One of the “soap boxes” of 5th Kingdom Ministries has been that the Bible applies to every area of life and society. The Bible has something to say about every subject under heaven (and of course, the subject of heaven).
This ministry has also tried to show the vast difference between what modern Christians believe and what most Protestant Christians believed in prior centuries. One major difference is that in centuries past, Protestants actually did attempt to apply the Bible to everything. Today, many Christians will say things like, “the Bible has something to say about everything,” but then turn around and refuse to apply the Bible even to church practice, much less “everything.”
To illustrate what I’m talking about, let’s use the example of food and how you eat. The idea that the Bible has something to say about those things hasn’t even crossed the mind of most in our day (except maybe for “blessing” our meals). But again, Christians in prior centuries knew that God’s word had an effect on every area of life.
When I say that the Bible has something to say about everything, I do not mean that it contains every detail about every subject, but that there’s nothing the Bible doesn’t speak to in some form or other. Some subjects are dealt with explicitly in Scripture; other times, the Bible only gives some general principles that would apply. But whether through explicit commands, examples, or general principles, the Bible covers all topics.
Getting back to the discussion of how you eat a meal: Christians of past centuries believed there was a “Christian” way to eat, and an “unchristian” way.
A friend of mine reprinted an account from an officer on a Confederate ship during the Civil War (Without a Home or Country, R. A. Sheats, ed.). In that account, this officer describes a time when the seas “ran absolutely mountains high.” Those conditions meant that “[to] get a meal in Christian fashion was the next thing to impossible.” Did you catch that? He recognized that there is a Christian way to “get a meal.”
Does the Bible give us a detailed guide to table manners? No, but it does give us principles that apply to how we eat a meal. Cleanliness and sanitariness are held forth as good things in Scripture (for example, Deut. 23:12-13); so is the idea of orderliness.
God gave Solomon great wisdom that applied to many different subjects (1 Kings 4:29-33). When the queen of Sheba came to visit Solomon, she was in awe of Solomon’s wisdom, including his wisdom and order in which meals were eaten (1 Kings 10:4-5).
When missionaries come to pagan people groups that have had no contact with a civilization built on biblical principles, they find a society that is marked by a lack of hygiene and by disorder. Likewise, the pagan way of eating a meal is different from the way a Christian does.
Let’s ask another question: is there such a thing as “Christian food”? Christians from the past would say there is. In Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic book Treasure Island (1883) there’s a character named Ben Gunn. Gunn has been stuck on a desert island for three years, and is missing the food he once ate in England. On the island, he has “lived on goats…berries, and oysters.” But, he says, his “heart is sore for Christian diet.” The next food he mentions is cheese, so I assume that’s part of “Christian diet.”
This is not to say, of course, that eating goats, berries, or oysters is wrong, but it does show us that a civilization that has been influenced by the Bible will be more advanced than one that hasn’t. God calls us to “take dominion” over creation (Gen. 1:28). A godly civilization will show evidence of this, an ungodly one will not. Cheese doesn’t grow on bushes; it requires some level of dominion taking to produce it.
Over the years, some have suggested that people groups which haven’t been influenced by the Bible are happy, healthy, and peaceful, and that applying the Bible to a pagan people’s culture will ruin that culture. Not much could be further from the truth.
I met a missionary who was from, and ministered in, Cambodia. There are many people groups in the jungles of Cambodia whose culture is unaffected by Christianity. This missionary said that one tribe he ministered to drank pig’s blood, thinking it would improve their health. These people also were afflicted by various stomach problems. The missionary told them that the Bible teaches you must not drink blood (Gen. 9:4; Acts 15:28-29). The tribe stopped drinking blood and the stomach problems went away. Try telling that tribe that obeying the Bible ruins a society!