Dr. Michael Scott Horton on Transforming Culture

Over at 9 Marks Ministries website I found a terrific essay by Dr. Michael Scott Horton on the topic of the church tranforming culture. Part of his essay traces the historical roots of cultural transformation -- one approach grew out of the First Great Awakening while a distinctly different approach grew out of the Second Great Awakening. Horton demonstrates that modern day attempts to transform the culture are rooted in the theology of the Second Great Awakening.

Horton raises an interesting question that I have not heard before: are we under-valuing Christ's ascension to heaven? In short, he argues that in Christ's physical absence, the church has stepped forward to fill in the gap, to be 'incarnational.' In so doing we have adopted a 'messianic complex' about our own importance to transform culture and finish the work that Christ began.

He also raises this question, IS ALL OF LIFE KINGDOM WORK?

"If this theological argument is correct, then we should question popular statements like, "All of life is kingdom work." No, proclaiming the Word, administering baptism and the Supper, caring for the spiritual and physical well-being of the saints, and bringing in the lost are kingdom work. Building bridges, delivering medical supplies to hospitals, installing water heaters, defending clients in court, holding public office, and having friends over for dinner are "creation work," given a pledge of safe conduct ever since Cain under God's regime of common grace. In this work, Christians serve beside non-Christians, as both are endowed with natural gifts and learned skills for their common life together. "

He also raises this question, "SHOULD THERE BE "CHRISTIAN" INSTITUTIONS?

His conclusion? "Again, if this theological argument is correct, we should ask whether there should be Christian hospitals, Christian businesses, or Christian entertainment industries. Haven't such enterprises, which often do no more than mimic their secular counterparts, distracted the church from its primary focus and ministry? What if churches were more seriously Christian, concentrating on Christ as he is delivered to sinners through Word and Sacrament, and their members were scattered throughout the week to occupy posts alongside their non-Christian neighbors instead of being driven into an ostensibly Christian sub-culture? What if, instead of trying to discipline a pagan culture, we restored the evangelical practice of church discipline in our own churches (a point made better by Paul in 1 Cor 5:9-12)?

Surely the abolition of the slave trade was a noble work. Yet in Britain it was not the church as an institution that abolished slavery, but Christians in public office who had been formed by the church's ministry. When William Wilberforce came to John Newton for advice on whether he should enter the ministry, Newton encouraged his friend to pursue politics instead. It was as a member of parliament that Wilberforce loved and served his neighbor, benefiting from the ordinary means of grace that Newton ministered to him. The church preaches God's transcendent law and gospel, and her children pursue their cultural mandate in their secular vocations. One wonders what might have happened if, instead of dividing over national policy, Protestant churches in the antebellum American North and South practiced church discipline against slave-holders. After all, according to numerous accounts, South African apartheid in our own time came crashing down when the Dutch Reformed Church confessed that its religious justification of the system was "heresy." Disciplined by its sister Reformed churches around the world, the church did what only the church could do, and the result was that the system lost its moral legitimacy."

Read the rest of the essay here: Transforming Culture with a Messiah Complex - 9Marks