The descriptor "Apostolic" refers to the church's continuity with the apostolic teaching (Titus 1:9). "In effect, apostolicity is about faithfulness to the Word of God. As Israel received and guarded the inscripturated Word of God, so does the church. Without a commitment to Scripture, the church cannot fulfill its kingdom mission." Michael Williams, Far as the Curse is Found: The Covenant Story of Redemption, (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing Company, 2005), 269.

"The Bible tells a story. Like all stories, the biblical drama has a sequence that must be honoured in the retelling. For it to be the story that it is, we must tell about the way things were at the beginning, what went wrong, how it was resolved, and how it ended. Each episode sets the context for the next. It is critical to the story to set human rebellion and God's redemption in the context of the beginning of the story God's creation. If you don't you end up with a different story." Michael Williams, Far as the Curse is Found: The Covenant Story of Redemption, (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing Company, 2005),

I am often asked: "Should Christians be involved in shaping culture?" My answer is that we can't not be involved in shaping culture. To illustrate this, I offer a very sad example. In the years leading up to the Civil War, many Southerners rested the interference of the abolitionists, who were calling on Christians to stamp out the sin of slavery. In response, some churches began to assert that it was not the church's (nor Christian's) job to try to "change culture" but only to preach the Gospel and see souls saved. The tragic irony was that these churches were shaping culture. Their very insistence that Christians should not be changing culture meant that those churches were supporting social status quo. They were defacto endorsing the cultural arrangements of the Old South. (For more on this chapter in American History, see Mark Noll The Civil War as a Theological Crisis.) This is an extreme example, but it makes the point that when Christians work in the world, they will either assimilate into their culture and support the status quo or they will be agents of change. This is especially true in the area of work. Every culture works on the basis of a "map" of what is considered most important. If God and his grace are not at the center of a culture, then other things will be substituted as ultimate values. So every vocational field is distorted by idolatry. Christian medical professionals will soon see that some practices make money for them but don't add value to patients' lives. Christians in marketing and business will discern accepted patterns of communication that distort reality or which play to and stir up the worst aspects of the human heart. Christians in business will often see among their colleagues' behaviour that which seeks short-term financial profit at the expense the company's long-term health, or practices that put financial profit ahead the good of employees, customers, or others in the community. Christians in the arts live and work in a culture in which self-expression is an end in itself. And in most vocational fields, believers face work-worlds in which ruthless, competitive behaviour is the norm. There are two opposite mistakes that a Christian can make in addressing the idols of their vocational field. On the one hand they can seal off their faith from their work, labouring according to the same values and practices that everyone else uses. Or they may loudly and clumsily declare their Christian faith to their co-workers, often without showing any grace and wisdom in the way they relate to people on the job. At Redeemer, especially through the Centre for Faith and Work, we seek to help believers think out the implications of the gospel for art, business, government, media, entertainment, scholarship. We teach that excellence in work is a crucial means to gain credibility for our faith. If our work is shoddy, our verbal witness only leads listeners to despise our beliefs. If Christians live in major cultural centres and simply do their work in an excellent but distinctive manner it will ultimately produce a different kind of culture than the one in which we live now. But I like the term 'cultural renewal' better than 'culture shaping' or 'culture changing/transforming.' The most powerful way to show people the truth of Christianity is to serve the common good. The monks in the Middle Ages moved out through pagan Europe, inventing and establishing academies, universities, and hospitals. They transformed local economies and cared for the weak through these new institutions. They didn't set out to 'get control' of a pagan culture. They let the gospel change how they did their work and that meant they worked for others rather than for themselves. Christians today should be aiming for the same thing. As Roman society was collapsing, St Augustine wrote The City of God to remind believers that in the world there are always two 'cities', two alternate 'kingdoms.' One is a human society based on selfishness and gaining power. God's kingdom is the human society based on giving up power in order to serve. Christians live in both kingdoms, and although that is the reason for much conflict and tension, it also is our hope and assurance. The kingdom of God is the permanent reality, while the kingdom of this world will eventually fade away. Tim Keller - Gospel in Life. Originally published in the Redeemer Report January 2010

The God of the Bible is self-defined (cf. Exodus 34:5-8). "To get to the heart of who God is and to bow before him in some small measure of genuine understanding, it's important to think through what the Bible says again and again and integrate the whole with the same balance and proportion that Scripture itself gives. That calls us to worship. And if we put anything else in the place of God, that is the very definition of idolatry." D.A. Carson referenced in The New City Catechism - Devotional. C. Hansen, Editor. (Wheaton. IL. Crossway Publishing, 2017), 22-23.

"The messianic promises of the new covenant have begun in Christ. It is now unthinkable to live as though Christ has not been born, died for our sins and risen to resurrection life. The old covenant pales in comparison with the power of the end of the ages that has dawned in Christ. God's one covenant story holds together in his Son; and the entire drama must be understood in his light. Thus the covenant is newly shaped by the death and resurrection of Jesus. And Jesus is the true glory of the old covenant as well as the new. God's covenant revelation in Moses looked toward Christ; and now that Christ has come, the entire covenant story is redefined in terms of him. Jesus Christ is the new in new covenant." Michael Williams, Far as the Curse is Found: The Covenant Story of Redemption, (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing Company, 2005), 239-40.