The Cultural Mandate And The New Testament Gospel Imperative -- By: W. Harold Mare

Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 16:3 (Summer 1973)
Article: The Cultural Mandate And The New Testament Gospel Imperative
Author: W. Harold Mare


The Cultural Mandate And
The New Testament Gospel Imperative

W. Harold Mare

Covenant Theological Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri

Herman Dooyeweerd in Iris In the Twilight of Western Thought concludes his chapter on “The Sense of History and the Historicistic World and Life View,” with the following thought:

There would be no future hope for mankind and for the whole process of man’s cultural development if Jesus Christ had not become the spiritual center and His kingdom the ultimate end of world-history.1

Dooyeweerd further comments that “in the historical process of cultural development a normative human vocation reveals itself, a cultural task committed to man at his creation.”2

Taylor amplifies this thought further by noting that various societal groups including the churches as well as the family, the university, the business world, the farm and the like hold a “cultural mandate directly from the Creator for the pursuance of their own peculiar task.3

From the above it may be gathered that the injunction of God to Adam and Eve to subdue the earth and have dominion over it (Genesis 1:28) is to be understood by the Christian and the Christian Church today as being their task to bring the world into conformity to God’s will, to make the world Christian in every sphere of society. However, this is to minimize the effect of the fall of man (Genesis 3), with the resultant human depravity of all mankind.

In analyzing further what has just been said, it is to be noted that Scripture clearly indicates that the individual Christian is to give his witness to the salvation he has received through the cross of Christ in whatever vocation he finds himself. Following the biblical example, it is to be noted that tax collectors were to carry on their trade with honesty and soldiers were to practice their soldiery without violence and false accusations against others (Luke 3:12–14). However, that the corporate church is to engage itself in the various societal units by way of political and social action as a primary part of its witness is another question.

At this point there should be noted some of the concepts used in describing aspects of the cultural mandate it is said that Christianity is obligated to perform. In discussing the principle of sphere sovereignty and in positing that...

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