Why The Statement on Social Justice and the Gospel?

Why the Statement on Social Justice in the Gospel? That is the topic we'll discuss today with Cal Beisner, right here on the Christian Worldview Radio Program, where the mission is to sharpen the biblical worldview of Christians and to share the good news that all people can be reconciled to God through faith in Jesus Christ.

I'm David Wheaton, the host, and our website is thechristianworldview.org. Social justice is a gospel issue. Now, if you've heard that said once recently, you've likely heard it said dozens of times. Some over 50 who believe that Christians and the church have the duty to rectify perceived injustices against blacks, women, homosexuals, transgenders, and other designated or perceived oppressed groups. The push has become so strong, so quickly, that another group of evangelicals, wary that social justice initiatives and associations will lead to compromise of the actual saving gospel, has written the Statement on Social Justice in the Gospel.

Some are calling it the Dallas Statement because it was written in Dallas. So this weekend on the Christian Worldview, Cal Beisner, who is the founder of the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation, and also the author of the booklet Social Justice vs. Biblical Justice, How Good Intentions Undermine Justice and Gospel, joins us to discuss why this statement was written, who the leaders are on both sides, and what the church's role is with regards to these issues of justice. Let's get to the first segment of the interview with Cal Beisner. Cal, thank you for coming back on the Christian Worldview today to talk about this recent Statement on Social Justice in the Gospel. I just want to read the first few paragraphs of this Statement, which is linked at our website, thechristianworldview.org. It says, We wish to clarify certain key Christian doctrines and ethical principles prescribed in God's Word. Clarity on these issues will fortify believers and churches to withstand an onslaught of dangerous and false teachings that threaten the Gospel, misrepresent Scripture, and lead people away from the grace of God in Jesus Christ. Specifically, the Statement says, we are deeply concerned that values borrowed from secular culture are currently undermining Scripture in the areas of race and ethnicity, manhood and womanhood, and human sexuality. The Bible's teaching on each of these subjects is being challenged under the broad and somewhat nebulous rubric of concern for, quote, social justice. If the doctrines of God's Word are not uncompromisingly reasserted and defended at these points, there is every reason to anticipate that these dangerous ideas and corrupted moral values will spread their influence into other realms of biblical doctrines and principles.

Last paragraph. We submit these affirmations and denials for public consideration, not with any pretense of ecclesiastical authority, but with an urgency that is mixed with deep joy and sincere sorrow. The rapidity with which these deadly ideas have spread from the culture at large into churches and Christian organizations, including some that are Evangelical and Reformed, necessitates the issuing of this Statement now. We grieve that in doing so we know we are taking a stand against the positions of some teachers whom we have long regarded as faithful and trustworthy spiritual guides. It is our earnest prayer that our brothers and sisters will stand firm on the Gospel and avoid being blown to and fro by every cultural trend that seeks to move the Church of Christ off course. Then it goes into the Statement, which has affirmations and denials on the following subjects of Scripture, image-bearing, justice, God's law, sin, gospel, salvation, the Church, heresy, sexuality and marriage, complementarianism, race and ethnicity, culture and racism. So that was a long introduction, Cal.

I apologize for that. But why the need to write this Statement on social justice in the Gospel? Why is there a need to do this, do you think?

Well, I think really what you read there explains that need pretty well. There's really a whole lot of confusion going on with an undermining of Biblical teaching on sin and righteousness, on various different behaviors. For instance, we have the effort by many people to say, look, we just need to accept homosexuals and transgenders and so on into our churches, affirming them somehow. And yet what God calls us to is repentance of sin. And that doesn't mean that we reject sinners from our churches.

If we did that, we'd have to reject ourselves. We're all sinners. But what we do require, what we must require is that there be repentance for sin, acknowledgement that it is sin, rather than an attempt to justify it and say that in fact it's not sin. That's just one example.

There are many other ways in which that happens. But fundamentally, especially for myself, I signed this because I have recognized for many years that the whole idea of social justice really undermines the Biblical meanings of both justice and grace, and therefore threatens the gospel, distorts the gospel, and distorts the message that we need to bring to a lost and dying world. If we don't get our understandings of both justice and grace right, biblically, we're going to be preaching a false gospel. And that means it's a gospel that is not, as is the true gospel, the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. Cal Beissner with us today on the Christian worldview radio program, the founder of Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation.

Their website is cornwallalliance.org. He is also the author of Social Justice vs. Biblical Justice, a booklet that is subtitled How Good Intentions Undermine Justice and Gospel. And they are specially reprinting this right now with a copy of the new statement on social justice and the gospel in it. And we're going to tell you how you can get it from the Christian worldview today.

So who are those? It talks about certain segments within evangelicalism pushing for, this phrase is used over and over again, social justice is a gospel issue. Who are those pushing social justice as a gospel issue? And what do they exactly mean by that phrase?

It is used so much. Well, I'm not always clear exactly what they mean by that phrase, social justice as a gospel issue. The gospel is the good news, grammarians would call it indicative, it tells what has happened. It's the good news of what Jesus Christ has done for our salvation.

He died for our sins, he was buried, he rose again from the dead is how Paul summarizes it in 1 Corinthians 15. Now that gospel has implications. When people come to Christ by faith, are reconciled to God and begin to learn what he tells us we should do in our lives, that comes not into gospel but into what's called law. Law is what grammarians call imperative.

It expresses a command, a requirement. And we must always distinguish gospel and law. It's not that they're opposed to each other but that they are distinct. And what I fear often happens for those who are saying that social justice is a gospel issue is first that they're confusing law and gospel and then second that they are expanding the definition of the gospel way beyond the biblical boundaries of it. We do have to recognize that the Bible uses the word gospel in a variety of different ways. It's good news that your child has healed of a disease, it's good news that the kingdom of God is coming. But particularly as to the salvation of sinners from the wrath of God, the gospel is Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, he was buried, he rose again from the dead.

And when we expand that and start to treat other things as if they were part of how we're reconciled to God, then we begin to teach a works righteousness version of the gospel which is exactly what Paul wrote so passionately against in Romans and Galatians and elsewhere. So what social issues are those pushing social justice trying to rectify? And then importantly, what is their plan or what is their means of rectifying these perceived injustices?

Well, let me address the second part first. Unfortunately, what seems to happen is that the plan for rectifying these things always winds up being some kind of a demand for government to require everybody to do something or other, right? And that's actually not terribly surprising because the Bible actually teaches us very clearly in Romans 13 that God ordained the state to enforce justice. He designs the church to be the vessel, the vehicle of his grace, but he ordains the state to pursue justice. And so if indeed it is a matter of justice, that all people should be treated exactly alike regardless of their behavior, regardless of whether, for example, they are behaving in manners that the Bible says are sinful or in matters that the Bible says are righteous.

If that's justice, then of course, yeah, the state should require that. But the kinds of issues that they want to address, well, they could all be summed up in the word oppression or unjust treatment of some people by others. Common forms are racism and sexism, and those things are indeed oppression. Those are things about which all Christians should be concerned. But what happens all too often is that all inequalities between any identifiable groups get ascribed to oppression, when in reality, there are many other contributors to inequality.

And even more important than that, all inequalities tend to get depicted as injustices, whereas a biblical understanding of justice requires that many inequalities are entirely just and indeed can only be set aside by doing injustice. That's interesting answer. Thank you for that. Cal Beisner with us today here on The Christian Real View, the founder of the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation. It's an excellent organization, cornwellalliance.org. Why is the younger Reformed group of evangelicals, how did they become so motivated by social justice?

Is it something that was neglected by the older generation or what do you think? Okay, you're listening to an interview with Cal Beisner today of the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation and also was involved with the topic we're discussing today, the crafting, the signing of the statement on social justice and the gospel. And by the way, these are all linked at our website, thechristianrealview.org, would highly recommend. This is a critically important issue, this issue of social justice. Divisions are happening.

This is the, I'd say, maybe the hottest topic right now in evangelicalism, and there are going to be ramifications from this. And so I would highly recommend you dig in and understand this issue. We have the statement listed on our website and the preview for today. We have a couple of excellent articles, one by John MacArthur, highly recommend you read that. We have another one by Kevin DeYoung on the website. Also, you can order this social justice versus biblical justice booklet by Cal Beisner, and they have just reprinted it with a copy of the statement on social justice and the gospel in it. It's coming soon. You can order online at thechristianrealview.org. It's a donation of any amount to the Christian Royal View.

You can give us a call at 1-888-646-2233, or you can write to us and we'll give that information throughout the rest of the program today. But stay tuned. We have much more coming up on social justice right after this first break of the day on the Christian Royal View. I'm David Wheaton. In his DVD, The Death of Discernment, Mike Gendron uses this apt analogy from A.W.

Tozer. Red cells are like faith. They carry life-giving oxygen to every part of the body. White cells, on the other hand, are discernment.

They pounce upon dead and toxic matter and carry it out of the body. Each member in the body of Christ is a white blood cell. We need to identify doctrinal error and make sure it gets out of the body.

That's the only way that the body of Christ can remain strong. The Death of Discernment DVD contains two messages by Mike Gendron. You can order it for a donation of any amount to the Christian Royal View.

Normal retail is $15 plus shipping. Go to thechristianworldview.org or call 1-888-646-2233 or write to Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota 55331. We're back on the Christian Royal View radio program today.

I'm David Wheaton. Just want to say to those in the Carolinas, those in the Southeast being affected by this hurricane. We've been watching it and following you. You are not forgotten. We and people are praying for you. We just pray that you can get through this.

I know people are becoming to help, but very, very difficult trial right now, but just know you are in our thoughts and our prayers. Today in the program, we're talking about the statement on social justice and the gospel commonly called the Dallas Statement because it was crafted in Dallas. We're talking with Cal Beisner about it. He's one of the signers of it. He's also the founder of Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation and the author of a social justice booklet, which we're offering today. And we'll tell you how you can get that at the end of this segment.

Let's get back to the second part of the interview with Cal Beisner. Why is the younger reformed group of evangelicals, how did they become so motivated by social justice? Is it something that was neglected by the older generation or what do you think? Winston Churchill once said something like, if you're not a liberal when you're young, you have no heart.

If you're not a conservative past age 30, it's because you have no brain. Now, that's not literally true, of course, but it grasps an important thing. Compassion is relatively easy to grasp, easy to feel, but figuring out what really, truly helps those in need is much more difficult. The economist Walter Williams in his book, The State Against Blacks, wrote what I think is one of the most brilliant statements in all the discussion of poverty, oppression and efforts to address them. He said, truly compassionate policy requires dispassionate analysis.

Hear that again. Truly compassionate policy requires dispassionate analysis. It takes very little time to feel compassion, and there's nothing wrong with that, but it takes a great deal of time to do the kind of wide and deep study of human nature, of social relationships, of how people respond to different incentives and circumstances that yields sufficient understanding to craft good policy. Socialism appeals to the young largely because they've lived most of their lives on the receiving end of unearned benefits from their parents, especially, and that's entirely proper.

They haven't had long, though, in adulthood to discover that unearned benefits can't go on forever, that in order for there to be a pie to slice into pieces and distribute, there has to be flour and water and sugar and apples and all the people who produce those things and all the things necessary to production and a baker and a stove, and none of those things comes free. Yeah, that's really well said. Cal Beissner again today on the Christian worldview. I'd like to mention, just so listeners have an idea of where certain Christian leaders are coming down on this particular statement on social justice and the gospel, and correct me if I'm wrong here if I get any of these wrong. Those who have signed this or some of the main signatories are John MacArthur, Vody Balcom, he's a pastor, James White, Alpha Omega Ministries, Justin Peters, Tom Askel, of course, you, Cal, signed it as well. Those who seem that they won't sign this, I have three categories here, did sign, won't sign, and on the sideline, won't sign, the founders of the Gospel Coalition, that organization, Tim Keller, D.A. Carson, I don't believe John Piper will sign this, Russell Moore from the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, kind of an entity of the Southern Baptist Convention, Albert Mohler, I don't believe, is going to sign this, Mark Dever, Capitol Hill Baptist in Washington, D.C., Ligon Duncan, Reform Theological Seminary, Thabiti Anyabwile, a well-known pastor on the East Coast, David Platt, and also Matt Chandler. I believe that group of people, and I'm going to be correct if I'm wrong, they may, but I'm getting the sense that they are, many of them have been proponents of this integrating some of these social justice ideas into the church, and I don't think they're going to sign it. And some of those on the sideline that may or may not sign it, but are definitely not, I don't think they would be against it, would be people like Alistair Begg or Ken Ham from Answers in Genesis, Todd Friel, Paul Washer. This particular group I've just mentioned, these names, I would say are more in the conservative side of evangelicalism.

You take people like, I've attended the Shepherds Conference in Los Angeles for many years, and you can almost count on the fact that it's going to be John MacArthur, Al Mohler, Mark Dever, Ligon Duncan, and Steve Lawson are going to be five of the big keynote preachers at that conference. And you can see in that list I mentioned that many of them are on opposite sides of this particular issue of this social justice statement. So it's a long way of getting to the question, Cal, that is this statement going to create a division amongst more theologically conservative evangelicals? Well, yeah, you know, it already has created some division, and that's sad.

I mean, you just named in every one of those groups godly men who I respect, men who are my friends, and who I trust are going to continue to be my friends, despite the fact that we differ over whether we ought or ought not to sign this particular statement. You know, I don't think that we're beyond a point of healing that division. There are good people of good intentions all along the spectrum on these issues. And as the Christian church has through the centuries, through debate and dialogue, little by little resolved some issues pretty well.

So I think we can, through respectful dialogue, make progress on this one. As a church historian, though, I just caution that we need a lot of patience. It took from the mid-third century to the mid-fifth century to iron out the doctrines of the Trinity and the two natures and the one person of Christ. And the church is still struggling now over exactly how one is justified and sanctified, what roles grace and merit, faith and works, Christ and the sacraments play in those. And that's a struggle that's been going on for over 500 years now. So I really don't think it should be terribly surprising that there's some confusion, there's some division. Paul actually wrote in 1 Corinthians that it's important that there be divisions among us so that he who is approved of God may be known. That is, when we achieve real disagreement, which G.K. Chesterton said is a very difficult thing to do because so often people misunderstand each other. When we achieve real disagreement, then we can really begin looking at the reasons pro and con and make some progress at clarification. Again, Cal Beissner with us today on the Christian Real View Radio program of the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation.

Their website is cornwallalliance.org. OK, let's get into some of the roots of social justice. Some will say that it's actually not only social justice, it's really socialism or with its roots from Karl Marx or liberation theology. Is that extremist to think that about social justice the way it's being defined, let's say, by this this group of evangelicals now trying to push it? You know, different people define social justice differently. And I acknowledge that in my booklet, I offer some of the various ones. For example, many people, many lay people, especially, I think, just assume that social justice just means justice on a societal scale as distinct from justice between two individuals.

That would be fine. In fact, it is a proper thing that we ought to seek, right? Except that historically, that's not what the phrase meant to those who coined it over a century ago and made it popular. To them, it meant some approximation of equality of both opportunity and outcome.

Some approximation of equality of wealth, health care, education, social standing, influence, whatever measure you might choose among all people. That is indeed a pretty solidly Marxist notion. But what most people don't know is that Marx himself got it from the historical descendants of the radical Anabaptists of the Reformation era, who renounced private property, repudiated the Ten Commandments, even insisted that not only material property, but even wives should be held in common.

Something that resulted in violent revolutions in several cities at the time, to which leading Protestants and Roman Catholics alike responded by covenant calling for the imperial government, the emperor, to put these things down forcibly, which unfortunately led to some serious wars and slaughters. One of the radical Anabaptists descendants was a Scotsman, Robert Owen, who in the early 19th century preached against private property and said that all Christians should live in communes. He actually planted half a dozen or so communes in the United States. While doing so, he also helped to spur the public education movement.

None of those survived except the Oneida community in upstate New York, which survived precisely because it renounced its communalism and became quite capitalistic. At any rate, Marx had read Owen and even dedicated the first edition of the first volume of his magnum opus, Das Kapital, to Owen. So social justice has a particular pedigree, and we have to recognize how that pedigree shapes the thinking behind those who are the most important promoters of it, who, by the way, are not the various evangelicals who are now sort of jumping onto the social justice bandwagon, and who I think are, for the most part, unaware of or insufficiently cautious about the associations and the ideas that are hooked to it. So that's my follow-up question to that is you've had a long history of interacting with this idea of social justice. Of course, you've written the booklet on it, but you've also seen the idea of social justice be used to advocate for humanistic definitions of environmentalism or policies of environmentalism. What have you seen happen to Christians who go down the social justice route?

What's the danger here? Okay, Cal Beisner will answer that question after this next break here on the Christian Real View. Really appreciate Cal Beisner. He's a clear and specific preacher, speaker, and his organization, Cornwall Alliance. CornwallAlliance.org is one you should look into and consider supporting.

They do great work. Also, consider getting a copy of his booklet, Social Justice vs. Biblical Justice. They just reprinted it to include this statement on social justice and the gospel. You can order for a donation of any amount to the Christian Real View. Just go to our website, thechristianrealview.org, or call us, 1-888-646-2233. You can also write to us back after this. More on social justice.

I'm David Wheaton. Be sure to take advantage of two free resources that will keep you informed and sharpen your worldview. The first is the Christian World View weekly email, which comes to your inbox each Friday. It contains a preview of the upcoming radio program, along with need-to-read articles, featured resources, special events, and audio of the previous program. The second is the Christian World View annual print letter, which is delivered to your mailbox in November. It contains a year-end letter from host David Wheaton and a listing of our store items, including DVDs, books, children's materials, and more. You can sign up for the weekly email and annual print letter by visiting thechristianworldview.org or calling 1-888-646-2233.

Your email and mailing address will never be shared, and you can unsubscribe at any time. Call 1-888-646-2233 or visit thechristianworldview.org. Thechristianworldview.org is our website where you can get connected with the Christian World View radio program and find out about our stations and how to sign up for the free podcast. Or just go to the website and click and play past programs or get our free weekly email and annual print letter, which is coming out in November. So you can do all that at our website and also order this social justice booklet by our guest today, Cal Beisner, who is with the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation.

Their website is cornwallalliance.org. They do excellent work, especially with regard to environmental issues. And today we're talking about not so much environmentalism, but the Dallas Statement on Social Justice and the Gospel.

And so we have one more segment with Cal, and so let's get back to that final segment. What have you seen happen to Christians who go down the social justice route? What's the danger here? Well, particularly in terms of the environmental movement, a variety of things happen socially. And in the environmental movement, I'd say the most important one is that they will embrace social structures that unintentionally but really trap people in poverty. And since a clean, healthful, beautiful environment is a costly good and poor people can't afford many costly goods, that means prolonging poverty and that means prolonging environmental degradation. So just think, if you want to see the dirtiest parts of a city, where do you go? Well, you don't go to the rich neighborhoods and the rich commercial areas.

You go to the poor neighborhoods and the poor commercial areas. And that's not because there's something morally inferior about poor people compared with rich people. Sometimes it's quite the opposite.

Rather, it's simply because that's a sad consequence of poverty, namely the poor can't afford to keep their place clean as well as the rich can. Even more important, though, I believe, is that they tend to become confused about the gospel, which is why I wrote my book and titled it Social Justice vs. Biblical Justice, How Good Intentions Undermine Justice and Gospel. By confusing justice and grace, social justice distorts the gospel and drives us right back to a gospel of works righteousness, the very thing that the Reformers protested against, the very thing against which Paul wrote so passionately in Romans and Galatians. You can order this booklet, Social Justice vs. Biblical Justice. It's a 44-page booklet for a donation of any amount to the Christian Real View.

This has been a very popular resource for us in the past and now has just been reprinted. Not only that, it's been added, had an addendum onto it with the statement on social justice and the gospel that we're discussing today with Cal Beisner, the founder of the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation. What is the biblical role for Christians in the church in terms of social issues, Cal, like racism, gender, sexual preference, economic disparities, immigration, all these social issues that are being coined as social justice issues that Christians in the church need to rectify. What is the biblical role for Christians to be involved? The prophet Micah put it really well.

He said, He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does Yahweh require of you but to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God? Notice that doing justice and loving mercy aren't the same thing.

They're very different things. Justice means rendering to each his due. And so if someone is due punishment for sin or crime, justice means punishment. Or if someone's done something worthy of reward, justice means rewarding. But mercy is very different. Mercy means rendering good to someone, even if he doesn't deserve it, even if he hasn't earned it, even if, in fact, he's earned something quite different. As Paul explains in Romans 13, God has ordained the state to administer justice, not mercy.

And when it tries to administer mercy instead of justice, which is essentially what I think the social justice movement wants, it winds up doing injustice to others. Our task is, as Christians, as always, to say to everyone, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him might not perish but have everlasting life. To tell everyone, The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he's fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man, Jesus Christ, whom he has appointed. And of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. It's time for us to say, as Peter said to the people of Jerusalem, many of whom had conspired in or cheered the crucifixion of the Lord of glory, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Yes, our task is also to treat others with true justice, to welcome and care for the widows, the orphan, the stranger.

But the gospel that Christ died for our sins was buried and rose from the dead has to be first and foremost. Well, Cal, we just appreciate the clarity with which you speak to this issue of social justice. And we're thankful for you, Cal, your voice in the midst of this discussion, this debate going on right now. Well, I'm thankful for your voice on this, David, and very thankful for all that you do, not just on this issue, but so many others. Your program is just a treasure trove of solid biblical instruction for thousands, millions of Christians. Well, to God be the glory for anything I am, or this program does, and I know you think the same as well. So Cal, we appreciate your coming on the Christian Real View, and we just wish nothing but God's best and grace to you and your family.

Thank you, and the same to you. That was Cal Beisner, everyone, from the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation. I think it was an important and very informative interview today with him. He had some very sharp, insightful things to say. And we'll have this audio on our website, thechristianrealview.org, probably later today.

It's Saturday, September 15th right now. We'll try to link it by later today in case you missed any of the interview. And again, the Social Justice booklet is being reprinted to include this Dallas statement on social justice, and the gospel is a 44-page booklet. We're offering it for donation of any amount. You can just order the usual ways by going to our website, thechristianrealview.org, calling us in our office at 1-888-646-2233, or writing to us at Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota 55331. All of that contact information is given in the minute of following the program today. And by the way, if you call and you just get the voicemail, just leave your name and number, and some one of our volunteers will call you back. Keep in mind that this weekend we have our event, our golf and dinner event coming up on Monday, and so we're all pressed right now, so we may not get back to you until Tuesday. But go ahead and call us, leave the message, get your order in, and we'll get back to you.

Of course, you can always order online. All right, well, where to go from here? I have so many papers in front of me. I have the statement on social justice and the gospel here. I'm not going to read that whole thing. You can read it for yourself.

I would actually encourage you to do so. That's linked on our website in the preview for today's program at thechristianrealview.org. Read the statement on social justice and the gospel, and you can choose whether or not you'd like to sign it. And I think that's one of the most concerning things right now about this whole issue of social justice is the fact that the divide taking place before our eyes in what was considered to be kind of the conservative, I don't mean politically conservative, I mean theologically conservative side of evangelicalism.

As I mentioned to Cal and asked him that question about the divide, you have, as I said, again, I'm not sure who will sign and who won't, but just from reading things and getting a sense of where people stand on this issue, I get the sense that the gospel coalition, that organization, I'm going to read a tweet from them in a second, but that organization is not for this statement at all. They are for their promotion of social justice. Their founders, Tim Keller and D.A.

Carson. And then you have other prominent evangelicals, conservative evangelicals in that wing, that general area of evangelicalism like John Piper, Russell Moore from the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, Albert Mohler from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Mark Dever, Capitol Hill Baptist Church, Ligon Duncan. I think he's the president of Reformed Theological Seminary.

Thabiti Anyabwile has been on the forefront of this push for social justice. David Platt, Matt Chandler, two young, very popular pastors. I don't think any of them, I think they would definitely not sign this document.

And I'm not sure why. I think when you read it, I don't see what's so controversial. I think it would perhaps cast them in the light as being not woke about what they think is an imperative, an important issue now for evangelicals to take up these social justice issues. And the troubling thing is that many of those men conference together, shared pulpits together with the other men who have signed this document and were in on the crafting of it, like John MacArthur and Vody Baucom and James White and Cal Beisner and Justin Peters and many others you'll see in the signatories of the statement on social justice. So this is going to be something to really pay attention to how this plays out and what this does to this formally theologically conservative end of evangelicalism. This is a big issue because on one side, you have those who say if you go down this road of promoting these worldly social justice type issues and causes, the gospel is going to be marginalized. The gospel is easily forgotten.

The associations get to be bad. It compromises things, whereas the other side, those are in favor of saying, no, this is a gospel issue. Remember how we started the program today that social justice is a gospel issue?

That phrase is being used over and over and over again. So after this last break of the day here, we're going to come back and we're going to read a couple other things that tweet from the Gospel Coalition that gives you an idea of just what they think about social justice and how important it is. We'll also get into an excellent column we have linked on our website by John McCarthy. You really need to read this one, The Injustice of Social Justice. Take all this and it's important to sharpen your worldview. We'll be back right after this.

I'm David Wheaton. Here's Mike Gendron previewing his DVD on apostasy. We'll see how apostasy is the result of Satan's relentless attacks on the church. We'll also look at four steps that characterize a church's drift into apostasy. Then we'll look at the history of the church, a chronological development of the Roman Catholic religion and its drift into apostasy.

And lastly and most importantly, what are you and I to do in the midst of this great apostasy and the growing ecumenical movement? The DVD is titled Roman Catholicism's Drift into Apostasy and contains two messages. You can order it for a donation of any amount to The Christian Worldview.

Normal retail is $15 plus shipping. Go to TheChristianWorldview.org or call 1-888-646-2233 or write to Box 401 Excelsior, Minnesota 55331. All right. Final segment of the day here on The Christian Worldview radio program. We're talking about why the Dallas statement on social justice in the gospel. Why was that necessary to write?

Because it's definitely caused sides to be taken here. I said I'd read a couple of quotes by the Gospel Coalition. The Gospel Coalition, if you're not familiar with it, is a group of pastors and churches in the Reformed tradition.

That means from the doctrines of the Reformation, the doctrines of grace, that sort of thing, that put the gospel of Christ at the center of all activities. That's from the Gospel Coalition. There's a lot of different pastors that you would know that are part of that.

They have a conference and they write blogs on this website and so forth. It's a fellowship of those focused on the gospel. Well, they have become, I think very clearly the Gospel Coalition, I'm going to read this tweet, has very become a proponent of integrating social justice into churches. In fact, here's what they say.

Just recently, they had this tweet. The gospel opens our eyes to the fact that all our wealth, even wealth for which we worked hard, is ultimately an unmerited gift from God. Therefore, the person who does not generously give away his or her wealth to others is not merely lacking in compassion, but is unjust.

Do you see that? If you don't give away, generously give away, and it doesn't say how much you have to give away to others, it's not really lacking in compassion. It's unjust. You are unjust if you don't give your money away. You see how they turn grace into law there? See, we're to give. The Bible wants us to be cheerful givers, to give away out of compassion and mercy. But now they're turning into a law, but it's unjust if you don't do this.

You're legally defrauding someone else. Not legally, maybe prosecutor wise, but they're creating a biblical command on it. You're unjust. Or here's another one, another tweet from the Gospel Coalition. Christian churches must work for justice and peace in their neighborhoods through service, even as they call individuals to conversion and the new birth. Now, that may seem like a good thing. Yeah, well, we should be for justice and peace.

But what does that exactly mean? What issues of justice are they talking about? And at least they included the fact that as they call people to conversion and the new birth, I'm glad they introduced that in that tweet, because that's such a key component. That's what typically gets lost in the means of all these social justice initiatives. And again, it goes back to Christian churches must work. Law.

You must do this, otherwise you're sinning, basically, is what they're saying. And justice is not defined. What is justice? And so as you look at these different issues, this social justice issue, this concept, there's lots of causes that are kind of grouped together. And most of them, to be totally honest, are typically those causes which are fostered and stoked within the politically liberal side of things in politics. So it's ending perceived racial, gender and sexual inequalities.

It's the welcoming of illegal immigrants. It's the other issues like universal health care and a higher minimum wage, laborer laws, helping the perceived oppressed, any of these victim groups. But I think before anyone gets drawn into these social justice causes as a believer, they need to seriously consider several questions. And the first and most important question is, is the example of Jesus and his apostles, is the example from Scripture, is this what they did? Did Jesus spend his ministry time, did he spend his life pursuing social justice? Did he try to change structures and systems? Did he try to physically release those who he perceived to be oppressed? Did he march? Did he do sit-ins? Did he block traffic? Did he hold signs? Did he do those things?

And the answer is absolutely not. He focused on spiritual change in people's hearts because he knew that would change everything else. And you look at Matthew 25 or Luke 4, where Jesus said, free the oppressed, that's a spiritual freedom from slavery to sin that had nothing to do with any sort of oppressions that always take place in our fallen world. There were many more injustices when Christ was walking the earth than there are now.

I think there are many more. I think in some ways, life in America at least, let's just put it that way, is far more just now than it was in the time of Christ when slavery was just a way of life back then. The Roman occupiers, the treatment of the Jews was highly unjust. Tax collectors would take way more than they were due from the Jewish people. If you were a leper, you were banished. You were just put out of society.

The treatment of women was just horrible back then, considered chattel. So what did Jesus do to all those things? Was he taking up all those causes? No.

He was preaching the biblical gospel of repentance of sin and faith in himself so that a heart would be converted and they'd have a whole new creation, a whole new worldview on life that sought compassion and tried to help those who were oppressed and those who were in need voluntarily, not through some legal, you must do this or you're not saved or you're being sanctified. Other questions you need to be asked about before wading into the social justice pool. Is there actually an injustice taking place?

For instance, today we're told over and over again by the social justice folks that there's systemic racism against blacks, not just individual cases of racism, but systemic, society-wide. Well, is that actually true? Are police targeting unarmed blacks because of their ethnicity? That's what we're told, but is that actually true? We read something by Heather Macdonald who'd done studies on this and other people have done studies saying, no, this is not actually true. Yeah, there are cases of police where they've done too much and they should be prosecuted for that, but systemic?

No. That has not been proven. Are blacks not hired because of their ethnicity? Are blacks denied loans to turn up business because of their ethnicity?

Are schools in black neighborhoods bad because government is racist against them, doesn't want them to succeed? In other words, before you jump into what you perceive as an injustice issue, you better make sure there's actually injustice going on. Because if there's not actual injustice, what you are doing is you are helping the perceived oppressed to believe a lie that's actually not taking place.

Other questions to ask. By taking action, am I being unjust against someone else? For instance, if you're hiring in your church based on some sort of ethnic quota that you think needs to be met, certain percentage of skin colors on your elder board.

Well, if you're hiring one person with the skin color over another, that's one that you're hiring the less qualified over the more qualified, you're being unjust to the qualified candidate, the more qualified candidate. Now you're committing injustice yourself. Lots of ramifications here and I highly recommend that you go to our website, thechristianworldview.org, read the statement on social justice. Read John MacArthur's article on the injustice of social justice and be informed, get a sharper biblical worldview because we do live in a changing and challenging world. But we always must, yes must, go back to the foundation for truth that never changes. And that is this, Jesus Christ and his word are the same yesterday, today and forever. We appreciate your listening to the Christian Real View this weekend.

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