The Early Church and Cultural Expansion
Christianity and culture is something I talk about because I love cultural expressions of worship to God. I love standing in a service and hearing various languages praying and worshiping to the same God. It's a beautiful picture of what I believe heaven will be like.
Christianity began with Jewish converts, but quickly spread. The beginning of this spread began with Peter, who is one of the main leaders of the early church, on a roof and a strange vision. You can read the account of this in Acts 10. The basic story is that Peter went on the roof to pray while dinner was being prepared. He realized he was hungry, and had a vision of a sheet being lowered from heaven with all different kinds of animals on it. Peter hears a voice that tells him to kill and eat. Peter refuses to eat because the animals on the sheet have been declared unclean by Jewish law. The voice comes back and tells Peter that what God has called clean, let no man call it unclean. The Bible says this happens 3 times, and then Peter awakens from his vision.
So what's the point? Well Jews considered Gentiles (all non-Jews) to be unclean. God was calling Peter to go preach to people who were not Jews to share the message of Jesus. In the vision, God was teaching Peter that he should not refuse to go where God was asking him to go simply because the people were not Jewish. God's comment to Peter about not calling unclean what God has called clean was not really about the animals, that was just a visual illustration. The comment was about people. It was time for the message of Jesus to spread beyond just the first group of Jewish converts and to begin its spread outwards to different groups of people.
Once Peter awakens from his vision, there are 3 men waiting to take him to the house of a Roman centurion (army general) named Cornelius. Peter goes to Cornelius' house and is able to share about Jesus and the presence of God falls on the people there. This is the second mention of the presence of God or Holy Spirit coming. (The first is Pentecost-See Acts 2).
The next situation that happens to further the multiculturalism of the church is found in Acts 15. A group of Jewish converts to Christianity were teaching that in order to believe in Jesus, all people had to follow Jewish law. The news of this spread up to Peter and Paul and others who were part of the early church leadership. This teaching did not sound right to them so the leaders gathered together to decide how to deal with this situation. At this point most of the Christians came from Jewish background, but as we discussed above, Christianity was spreading to those who weren't Jewish. The leadership needed to decide how to include this new cultural group and what was required. This leadership council decided that Gentile Christians were not required to follow Jewish law, but gave them a few guidelines to follow. This was the first official opening of the church to all cultural groups.
I think that Acts 15 is the precursor for how Christians today should confront Christianity and culture. There is no reason that Christianity can't be expressed in culturally relevant ways as long as we still hold true to Christian core beliefs and values. It is a beautiful expression to God when we can celebrate Him in our own languages and through our own cultural expressions.
Christianity and culture is something I talk about because I love cultural expressions of worship to God. I love standing in a service and hearing various languages praying and worshiping to the same God. It's a beautiful picture of what I believe heaven will be like.
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| Church in Nepal |
So what's the point? Well Jews considered Gentiles (all non-Jews) to be unclean. God was calling Peter to go preach to people who were not Jews to share the message of Jesus. In the vision, God was teaching Peter that he should not refuse to go where God was asking him to go simply because the people were not Jewish. God's comment to Peter about not calling unclean what God has called clean was not really about the animals, that was just a visual illustration. The comment was about people. It was time for the message of Jesus to spread beyond just the first group of Jewish converts and to begin its spread outwards to different groups of people.
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| Sudanese Christians |
Once Peter awakens from his vision, there are 3 men waiting to take him to the house of a Roman centurion (army general) named Cornelius. Peter goes to Cornelius' house and is able to share about Jesus and the presence of God falls on the people there. This is the second mention of the presence of God or Holy Spirit coming. (The first is Pentecost-See Acts 2).
The next situation that happens to further the multiculturalism of the church is found in Acts 15. A group of Jewish converts to Christianity were teaching that in order to believe in Jesus, all people had to follow Jewish law. The news of this spread up to Peter and Paul and others who were part of the early church leadership. This teaching did not sound right to them so the leaders gathered together to decide how to deal with this situation. At this point most of the Christians came from Jewish background, but as we discussed above, Christianity was spreading to those who weren't Jewish. The leadership needed to decide how to include this new cultural group and what was required. This leadership council decided that Gentile Christians were not required to follow Jewish law, but gave them a few guidelines to follow. This was the first official opening of the church to all cultural groups.
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| Korean Christians |
I think that Acts 15 is the precursor for how Christians today should confront Christianity and culture. There is no reason that Christianity can't be expressed in culturally relevant ways as long as we still hold true to Christian core beliefs and values. It is a beautiful expression to God when we can celebrate Him in our own languages and through our own cultural expressions.
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