Good News, Meet America

I don't like posting school assignments on my blog. If I did, I would be thought of as an ostentatious, pretentious Bible school student. I wouldn't be able to live with myself, knowing that the truth had been exposed. Oh well. My cover is now blown.


But seriously. This was a reflection on a reading from Herman Bavinck's Reformed Dogmatics for my doctrine class. I love how Bavinck writes in a way that 21st century American Christians can understand and currently relate to. The assignment for class was to either 1) seek to theologically answer a question from the reading, or 2) interact with the ideas in a way that would apply them to life today. Here is my attempt at modern-day application.


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Bavinck begins this assigned reading by restating his conclusion from the previous chapter that all societies have an understanding of their need for redemption. In his hypothesis, societies that are more culturally advanced feel this need more deeply. I understood what he said to mean that the more easily a society has access to ease, comfort, and pleasure, and the more time a society has to pursue those things, the more clearly that society will understand that its self-salvation projects cannot save.

This premise begs the question, “Do lesser-developed cultures actually feel their need for reconciliation less?” Though anything stated in a short essay will result in gross overgeneralization, we can know that some of the most fruitful Gospel ministries seem to take place in parts of the world where the people have very limited technology and rudimentary amenities. Perhaps, all societies are aware of their need for reconciliation, but in different ways. All men know that God exists and are universally under condemnation (Romans 1:18-19); lesser developed cultures seem more “aware” of their need for reconciliation in that they have not delved the depths of depravity and are a more fertile soil for the Gospel to take root; advanced societies are “aware” in the sense that they have delved the depths of the insufficiency of depravity, but that “awareness” may or may not result in repentance.

One might then ask, “What about the advancement of a culture makes it feel this need so deeply?” To answer this question, one might survey the avenues by which an advanced culture seeks to satiate itself, thusly dry heaving on that which cannot satisfy. Three examples are 1) the obsession with athletics, 2) the pressure become more highly educated, and 3) the accessibility to pornography and all kinds of sexual indulgence.

America (and a large part of the West) places inordinate importance on the professional athlete. This seems to be indicative a culture that seeks to worship something or someone, and has the resources to make demigods of the physically exceptional. This idolatry is evident when an “A-list” athlete (or musician) makes a big mistake, and the civilized world gets extremely upset, as though someone they thought incapable of such a mistake has done the unthinkable. The worship of their god(dess) was shown for what it was. Unsatisfying.

The emphasis on education seems indicative of a culture that worships the pursuit of knowledge and wisdom. While there are truly many brilliant secular minds who have discovered incredible complexities in the secular world, it is curious that almost every one of them seem solemn, sullen, and completely dissatisfied with their station in life.

The accessibility of sexual gratification, namely pornography, seems indicative of a culture that seeks to solve the problem of dissatisfaction with pleasure. What is interesting is that those who delve the depths of the dissatisfaction of sexual depravity actually experience not a decreased desire for sex, but a morbid increasing of a desire for that which is progressively more depraved.

I believe that these hunger pangs the West (in particular) experiences are great opportunities to present the satisfaction of Christ and His Gospel. Unlike athletes or musicians, there is the God-Man who will never make a mistake. He will never disappoint. His exceptionality is so much more worth our scrutiny than Kobe Bryant or John Mayer. Instead of pursuing education, we can tell the world that man will never know enough to extricate himself from the guilt of sin or discover enough scientific theories to escape our immanent death and judgment before a thrice-holy God. Instead of filling the body with sexual pleasure, we can preach the all-satisfying nature of the sacrifice of Christ. The favor of God rests upon us, because He sees His Son’s righteousness covering us. Sex numbs. Christ enlivens. Pleasure dulls the mind. The Gospel breathes life into the driest and most parched regions of the soul. We just need to proclaim the message.

In conclusion, some cultures may be have traveled further down the road of corruption than others. That is a statement of fact. However, no matter how far some society has progressed down that road, all are responsible before God for the separation between God and man. Furthermore, Christians are responsible to engage the culture where it stands, pointing out how hopeless and helpless every other-than-Gospel solution is in comparison to the sufficiency of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, for He alone gives life.

.DSN.