
the scriptures and you know take away their inspired nature and make it just like a work
of man it was just Forest that culture Forest this time so we now have to have something
new that kind of governs us I guess
Yeah, exactly and I think too like what's behind like when you say cultures the authority
really what you're saying is Truth is majority rule because all culture is is The way we
do things right essentially to boil it down so what you're saying is well the culture
Determine that that's not right really what you're saying is Majority of people said that
that's not right So it's not right anymore, and we all know that that's not the way truth
works and even not moral truth.
It's not well
You know, 51 % of people think that homosexuality is okay, so therefore homosexuality is
okay.
Maybe in the culture, but that makes us the authority, that makes the majority, whatever
the majority says, that becomes true.
And we know that that's just not how it works.
That's correct.
And then the third false theory pertaining to scriptural culture is that, I'm just going
to call it like the core, the core morality view that is only those teachings reflecting
university cultural norms are authoritative, which in itself is very subjective in there,
but you know, as long as you don't steal, as long as you don't murder, as long as you
don't, you know...
you know, fornicate maybe whatever, then you're okay.
And so it just looks at just as long as we follow these core things, then everything else
doesn't matter.
But you know, who are we to determine what those core things are?
That's real subjective.
Sometimes people try to go back to like the Darwinian evolution type of thinking and say,
as long as things are good Forest our species, so don't kill.
Well, of course you shouldn't kill because then we get to continue on as a species of
people.
And don't steal because then we can just be happier as a species of people.
And so it's only like we're dogs or cattle or fish or whatever.
And as long as we can just continue to perpetuate our species, then it's OK, which is.
For a person to say that, it really robs a person of who you are and what you are.
So you're saying you're just like a worm, an ant, a cattle or whatever else.
And it robs us of the dignity that we actually have endowed on us from God.
And the spiritual component where we're not just matter, we're not just flesh and blood,
you know, because that the spiritual aspects completely taken out of it.
And things, you know, things that are good things start to make no sense.
Like sacrificing.
If I'm just here to pass on my DNA, why would I sacrifice myself Forest somebody else?
But that's what Jesus did.
Right.
Because it was more than just survival.
It was, you know, spiritual.
There's a spiritual component to it.
And that gets lost.
I think with this and then God kind of just turns into like just like some kind of moral
teacher like moralistic like hey just keep the guidelines you know what I mean but their
guidelines not rules you know Forest sure and I don't need to worship God I don't need to
go anywhere on Sunday I don't need to you know any of those things those are just extras
like they're good to doom I guess but you don't have to
Yeah, that turns Jesus into just like some kind of moral guru guy, just kind of walking
around, just, hey guys, just don't kill and you'll be alright.
There's nothing else.
Yeah.
Yes, and so as we conclude this episode of our second season, let's just leave with three
takeaways here.
Number one is that scripture is not the prisoner of culture.
is, supersedes culture.
It does, it's not affected by culture, but it stands on its own and we must adjust our
culture, at least to scripture, to things that don't violate scripture.
Secondly, culture,
you know, is the vehicle of Scripture.
And at the same time, that culture is the object of change demanded by Scripture.
In other words, the Bible had to be written in some culture, because, you know, if it's
going to be written by humans, which it was through the inspiration of God, it was written
in a particular culture.
And in fact, those cultures were different, even within the Old Testament, even within the
New Testament.
But, you know, if there's human involvement, it had to be through a culture.
but that doesn't mean that culture is the standard, that culture is what we ought to
follow, but it's those biblical principles.
The culture did not influence the morality that is revealed in those scriptures.
Yeah, and I think that's too part of the thing where people maybe get confused when we
talk about, you know, restoring the first century church.
Sometimes people think that that goes as far as the cultural things and all that different
kind of stuff.
And it's like, no, no, just, you know, and again, that doesn't mean we're just picking the
universal cultural norms, et cetera.
But you have to understand that there are some cultural things, like the Holy Kiss.
People say, well, that's part of restoring the first century church.
They did that in the first century church.
OK, well, why did they do it in the first century church?
And I think that's the question you've got to get down to.
But if you lose that distinction, you end up doing a lot of things I think God never
really expected you to do.
That's why it's good that we have the history of God's people, because there are tons of
different cultures that are revealed that the people of God are living within.
But there are the expectations Forest God's people always are the same.
There are some things that just are a result of the nature of God.
know, lying has always been.
wrong, know, not only lying but killing and adultery and homosexuality and those things,
those things are wrong all the way back from Genesis through the book of Revelation,
you'll find.
And so the example is, you know, culture doesn't get to dictate it and culture didn't
create it either because those things are universal throughout every single culture that
we'll find.
Yeah.
And it reminded me of a passage, Micah 6, 8, He has shown you, O man, what is good, and
what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy.
and to walk humbly with your God.
And we see that throughout Scripture from Genesis to Revelation on how God wants His
people to live and to conduct themselves.
All right, then the third takeaway is that the Bible, of course, is the obvious.
The Bible is authoritative.
The Bible has the authority, and so it dictates what can and cannot go on in culture as we
rightly divide the word of truth.
Amen.
in it.
All right.
We thank you for joining us in this first episode of the floor school preaching
harvester podcast.
Season two, join us next time as we discuss more of these cultural issues.