by Pastor Joey Carroll
The Apostle Peter reminds us of a sobering reality in 2 Peter 2:1: “False prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies” (NASB).
What Peter warned us against has been true ever since. For instance, in the last several hundred years, humanism and its various evolving and changing beliefs have bombarded the church with false notions.
Humanism
Humanism is the philosophy that says man is at the center of the universe, and man has absolute authority. The Christian says that God is at the center of the universe, and He alone has absolute authority.
Humanists believe that human experience and rational thinking provide the only source of both knowledge and a moral code to live by. Christianity says the Word of God alone dictates and determines how one ought to live.
One of the things Humanism has led to in the last several years is the sexual revolution. “Love has no labels” is a humanist philosophy that allows love to cross any and every barrier to express itself. In this case, human experience trumps the Word of God and determines that since man has sexual desires he is freely allowed to express those desires however he sees fit.
As the humanist philosophy and Christianity collide, sexual immoralities such has homosexuality creep into the church as an accepted practice. As confusion sets in, those who have never truly been converted accept the opinion that one can be a follower of Christ and be what Scripture would call sexually immoral at the same time. They accept both teachings and fail to see the contradiction. In the end, they have in actuality rejected Christianity and have become a humanist.
Social Justice
Social justice is another liberal philosophy that has attacked the church for the last several years. It has swept a number of people overboard and out from the church, appearing to be believers but have found to be false. They went out from us, as the Apostle John says, but they were not really of us (1 John 2:19)
Social Justice stems from Cultural Marxism. Marxism itself was originally a communist philosophy that dealt with politics and the economies. It sought to organize societies around the people. But Marxism evolved into cultural marxism, which is a philosophy that attempts to define life and culture through various classes of people: a definition that is against anything you will find in the pages of Scripture.
Cultural Marxism comes with a laundry list of terminology that you would do well to familiarize yourself with.
Some of the vocabulary includes terms such as: social justice, systemic racism, race, identity, class, white privilege, Black Lives Matter, cultural hegemony, intersectionality, and Critical Race Theory.
All of these terms have become a part of society around us, but our only concern is that they are spreading into the church. However, we have to look to our culture to understand these words and their meanings because they are not found in the pages of Scripture.
Social justice is a cry of certain groups within a society that claim to have been denied power, privilege, position, property, prosperity, etc. by other groups. They claim to be victimized by other groups in society. For instance, women have been victimized by men, the poor have been victimized by the wealthy, certain ethnic groups that have been victimized by other ethnic groups, and homosexuals have been victimized by heterosexuals.
Scripture never speaks of social justice but rather justice. Justice is doing what is righteous, or doing what is right and good. Biblical justice does not see particular groups in society because God does not show favoritism. The Christian understands that doing what is right to any human being is what we have been called to do because all of mankind has been created in the image of God.
Racism is defined as the action of one individual against another individual simply because of their particular skin color or ethnicity.
Systemic racism is the idea that governments, businesses, schools, and other structures within society are intentionally formed to create racial biases and oppress others.
White privilege is the idea that all white-skinned people have a greater advantage than people of other skin colors because of systemic racism. “Whites” are the group that society caters to and are therefore able to take advantage of other groups in society because they have more privilege, power, position, property, and prosperity and because the system is “rigged” that way.
The cultural hegemony is the “Chief” of society which is defined as the white male. He has the most advantage, power, and privilege. He creates systemic racism to maintain his advantage and oppress all other races, not giving them the opportunity to achieve power or privilege.
Intersectionality is a way of measuring the level of oppression an individual endures because of systemic racism. For instance, the cultural hegemony, or chief in society is the white, American-born, heterosexual, intellectual, healthy, wealthy, cisgendered (when gender identity corresponds to birth sex) male. These attributes are considered levels of privilege. The particular ways an individual does not meet this criteria is translated into levels of oppression. For instance, a black, female, immigrant, homosexual, who is poor, not able-bodied, transgendered, and uneducated is considered the most oppressed person in the society. The more “boxes” a person cannot check off the more oppressed they are.
Critical Race Theory (CRT) studies society based on categories such as race, law, and power. it teaches not to view ourselves as a whole but rather at subgroups.
So if I can over-simply things, Social Marxism uses tools such as Critical Race Theory and intersectionality to understand and define culture according to race/racism and seeks to overthrow the social injustices caused by the cultural hegemony and the systemic racism that the hegemonic power has created. In short, it is the cry of “Black Lives Matter” in order to overthrow “White Privilege.” And unfortunately, it is the cry of many self-professing Christians.
If you maintain a secular worldview, all of those definitions fit well within your thinking. If you maintain a Biblical worldview, these terms are useless.
The Christian uses terms like depravity and humanity to understand society. The Christian does not deny any of the injustices that are present in society but he understands them very differently. He also sees a very different approach to overcoming those injustices.
The Christian understands sin to be the cause of all injustice and sees the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ as the singular and sufficient answer for all of fallen humanity.
For instance, the Christian has compassion for the poor, but he does’t point a finger of blame (like Adam did in the garden) at the wealthy man but understands his necessary role in society and gives willingly and generously to his needs.
The Christian does not see races of people or define culture or society by race (a word not found in Scripture). A Christian understands passages like Acts 17:26, that God made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, and Galatians 3:28: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (NASB).
A Christian understands that all men seek power and privilege in this world no matter what ethnicity they are because they are fallen, and the Christian seeks to “deny himself” and follow after Christ.
The Christian does not seek to reform society or culture but seeks to see individuals transformed by the powerful gospel.
Right now, there is a major push to see Christianity adopt these terms and define the injustices in society in worldly terms and views rather than Scripture. Those outside the church are trying to lead the church away from preaching the gospel by involving them in reforming society through various laws and systems. The Christian understands that no law has ever been able to change one single human heart.
God Himself gave the perfect Law to the Jews, and the Old Testament is clear as to how things turned out. The Christian understands that moral and social reform will never correct the problems of this world; only the Gospel can do that.
Unfortunately, this debate has divided so many preachers that I looked up to, listened to, and read. I thought that our union in Christ and commitment to Scripture could weather any storm but I was wrong. Naive I guess.
The only sense of it that I have been able to understand is drawn from 1Corinthians 11:19 where Paul says, “For there must also be factions among you, so that those who are approved may become evident among you” (NASB).
In the Greek, it can be more literally translated… “Necessary! it must continually be that groups who hold to false teachings be AMONG YOU, so that the genuine is clear.”
Three thoughts spring from that passage:
- 1. It is necessary to disagree on critical doctrines of the faith “among ourselves” in order that genuine believers will be made known.
- 2. We are going to hurt when people go astray and follow a foreign path.
- 3. We must be CAREFUL that we do not fall into these traps.
Church, continue to pour yourselves into the Word of God and the person of Christ as we navigate through the stormy seas ahead.
Corinth Baptist Church 