Truth Transforms Cultures
Most Christians agree that lies enslave and truths transform. At the same time, many believers fail to grasp the significance of such a reality. Darrow Miller points out that lies not only enslave individuals spiritually, mentally, and socially, but those same lies enslave entire cultures in the same ways. For most, it’s probably a new concept to think at such a macro level. The implication is that entire cultures could be set free from certain things if enough persons understood and were committed to the truth God has revealed.
The Lord Jesus said the truth will set us free. The primary emphasis there, of course, is the fact that Christians are set free from enslavement to sin, Satan, and death. Beyond that, their minds are set free. By virtue of the Word and Spirit, Christians uniquely have an ability to see what’s real. They understand the reality of God, His world, our problem, and His solution. But they understand more than that as well. By way of example, there are certain intellectual and/or spiritual commitments that enslave entire cultures in poverty, instability, and hopelessness among other equally devastating dynamics. When it comes to the issue of poverty, only the truth of God will enable persons and indeed entire cultures to overcome their impoverished state. Too many are enslaved by Satan’s lie that poverty is the result of a lack of resources or infrastructure. God’s reality is otherwise. He has given us minds to overcome seeming limitations with innovation, development, and so much more.
But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, it all starts with the gospel. Individuals are transformed when they come to know Christ. They then begin to learn the truths of who God is, what He’s about, who we are, and what we’re about. Others move beyond the basics of the faith and are discipled in a greater way. They learn to take the truths of Scripture and apply them to their hearts. They shed old, destructive habit patterns and adopt new, life-giving habit patterns rooted in God‘s reality. But we need to go even further and help others do the same. We must help persons grasp a full-orbed, biblical worldview to combat the multitude of lies Satan throws our way through a host of cultural avenues. We must carry the Great Commission to its full conclusion. We must not only make disciples from all the nations, but as Miller would say, we must disciple entire nations. It is that dynamic that takes the implications of the gospel and the inaugurated kingdom to its fullest extent, as it should: thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.
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