Cultural Christianity Is Not Enough

The Psalmist says, “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain” (Ps. 127:1).

This text can realistically apply to many different facets of life, whether our homes, or our churches, or our schools, or our countries. Unless God builds it, it won’t be built. Unless God keeps it, it will fall apart. 

So what about the Western world?

Downward Trajectories and Fast Moving Trains

As the West continues to follow the trajectory of a derailed train heading off a cliff, some socio-economic experts have begun to decry culture's rejection of Christianity. Even notable atheists like Richard Dawkins have recognized that Christianity is the heart and soul of Western civilization and to remove Christian teaching and morality from the culture is to remove the very foundation of the West. 

They are not wrong. The West was built on Christian morality. Our laws have been thoroughly influenced by Scripture. In fact, the reason why Western culture is experiencing such an identity crisis is because we are seeing a war between its founding worldviews and the interloper of secularism. 

Consider America as a sampling of Western culture: America was effectively founded by Christians, and so we have thoroughly Christian documents grounding us and a Christian justice system governing us. The problem is that many of the elites and their followers are decidedly antagonistic towards Christianity. These pagans kick against the goads (Acts 26:14), like incensed oxen kicking against the iron spikes that keep them in line, resisting God’s will that has been in many ways enshrined into are laws and which they must now work around.

Our culture has not only rejected Christianity's teachings on morality but even objective truth itself, and now hopelessly tries to enforce subjective moral principles that ebb and flow like the ocean waves. 

That's a problem. But there is more to our national history than mere Christian morality.

Christian Doctrine is the Foundation of the West

Before the West could embrace Christian law and justice, it first needed to embrace Christian doctrine. Morality is the fruit of the underlying beliefs. And the West was built on the knowledge that the God of the Bible is real, He is Triune, He is holy, and He has communicated His commandments through His Word. This was the groundwork on which the moral structure of the West was established. 

For instance, moral commandments like, "Thou shalt not kill," only make sense in light of the doctrinal truth that, "God created male and female in His image." Simultaneously, the truth that there are only two genders is predicated upon the knowledge that God created male and female. 

The knowledge of God as foundational to everything else is made explicit in the opening of the Declaration Of Independence as it appeals to the existence of God as Creator and Law-giver as the foundation for liberty.  The terminology used is that people are entitled to govern their own land by “the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God…”Then we read probably its most famous sentence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” And, just for clarity's sake, the Declaration ends with an acknowledgment of the need for God, “for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”

The premise for founding America, for the Founding Fathers, was that God has created us, given us certain inalienable rights, and, by relying on this God, we are led into right government. 

The West in our day would be incapable of producing a document like this. Not could we not reproduce it, we are so spiritually anemic that we can barely understand appeals to God as the Creator, or as the Divine Providence governing our lives. 

This, however, is just the problem. You can’t imagine the Declaration of Independence without God, and thus you can’t imagine the founding of America without God, either. Furthermore, you would be unable to imagine England’s history, much of Germany’s prosperity, or even the majority of Scotland’s ages without acknowledging the existence of the Triune God and the authority of His Word. Consider any Western nation and you will need to also consider the true and living God.

What, then, are we to do? The experts may decry the West's rejection of "cultural Christianity," and atheists like Richard Dawkins can complain that they quite liked living in a "culturally Christian" society, but "cultural Christianity" was, simply put, never enough.  So again, what are we to do?

Rebuilding the West by Relying on God

The West can be rebuilt, but first, let it be said again, it simply is not enough to be a "cultural" Christian. One cannot embrace Christian morality without also embracing Christian doctrine. 

To put it another way, we must understand that the Ten Commandments include two tables, and the first deals exclusively with our relationship with God. “Thou shalt have no other gods,” “thou shalt not create graven images,” “thou shalt not take the Lord’s name in vain,” and, “Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy,” are all about how we relate to God. 

All of this leads into the second table of, “honor thy father and mother,” “thou shalt not murder,” “thou shalt not commit adultery,” “thou shalt not covet,” and, “thou shalt not bear false witness.” These commandments can only make sense, and can only be kept, when we come to understand the first table. And we can only understand the first table when we come to the Scriptures, in faith, and learn who God has revealed Himself to be.

Morality requires doctrine. As Proverbs 9:10 says, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” If we want to see a Christian culture and a Christian civilization reestablished and rebuilt in the West, then we need Christian doctrine. We can’t shy away from it. 

This means we need to know, hold to, and unashamedly teach what the Bible teaches regarding the existence of God, the origin of man, and the design of the sexes. But to take it further, to understand that we also need to know, hold to, and unashamedly teach the attributes of God, like His holiness, justice, and goodness.  

We especially need the gospel, in all of its politically incorrect and ‘Christian nationalist’ glory. We need to proclaim the sovereign crown rights of King Jesus everywhere we go. Only with Christianity can the West again flourish.