Genesis: Creation, Fall, and Dominion

Theology and Culture

Transcript: AI Transcript

Professor: John Weaver

Subject: Old Testament Studies

Genre: Sermon

Dictation Name:

Date: 2012-02-17

Synopsis: Pastor John Weaver argues that cultural change is always preceded by theological change. Using 2 Timothy 2, he calls believers to endure hardness as soldiers in a spiritual war. He traces how America's moral decline—seen in abortion, homosexuality, and loss of constitutional government—stems from abandoning biblical theology. The Reformation and the War of Northern Aggression illustrate the principle: a change in theology produces a change in culture. The only remedy is repentance and a return to God's Word, applying it to every area of life.

[John Weaver] Alright, let's open our Bible's day to 2 Timothy chapter 2. 2 Timothy chapter 2. And I want you to listen very carefully because this is not my normal type of message, but it is a message that certainly needs to be emphasized and preached. I have often been asked as I preach away, do you preach this hard to your people? And I normally answer, I practice all these messages on my people before I preach them anywhere else. So I've been asked to deal with this subject while I'm out in California. So, Clay, since you're not going to be in California, you're going to get a little sneak preview, okay? The title of this message is Theology and Culture. Now, I want you to listen carefully as I read from 2 Timothy 2, verse 1. Paul writes Timothy and he says, Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to fateful men, who shall be able to teach others also, that thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

[John Weaver] No man that warrenth and tangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. If a man also strive for masteries, yet he is not crowned, except he strive lawfully. Now go back, if you would, please, to verse 3. I want to just take this thought just momentarily. Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." May I remind you, before I even give you my introduction, that all truth is God's truth. I don't care if we're talking about theological truth, cultural truth, scientific truth, all truth is God's truth. When you go to John 8 in verse 44, the Bible says, our Lord said, You are the children of your father, the devil, and the lust of your father you will do. He was a liar and a murderer from the beginning because there's no truth in him. So all lies is of the devil, all truth is of God. All truth belongs to God. So the Bible tells us, therefore, that we're to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

[John Weaver] What does that mean? It means, first of all, that we're at war. Does that surprise you? We have been at war, we are at war, and we will continue to be at war. It was Solomon who wisely said in Ecclesiastes 3 in verse 8, there is no discharge in that war. So you do not get discharged in the war that I'm referring to. If you are a Christian, you are personally involved in a war, whether you realize it or not.

[John Weaver] Your culture, your society, and your life as you know it, and as you have known it, is being deliberately destroyed. Revolutions are being constantly planned, fomented, and executed against God, His Word, and the Christian faith, and most Christians are totally unaware of what is happening until it is too late. In fact, you could say that most Christians are AWOL, away without leave, because the average professing Christian, all he wants to do is to have a color TV and a comfortable couch where he can watch his football games undisturbed. Now let me ask you, are things wrong in our society?

[John Weaver] Have our values, ethics, and morality changed in our lifetime? When did they change and how did they change? And let's ask it like this, what happened to our Christian culture? It seems almost as if we went to sleep and everything was fine and when we woke up the next morning, everything was going to hell as fast and as quickly as it could possibly travel. So why has our culture changed? Why has our society changed? Why is it that our society today is no longer like it was 50 years ago? Let me point out that anyone over 60 will remember when society had little more moral balance. Anyone over 60 will remember when the average person, whether Christian or not, could at least quote the Ten Commandments. Anyone over 60 will remember when deals were made with a handshake and a man's word was his bond. Anyone over 60 will remember when divorce was uncommon and most children had a father and a mother.

[John Weaver] We also remember that ladies dressed modestly and men were gentlemen. We remember when you did not have to guess the sex of an individual. Men look like men and women look like women. We also remember when children, even teenagers, would say yes sir and no sir, yes ma'am and no ma'am to their parents and to any other adult. We also remember when the father was the head of the home and both father and mother disciplined the children. We also remember when most children wanted to do what was right and to please their father and their mother and even the Lord.

[John Weaver] So you have to ask, what has changed? What has happened to our culture and our society We know that it has changed, but for the most part, we do not know why it has changed. We do not know what has happened. The answer is very simple. Our culture and our theology have changed. Our culture and our society have changed because our theology has changed. This is the one point that I'm going to emphasize over and over and over today.

[John Weaver] A theological change always precedes a cultural change. Let me say that another way. You cannot have a change in culture until first you have a change in theology. If you have a change in theology for the better, then your culture and your society is going to be better. If you have a change in your theology for the worse, then your culture and your society is going to be worse. In other words, it is impossible to have a change in culture or society without having a change in theology.

[John Weaver] Now, since we're in 2 Timothy, I want you to turn right back to 1 Timothy, and let me show you this principle from the Scripture. Look, if you would, 1 Timothy 1 and verse 3. Look what the Apostle Paul tells Timothy. He said, As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach nor the doctrine.

[John Weaver] Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than the godly edifying, which is in the faith so do. Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned.

[John Weaver] Now, I want you to note what he says in verse 5. Now the end of the commandment. What commandment? Go back to verse 3. As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some. The word charge is perigaleos, which is often times interpreted and translated as commandment. So the commandment that he's talking about in verse 5 is the commandment that they teach nor the doctrine. And the opposite of that is found in verse 4 that as they teach nor the doctrine, they do not give heed to fables and endless genealogies which minister questions rather than godly edifying which is in faith. Now notice what he says. You understand the charge or the commandment in verse 3, that they teach nor the doctrine, that it is the pure doctrine of God. Then look in verse 5, now the end of the commandment, that is the end of the commandment to preach the pure, unadulterated word of God is, love out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned.

[John Weaver] In other words, if you want a godly culture, it must be produced by godly people. If you want godly people, they must be produced by the Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit.

[John Weaver] Now let me tell you something that is probably astounding to you. Do you realize that our country, even our government, used to send missionaries to foreign lands? And our foreign aid was tied to our missionaries. If you wanted our missionaries, you might have some foreign aid. If you wanted foreign aid and not the missionaries, you didn't get it. The foreign aid was tied to the missionaries. In other words, there was a time when even the folks in our government understood that you cannot have a change in culture without first having a change in theology.

[John Weaver] Now let me tell you what has happened in the last hundred years. We used to, as a government, send missionaries. Now we send armies. We used to try to change people through the power of the Word of God. Now we try to change them through force. So there was a time when even those in our government understood this simple truth that a theological change must precede a cultural change.

[John Weaver] Now some of you will remember that a few years ago there was a movie made entitled Black Hawk Down. It was a story of 123 elite US soldiers dropped in Somalia to capture two top lieutenants of a renegade warlord and while they were dropped in they found themselves in a desperate struggle for survival. It was known as the Battle Mogadishu. That is where we were as a country trying to capture Somali warlord Mohammed Farah Adid. I saw the movie when it came on TV.

[John Weaver] Sometime later it was shown again on TV. and I decided I would watch it for the second time and I'm certainly glad that I did because there was a scene in that movie that escaped me the first time I saw it. You remember when those Black Hawk helicopters were shot down? There was one pilot that survived. He was beaten viciously by the Somalis. He was tied. He was thrown against the wall. He was still alive and in this scene one of Adid's warlords says something like this, almost exactly, but not quite a quote.

[John Weaver] He said, you stupid Americans, you think you can change us? You think you can come over here and force your democracy down our throats and stop us from killing each other when killing has been a way of life for us for over a thousand years?

[John Weaver] Now ask yourself a question. Why was killing a way of life for those people for over a thousand years? Because of their paganism. Because of their witchcraft. Because of their rebellion. Because of their wickedness. If there is no biblical truth, There cannot be a biblical culture. You cannot change a culture by force. You cannot change a culture by foreign aid, by politics, by diplomacy. You cannot change a culture by being Mr. Nice Guy or Mr. Bad Guy. The only way a culture can be changed is through the power of the Word of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ. If there is not a change in theology, there will not be a change in culture. If you want a change in culture in America, we have to change our theology back to the Word of God. If we want to continue to go downhill in America, all we have to do is deny and denigrate and destroy the Word of God and we will continue downhill very rapidly. Anytime you have a change in theology, good or bad, you will always have a change in culture.

[John Weaver] Have you ever wondered why the Marxist and the Communist targeted our seminaries and our churches? Because they understood this, it is impossible to change a society or a culture that tenaciously hold to the Word of God. It was Karl Marx himself who said that a people deprived of their history are easily persuaded. If just depriving us of our history will lead us to deception, what in the world will it do if we're deprived of the Word of God? Those who do not know the Word of God will fall prey to the cults and isms and schisms and all matter of deception. Let me just try to give you an illustration of what I'm talking about.

[John Weaver] I want you to think of the country of India. And I want you to think momentarily of all the multi-billions of dollars of foreign aid that has gone to India from America and knowing that India is one of the poorest countries in the world. And in response to all those multi billions of dollars that they've received, they're still one of the poorest countries in the world. Why? They've gotten all this money.

[John Weaver] Why have they not bettered themselves? The answer is because of their theology or bad theology or lack of theology because in India they worship the rats and the cows and all the grain that is sent over there the cows and the rats eat and what they do not eat they defecate on or the germs get in and make it basically unpalatable for anyone else. You could continue to send money to India from now to the end of the world and India will never improve and never get rid of the caste system and never get rid of their poverty rate and never get rid of their illiteracy. Why? Because they have no biblical theology.

[John Weaver] There is no reason to change. Their culture is doomed. And they're doomed. You cannot have a change in culture until first you have a change in theology. America became great because of the grace of God and the Word of God. Our forefathers believed it, they applied it, and they obeyed it. And what has happened in America is we have lost practically everything our forefathers gave us. You know, there's a question in Psalm 11 in verse 3 that asks this, if the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? Well, Isaiah answers that question for us in Isaiah 58.

[John Weaver] Let me just read it. You don't have to turn there. But in Isaiah 58 in verse 12, God says this, and they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places and shall raise up the foundation of many generations and thou shalt be called the repairer of the breach and the restorer of paths to dwell in. Now when Isaiah wrote that in Isaiah 58 verse 12 what God was speaking about was repentance and a return to Him and His Word. It is only as there is repentance and a return to God that we begin to build the old waste places, that we begin to raise up the foundation of many generations, that we will be the restorer of the paths and the repairer of the breach.

[John Weaver] Bill Bennett on a talk show said this, America has become the kind of country that we used to send missionaries to. How can this be? And the answer is our theology has changed and our culture has changed. Now I title this message, Theology and Culture. Why? Theology is the study of the doctrine of God. Theology is what we believe about Him, His attributes, His worship, and His word. Culture, listen carefully, culture is merely theology in action. It is religion externalized. Do you realize you actually work out what you believe? You do.

[John Weaver] That's why the Bible in Proverbs 23 and verse 7 says, As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. And that's why in Psalm 116 and verse 10, David said, I believed, therefore have I spoken. We actually work out and apply that which we believe. If we believe right, it's going to be right. If we believe wrongly, it's going to be wrong. It was Martin Luther, the reformer, who said this, there are only two men in the world, Christ and Adam, and everyone hangs from their girdles. What did he mean? He meant this, you're either in Christ, the second and last Adam, or you're in the first Adam. Here's what he meant, you're either a Christian or a humanist.

[John Weaver] One author said it another way. He said you are either a follower of John Calvin or Jean-Jacques Rousseau. I hope you know that John Calvin was the theologian and Jean-Jacques Rousseau was the humanist. What was he saying? You're either a Christian or you're a humanist. You could say the same truth another way. You could say you're either covenant keeper or covenant breaker. All that is saying is you're either a Christian or you're a humanist.

[John Weaver] Western culture, and particularly American culture, was based upon the Word of God. Listen carefully. We were called a Christian nation not because everyone in this country was a Christian, but because, originally, this country was based upon biblical principles and the Word of God as a whole. Have we ever thought of where and how we derive these. Precepts in these principles. Do you realize that one of the most easily discernible illustrations of this fact that a change in theology produces a change in culture is seen in the reformation. Do you realize that Europe before the reformation was experiencing what was known and is still known in history as the dark ages.

[John Weaver] from about 800 to 1500 prevailed ignorance, darkness, illiteracy, and overall degeneracy. Those things permeated that period of time. The Bible was a suppressed book. You weren't supposed to read the Bible during those days. The priest would tell you what the Bible meant, supposedly, and he didn't even know himself. Any other scientific work was suppressed as well, especially one that was based upon biblical truth. Do you realize during those ages, during those years, if you possessed a Bible or any other scientific book, you were classified usually as a witch. Because the Roman Catholic Church viewed those things basically as of the devil. And if you possessed them, you were in danger of being burned at the stake by the Roman Catholic Church. They did burn many at the stake, by the way.

[John Weaver] But in the providence of God, God raised up men like Martin Luther, and John Calvin, and Zwingli, and Gutenberg. And it was Calvin particularly that created the patterns and thought that would dominate Western culture and particularly American culture. In fact, just about everywhere you turn in America, even economics, it is grounded upon principles and precepts taught by John Calvin. You've got to understand this, folks. There was a change in theology in the 1500s, and it produced a momentous change in culture. When you begin to think of the doctrine of justification by faith, the doctrine of the priesthood of the believers, the doctrine of the sovereignty of God, and the doctrine of the full and final authority of God's Word, those truths are bound to produce a momentous change in culture. It not only produced a theological reformation, but a cultural reformation as well.

[John Weaver] Let me tell you what Christians realized. Christians realized during that time that their cultural activity, that is every part of their everyday life, was part and parcel of their worship of God. You see, back before then, if you wanted to worship God, quote-unquote, you went into a monastery, or you went into a nunnery, or you went into the priesthood. That was the sacred worship according to the Roman Catholic Church. No.

[John Weaver] But when Calvin and Luther And some of these other men began to preach, no. Everything that you do in word or deed, 1 Corinthians 10 31, whether you drink or whether you eat, you do all for God's honor and God's glory. Christians all of a sudden realize they did not have to enter into a monastery to worship God or to be spiritual or to be holy. No, no, no. What they had to do was to live by faith and live by the word of God. And whatever they did, do all to God's honor and God's glory. And all of a sudden now everything begins to change. Why? Because there was a change in theology. They realized that they were obligated, responsible, and duty-bound to apply the Word of God in every area of their life. Such thinking had to change culture. And the Reformation did indeed change not only the medieval way of life in Western Europe, but it also changed modern culture as well.

[John Weaver] Let me say it again. A change in culture is always produced by a change in theology. Now it was this change in theology that permeated the foundations in the settling of America and in the making of America. America was organized upon the principles of the Word of God. But humanist continued to attack those principles. A war started at the very beginning of the founding of our country and finally there was a breach made at one point where one section of the country tried to destroy another section of the country. One of the most vicious attacks came before and during what is known as the War of Northern Aggression, better known by the humanists as the Civil War. The War of Northern Aggression was not a civil war. A civil war is between one people. The war was between two separate people and two separate nations.

[John Weaver] The South had lawfully and legally seceded and began a separate nation. So it was not a civil war at all. Do you realize that many people have studied this war from many and varied aspects, but very few have ever studied this war from a theological perspective. Let me give you a couple of quotes. C. Greg Singer in his book, A Theological Interpretation of American History said this, After 1830 there was a growing philosophical and theological cleavage between the North and the South. While the North was becoming increasingly subject to radical influences, the South was becoming increasingly conservative in its outlook. So here he is saying there's a big theological difference now between the North and the South. The North, he is saying, is becoming more and more humanistic while the South is continuing to become more conservative or more biblically oriented. You must remember that the term Bible Belt was given to the South originally by the North as a term of derision. Why?

[John Weaver] Because we weren't the free thinkers that they were. We weren't the rationalists that they were. We held tenaciously to the Word of God. and thus we were derisively referred to as the Bible Belt. James Henley Thornwell, a Presbyterian pastor, theologian, and author said it very plainly concerning the war. Listen to what he said. The parties involved in this conflict are not merely abolitionists and slaveholders. They are atheists, socialists, communists, Red Republicans and Jacobins on the one side, that's the North, and the Friends of Order and Regulated Freedom on the other, that's the South. In one word, the world is the battleground, Christianity and atheism the combatants, and the progress of humanity is at stake. So here's a man who was alive in 1862 who said this war is a theological war. Here was a man that understood that there was a connection between theology and culture. A very clear understanding of this connection can be had if you just simply study the war of northern aggression. Many have never perceived the consequences of a changing theology upon a culture.

[John Weaver] If you want to know when we lost our republic, if you really want to know when we lost our freedom, if you really want to know when we became an empire, study the War of Northern Aggression and you will find those answers. The North as a whole refused and rejected the biblical worldview. In the place of a biblical worldview, they substituted rationalism, transcendentalism, and Unitarianism. The elitist of that day in the North were much like the elitist in our day in America.

[John Weaver] They wanted absolutely nothing to do with the Word of God, nothing to do with the Bible. Now that does not mean that every individual in the North was not a Christian. Doesn't mean that at all. There were many Christians in the North, and by the way, many of those individuals were sympathetic with the South. They sympathized with the South, they supported the South, and the Unitarians, and the Transcendentalists, and the Rationalists, and the Freethinkers of the North then labeled them as Copperheads.

[John Weaver] You know a Copperhead is a very poisonous snake that gives no sound before it strikes. And so the rationalists then turned on the Christians in the North and accused them of being copperheads because they sympathized with and supported the South.

[John Weaver] Now let me just give you some things that may really shock you because we are so accustomed to thinking in our modern-day terminologies. But it may surprise you to learn that before the 1800s there were no Southern Baptists. There were no American Baptists. There were no Northern Baptists. There were just Baptists. Likewise, there were no United Methodists, no Southern Methodists, no Independent Methodists. There were just Methodists.

[John Weaver] The same with the Presbyterian Church. The same with the Episcopalian Church. You say, well, where did we get all these different Methodist churches? Where did we get all these different Baptist churches and all these different Presbyterian churches? Well, a division came into all the major denominations because of a theological change. And this theological change was directly related to northern rationalism and humanism. Remember when you change theologies, cultures change.

[John Weaver] For culture is religion externalized. Now the Presbyterians were the first to divide. They divided first in 1837 and then again in 1857. There was a battle between what are known as the old lights and the new lights. While there were indeed doctrinal differences, abolitionism figured very prominently in these divisions. Abolitionism was being pushed by the rationalists, by the Unitarians in the north. The Methodists split in 1844. The Baptists split in 1845. And in 1845, the Southern Baptist Convention or the Southern Baptist came into existence. Until then, there were no Southern Baptists except just being Southern and living in the South. You were just Baptist. Churches began to split and soon the nation was torn into as well. So what happened? There was a change in theology in the North and consequently a change in culture. Now listen to me. Singer and Thornwell were right because what happened was simply this. The North began to want to enforce its theology upon the South. And when the South rejected the Northern theology, the Northern worldview, there was a division, not only in the church, but in politics, in government as well.

[John Weaver] Now what the abolitionists were wanting to do was to abolish slavery. I don't have time to talk about slavery today. Listen to the five messages on slavery. in the series where we are and how we got here. That will give you a clear understanding. But when you talk about abolitionists, there were violent abolitionists, there were pacifistic abolitionists, there were disunion abolitionists. They wanted to destroy slavery even if they destroyed the Union. They wanted to destroy slavery even if they murdered people in the South. It didn't matter. So the abolitionists were rationalist and humanist.

[John Weaver] Charles Hodge was a great Presbyterian pastor, teacher, preacher, and author. And he blamed the abolitionists for the destruction not only of the union of the churches, but also the union of the states. Here's what he said, their stigmatizing of slavery as a sin and a crime must operate to produce a disunion of the states and the division of all ecclesiastical societies. We shall become two nations in feeling, which must soon render us two nations in fact." What did he say?

[John Weaver] He said there's going to be a war. And the war is going to be over theology, which will produce a change in culture. William S. Plummer, another Presbyterian pastor and theologian and author, who said before the split in 1837, listen carefully, this is 1837, before the war ever broke out in 1861, listen to what he said. Should the assembly, he's talking about the Presbyterian assembly, should the assembly legislate and decide that slaveholding is a sin The southern churches would feel themselves instructed by the Apostle Paul to withdraw from such 1 Timothy 6, 1 through 5.

[John Weaver] Thus our church would be rent asunder. Then nothing left except to rend the star-spangled banner in twain. Soon hostile forces will be marshaled against each other and the Potomac will be dyed with blood. Can it be that the righteous judge of all the earth has so dreadful a controversy with the Presbyterian Church of the United States as to give her up to the folly and madness of being the first to hoist the gate and to let the flood of desolation roll in?

[John Weaver] Did you hear what he said in 1837? He said the church is going to be entwined.

[John Weaver] The next thing that's going to happen is the star-spangled banner will be red and twain, then the Potomac will be dyed with blood. What did he say? A change in theology is a change in culture, and a change in culture is going to result in a change in government. James Henley Thornwell, also known as the Calhoun of the Southern Church, said in 1851, ten years now before the war broke out, He says, we are solemn and earnest, not only because we deplore a schism in the body of Christ, but because we deplore a schism among the confederated states of this union. We declare our deliberate conviction that the continued agitation of slavery must sooner or later shiver this government into atoms. If slavery be indeed consistent with the Bible, their responsibility is tremendous. Who?

[John Weaver] in obedience to blind impulses and visionary theories, pull down the fairest fabric of government the world has ever seen, rend the body of Christ in sunder, and dethrone the Savior at His own kingdom. Are our country, our Bible, our interest on earth, our hopes for heaven to be sacrificed on the altars of a fierce fanaticism? Slavery is implicated in every fiber of Southern society. It is with us a vital question and it is because we know that interference with it cannot and will not be much longer endured.

[John Weaver] We raise our warning voice. Listen, we would save the country if we could. Ten years before the war, he said they're going to pull down the fairest fabric of government this world has ever known. What did he say? A change in theology is going to lead to a change in culture, which ultimately is going to change our governmental structure. All the pastors, all the theologians of that day understood that a change in theology led to a change in culture. They also understood it's going to lead to a change in government. So the schisms and divisions in war and the loss of our republic and our constitution all came about by a change in theology. You can't change a culture until you first change the theology.

[John Weaver] Now, I want you to think with me. I've given you a lot of historical background. But I want you to think about two of what you and I would probably refer to as the most horrendous changes in our culture and our society. And these are changes that horrify us and they cause us to cringe. And we think, how in the world could anything like this ever happen in our society? First of all, I want you to consider with me the outrage of abortion. How in the world did abortion come to pass in what the world would call a Christian nation? Of course, we understand that it is no longer a Christian nation. But in our modern day society, are you listening? Abortion is now considered just a form of birth control. It's no longer considered murder. Why has this happened? Let me show you.

[John Weaver] I want you to turn very quickly in your Bibles to the book of Genesis chapter 2. Genesis chapter 2. Genesis 2. And look at verses 27 and 28. Genesis 1, I'm sorry. Thank you. My wife looked at me and shook her head. I knew I'd given you the wrong passage. Genesis 1. Genesis 1 verse 27, So God created man in his own image, and in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them.

[John Weaver] And God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. This is known as the great mandate, the cultural mandate, or the dominion charter. And I want you to know, God said, be fruitful and multiply. You know what we've done? We have abandoned the cultural mandate. This is the first great commission where God told us to be fruitful and multiply and to exercise dominion. A rejection of this cultural mandate, a rejection of this theology has resulted in abortion, euthanasia, and genocide.

[John Weaver] In fact, the elitists of the world are now talking openly about population control. Some of them say, we need to reduce the population of this world by as much as nine-tenths. You say, what has this got to do with abortion? Be fruitful and multiply. Do you realize the average Christian today despises large families? And it's this despisement of large families that has led to abortion as a convenience and as a means of birth control.

[John Weaver] Unhappily, many professing Christians have absorbed the world's view, the pagan worldview, and they now view their children as an inconvenience. or at least at the most a curse. We can't afford them. You know, it's amazing to me, as you look at some of the larger families, not only how happier they are, but how they work together and cooperate and help each other. Even my father, I'd have to stop and count, I don't know, eight or nine kids. My mother, same thing, eight or nine kids.

[John Weaver] She had sisters and brothers. And when we hear today of someone having 10 or 11 kids, what? And when you hear of the Duggars and they've got, what, 19 now? We really say, Oh Lord have mercy. I want you to turn in your Bibles to Psalm 127. Let me just show, I'm trying to show you there has been a change in theology, which has resulted in a change in our thinking and consequently a change in our culture and our society. Look in Psalm 127, if you would please beginning there with verse three. Psalm 127, verse 3, look what the Bible says. Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is His reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are the children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them.

[John Weaver] They shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. Now look, children are an heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of their womb is His reward. As Arras are in the hand of a mighty man, so are the children of the... Wait a minute. As Arras? What do you do with Arras? You shoot them at your enemy. That's what you do.

[John Weaver] Skip down to verse 5. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them. Why? They shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. The gate was the place of politics. It was the place of government. In other words, the children, godly children, are going to be raised to have dominion in government. That's exactly what he is saying. Here's what Spurgeon said concerning children. Listen.

[John Weaver] They are token for good if men know how to receive them and educate them. They are doubtful blessings only because we are doubtful persons. Where society is rightly ordered, children are regarded not as an encumbrance, but as an inheritance. And they are received not with regret, but as a reward. If we are overcrowded in England, and so seems to be embarrassed with too large an increase, we must remember that the Lord does not order us to remain in this narrow island, but would have us fill those boundless regions which wait for the axe and the plow.

[John Weaver] Yet even here, with all the straits of limited incomes, our best possessions are our own dear offspring for whom we bless God every day. The reason we do not value children is because we've lost our theology. We had a change in theology. And therefore, we had a change in our culture in regard to the specific change in theology. Listen carefully. We no longer fight against abortion not simply because we have finally come to accept it, no, but because we have changed our theology. We have rejected what the Word of God teaches concerning children. an abortion, we changed our theology. And now even 13 and 14 year old girls in school may have abortions without their parents' knowledge and permission.

[John Weaver] What has happened? We have a change in culture. because we have a change in theology.

[John Weaver] Secondly, I want you to turn to Romans chapter 1, and I want to ask you another question. And I'm just trying to show you what has happened to our culture and our society. I want you to think next with me momentarily about the sodomite or the homosexual agenda. Today, the perverts are everywhere. And I might add in nearly any and every important position, lawyers, judges, politicians, and even seminaries and churches. Question is, how in the world did this come to pass? I want you to note how a change in theology produced a change in culture. Look in Romans chapter 1 and let's begin reading there with verse 21. Watch carefully. Romans 1 verse 21. Because that when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful, watch, but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened. What did they do? They've already changed theology. They've rejected the God of Revelation. They rejected His truth. They became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

[John Weaver] Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like the corruptible man, that is, idolatry, and to birds and to four-footed beasts and creeping things. Wherefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness, through the lust of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves, who changed the truth of God into a lie. A change of theology produces a change in culture and society. Who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this cause, God gave them up into vile affections. For even their women did change the natural use of that which is against nature, and likewise also the men. leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust one toward another, men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meat. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient, being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, deceit, debate, Malignity, whispers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of

[John Weaver] evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful, who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them." How did you get a society of perverts? By rejecting true theology. by rejecting the Word of God, by changing the truth of God into a lie. You cannot have a change in culture without having a change in theology. Let me tell you folks, our society has changed from since I was a boy. And it is changing every day. And you know why it's changing every day? Not because we're advancing. But because we're losing our theology. And it's becoming more and more wicked and more and more depraved. Now listen carefully. We've lost our Christian culture. We've lost our Christian government. We've lost our Christian heritage. Why? The answer is because we've lost our theology.

[John Weaver] Tim Baldwin, who is a constitutional attorney, wrote an article, Freedom is for the Living, June the 23rd, 2010, and I want you to listen to what he said, and I'm going to make a comment on it. Listen carefully. The reason we or they will never get back to the Constitution of 1787 is because those people those principles, that culture, those times, that circumstance, those beliefs, and those feelings are no longer accepted by most and are certainly not shared to unite the people of the states today. Do we expect that the representative of those same disunited and diverse people will get back to the Constitution of 1787? The culture, morals, religion, education, priorities, families, and experiences of the people of 1787 simply do not cohesively exist today. That is a fact.

[John Weaver] Did you hear what he said? We're not going back to the Constitution of 1787. We're not going back to that culture. We're not going back to those truths. Why? Because our theology has changed. Once your theology changes, it always produces a change in culture. John Adams said this at the founding of our country. Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. If you want that which our founding fathers gave us, we must repent and believe and apply the word of God as they did. We can only change our culture by changing our theology. Since our theology has changed, for the worse, we have to go back and repent and find what the Word of God teaches on every thought, every doctrine, and submit to it.

[John Weaver] We have to learn, folks, that ideas have consequences. And when one has a theological shift, inevitably there's going to be a cultural shift. What did Adam say? Our Constitution was made for a moral and religious people. A Christian people. R.J. Rush Dooney wrote this many years ago. Men cannot find peace in Christ until they accept the necessity for war with a fallen world. And Christ as the principle of that warfare. I begin this message by saying we're at war. We are at war. We will be at war. And we shall be at war until our Lord returns. And Christ is the principle of this warfare.

[John Weaver] We have to fight for our heritage. We have to fight for our theology. We have to fight for truth. The long-term answer is to produce a completely Christian culture, a reformation of culture that provides a true alternative to what we have today, the institutionalized love of death culture. And it is a love of death. For our Lord said in Proverbs 8, verses 35 and 36, 36, for whosoever findeth Me findeth life, and shall obtain favor of the Lord.

[John Weaver] But he that hateth Me, and sinneth against Me, wrongeth his own soul. All they that hate Me love death." We have a culture of death. If you want a culture of life, we must go back to Christ and His Word. We must have a culture where everything is centered around Christ, and His law word. One last quote. Tom Askell, Executive Director of the Founders Ministry said this, All the calls to reclaim America for Christ leaves me cold. Let him finish. Our real need is to reclaim the church for Christ. When Christ is exalted in His church, when he is loved and revered and cherished with passion by those who bear his name." In other words, when the church starts living like the church, then his body can't help but make an impact on culture. Askel spoke the truth. We must learn to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, with all our being, and then learn to apply that word and His truth to every area of our lives, and as we do that, we will be changing our culture.

[John Weaver] But you cannot have a change in culture without having a change in theology. If we want our culture back, we must go back to the Word of God. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we bow to Thee this day. We thank You for Your love. We thank You for Your truth. We ask, Father, that You would help us to see the absolute importance of loving Thee and Thy Word and applying it in our daily lives. Give us grace, Lord, that we may serve Thee acceptably with reverence and godly fear. In Thy name we ask and pray. Amen. Amen.

Theology and Culture

John Weaver | YouTube

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	YouTube
Media ID	lvn71GUow9w
Subject	Old Testament Studies
Course	Genesis: Creation, Fall, and Dominion
Genre	Sermon
Date	2012-02-17
Dictation Name
Book	Book 075: Genesis — Chapter 6
Source Timed Segments	68

Formatted Transcript

Introduction: The Call to Endure Hardness as a Soldier

Weaver opens with 2 Timothy 2:1-5, emphasizing that Christians are at war and must endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ.

Alright, let's open our Bibles today to 2 Timothy chapter 2. 2 Timothy chapter 2. And I want you to listen very carefully because this is not my normal type of message, but it is a message that certainly needs to be emphasized and preached. I have often been asked as I preach away, "Do you preach this hard to your people?" And I normally answer, "I practice all these messages on my people before I preach them anywhere else." So I've been asked to deal with this subject while I'm out in California. So, Clay, since you're not going to be in California, you're going to get a little sneak preview, okay? The title of this message is "Theology and Culture." Now, I want you to listen carefully as I read from 2 Timothy 2, verse 1. Paul writes Timothy and he says,

Scripture Reading — 2 Timothy 2:1-5

"Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ."

"No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully." Now go back, if you would, please, to verse 3. I want to just take this thought just momentarily. "Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." May I remind you, before I even give you my introduction, that all truth is God's truth. I don't care if we're talking about theological truth, cultural truth, scientific truth—all truth is God's truth. When you go to John 8 and verse 44, the Bible says, our Lord said, "You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him." So all lies are of the devil; all truth is of God. All truth belongs to God. So the Bible tells us, therefore, that we're to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

What does that mean? It means, first of all, that we're at war. Does that surprise you? We have been at war, we are at war, and we will continue to be at war. It was Solomon who wisely said in Ecclesiastes 3 and verse 8, there is no discharge in that war. So you do not get discharged in the war that I'm referring to. If you are a Christian, you are personally involved in a war, whether you realize it or not.

The War on Christian Culture

Most Christians are unaware that their culture is being deliberately destroyed by revolutions against God and His Word.

Your culture, your society, and your life as you know it, and as you have known it, is being deliberately destroyed. Revolutions are being constantly planned, fomented, and executed against God, His Word, and the Christian faith, and most Christians are totally unaware of what is happening until it is too late. In fact, you could say that most Christians are AWOL—absent without leave—because the average professing Christian, all he wants to do is to have a color TV and a comfortable couch where he can watch his football games undisturbed. Now let me ask you, are things wrong in our society?

Evidence of Cultural Decline

Weaver lists moral changes over the last 50 years: loss of the Ten Commandments, handshake deals, modest dress, respect for parents, and stable families.

Have our values, ethics, and morality changed in our lifetime? When did they change and how did they change? And let's ask it like this: What happened to our Christian culture? It seems almost as if we went to sleep and everything was fine, and when we woke up the next morning, everything was going to hell as fast and as quickly as it could possibly travel. So why has our culture changed? Why has our society changed? Why is it that our society today is no longer like it was 50 years ago? Let me point out that anyone over 60 will remember when society had a little more moral balance. Anyone over 60 will remember when the average person, whether Christian or not, could at least quote the Ten Commandments. Anyone over 60 will remember when deals were made with a handshake and a man's word was his bond. Anyone over 60 will remember when divorce was uncommon and most children had a father and a mother.

We also remember that ladies dressed modestly and men were gentlemen. We remember when you did not have to guess the sex of an individual. Men looked like men and women looked like women. We also remember when children, even teenagers, would say "yes sir" and "no sir," "yes ma'am" and "no ma'am" to their parents and to any other adult. We also remember when the father was the head of the home and both father and mother disciplined the children. We also remember when most children wanted to do what was right and to please their father and their mother and even the Lord.

So you have to ask, what has changed? What has happened to our culture and our society? We know that it has changed, but for the most part, we do not know why it has changed. We do not know what has happened. The answer is very simple. Our culture and our theology have changed. Our culture and our society have changed because our theology has changed. This is the one point that I'm going to emphasize over and over and over today.

The Principle: Theological Change Precedes Cultural Change

A change in theology always comes before a change in culture; 1 Timothy 1:3-5 shows that pure doctrine produces godly people and a godly culture.

A theological change always precedes a cultural change. Let me say that another way. You cannot have a change in culture until first you have a change in theology. If you have a change in theology for the better, then your culture and your society is going to be better. If you have a change in your theology for the worse, then your culture and your society is going to be worse. In other words, it is impossible to have a change in culture or society without having a change in theology.

Now, since we're in 2 Timothy, I want you to turn right back to 1 Timothy, and let me show you this principle from the Scripture. Look, if you would, 1 Timothy 1 and verse 3. Look what the Apostle Paul tells Timothy. He said,

Scripture Reading — 1 Timothy 1:3-5

"As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine." "Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do. Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned."

Now, I want you to note what he says in verse 5. "Now the end of the commandment." What commandment? Go back to verse 3. "As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some." The word "charge" is parangelia, which is often times interpreted and translated as "commandment." So the commandment that he's talking about in verse 5 is the commandment that they teach no other doctrine. And the opposite of that is found in verse 4: that as they teach no other doctrine, they do not give heed to fables and endless genealogies which minister questions rather than godly edifying which is in faith. Now notice what he says. You understand the charge or the commandment in verse 3, that they teach no other doctrine, that it is the pure doctrine of God. Then look in verse 5: "Now the end of the commandment"—that is the end of the commandment to preach the pure, unadulterated word of God—is "love out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned."

In other words, if you want a godly culture, it must be produced by godly people. If you want godly people, they must be produced by the Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit.

Historical Illustrations of the Principle

Examples include America's early missionary foreign aid, the failure of force in Somalia, India's poverty due to pagan theology, and the Reformation's cultural transformation.

Now let me tell you something that is probably astounding to you. Do you realize that our country, even our government, used to send missionaries to foreign lands? And our foreign aid was tied to our missionaries. If you wanted our missionaries, you might have some foreign aid. If you wanted foreign aid and not the missionaries, you didn't get it. The foreign aid was tied to the missionaries. In other words, there was a time when even the folks in our government understood that you cannot have a change in culture without first having a change in theology.

Now let me tell you what has happened in the last hundred years. We used to, as a government, send missionaries. Now we send armies. We used to try to change people through the power of the Word of God. Now we try to change them through force. So there was a time when even those in our government understood this simple truth: that a theological change must precede a cultural change.

Now some of you will remember that a few years ago there was a movie made entitled "Black Hawk Down." It was a story of 123 elite US soldiers dropped in Somalia to capture two top lieutenants of a renegade warlord, and while they were dropped in they found themselves in a desperate struggle for survival. It was known as the Battle of Mogadishu. That is where we were as a country trying to capture Somali warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid. I saw the movie when it came on TV. Sometime later it was shown again on TV, and I decided I would watch it for the second time, and I'm certainly glad that I did because there was a scene in that movie that escaped me the first time I saw it. You remember when those Black Hawk helicopters were shot down? There was one pilot that survived. He was beaten viciously by the Somalis. He was tied. He was thrown against the wall. He was still alive, and in this scene one of Aidid's warlords says something like this—almost exactly, but not quite a quote.

He said, "You stupid Americans, you think you can change us? You think you can come over here and force your democracy down our throats and stop us from killing each other when killing has been a way of life for us for over a thousand years?" Now ask yourself a question. Why was killing a way of life for those people for over a thousand years? Because of their paganism. Because of their witchcraft. Because of their rebellion. Because of their wickedness. If there is no biblical truth, there cannot be a biblical culture. You cannot change a culture by force. You cannot change a culture by foreign aid, by politics, by diplomacy. You cannot change a culture by being Mr. Nice Guy or Mr. Bad Guy. The only way a culture can be changed is through the power of the Word of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ. If there is not a change in theology, there will not be a change in culture. If you want a change in culture in America, we have to change our theology back to the Word of God. If we want to continue to go downhill in America, all we have to do is deny and denigrate and destroy the Word of God, and we will continue downhill very rapidly. Anytime you have a change in theology, good or bad, you will always have a change in culture.

Have you ever wondered why the Marxists and the Communists targeted our seminaries and our churches? Because they understood this: it is impossible to change a society or a culture that tenaciously holds to the Word of God. It was Karl Marx himself who said that a people deprived of their history are easily persuaded. If just depriving us of our history will lead us to deception, what in the world will it do if we're deprived of the Word of God? Those who do not know the Word of God will fall prey to the cults and isms and schisms and all manner of deception. Let me just try to give you an illustration of what I'm talking about. I want you to think of the country of India. And I want you to think momentarily of all the multi-billions of dollars of foreign aid that has gone to India from America, and knowing that India is one of the poorest countries in the world. And in response to all those multi-billions of dollars that they've received, they're still one of the poorest countries in the world. Why? They've gotten all this money.

Why have they not bettered themselves? The answer is because of their theology—or bad theology or lack of theology—because in India they worship the rats and the cows, and all the grain that is sent over there the cows and the rats eat, and what they do not eat they defecate on or the germs get in and make it basically unpalatable for anyone else. You could continue to send money to India from now to the end of the world, and India will never improve and never get rid of the caste system and never get rid of their poverty rate and never get rid of their illiteracy. Why? Because they have no biblical theology.

There is no reason to change. Their culture is doomed. And they're doomed. You cannot have a change in culture until first you have a change in theology. America became great because of the grace of God and the Word of God. Our forefathers believed it, they applied it, and they obeyed it. And what has happened in America is we have lost practically everything our forefathers gave us. You know, there's a question in Psalm 11 and verse 3 that asks this: "If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?" Well, Isaiah answers that question for us in Isaiah 58.

Let me just read it. You don't have to turn there. But in Isaiah 58 and verse 12, God says this: "And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in." Now when Isaiah wrote that in Isaiah 58 verse 12, what God was speaking about was repentance and a return to Him and His Word. It is only as there is repentance and a return to God that we begin to build the old waste places, that we begin to raise up the foundation of many generations, that we will be the restorer of the paths and the repairer of the breach. Bill Bennett on a talk show said this: "America has become the kind of country that we used to send missionaries to." How can this be? And the answer is our theology has changed and our culture has changed. Now I title this message, "Theology and Culture." Why? Theology is the study of the doctrine of God. Theology is what we believe about Him, His attributes, His worship, and His word. Culture—listen carefully—culture is merely theology in action. It is religion externalized. Do you realize you actually work out what you believe? You do.

That's why the Bible in Proverbs 23 and verse 7 says,

Scripture Reading — Proverbs 23:7

"As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he."

And that's why in Psalm 116 and verse 10, David said, "I believed, therefore have I spoken." We actually work out and apply that which we believe. If we believe right, it's going to be right. If we believe wrongly, it's going to be wrong. It was Martin Luther, the reformer, who said this: "There are only two men in the world, Christ and Adam, and everyone hangs from their girdles." What did he mean? He meant this: you're either in Christ, the second and last Adam, or you're in the first Adam. Here's what he meant: you're either a Christian or a humanist. One author said it another way. He said you are either a follower of John Calvin or Jean-Jacques Rousseau. I hope you know that John Calvin was the theologian and Jean-Jacques Rousseau was the humanist. What was he saying? You're either a Christian or you're a humanist. You could say the same truth another way. You could say you're either a covenant keeper or a covenant breaker. All that is saying is you're either a Christian or you're a humanist.

Western culture, and particularly American culture, was based upon the Word of God. Listen carefully. We were called a Christian nation not because everyone in this country was a Christian, but because, originally, this country was based upon biblical principles and the Word of God as a whole. Have we ever thought of where and how we derive these precepts and these principles? Do you realize that one of the most easily discernible illustrations of this fact—that a change in theology produces a change in culture—is seen in the Reformation? Do you realize that Europe before the Reformation was experiencing what was known and is still known in history as the Dark Ages? From about 800 to 1500 prevailed ignorance, darkness, illiteracy, and overall degeneracy. Those things permeated that period of time. The Bible was a suppressed book. You weren't supposed to read the Bible during those days. The priest would tell you what the Bible meant, supposedly, and he didn't even know himself. Any other scientific work was suppressed as well, especially one that was based upon biblical truth. Do you realize during those ages, during those years, if you possessed a Bible or any other scientific book, you were classified usually as a witch? Because the Roman Catholic Church viewed those things basically as of the devil. And if you possessed them, you were in danger of being burned at the stake by the Roman Catholic Church. They did burn many at the stake, by the way.

But in the providence of God, God raised up men like Martin Luther, and John Calvin, and Zwingli, and Gutenberg. And it was Calvin particularly that created the patterns and thought that would dominate Western culture and particularly American culture. In fact, just about everywhere you turn in America, even economics, it is grounded upon principles and precepts taught by John Calvin. You've got to understand this, folks. There was a change in theology in the 1500s, and it produced a momentous change in culture. When you begin to think of the doctrine of justification by faith, the doctrine of the priesthood of the believers, the doctrine of the sovereignty of God, and the doctrine of the full and final authority of God's Word, those truths are bound to produce a momentous change in culture. It not only produced a theological reformation, but a cultural reformation as well.

Let me tell you what Christians realized. Christians realized during that time that their cultural activity—that is, every part of their everyday life—was part and parcel of their worship of God. You see, back before then, if you wanted to worship God, quote-unquote, you went into a monastery, or you went into a nunnery, or you went into the priesthood. That was the sacred worship according to the Roman Catholic Church. No.

But when Calvin and Luther and some of these other men began to preach, no. Everything that you do in word or deed—1 Corinthians 10:31—whether you drink or whether you eat, you do all for God's honor and God's glory. Christians all of a sudden realized they did not have to enter into a monastery to worship God or to be spiritual or to be holy. No, no, no. What they had to do was to live by faith and live by the Word of God. And whatever they did, do all to God's honor and God's glory. And all of a sudden now everything begins to change. Why? Because there was a change in theology. They realized that they were obligated, responsible, and duty-bound to apply the Word of God in every area of their life. Such thinking had to change culture. And the Reformation did indeed change not only the medieval way of life in Western Europe, but it also changed modern culture as well.

Let me say it again. A change in culture is always produced by a change in theology. Now it was this change in theology that permeated the foundations in the settling of America and in the making of America. America was organized upon the principles of the Word of God. But humanists continued to attack those principles. A war started at the very beginning of the founding of our country and finally there was a breach made at one point where one section of the country tried to destroy another section of the country. One of the most vicious attacks came before and during what is known as the War of Northern Aggression, better known by the humanists as the Civil War. The War of Northern Aggression was not a civil war. A civil war is between one people. The war was between two separate people and two separate nations.

The War of Northern Aggression as a Theological Conflict

The division between North and South was rooted in theological differences; Northern rationalism and Unitarianism led to schisms in churches and ultimately the war.

The South had lawfully and legally seceded and began a separate nation. So it was not a civil war at all. Do you realize that many people have studied this war from many and varied aspects, but very few have ever studied this war from a theological perspective? Let me give you a couple of quotes. C. Greg Singer in his book, "A Theological Interpretation of American History," said this: "After 1830 there was a growing philosophical and theological cleavage between the North and the South. While the North was becoming increasingly subject to radical influences, the South was becoming increasingly conservative in its outlook." So here he is saying there's a big theological difference now between the North and the South. The North, he is saying, is becoming more and more humanistic while the South is continuing to become more conservative or more biblically oriented. You must remember that the term "Bible Belt" was given to the South originally by the North as a term of derision. Why?

Because we weren't the free thinkers that they were. We weren't the rationalists that they were. We held tenaciously to the Word of God, and thus we were derisively referred to as the Bible Belt. James Henley Thornwell, a Presbyterian pastor, theologian, and author, said it very plainly concerning the war. Listen to what he said: "The parties involved in this conflict are not merely abolitionists and slaveholders. They are atheists, socialists, communists, Red Republicans and Jacobins on the one side"—that's the North—"and the friends of order and regulated freedom on the other"—that's the South. "In one word, the world is the battleground, Christianity and atheism the combatants, and the progress of humanity is at stake." So here's a man who was alive in 1862 who said this war is a theological war. Here was a man that understood that there was a connection between theology and culture. A very clear understanding of this connection can be had if you just simply study the War of Northern Aggression. Many have never perceived the consequences of a changing theology upon a culture.

If you want to know when we lost our republic, if you really want to know when we lost our freedom, if you really want to know when we became an empire, study the War of Northern Aggression and you will find those answers. The North as a whole refused and rejected the biblical worldview. In the place of a biblical worldview, they substituted rationalism, transcendentalism, and Unitarianism. The elitists of that day in the North were much like the elitists in our day in America. They wanted absolutely nothing to do with the Word of God, nothing to do with the Bible. Now that does not mean that every individual in the North was not a Christian. Doesn't mean that at all. There were many Christians in the North, and by the way, many of those individuals were sympathetic with the South. They sympathized with the South, they supported the South, and the Unitarians, and the Transcendentalists, and the Rationalists, and the Freethinkers of the North then labeled them as Copperheads.

You know a Copperhead is a very poisonous snake that gives no sound before it strikes. And so the rationalists then turned on the Christians in the North and accused them of being copperheads because they sympathized with and supported the South. Now let me just give you some things that may really shock you because we are so accustomed to thinking in our modern-day terminologies. But it may surprise you to learn that before the 1800s there were no Southern Baptists. There were no American Baptists. There were no Northern Baptists. There were just Baptists. Likewise, there were no United Methodists, no Southern Methodists, no Independent Methodists. There were just Methodists.

The same with the Presbyterian Church. The same with the Episcopalian Church. You say, well, where did we get all these different Methodist churches? Where did we get all these different Baptist churches and all these different Presbyterian churches? Well, a division came into all the major denominations because of a theological change. And this theological change was directly related to northern rationalism and humanism. Remember, when you change theologies, cultures change.

For culture is religion externalized. Now the Presbyterians were the first to divide. They divided first in 1837 and then again in 1857. There was a battle between what are known as the old lights and the new lights. While there were indeed doctrinal differences, abolitionism figured very prominently in these divisions. Abolitionism was being pushed by the rationalists, by the Unitarians in the North. The Methodists split in 1844. The Baptists split in 1845. And in 1845, the Southern Baptist Convention or the Southern Baptists came into existence. Until then, there were no Southern Baptists except just being Southern and living in the South. You were just Baptist. Churches began to split and soon the nation was torn in two as well. So what happened? There was a change in theology in the North and consequently a change in culture. Now listen to me. Singer and Thornwell were right because what happened was simply this: The North began to want to enforce its theology upon the South. And when the South rejected the Northern theology, the Northern worldview, there was a division, not only in the church, but in politics, in government as well.

Now what the abolitionists were wanting to do was to abolish slavery. I don't have time to talk about slavery today. Listen to the five messages on slavery in the series "Where We Are and How We Got Here." That will give you a clear understanding. But when you talk about abolitionists, there were violent abolitionists, there were pacifistic abolitionists, there were disunion abolitionists. They wanted to destroy slavery even if they destroyed the Union. They wanted to destroy slavery even if they murdered people in the South. It didn't matter. So the abolitionists were rationalists and humanists.

Charles Hodge was a great Presbyterian pastor, teacher, preacher, and author. And he blamed the abolitionists for the destruction not only of the union of the churches, but also the union of the states. Here's what he said: "Their stigmatizing of slavery as a sin and a crime must operate to produce a disunion of the states and the division of all ecclesiastical societies. We shall become two nations in feeling, which must soon render us two nations in fact." What did he say? He said there's going to be a war. And the war is going to be over theology, which will produce a change in culture. William S. Plumer, another Presbyterian pastor and theologian and author, who said before the split in 1837—listen carefully, this is 1837, before the war ever broke out in 1861—listen to what he said: "Should the assembly"—he's talking about the Presbyterian assembly—"should the assembly legislate and decide that slaveholding is a sin, the southern churches would feel themselves instructed by the Apostle Paul to withdraw from such"—1 Timothy 6:1-5.

"Thus our church would be rent asunder. Then nothing left except to rend the star-spangled banner in twain. Soon hostile forces will be marshaled against each other and the Potomac will be dyed with blood. Can it be that the righteous judge of all the earth has so dreadful a controversy with the Presbyterian Church of the United States as to give her up to the folly and madness of being the first to hoist the gate and to let the flood of desolation roll in?" Did you hear what he said in 1837? He said the church is going to be rent in twain.

The next thing that's going to happen is the star-spangled banner will be rent in twain, then the Potomac will be dyed with blood. What did he say? A change in theology is a change in culture, and a change in culture is going to result in a change in government. James Henley Thornwell, also known as the Calhoun of the Southern Church, said in 1851—ten years now before the war broke out—he says, "We are solemn and earnest, not only because we deplore a schism in the body of Christ, but because we deplore a schism among the confederated states of this union. We declare our deliberate conviction that the continued agitation of slavery must sooner or later shiver this government into atoms. If slavery be indeed consistent with the Bible, their responsibility is tremendous." Who?

"In obedience to blind impulses and visionary theories, pull down the fairest fabric of government the world has ever seen, rend the body of Christ in sunder, and dethrone the Savior at His own kingdom. Are our country, our Bible, our interest on earth, our hopes for heaven to be sacrificed on the altars of a fierce fanaticism? Slavery is implicated in every fiber of Southern society. It is with us a vital question and it is because we know that interference with it cannot and will not be much longer endured." We raise our warning voice. Listen, we would save the country if we could. Ten years before the war, he said they're going to pull down the fairest fabric of government this world has ever known. What did he say? A change in theology is going to lead to a change in culture, which ultimately is going to change our governmental structure. All the pastors, all the theologians of that day understood that a change in theology led to a change in culture. They also understood it's going to lead to a change in government. So the schisms and divisions in war and the loss of our republic and our constitution all came about by a change in theology. You can't change a culture until you first change the theology.

Modern Consequences: Abortion and the Homosexual Agenda

Abortion stems from rejecting the cultural mandate of Genesis 1:27-28; homosexuality results from rejecting God as described in Romans 1:21-32.

Now, I want you to think with me. I've given you a lot of historical background. But I want you to think about two of what you and I would probably refer to as the most horrendous changes in our culture and our society. And these are changes that horrify us and they cause us to cringe. And we think, how in the world could anything like this ever happen in our society? First of all, I want you to consider with me the outrage of abortion. How in the world did abortion come to pass in what the world would call a Christian nation? Of course, we understand that it is no longer a Christian nation. But in our modern day society—are you listening?—abortion is now considered just a form of birth control. It's no longer considered murder. Why has this happened? Let me show you.

I want you to turn very quickly in your Bibles to the book of Genesis chapter 1. Genesis chapter 1. Genesis 1. And look at verses 27 and 28. Genesis 1, I'm sorry. Thank you. My wife looked at me and shook her head. I knew I'd given you the wrong passage. Genesis 1. Genesis 1 verse 27:

Scripture Reading — Genesis 1:27-28

"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."

"And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." This is known as the great mandate, the cultural mandate, or the dominion charter. And I want you to know, God said, "Be fruitful and multiply." You know what we've done? We have abandoned the cultural mandate. This is the first great commission where God told us to be fruitful and multiply and to exercise dominion. A rejection of this cultural mandate, a rejection of this theology, has resulted in abortion, euthanasia, and genocide. In fact, the elitists of the world are now talking openly about population control. Some of them say, we need to reduce the population of this world by as much as nine-tenths. You say, what has this got to do with abortion? "Be fruitful and multiply." Do you realize the average Christian today despises large families? And it's this despisement of large families that has led to abortion as a convenience and as a means of birth control.

Unhappily, many professing Christians have absorbed the world's view, the pagan worldview, and they now view their children as an inconvenience, or at least at the most a curse. We can't afford them. You know, it's amazing to me, as you look at some of the larger families, not only how happier they are, but how they work together and cooperate and help each other. Even my father—I'd have to stop and count, I don't know, eight or nine kids. My mother, same thing, eight or nine kids. She had sisters and brothers. And when we hear today of someone having 10 or 11 kids, what? And when you hear of the Duggars and they've got, what, 19 now? We really say, "Oh Lord have mercy." I want you to turn in your Bibles to Psalm 127. Let me just show—I'm trying to show you there has been a change in theology, which has resulted in a change in our thinking and consequently a change in our culture and our society. Look in Psalm 127, if you would please, beginning there with verse 3. Psalm 127, verse 3, look what the Bible says:

Scripture Reading — Psalm 127:3-5

"Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them."

"They shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate." Now look, "children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the..." Wait a minute. "As arrows"? What do you do with arrows? You shoot them at your enemy. That's what you do. Skip down to verse 5. "Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them." Why? "They shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate." The gate was the place of politics. It was the place of government. In other words, the children—godly children—are going to be raised to have dominion in government. That's exactly what he is saying. Here's what Spurgeon said concerning children. Listen.

"They are tokens for good if men know how to receive them and educate them. They are doubtful blessings only because we are doubtful persons. Where society is rightly ordered, children are regarded not as an encumbrance, but as an inheritance. And they are received not with regret, but as a reward. If we are overcrowded in England, and so seems to be embarrassed with too large an increase, we must remember that the Lord does not order us to remain in this narrow island, but would have us fill those boundless regions which wait for the axe and the plow." Yet even here, with all the straits of limited incomes, our best possessions are our own dear offspring for whom we bless God every day. The reason we do not value children is because we've lost our theology. We had a change in theology. And therefore, we had a change in our culture in regard to the specific change in theology. Listen carefully. We no longer fight against abortion not simply because we have finally come to accept it—no—but because we have changed our theology. We have rejected what the Word of God teaches concerning children. And abortion—we changed our theology. And now even 13 and 14 year old girls in school may have abortions without their parents' knowledge and permission.

What has happened? We have a change in culture because we have a change in theology. Secondly, I want you to turn to Romans chapter 1, and I want to ask you another question. And I'm just trying to show you what has happened to our culture and our society. I want you to think next with me momentarily about the sodomite or the homosexual agenda. Today, the perverts are everywhere. And I might add in nearly any and every important position—lawyers, judges, politicians, and even seminaries and churches. Question is, how in the world did this come to pass? I want you to note how a change in theology produced a change in culture. Look in Romans chapter 1 and let's begin reading there with verse 21. Watch carefully. Romans 1 verse 21: "Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened." What did they do? They've already changed theology. They've rejected the God of revelation. They rejected His truth. They became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

"Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man"—that is, idolatry—"and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: who changed the truth of God into a lie." A change of theology produces a change in culture and society. "Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of

evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them." How did you get a society of perverts? By rejecting true theology, by rejecting the Word of God, by changing the truth of God into a lie. You cannot have a change in culture without having a change in theology. Let me tell you folks, our society has changed from since I was a boy. And it is changing every day. And you know why it's changing every day? Not because we're advancing. But because we're losing our theology. And it's becoming more and more wicked and more and more depraved. Now listen carefully. We've lost our Christian culture. We've lost our Christian government. We've lost our Christian heritage. Why? The answer is because we've lost our theology.

The Need for Theological Reformation Today

America cannot return to its founding principles without a return to biblical theology; the church must reclaim Christ and apply His Word to all of life.

Tim Baldwin, who is a constitutional attorney, wrote an article, "Freedom is for the Living," June the 23rd, 2010, and I want you to listen to what he said, and I'm going to make a comment on it. Listen carefully. "The reason we or they will never get back to the Constitution of 1787 is because those people, those principles, that culture, those times, that circumstance, those beliefs, and those feelings are no longer accepted by most and are certainly not shared to unite the people of the states today. Do we expect that the representative of those same disunited and diverse people will get back to the Constitution of 1787? The culture, morals, religion, education, priorities, families, and experiences of the people of 1787 simply do not cohesively exist today. That is a fact." Did you hear what he said? We're not going back to the Constitution of 1787. We're not going back to that culture. We're not going back to those truths. Why? Because our theology has changed. Once your theology changes, it always produces a change in culture. John Adams said this at the founding of our country: "Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." If you want that which our founding fathers gave us, we must repent and believe and apply the Word of God as they did. We can only change our culture by changing our theology. Since our theology has changed for the worse, we have to go back and repent and find what the Word of God teaches on every thought, every doctrine, and submit to it.

We have to learn, folks, that ideas have consequences. And when one has a theological shift, inevitably there's going to be a cultural shift. What did Adams say? Our Constitution was made for a moral and religious people. A Christian people. R.J. Rushdoony wrote this many years ago: "Men cannot find peace in Christ until they accept the necessity for war with a fallen world, and Christ as the principle of that warfare." I begin this message by saying we're at war. We are at war. We will be at war. And we shall be at war until our Lord returns. And Christ is the principle of this warfare.

We have to fight for our heritage. We have to fight for our theology. We have to fight for truth. The long-term answer is to produce a completely Christian culture, a reformation of culture that provides a true alternative to what we have today, the institutionalized love of death culture. And it is a love of death. For our Lord said in Proverbs 8, verses 35 and 36: "For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the LORD.

But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death." We have a culture of death. If you want a culture of life, we must go back to Christ and His Word. We must have a culture where everything is centered around Christ, and His law-word. One last quote. Tom Ascol, Executive Director of the Founders Ministry, said this: "All the calls to reclaim America for Christ leaves me cold." Let him finish. "Our real need is to reclaim the church for Christ. When Christ is exalted in His church, when he is loved and revered and cherished with passion by those who bear his name"—in other words, when the church starts living like the church—"then his body can't help but make an impact on culture." Ascol spoke the truth. We must learn to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, with all our being, and then learn to apply that word and His truth to every area of our lives, and as we do that, we will be changing our culture.

But you cannot have a change in culture without having a change in theology. If we want our culture back, we must go back to the Word of God. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we bow to Thee this day. We thank You for Your love. We thank You for Your truth. We ask, Father, that You would help us to see the absolute importance of loving Thee and Thy Word and applying it in our daily lives. Give us grace, Lord, that we may serve Thee acceptably with reverence and godly fear. In Thy name we ask and pray. Amen. Amen.

Study Guide

Major Themes

Theology precedes culture

Summary: Every cultural change is the result of a prior theological change; a society's beliefs about God determine its moral and social order.

Evidence: Weaver states, 'A theological change always precedes a cultural change... it is impossible to have a change in culture or society without having a change in theology.'

Spiritual warfare

Summary: Christians are in a constant war against forces that seek to destroy God's truth and Christian culture.

Evidence: From 2 Timothy 2:3-4, Weaver says, 'We have been at war, we are at war, and we will continue to be at war... there is no discharge in that war.'

Cultural decline as theological apostasy

Summary: America's moral decay—abortion, homosexuality, loss of respect—is directly linked to abandoning biblical doctrine.

Evidence: Weaver asks, 'Why has our culture changed?... Our culture and our theology have changed.'

The Reformation as a model

Summary: The 16th-century Reformation demonstrates how a return to biblical theology transforms culture.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'There was a change in theology in the 1500s, and it produced a momentous change in culture.'

The War of Northern Aggression as theological war

Summary: The Civil War was fundamentally a conflict between Northern humanism and Southern biblical conservatism.

Evidence: Weaver quotes Thornwell: 'The parties involved... are atheists, socialists, communists... on the one side... and the friends of order and regulated freedom on the other.'

Reclaiming culture through the church

Summary: Cultural renewal begins with the church reclaiming Christ and applying His Word to every area of life.

Evidence: Weaver quotes Tom Ascol: 'Our real need is to reclaim the church for Christ... then his body can't help but make an impact on culture.'

Key Arguments

Theology determines culture

Summary: You cannot change a culture without first changing its theology; all cultural shifts are theological at root.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'If you have a change in theology for the better, then your culture and your society is going to be better. If you have a change in your theology for the worse, then your culture and your society is going to be worse.'

America's founding was biblical

Summary: The U.S. Constitution was designed for a moral and religious people; it cannot function without that foundation.

Evidence: Weaver quotes John Adams: 'Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.'

Abortion results from rejecting the cultural mandate

Summary: When society rejects God's command to be fruitful and multiply, abortion becomes accepted as birth control.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'A rejection of this cultural mandate, a rejection of this theology, has resulted in abortion, euthanasia, and genocide.'

Homosexuality is judgment for rejecting God

Summary: Romans 1 shows that when people change the truth of God into a lie, God gives them over to vile affections.

Evidence: Weaver reads Romans 1:21-28 and says, 'How did you get a society of perverts? By rejecting true theology, by rejecting the Word of God.'

The church must lead cultural reformation

Summary: Cultural change will not come through politics or force but through a church that loves Christ and applies His Word.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'We must learn to love the Lord our God... and then learn to apply that word and His truth to every area of our lives, and as we do that, we will be changing our culture.'

Scripture References

2 Timothy 2:1-5

Context: Paul's charge to Timothy to be strong in grace, commit truth to faithful men, and endure hardness as a soldier.

John 8:44

Context: Jesus says the devil has no truth in him; all truth is God's truth.

Ecclesiastes 3:8

Context: There is no discharge in war; the spiritual war is continuous.

1 Timothy 1:3-5

Context: Paul commands Timothy to charge some to teach no other doctrine; the end of the commandment is love from a pure heart.

Psalm 11:3

Context: If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?

Isaiah 58:12

Context: Those who repent will rebuild the old waste places and restore the foundations.

Proverbs 23:7

Context: As a man thinks in his heart, so is he; belief shapes action.

Psalm 116:10

Context: I believed, therefore have I spoken; faith produces outward expression.

1 Corinthians 10:31

Context: Whether you eat or drink, do all to the glory of God; all of life is worship.

1 Timothy 6:1-5

Context: Paul's instruction to withdraw from those who teach otherwise; referenced in the context of church division over slavery.

Genesis 1:27-28

Context: God created man in His image and commanded them to be fruitful, multiply, and have dominion.

Psalm 127:3-5

Context: Children are a heritage from the Lord; blessed is the man whose quiver is full.

Romans 1:21-32

Context: When people reject God, He gives them over to a reprobate mind, leading to homosexuality and all unrighteousness.

Proverbs 8:35-36

Context: Whoever finds Christ finds life; those who hate Him love death.

Historical References

Battle of Mogadishu (Black Hawk Down)

Context: Illustrates the failure of trying to change a culture by force; a Somali warlord says Americans cannot impose democracy on a people whose way of life is killing.

India's poverty and foreign aid

Context: Despite billions in aid, India remains poor because of its pagan theology (worship of rats and cows) that prevents cultural improvement.

The Reformation (16th century)

Context: Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, and Gutenberg brought a theological change that ended the Dark Ages and transformed Western culture.

War of Northern Aggression (Civil War)

Context: Theological cleavage between the humanist North and conservative South led to church splits and the war; seen as a theological conflict by contemporaries.

Presbyterian Church splits (1837, 1857)

Context: Divisions over doctrine and abolitionism; the first major denominational split due to theological change.

Methodist split (1844) and Baptist split (1845)

Context: Formation of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1845 as a result of theological differences over slavery and Northern rationalism.

John Adams on the Constitution

Context: Adams said the Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people; inadequate for any other.

Important Quotes

A theological change always precedes a cultural change.

Significance: This is the central thesis of the entire message, repeated throughout.

Culture is merely theology in action. It is religion externalized.

Significance: Defines the relationship between belief and societal behavior.

Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

Significance: John Adams' warning that the American system depends on a biblical foundation.

If you want a godly culture, it must be produced by godly people. If you want godly people, they must be produced by the Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit.

Significance: Summarizes the biblical process of cultural transformation.

Discussion Questions

In what ways have you seen cultural changes in your lifetime that reflect a prior change in theology?

Context: Weaver asks listeners to consider how values, ethics, and morality have changed.

How does the principle 'theology precedes culture' challenge common explanations for societal problems?

Context: Weaver argues that political, economic, or military solutions cannot change culture without theological change.

What does it mean to 'endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ' in today's cultural battles?

Context: Weaver opens with 2 Timothy 2:3 and emphasizes the ongoing spiritual war.

How should the church respond to the cultural mandate of Genesis 1:28 in a society that devalues children?

Context: Weaver connects abortion to the rejection of the command to be fruitful and multiply.

What lessons can we learn from the Reformation about applying biblical truth to transform culture?

Context: Weaver describes how the Reformation changed every area of life when believers applied Scripture to all of life.

Why is it insufficient to merely 'reclaim America' without first reclaiming the church?

Context: Weaver quotes Tom Ascol to emphasize that cultural impact flows from a Christ-exalting church.

Applications

Recognize the spiritual war

Summary: Christians must wake up to the reality that they are in a war for truth and culture, not merely living for comfort.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'Most Christians are totally unaware of what is happening until it is too late... the average professing Christian, all he wants to do is to have a color TV and a comfortable couch.'

Return to biblical theology

Summary: To reverse cultural decline, believers must repent and return to the Word of God as the foundation for all of life.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'If we want our culture back, we must go back to the Word of God.'

Apply Scripture to every area of life

Summary: Like the Reformers, Christians should see all of life—work, family, government—as worship and apply God's Word to it.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'Everything that you do in word or deed... you do all for God's honor and God's glory.'

Value children as a blessing

Summary: Reject the world's view of children as inconveniences; embrace them as a heritage from the Lord and raise them for dominion.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'The reason we do not value children is because we've lost our theology.'

Fight for theological truth in the church

Summary: Cultural reformation begins with the church reclaiming Christ and sound doctrine, not with political activism.

Evidence: Weaver quotes Ascol: 'Our real need is to reclaim the church for Christ.'

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T15:20:14Z

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | weaver_study | 2026-06-06T04:37:04Z

Clean Transcript

Theology and Culture

Clean readable transcript. This view follows the Commentary.net cleaned segment text while preserving timestamps for audio follow-along.

Alright, let's open our Bibles today to 2 Timothy chapter 2. 2 Timothy chapter 2. And I want you to listen very carefully because this is not my normal type of message, but it is a message that certainly needs to be emphasized and preached. I have often been asked as I preach away, "Do you preach this hard to your people?" And I normally answer, "I practice all these messages on my people before I preach them anywhere else." So I've been asked to deal with this subject while I'm out in California. So, Clay, since you're not going to be in California, you're going to get a little sneak preview, okay? The title of this message is "Theology and Culture." Now, I want you to listen carefully as I read from 2 Timothy 2, verse 1. Paul writes Timothy and he says, "Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ."
#1 | 0:16 to 1:23 | cleaned
"No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully." Now go back, if you would, please, to verse 3. I want to just take this thought just momentarily. "Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." May I remind you, before I even give you my introduction, that all truth is God's truth. I don't care if we're talking about theological truth, cultural truth, scientific truth—all truth is God's truth. When you go to John 8 and verse 44, the Bible says, our Lord said, "You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him." So all lies are of the devil; all truth is of God. All truth belongs to God. So the Bible tells us, therefore, that we're to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
#2 | 1:25 to 2:23 | cleaned
What does that mean? It means, first of all, that we're at war. Does that surprise you? We have been at war, we are at war, and we will continue to be at war. It was Solomon who wisely said in Ecclesiastes 3 and verse 8, there is no discharge in that war. So you do not get discharged in the war that I'm referring to. If you are a Christian, you are personally involved in a war, whether you realize it or not.
#3 | 2:24 to 2:54 | cleaned
Your culture, your society, and your life as you know it, and as you have known it, is being deliberately destroyed. Revolutions are being constantly planned, fomented, and executed against God, His Word, and the Christian faith, and most Christians are totally unaware of what is happening until it is too late. In fact, you could say that most Christians are AWOL—absent without leave—because the average professing Christian, all he wants to do is to have a color TV and a comfortable couch where he can watch his football games undisturbed. Now let me ask you, are things wrong in our society?
#4 | 2:55 to 3:39 | cleaned
Have our values, ethics, and morality changed in our lifetime? When did they change and how did they change? And let's ask it like this: What happened to our Christian culture? It seems almost as if we went to sleep and everything was fine, and when we woke up the next morning, everything was going to hell as fast and as quickly as it could possibly travel. So why has our culture changed? Why has our society changed? Why is it that our society today is no longer like it was 50 years ago? Let me point out that anyone over 60 will remember when society had a little more moral balance. Anyone over 60 will remember when the average person, whether Christian or not, could at least quote the Ten Commandments. Anyone over 60 will remember when deals were made with a handshake and a man's word was his bond. Anyone over 60 will remember when divorce was uncommon and most children had a father and a mother.
#5 | 3:40 to 5:06 | cleaned
We also remember that ladies dressed modestly and men were gentlemen. We remember when you did not have to guess the sex of an individual. Men looked like men and women looked like women. We also remember when children, even teenagers, would say "yes sir" and "no sir," "yes ma'am" and "no ma'am" to their parents and to any other adult. We also remember when the father was the head of the home and both father and mother disciplined the children. We also remember when most children wanted to do what was right and to please their father and their mother and even the Lord.
#6 | 5:08 to 5:49 | cleaned
So you have to ask, what has changed? What has happened to our culture and our society? We know that it has changed, but for the most part, we do not know why it has changed. We do not know what has happened. The answer is very simple. Our culture and our theology have changed. Our culture and our society have changed because our theology has changed. This is the one point that I'm going to emphasize over and over and over today.
#7 | 5:50 to 6:29 | cleaned
A theological change always precedes a cultural change. Let me say that another way. You cannot have a change in culture until first you have a change in theology. If you have a change in theology for the better, then your culture and your society is going to be better. If you have a change in your theology for the worse, then your culture and your society is going to be worse. In other words, it is impossible to have a change in culture or society without having a change in theology.
#8 | 6:30 to 7:07 | cleaned
Now, since we're in 2 Timothy, I want you to turn right back to 1 Timothy, and let me show you this principle from the Scripture. Look, if you would, 1 Timothy 1 and verse 3. Look what the Apostle Paul tells Timothy. He said, "As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine."
#9 | 7:08 to 7:37 | cleaned
"Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do. Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned."
#10 | 7:38 to 7:52 | cleaned
Now, I want you to note what he says in verse 5. "Now the end of the commandment." What commandment? Go back to verse 3. "As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some." The word "charge" is parangelia, which is often times interpreted and translated as "commandment." So the commandment that he's talking about in verse 5 is the commandment that they teach no other doctrine. And the opposite of that is found in verse 4: that as they teach no other doctrine, they do not give heed to fables and endless genealogies which minister questions rather than godly edifying which is in faith. Now notice what he says. You understand the charge or the commandment in verse 3, that they teach no other doctrine, that it is the pure doctrine of God. Then look in verse 5: "Now the end of the commandment"—that is the end of the commandment to preach the pure, unadulterated word of God—is "love out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned."
#11 | 7:52 to 9:02 | cleaned
In other words, if you want a godly culture, it must be produced by godly people. If you want godly people, they must be produced by the Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit.
#12 | 9:02 to 9:19 | cleaned
Now let me tell you something that is probably astounding to you. Do you realize that our country, even our government, used to send missionaries to foreign lands? And our foreign aid was tied to our missionaries. If you wanted our missionaries, you might have some foreign aid. If you wanted foreign aid and not the missionaries, you didn't get it. The foreign aid was tied to the missionaries. In other words, there was a time when even the folks in our government understood that you cannot have a change in culture without first having a change in theology.
#13 | 9:20 to 10:09 | cleaned
Now let me tell you what has happened in the last hundred years. We used to, as a government, send missionaries. Now we send armies. We used to try to change people through the power of the Word of God. Now we try to change them through force. So there was a time when even those in our government understood this simple truth: that a theological change must precede a cultural change.
#14 | 10:10 to 10:44 | cleaned
Now some of you will remember that a few years ago there was a movie made entitled "Black Hawk Down." It was a story of 123 elite US soldiers dropped in Somalia to capture two top lieutenants of a renegade warlord, and while they were dropped in they found themselves in a desperate struggle for survival. It was known as the Battle of Mogadishu. That is where we were as a country trying to capture Somali warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid. I saw the movie when it came on TV.
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Sometime later it was shown again on TV, and I decided I would watch it for the second time, and I'm certainly glad that I did because there was a scene in that movie that escaped me the first time I saw it. You remember when those Black Hawk helicopters were shot down? There was one pilot that survived. He was beaten viciously by the Somalis. He was tied. He was thrown against the wall. He was still alive, and in this scene one of Aidid's warlords says something like this—almost exactly, but not quite a quote.
#16 | 11:28 to 12:09 | cleaned
He said, "You stupid Americans, you think you can change us? You think you can come over here and force your democracy down our throats and stop us from killing each other when killing has been a way of life for us for over a thousand years?"
#17 | 12:09 to 12:25 | cleaned
Now ask yourself a question. Why was killing a way of life for those people for over a thousand years? Because of their paganism. Because of their witchcraft. Because of their rebellion. Because of their wickedness. If there is no biblical truth, there cannot be a biblical culture. You cannot change a culture by force. You cannot change a culture by foreign aid, by politics, by diplomacy. You cannot change a culture by being Mr. Nice Guy or Mr. Bad Guy. The only way a culture can be changed is through the power of the Word of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ. If there is not a change in theology, there will not be a change in culture. If you want a change in culture in America, we have to change our theology back to the Word of God. If we want to continue to go downhill in America, all we have to do is deny and denigrate and destroy the Word of God, and we will continue downhill very rapidly. Anytime you have a change in theology, good or bad, you will always have a change in culture.
#18 | 12:32 to 14:04 | cleaned
Have you ever wondered why the Marxists and the Communists targeted our seminaries and our churches? Because they understood this: it is impossible to change a society or a culture that tenaciously holds to the Word of God. It was Karl Marx himself who said that a people deprived of their history are easily persuaded. If just depriving us of our history will lead us to deception, what in the world will it do if we're deprived of the Word of God? Those who do not know the Word of God will fall prey to the cults and isms and schisms and all manner of deception. Let me just try to give you an illustration of what I'm talking about.
#19 | 14:05 to 15:00 | cleaned
I want you to think of the country of India. And I want you to think momentarily of all the multi-billions of dollars of foreign aid that has gone to India from America, and knowing that India is one of the poorest countries in the world. And in response to all those multi-billions of dollars that they've received, they're still one of the poorest countries in the world. Why? They've gotten all this money.
#20 | 15:02 to 15:51 | cleaned
Why have they not bettered themselves? The answer is because of their theology—or bad theology or lack of theology—because in India they worship the rats and the cows, and all the grain that is sent over there the cows and the rats eat, and what they do not eat they defecate on or the germs get in and make it basically unpalatable for anyone else. You could continue to send money to India from now to the end of the world, and India will never improve and never get rid of the caste system and never get rid of their poverty rate and never get rid of their illiteracy. Why? Because they have no biblical theology.
#21 | 15:53 to 16:41 | cleaned
There is no reason to change. Their culture is doomed. And they're doomed. You cannot have a change in culture until first you have a change in theology. America became great because of the grace of God and the Word of God. Our forefathers believed it, they applied it, and they obeyed it. And what has happened in America is we have lost practically everything our forefathers gave us. You know, there's a question in Psalm 11 and verse 3 that asks this: "If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?" Well, Isaiah answers that question for us in Isaiah 58.
#22 | 16:43 to 17:43 | cleaned
Let me just read it. You don't have to turn there. But in Isaiah 58 and verse 12, God says this: "And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in." Now when Isaiah wrote that in Isaiah 58 verse 12, what God was speaking about was repentance and a return to Him and His Word. It is only as there is repentance and a return to God that we begin to build the old waste places, that we begin to raise up the foundation of many generations, that we will be the restorer of the paths and the repairer of the breach.
#23 | 17:43 to 18:34 | cleaned
Bill Bennett on a talk show said this: "America has become the kind of country that we used to send missionaries to." How can this be? And the answer is our theology has changed and our culture has changed. Now I title this message, "Theology and Culture." Why? Theology is the study of the doctrine of God. Theology is what we believe about Him, His attributes, His worship, and His word. Culture—listen carefully—culture is merely theology in action. It is religion externalized. Do you realize you actually work out what you believe? You do.
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That's why the Bible in Proverbs 23 and verse 7 says, "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." And that's why in Psalm 116 and verse 10, David said, "I believed, therefore have I spoken." We actually work out and apply that which we believe. If we believe right, it's going to be right. If we believe wrongly, it's going to be wrong. It was Martin Luther, the reformer, who said this: "There are only two men in the world, Christ and Adam, and everyone hangs from their girdles." What did he mean? He meant this: you're either in Christ, the second and last Adam, or you're in the first Adam. Here's what he meant: you're either a Christian or a humanist.
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One author said it another way. He said you are either a follower of John Calvin or Jean-Jacques Rousseau. I hope you know that John Calvin was the theologian and Jean-Jacques Rousseau was the humanist. What was he saying? You're either a Christian or you're a humanist. You could say the same truth another way. You could say you're either a covenant keeper or a covenant breaker. All that is saying is you're either a Christian or you're a humanist.
#26 | 20:38 to 21:09 | cleaned
Western culture, and particularly American culture, was based upon the Word of God. Listen carefully. We were called a Christian nation not because everyone in this country was a Christian, but because, originally, this country was based upon biblical principles and the Word of God as a whole. Have we ever thought of where and how we derive these precepts and these principles? Do you realize that one of the most easily discernible illustrations of this fact—that a change in theology produces a change in culture—is seen in the Reformation? Do you realize that Europe before the Reformation was experiencing what was known and is still known in history as the Dark Ages?
#27 | 21:10 to 22:05 | cleaned
From about 800 to 1500 prevailed ignorance, darkness, illiteracy, and overall degeneracy. Those things permeated that period of time. The Bible was a suppressed book. You weren't supposed to read the Bible during those days. The priest would tell you what the Bible meant, supposedly, and he didn't even know himself. Any other scientific work was suppressed as well, especially one that was based upon biblical truth. Do you realize during those ages, during those years, if you possessed a Bible or any other scientific book, you were classified usually as a witch? Because the Roman Catholic Church viewed those things basically as of the devil. And if you possessed them, you were in danger of being burned at the stake by the Roman Catholic Church. They did burn many at the stake, by the way.
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But in the providence of God, God raised up men like Martin Luther, and John Calvin, and Zwingli, and Gutenberg. And it was Calvin particularly that created the patterns and thought that would dominate Western culture and particularly American culture. In fact, just about everywhere you turn in America, even economics, it is grounded upon principles and precepts taught by John Calvin. You've got to understand this, folks. There was a change in theology in the 1500s, and it produced a momentous change in culture. When you begin to think of the doctrine of justification by faith, the doctrine of the priesthood of the believers, the doctrine of the sovereignty of God, and the doctrine of the full and final authority of God's Word, those truths are bound to produce a momentous change in culture. It not only produced a theological reformation, but a cultural reformation as well.
#29 | 23:16 to 24:32 | cleaned
Let me tell you what Christians realized. Christians realized during that time that their cultural activity—that is, every part of their everyday life—was part and parcel of their worship of God. You see, back before then, if you wanted to worship God, quote-unquote, you went into a monastery, or you went into a nunnery, or you went into the priesthood. That was the sacred worship according to the Roman Catholic Church. No.
#30 | 24:32 to 25:02 | cleaned
But when Calvin and Luther and some of these other men began to preach, no. Everything that you do in word or deed—1 Corinthians 10:31—whether you drink or whether you eat, you do all for God's honor and God's glory. Christians all of a sudden realized they did not have to enter into a monastery to worship God or to be spiritual or to be holy. No, no, no. What they had to do was to live by faith and live by the Word of God. And whatever they did, do all to God's honor and God's glory. And all of a sudden now everything begins to change. Why? Because there was a change in theology. They realized that they were obligated, responsible, and duty-bound to apply the Word of God in every area of their life. Such thinking had to change culture. And the Reformation did indeed change not only the medieval way of life in Western Europe, but it also changed modern culture as well.
#31 | 25:03 to 26:03 | cleaned
Let me say it again. A change in culture is always produced by a change in theology. Now it was this change in theology that permeated the foundations in the settling of America and in the making of America. America was organized upon the principles of the Word of God. But humanists continued to attack those principles. A war started at the very beginning of the founding of our country and finally there was a breach made at one point where one section of the country tried to destroy another section of the country. One of the most vicious attacks came before and during what is known as the War of Northern Aggression, better known by the humanists as the Civil War. The War of Northern Aggression was not a civil war. A civil war is between one people. The war was between two separate people and two separate nations.
#32 | 26:03 to 27:36 | cleaned
The South had lawfully and legally seceded and began a separate nation. So it was not a civil war at all. Do you realize that many people have studied this war from many and varied aspects, but very few have ever studied this war from a theological perspective? Let me give you a couple of quotes. C. Greg Singer in his book, "A Theological Interpretation of American History," said this: "After 1830 there was a growing philosophical and theological cleavage between the North and the South. While the North was becoming increasingly subject to radical influences, the South was becoming increasingly conservative in its outlook." So here he is saying there's a big theological difference now between the North and the South. The North, he is saying, is becoming more and more humanistic while the South is continuing to become more conservative or more biblically oriented. You must remember that the term "Bible Belt" was given to the South originally by the North as a term of derision. Why?
#33 | 27:37 to 28:54 | cleaned
Because we weren't the free thinkers that they were. We weren't the rationalists that they were. We held tenaciously to the Word of God, and thus we were derisively referred to as the Bible Belt. James Henley Thornwell, a Presbyterian pastor, theologian, and author, said it very plainly concerning the war. Listen to what he said: "The parties involved in this conflict are not merely abolitionists and slaveholders. They are atheists, socialists, communists, Red Republicans and Jacobins on the one side"—that's the North—"and the friends of order and regulated freedom on the other"—that's the South. "In one word, the world is the battleground, Christianity and atheism the combatants, and the progress of humanity is at stake." So here's a man who was alive in 1862 who said this war is a theological war. Here was a man that understood that there was a connection between theology and culture. A very clear understanding of this connection can be had if you just simply study the War of Northern Aggression. Many have never perceived the consequences of a changing theology upon a culture.
#34 | 28:55 to 30:35 | cleaned
If you want to know when we lost our republic, if you really want to know when we lost our freedom, if you really want to know when we became an empire, study the War of Northern Aggression and you will find those answers. The North as a whole refused and rejected the biblical worldview. In the place of a biblical worldview, they substituted rationalism, transcendentalism, and Unitarianism. The elitists of that day in the North were much like the elitists in our day in America.
#35 | 30:36 to 31:16 | cleaned
They wanted absolutely nothing to do with the Word of God, nothing to do with the Bible. Now that does not mean that every individual in the North was not a Christian. Doesn't mean that at all. There were many Christians in the North, and by the way, many of those individuals were sympathetic with the South. They sympathized with the South, they supported the South, and the Unitarians, and the Transcendentalists, and the Rationalists, and the Freethinkers of the North then labeled them as Copperheads.
#36 | 31:16 to 31:45 | cleaned
You know a Copperhead is a very poisonous snake that gives no sound before it strikes. And so the rationalists then turned on the Christians in the North and accused them of being copperheads because they sympathized with and supported the South.
#37 | 31:48 to 32:07 | cleaned
Now let me just give you some things that may really shock you because we are so accustomed to thinking in our modern-day terminologies. But it may surprise you to learn that before the 1800s there were no Southern Baptists. There were no American Baptists. There were no Northern Baptists. There were just Baptists. Likewise, there were no United Methodists, no Southern Methodists, no Independent Methodists. There were just Methodists.
#38 | 32:07 to 32:42 | cleaned
The same with the Presbyterian Church. The same with the Episcopalian Church. You say, well, where did we get all these different Methodist churches? Where did we get all these different Baptist churches and all these different Presbyterian churches? Well, a division came into all the major denominations because of a theological change. And this theological change was directly related to northern rationalism and humanism. Remember, when you change theologies, cultures change.
#39 | 32:43 to 33:21 | cleaned
For culture is religion externalized. Now the Presbyterians were the first to divide. They divided first in 1837 and then again in 1857. There was a battle between what are known as the old lights and the new lights. While there were indeed doctrinal differences, abolitionism figured very prominently in these divisions. Abolitionism was being pushed by the rationalists, by the Unitarians in the North. The Methodists split in 1844. The Baptists split in 1845. And in 1845, the Southern Baptist Convention or the Southern Baptists came into existence. Until then, there were no Southern Baptists except just being Southern and living in the South. You were just Baptist. Churches began to split and soon the nation was torn in two as well. So what happened? There was a change in theology in the North and consequently a change in culture. Now listen to me. Singer and Thornwell were right because what happened was simply this: The North began to want to enforce its theology upon the South. And when the South rejected the Northern theology, the Northern worldview, there was a division, not only in the church, but in politics, in government as well.
#40 | 33:22 to 35:03 | cleaned
Now what the abolitionists were wanting to do was to abolish slavery. I don't have time to talk about slavery today. Listen to the five messages on slavery in the series "Where We Are and How We Got Here." That will give you a clear understanding. But when you talk about abolitionists, there were violent abolitionists, there were pacifistic abolitionists, there were disunion abolitionists. They wanted to destroy slavery even if they destroyed the Union. They wanted to destroy slavery even if they murdered people in the South. It didn't matter. So the abolitionists were rationalists and humanists.
#41 | 35:04 to 35:50 | cleaned
Charles Hodge was a great Presbyterian pastor, teacher, preacher, and author. And he blamed the abolitionists for the destruction not only of the union of the churches, but also the union of the states. Here's what he said: "Their stigmatizing of slavery as a sin and a crime must operate to produce a disunion of the states and the division of all ecclesiastical societies. We shall become two nations in feeling, which must soon render us two nations in fact." What did he say?
#42 | 35:51 to 36:33 | cleaned
He said there's going to be a war. And the war is going to be over theology, which will produce a change in culture. William S. Plumer, another Presbyterian pastor and theologian and author, who said before the split in 1837—listen carefully, this is 1837, before the war ever broke out in 1861—listen to what he said: "Should the assembly"—he's talking about the Presbyterian assembly—"should the assembly legislate and decide that slaveholding is a sin, the southern churches would feel themselves instructed by the Apostle Paul to withdraw from such"—1 Timothy 6:1-5.
#43 | 36:36 to 37:22 | cleaned
"Thus our church would be rent asunder. Then nothing left except to rend the star-spangled banner in twain. Soon hostile forces will be marshaled against each other and the Potomac will be dyed with blood. Can it be that the righteous judge of all the earth has so dreadful a controversy with the Presbyterian Church of the United States as to give her up to the folly and madness of being the first to hoist the gate and to let the flood of desolation roll in?"
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Did you hear what he said in 1837? He said the church is going to be rent in twain.
#45 | 37:52 to 37:56 | cleaned
The next thing that's going to happen is the star-spangled banner will be rent in twain, then the Potomac will be dyed with blood. What did he say? A change in theology is a change in culture, and a change in culture is going to result in a change in government. James Henley Thornwell, also known as the Calhoun of the Southern Church, said in 1851—ten years now before the war broke out—he says, "We are solemn and earnest, not only because we deplore a schism in the body of Christ, but because we deplore a schism among the confederated states of this union. We declare our deliberate conviction that the continued agitation of slavery must sooner or later shiver this government into atoms. If slavery be indeed consistent with the Bible, their responsibility is tremendous." Who?
#46 | 37:58 to 38:53 | cleaned
"In obedience to blind impulses and visionary theories, pull down the fairest fabric of government the world has ever seen, rend the body of Christ in sunder, and dethrone the Savior at His own kingdom. Are our country, our Bible, our interest on earth, our hopes for heaven to be sacrificed on the altars of a fierce fanaticism? Slavery is implicated in every fiber of Southern society. It is with us a vital question and it is because we know that interference with it cannot and will not be much longer endured."
#47 | 38:53 to 39:27 | cleaned
We raise our warning voice. Listen, we would save the country if we could. Ten years before the war, he said they're going to pull down the fairest fabric of government this world has ever known. What did he say? A change in theology is going to lead to a change in culture, which ultimately is going to change our governmental structure. All the pastors, all the theologians of that day understood that a change in theology led to a change in culture. They also understood it's going to lead to a change in government. So the schisms and divisions in war and the loss of our republic and our constitution all came about by a change in theology. You can't change a culture until you first change the theology.
#48 | 39:28 to 40:22 | cleaned
Now, I want you to think with me. I've given you a lot of historical background. But I want you to think about two of what you and I would probably refer to as the most horrendous changes in our culture and our society. And these are changes that horrify us and they cause us to cringe. And we think, how in the world could anything like this ever happen in our society? First of all, I want you to consider with me the outrage of abortion. How in the world did abortion come to pass in what the world would call a Christian nation? Of course, we understand that it is no longer a Christian nation. But in our modern day society—are you listening?—abortion is now considered just a form of birth control. It's no longer considered murder. Why has this happened? Let me show you.
#49 | 40:22 to 41:42 | cleaned
I want you to turn very quickly in your Bibles to the book of Genesis chapter 1. Genesis chapter 1. Genesis 1. And look at verses 27 and 28. Genesis 1, I'm sorry. Thank you. My wife looked at me and shook her head. I knew I'd given you the wrong passage. Genesis 1. Genesis 1 verse 27: "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."
#50 | 41:43 to 42:25 | cleaned
"And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." This is known as the great mandate, the cultural mandate, or the dominion charter. And I want you to know, God said, "Be fruitful and multiply." You know what we've done? We have abandoned the cultural mandate. This is the first great commission where God told us to be fruitful and multiply and to exercise dominion. A rejection of this cultural mandate, a rejection of this theology, has resulted in abortion, euthanasia, and genocide.
#51 | 42:25 to 43:21 | cleaned
In fact, the elitists of the world are now talking openly about population control. Some of them say, we need to reduce the population of this world by as much as nine-tenths. You say, what has this got to do with abortion? "Be fruitful and multiply." Do you realize the average Christian today despises large families? And it's this despisement of large families that has led to abortion as a convenience and as a means of birth control.
#52 | 43:21 to 44:05 | cleaned
Unhappily, many professing Christians have absorbed the world's view, the pagan worldview, and they now view their children as an inconvenience, or at least at the most a curse. We can't afford them. You know, it's amazing to me, as you look at some of the larger families, not only how happier they are, but how they work together and cooperate and help each other. Even my father—I'd have to stop and count, I don't know, eight or nine kids. My mother, same thing, eight or nine kids.
#53 | 44:07 to 45:11 | cleaned
She had sisters and brothers. And when we hear today of someone having 10 or 11 kids, what? And when you hear of the Duggars and they've got, what, 19 now? We really say, "Oh Lord have mercy." I want you to turn in your Bibles to Psalm 127. Let me just show—I'm trying to show you there has been a change in theology, which has resulted in a change in our thinking and consequently a change in our culture and our society. Look in Psalm 127, if you would please, beginning there with verse 3. Psalm 127, verse 3, look what the Bible says: "Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them."
#54 | 45:14 to 46:15 | cleaned
"They shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate." Now look, "children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the..." Wait a minute. "As arrows"? What do you do with arrows? You shoot them at your enemy. That's what you do.
#55 | 46:16 to 46:44 | cleaned
Skip down to verse 5. "Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them." Why? "They shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate." The gate was the place of politics. It was the place of government. In other words, the children—godly children—are going to be raised to have dominion in government. That's exactly what he is saying. Here's what Spurgeon said concerning children. Listen.
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"They are tokens for good if men know how to receive them and educate them. They are doubtful blessings only because we are doubtful persons. Where society is rightly ordered, children are regarded not as an encumbrance, but as an inheritance. And they are received not with regret, but as a reward. If we are overcrowded in England, and so seems to be embarrassed with too large an increase, we must remember that the Lord does not order us to remain in this narrow island, but would have us fill those boundless regions which wait for the axe and the plow."
#57 | 47:12 to 47:48 | cleaned
Yet even here, with all the straits of limited incomes, our best possessions are our own dear offspring for whom we bless God every day. The reason we do not value children is because we've lost our theology. We had a change in theology. And therefore, we had a change in our culture in regard to the specific change in theology. Listen carefully. We no longer fight against abortion not simply because we have finally come to accept it—no—but because we have changed our theology. We have rejected what the Word of God teaches concerning children. And abortion—we changed our theology. And now even 13 and 14 year old girls in school may have abortions without their parents' knowledge and permission.
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What has happened? We have a change in culture because we have a change in theology.
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Secondly, I want you to turn to Romans chapter 1, and I want to ask you another question. And I'm just trying to show you what has happened to our culture and our society. I want you to think next with me momentarily about the sodomite or the homosexual agenda. Today, the perverts are everywhere. And I might add in nearly any and every important position—lawyers, judges, politicians, and even seminaries and churches. Question is, how in the world did this come to pass? I want you to note how a change in theology produced a change in culture. Look in Romans chapter 1 and let's begin reading there with verse 21. Watch carefully. Romans 1 verse 21: "Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened." What did they do? They've already changed theology. They've rejected the God of revelation. They rejected His truth. They became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
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"Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man"—that is, idolatry—"and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: who changed the truth of God into a lie." A change of theology produces a change in culture and society. "Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of
#61 | 50:49 to 52:12 | cleaned
evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them." How did you get a society of perverts? By rejecting true theology, by rejecting the Word of God, by changing the truth of God into a lie. You cannot have a change in culture without having a change in theology. Let me tell you folks, our society has changed from since I was a boy. And it is changing every day. And you know why it's changing every day? Not because we're advancing. But because we're losing our theology. And it's becoming more and more wicked and more and more depraved. Now listen carefully. We've lost our Christian culture. We've lost our Christian government. We've lost our Christian heritage. Why? The answer is because we've lost our theology.
#62 | 52:12 to 53:36 | cleaned
Tim Baldwin, who is a constitutional attorney, wrote an article, "Freedom is for the Living," June the 23rd, 2010, and I want you to listen to what he said, and I'm going to make a comment on it. Listen carefully. "The reason we or they will never get back to the Constitution of 1787 is because those people, those principles, that culture, those times, that circumstance, those beliefs, and those feelings are no longer accepted by most and are certainly not shared to unite the people of the states today. Do we expect that the representative of those same disunited and diverse people will get back to the Constitution of 1787? The culture, morals, religion, education, priorities, families, and experiences of the people of 1787 simply do not cohesively exist today. That is a fact."
#63 | 53:40 to 54:38 | cleaned
Did you hear what he said? We're not going back to the Constitution of 1787. We're not going back to that culture. We're not going back to those truths. Why? Because our theology has changed. Once your theology changes, it always produces a change in culture. John Adams said this at the founding of our country: "Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." If you want that which our founding fathers gave us, we must repent and believe and apply the Word of God as they did. We can only change our culture by changing our theology. Since our theology has changed for the worse, we have to go back and repent and find what the Word of God teaches on every thought, every doctrine, and submit to it.
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We have to learn, folks, that ideas have consequences. And when one has a theological shift, inevitably there's going to be a cultural shift. What did Adams say? Our Constitution was made for a moral and religious people. A Christian people. R.J. Rushdoony wrote this many years ago: "Men cannot find peace in Christ until they accept the necessity for war with a fallen world, and Christ as the principle of that warfare." I begin this message by saying we're at war. We are at war. We will be at war. And we shall be at war until our Lord returns. And Christ is the principle of this warfare.
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We have to fight for our heritage. We have to fight for our theology. We have to fight for truth. The long-term answer is to produce a completely Christian culture, a reformation of culture that provides a true alternative to what we have today, the institutionalized love of death culture. And it is a love of death. For our Lord said in Proverbs 8, verses 35 and 36: "For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the LORD.
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But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death." We have a culture of death. If you want a culture of life, we must go back to Christ and His Word. We must have a culture where everything is centered around Christ, and His law-word. One last quote. Tom Ascol, Executive Director of the Founders Ministry, said this: "All the calls to reclaim America for Christ leaves me cold." Let him finish. "Our real need is to reclaim the church for Christ. When Christ is exalted in His church, when he is loved and revered and cherished with passion by those who bear his name"—in other words, when the church starts living like the church—"then his body can't help but make an impact on culture." Ascol spoke the truth. We must learn to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, with all our being, and then learn to apply that word and His truth to every area of our lives, and as we do that, we will be changing our culture.
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But you cannot have a change in culture without having a change in theology. If we want our culture back, we must go back to the Word of God. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we bow to Thee this day. We thank You for Your love. We thank You for Your truth. We ask, Father, that You would help us to see the absolute importance of loving Thee and Thy Word and applying it in our daily lives. Give us grace, Lord, that we may serve Thee acceptably with reverence and godly fear. In Thy name we ask and pray. Amen. Amen.
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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T15:20:14Z

Theology and Culture

John Weaver | Freedom Ministries

Pastor John Weaver argues that cultural change is always preceded by theological change. Using 2 Timothy 2, he calls believers to endure hardness as soldiers in a spiritual war. He traces how America's moral decline—seen in abortion, homosexuality, and loss of constitutional government—stems from abandoning biblical theology. The Reformation and the War of Northern Aggression illustrate the principle: a change in theology produces a change in culture. The only remedy is repentance and a return to God's Word, applying it to every area of life.

Introduction: The Call to Endure Hardness as a Soldier

Weaver opens with 2 Timothy 2:1-5, emphasizing that Christians are at war and must endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ.

Scripture Reading — 2 Timothy 2:1-5

"Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ."

The War on Christian Culture

Most Christians are unaware that their culture is being deliberately destroyed by revolutions against God and His Word.

Evidence of Cultural Decline

Weaver lists moral changes over the last 50 years: loss of the Ten Commandments, handshake deals, modest dress, respect for parents, and stable families.

The Principle: Theological Change Precedes Cultural Change

A change in theology always comes before a change in culture; 1 Timothy 1:3-5 shows that pure doctrine produces godly people and a godly culture.

Scripture Reading — 1 Timothy 1:3-5

"As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine." "Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do. Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned."

In other words, if you want a godly culture, it must be produced by godly people. If you want godly people, they must be produced by the Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit.

Historical Illustrations of the Principle

Examples include America's early missionary foreign aid, the failure of force in Somalia, India's poverty due to pagan theology, and the Reformation's cultural transformation.

That's why the Bible in Proverbs 23 and verse 7 says,

Scripture Reading — Proverbs 23:7

"As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he."

The War of Northern Aggression as a Theological Conflict

The division between North and South was rooted in theological differences; Northern rationalism and Unitarianism led to schisms in churches and ultimately the war.

Modern Consequences: Abortion and the Homosexual Agenda

Abortion stems from rejecting the cultural mandate of Genesis 1:27-28; homosexuality results from rejecting God as described in Romans 1:21-32.

Scripture Reading — Genesis 1:27-28

"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."

Scripture Reading — Psalm 127:3-5

"Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them."

The Need for Theological Reformation Today

America cannot return to its founding principles without a return to biblical theology; the church must reclaim Christ and apply His Word to all of life.

Theology and Culture

John Weaver | YouTube

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	YouTube
Media ID	lvn71GUow9w
Subject	Old Testament Studies
Course	Genesis: Creation, Fall, and Dominion
Genre	Sermon
Date	2012-02-17
Dictation Name
Book	Book 075: Genesis — Chapter 6
Source Timed Segments	68

Lecture Guide

Outline

Introduction: The Call to Endure Hardness as a Soldier: Weaver opens with 2 Timothy 2:1-5, emphasizing that Christians are at war and must endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ.
The War on Christian Culture: Most Christians are unaware that their culture is being deliberately destroyed by revolutions against God and His Word.
Evidence of Cultural Decline: Weaver lists moral changes over the last 50 years: loss of the Ten Commandments, handshake deals, modest dress, respect for parents, and stable families.
The Principle: Theological Change Precedes Cultural Change: A change in theology always comes before a change in culture; 1 Timothy 1:3-5 shows that pure doctrine produces godly people and a godly culture.
Historical Illustrations of the Principle: Examples include America's early missionary foreign aid, the failure of force in Somalia, India's poverty due to pagan theology, and the Reformation's cultural transformation.
The War of Northern Aggression as a Theological Conflict: The division between North and South was rooted in theological differences; Northern rationalism and Unitarianism led to schisms in churches and ultimately the war.
Modern Consequences: Abortion and the Homosexual Agenda: Abortion stems from rejecting the cultural mandate of Genesis 1:27-28; homosexuality results from rejecting God as described in Romans 1:21-32.
The Need for Theological Reformation Today: America cannot return to its founding principles without a return to biblical theology; the church must reclaim Christ and apply His Word to all of life.

Major Themes

Key Arguments

Theology determines culture

You cannot change a culture without first changing its theology; all cultural shifts are theological at root.

Weaver says, 'If you have a change in theology for the better, then your culture and your society is going to be better. If you have a change in your theology for the worse, then your culture and your society is going to be worse.'

America's founding was biblical

The U.S. Constitution was designed for a moral and religious people; it cannot function without that foundation.

Weaver quotes John Adams: 'Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.'

Abortion results from rejecting the cultural mandate

When society rejects God's command to be fruitful and multiply, abortion becomes accepted as birth control.

Weaver says, 'A rejection of this cultural mandate, a rejection of this theology, has resulted in abortion, euthanasia, and genocide.'

Homosexuality is judgment for rejecting God

Romans 1 shows that when people change the truth of God into a lie, God gives them over to vile affections.

Weaver reads Romans 1:21-28 and says, 'How did you get a society of perverts? By rejecting true theology, by rejecting the Word of God.'

The church must lead cultural reformation

Cultural change will not come through politics or force but through a church that loves Christ and applies His Word.

Weaver says, 'We must learn to love the Lord our God... and then learn to apply that word and His truth to every area of our lives, and as we do that, we will be changing our culture.'

Scripture References

2 Timothy 2:1-5: Paul's charge to Timothy to be strong in grace, commit truth to faithful men, and endure hardness as a soldier.
John 8:44: Jesus says the devil has no truth in him; all truth is God's truth.
Ecclesiastes 3:8: There is no discharge in war; the spiritual war is continuous.
1 Timothy 1:3-5: Paul commands Timothy to charge some to teach no other doctrine; the end of the commandment is love from a pure heart.
Psalm 11:3: If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?
Isaiah 58:12: Those who repent will rebuild the old waste places and restore the foundations.
Proverbs 23:7: As a man thinks in his heart, so is he; belief shapes action.
Psalm 116:10: I believed, therefore have I spoken; faith produces outward expression.
1 Corinthians 10:31: Whether you eat or drink, do all to the glory of God; all of life is worship.
1 Timothy 6:1-5: Paul's instruction to withdraw from those who teach otherwise; referenced in the context of church division over slavery.
Genesis 1:27-28: God created man in His image and commanded them to be fruitful, multiply, and have dominion.
Psalm 127:3-5: Children are a heritage from the Lord; blessed is the man whose quiver is full.
Romans 1:21-32: When people reject God, He gives them over to a reprobate mind, leading to homosexuality and all unrighteousness.
Proverbs 8:35-36: Whoever finds Christ finds life; those who hate Him love death.

Historical References

Battle of Mogadishu (Black Hawk Down): Illustrates the failure of trying to change a culture by force; a Somali warlord says Americans cannot impose democracy on a people whose way of life is killing.
India's poverty and foreign aid: Despite billions in aid, India remains poor because of its pagan theology (worship of rats and cows) that prevents cultural improvement.
The Reformation (16th century): Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, and Gutenberg brought a theological change that ended the Dark Ages and transformed Western culture.
War of Northern Aggression (Civil War): Theological cleavage between the humanist North and conservative South led to church splits and the war; seen as a theological conflict by contemporaries.
Presbyterian Church splits (1837, 1857): Divisions over doctrine and abolitionism; the first major denominational split due to theological change.
Methodist split (1844) and Baptist split (1845): Formation of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1845 as a result of theological differences over slavery and Northern rationalism.
John Adams on the Constitution: Adams said the Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people; inadequate for any other.

Important Quotes

A theological change always precedes a cultural change.

This is the central thesis of the entire message, repeated throughout.

Culture is merely theology in action. It is religion externalized.

Defines the relationship between belief and societal behavior.

Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

John Adams' warning that the American system depends on a biblical foundation.

If you want a godly culture, it must be produced by godly people. If you want godly people, they must be produced by the Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit.

Summarizes the biblical process of cultural transformation.

Discussion Questions

[Question]

In what ways have you seen cultural changes in your lifetime that reflect a prior change in theology?

[Context]

Weaver asks listeners to consider how values, ethics, and morality have changed.

[Question]

How does the principle 'theology precedes culture' challenge common explanations for societal problems?

[Context]

Weaver argues that political, economic, or military solutions cannot change culture without theological change.

[Question]

What does it mean to 'endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ' in today's cultural battles?

[Context]

Weaver opens with 2 Timothy 2:3 and emphasizes the ongoing spiritual war.

[Question]

How should the church respond to the cultural mandate of Genesis 1:28 in a society that devalues children?

[Context]

Weaver connects abortion to the rejection of the command to be fruitful and multiply.

[Question]

What lessons can we learn from the Reformation about applying biblical truth to transform culture?

[Context]

Weaver describes how the Reformation changed every area of life when believers applied Scripture to all of life.

[Question]

Why is it insufficient to merely 'reclaim America' without first reclaiming the church?

[Context]

Weaver quotes Tom Ascol to emphasize that cultural impact flows from a Christ-exalting church.

Applications

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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | weaver_study | 2026-06-06T04:37:04Z