Downstream from the great watershed

So they say politics is downstream from culture. OK. So what is upstream of culture, if not faith or some choice of "cult" (in the technical sense)? As Joshua said, "Choose this day whom you will serve." And where does faith emerge? Surely at the great watershed that is everywhere attested, between faith and sin (Romans 14:23b), between the way of the righteous and the way of the wicked (Psalm 1), between the water of life (Ezekiel 47; Revelation 7:17; 21:6; 22:1, 17) and the water or gall of bitterness (Numbers 5; Acts 8:23), etc. And what is upstream of faith? Faith proceeds from the Word, the promise of God; it is a gift of the Holy Spirit.

So if we are looking at a political reformation downstream, which many indicators suggest we are, what role do preachers have, what role the church, in guiding the stream of good and godly sources of faith into the formation of a genuine culture that is worth (re)building and preserving? As accountability begins to make its way through the media, the music industry, Hollywood, academe, etc., the church should not fail to supply what is needed — and quickly — from biblical and from the tried and true, the most trustworthy theological sources: the commandments and the covenant, the 3000-year-old "prayerbook of the Bible" (the Psalms), the entire NT, of course, the earliest ecumenical creeds (Apostles' and Nicene), children's catechisms, the Book of Confessions, etc. 

This, by way of reminder, is the vision and purpose of this website. If a corrupt culture is dying off and a corrupt political establishment is about to be banished from the swamp, if things are going to be (metaphorically) slashed and burned back to the very root or stump, remember: "the holy seed is the stump." (Isa 6:13)