Analysis Of Andrew Walls's The Gospel As Prisoner And Liberator Of Culture

In his the paper The Gospel as Prisoner and Liberator of Culture, Andrew Walls explores the way Christian message was shaped by the culture in which it was brought. Although Walls shows successfully that the Christian manifestation has changed throughout history, Walls places too much emphasis on the influence of culture as part of the church, and not opposed to the church.

Walls states, and gives examples of how expressions of Christian faith have changed over time. The early church in A.D. 37 were mostly Jews, worshiped in the Temple, and lived according to the Law of Moses. They lived like normal Jews, except for their belief in Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah, who fulfilled the prophecies of the Law that they love.

The church of the

Even though we may not consider the doctrine of the Trinity to be the most controversial topic today, this is not because that doctrine is no longer important, on the contrary, it is no longer controversial, and has been established. Although we ought to still consider past doctrines, we don’t need to “reinvent the wheel” of truth. The truths important to us now, are built on the foundation of past truths already hammered out in previous creeds of the church that agree with Scripture. Thus often the doctrine of the church is shaped by the culture in which it is in because the devil, through the world, or erring members is trying to taint the pure gospel. Trying to add (Old Testament Laws) or subtract from the sovereign grace of God. Therefore, many times when there has been a shift in emphasis in the church’s gospel it is either because the world was successful in shifting the focus of the gospel away from Jesus, or the church had to hammer out the truth from God’s word in a new

Paul, for instance, quotes a Greek poet when visiting Athens. However, as Christians, they are to be different. If their culture worships other gods, Christians may not “indigenize” the gospel to include these other gods. Nor may they accept the heathen life styles that they were once part of. Consider the church of Ephesus, where the members burned many valuable heathen books, because they were no longer part of that aspect of society. Walls argument thus, though valid, does not stress the separation that the church must have with the world. The church must be a light on a hill that cannot be