The Table Briefing: Truth And Tone In Cultural Engagement -- By: Darrell L. Bock

Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 173:689 (Jan 2016)
Article: The Table Briefing: Truth And Tone In Cultural Engagement
Author: Darrell L. Bock


The Table Briefing:
Truth And Tone In Cultural Engagement

Darrell L. Bock

and

Mikel Del Rosario

Over the past few decades, some evangelicals have seen cultural engagement as fighting a culture war for Christ. But the landscape has changed in a way that most people who graduated from seminary forty years ago might never have imagined. Today, we as Christians find ourselves in the position of a cultural minority in the United States. How should we engage with a society that is increasingly hostile to the Christian faith?

This Table briefing explores what the New Testament teaches about honoring God though our message—and our tone—as we minister in a world that often pushes back against the gospel. This ethos of balancing invitation and challenge has been a key emphasis since the beginning of the Table Podcasts. First we consider how the example of the early church should inform our cultural engagement as a church today. Then we examine how the Apostle Paul’s example should inform our interpersonal interactions with unbelieving friends and neighbors.

The Early Church’s Example

While some believers may be surprised at the kind of hostility and vitriol they encounter when sharing the gospel today, this situation is not new. The early church got its start immediately immersed in a skeptical context. How did the earliest Christians respond to persecution? What kind of example did they leave?

In Acts 4, Luke records how Peter and John were imprisoned and threatened by the Jewish elders and chief priests after healing a lame man and preaching in Jesus’s name. Interestingly, the church was not surprised by this level of persecution. The believers

knew that Jesus had predicted it. Their prayer in response to persecution begins by highlighting God’s sovereignty over all things:

Master of all, you who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and everything that is in them, . . . both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, assembled together in this city against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, to do as much as your power and your plan had decided beforehand would happen. And now, Lord, pay attention to their threats, and grant to your servants to speak your message with great courage, while you extend your hand to heal, and to bring about miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus (Acts 4:24-30, NET).

Rather than take an aggressive stance against those who opposed the gos...

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