"The Christian answer to relativism is theological: the reality of the Creator God. He is both Creator and Interpreter. Made in his image, we have a relationship to the created universe that is not illusory. He is free to reveal himself in time and space, and in the languages of the cultures that develop in human history. Christian theology takes seriously the cultural contexts in which his revelation is given, and the Christian mission takes seriously the cultural contexts it addresses. Hermeneutical studies have reminded us that our own culture has an impact on both tasks. But so does God's word have an impact on all languages and cultures. Confronted with God's revelation, our own understanding changes, and we altar our assumptions. Not a circle, but a spiral of clearer conception and communication of the message results. God has made his truth communicable; he calls us to 'think his thoughts after him.'"
--Edmund Clowney, The Church
"The Christian who travels may be surprised to see pigs wander through an African church service, or to hear the Scriptures chanted by Muslim converts, but be moved to praise, singing the multi-cultural universality that springs from the unity of God's truth. At Pentecost the divisions of Babel were overcome. The apostles spoke no heavenly language, or even a spiritual Esperanto as one universal language, but the many languages of their world. Yet their message unified divided peoples and formed a new humanity in the church."
--Edmund Clowney, The Church
