Is the Woke Church Movement a False Gospel? | ask Theocast

The Question of Social Justice, Critical Race Theory, and Another Gospel

Is social justice and critical race theory another gospel?

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I'm John Moffitt. I'm the pastor of Grace Reformed Church and host of Theocast. This is Ask Theocast, where we answer your questions from a reformed and pastoral perspective. And it seems like this is the big topic on YouTube and all over the internet, and most likely it's gonna be here for a while.

And I think it's important for us to discuss it because I think we're falling off on either side. So let me begin. I am going to offer a traditional reformed perspective. So if you're thinking that I'm going to lead one way or the other, I think it'd be good to hear me out and hear my thoughts on this.

Recently, it's been brought to my attention that some people think that Matt Chandler and David Platt are preaching another gospel, that in some ways they're denying the faith or their heretics. And on the other side, there are people who champion them, championing them, saying that they are actually dealing with the issues of today.

They are answering the real problems that we're faced in the world. So we have two really polar opposites. So I'm gonna speak into the one, and then I'll speak into the other from a historical, biblical perspective.

Why False Gospel Accusations Require Careful Definition

First of all, I think we have to be very careful with the word heretic and false gospel. I have unfortunately seen this thrown around way too many times, even about men like John Piper and John MacArthur, who I don't think are really falling into the critical race theory or social justice for other reasons.

And we need to be careful when we use those kinds of accusations, because there are people who have no idea what we're talking about. So when we use that, we better be sure that we're using it accurately and biblically.

So when we're talking about someone who is preaching a false gospel, that means they're saying you can be right with God, you can be justified, you can be cleansed of your sins by some other means other than faith in Christ.

And that means faith in Jesus's life, his death, his resurrection, by faith alone, in Christ alone. If they are teaching something other than that, then that is something that we should take serious. And there are multiple passages that we can look at and we will look at that warn us that if someone, well, I can even say it, Paul says in Corinthians, if anyone, including an angel, comes and proclaims to you any other gospel than the gospel that I've already given to you in 1 Corinthians, then yes, you should reject that.

I do not believe any of these men fall into that category. Now, to be very clear, I don't believe and hold to a lot of their theology, and I think a lot of their theology is confusing, it's not helpful, and a lot of their theology causes people to even doubt their salvation.

If you've been listening to Theocast for a while, it's called pietism. It's this hyper-introspection on sanctification. We'll put some links down below if you want to learn more about that. So I think we need to be careful.

When I'm listening to Platt or Chandler, I don't hear them recategorizing or rephrasing or changing the gospel. It's very important for us to hear. Just because we may disagree with somebody on a very important part of theology in the Bible, we don't need to quickly slide them into a heretic category.

I don't find that helpful, and I find it actually slanderous. So let's be careful just throwing categories out there with people that we disagree with. Now, on the other side, the whole movement of critical race theory and social justice, I do find it hard, and I don't agree with much of what's being said.

The Church's Mission Versus Social Activism

And I see how people have a lot of concerns when looking at the whole movement, including evangelicals, prominent evangelicals, such as Platt and Chandler, who are embracing this. And I think we have to get our categories straight.

So you have soteriology, which is the doctrine of salvation. This is not a soteriological issue. This is not a doctrine of the salvation issue. This is what I would call an ecclesiology issue. This is a doctrine of the church issue.

What is the church involved in, and what should they be involved in? Well, as I have listened to a lot of the different sermons and a lot of different clips, which all of you who watch the OCAS send me often, I can hear the concern.

What we're hearing is the emphasis of the church, the focus of the church is shifting from what we read from the New Testament. And I can agree with those concerns. I think the church has a very clear mission that has been given to it, that the center message, the focus of the New Testament church from the moment that it was instituted by Christ, clarified by Paul till today, it should be focused in on Christ and Him crucified, the believer caring for and encouraging and strengthening and using their gifts for the sake of building up the body of Christ and then taking the message of the gospel out.

My criticism of this movement is that we have lost focus thinking that it's our responsibility, or I would say the church's responsibility to fix racism or anything else that's out there, abortion, sex trafficking, you can put whatever else you want in there because that falls into social justice and then also critical race theory.

We are not looking to scripture for our wisdom in these circumstances. We tend to be looking to the culture. And anytime you start looking to the culture, the culture will change what is morally acceptable and they will determine what is morally acceptable.

So I can agree a lot with the criticisms that are coming with the whole critical race theory and the social justice movement. We at Theocast have spoken out against it on multiple occasions. And we can put that again in the comments below.

We, in this discussion though, we need to be careful on both ends that we aren't overreacting because I don't think it's helpful. When Paul says we need to be speaking the truth in love, we need to pay attention to that.

The goal is not to smash somebody, to destroy them, to throw them off the cliff, theologically speaking. We need to be thinking about how to encourage and build one another up, to get us back to the center where Christ is our focus, the administration of the Word of God, the sacraments, and the ordinary means become the primary focus of the local church.

That's what we need to focus on. And unfortunately, I have seen on either end where this has been driving us in polar opposites. And I honestly just think we need to be careful. I hear a lot of what Platt says.

I hear a lot of what Matt Chandler says. And there's much that I can say that, yeah, it's true, we have had racism in the United States for many years. They're not wrong. But is the result to move to the other side as far as they have gone?

No, and this video is not about which one is right or wrong. I think we need to be careful on how we categorize theology. This is all I want us to think about in this video. Be very careful with how you use Scripture and be careful not to abuse it.

The goal is to lead weary sinners to Christ when they find rest in the sufficiency of what Christ has done for us. And that means every race and every gender can find rest in the sufficiency of what Christ has done, not what you do for him.

It doesn't matter what your level of income is. It does not matter what your gender is. It does not matter what your race is. Everyone can find rest in the sufficiency of who Christ is. And it's at that moment, the church then goes out and we go out with the message of the sufficiency of Christ.

But I can tell you, the problem with race and the problem with sex trafficking and abortion and all kinds of sin, it existed from the early church and exists till today. And it's never going to be removed until Christ returns.

This does not mean we lay down as Christians. Please don't hear me say that. But I wanna encourage all of us to be very careful with our titles and understand that we are talking about nuanced theology.

Keeping the Church Focused on the Gospel and the Ordinary Means

Let's focus in on where the Bible is very clear and the mission is very clear. If I'm gonna throw out one criticism, I'm gonna throw two criticism out, two. Here's my first one. For Platt and Chandler, I think we've lost focus on what the mission of the church is.

And for those of you who are calling them heretics, I don't think you're using the scripture appropriately. This isn't a gospel issue. This is an ecclesiology issue. What is the purpose of the church?

So let's think about that. And let's use our time on the internet wisely so that we might maybe gain clarity and not cause division. So a couple of resources I would encourage you, there will be available below.

There's a free ebook if you have not downloaded it. I would encourage you to do so. It's called Faith Versus Faithfulness. And if you were encouraged by this video and it's helpful, please hit that like button.

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I hope this was helpful.