When I visited Athens, Greece years ago, I heard many remarks made by the Christians on my bus. They were pretty much all saying the same thing during our visit to the Parthenon in the Athenian Acropolis--“Isn’t this the most amazing monument of mankind’s genius ever!!!” Well, as I looked at its crumbling walls, the equipment and scaffolding set up by the Greek Ministry of Culture in order to restore, reconstruct and repair the ruins (ruins being the key word), I could see a monument alright, but it was a monument to man and it told the story of man through its very crumbs. I guess I felt a little like Paul did when he went to Athens; his spirit was grieved; mine was too. Man just doesn’t get it.
I left the Parthenon and walked a little to the north-west in order to view the Areopagus, or Mars Hill, as the Romans nick-named it. Areopagus means ‘big piece of rock’--now this I could understand. Here was a big piece of rock, very likely unchanged throughout the centuries, although the constant friction of mens’ feet throughout those years polished that hunk of rock up a bit and made it a little slippery in places. When I reached the big piece of rock called the Areopagus, I looked around and, seeing no one, decided to ascend the stone stairway reaching to the top. I had to hold onto small crevices in the rock in order to gain any kind of stability--I really, really, really, did not want to fall! This was a big piece of rock, you know! This place was special to me because this was where Paul had given a super sermon to a bunch of men who thought they knew it all, but were, in fact, men who just didn’t get it.
Through the years I have heard one thing repeated which grieves my spirit more than actually standing in the Athenian Acropolis--that Paul’s Mars Hill discourse gives license to practice ‘contextualization’ with God’s Word. Oh, it hasn’t always been called contextualization, sometimes it is couched in terms like relevancy in order to make it sound gracious and significant. But it isn’t really. They say they are putting God’s Word in the context of the culture so that those in the culture can understand it, but that is not what they do--they pull God’s Word out of its context (which is God) and swirl it around in a cesspool of modern thinking (which has no god), and then present it as contextuallized truth. I always figure when someone has to make up a word for what he is doing with God’s Word, it probably goes against God’s Own Word! I’ve never heard a contextualized sermon that actually stayed true to the Word of God.
Almost 20 years ago, when our family was part of a large missionary organization, I learned about it first hand. There was a course which consisted of specially chosen students and was called something like ‘The Communications Group’. Upon hearing a couple of its students chatting near to me one day, and not knowing what it was, I asked them about their course. To put it in a nutshell, their homework assignment that night was to go to a popular ‘R’ rated movie so that the next day they could better evangelize certain groups of people. I, of course, thought that they were messing around with me, or that I had gone goofy and misunderstood what they ‘communicated’ to me. But they were serious--dead serious. They liked their course of study and they, of course, used poor Paul to prove their course of study to be ‘biblical’ and therefore ‘righteous’. I contended all afternoon with them, and again that night with another couple who were also in The Communications Group. Somehow I got the feeling that I would be part of The Communications Group’s class discussion class the next day.
I heard it again the other day, and so I respond...
First of all, we need to all understand that we get our doctrine from clear, repeated teaching in the Bible, not through events. It is the clear, repeated teaching (doctrine) in the Bible which interprets the events of the Bible for us, such as Paul on Mars Hill. If only more people understood this... So, what we are to preach and teach, and how we are to preach and teach it, are guided by doctrine, clear and repeated teaching--not whims and fads, nor perceived needs and criteria of civilisations and cultures.
To use Paul’s Mars Hill preaching as a commissional green light to ‘culturally’ change the message of God’s Word even one iota, is to miss the whole counsel of the Word of God and to miss God’s very voice and heart on the matter. God clearly tells us to Guard the Treasure He has given us; we are to RETAIN the sound doctrine, not change, embellish, or abridge it. II Timothy 1:13-14
God most definitely tells us NOT to change it or contextualize it as is the contemporary curse. Those who use the phrase contextualize often include for themselves the right to change, add, and delete as they feel led. No! God does not give them permission! Rather, they must obey God. It’s His Word, and He wants it carried and used by accurate workmen who are approved by HIM, not by any evil man or culture. (II Timothy 2:15) Jeremiah 1:12 says that God stands over His Word to perform it, Isaiah 55:11 repeats that God’s Word will not go back void--it will accomplish what He sends it to do, in fact it will succeed in the very matter for which He sent it! In all sincerity, those who think God needs their help and contextualize His Word need to get out of God’s way.
Do we need great wisdom to begin conversations with pagans and false converts, especially those in other countries and cultures? Oh, of course we do! No one is saying differently! But we need wisdom from on high, through the power and leading of the Holy Spirit, not man-made corruption of the messenger and the message of the Word. Jesus said in John that we (and all men) will be judged by the very words He spoke.
You see, the WORD of GOD is the context—not any culture! Let me say it again--The WORD of GOD is the context! And the message is sent to an individual with, yes, a depraved mind, but that mind has already been primed for us by God, Himself. (Romans 1) If they don’t respond to the gospel, it is not because the gospel needs some culture-tweeking, it is because their hearts are darkened and depraved and they are suppressing the truth God has already given them--you know, the stuff about His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature! All those things have been clearly understood by each of them because God, Himself made them understand it--clearly!!! They know He is God, but they don’t honor Him as God or give thanks to Him and so they become futile in their speculations, and their foolish hearts are darkened further.
We are to be a light to the darkness. In Jesus is life, and the life is the light of men (John 1) It is that life which shines into the darkness which offers hope to the ones who perish in darkness. When the light of the gospel comes to town--it changes the culture! To contextualize is horrifically, most often, to become darkness in order to buddy up with someone else who is in darkness, in order to do what--pull a bait and switch? Many times, the bait and switch goes awry and the contextualizer himself becomes the prey of the darkness itself.
Yes, Paul used an unnamed idol (part of their culture) to begin a conversation with the Mars men. In Paul’s message to them, however, he did not dilute or change the gospel at all, in fact, he told the Mars men they were WRONG—Paul said, “We ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man.” Paul then went on to tell them they had been (and were) IGNORANT. Finally, Paul announced the JUDGEMENT of God and called for REPENTANCE. Acts 17:16-34 Paul wrote about the constitution of our faith, the gospel itself, in the book of Romans and he gave that gospel faithfully to the men in Athens. Paul did not waver from the gospel treasure one little bit. Instead, he guarded every word of it!
Another example that contextualizers use in defense of their philosophy is Paul’s statement that he is “all things to all men that I might by all means save some.” 1 Corinthian 9, which is of course, taken completely out of context in order to make their point. When he said he became all things to all men, the context is already established - Jew and Gentile, those under the Law and those not under the Law, he NEVER became like a Gentile in ungodly behavior!!! When he said he used all things, he most certainly did not mean anything which God disapproved, simply the ‘all things’ available to him as a Christian, whether Jew, unconverted or converted, or Gentile! Paul NEVER came out from under the Law of Christ! What a travesty is being perpetrated against God’s Truth! And by the way, Paul’s discussion is embedded in the context of the whole chapter, which has to do with freedom! Paul became a slave, rather than use his rights. I wish modern-day contextualizers would truly ‘contextualize’ Paul’s words with Paul’s own words! Maybe then, they could see they are doing the very opposite of what Paul did--Paul was giving up his rights, while they are making up their rights.
Those who preach contextualized sermons all too often are simply ashamed of the gospel. The gospel starts the with the wrath of God coming upon all unrighteousness and ungodliness. They can often hide their ‘main problem’ (God’s wrath), through crafty ‘contextualization’! Woe to anyone who believes their message is better than God’s.
Contextualization liberality has made such a mess of Mars Hill! My spirit is grieved when I hear of today’s ‘preachers’ soaking up socialization in order to offer a more ‘relevant’ sermon. God calls any divergence from His path sin, not contextualization. His Word, not society, shows us the path to walk on--even, or especially, while giving the gospel! (Psalm 119:105)
God says that “all Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work”--and that includes giving the gospel. (2 Timothy 3:16-17) Nope - no contextualization needed here.
Proverbs 16:20 says that, “He who gives attention to the Word shall find good, and blessed is he who trusts in the Lord.” Do you hear it? I do. I am to pay very close attention to God’s Words; then I am to use His Words and trust in the Lord when I give the gospel.
Look at Psalm 147:15 “He sends forth His command to the earth; His Word runs very swiftly.” What does that mean? It just simply means that what God is saying is not a mystery; it is very clear. His Word ‘runs’ to you, if you will just listen! His Word is not hiding behind a cultural veil; He sends His command to His people the world over--in every culture and lifestyle. It runs very swiftly and is just waiting to be understood and obeyed!
The Lord told Jeremiah that He is watching over His Word to perform it. Jeremiah 1:12 God doesn’t need us to save His ‘out-dated’, ‘ill-equipped’, and oh, so ‘culturally-irrelevant’ Word! Far from it! God has given a personal life-time guarantee, valid on all continents of His planet, which says He will stand over His Word and perform it! I believe Him! I shout it to the heavens (and may many earthlings hear it), “I BELIEVE HIM!!!”
I could go on and on with truths from the Word of God which do not even mention, much less encourage, contextualization! But, I’ll close with one more. Psalm 119:89 “Forever, O Lord Thy Word is settled in heaven.” Think of a house, once it is built, that moves just a little here and there while it is settling. Once it is settled, it is not going to move. It is not yet settled if it has to move. God’s Word is settled; it is established; it stands forever. It doesn’t move for culture, for civilizations, for peoples or societies. Nothing is going to move God’s Word. God’s Word is not out-dated, nor out of touch with His Creation. God’s Word does not need to leap over culture barriers, nor undergo a face-lift to be heard. Those to whom it is sent will hear their Master’s voice (John 10:16), an extravagant promise which it keeps century after century in civilisation after civilisation. Oh, and by the way, although I am not a shepherd, nor do I live in a sheep field, I can still understand the figure of speech Jesus uses in John 10 just the same.
God’s Word still stands after nations have been destroyed, countries have corrupted, and cultures have decayed. God’s Word stands. God’s Word is settled forever.
