Culture was invented as a replacement for God, for when man lost God, he lost everything, so he had to invent certain things to make up for what God was to him.
Behind culture is the enemy of God, the one who deceived man and caused him to sin; the enemy wants to replace God as our everything.
The highest products of our culture are aspects of the authority of darkness by which Satan controls people.
Sometimes we may meet certain unbelievers that have a high humanity, are very well-behaved, and their morality is stellar; however, they have no space in their heart for God, for they are self-satisfied with the culture that they have.
Even in the church life, it is easy to mistake our culture for God, that is, we may think that our natural inborn patience, the patience that is in our nature and which we have built up through the years as we grew up in the society and country we live, we mistake is as being Christ as our patience.
In Paul’s epistle to Colossians, he said that God has delivered us out of the authority of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love.
This is something that doesn’t merely happen once for all – it is a continual process.
And the authority of darkness signifies not only sin, the world, and the fleshly things, but especially our culture, our religion, our philosophy – all these are the authority of darkness.
We are born in sin and in the kingdom of darkness, and when the Lord shines on us through the gospel, we come to know light, real light; this light shines in darkness, and darkness cannot overcome it.
However, by default we are in darkness; when we do not live in the mingled spirit, when we don’t contact the Lord and enjoy Him, we are by default under the authority of darkness.
There are so many aspects and areas of our living and our being that are still in darkness, and we are oblivious to it; unless the Lord’s light shines on us to expose us, to expose our natural being and all its issues, and to expose especially our culture, so that the Lord would replace all our darkness with His marvelous light. Amen!
The more we spend time with the Lord in His Word, the more we call on His name all throughout the day, and the more we open to the Lord in the meetings of the church, the more He has a way to shine in all our darkness, dispel it, and transfer us more and more into the kingdom of the Son of His love.
Oh, God wants us to become our everything in His kingdom! In the kingdom of the Son of God’s love, we can enjoy God as our everything, for He is everything to us in the church life as the kingdom of God!
When Man Lost God, he lost Everything, so he had to Invent Culture to Replace God as his Everything
How did human culture come about? How was it invented, and why was it invented?
In Gen. 4:16-24, we see how Cain, after he murdered his brother and was disciplined by God, even marked by Him, he went forth from the presence of Jehovah and dwelt in the land of Nod, east of Eden; there he built a city.
When man left the presence of God, for he didn’t repent nor confess and return to God, he went his own way, and he lost God.
When man lost God, he lost everything; God used to be everything to man, but when man lost God, he had to invent culture to replace God as his everything.
Cain and his descendants produced a culture without God, a culture to replace God as their everything.
This is the source of human culture and the reason for its development; human culture developed because man lost God.
Originally, God and man were in fellowship, and all man had to do is till the ground, because God provided everything for man.
God was man’s satisfaction, his supply, his maintenance, his joy, and his amusement and defense.
God and man were in fellowship, and God provided everything for man; even the needs that man didn’t know that he had, God would supply, for God was everything to man.
But when man fell, and when he fell even further, he left God’s presence, and he had to invent something to replace God as his everything.
When man lost God, he lost protection, safeguard, maintenance, supply, and amusement; so he was instigated by Satan (who operated behind the scenes to replace God as everything to man) to create a Godless culture.
Cain’s descendants invented a culture without God, trying to replace God as their everything.
Jubal invented music (Gen. 4:21); he invented harps and pipes to make a joyful sound and amuse himself, thus having enjoyment.
Why does man need amusement and enjoyment? It is because God is the real amusement and enjoyment to man; however, when man lost God, he lost the real amusement and enjoyment, so he had to invent something to amuse himself.
Similarly, Cain’s other descendants built cities to protect and shelter themselves, raised cattle to make a living, and made weapons for their defense (Gen. 4:20-22).
After leaving God’s presence, Cain constructed a city for his protection and self-existence; within this city, he produced a culture without God, a godless culture.
Man’s loss of God forced man to invent human culture to replace God as his everything.
Today, six thousand years later, culture has become very developed and refined, and there’s an aspect of culture that appeals to and is engrained in each one of us; even if we think we have no culture, we may have a “no culture” culture, and this is a Godless culture to replace God as our everything.
What do we go to to be satisfied?
People in the world today run and are swept away in the flood of dissoluteness, and the world with its tide is simply drugging and stupefying them all; each one lives in their culture, and even the young ones who hate their parents’ culture, they invent their own culture.
When man lost God, he lost everything; man’s loss of God forced man to invent culture, the main elements of which were cities for existence, cattle-raising for making a living, music for enjoyment, and weapons for defense.
May we be those who return to God, put aside our culture, and allow God to become our everything!
The more we turn to God, the more we enjoy God in His word, and the more we spend time with God, the more we take Him as our everything, and the more He becomes our satisfaction, our maintenance, our safeguard, our defense, and our amusement, even the source of our existence.
Lord Jesus, save us from replacing You with things invented by us! We return to You, dear Lord, and we take You as our everything. We take You as the real source of our existence. We take You as our maintenance, trusting in You for everything related to our daily living. We take You as our enjoyment, satisfaction, and amusement; we come to You in Your word and in prayer to be filled with You and satisfied with You. We take You, dear Lord, as our defense; You are our Defender, the One who protects and covers us, and we hide in You as our high tower. Oh Lord, become more and more real to us day by day as we come to You to enjoy You, as we contact You, and as we call on Your name. May nothing replace You in our life.
When we Enjoy Christ and are filled with Him, He becomes our Everything, and we do not need Anything else!
We need to be recovered to God’s original intention when He created man; He created man in His image and according to His likeness so that man would take God as his life and everything, and he would become God’s expression and representation on earth (Gen. 1:26-28).
When man lost God, he lost everything; when man enjoys God and is filled with God, man has everything!
Why does man need amusement and entertainment? It is because man lost God.
We need to be recovered to enjoying God as our everything; when we enjoy the Lord in His word, when we fellowship with Him and allow Him to fill and saturate us, we will be filled with God and we will need nothing else.
Others may invite us to watch a movie or to go see a theatre play, but we may not have a taste for such things, for we enjoy the heavenly television.
Others may recommend you this or that video on YouTube or this or that account on TikTok, but you have no taste or desire to watch that, for you are satisfied with God.
When we have God as our enjoyment, we have everything; if we lose God, however, we will seek many other things to replace Him.
Culture cannot replace Christ; culture can be a poor imitation or replacement for Christ, but culture will never satisfy us, neither will it fill the void in our being.
People watch movies and TV shows because they are empty – they want to fill themselves up with something apart from God, thinking these things will satisfy them.
But all that culture has to offer is vain and empty; they are empty replacements of God. We may want to listen to music to satisfy us and give us peace, but no music can replace God as our enjoyment and satisfaction.
Only God can give us peace; music can only temporarily give us a feeling of enjoyment, but this will not last.
People go to a party or to the clubs to entertain themselves; the real entertainment is God, and in Christ, He has become our real entertainment and amusement.
As believers in Christ, we don’t have a set of rules of do’s and dont’s; there’s no list of commandments against going to movies or enjoying worldly things, but we have something better – we have Christ as our satisfaction and everything.
When we are filled with Christ, we have no capacity for anything else. When we enjoy Christ, we don’t have time or appetite for anything else besides Christ.
We do have to take care of this and that thing; we do have to study, learn, be perfected, and work, and we may need to travel, visit, and be involved in certain things, but Christ is our real satisfaction.
The way He becomes our everything is not by smashing all the other things or destroying them; rather, He offers us the highest enjoyment, the best satisfaction, and the sweetest taste, and when we enjoy Him, we touch something eternal and rich, and we just give up all other things.
When we take in Jesus, when He fills us up, we have no capacity for anything else.
The reason we think we need this or that aspect of the world is because we did not enjoy God and we are not satisfied with Him.
We may love football; we may like to watch it and follow the teams, their progress, and the different championships, and we may think that this is alright, for it is not sinful – it’s just a “hobby”.
However, this can be an aspect of our culture which replaces Christ as our enjoyment and entertainment.
When we realize that there’s an aspect of our culture, our habitual enjoyment, and practice, that replaces Christ, we shouldn’t just “give it up”; we should simply give ourselves to enjoy the Lord and be filled with Him.
He will gradually fill us and replace all things with Himself; He will replace all replacements for Him with Himself!
Lord Jesus, we give ourselves to enjoy You and be filled with You! Nothing else satisfies us, Lord! We give up all other things that try to replace You, for You are the unique One who can satisfy us and fill us. We come to You in Your word, dear Lord, to just pray, pray-read, meditate, and prayerfully consider Your word to absorb You and be filled with You! Remind us to enjoy You, Lord, and to just come to You again and again. We don’t want to just give up this or that – we just want to behold Your beauty and allow You to draw us, fill us, and replace anything that is a substitute for Christ in our being! Amen, Lord Jesus, we give ourselves to enjoy You and be filled with You until we have no capacity for anything else!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Genesis, msg. 24 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The All-Inclusive, Extensive Christ Replacing Culture for the One New Man (2020 Thanksgiving Conference), week 1, The Urgent Need for Our Culture to Be Replaced by the All-inclusive, Extensive Christ.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Give up the world, Christ to obtain, / He is your heart’s very need; / What else can you desire or seek? / All things are empty indeed! / He is so rich, He is so full, / He can fulfill all your needs! / He is so good, He is so sweet, / All your desire He exceeds! (Hymns #1025)
– Not the crushing of those idols, / With its bitter void and smart; / But the beaming of His beauty, / The unveiling of His heart. / Captivated by His beauty, / Worthy tribute haste to bring; / Let His peerless worth constrain thee, / Crown Him now unrivaled King. (Hymns #437)
– Christ to me is so subjective, / All my thirst He satisfies; / With His riches He supplies me, / Thus God’s fulness testifies. (Hymns #537)
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