The Encourager
“The Impact of Culture Today - Jeff Curtis”
The Impact of Culture Today
By Jeff Curtis
The concern of Judges chapter 2, and the entire book, revolves around the need for God’s people to maintain their faith in an alien land. Judges shows that God’s ideal community outlined in Deuteronomy surrendered to the Canaanite religions and culture. As a result, they no longer had the security promised earlier (Deut.12:10). This book also shows that we can allow ourselves to be negatively influenced by culture more than we are positively guided by God.
The first two chapters of Judges illustrate what can happen when the culture impacts the church more than the church impacts the culture. Those who lived among the Canaanites in Chapter 1 ended up worshiping like the Canaanites in Chapter 2. After the generations of Joshua and the elders, a decline began in the next generation; and a downward spiral of unfaithfulness continued in subsequent times.
Apostasy, a falling away from God, can happen in one generation. Cultural influence is multi-generational. No generation is immune. The godly status of one generation offers no guarantee of the godliness of its offspring.
Apostasy doesn’t end God’s mercy. During the apostasy of the faithful, God continued to show mercy to those He had previously saved. God didn’t reject His people because of one occasion of unfaithfulness. The Israelites repeatedly did what was evil, and God repeatedly punished them for their deeds and then delivered them.
Assimilation is not inevitable. The church can exist from one generation to the next. No culture is so strong that the church is rendered powerless.
God is always available. In all of the focus on the role of God’s people living in a hostile culture, one foundational issue never changes: God always wants to help. When His people cry out, He responds to their need.
Am I Narrow-Minded for Believing in One Church?
by Kyle Campbell
When people hear me say, “Jesus has only one church” it must sound very narrow-minded. I understand their feelings and take no offense to their criticism because it’s likely that they haven’t investigated the Bible. My responsibility as a preacher is to explain that the “body” and the “church” are one and the same.
· “And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence” (Col. 1:18).
· “…and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Eph. 1:23).
· “There is one body” (Eph. 4:4) and “there is one God” (4:6). In view of this information, how can I believe otherwise?
· “Reconcile both unto God in one body” (Eph. 2:16). If I love the word of God, I have no choice except to believe.
· “Baptized into one body” (1 Cor. 12:13). If I respect God’s word, I am not at liberty to believe otherwise.
· “Yet but one body” (1 Cor. 12:20). This expression is saying that there is ONE and ONLY ONE body. I have no choice but to accept this truth.
The body is the church. There is one body, thus I am forced to conclude there is one, and only one, church. Jesus said, “Upon this rock I will build my church” (Matthew 16:18). He never promised to do more. Investigate and find this “one true church” and become a part of it by your obedience to the gospel
