The Culture We Need to Resist Is Not Just on the Outside

I was privileged to speak in chapel at Pacific Islands University this past week. Perhaps the message will be posted online. We are working on doing that. I'll let you know when we succeed. To get back to my point, I spoke on A Plan For Counter-cultural Living. I was only able to scratch the surface. I'm hoping to flesh out my thoughts and post them on this blog.
For now, let me just say that our Christian sub-culture is as great a, if not a greater culture than the secular cultures in which we find ourselves. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus was primarily confronting the religious culture of First-Century Israel, a culture that grew out of the truth that came from God's words delivered to Moses on Sinai. Here is a brief video by Michael Hizer that highlights the need for Biblical Christians to not just resist the cultural pressures from outside the church, but those from within, as well.

When Tradition Challenges Scripture

A paradigm for thinking Theologically and with Biblical practicality:

Jake Meador writes an interesting and thought provoking article over at Mere Orthodoxy. He is entering into a debate raised by John Piper about whether women should teach at seminaries. I haven't looked into the debate beyond Meador's comments so I won't go there, other than to say, while I am a complementarian and believe the Bible teaches that the leadership within the church should be male, I don't have a problem with women teaching in seminary.
What I particularly like about Meador's article is that he endorses a plan for "doing Theology and, since all good Theology should be practical, making decisions about life and ministry. The following paragraph captures this concept. 

When Paul is explaining his understanding of men and women in his epistles, he always appeals to creation, toward a natural order that exists in the world and reflects the truths he is presenting. He notes that man was made before woman in 1 Timothy 2 and in 1 Cor. 11 he argues that man is the glory of God and woman the glory of man, which suggests something about natures and which will apply in more directions than just a narrow list of clear biblical commands about a few particular arenas. This emphasis echoes the creation account in Genesis, of course, which goes to great lengths to emphasize the differences between men and women. Thus these differences are not a thing that can be safely confined to a small range of issues. They are, rather, hardwired into creation and thus must be acknowledged as having universal import.

At this point, I'm not arguing for the specific point that Piper (and perhaps Meador) is making. What I am advocating is that this is a good paradigm to follow when we are seeking to go to scripture and come out with answers for questions in our world.
I'm not anti-prooftext. If used honestly they have a clear place. John 3:16 is a marvelous prooftext concerning the love of God. It is not inappropriate to use it as such because it is an expression of a concept that oozes out of the Bible. There is a clear principle behind it, an undeniable direction in which God's word points us. God's love is clearly stamped into the DNA of the Word.
When we find those kinds of themes in scripture we find a foundation on which we can build good Theology, and upon which we can base sound practice. It is the kind of orthodoxy that leads to orthopraxy. Why don't we see more if it? For one thing, it is hard. Even more, this recognition of and competency to handle the broad themes of  Scripture is only available to those whose exposure to Holy Writ is deep and wide. Too often our Theological musings are less "Thus saith the Lord," and more "This is what half-a-dozen bright thinkers had to say." If we followed the paradigm that Meador is promoting perhaps we might approach the impact our Lord had.

   “When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching; for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.” (Matthew 7:28–29, NASB95)