Culture Gaps

by John Comer

For a few minutes let’s visit the America of our ancestors. You’ll need to add three, four, or five “greats” to grandfather or grandmother to get there. We’re going back about five to seven generations, about 250 years.

Just to help us get adjusted to the time frame, we might note that 22-year-old George Washing-ton is getting his first lessons in soldiering during the French and Indian War. What he learns here will come in handy in 20 or so years when he becomes General Washington.

We’re in Prince Edward County, Virginia. A present day map would show that we’re in the south-central section of the state of Virginia. But the date is 1754, and at that time our location was on the far western frontier of British America, on the outer fringe of civilization.

The Prince Edward County Court is in session. It has just accepted C. W. Anderson’s proposal to build a court house “situated centrially convenient and well wattered.” He is to “Compleately finish such a Court house, Stocks, Pillory and whipping Post, . . . and find and provide Timber and Bricks Sufficient to build.” He is also to “Build a Logg Prison Twelve by Sixteen . . . with a brick chimney.”

I came across the above court action while searching (via microfilm) court records clarifying who would inherit some slaves owned by my ancestors. A whole cultural scene opened up before me. How do you feel about what we see here? Stocks, pillory, whipping post, and slaves—all accepted as part of American civilization.

It occurred to me that if 250 years has so radically changed our own culture, just how much 2,000 years must separate us from that of Peter, Paul, and their fellow apostles.

Can you imagine what life was like for Abraham? Or Moses?

We can’t really bridge the gap between American Colonial-era thinking and that of our own time. Much less can we put ourselves inside the heads of those who lived thousands of years ago.

But it is indeed marvelous that our unchanging and eternal God continues to clearly reveal himself to passing generations and distinctive cultures. The same God who justified Abraham, led Moses, and emboldened Paul, speaks to us in such a way that we hear and understand him.

Abraham believed God. Our Colonial ancestors did. So do we. God reached into our differing cultures and touched us all.