During the period of the judges in Old Testament times, and even after that, Baal worship was syncretized by the Israelites into the worship of Yahweh to create heretical beliefs and worship. This kind of heresy not only caused God to inflict judgement on the nation, but it put people outside of a genuine relationship with him. Over and over the prophets addressed this problem to get God’s chosen people to change their ways and to follow only the one true God.
But this was not a problem unique to the Old Testament, we find numerous accounts in the New Testament as well. Both Paul and John directly and strongly addressed the heresies of their day. The particular problems they dealt with in their letters included the heresy of the Judaizers and of Gnosticism. These apostles were very clear that those false teachings would lead people away from relationship with God.
Sadly, the problem of heretical teachings in the church is not unique to biblical times. In our modern day we struggle with the same thing. Over the years there have been many heretical cults, religions, and philosophies that have raised their ugly heads and lead people away from true faith in Jesus Christ. In fact, we have articles about many of these false belief systems on our ministry website (see wwwhttp://www.marketfaith.org/non-christian-worldviews). There is one, though, that seems to be the heresy of choice in many churches in our day. This is a heresy that is identified with a form of liberal Christian theology that puts an emphasis on social justice. We are going to take a moment here to try to understand where this heresy comes from and how it leads people away from an authentic relationship with God.
What Is the Social Justice Movement, and Where Does it Come From?
The Social Justice Movement is an expression of liberal Christian theology. It places an emphasis on promoting social causes its adherents believe are important for helping people in need. It identifies particular groups and causes as in need and deserving of special attention. To do this, it defines salvation as the accomplishment of their goal of solving these social problems. Particular groups that social justice proponents advocate for might include illegal immigrants, particular racial or ethnic groups, homosexuals, or the poor. Causes that fit their agendas might include those related to sexual orientation, gender, age, health care, economic justice/poverty, child labor, child trafficking, environment, climate change, and many others. The truth is, many of these are causes every Christian is interested in, but the reason for the interest is different.
The Social Justice movement specifically claims to represent Christian thinking, and it looks at the example of Jesus as the authority source for its beliefs. Rather than identifying Jesus as a spiritual Savior, however, it looks at him as a social justice warrior who came to earth for the express purpose of righting the wrongs that exist in society. To back this up, they essentially ignore all of the biblical passages that represent Jesus as a spiritual Savior, and cherry-pick verses that speak of him helping people’s physical needs and talking about justice.
For the Social Justice Movement, justice is not about actual justice. It is about overcoming oppression and solving the temporal problems associated with particular groups and causes. Justice, using this definition, is accomplished when their goal of overcoming oppression is achieved.
The Underlying Authority Source for the Social Justice Movement
As was mentioned above, the concept of social justice is an expression of liberal theology. But liberal theology itself is also an expression of something. While those who adhere to this philosophy generally assert that their beliefs come from the Bible, that is actually not true. Rather, they are an expression of naturalistic philosophy.
Naturalism is an atheistic worldview system that is based on the belief that the natural universe is all that exists. As such, there is no God, no supernatural reality, and everything that exists in the world can be accounted for by empirical science. With no God, there is no possible objective source for moral beliefs, so human beings must make morality up for themselves. As such, it is necessarily relativistic. That being the case, the Bible also must be understood to be a purely man-made book, and the morality it teaches can be nothing more than the accumulated beliefs and wisdom of people in the past. Additionally, since it is not considered to be objective truth from God, Social Justice believers have no qualms about reinterpreting the text to fit their personal moral preferences, and their personal interpretation of societal needs. What was considered true and right in past eras may not be valid based on modern needs. Beyond that, since Naturalism does not acknowledge an objective spiritual and eternal realm, it must have a focus on this world, to the exclusion of beliefs about eternity.
Liberal theology has naturalistic philosophy as it starting point. It then interprets the teachings of the Bible through that filter. Rather than assuming the Bible is true, it assumes that Naturalism is true with its underlying assumption that miracles cannot happen. To these people, Jesus was simply a great human teacher, and the moral teachings in the Bible are mere cultural constructs that reflect good ideas for the time period in which they were written. While they acknowledge that there are good and important moral teachings in the Bible, it is not considered authoritative beyond that era.
How Social Justice Theology Is Different from Biblical Theology
To better understand the core tenets of social justice beliefs, it is useful to compare them, side-by-side, to the essential beliefs of biblical Theism. We will begin with the three essential worldview beliefs (God, man, salvation), and then mention a couple of other important differences.
God
Social Justice Theology – The concept of God is generally rather nebulous, and he is not typically thought of as a person who can be known in a personal relationship. He is seen to be primarily interested in the temporal life situations of people who are oppressed.
Biblical Theology – The Trinitarian God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) revealed in the Bible is the one and only true God. He is a person who has revealed himself as holy, just, and love. He created the natural universe for his own purposes, and existed eternally before he created it.
Man
Social Justice Theology – Man is essentially good and deserves to live life on earth free of oppression from the injustices of those in power.
Biblical Theology – Man is made in the image of God, but is fallen and separated from God. Because of this separation, man is in need of salvation.
Salvation
Social Justice Theology – Salvation occurs when oppressed people are able to gain social justice, which is freedom from their oppressors.
Biblical Theology – Because of man’s fallen condition and separation from God, he needs a means for repairing that separation. To remedy that problem, God incarnated on earth as the man Jesus Christ, lived a life worthy to be a sacrifice for the sins of mankind, then offered himself as a substitutionary sacrifice by his death on the cross. With that, he provided the means of eternal salvation for mankind. Those who willingly receive God’s offer have their sins forgiven and gain eternal life.
Authority Source
Social Justice Theology – Individuals or groups, based on their own personal preferences, decide which peoples they believe are oppressed.
Biblical Theology – God is believed to have personally revealed himself to mankind through nature, through individuals who recorded his revelation in what became the Bible, and directly by his Holy Spirit. The Bible is considered the authority source upon which all other revelation is measured.
Moral Basis
Social Justice Theology – Since the ultimate authority source is personal preference, the moral foundation is relativistic.
Biblical Theology – As the Bible is considered to be the ultimate authority source, there is an objective basis for determining what is right and wrong.
Jesus
Social Justice Theology – Jesus is viewed as a social reformer and example (way shower) of how humans should seek justice for people who are oppressed in the world.
Biblical Theology – Jesus is understood to be the Savior who provided a means for eternal life for mankind.
The Political Focus of Social Justice
Since the entire focus of Social Justice beliefs is this-worldly, the solutions it offers to eliminate oppression in the world must also be this-worldly. As such, the primary focus of Social Justice theology is political, not spiritual. Helping the oppressed is the ultimate goal. Once a particular group is identified as being oppressed, social justice warriors feel they must bring some kind of political pressure to bear to overcome the oppression. The methods used for bringing this kind of pressure can include such things as political lobbying, demonstrations, creating political movements, generating publicity for their cause, and potentially even civil disobedience and violence.
While Christians are also interested in helping those in need and overcoming injustice, the biblical approach to this has an entirely different underlying purpose. Based on biblical teachings, helping those in need is not an end in itself, but is an expression of a life transformed by Jesus Christ. The purpose of a Christian life is to gain eternal life by entering into a personal relationship with God by faith in Christ. The person whose life has been transformed then serves those in need out of a desire to serve and please God.
Sharing the Gospel with Social Justice Warriors
As was mentioned above, most people who look to Social Justice theology actually consider themselves to be authentic Christians. In truth, though, most of these people do not know Christ at all. They understand salvation to be freeing the oppressed in this world, not freeing the soul from spiritual bondage. As such, if we wish to share a witness with people who believe this, we must deal with them as people who believe a different religion.
For the most part, that means we must have a willingness to dive into political conversations. I personally grew up hearing the old adage that we should never talk in public about religion or politics. Well, first of all, if we want to share a witness to Social Justice warriors, we have to be willing to do both. For them, politics is the core of their religion. It is critical, however, to do this with an attitude of love and kindness, but at the same time not be willing to be cowed. I assure you that if you interject yourself in this arena, many of these people will not be expressing love and kindness to you. Remember, when you oppose their emphasis on social justice, you are opposing their religious faith.
Once you make the decision to interact with them, you must then be prepared to express not only the gospel message, but must also be conversant with the political principles that the Bible expresses. You will have to deal with such topics as life (many believe in abortion), the true meaning of liberty (they are typically willing to oppress one group to “free” another), economics (most Social Justice warriors are decidedly Socialist), fairness as expressed in the Bible (they don’t see forced redistribution of wealth as unfair), and the rule of law (they are willing to legally favor their favorite oppressed group over others). You will also have to be ready to discuss particular social issues such as illegal immigration, sanctuary cities, abortion, police practices, class warfare, and the like. There will also, no doubt, be times when you will have to deal with people who promote various social movements such as Black Lives Matter, Occupy Wall Street, Antifa, Anarchists, Democratic Socialism, and many others. Dealing with all of this is definitely not for the faint of heart, as Social Justice warriors are generally very passionate about their cause – it is their religion, after all. But if you want to witness to them, you will have to do it.
Another important thing to keep in mind is your attitude. When dealing with these kinds of topics, passions can tend to run very high. As Christians, we are not out to win a political battle, we are looking to help people see Christ. It is critical, then, that as you oppose their political point of view, you express love and patience in the extreme. They have to know that you love them even though you disagree with their beliefs.
The next important thing to keep in mind is that you are speaking truth against untruth. In order for them to make their point, they will repeatedly point to Jesus as their model. The only problem is, their belief about Jesus is not based on a biblical understanding. You will have to keep making that point over and over as you show them in the Bible that their view of Jesus is wrong.
Finally, you must be persistent. Many of these people have so bought into this Christian heresy that they, at some point, would rather ditch you as a friend than face the truth. Sadly, I have found that to happen more often than not. This belief is their religion, and most will not be willing to give it up. That said, we also cannot give up or become discouraged. Just because you are not directly the one to lead a given individual to the truth does not mean your witness is in vain. Sometimes we are the one who must break up the hard ground, sometimes the one to plant the seed, sometimes the one God uses to water, and occasionally we get to be the harvester. But the main thing is for us to remain faithful in our witness. If we do, God will use us to accomplish his kingdom’s work.
The Social Justice heresy is very strong in many churches. As the Christians in Bible times had to face down the false teachings of their day, we must do the same in order to lead people to genuine faith in Jesus Christ.
© 2018 Freddy Davis