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“ hrough your offspring , all nations on earth will be blessed ” ( Gen . 12:3 ; 22:18 ). So promised God to Abraham , the forefather of Israel , and of the church ( Gal . 3:7 – 9 ). God ’ s great , unchanging plan through the ages is to work through His people , the offspring of Abraham , to bless the nations He loves .
God saved His people for a purpose — to be a light to the nations and work for the good of our neighbors : to be part of creating cultures that are free , just , and compassionate , and to be salt that preserves all that is good , true , and beautiful from dissolution and decline .
If you want to change culture , you begin by changing language .
Sharing the gospel is central to this task , but there is much more work to do . Cultures thrive in the rich soil of truth , and the biblical definitions of words and language lead us to truth . Words are incredibly powerful . “ In the beginning was the Word , and the Word was with God , and the Word was God ,” begins the Gospel of John . It ’ s no overstatement to say that we live in a word-based universe .
God created us with the capacity to use words to create culture . “ Culture lives by language ,” wrote historian Robert Lewis Wilken , “ and the sentiments , thoughts , and feelings of a Christian culture are formed and carried by the language of the Scriptures .”
Historically , Christian missionaries not only translated the Bible into native languages but also taught indigenous peoples to read and access the Bible directly . They established schools and universities to institutionalize biblical definitions in education , government , law , and civil society . In this way , they transformed the world . They discipled nations .
This also happened in the United States . Our nation ’ s early institutions were built on the solid foundation of biblical definitions . One of our great Founding Fathers , Noah Webster , made this his life ’ s mission . Webster is “ the father of American education .” He compiled the American Dictionary of the English Language in 1828 , recognizing that a nation of free people required a dictionary built “ from the Bible up .”
His dictionary contained more biblical definitions than any other reference volume before or since . Notwithstanding the blight of slavery and other sins , this biblical legacy produced one of the freest , most prosperous , generous , and humane nations in human history . Yet today , in the United States and throughout the Western world , our “ cultural elites ” have discarded Webster ’ s 1828 Dictionary and are busily redefining words at breakneck speed . We are abandoning God and going our own way — and with a change in worship comes a shift in language and culture .
If you want to change culture , you begin by changing language . The enemies of the gospel understand this principle very well . Someone is going to shape the culture . Someone will define words and embed those words into the systems and institutions at the foundations of culture — if not Christians with true , biblical definitions that lead to freedom and human flourishing , then non-Christians with false redefinitions that destroy nations .
This destruction has been happening in Western nations for the past century . Christians have essentially given up on their primary calling to be salt and light by defending true definitions in the public square . Instead , we ’ ve been content with limiting our faith to evangelism , attending Sunday morning worship services , and personal piety .
The church ’ s failure to carry out its mission harms not
10 THE RENEWANATION REVIEW