 |
| Keller and Driscoll |
Does the Church Have a
Social Mandate?
This may sound like a question that
should be answered in the third section, dealing with CC’s ecclesiology. However,
it truly belongs here, because Keller’s social mandate seems to be rooted in
the doctrine of common grace. Throughout
large portions of the City section (chs. 7-18) of CC, Keller is evaluating positions and approaches to the
culture. He believes that the mission of
the church must be balanced between the great commission and the cultural
mandate to advance human flourishing. He
says,
We
teach Christians to integrate their faith and their work so that they can be
culture makers, working for human flourishing—the common good. (47)
…numbers
do not always equate to influence. Even
if 80 percent of the population of a country are Christian believers, they will
have almost no cultural influence if the Christians do no live in cultural
centers and work in culture-forging fields such as academia, publishing, media,
entertainment, and the arts. The
assumption that society will improve simply by more Christian believers being
present is no longer valid. If you care
about having an influence on society, evangelism is not enough. (185)
But
effective churches will be so involved in deeds of mercy and justice that
outsiders will say, “We cannot do without churches like this. This church is channeling so much value into
our community that if it were to leave the neighborhood, we would have to raise
taxes.” (305)[1]
Things like clean water, dental
work, changing business, art, music and publishing for the better may certainly
be good for humanity in this life.
But is this to be the missio Dei (God’s
mission) for the church? As good as
these things may be, I’m convinced that this is a terrible distraction from the
true mission of the church. To clearly
understand the mission of the church, let’s look at the early chapters of the
book of Acts.
After His resurrection, Christ
spent 40 days with the disciples, teaching them about the kingdom of God (Acts
1:1-3). After all the discussion about
the kingdom (verse 3), the disciples ask about the presence of the
kingdom. Jesus tells them that the
timing of the kingdoms arrival is not for them to know. Then, He proceeds to tell them that they need
to wait in Jerusalem until the promised Holy Spirit comes (1:4-5). Notice what happens with these two pieces of
information in the minds of the disciples:
So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, ‘Lord,
is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?’ He said to them, ‘It is not for you
to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority;
but you will
receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My
witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the
remotest part of the earth.’ (Acts 1:6-8)
The mandate is about being witnesses, testifying to the
resurrection. The mandate of the church
is about testifying to the gospel until He returns (Keller agrees). The mandate of the church is exclusively
about testifying and not about establishing ‘shalom’ or cultural renewal in
some sort of kingdom sense (Keller doesn’t agree). After receiving the commission to witness, the
apostles remain undistracted. Instead of
leading the church into cultural renewal, they point to the only One who can
restore the creation. The apostolic
message is repent and believe so that Christ can come and reverse the curse
placed on this earth. Peter proclaimed,
Therefore repent and return, so
that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come
from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed
for you, whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things
about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time.
(Acts 3:19-21)[2]
Peter preached that cultural
renewal was a work of Christ by virtue of His imminent return as King. Keller, however, believes that our pursuit of
cultural renewal, social justice, mercy ministry, and human betterment are
based on the fact that Jesus created and redeemed body and spirit:
First,
word and deed go together theologically.
The resurrection of Jesus shows us that God not only created both body and spirit, but that
he will also redeem both body and
spirit. The salvation Jesus will
eventually bring in its fullness will include liberation from all of the
effects of sin—not only the spiritual effects but physical and material ones as
well. Jesus himself came both preaching
the Word and healing and
feeding. The final kingdom will be one
of justice for all. Christians can
faithfully proclaim the gospel through both words and deeds of compassion and
justice, serving the material needs of people around us even as we call them to
faith in Jesus. (322)
In order to justify the cultural
mandate, Keller seems to take passages about the church’s mission to care for the
saints and then apply them to the unbelieving poor in society. On the first page of the book, Keller affirms
mercy ministry to the poor as ‘fruit’ because of Romans 15:28. However, as the previous two verses show,
this ministry wasn’t to unbelievers, but instead for “for
the poor among the saints in Jerusalem.”
These Gentiles were sharing in their physical possessions for the
benefit of Christians they had never met who were undergoing famine conditions.
On page
228, Keller writes that Jesus calls his disciples to renew the culture based on
Matthew 5:13. Yet, in Matthew’s context,
being a salty Christian doesn’t earn the world’s favor (as in the case of cultural
renewal for the common good), but the world’s animosity because of the offense of
righteousness (Matt. 5:10) and Christ (Matt. 5:11-12). Keller believes the illustration is meat being
preserved by salt. However, Jesus tells
us exactly what aspect of salt he is referring to. Jesus isn’t using salt to talk about
preservation any more than melting ice on the road. He says that Christians are to be salty, and
“if the salt has become tasteless” (5:13) then we have a problem. Christians doing cultural renewal aren’t
salty; they taste like philanthropists of all stripes. Christians walking in righteousness (5:6,
10-12, 19-20) are salty, distinctive in flavor among the world.
In chapter 25, Keller gives a
systematic defense of mercy and justice ministries to the community outside the
church. The texts appealed to include
the example of Martha serving a meal in Luke 10:40 (323). Unfortunately for Keller and Martha, Mary was
the example to follow and Martha, the example to avoid (Lk. 10:41-42).
On page 323, Keller appeals to Acts
6:2. Here the apostles declare that they
cannot neglect the Word and prayer, but the needs of the saints must be met as
well. Notice that the needs were among
“the disciples” (Acts 6:1).
Specifically, there was some tension between the Hellenistic widows and
the Hebrew widows, since the Hellenized widows were being overlooked. As always, the need was in-house, among the
people of God. The widows here are
declared to be “disciples” in verse 1.
In James 1:27, the combination of “orphans and widows” is reminiscent of
the OT triad, “orphan, widow, and alien.”
These had no means of provision because they had no husband who was
working his inherited portion of the promised land. Even an alien, a convert from Egypt, Moab,
Phoenicia, etc., would be in the same position.
They would only be there because they converted to worship and serve
Yahweh, and they we depend on the mercy and care of the fellow faithful
Israelites (cf. Deut. 10:18-19; 24:19-22).
Furthermore, Paul defines a widow as a woman who “has fixed her hope on
God” and is devoted to prayer (1 Tim. 5:5).
Widows were only to be cared for by the church when they had an established
reputation of godliness, a demonstrable faith, and no one in their own
household to care for them (vv. 9-16).
Certainly individual Christians will be compassionate towards the lost
and must be characterized by good deeds (Gal. 6:10), but I find no biblical
evidence for the church’s so-called social mandate.
Christ didn’t ask us to reverse the
curse, set the creation free, or cause times of refreshing. Only He can do that. He has asked us to minister to the saints and
testify of the resurrection until He returns. TO BE CONTINUED
Article written by Pastor Jon Anderson. Jon is a pastor at Grace Immanuel Bible Church and a PhD student at Southern Seminary. His forthcoming dissertation will be on presuppositional hermeneutics.
[1] These are only a few examples. See also pp. 81, 223-24, 236, 331, 334-35.
[2] Consider Romans 8:18-25 in light of the discussion
about the church’s mandate to reverse the curse with social work and doing
physical kingdom work. The earth was
subjected to a curse by God Himself. The
Holy Spirit inside of us is a down-payment of the restoration of the created
order and the reverse of the curse. Even
in the church-age with the Spirit’s indwelling presence, Paul describes the
revelation of the sons of God and setting creation free as an unseen hope for
which we eagerly wait.
