Preserving Christian Culture
W. Edgar’s Response to W.H. Chellis’ “Cult and Cultureâ€
“Ye are the salt of the earth,†Jesus said. We don’t have to try to be salt. We just are–until we are Christian in name only. Then Christ will cast us aside. How do Christians preserve Western culture just by being themselves?
We have children (in increasingly large families), give them to the Lord in baptism, and raise them for God. We give society its next generation of citizens and workers who will maintain it. (Woe to Europe, where not enough Christians remain to populate the next generation, and unbelievers have few offspring. They import workers from Turkey and Algeria but do not evangelize them.)
We do our work as unto the Lord, not as men pleasers or careerists, but honestly, without shortcuts. At the lower and mid-levels of our economy, organizations work as well as they do because Christians are there. Our motto is, “Do it right.†In aiming to do our work right, we are, in the eyes of many employers, both blessing and bane. And as long as enough Christians refuse to work on the Lord’s Day, we help to preserve a weekly day of rest for everyone and put a brake on our society’s mad rush for wealth.
We think God’s thoughts after Him, both as to what is true and how to behave. Thus, for example, we know that God created man male and female, two sexes only. Male and female is not a matter of culture-created “gender,†a term from grammar imposed to claim that our thinking about the sexes is arbitrary. God created exactly one Eve for one Adam. Marriage is His gift to mankind, not a humanly invented convention. We can’t help thinking and talking in these terms. Christians who can’t see any reason to oppose “gay marriage†have lost their savor and will land by the wayside. We know that abortion is murder and will not agree that the “abortion wars†are over until the law again protects all citizens.
We maintain a many-sided offensive against the gates of death: by radio, print, TV, internet, personal witnessing, regular preaching, and prayer, inviting men and women to inherit eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ. We give generously when disaster strikes. We are involved in every part of our society. Unbelievers are not reliably safe anywhere from being reminded that God claims their lives, not even in Hollywood or our great universities.
By being the salt that God made us, we preserve society, giving God reason to continue His patient forbearance with our land. Yes, Western culture where it reflects God’s law is worth preserving. As for the rest, let it die along with all of this world that is passing away. Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus.
