The idea behind the cultural mandate is that God entrusts us with something and expects us to do something worthwhile with it, something he finds valuable. This mandate implies an expectation of human achievement.
“God has created us in his image so that we may carry out a task, fulfill a mission, pursue a calling.” — Anthony A. Hoekema, Created in God’s Image
When most people think about the book of Genesis, certain questions usually come to mind:
- Did God create the world in six ordinary days?
- Were these “days” great ages or epochs?
- How should we understand the theory of evolution in light of Genesis 1?
Moses was probably not concerned with these questions when he wrote the opening chapters of Genesis. He was trying to prepare God’s people for the mission they were created to carry out—a mission Christians in the twenty-first century are also called to carry out.
In Genesis 1, God describes the purpose for which he created man:
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” (Gen. 1:26)
In the next verse, he relates this mission to Adam and Eve:
God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” (Gen. 1:28)
This passage, often called the cultural mandate, calls all Christians to partner with God in his work. We are to fill the earth with God’s redeemed images and subdue it.
Writing about this passage in her book Total Truth, Nancy Pearcey explains:
The first phrase “be fruitful and multiply,” means to develop the social world: build families, churches, schools, cities, governments, laws. The second phrase, “subdue the earth,” means to harness the natural world: plant crops, build bridges, design computers, and compose music.