A Goody From Woody

I had the privilege of hearing Dr. Ergun Caner preach in Florida a few years ago. Dr. Caner is president of Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, and a great writer. Oh, by the way, did I tell you he is a convert from Islam to Christianity?

I was reading his book called, When Worldviews Collide recently and came across a significant insight. He writes that our culture is in chaos. Everywhere you look you see on TV, media, government and in our public schools, the same. Canter writes (page 29), “It is the world in which we live, and it isn’t pretty.
• A culture of victimization: no one is responsible.
• A culture of syncretism: all religions are the same.
• A culture of relativism: all religions are equally true.
• A culture of confrontation: how loudly people state their opinion is more important than the content of their messages.
• A culture of hyphenation: people are invested in movements and causes, based on their subgroup or movement, and they define themselves by this hyphenation.
• A culture of medication: we treat the symptoms but not the core diseases of yearning, guilt and pain.”
Canter calls these thoughts the “modern-day theater of the opinionated.”

When I did graduate work I read H. Richard Niebuhr’s, Christ and Culture. He outlined positions typically held by Christians in regard to culture. He listed:
• Christ above culture: Christians are oblivious to culture around them.
• Christ against culture: Christians take an adversarial stance against anything culture offers.
• Christ of culture: Christians attempt to mimic anything popular in culture.

I believe St. Paul has a better idea on how to deal with our culture (which is very postmodern). In Acts 17:16-21, Paul is deeply imbedded in his culture. He is in the marketplace, and there he offers Christ to common people and philosophers. He was in the real world. He was not running from a fight, nor was he afraid. What did he do with his culture? He gave them this:
• Christ confronting culture: Christians neither hiding from evil nor assimilating it. As Canter, in his book, stated: “Surrounded by sin, Christians confront it and persuade the sinful to come to Christ. This is a believer’s stance. We are not oblivious to culture, nor do we shrink from it. We are not silenced by culture. Instead, we present Christ with every available tool in every possible context.”

Think with me, please. How are we being silenced? In our work, at home, in the church, in our culture, is there anything that prevents you from communicating the good news of the Gospel? If there is, get rid of it. Move on. We are God’s answer to the chaos in our culture. Give them Christ! God will be glorified if you do and Satan will be delighted if you don’t.

God Bless,
Woody Church

P.S. Don’t forget—go and read Acts 17:16-21. The tools for confronting our culture with Christ will leap off the pages of God’s Word!