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ardmore：新民兄弟对基要主义和新福音主义怎么看待？最近一直在思考这些问题，感到很苦恼。尤其是社会责任方面，改革宗的观点是不是处在他们两者之间？

诚之：改革宗比较多属于无千禧年和后千禧年(千禧年结束后基督再临)，这一派认为这个“千禧年”是象征的或不知道什么时候开始，总之是千禧年后基督再临。但是因为福音广传，社会文化会有一定程度的改善。所以比较注重社会参与，教育普及等等。

基要主义比较多前千禧年派 (包括历史的和时代论的)，逼迫会愈来愈厉害，社会愈来愈败坏，然后福音要传遍后基督才再来，与死而复活的圣徒在地上统治1000年 (literally)。

因此，相对而言，不必注重社会参与，改善文化 (因为地和其中所有的都要过去，只能基督再来才会更新)。

如果你看Abraham Kuyper在荷兰自由大学的例子，你就能明白为什么要文化参与。

他的观念是：“基督是人类生活每一寸地土的王”。
"There is not an inch in the entire domain of our human life of which Christ, who is sovereign of all, does not proclaim: It's mine!"

这也是延续自宗教改革和清教徒的精神(路德和加尔文都很强调信徒要自己能读经，因此需要普及教育)。文化使命和福音使命的分家其实是比较近代的事。当初改教家和清教徒是没有这种割裂的。

xinmin: On the social or cultural mandate of the gospel.

Christianity emerged from a fringe movement led by Jesus and his apostles in a tumultuous world characterized by the pluralistic Greco Roman culture and the monotheistic faith of Judaism. In this light, early Christians were greatly marginalized and castigated as the outcasts or outlaws. The Roman emperors and society were no friend of Christians, until Constantine in early 4th century. Social mandate of the gospel was not something in the mind of every Christian then.

The cultural or social mandate (gospel is meant also to transform culture and society, not just for individual salvation) debate dates back to the early church fathers in the second to third centuries. Some argued that Christians were to have nothing to do with the pagan culture. Thus we have the famous line of Tertullian of Carthage: What indeed has Athens to do with Jerusalem? (Implied answer: nothing!) Others (such as Clement of Alexandria and Origen) studied carefully and taught Christians the Greek philosophy and developed informed strategies for Christian apologetics in the pagan society.

The social mandate took on greater urgency, now that the entire Roman empire was Christianized after Constantine. But the Church got its hands dirty and feet stuck deep in the muddy water of power struggle with emperors and local lords and in behavior mortification and controls in the wider society. The Church tried to reform the society through the church institution and sacred sacraments (Baptism, Eucharist, penance, etc) with actionable threats of church disciplines (from denial of sacrament to excommunication, interdict and inquisition). But the City of God did not seem to be an earthly reality, at least not to St. Augustine of Hippo.

Then came the pre-reformation pioneers and reformers. They stood up against the church corruption in doctrine and faith practice. By taking away the corrupted power of institutional church and placing the salvation to each individual persons, the reformers championed a different style of social transformation. The reformers certainly had a tremendous social impact that we still felt today in all denominations of protestanism.

Fast forward our time, we had liberalism in the last two to three centuries. Part of the liberal theology's emphasis was the works of faith and social involvement by Christians. Fundamentalism was a radical counterrevolution to the liberalism movement. They took both the biblical faith and the social issues seriously by taking a highly antagonistic and combative position to every ill of society. Evangelicalism is somewhere in the middle. The radical movements also begot its own less extreme offsprings. Slanted to the liberal side are Neoorthodoxy and liberation theology. Toward the conservation side is neoevangelism.

Personally, I take the cultural mandate as a corollary of the gospel. God seems to save one people at a time, even though occasionally in mission history also through a whole people group movement (but first through one or few individuals). God is more interested in winning a faith community of new humanity, the bride for his son Jesus Christ. Jesus taught in the parable of Kingdom of God that the wheat and tare will grow together until the harvest in the end time. The society will somehow be impacted by the presence and witness of Christians. We Christians are the light of the world. A community of believers is like a city on the hill. It cannot be hidden. In the dark hours of our society, it is the community of faith that shines and gives people hope and light. I would call this approach the Jesus approach, or apostolic approach. All later movements are a revision and partial correction.

ardmore: 有人说，我们只传耶稣基督和他的十字架没有其他使命可以传的，我们不想把天国建在地上。该怎么看这个问题。另外一直在寻找福音使命和文化使命的准确定义，一直找不到。

Yuehanmiao: 同样，有强烈文化使命的基督徒，比如，华人基督徒，看到我们文化中很多抵挡神的势力，正是这些抵挡神的势力败坏着中国人的身心灵，所以，想更新中华文化，这么办呢？没头没脑介绍一下外国的‘先进经验’管事儿吗？根本不管事儿！抵挡神的东西才容易被人快快接受，因为特实惠，为什么短短十几年的时间里，有６００到２，０００万中国年轻妇女会以性工作者的方式赚钱养生呢？！这就是一个最明显的例子！很多女
博士生感叹，白天愁论文，晚上愁嫁人，这是何苦呢！

想更新文化必须要改变人心，改变人的世界观，如何实现？　

只有‘传耶稣基督和他的十字架’，信耶稣的这些人:
生命有改变
世界观改变
必然影响周围的人
改变的人多了
成了风气
习惯变了
文化变了

文化使命才能实现　
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