The Roots of WARSKYL, 6

Continued from "The Roots of WARSKYL, 5"

Emil has written a comment that I thought deserved notice in a post. He wrote about this comment I made in the previous post:

The objective [of the Great Commission] was not to merge cultures, but to transform them by "teaching them to observe all things" that Christ had commanded."

Emil wrote:

I would argue actually that we, by observing all things that Christ had commanded, are in fact, creating a new culture in and of itself, due to the fact that 'culture' is simply an outward expression of that which you believe. So if you obey Christ, you will be creating a new culture.

If by 'culture' you mean 'racial groups', then I would agree, our SOLE purpose is not to 'merge', but at the same time, I don't quite see the purpose of even addressing that point, or making it a subject to debate... I don't see the importance of whether or not we 'merge'. Maybe I missed something along the way? :D

I realize that I did not make my point clearly, so here I will attempt a little fuller explanation.

My point addresses those who claim that "Western Civilization" is a mixture of Roman, Greek & Christian elements. I believe that the degree to which you can call the West Roman or Greek is the precise degree to which it opposes God and needs further transformation.

You are correct, Emil, in saying that we are to create a new culture founded on the commands of Christ. The Bible, however, identifies certain elements of culture that can be transformed (redeemed, if you will) by reinterpreting them in a Scriptural context.

I'm not talking here about philosophical or religious systems, but things like houses, fields, vineyards (agri-culture?). When God sent Israel into the land of Canaan, they were to obliterate all traces of Canaanite culture. Nevertheless, God did not require that they raze everything to the ground.

And it shall be, when the LORD thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not, And houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not . . . . (Deu 6:10-11)

Canaanites built houses with god-shelves so that even their houses would deny the manifest glory of the true God (ref. Romans 1:18, ff.). The faithful Israelite would destroy the idol and transform the house into a sanctuary where his family could serve and pray to the Lord of the Covenant.

In our own day, one of the objectives of Christian education is to take the facts of history, biology, chemistry, math, etc. and redeem them by reinterpreting them (taking them out of the secular humanist context of interpretation and placing them in the context of God's creation according to the revelation found in Scripture).

Christians have even subjected language itself to this redemptive process. Martin Luther's translation of the Bible, for example, left an unmistakable imprint on the German tongue just as the Authorized Version (1611) did on the English language.

If this aspect of redeeming or transforming certain elements of culture interests you, my book Christian Methodology presents the mechanics of the Biblical process necessary to do so.

Emil, I hope this clarifies my point and shows that I did not mean to address racial aspects of merging at all in my statement. I hope to address race in my next post on this topic.