THE DRAGON pt. II Biblical Justice vs. Social Justice
What is Social Justice? Who defines it? How do we know when we have accomplished it? As Christians, we are called to define justice, not in the context of cultural movements but in the light of scripture. In 2019 a group of pastors affirmed the statement below regarding Biblical Justice. I want to use it here because it sets the framework for what we affirm about Justice as Christians and what we deny. Without context, we can easily be drawn into cultural movements that drift away from biblical justice and produce further injustice, hatred, and destruction.
“WE AFFIRM that since he is holy, righteous, and just, God requires those who bear his image to live justly in the world. This includes showing appropriate respect to every person and giving to each one what he or she is due. We affirm that societies must establish laws to correct injustices that have been imposed through cultural prejudice.
WE DENY that true justice can be culturally defined or that standards of justice that are merely socially constructed can be imposed with the same authority as those that are derived from Scripture. We further deny that Christians can live justly in the world under any principles other than the biblical standard of righteousness. Relativism, socially-constructed standards of truth or morality and notions of virtue and vice that are constantly in flux cannot result in authentic justice.”
SCRIPTURE: GENESIS 18:19; ISAIAH 61:8; MICAH 6:8; MATTHEW 5:17-19; ROMANS 3:31
The tentacles of the dragon took hold of our world at the fall of mankind in Genesis 3 soon after mankind experiences separation from God, a loss of identity, the crushing weight of guilt and shame. We witness the first murder. Just three chapters later mankind has succumbed to evil in such a manner as to bring judgment upon the whole earth in the form of a flood. The record of injustice, evil, corruption, and chaos by mankind on the earth, if recorded, would fill enough volumes to have it’s own city block of libraries.
Two times in the New Testament the scriptures record that Jesus “Marveled”. Once at the great faith he witnessed from a Centurion Matt. 8:5-13 and once at the great unbelief among the Nazarenes Mark 6:1-6. I think if Jesus were walking the earth today He would likely “marvel” at our ignorance of human history. How could we believe that men/women, given the human historical track record, of any time in history, could possibly restore justice on the earth?
“How could we believe that men/women, given the human historical track record, of any time in history, could possibly restore justice on the earth?”
The answer to the question above is that “we” would need to redefine justice in order to accomplish it. The biblical definition of Justice is impossible for man without God. We would need to be willing to settle for something more group measurable. We would need to define injustice in a way that separates and divides into groups of victims. In this kind of social justice, the groups need only agree that they are victims. This gives each group a common enemy to focus on. We can now lay the blame and justify our actions to bring about a new religion in America the religion of Social Justice.
And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. (Rev. 12:9)
This new religion has a wicked master it is not human it is the dragon. This is a religion that requires constant repentance but there will never be any forgiveness. You can never be absolved of your guilt. Intersectionality has defined various victim groups, you are required to know about them, speak politically correct when referring to them, apologize to them, show acts of contrition, fund their causes, believe and recite their statements of faith.
“SOCIAL JUSTICE; This is a religion that requires constant repentance but there will never be any forgiveness.”
Guilt and Fear are the defining doctrines of the modern social justice movement. Dean of Theology at African Christian University Voddie Bauchman defines the social justice agenda as…
Identify disadvantaged groups.
Assess group outcomes.
Assign blame for disparate outcomes (i.e. if a group is experiencing a negative outcome, the next step is to determine who is to blame). This is a key step in achieving permanent victimhood.
Finally, there needs to be a redistribution of power and resources in order to redress the group’s grievances.
Social justice as defined by current leaders of the movement “is essentially Socialism and/ or Marxism” according to Bauchman. If this is true, why have so many Christians remained silent about the current social justice movement? Christians agree that God is a just God and that he wants every child of God to live justly and practice defending those who have been marginalized in society, forgotten, hated, abused. The social justice leadership is assuming high moral ground by defining their objective to be justice for victims of society.
As Christians, we are all about helping those who are suffering and so it makes it difficult to find our voice in the midst of a proclaimed social justice movement. On the one hand, we can see, in some of the groupings stances, affirmations, beliefs, and practices that are against the teachings of the Bible. On the other hand, we genuinely feel compassion for those who believe they are being mistreated. So how do we navigate these difficult times?
First, we affirm that the cure for every hurting, wounded individual is found in Christ alone. Second, we affirm that the fulfillment of true justice on the earth will not take place until Christ returns to lay claim to the government of the earth. Only the righteous Judge can bring about justice.
Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 2 He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; 3 and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. (Rev. 20:1-3)
Until the righteous judge returns we (the church) have the most important mission on earth! We are to be the light of the world.
“You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.”
(Matt. 5:14)
We can establish clear justice in the gates of every city by living out our calling to preach the gospel (good news of Jesus Christ). When we surrendered our hearts to Jesus a tranformanal work began in us that continues to this day. We live, love, hope, and grieve differently from the rest of the world. We see life on earth differently. This life is beautiful but it is not the just, peaceful, joyfilled, free life for which all humanity longs to experience. It is a shadow of eternity, a brief taste of good, a momentary snapshot in time of what will be so much more glorius in the presence of our heavenly Father for eternity.