Returning to a more biblical culture. That sounds like a wonderful idea doesn't it, at least at first. The more I read about what is happening in our country, the more I am convinced that is exactly what we are doing, returning to a more biblical culture. While many of the intellectually elite of our country are sincerely trying to lead our society into a post-enlightenment enlightened state, what they are truly accomplishing is leading us directly back into the ancient.
Just last night while unable to sleep I was watching parts of Dateline or Nightline, I have a hard time knowing the difference between these shows, but whichever one it was they were discussing the issue of gay marriage. One commentator while discussing gay marriage made the case that if these marriages were to be upheld as legal, then it will set a precedent that will no longer allow polygamy to be illegal. And that is when it clicked for me, a more biblical culture.
For the ancient Greek culture, which would of had a significant influence on the culture when Jesus lived because of Hellenism, sex was looked at very differently. I remember from one history course the common phrase for Greek men being that women were for procreation and young men were for sex. This theme was captured in the movie Gladiator, if you remember the evil emperor Commodus played by Joaquin Phoenix was gay. The book of Romans is clear addressing this behavior when in Romans 1:26-27 it says, "Therefore God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen." No this may seem clear enough to you but what really triggered the connect to the ancient was the issue of polygamy.
A second major inflluence on the culture in which Jesus lived would have been the Middle Eastern culture. So not only would the Hellenistic Greek thought shape how people acted but because of Israel's location a more Arab mindset would also have great influence. Even today it is not unusual for weathy men in the Middle East to have more than one wife. It is because of the Christian ethic that shaped the formation of this country that the act of polygamy was deemed illegal. Though many groups including the Mormans have fought this, polygamy has been held up as illegal.
These to issues present a case in point that we are returning back to the culture of the Bible. How do we know polygamy was a part of that culture? The Old Testament is rather tolerant of polygamy, many of the saints had more than one wife. In the New Testament we witness how the church deals with polygamist who become Christians. What is required of these new believers is not that they choose one wife and drop the rest, but that they should not hold office in the church while having more than one wife. 1 Tim. 3:2, "Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife..."
To see the changes happening right before me in our culture saddens me, yet in the midst of it I am able to find encouragement. The encouragement that I find is that Christians are not out-of-date backward thinking people, okay maybe we are, but what the Bible teaches us is not out-of-date or backward. The Bible does not call us to live in these ancient ways, it calls people to a greater and glorious way to live. That is that God's intention is for marriage between one man and one woman. This simple yet incredibly forward thinking idea is expressed in Matthew 19:1-12,
Now when Jesus had finished these sayings, he went away from Galilee and entered the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. 2 And large crowds followed him, and he healed them there. 3 And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause? 4 He answered, Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh? 6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.7 They said to him, Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away? 8 He said to them, Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. 9 And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery. 10 The disciples said to him, If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry. 11 But he said to them, Not everyone can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given. 12 For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this receive it.
None of what we are facing today is catching God by surprise. I find it remarkable that the Bible so clearly speaks to the culture and what is happening in our culture today. Perhaps the return to a more Biblical culture may mean seeing a great number of people come to repentance and faith in Christ, but we should not be surprised if a more Biblical culture means that the servants of God must suffer like none of us in the modern West have ever imagined.
Just last night while unable to sleep I was watching parts of Dateline or Nightline, I have a hard time knowing the difference between these shows, but whichever one it was they were discussing the issue of gay marriage. One commentator while discussing gay marriage made the case that if these marriages were to be upheld as legal, then it will set a precedent that will no longer allow polygamy to be illegal. And that is when it clicked for me, a more biblical culture.
For the ancient Greek culture, which would of had a significant influence on the culture when Jesus lived because of Hellenism, sex was looked at very differently. I remember from one history course the common phrase for Greek men being that women were for procreation and young men were for sex. This theme was captured in the movie Gladiator, if you remember the evil emperor Commodus played by Joaquin Phoenix was gay. The book of Romans is clear addressing this behavior when in Romans 1:26-27 it says, "Therefore God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen." No this may seem clear enough to you but what really triggered the connect to the ancient was the issue of polygamy.
A second major inflluence on the culture in which Jesus lived would have been the Middle Eastern culture. So not only would the Hellenistic Greek thought shape how people acted but because of Israel's location a more Arab mindset would also have great influence. Even today it is not unusual for weathy men in the Middle East to have more than one wife. It is because of the Christian ethic that shaped the formation of this country that the act of polygamy was deemed illegal. Though many groups including the Mormans have fought this, polygamy has been held up as illegal.
These to issues present a case in point that we are returning back to the culture of the Bible. How do we know polygamy was a part of that culture? The Old Testament is rather tolerant of polygamy, many of the saints had more than one wife. In the New Testament we witness how the church deals with polygamist who become Christians. What is required of these new believers is not that they choose one wife and drop the rest, but that they should not hold office in the church while having more than one wife. 1 Tim. 3:2, "Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife..."
To see the changes happening right before me in our culture saddens me, yet in the midst of it I am able to find encouragement. The encouragement that I find is that Christians are not out-of-date backward thinking people, okay maybe we are, but what the Bible teaches us is not out-of-date or backward. The Bible does not call us to live in these ancient ways, it calls people to a greater and glorious way to live. That is that God's intention is for marriage between one man and one woman. This simple yet incredibly forward thinking idea is expressed in Matthew 19:1-12,
Now when Jesus had finished these sayings, he went away from Galilee and entered the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. 2 And large crowds followed him, and he healed them there. 3 And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause? 4 He answered, Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh? 6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.7 They said to him, Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away? 8 He said to them, Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. 9 And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery. 10 The disciples said to him, If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry. 11 But he said to them, Not everyone can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given. 12 For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this receive it.
None of what we are facing today is catching God by surprise. I find it remarkable that the Bible so clearly speaks to the culture and what is happening in our culture today. Perhaps the return to a more Biblical culture may mean seeing a great number of people come to repentance and faith in Christ, but we should not be surprised if a more Biblical culture means that the servants of God must suffer like none of us in the modern West have ever imagined.
posted by michaelstevensrev at 9:59 PM
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