WHEN YOU CROSS CULTURES - World Evangelical Alliance

THE GOSPEL MESSAGE AND CULTURE
Old Testament “explaining to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning
himself” (Luke 24:27). The eyes of their understanding were opened and their
hearts burned as they finally realized that it was the risen Christ Himself
speaking to them. There is plenty of good news in the Bible from Genesis to
Revelation. 1
Many Gospel presentations begin with the Fall and sin in Genesis 3.
God’s good news actually starts from the very first verses of Genesis. God wants
us to know Him as Creator. Every person is created in God’s image.
The Lausanne Covenant states “Because men and women are made in
the image of God, every person, regardless of race, religion, colour, culture,
class, sex or age, has an intrinsic dignity because of which he or she should be
respected and served, not exploited.” 2 The good news speaks of the dignity
and value of every person. And that’s the way we are to view people from
every nation and culture as we bring the good news to them.
The story of the Fall in Genesis 3 sounds like bad news. But the good
news can only be valued when the seriousness and extent of sin is understood.
The first promise of the remedy for sin is found in the same chapter in verse 15
– that the serpent would be crushed on the head by the son of the woman,
whom we know is Jesus Christ.
For those of us involved in missions, the promise to Abraham in Genesis
12:3 rings loud and clear that through him, God would bless all the nations.
Paul in fact affirms in Galatians 3:8 that the Gospel was being preached in
advance to Abraham. The story of the Gospel continues from this promise
onwards to the coming of Christ and does not end till the gospel is preached to
all nations (Matthew 24:14). The glorious fulfilment is portrayed in Revelation
5:9 and 7:9. People from every tribe, language and nation will be worshipping
the Lamb. Yes, the Gospel, the good news, is for the nations.
The content of the Gospel is found in the whole Bible which portrays or
declares the Gospel in many different ways to peoples of every culture. There is
something in Scripture that will be relevant to any culture. In the next chapter,
we will have examples of how the Gospel message can be contextualised.
What we have to avoid is to come to a new culture or language with a
pre-packaged Gospel. Many groups with a desire for hasty “decisions for Christ”
have been unwise in their methods causing more damage than good and
sometimes closing doors to further sensitive cross-cultural work.
People may resist the Gospel message not because they are antagonistic
to Christ or Christianity, but because they perceive it to be a threat to their
culture and the solidarity of their society. This happens not just among tribal
and religious groups but also in secularised societies. Therefore the cultural
factor cannot be taken lightly.
1 For a helpful summary, see Chris Wright (2009), According to the Scriptures: The Whole Gospel in Biblical Revelation, Evangelical
Review of Theology, Volume 33:1, January 2009, World Evangelical Alliance.
2 Section 5, Lausanne Covenant, 1974. The Lausanne Covenant is available on the Lausanne website
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