Intellectuelle

Marla, I was thinking the same thing about my own post. The Bible has statements like "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." (1 John 1:15)

I have been guilty of reading this verse as "Do not love the culture or anything in the culture. If anyone loves the culture, the love of the Father is not in him."

Nice post Marla - adds a piece to the picture.

I have a theory that cultures (like the individual people they are made of) are created by God to reflect his image and that God likes the diversity of cultures and the creativity that people express through them.

FYI, there is a fantastic editorial in the NY Times called "Not All Cultures are Equal." Brooks brings up many aspects of culture which I wonder about. Registration is required, but it's quite worth reading.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/10/opinion/11brooks.done.html

As well respected as Chambers is, I take exception to how his words are used here. From reading it *here* I think that he meant that the details change and are hard to pin down, but I don't think he is referring to the larger concept ( I could be wrong... I haven't read that particular book of his).
However, "What was worldliness in Paul's day is not worldliness in our day; the line is altering all the time. " is not true in the large sense. The World was the word Cosmos. It denoted all of the worlds systems and way of approaching life as opposed to God's.

That hasn't changed. There is a division to be made in what is 'of the world' and thus in enmity to us, and what is "style" or tribal expression.
I'm fixing up to do a post on that.

Ilona, I think the other three quotes clarify that one quote. But to get the full context, you'd have to read the four separate sources from which these quotes were pulled (the commentary draws from the 30 books he wrote as well as articles). I thought they stood well on their own, though.

Thanks, Catez :)

Hannah, I appreciate that perspective. I'll try to check out the article.

War of the Worlds

This is my first attempt at posting and scoping things out here. Regarding our culture, it seems evident to me and has for a long time, that our Worlds are at war. Warring between this present world in which we live, and that of the realm of the spirit. Since the beginning of time, our adversary the Devil has sought to use whatever methods to bring havoc to this planet and especially to those who wear the banner of Christ.

I believe that now, more than ever he has been very successful in his attempts to bring confusion to this world, especially within the body of Christ, the church. His use of the ultimate weapon against us, is Apathy, is at an all time high. The reasoning this is the most powerful weapon in his arsenault, is that it;s not as blantant, shocking, or one that uses his long held stereotypical reputation of demonic scare tactics... seeing him as the being in the darkened corner with horns, loathsome, headspinning lying in wait in a darkened corner to torture us!

Satan is clever and he is doing a wonderful job within the body of Christ, by merely bringing upon us a spirit of apathy, in which we have become indifferent to so many things. We are indifferent of each others needs, indifferent to compassion, indifferent to Holiness and righteousness, indifferent to our actions upon others and most of all, increasingly indifferent to sin, and the mounting blurring of the lines of gray in this world in which we live. We Christians now ARE indeed the lobster within the pot of tepid water, increasing in temperature, we sit and stew within it never seeing what is happening to us! We are becoming as the world is, No longer living within in it and yet not a part. I worry about myself and my own mindset, and view of things I know is sin and increase of acceptance of things that are not of God. Unfortunately this is all spoken of in scripture. Pressing into Christ our Lord is the only answer and clinging to Him. I pray for our churches!

yes, apathy is a killer--where I live it's almost impossible to be apathetic since the culture of the SF Bay Area is so anti-Christianity, so I probably don't see this as much of an issue as in areas where there are lots of believers. Thanks for expressing your thoughts, Sal.