Gospelllll!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Published on by D. G. Hart

Glad to see John Fea stand up for evangelism (in response to the news of John Allen Chau’s death) as something distinct from social justice:

The Great Commission is one of the reasons I remain an evangelical. If you are a Christian and do not believe in evangelism, missions, or “making disciples” in the world then you need to explain to me why you take Jesus’s words seriously in some places of the Gospels (love your neighbor, caring for the poor, etc.) and not in Matthew 28:16-20. It seems to me that the Great Commission of Matthew 28 is something more than simply, “go into the world and do acts of social justice.” If this is what the Great Commission means, then I am not sure how Christianity is any different than the Peace Corps or some other non-religious agency. It seems to me that the requirement to “make disciples” and “baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit” requires something more. Chau took this call seriously.

But for some proponents of social justice, John crossed a line:

In fact, John’s position is in the ballpark of the spirituality of the church since he implies that salvation is something more (and more profound) than rearranging equitably the chairs on the deck of Good Ship Society.

I sometimes wonder if John follows the news more than he should. But so far, he’s still reading the Bible along with his headlines.

3 thoughts on “Gospelllll!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

  1. Dr. Hart:

    One minister recently suggested that there is no such thing as “social justice.” He stated that justice is not is not a word to be modified by other words such as “social” or “racial.” What do you think?

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  2. What social justice does to Nicene Creed:

    I believe in Almighty God,
    who guided the people in exile and in exodus,
    the God of Joseph in Egypt and Daniel in Babylon,
    the God of foreigners and immigrants.

    I believe in Jesus Christ,
    a displaced Galilean,
    who was born away from his people and his home,
    who fled his country with his parents when his life was in danger,
    and returning to his own country suffered the oppression
    of the tyrant Pontius Pilate, the servant of a foreign power,
    who then was persecuted, beaten, and finally tortured,
    accused and condemned to death unjustly.
    But on the third day, this scorned Jesus rose from the dead,
    not as a foreigner but to offer us citizenship in heaven.

    I believe in the Holy Spirit,
    the eternal immigrant from God’s kingdom among us,
    who speaks all languages, lives in all countries,
    and reunites all races.

    I believe that the church is the secure home
    for the foreigner and for all believers who constitute it,
    who speak the same language and have the same purpose.
    I believe that the communion of the saints begins
    when we accept the diversity of the saints.

    I believe in the forgiveness of sin, which makes us all equal,
    and in reconciliation, which identifies us more
    than does race, language, or nationality.

    I believe that in the resurrection
    God will unite us as one people
    in which all are distinct
    and all are alike at the same time.

    Beyond this world, I believe in life eternal
    in which no one will be an immigrant
    but all will be citizens of God’s kingdom,
    which will never end. Amen.

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  3. Paul, I have colleagues in history who say the same, that justice applies to persons not to societies. I am not a political theorist and so am agnostic. I do believe that the current interest in social justice is mainly window dressing.

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