Share This Video! - Statement on Social Justice Drops Today

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The Social Justice Statement and Why I Signed It

But anyway, middle of last week I was sent a link to the statement on social justice that is coming out today actually. It is a group of brothers, most of them elders, not all of them I don't think, that got together and put a statement together regarding the current wave of social justice rhetoric in the reformed community and really in just the community at large.

It has affirmations and it has denials and I think it's a pretty good statement. I think it's very thorough and I was happy to sign it once I read it. To be honest, I had heard rumblings of something like this happening and I was a little bit nervous because I know that I'm a general equity kind of guy, general equity, theonomy, whatever you want to call it, and I wasn't sure that I was going to be able to sign it based on how they treat the law of God.

But if this is already out and you see the statement, you'll be able to see that a general equity Westminster Confession-affirming theonomist like myself could sign it, but also someone who doesn't believe in theonomy or things like that could also sign it because the statement on the law of God is really good.

It's really well done because it says that God's law is the only standard for justice. It's the only standard for righteousness and every Christian believes that, whether you believe in the general equity of the civil law or you don't.

I appreciate how they did that and that's the good thing about a statement like this because it hopefully can allow us enough people to sign it based on how it's worded that it can be effective and it can be a good tool.

Why the Statement Will Likely Draw Pushback

Now, I was happy to sign this and I think that there's going to be some significant pushback obviously, but that's not surprising at all. I think some people will go off the deep end because of it, call it divisive and things like that.

And I think in some ways it's intentionally divisive. It's supposed to divide because if you can't affirm these basic things, and I think that they are very basic. I don't think that there's any profound ideas in this statement and that's what makes it so important because it's not profound.

It's not crazy new beliefs or anything like that. This is very standard Christianity here that we're talking about. If you can't affirm these beliefs, then you've got some serious problems. So I think that there will be some people that will kind of fly off the deep end.

My prediction is that actually a significant number of social justice minded Christians either will sign it or won't sign it because they know the intention, but say that they would sign it because there's a lot of Christians out there that think that they believe everything that this statement says.

The problem is that their rhetoric proves otherwise. It's kind of like when liberal, I debated a PCUSA, very liberal theologically speaking and probably politically as well, a pastor a number of years ago.

I don't even know if it's still on YouTube. But anyway, I debated him about the inerrancy of scripture and he started the debate by saying that he believes in the inerrancy of scripture. And then I kind of said, well, okay, so do you have the same opinion that Jesus had of the scriptures?

And he said, well, not really. So this is the thing. People will say that they believe certain doctrines, but then when you actually unpeel the layers that they won't, but the point is though, that it's good to have this on paper in black and white, because this will force, I think the social justice crowd to do the same thing, to put this in black and white.

What are we affirming? What are we denying? And that is the primary way that we'll be able to see who's really following the scriptures and who's kind of doing their own thing and importing unbelieving ideologies into their preaching and into their blog posts and videos.

A Starting Point for Conversation and Accountability

So I think that'll be very helpful. I look forward to the responses because I want to have in black and white, what is it that you believe? Social justice advocates, what is it that you believe? Because if it's not this, and this is very basic Christianity, where are you getting your beliefs?

And so I hope this is a starting point for a conversation. I hope that a lot of you social justice advocates will find your courage. And I mean that as a challenge. I mean that as a, not an insult, but seriously, you guys got to find your courage and start interacting with people from my side.

You don't have to interact with me. You don't like my tone. You don't think I have a good, a big enough platform. I'm okay with that. You don't have to talk to me, but you're going to have to interact with some of us.

There's no question about that. And so I'm hoping that this statement will be a starting point for that. There are some very clear affirmations. There are some very clear denials that some of you I know cannot sign with good conscience, but some of you I think will sign it.

And so that'll be interesting to hold you accountable to what is said here in this statement when we compare it to the rest of your words. And so I'm hopeful that this will be a good starting point. I was happy to sign it.

And I encourage you to take a look at it and sign it yourself if you agree with it. Because I don't think that the social justice warriors are really in the majority. I think that the people in the pews, the standard run-of-the-mill Christians, and this is the body of Christ we're talking about, I don't mean that to disparage you.

But the non-conference speakers, the non-big platform people, the non-authors, most of us aren't social justice warriors. There's just no question about that. And so I'm hoping that we will see that in this statement and the people who decide to sign it.

Invitation to Discuss the Statement

Anyway, I was, again, happy to sign this. If you have any questions about any of the specific affirmations and denials, at least the way I understand them, which is definitely not definitive, please reach out to me.

I'm looking forward to it. And also, if some of you have found your courage and do want to have some discussions with me on my platform or your platform, I'd be happy to do that as well. So let's talk, guys.

Anyway, hope this was helpful. God bless. Oh, and again, don't forget to thumbs up this video or comment or share it or whatever, because that'll help it get seen more. And I'm hoping that a lot of people will sign this thing.

I'll include a link to the statement in the description of this video. And obviously, it'll be available online. Just look up statement on social justice and you should be able to find it pretty quickly.

Anyway, I hope this is helpful. God bless.