Culture vs. Theology

One of the great things about The Internet is how it can be used to keep families in close contact with each other. My family is no exception and almost all of my brothers, sisters, nephews and nieces (and our mom/grandma!) enjoy sharing their thoughts on God. Recently, my brother Lars Justinen (the artist that is quite known in the Seventh-day Adventist Church) wrote something that I really enjoyed and I asked him if I could share it with all of you.

Culture vs. Theology

I am not going to state any specifics, but as I listen to  concerns about some of us “growing up SDA” and discussing things like jewelry, I want to share something that I wish was more clearly articulated to Christians and non-Christians alike. This one simple concept goes a long long long way in clarifying a lot of things that I think just get confusing when we discuss different denominations and theologies.

Namely, the difference between a religious culture and a religious theology. Most of the time I find we kind of blur the two and there is a whole universe of difference between the two. I have had a lot of different employees work for me – Mormons, Adventists, Pentecostals, Nazarenes, Agnostics, Atheists, etc. Often we sit around and talk about our beliefs while working on projects or on breaks and I find that people frequently do not differentiate between the churches culture that they love and their theological beliefs.

How so? Well, let’s take vegetarianism since a family member of mine brought up that one recently. Adventists believe that God requires us to take care of the “temple of the Holy Spirit” as described in 1 Corinthians 3:16 and many other places in the Bible. The idea of being good stewards of the bodies that God gives us to serve Him and others is pure theology. It is based on beliefs gleaned from God’s word, the Bible. But being a vegetarian is an application of a theological principle that has become a tradition among many Adventists over the past 100 years. The leading writer and a great influence for many Adventists, Ellen White, wrote a lot about the advantages of a meat-free diet and that has created a tradition of abstaining, although less than 35% of Adventists are vegetarians and even a smaller number are true “vegans”, while most abstain from “unclean” meat like pork.

All of this creates some interesting and sometimes strange beliefs. And what I am saying would apply to any denomination, or even ideology. People sometimes fall more in love with, and become more zealous for their culture than their theology. For example, the Bible is clear as crystal on the idea that we should not covet. That means we should be happy with what we have and not wish to have what others have. Like the crime of conspiracy, it is based on what we would like to do and not what we actually do. Yet many Adventists would be less bothered if they overheard their pastor coveting a new car than they would seeing him eat a bacon and tomato sandwich. That is the strange phenomena of culture versus theology. And there are a zillion examples out there.

Why do I think all of this is important? Because we should point out that theology is everything and culture is nothing. It’s meaningless. It’s just tradition. It has no foundation. The culture is of people and the theology is of God. People will always let you down. God never does. What a difference! And yet when I hear people talk about joining a church, they are often referring to the people. “Our church is friendly... Our church follows the real truth, etc.” Well, there are two churches one can join. A social and cultural church or a church that represents a set of theological beliefs. But often I find that people are not even aware of which they are joining, or are mixing the two together.

For example, I had a young Mormon female artist work for me and when I asked her, politely and courteously, about her beliefs, I soon found that I knew a great deal more about Latter-day Saint’s theology than she did. But she knew a lot more about the LDS culture than I did and that was what she loved and defended and cherished. She liked the ceremonies, she loved the family nights, she liked the potlucks, and the shared cultural values. But she didn’t have a clue or even an awareness of the “innocent blood atonement” doctrine, or their understanding of Christ’s humanity. She didn’t know what to make of the fact that ethnic blacks were not allowed to participate in the Aaronic Priesthood prior to 1976, etc etc etc. But she loves “her church”.

Do you see a danger here? I had a good Jewish friend of mine in Victoria who was basically an atheistic hedonist, and yet he would not eat food that was not “kosher”. What was that about?

So the real question becomes what I believe in terms of the things that affect my relationship with my Creator. If I decide that I want to follow God as He has revealed Himself to me in His Word, then it is those things that are paramount. It may lead me to believe the main beliefs as held by the Seventh-day Adventist Church – the 7th day Sabbath, state of the dead, salvation by faith in Christ alone, etc – (which it has) but I must beware that I do not fall into the trap of only joining the “culture of Adventists” because that can lead to a meaningless, God-free, empty existence.

By the way, the same thing can happen in politics. Instead of coming to a personal understanding on each social issue of life, you become “a conservative” or “a liberal” or a Democrat or a Republican. So you might have questions about the death penalty, for example, but, well, I’m a “Republican” so I guess I should support it. What a way to hand off your God-given sense of reason and thought.

This is a world-wide phenomenon in all religions. There are cultural and theological Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, etc. I would rather be stuck on a desert island with a theological Buddhist, than a cultural one. At least we would have something to talk about :-).

So a good place to start when looking at any difference between what you currently believe and what someone else believes, is to ask, is this a traditional, the application of a theological principle or a fundamental theological belief that I came to from a personal study that I have made in God’s Word.

If one was a teacher I would imagine they would have a different attitude towards the student that does his or her homework and studies hard and yet gets a few concepts wrong on the test, and the other student who never bothers to study and gets the same questions wrong. Guess which one gets the teacher’s grace?

- Lars Justinen (www.jcg.com)