Does Scripture Influence Society?

Obedience to the Lord’s teachings and commandments has personal and social implications. True regeneration is a cultural event. Scripture presents two means of influencing society with God’s Word, each of which is necessary: holy lives and verbal proclamation. As God’s Word influences society, there should be a marked difference in society as a whole, and it should be a difference that even the unbeliever will notice, for light will not go unnoticed by darkness (cf. Matt 5:13-16). Social benefits are often the result of holy lives and verbal proclamation of God’s Word, but societal improvement is not the gospel the church is charged to proclaim. Social action apart from the biblical Gospel often prioritizes the conversion of social structures, as opposed to personal salvation in Christ alone, which supposedly reaches its climax in the complete inauguration of the kingdom of God. God does have a purpose for all creation, but it awaits the redemption of the body for the saints according to the will of God (Rom 8:18-23; Phil 3:20-21). Before the foundation of the world, God chose those “to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth . . . to share in the glory of [the] Lord Jesus Christ.” Therefore, the church is to “stand firm and hold to the teachings” of the Gospel and to do so “in every good deed and word” (2 Thess 2:13-17). When the church stands firm, God will be glorified and society will be better for it!