Teacher to Teacher - March 2008 - (Page 6) continued from page 3 God repeatedly emphasizes the fact that His grace is to be extended to all nations. It is implied in the “first gos pel” (Gen. 3:15), in which the deliverer is described as specifically human, “the seed of the woman”; it becomes explicit with the earliest revelation of His choice of Abram, through whom “all families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:3). Israel is repeatedly re minded by its prophets that “all nations” will come to Jerusalem to worship the one true God (e.g., Isaiah begins and ends his prophecy with this observation: 2:2; 66:18, 20). Jesus Himself teaches that “many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the king dom of heaven” (Matt. 8:11). And the story of God’s great work in man’s salvation climaxes with an innumerable multitude “of all na tions, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, . . . [who] came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Rev. 7:9, 14). God loves and blesses cultures—all of them. For His work to be accomplished in our day, God has designed the assembly, the church, which is effective because it is composed of a diversity of people— diversities of gifts (Rom. 12; 1 Cor. 12; Eph. 4), of economic and social status, and specifically of ethnic identities (Gal. 3:28). Part of its very purpose is to astonish the heavenly powers by dem onstrating unity and harmony among people who, by earthly standards, should not be together (Eph. 3:1–10; the specific contrast here is between Jews and Gentiles [cf. 2:11–17]). page 6 Teacher to Teacher | March 2008 celeBrating diversity So is diversity to be celebrated? Abso lutely. Diversity in the church makes it stronger because the church is then ca pable of doing more things (Rom. 12; 1 Cor. 12; Eph. 4). Similarly, diversity in a society can be the source of great Which of these nonverbal communica tions is superior? Obviously, neither is. But different cultures, in exercising the creativity that is the image of their Cre ator, have assigned different messages to the same action. It’s wonderful. So, like the most radical and godless multicultural relativist, we can talk about “celebrat ing diversity.” But unlike the relativist, we can actually mean it3—because God’s work is indeed something worth celebrating. God repeatedly emphasizes the fact that His grace is to be extended to all nations. strength and flexibility. And even in a relatively homogeneous society, the study of cultural diversities around the world reinforces the students’ appre ciation for the creativity of the Creator God as evidenced in the creation itself and in the creativity of all the world’s peoples, who, because they are human, are in His image. I have been privileged to travel internationally—not as much as I’d like, but certainly more than I de serve. I’m fascinated with cultural diversity. In America, when eating in someone’s home, you should fin ish everything on your plate. Why? Because to leave something is to say that you didn’t like it. In China, the reverse is true; you must not finish everything. Why? Because to eat it all is to say that the host has not given you enough. And that is to cause him to lose face. evaluating cultures Of course, if there is truth, there is also error. And the celebration of diversity, if undisciplined by biblical truth, can lead to griev ous error and even to cultural destruction. The same God who encouraged the development of multiple cultures and who promises to redeem them all also condemns cultures that reject His truth.4 Cultures are not inher ently good just because they are human.5 We not only are free to evaluate the rela tive merits of various cultures but also 3 It is a truism that those who speak most loudly about tolerating diversity are often the least likely to do it themselves. A popular example in recent years has been the censorship of campus speech by so-called “diversity” leaders. One source of specific examples of such behavior is the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (http:// www.isi.org/). 4 This is a major emphasis of the Old Testament prophets. For example, Isaiah includes condemnations of Babylon, Philistia, Moab, Syria, Ethiopia, Egypt, Edom, Arabia, Assyria, and Edom. Jeremiah, writing more than a century later, condemns Egypt, Philistia, Moab, Ammon, Edom, Syria, Elam, and Babylon. 5 As a junior high public-school student in the late 1960s, I took an anthropology course for which the text was entitled Four Ways of Being Human. Its thesis was that different cultures (the four studied were the Maori, Eskimo, Semang, and Hopi) do things in different ways, but they’re all good. Missing from the thesis was any understanding of the biblical teaching on the depravity of man (Rom. 1–3). http://www.isi.org/ http://www.isi.org/
Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Teacher to Teacher - March 2008 Teacher to Teacher - March 2008 Teacher to Teacher - March 2008 - (Page Intro) Teacher to Teacher - March 2008 - (Page 1) Teacher to Teacher - March 2008 - (Page 2) Teacher to Teacher - March 2008 - (Page 3) Teacher to Teacher - March 2008 - (Page 4) Teacher to Teacher - March 2008 - (Page 5) Teacher to Teacher - March 2008 - (Page 6) Teacher to Teacher - March 2008 - (Page 7) Teacher to Teacher - March 2008 - (Page 8)
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