The Window of Eternity vs The Overton Window: How to distinguish cultural form from eternal substance

The Museum of Christian Horrors

Every generation of Christians looks back in horror at what previous Christians believed. Christians of 2025 look with shock at Christians of 1950 who considered going to movies sinful. Christians of 1950 looked with disgust at Christians of 1850 who justified slavery with the Bible.

Christians of 1850 shook their heads at Christians of 1650 who burned "witches." Christians of 1650 wondered how Christians of 1350 could sell indulgences.

And probably, Christians of 2050 will look with compassionate tenderness at our 2025 obsessions—whatever they are—wondering how we could be so blind.

It's every era's illusion: believing we've finally figured it all out, that we're the first generation to interpret Christianity correctly, that our version of faith is the authentic original.

But maybe—maybe—the problem isn't that previous generations were stupid. The problem is that we constantly confuse the cultural form of the message with the eternal substance of the message.

The Window that Always Shifts

The "Overton Window" is what political scientists call the range of ideas considered acceptable in a society at a given moment. What we call "normal" today was radical yesterday and will be conservative tomorrow.

The idea that women could vote was unthinkable in 1800, revolutionary in 1900, obvious in 2000. The idea that children should be protected from factory work was dangerous sentimentalism in 1850, social progress in 1950, fundamental human right today.

Every era has its window of "acceptable normalcy" that shifts slowly but inexorably. And every era is convinced that its window is finally the right one, the definitive one, the one that corresponds to eternal truth.

But the window keeps shifting. What we consider indisputably right today might seem tenderly antiquated in a hundred years.

And this creates a devastating problem for Christians: how do we distinguish between eternal truths that never change and cultural applications that must always change?

When the Church Surfs the Cultural Wave

The Church's constant temptation is to ride the Overton Window's wave instead of being anchored to the Window of Eternity—adapting the message to stay "relevant," updating doctrine to avoid seeming "backward."

It’s the progressive church that changes theological positions every time the cultural wind shifts, like a boat without anchor that goes wherever the current carries it.

But there's an equally dangerous, opposite temptation: the conservative church that confuses human traditions with divine commands. That sacralizes specific cultural forms as if they were eternal truths.

The Pharisees who elevated hand-washing to divine commandment. Southern Christians who identified racial segregation with God's will.

Both errors spring from the same problem: inability to distinguish between the WHAT (the eternal message) and the HOW (the cultural form). Between substance that never changes and packaging that must always change.

The Image of God that Crosses All Windows

"In his image... male and female he created them." This truth has passed intact through all of history's Overton Windows. In 4000 BC when humanity was tribal. In 0 AD when it was imperial. In 1500 when it was feudal. In 2000 when it was democratic.

The WHAT has never changed: every human being bears the divine image and has infinite dignity regardless of race, gender, class, nationality. The HOW constantly changes: how that dignity is recognized, protected, celebrated in different cultures.

In Eden, human dignity expressed itself through the shared calling to cultivate the garden. In ancient Israel, through laws that protected widows, orphans, strangers.

In the New Testament, through communities where "there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female." In the modern era, through human rights, democracy, social justice.

Different forms, identical substance. Applications that evolve, principle that remains.

The Art of Distinguishing Eternity and Culture

How do you know what's eternal and what's cultural in your faith? Here are some questions that can help:

1. Is it based on God's character or human conventions? Love, justice, and mercy reflect who God is—they're eternal. Worship time, musical style, and church attire reflect cultural preferences—they're temporal.

2. Is it principle or application? "Love your neighbor as yourself" is eternal principle. How that love expresses itself concretely (financial help, physical presence, emotional support) depends on context.

3. Is it mentioned throughout Scripture or only in specific contexts? Marital faithfulness is constant theme from Genesis to Revelation. Specifics about how to organize worship change from Old to New Testament.

4. Does it unite or divide the body of Christ? Eternal truths unite Christians of all eras. Cultural preferences tend to divide generations, nationalities, and social classes.

When the Message Dresses in Culture

The Gospel never arrives naked—it always arrives clothed in the culture that transmits it. Jesus spoke Aramaic, not English. He dressed like a first-century Jew, not like a contemporary pastor. He used agricultural metaphors that resonated in a rural society.

Paul preached in synagogues to Jews and at the Areopagus to Greeks, adapting language and approach to his audience. He didn't change the message—he changed the presentation.

Missionaries in Africa don't require converts to adopt European architecture for churches. Bible translators don't insist everyone learn Greek to read the New Testament.

The message is powerful enough to incarnate in any culture without losing its essence. It's flexible enough to adapt to any era without betraying its truth.

The problem arises when we confuse the clothing with the person, the packaging with the content.

The Generation that Thinks It Figured Everything Out

Every generation is convinced it's the first to "return to authentic biblical Christianity." The 1500s reformers were certain they'd cleaned the Gospel of medieval additions. The 1800s revivalists were sure they'd rediscovered New Testament simplicity.

The 1900s fundamentalists believed they'd preserved the faith "once for all entrusted to God's holy people." The 2000s progressives are convinced they've liberated Christianity from centuries of cultural prejudices.

And probably they were all right about something and wrong about something else.

The truth is that no generation sees everything clearly. We're all influenced by our Overton Window. We all confuse some of our cultural preferences with divine truths.

But this doesn't mean objective truths don't exist. It means we must hold those truths with humility, knowing our understanding is always partial.

Victorian Christians and Dancing

Victorian Christians considered dancing sinful. In their Overton Window was the association between dance and immorality. For them, allowing dance meant opening the door to promiscuity.

Today's Christians look at that position and smile condescendingly. "How could they be so legalistic? David danced before the ark!"

But a hundred years from now, Christians of 2125 will look at our 2025 moral obsessions with the same affectionate smile. "How could they be so fixated on _____? Didn't they understand that what matters is the heart?"

The point isn't that Victorians were right about dancing. The point is that they were sincerely concerned with honoring God according to their understanding.

And we today are equally sincere and equally limited by our cultural perspective.

The Freedom of Being Children of Your Time

There's profound liberation in recognizing you're a child of your time. That your understanding of faith is influenced by your culture, like every generation before you.

This doesn't make you a relativist. It makes you humble.

It doesn't mean all interpretations are equally valid. It means your interpretation isn't the only valid one.

It doesn't authorize you to change the message to fit culture. It reminds you that you must always distinguish between eternal message and cultural form.

It frees you from the anxiety of having to have all the perfect theological answers. It allows you to say: "This is my current understanding, based on my reading of Scripture in my context. I might be wrong about some details, but I'm convinced of the central truths."

Truths that Outlast Cultures

But amid all the shifting Overton Windows, some truths remain firm as mountains:

God is love, and love never changes definition. Human beings are made in God's image, and this dignity doesn't depend on cultural recognition.

Sin separates from God, in any era and culture. Grace reconciles to God, regardless of the forms it takes.

Jesus is God's definitive revelation, yesterday today and forever. The cross is love's price, which no culture can devalue.

The resurrection is hope's promise, which no era can cancel. Christ's return is history's goal, which no Overton Window can move.

These truths are the Window of Eternity—fixed coordinates that allow every generation to navigate through cultural changes without losing direction.

Eden's Invitation: Eternal Roots, Cultural Fruit

Eden teaches us this wisdom: deep roots allow diverse fruit. The tree that sinks its roots into eternal truth can produce fruit that adapts to every cultural season.

The eternal root: every human being bears God's image. The cultural fruit: how that dignity is recognized and protected in different eras.

The eternal root: love is the supreme commandment. The cultural fruit: how that love expresses itself in different relationships and situations.

The eternal root: God calls humanity to holiness. The cultural fruit: how that holiness manifests in different cultures and circumstances.

Today, in what area of your faith are you confusing eternal root with cultural fruit? Where are you sacralizing human preferences as divine truths? Where are you relativizing divine truths as human preferences?

The Window of Eternity invites you to always distinguish: What comes from God and never changes? What comes from culture and must always change?

Because only when roots sink into eternity can fruit adapt to time without losing life. Only when the message is anchored to immutable truths can it incarnate in mutable forms without betraying its essence.

It’s the wisdom of being faithful to substance and flexible in form. Of serving the God who doesn't change through methods that must always change.

The Window of Eternity: where yesterday's, today's, and tomorrow's truth meet in the unchanging love of the One who is "the same yesterday and today and forever" yet makes "everything new."