Becoming All Things, Spoiling the Egyptians, and Occupying Culture till Christ Comes
Our Consultation has left us in no doubt about the pervasive importance of culture. The writing and the reading of the Bible, the presentation of the gospel, conversion, church and conduct—all these are influenced by culture. It is essential, therefore, that all churches contextualize the gospel in order to share it effectively in their own culture. For this task of evangelization, we all know our urgent need of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. He is the Spirit of truth who can teach each church how to relate to the culture that envelops it. He is also the Spirit of love, and love is “the language—which is understood in every culture of man.” So may God fill us with his Spirit! Then, speaking the truth in love, we shall grow up into Christ who is the head of the body, to the everlasting glory of God (Eph. 4:15).56
PR
Notes
1 See “Statement of Vision and Purpose,” at http://www.pneumafoundation.org/statement_of_vision.jsp.
2 PR 10:1 (Winter 2007), 30-31.
3 Stanley J. Grenz, Renewing the Center: Evangelical Theology in a Post-Theological Era (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2000), 19.
4 PR 10:1 (Winter 2007), 31-55.
5 PR 10:2 (Spring 2007), 37-40. In a Reader Comment titled “Postmodern Rebels,” Dony K. Donev suggests Pentecostals were rebels against modernity’s rise through their Wesleyan-Holiness stance on sin, and now could and should be rebels against postmodernism from the same perspective and for the same purpose (41).
6 PR 10:3 (Summer 2007), 29-45.
7 PR 10:4 (Fall 2007), 27-39.
8 PR 11:1 (Winter 2008), 27-35.
9 PR 11:2 (Spring 2008), 58-60.
10 PR 11:3 (Summer 2008), 32-39. Bevins wrote a brief “Response” complaining that the discussion had taken an overly theoretical turn and calling for a more praxis-oriented approach. He also warned churches against becoming outdated and irrelevant (30-31).
11 Henry H. Knight III, A Future for Truth: Evangelical Theology in a Postmodern World (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1997), 15.
12 “A Letter from Origen to Gregory,” Ante-Nicene Fathers, ed. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson), 4:393-94. On postmodernism and early Christianity, see Robert E. Webber, Ancient-Future Faith: Rethinking Evangelicalism for a Postmodern World (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1999).
13 Helmut Thielicke, A Little Exercise for Young Theologians, trans. Charles L. Taylor (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1962), 21-26. Thielicke also insisted that, “Nothing human is foreign to it, if it is true dogmatics” (27-28).
14 See H. R. Niebuhr, Christ and Culture (New York: Harper & Row, 1951). Niebuhr’s categories are Christ against culture, Christ of culture, Christ above culture, Christ and culture in paradox, and Christ transforming culture.
15 John G. Stackhouse, Jr., “In the World, but …” Christianity Today (April 22, 2002), 1-3: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2002/april22/8.80.html.
Category: Ministry, Winter 2009
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