CULTURE WAR

 

   Which is true?

Premise #1 - Does culture dictate doctrine in Scripture? OR

Premise #2 - Does Scripture USE culture to dictate doctrine?

   What’s the difference?

   Well, the first premise is used by those who wish to make certain doctrinal stands in the Bible irrelevant because the cultural norms (in the age in which Scripture was written) were different than the cultural norms of our day.

  One of the most recent examples of this has been by some in the LGBT community that God’s condemnations of that lifestyle were based on cultural mores of the day. Commenting on the judgement against sodomy in Leviticus, one pro-gay writer noted: “Critical scholars observe that Levitical laws in general condemned activities that the Gentiles did, and these guidelines provided an exclusive identity for Israelites and Jews. So it is assumed the laws are not binding on Christians, who are those Gentiles that are now in the faith community.”

  In other words – culture dictates doctrine. Those in the LGBT community struggle mightily to make sodomy an issue of the culture of the day in which Scripture was written… thus allowing them to ignore an otherwise obvious Biblical condemnation of an immoral lifestyle.

   A similar approach is often used for Scriptures that describes women in Scripture. One preacher said “the social structure (of the day Scripture was written) was dominated by males. Jews and Greeks would not have questioned this inferior place given to women.”

  In other words, you can set aside any Scripture that deals with women because, back then, the world was culturally inferior to ours. Women were viewed as a lower class of individual, men dominated the system, and men like Jesus and Paul didn’t want to upset the system and make the Gospel unacceptable to the masses. In other words, culture dictated doctrine. Any scripture that deals with a woman’s role in the church is tainted by this “truth.”

   No matter what issue is handled in this fashion, there are at a couple serious problems.

   First, this form of hermeneutics (where culture dictates theology) can be applied to almost any doctrine someone opposes. It opens a literal pandora’s box of heresy on any topic you care to address.

  Second, I Timothy 3:16 says that “all Scripture is God-breathed.” Thus, if Jesus or Paul or any other Bible writer failed to address a questionable topic they were either cowards (for failing to solidly support the more enlightened viewpoint) or bigots, or racists, or … worse.

   So that leaves us with the 2^nd premise listed above: Does Scripture USE culture to dictate doctrine? My answer: yes. There’s no question that the Bible was written to a culture than ours, and so there is no question that occasionally you’ll encounter culturally based statements in Scripture. But in those cultural statements, there is still doctrinal application.

   For example – Paul often wrote to churches and told them to “Greet one another with a holy kiss.” (1 Corinthians 16:20) Unless you’re willing to risk a slap or punch in the face, you’re not going to do that today with anyone other than your spouse. It’s unquestionably a cultural practice. And yet, it has a doctrinal application where we use affection for each other. In our culture, that affection would be appropriately displayed by shaking hands, or even hugging. In another culture (such as France’s) a kiss on the cheek would be in keeping with that which is acceptable there.

   But we should be extremely cautious about the “cultural” argument. It can be – and often has been – used to undermine God’s morality and church discipline within congregations.