Can culture teach us anything about God?
With America being confronted on issues of racial injustices these past few weeks, I’ve heard many brothers and sisters in Christ sincerely ask: “Should we worry that Christians are being influenced by culture on justice issues?”
Or in other words, should we worry that more Christians are advocating for racial justice because of the Black Lives Matter movement? My answer to this astute question: yes and no.
Yes, because shame on us, the American Church, for not being first responders in the fight against racial injustice! Far from being a compliant witness, the American Church, especially in the ‘Bible Belt,’ has been an active perpetrator of racial injustice against black Americans for centuries now. My own church denomination (a denomination that I deeply love in its current iteration), the Southern Baptist Convention, was founded in reaction to slaveholding Baptists not being allowed to serve as missionaries.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
If you haven’t already, take some time to read this shocking NPR article on the American Church’s more recent perpetration of systemic racism during the civil rights movement — the effects of which are still seen and felt in the Church today. If that doesn’t break your heart enough, a recent Barna study indicates that less than 30% of US churches are actively addressing issues of racism and racial inequality. As worshipers of a holy God of Justice, these appalling stories and numbers should shock, sadden and shatter all of us.
So yes, we should be concerned that the Church has been the last to arrive on scene when it comes to issues of systemic racial injustice in the United States.
But also, no! We shouldn’t worry if we, as Christians, are being influenced by culture and the black lives matter movement in our understanding of God’s heart for justice. Just to be clear — as SBC President, Pastor J.D. Greear recently stated — it’s perfectly plausible for Christians to say that black lives matter without agreeing with or endorsing the Black Lives Matter organization. Make no mistake, the black lives matter movement is distinct from and much larger than the Black Lives Matter organization. Also, it’s perfectly plausible for us, who call ourselves ‘Christian.’ to be influenced by culture while still being shaped by Scripture.
I realize that all of this might come off as borderline heretical to some of my brothers and sisters in Christ who (like me) hold the Bible as the authoritative Word of God. So allow me to add more clarity by pointing us back to Scripture.
You see, most evangelical theologians agree that God reveals Himself to mankind through two forms of revelation: special revelation and general revelation. Even though we’re saved by grace alone through faith alone in the special revelation of Christ alone, passages like Romans 1:20 (ESV) teach us that God also reveals “his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature…in the things that have been made” such as nature, conscience, philosophy and, wait for it — culture! And before you counter by asserting that culture is more man-made than God-made, let me remind us that God is still sovereign over culture and everything else on earth. After all, Psalm 24:1 (CSB) teaches us that, “The earth and everything in it, the world and its inhabitants, belong to the LORD.”
So while Scripture is sufficient for our salvation, faith and Christian life on earth, Scripture also affirms our ability to find attributes of God in his creation. This means that God can also teach us about Himself and His heart for justice (repeatedly affirmed all throughout Scripture) through culture.
God even instructs us to occasionally look outside the Bible for wisdom by observing His creation. One example of this is found in Proverbs 6:6 (ESV): “Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.”
If God Himself, through His Word, teaches us that we can find divine wisdom in His creation, who are we to limit the means He chooses to reveal Himself through? What a glorious, magnanimous and majestic God we serve!
Does this mean that we should all shut our Bibles and only try to find divine truth in creation? By no means! The Bible is after all inerrant and authoritative in everything it affirms, so we must still weigh the attributes of God we think we see in culture with the attributes of God we know are authoritatively revealed to us through His Word.
In conclusion, can culture teach us anything about God? Absolutely! We have a LOT to learn from culture about the beauty of God and His heart for the poor and oppressed, especially through the current social conscience against racial injustice inspired by the black lives matter movement. But does culture teach us everything about God? Of course not! The Bible always teaches us more in addition to providing us with everything we need for a Christ-like life on earth.
May we be shaped by the God of Justice, the author of the Bible, who also calls us to a lifestyle of constant confession and repentance — all so that we might be transformed more and more into the image of his Son, Jesus.
*The views expressed in this article are personal.
Joash Thomas leads Advocacy and Mobilization in the U.S. Southeast for the world’s largest anti-trafficking organization. He has a master’s degree in political management from The George Washington University and is currently a Master of Theology (ThM) student at Dallas Theological Seminary.
