Over the years, I’ve fought a number of polemical battles against ideas that threaten the gospel. This recent (and surprisingly sudden) detour in quest of “social justice” is, I believe, the most subtle and dangerous threat so far.
—John MacArthur—
This book [Christianity and Social Justice: Religions in Conflict] is important for genuine Christians because Christians need to understand that the Woke Gospel is not an add-on to the Gospel. It is a replacement of the true gospel. It is another gospel that God’s people need to anathematize.
—Dr. Russell Fuller1—
Key point: The battle lines are drawn! No Christian can afford to be ill-informed or misinformed about the social justice movement. If you haven’t yet read Jon Harris’s book Christianity and Social Justice: Religions in Conflict, get a copy and read it! Informative, insightful, practical, but most importantly, biblical, Jon’s book informs and equips with clarity, reason, and conviction.
In Matthew 23, Jesus warned the crowds who were listening to Him about the Pharisees and scribes, the “teachers of the law.” Jesus began,
23:2 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3 So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. 4 They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.
Jesus’ warning contained no less than seven “woes,” against the scribes and Pharisees. In these, the Lord called them
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- hypocrites (vv. 13,15, 23, 25, 27, 29),
- blind (vv. 16, 17 19 24, 26),
- snakes (v. 33), and
- vipers (v. 33).
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He accused them of being like “whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean” and went on to say to them, “In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness” (vv. 27-28).
The exchange that occurred when the Jewish leaders sought to trap Jesus in John 8:1-11 aptly illustrates Jesus’ description of them. Additionally, Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the publican — the parable of the two men who went to the temple to pray in Luke 18:9-14 — vividly showcases both the dangers of pharisaical pride and the benefits of acknowledging one’s helpless condition before God. You can examine both of these passages on this page. As the apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:8-9, “[I]t is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast” (emphasis added).
The good news of the gospel is that an individual is made right with God by grace through faith, apart from works. God gets all the credit, and we get none of it!
The Social Justice Narrative Conflicts with the Gospel
When someone or a group of people believe they are closer to God because of a special understanding they possess and special actions they themselves have taken in accord with that understanding, pharisaical pride — not authentic communion with God — results. In Galatians, Paul condemned the heresy of adding anything to faith in Christ and His death on the cross as a requirement for salvation. David Garland, who taught Old Testament for many years at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, once stated, “Whenever you add a negative conjunction (i.e.: but) to the word God, or for that matter, even a positive conjunction, (i.e.: and), you have just blown it.”
Whenever you add a negative conjunction (i.e.: but) to the word God, or for that matter, even a positive conjunction, (i.e.: and), you have just blown it.
—Dr. David Garland—
Today, the social justice movement has infiltrated the church with rhetoric that sounds biblical; yet it actually is deceptive because it effectively alters the message of the gospel. The social justice narrative adds to the gospel, placing upon it an unbiblical “works requirement.” Social justice advocates within the church, therefore, are presenting and promoting a different gospel — one that ultimately is pharisaical.
The social justice narrative adds to the gospel, placing upon it an unbiblical “works requirement.”
At the same time, all of this is very subtle. After all, the tenets of social justice uphold the importance of having compassion for the poor and downtrodden. Compassion and charity are noble and even biblical ideas; having concern for and helping the poor are commended in Scripture. The social justice narrative goes way beyond this, however. It contends that disparities between the “privileged” (those who have much) and the “oppressed” (those who have less or little) have always resulted directly from injustice. It sees government redistribution of wealth as a form of charity, even though genuine charity is voluntary and not coerced. In addition, the social justice movement contends that those who are “privileged” have benefitted because of external traits such as their white skin and their majority status. It therefore demands that whites repent of their “whiteness,” yet with no true resolution in sight. On the other side of the same coin, we see perpetual, unending victimhood for blacks and other minorities.
Exposing the Heresy of Social Justice
In a concise yet thorough and extremely practical volume titled Christianity and Social Justice: Religions in Conflict, “Conversations That Matter” Podcaster Jon Harris exposes the errors of the social justice movement and warns about the ominous and unbiblical direction the movement is taking the church. Jon traces the movement’s history and demonstrates numerous specific ways in which it stands in opposition to orthodox Christianity. He also warns readers about the tactics of the movement’s advocates, whether or not they employ them intentionally. Let’s examine Jon’s insights as they relate to three specific themes.
Adding to the Gospel
After highlighting Paul’s condemnation of the heresy that was plaguing the Galatian church, John writes,
Adding the requirements of the law to the gospel created an impossible standard for sinners to reach, denied the sufficiency of the atonement, and destroyed the good news of the gospel. Today, the social justice movement is serving as the occasion for many leaders in churches and organizations with Protestant faith statements to severely blur the line between the law and the gospel.2
How is the line between the law and the gospel being blurred? One way is by applying the term gospel to anything and everything that should or that even perhaps should result from the gospel. Jon observes, “The sloppy use of phrases such as ‘gospel issue,’ ‘gospel above all,’ or ‘just gospel’ to refer to almost anything but the gospel is creating confusion over whether or not the gospel requires human effort.”3
The sloppy use of phrases such as “gospel issue,” “gospel above all,” or “just gospel” to refer to almost anything but the gospel is creating confusion over whether or not the gospel requires human effort.
—Jon Harris—
The causes and goals that are called “gospel issues,” yet that actually go beyond the biblical gospel of salvation through repentance and faith in Christ, plus nothing, abound:
It has become very common for social justice advocates in Christian institutions to associate the gospel with working toward certain political ends. The term “gospel issue” is applied to reforming everything from climate change to illegal migration. In an address to the Southern Baptist Convention, J. D. Greear, the president, maintained that “promoting diversity, unity, missions and sex abuse prevention” were all goals the denomination “must continue to pursue in order to put the ‘Gospel Above All.’” Most of the content presented at the “Just Gospel” conferences, which are sponsored by prominent evangelical organizations, is also primarily political.4
Moreover, it isn’t unusual at all for the political causes promoted at these conferences to be left-of-center, or even fully leftist — even as conservative causes are derided as “political.”
Upholding the Perspectives of Minorities as Superior in Interpreting Scripture and in Uncovering and Promoting Truth
Truth is colorblind, but the social justice movement and its crusaders do not believe this to be true. The social justice narrative affirms the notion of “standpoint epistemology” and bestows a mantle of greater moral authority on the perspectives of those who are members of groups deemed to have been historically and systemically oppressed. Jon notes,
A belief in some version of standpoint epistemology is one of the most commonly shared traits linking social justice advocates across various concentrations. The Me Too, Black Lives Matter, anti-nationalist, gun control, and LGBTQIA+ normalization movements all promote emotional stories of victimhood to support the movement’s core message while enjoying the benefit of unquestioned authority by nature of the victim’s oppressed standpoint. The political advantage in harnessing oppressed perspectives, instead of appealing to science, logic, and evidence, is that most people think it impolite to contradict a personal story. This means social justice advocates can circumvent reasonable debate while shaming their opposition for alleged personal prejudice. Disagreement over a political position can be characterized as motivated by racism, misogyny, nationalism, homophobia, or another vilifying pejorative.5
The political advantage in harnessing oppressed perspectives, instead of appealing to science, logic, and evidence, is that most people think it impolite to contradict a personal story. This means social justice advocates can circumvent reasonable debate while shaming their opposition for alleged personal prejudice.
—Jon Harris—
This, however, is unbiblical. Partiality is incompatible with authentic justice:
In Exodus 23, God even condemns perverting justice by showing partiality based on factors such as personal gain, peer pressure, compassion for the poor, hatred for enemies, preference for one’s family, and opportunities to take advantage of strangers. Leviticus 19 likewise states: “You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor nor defer to the great, but you are to judge your neighbor fairly.” The principle of faithfully applying a just standard toward someone irrespective of their identity is often called “equality before the law.” This concept produced things like due process, trial by jury, and judicial recusal in our legal systems, which have a unique responsibility to publicly apply justice.6
Nevertheless,
Activists on the left see justice as a means to eliminate disparities and ultimately reach a state of social equality. [This is an equality, by the way, that is based on outcomes, not opportunities. It is a Marxist, leftist ideal.]. In order to accomplish this goal, partiality is unavoidable. Lady Justice must remove her blindfold and consider external factors such as race, class, gender, orientation, and age in order to render a just verdict. The changes necessary to reach equality inevitably require the redistribution of influence, privilege, or resources. Sometimes this is achieved through illegal or immediate action by any means necessary. This arrangement essentially replaces justice with envy and covetousness. It is also diametrically opposed to biblical understandings of personal responsibility, private property, and hierarchal arrangements.7
Abusing the Command to Love One’s Neighbor, as Well as Other Biblical Principles Like Justice
The tenets of the social justice movement, even those that are part and parcel of the social justice movement within the evangelical church, are rooted in Marxist ideals, not in Scripture. Jon sees
an irreconcilable chasm existing between biblical and egalitarian-inspired ethics. Standing behind these broad conceptions lie conflicting understandings of love and justice. Social justice activists tend to think of love as defending and affirming an individual’s freedom to define and express themselves. The assumption is that individual’s deserve to reach what they believe to be their full potential unhindered by external barriers. Under this thinking, society must adopt and implement a forced equality to eliminate disparities and prevent bigotries associated with certain institutions and associations from preventing individual self-realization.8
Again, moving in this direction requires maneuvering to orchestrate a semblance of equality of outcomes, something the Bible does not affirm.
[E]ven though it is the greatest enduring virtue, human love is not intended to eradicate every problem existing in the temporal world.
For example, this side of heaven, poverty will never cease to exist. Subverting God’s law by eliminating protections for private property will not achieve this end either. Jesus said “you [will] always have the poor with you” and instructed His followers not to steal. In the Parable of the Laborers, Jesus’ upheld the right of a landowner to do what he wished with what he owned. Rather than entertaining man-centered utopian schemes, Christians [should] attempt to follow Jesus’ example in personally giving to the poor. This requires much more of a sacrifice, and often personal investment, than simply voting for a central authority to involuntarily redistribute the resources of others.9
Returning to the social justice ideal of “love as defending and affirming an individual’s freedom to define and express themselves” (see footnote #8) we need to state that this notion of love is not a biblical ideal. Genuine love does not affirm radical personal autonomy, a form of independence in which choices diametrically opposed to God’s moral law are made. Rather, love “rejoices in the truth.” We cannot divorce love from the truth, nor can we divorce the truth from an objective standard of right and wrong rooted in God’s holy character.
We cannot divorce love from the truth, nor can we divorce the truth from an objective standard of right and wrong rooted in God’s holy character.
One More Observation that, if Heeded, Will Help the Church Regain a Prophetic Voice
In an excellent appendix titled “Woke Evangelical Tactics,” Jon explores several important slight-of-hand maneuvers on the part of social justice advocates of which Christians need to be wary. One of these is that “conservative views conflict with public witness.”10 Apparently having embraced this assumption, many churches are going out of their way not to offend, and even to attract, unchurched people into the “fold.” Certainly we need to be friendly toward unbelievers and Christlike in our relationships with others, including those outside the church. However, the effort I’m speaking of here is an effort to be liked without necessarily being respected. The effect is to essentially abandon conservative values, even those that are solidly biblical, to increase the church’s numbers.
The modern evangelical church has an identity crisis. It is obsessed with being liked, even at the expense of being respected.…The truth is that bending over backwards to be “winsome” ultimately is alienating many.
Have we forgotten that the gospel itself is offensive? Have we forgotten that at one point, Jesus turned to His own disciples and asked, “You do not want to leave too, do you?” The truth is that bending over backwards to be “winsome” ultimately is alienating many. If the tenets of the Christian faith mean so little to us, then why in the world would anyone outside the church think they are worth adopting as principles to live by? Mr. Harris makes this powerful statement on the matter:
It is important to remember that in the face of political movements forcing evil agendas there is a place for anger and uncompromising fortitude.
David certainly did not approach Goliath in a “winsome way.” Rather, he declared: “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should taunt the armies of the living God?” Neither was Elijah winsome when he mocked the prophets of Baal. John the Baptist called King Herod a fox. Jesus…said the Pharisees were “whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.” Paul expressed his desire for false teachers to “mutilate themselves.” The Bible is filled with examples of men who were not very winsome and would definitely be considered angry today. Yet Scripture teaches that while there is never a time to sin, there is a time to be angry about sin. Righteous indignation is sometimes appropriate.11
Herein, I believe, Mr. Harris has uncovered a reason many men have abandoned the church and Christianity. Men hunger for a cause for which to stand, one that challenges them and that even makes demands of them. Men are are drawn to leaders like Jesus.
Jesus led with clarity. He never licked his finger and held it up in the air to determine from which direction the cultural winds were blowing. This is not to say the Master wasn’t aware of what what was happening in the culture; we need only read Matthew 23, which we considered at the beginning of this article, to realize He knew exactly what was happening. Yet, often despite cultural trends, Jesus led with conviction rooted in bedrock truth. He was confident in who He was. By contrast, unfortunately, today’s church and her leaders appear to have an “obsession” with “cultural engagement,” almost an insatiable desire to understand
The [church’s] assumption seems to be that Christians are on the outside of culture and need to strategically manufacture a culture of their own capable of competing with the outside culture and drawing outsiders in the least offensive way possible.
—Jon Harris—
how modern people think and their preferences so as to effectively persuade them toward Christianity. The assumption seems to be that Christians are on the outside of culture and need to strategically manufacture a culture of their own capable of competing with the outside culture and drawing outsiders in the least offensive way possible. This is the history of neo-evangelicalism over the past several decades. In order to keep up with the times, evangelical industries reinvent themselves almost every 10 years. Yet nowhere is this thinking represented in Scripture.12
The Bottom Line
If you haven’t yet read Christianity and Social Justice, you need to read it. Ultimately, the social justice movement within evangelicalism is a new form of pharisaism — and it must be opposed. Understanding the dangers that this movement poses to the church, Christianity, and the gospel is not beyond your reach; nor is being equipped to fight the movement’s errors. In fact, Jon makes these accessible with and through his book. If you love the church, the Bible, and the gospel, you’ll want to make reading Christianity and Social Justice a top priority.
If you love the church, the Bible, and the gospel, you’ll want to make reading Christianity and Social Justice a top priority.
You can order a copy of the book from Amazon, but its also available at WalMart, and various other retail locations as well, including Books-a-Million and Barnes and Noble.
Copyright © 2021 by B. Nathaniel Sullivan. All rights reserved.
The final segment of this article on how men are drawn to leaders who lead like Jesus is available as a stand-alone article here.
Notes:
1Russell Fuller, Foreword in Jon Harris’s Christianity and Social Justice: Religions in Conflict (Reformation Zion Publishing, 2021), viii.
2Jon Harris, Christianity and Social Justice: Religions in Conflict (Reformation Zion Publishing, 2021), 39
3Harris, 40.
4Ibid.
5Harris, 69-70.
6Harris, 116.
7Harris, 118.
8Harris, 108.
9Harris, 108-109.
10Harris, 125.
11Harris, 129.
12Harris, 129-130.
top image credit: Conversations That Matter podcast of May 22, 2019
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture passages have been taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Scripture quotations embedded within quotes from Christianity and Social Justice have been taken from the New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
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