Should We be Trying to Redeem the Culture?
On February 13, 2023, Matthew Loftus at mereorthdoxy.com published an article entitled You can’t Reclaim the Culture by Having More Kids. This has been a sort of mantra of the home school movement for the last 25 years or so. After all, Islam is taking Europe through immigration and population growth in the same way, isn’t it? This brings up a long-held conversation about Christians and culture that has dominated academic discussion for the last decade.
The problem with Loftus’ article is that the real question is “Should we even be trying to redeem the culture?”
He likens the “have more kids” movement to the Christian College movement of the last century. Christian colleges were heralded as great institutions to defend the faith and advance the impact of Christianity in the culture and the world. There can be no doubt that Christian Colleges have had a significant impact. Still, that impact is diminishing with the corrupting ideals of secular academia that increasingly encroach on the foundational principles of Christian higher education.
Loftus argues that it is not enough just to homeschool, have more kids, and send them to Christian Schools or even Christian colleges. He cites a study that missionary kids tend to maintain their faith at higher rates than in the average Christian homes.
A survey that is also likely subject to some sampling bias found that 80% of missionary kids remain Christians into adulthood. (Here, one of the most variables involved the parents’ commitment to ministry; kids who felt as though their parents prioritized ministry over them were much less likely to be believers as adults.)
He argues that Christian homes have to be fundamentally different from otherwise traditional families in the culture.
I have long argued that a family that is otherwise indistinguishable from their unbelieving middle-to-upper-class neighbors in terms of where they choose to live and how they spend their money is probably not different enough to make a difference. If your basic outlook on life still functionally treats financial security and physical comfort as your primary life goals, then homeschooling and family discipleship can easily be perceived as different wallpaper on the same house.
Overall, it is a good article, but it ignores the core issue at the heart of his thesis.
Cultural mandate vs the Great Commission.
Believers have failed in the cultural mandate ever since it was declared in Genesis 1:28. The most glaring failure was the fall of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3. I would argue that no generation of human beings since creation has fulfilled the cultural mandate as Genesis 1:28 envisions it. Humanity’s failure to become inwardly righteous or impact its surroundings for righteousness–either through industry or law–has been the schoolmaster that has shown us our sinfulness and frailty and driven us to Christ.
This is why having more children fails. Please, I am not arguing that Christians should have fewer children. It’s just that we will not redeem the culture just by having more children.
The presumption that “covenant children” will make a difference is fundamentally flawed. Every child is born a sinner, is not in any way spiritually transformed through infant baptism, and will be as lost as any other human being outside of that child accepting the transforming gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. The thinking that just having children, baptizing them as infants, and raising them in church-going homes will make a significant difference in our culture is futile. The meager Christianity that that thinking produces can be more damaging than no Christianity at all. It can inoculate children against the true work of the Spirit and nominal Christianity is a reproach in the world.
We have a gospel mandate that makes the dominion mandate redundant. Our mandate in this age is the Great Commission. Make disciples of Jesus Christ—genuine, deep, self-sacrificing reflections of the character of Christ in personal heart and life. Those who genuinely trust Christ should identify with Him in baptism and we must emphasize that there is no such thing as trust in Christ until there is a conversion/salvation experience in the heart. It is not just that the Bible does not teach paedo Baptism, it is that what the Bible does teach is believer’s baptism. Our children are as lost in sin as any unbeliever anywhere in the world, and they should be objects of our Great Commission efforts as much as any unbeliever anywhere.
The Great Commission is a command that must be obeyed. It requires energetic, self-sacrificing, evangelistic, and activity. It requires the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit to open hearts. It will be individually transforming and if it is not, it is not real faith.
Our command in this age is to make disciples, not to redeem the culture. If we effectively make disciples, the redemption of the culture will be a byproduct of that effort. If we seek to redeem the culture in any way apart from the Great Commission, we will miserably fail.
We must be actively engaging the culture as a natural outworking of our Christian faith. Our worldview impacts how we vote, what we buy, where we will go, and what we will watch. However, our defense of those behaviors is not based on the merits of the behavior itself, but rather on a love for God that can only be expressed by a regenerated person.
Be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Make disciples of Jesus Christ. Make disciple-makers of Jesus Christ, and so fulfill the command of Christ for this age. The complete redemption of the culture will occur when Jesus sits on the throne, ruling with a rod of iron. This was the mission of the first-century church, and it is just as much ours today.