Colonized
Perhaps you have seen or heard on television, radio, or in school our current society’s revulsion of colonialism. I was recently watching a television program in which a man expressed contempt for the mission process because it was inherently colonialist. What does that mean?
The doctrine of multiculturalism says that each culture is unique and special, and it should not be changed or tampered with from someone outside of that culture. This is usually expressed with the words, “We must respect all cultures and their values.” Some have adopted the bumper sticker with the word “COEXIST,” where each letter in the word represents a different religious belief. The idea is that there is no right and wrong, and therefore, every culture/religion is equally valuable, and each culture is equally right, and no culture is inherently wrong.
The opposite of multiculturalism, however, is colonialism. This viewpoint suggests that there actually is right and wrong, and that some cultures are inferior to other cultures. This was the philosophy adopted by those who came from Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries to colonize the New World. They believed that the aboriginal people living in the Americas needed to hear, believe, and obey the gospel—they needed to become Christians. So, many came to the New World to evangelize and spread the Christian faith.
Evangelism is anathema to multiculturalists because they believe it is the utmost of arrogance to say that one culture is wrong and another is right. Evangelism, they say, is inherently colonialist and colonialism is the utmost evil since it takes that which is “pure,” an un-colonized culture, and changes it into something else, a colonized culture. Multiculturalism assumes that some cultures are original and that they must be left untouched and unsullied, and that if they are changed, they should revert back to their original state.
I would like to kindly suggest that all cultures have already been colonized whether they realize it or not; there are no original cultures that exist. In fact, there was only one original culture, and that was what God created when he made man in His image (Genesis 1:27). Subsequently, man committed sin and fell from his original state. Hence, there has been only one true effort at colonization. In putting the possibility of sin before the eyes of Adam and Eve, and enticing them to commit sin, Satan changed the original state of man from absolute purity and innocence to corruption and degradation. The Devil is the original colonialist!
Christianity is about restoring man’s proper and original relationship with His God, and so this means that Christianity is about anti-colonialism. Jesus Christ represents the pure state of man as he originally was created by God (1 Cor.15:45). Christians seek to have men remove sin from their lives, confess Christ as their Lord, and return to God as a way of getting back to their original state.
We plead with our religious neighbors as well to get back to the original state of things in the Church. Many churches have allowed the doctrines of men to dominate them without considering the word of God (Matthew 15:9). Let’s worship like the New Testament Church; let’s organize like the New Testament church; let’s evangelize like the New Testament Church. The church is not multicultural since there is only one true culture—man’s original relationship with God—but the church is anti-colonialist. We desire that we get back to the original state of things, not the colonized state of sin and corruption. The seed is the word of God (Luke 8:11); and God’s word has the power to changes lives for good (1 Peter 1:23). Get back into God’s word today, give Him your life, and get un-colonized by sin, Satan, and the doctrines of men.