I read a link today to Pulpit Magazine with an article by the beloved John MacArthur. I love the man, but understanding his view of how to navigate through cultural issues caused me to give a quick 15 minute response.

Though I do think that part of engaging culture naturally will include confronting false idols and gods within the culture, I also believe that the way we frame the term “confront culture” can be better nuanced. We confront sin within a culture, not necessarily the culture itself since there are many aspects of culture that are not sinful and therefore do not need to be lumped in under the action of confrontation. This sounds a bit nit picky, but I’ve found that when we frame our wording in such a way it gives the impression that all of culture needs to be confronted rather than those elements of culture that are sinful that need to be redeemed for God’s glory (particular works of art, not art itself, particular attitudes of sexuality, not sexuality itself, particular views and assumptions of science, not science itself, etc.).

I’m not promoting our engagement of culture to be syncretistic in which we follow in the steps of the Samaritans religious stew, but I am advancing the notion that we do not become sectarian and assume that the biblically negative view of the world is necessarily synonymous with the culture. To make progress in our culture we need to do a better job listening to the stories and views of the culture so as to press the gospel in the areas of greatest misunderstanding and misinterpretation. I’m a fan of Acts 17 and the Mars Hill address (which is a tremendous argument for using poets, philosophers, and playwrights to launch the gospel), but I also think that we don’t take one model and use it as our system for preaching. This is why I love John Frame’s multiperspectivalism because it allows for an apologetic that can drill down to the heart of someone’s epistemology, realizing that one apologetic methodology might not be appropriate for every situation. This is basic presuppositionalism which takes into account what the hearers presuppose. We can not lazily assume we have clarity and knowledge of their presupposition. As presuppositionalists we often assume we know exactly where the unbeliever is starting. This is true when dealing with anthropological and spiritual ultimate’s (created in God’s image, fallen, enemy of the cross, dead in sins, etc.) but in communicating the gospel to a culture means that we don’t just assume we know what they understand intellectually regarding first principles, worldview, or their guiding philosophy of life. I can confront someone’s worldview by laying down a nifty system which seems to work in most contexts only to find that I totally miss them because I’m not addressing their greatest misunderstanding. This is the hard work of an evangelist. Consider Paul in the beginning of Acts 17 “reasoning from the Scriptures” with the Jews and then moving to Mars Hill with a totally different starting point. If we are to assume our audience is either group A or group B without variations in between, we are doing the gospel a great disservice in our translating and contextualization (notice I didn’t say “making it relevant” since the gospel is always relevant). I see gradations between those groups- not so much an A or B but more like A to Z with B through Y needing to be understood. It takes time to do this, and it is no easy task since it requires a tremendous amount of thought and perhaps multiple hours of communication with postmodern, spiritual, post-Christian, pagans who do not need a shotgun gospel, but a gospel which like a guided torpedo, recognizes its target and launches towards it in precision. Yet I must ask the question when fatigued- how much of my time are souls worth?

I love John MacArthur and have great respect for the man. But I realize that Pastor MacArthur is a generation or two behind in understanding his culture, just like I will be in a couple of generations myself. This doesn’t mean that I disengage from what I don’t understand, but that I work harder and harder at listening and then articulating the gospel to more than just the choir who already agree. Francis Schaeffer is a great example of a man who into his 60’s and 70’s was doing his best work analyzing the culture and offering a gospel apologetic to not only meet the needs of his day, but to look into the days ahead and pass the baton in such a way that the next 2 or 3 generations have benefited. We may not think this is important, but our children and our children’s children should accept nothing less. Preaching, culture, epistemology, philosophy, art, music, science, literature, film, etc. all seem so disconnected. Yet when we consider the vast education of the Apostle Paul and the Reformers, we see that men who made crater size impacts in their day did so with blood, sweat, tears, and an awareness of their place in their day. We are to thunder the gospel and preach it with great boldness, passion, truth, and humility so that the text is not only explained but understood (and dare I say felt) by those who we have been given the great and glorious honor of communicating it to. To misunderstand culture is to misunderstand people, because culture is made up of individuals who express it. To dismiss culture is to dismiss people, and that I doubt we are willing to do. I believe a love for God and others necessitates a passion to understand those we seek to reach. Consider our Lord’s words when preaching to the crowds: “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets” (Matt. 7:12). Do we wish that others would work hard to understand our gospel? Then we should work hard to understand them. Do we wish to get a fair hearing from others? Then we should do the same. Are we frustrated that this culture doesn’t understand our views? Are we willing to work as diligently to demonstrate our willingness to understand them so that we might have the right to ask the same? If we are to take the golden rule as an example and consider the weight of it, we have to ask; when was the last time I worked as hard as I could from morning till evening doing all that I could to best understand those around me? If we were only obedient to this passage, I think it would clear up our pride that seems to keep us in an us vs. them mentality. We are all beggars, and as Christians we have been blessed beyond measure to have found the bread of life, it then becomes our loving duty to proclaim the way to Him as clearly as possible.