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Cultural Issues and the Transcendence of God
Major, widespread changes in professing Christianity occurred in what people term, “cultural issues.” For the purposes of this article, I refer “cultural issues” to standards of dress, music, entertainment, art, language, and aesthetics. Biblically and historically, true Christianity had its own culture, which was transcendental in nature. I have written here about the transcendental. God is transcendent and the transcendentals are truth, goodness, and beauty. God is one, so they are one too.
God is truth, goodness, and beauty. God is transcendent, so truth, goodness, and beauty are transcendent. God is separate and defines these. Nothing changes these in God, because in Him is no variableness or shadow of turning. They are not relative to anything else because of this separateness or holiness. Hence, the transcendentals are objective, defined based upon their reality in the nature of God. Something is true, good, or beautiful because of its aligning or conforming to God.
Truth, Goodness, and Beauty Transcendent
Historically, true Christians believed that one could and should judge the culture, based upon the truth, goodness, and beauty of God. Someone should change in accordance with His nature. This is conforming to the image of the Son of God (Romans 8:29). So, dress, music, entertainment, art, language, and aesthetics are not neutral or amoral. They can be true, good, or beautiful, or false, bad, or ugly. People should judge in these areas, and historically true Christians did. As I was growing up in biblical Christianity, people did. Increasingly today, they don’t. Churches don’t and won’t.
Everyone draws lines on cultural issues. These are popular topics of discussion, such as, ‘what is the best’ of this or that in these areas, followed by a list, ranking them. Someone is judging, but in the end, people would say it is a matter of personal opinion. Awards shows say something is the best song or best movie. Books wins awards, such as the Pulitzer Prize. Is there objective criteria to put one of these ahead of the other or is this just all personal taste?
The Example of Changing on Cultural Issues
Professing Christians, churches, and other Christian organizations changed and are changing in the cultural issues. At one time, Christian preachers would preach against the violation of an objective standard in a cultural issue. My college would kick me out of the school for breaking its rules in cultural issues. But they changed. When they changed, how did they change? What was the steps in their process?
I remember growing up and attending a church school, a Christian high school, and a Baptist college. Churches of which I joined as a member also had rules and standards in cultural areas. Sometimes they just had the standards, but I never remember hearing the standard exposed to scripture. What was the basis for coming to these stands on these issues? However, the institutions were serious about them and laid out punishment for violating them. You were not a good Christian when you broke the rules and you needed to repent when you did.
When I was in high school and college, the authorities used a demerit system. They gauged the severity of the violations on cultural issues and meted out discipline in the form of demerits. This one was two, this one five, another ten, and some things twenty-five, fifty, or even one hundred. If you got one hundred fifty or so (it may have been less), this brought expulsion, also called “kicked out” or “shipped.” This included a dress code and music checks. This was all normal. You didn’t get tattoos, have piercings, listen to certain music, or say a number of various words.
The Steps in the Process of Changing Cultural Belief, Practice, and Aesthetic
The standards changed on cultural issues in churches, schools, institutions, and for individuals. How did they change? Did this come from the study of scripture? Why did they have these standards in the first place?
Let’s say you were a student or young person growing up in one of these situations in professing Christianity and you received a harsh penalty for infringement of the standards. Later the institutions change on the rules, but it doesn’t change the fact that the organization hammered you, affecting your whole life. When change occurs, steps in a process should also happen. People and institutions need to explain their standards using scripture, and then when they change, they need to admit they were wrong and repent of the wrong.
I still believe in the rules and standards I was taught on the cultural issues. The various human authorities in professing Christianity did not explain them. Maybe they didn’t think they needed to do that, because those standards were so widespread, obvious, and understood.
Hollywood and Movie Example
For decades, Hollywood was bad. The movie theater was forbidden. I remember in college when video stores opened up and no one wrote the new standards to deal with a video store. Was it permissible to rent a movie, when you couldn’t see it at a theater? I don’t remember anyone ever opening the Bible to explain this standard. Churches and leaders had reasons, I’m sure.
The entire nature and aesthetic of a church service changed in the 1960s and then kept changing. Again, I can’t remember hearing why these changes occurred. As church services became more like the world, the lives of church members also became more like the world. Not much later, one could then not see much difference between the church and the world. This occurred during years of change not accompanied by a scriptural explanation or announcement of the change.
The Change Proceeding from Aesthetics within Cultural Issues
When churches and other professing Christian institutions changed, this made it more difficult for churches not changing. Churches that would not join the change became small in number and odd balls more than ever. People in those churches would feel that pressure. Especially young people might look for something closer to a worldly culture and then threaten their parents to leave. What I’m telling you is a common story. Parents want to keep their children, so they capitulate or leave to try to keep them.
Many changes occurred and it did also then change the doctrine and practice of these churches. Like John MacArthur said in his Strange Fire book, Charismatic music is the gateway to Charismatic doctrine. People do not most often get their view of God from a doctrinal statement, but from their imaginations, shaped by music, dress, entertainment, and a wide variety of aesthetic influences.
More to Come