Culture and Discipleship

By Dr. Derek Carlsen 

True Biblical discipleship is about Christianizing the whole of culture. So then, what is culture?

Culture and God’s Glory

Henry Van Til, in his book, The Calvinistic Concept of Culture, said culture includes “any and all human effort and labor expended upon the cosmos, to unearth its treasures and its riches and bring them into the service of man for the enrichment of human existence unto the glory of God” (p. 29-30). He also said, “a people's religion comes to expression in its culture, and Christians can be satisfied with nothing less than a Christian organization of society” (p. 245). This last sentence has been distilled by people to state that “culture is religion externalized.”

Discipleship and Dominion

Van Til continued saying man was, “created in the image of God. As such, he is morally responsible for his actions and duty-bound to seek the good; he is also rationally able to comprehend the meaning of life and duty-bound to function in the realm of truth; he is a cultural creature, one who is able and is called to re-create, to re-produce, to form artistically and to mold creation to his will, duty-bound to function in the realm of power, to seek harmony and beauty and to have dominion over the earth” (p. 30).

True Communion

Importantly, he tells us that culture, “is a social enterprise; it is not achieved in isolation, but through the interaction and cooperation of men in communion…The family is the simplest and smallest unit of society and the real fountain of culture. If this fountain remains pure, man’s culture has promise; but if it becomes polluted, all the rest will turn to dust and ashes, since the home is the foundation of the entire social structure” (p. 32). 

Covenantal Relationship

Religion is the “covenantal relationship between God as Lord and his image-bearer, man” (p. 37), and like culture, it touches all of life and it consists in “the orientation of all human life to the absolute.” Van Til also said, “Religion…is a radical venture since it controls the root of man’s existence and from thence permeates his whole functional world” (p. 41-42). 

A Massive Blunder

The modern church has rejected Biblical dominion and made a massive blunder by telling Christians to embrace a dualistic view of reality (see the article: Dualism). Dualism is restricting Christ’s victory and reign to the narrow realm of ‘spiritual worship’ while relinquishing everything outside of this to an alien culture which it refuses to confront or change. Karl Barth and his followers, Van Til said, “have specially repudiated the idea of a Christian culture…Barth himself has scoffed at the idea of a Christian political party.” Van Til countered by saying, “A religion that is restricted to the prayer-cell is…a monstrosity” (p. 44). When we reduce the scope of our religion, we also reject a comprehensive Christian culture, thus denying God’s original commission to Adam about exercising complete dominion over the whole of His creation.

A Monstrosity

Van Til used strong language because, “History is the framework for God’s redemptive work in Christ. Hence God does not condemn history and nature, but through Christ he condemns sin and restores nature and history to their pristine purpose. This is the secret of culture. Christ, the anointed one, is the second Adam, who is our Substitute to bear the wrath of God for us. He is also our Replacement to fulfill the cultural mandate given originally to our first father” (p. 137).

Anointing

The Heidelberg Catechism in Q 31 asks, “Why is He called Christ, that is, Anointed?” The answer states amongst other things that He was “anointed with the Holy Spirit.” In Q 32 it asks, “Why are you called a Christian?” The answer is, because we “share in His anointing.”

Reconcile All Things

Henry Van Til said, “Since the Christian is one who partakes of the anointing of Christ, his concern with culture is inescapable. For, by his anointing, Christ was declared the legitimate heir of the first Adam and commissioned as God’s officer of the day to do the work which our first father failed to perform, namely, to glorify God in his handiwork. But Christ was not only empowered, he was also enabled by the Spirit. His anointing was the guarantee of achievement, for he came to reconcile all things to the Father (Colossians 1:20). As such Christ does not bring something altogether new, but he restores what was from the beginning, and actually brings to pass what God designed from the first” (p. 138).

The Scope of Redemption

When Christians reject the idea and possibility of comprehensive restoration in the world, they are undermining the historicity of the creation and fall accounts in Genesis. To treat the dominion mandate given to Adam as irrelevant today is to assault the authority of Scripture. Teaching that Christians should not be working for a comprehensive Christian culture is to redefine God’s plan of redemption through Christ. The whole of Genesis stands or falls together and we are told that God created the world for mankind for the purpose of glorifying the Lord in the whole of creation. To deny the possibility of cultural transformation (i.e., that everything in life ought to be Christianized), undermines Jesus’ completed work. Supposedly, after the fall the re-creation of people through Jesus Christ is possible, but not the re-creation of culture. (See the article: Redemption Versus the Fall).

The Historicity of Genesis

Karl Barth didn’t believe in the historicity of the early chapters of Genesis. In response to Barth, Cornelius Van Til (not Henry) said, “In holding to the historical character of paradise, and therefore of the fall of man, we can also believe in an actual or real restoration of the world by the victory of Christ over Satan. This work of Christ is then a real ‘breakthrough’ of victory in the world in which we live. In denying the historicity of the fall, the theology of the cross [Barth’s theology] also devaluates with it the work of redemption. He who destroys the biblical doctrine of creation has also, in effect, destroyed the true view of sin and redemption. All heresies flow together in a common rejection of the biblical view of creation and the fall, and, with it, in a common rejection of the biblical view of redemption” (Christianity and Barthianism, pg.140).

From the Beginning

When Jesus was questioned about marriage, He pointed to how it was from the beginning (Mark 10:6). Thus, the first Adam’s dominion mandate from the beginning (Genesis 1:26) has not been changed, but rather its success has been guaranteed by the completed work of the last Adam, Jesus Christ. 

Conclusion

The single goal for all labor and every area of life is to discover, develop and use everything in God’s creation for His glory and the benefit of mankind. There are many hidden secrets in the world that we are to discover and develop in accordance with God’s truth. Every lie about God’s creation and commission hinders the growth of true Christian culture. God has commanded mankind to cultivate and subdue the earth for His glory. We are not allowed to ignore this any more than we can ignore any word from His mouth. Our commission is nothing less than Christianizing the whole of culture. As Henry Van Til put it: “To confess Christ as Savior from sin, but to deny his relevance and power in the realm of culture, is a denial of his kingship over the believer and over the world…For if man, the producer of culture, is a restored prophet, priest and king, his culture must of necessity also be renewed” (p. 213).