Gospel Culture: Translating our Faith for all of Life
The Foundational Question:
What is the relationship of God’s Word – revelation to our real life in the world?
What is religion? Religio & Religare – to tie/bind
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For everything was created by Him, in
heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all
things have been created through Him and for Him.”
“He is before all things, and by Him all things hold together. He is also the head of the body, the church; He is
the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He might come to have first place in everything.”
“For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile everything to Himself
by making peace through the blood of His cross – whether things on earth or things in heaven.”
“Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds because of your evil actions. But now He has reconciled
you by His physical body through His death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before Him.”
“if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith and are not shifted away from the hope of the
gospel that you heard. This gospel has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and I, Paul, have become
a servant of it.”
February 25, 2024 // Rev. Dr. Joseph Boot“The man who thinks without the proper first principles goes mad…” – G. K. Chesterton
“Justice is understood t be something strictly human, having nothing to do with obedience to any divine
command or conformity to any pattern ‘laid up in heaven.’ Moral principles, like all other social conventions, are
something’ made on earth.’” – George Grant
“Human freedom requires that the principles of justice be the product of human agreement or consent, that is,
they must be the result of a contract…and these principles must therefore be rooted in an understanding of
the interests of human beings as individuals rather than in any sense of duty or obligation to anything above
humanity” – George Grant
“The terms of the contract may well change as circumstances and interests change. But the restraints free
individuals accept must always be ‘horizontal’ in character rather than ‘vertical.’” – George Grant
The Crisis of Culture
Modern man is conferring on himself the contractual right to:
• Redefine his gender irrespective of creational chromosomes
• Murder (abortion)
• Polygamy, homosexuality, bestiality or any sexual predilection
• Suicide
• Euthanize children and the elderly or sick
• Homosexual ‘marriage’
• Prostitution and pornography
• Suppress worship of the living God and the free speech of Christians
• Blasphemy and worship idols
The Crisis of Culture
Western moral principles are shifting like sand and the metamorphosis of the church’s relationship with the
surrounding culture is happening before our eyes.
The Meaning of Culture
The English words culture and agriculture are derived from a Latin root (colere) and are related to cult (Latin,
cultus) meaning worship. Worship, care and cultivation are all related in the etymology of culture.
The Meaning of Culture
Culture is best understood as religion externalized. The public manifestation of the religious ground-motive (i.e.
worship) of a people.
“The religious ground-motive of a culture can never be ascertained from the ideas and the personal faith of the
individual. It is truly a communal motive that governs the individual even when one is not consciously aware of
it or acknowledges it.” – Herman Dooyeweerd
The Meaning of Culture – Islamic Culture
In the West, we increasingly experience a humanistic, secular culture, deeply influenced by pagan spirituality,
which at the same time displays the cultural vestiges of Christianity.The Direction of Culture
“Genesis
1:26 teaches us that God had a purpose in creating man in His image: namely that man should have
dominion…. If now we comprehend the force of this subduing (dominion) under the term of culture…we can
say that culture in its broadest sense is the purpose for which God created man after his image.” – Herman
Bavinck
“They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served something created instead of the
Creator.”
The Direction of Culture
There is no such thing as a neutral culture; no institution and no cultural activity can ever be religiously neutral.
The Direction of Culture
The structure of something concerns God’s creational laws/norms and ordained pattern that pertain to it. The
direction of these spheres concerns the religious orientation that they have.
The Transformation of Culture
Implicit in the Christian gospel is a particular vision of culture. The gospel is a culture because it is centered in
the worship of the living God, through Jesus Christ.
The Transformation of Culture
“If culture is the public expression of the worship of a people and the gospel restores man to true worship (i.e.
of creator not creature), then the gospel restores man to true culture which is the kingdom of God.” – Dr. Joe
Boot
The Transformation of Culture
Since the Enlightenment, Christians have steadily surrendered the various organs of culture.
The Transformation of Culture
Secular humanism has pursued the marginalization of the gospel and Christian church and a change of religion
in the public sphere (i.e. multiculturalism).
The Transformation of Culture
Great concern for transformation is found everywhere in Scripture.
Psalm 2: 1-3
“Why do the nations rebel and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers conspire together against the LORD and His Anointed
One:
‘Let us tear off their chains and free ourselves from their restraints.’”
Psalm 2: 4-6
“The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord ridicules them.
Then He speaks to them in His anger and terrifies them in His wrath:
‘I have consecrated My King on Zion, My holy mountain.’”
Psalm 2: 7-9
“I will declare the LORD’s decree: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son; today I have become Your Father.
Ask of Me, and I will make the nations Your inheritance and the ends of the earth Your possession.
You will break them with a rod of iron; You will shatter them like pottery.’”Psalm 2: 10-11
“So now, kings, be wise; receive instruction, you judges of the earth.
Serve the LORD with reverential awe and rejoice with trembling.”
Psalm 2: 12
“Pay homage to the Son or He will be angry and you will perish in your rebellion, for His anger may ignite at any
moment. All those who take refuge in Him are happy.”
The Transformation of Culture
Christ’s Lordship and kingship is total, absolute, objective reality irrespective of the desires and will of men.
The Transformation of Culture
All things are being made subject to Christ, in heaven and earth and we are commanded to pray for his
kingdom and will to be done on earth, as in heaven.
“It is only by believing in God that we can ever criticize the government. Abolish God and the government
becomes the God. That fact is written across all human history…wherever the people do not believe in
something beyond the world, they will worship the world. But above all they will worship the strongest thing in
the world.” – G. K. Chesterton
The Transformation of Culture
We will worship either the triune Creator or we will worship the creature by absolutizing an aspect of creation.