But when we do our duty, we can change the world. Look at Christians like William Wilberforce, who spent most of his life fighting—and winning—the war against slavery in Britain.
Thank God he didn't buy into the "stay inside the church walls" mentality.
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This sentence assumes that Christians do not create culture themselves.
A clear definition of sin is part of the gospel message. Otherwise we are saved from what?
But, the evangelicals' hesitation is based on the undeniable New Testament assumption that the first and indispensable step is personal repentance and faith in Christ.
If that step is skipped or neglected or marginalized in the midst of some sort of "culture war", then you may be doing your own definition of good works, but it is not what Jesus enjoined on the church.
A "culture war", if that means legal or political action, is NOT WHAT JESUS TOLD THE CHURCH TO DO.
If you dispute this, you simply haven't read the gospels.
This is an assumption, and as such is bad exegesis, and this bad exegesis colors the rest of his theology.
The truth is, he does not know, any more than anybody else, what the pre-lapsarian plan for the earth looked like. He ASSUMES it meant have families, GOVERNMENTS, create art -- but that is an assumption, mainly because that is the only sort of culture we know. Now. After the Fall.
When you cannot separate your own assumptions from what the biblical text actually says you cannot avoid error.
"If Christians do not seize the moment and act on the cultural commission, there soon will be no culture left to save."
Hmm. I dunno...I wonder if perhaps the resulting 'absence' of culture implied in the above statement might not better reveal the need for a return to a 'nobler' culture (for lack of a better word).
Perhaps our present culture, with mega and mondo churches and evangelicals falling all over themselves trying to blend in and engage in silly modern ideas such as 'marketing' and 'seeker-sensitive' ploys, needs to just go ahead and disintegrate, leaving nothing but dust and ashes. What will finally wake people up or be the danged last straw? I mean, personally, I find constant commercials in the midst of prime time television shows about erection problems and/or the lack thereof about as offensive as it gets and wonder what the heck is next.
When "culture" crashes and burns and nothing is left, perhaps Christianity can rediscover what it was really all about in the first place and what it is of value it has to say, and begin doing something worthwhile again besides building little pop-music kingdoms, 20 acre mini-cities (megachurches, and now they want their own STATE, fer cryin' out loud), etc.
Ah well. Rotten tomatoes will start flying now, I suppose! Heaven forbid one should critique evangelicals.