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Welcome back to coffee with a Calvinist. This program is dedicated to helping you better understand the Word of God and the doctrines of grace. The Bible tells us do your best to present yourself to God as one approved a worker who is no need to be ashamed rightly handling the word of truth.
Get your Bible and coffee ready and prepare to study along. Here's your host with today's lesson pastor Keith Foskey.
And welcome back to coffee with a Calvinist. My name is Keith Foskey and I am a Calvinist. Today is September 25th 2020 and if you're reading along with us, you're going to be in 2nd Peter chapter 1. That's our daily Bible verse.
Daily Bible chapter rather we go one chapter a day through the new testament in 2020. You read along with us and you will have read the entire new testament This year and if you'd like to get a copy of our daily Bible reading list, you can go to sgfcjacks .org.
That is sovereign grace family church of jacksville. Click on posts and underneath posts. You will see our daily Bible reading list for 2020. It is friday and friday is the day that we do book reviews.
Now I want to make a point before I get started. Not every book that I review is necessarily a christian book but as a pastor, I like to point you to things that I have found helpful whether they be specifically christian works or perhaps other works that aren't necessarily christian, but do have a Important lesson to teach or an important message to give and today I want to talk about a book entitled the quest for cosmic justice.
It is by thomas soul. Now before I start I want to kind of tell you how I got introduced to thomas soul. I got introduced to thomas soul through a quote years ago. I was teaching a theology class and I was collecting my material putting everything together for my class and I came across a great quote by a man that I'd never heard of.
His name was thomas soul and the quote goes like this. The problem isn't that johnny can't think. The problem is that johnny doesn't know what thinking is. He confuses it with feeling. I'll say it again.
The problem isn't that johnny can't think. The problem is that johnny doesn't know what thinking is. He confuses it with feeling. I remember reading that and thinking wow, that's very insightful because I have seen in my own experience.
Folks have given up the idea of thinking and they have replaced it with Their feelings and just think about how your conversations go with people you ask them to share an opinion with you. They often say well I feel.
And in those situations, I often stop people. I say no. No, don't tell me how you feel. Tell me what you think. Because thinking and feeling are not the same things. We need to learn to use Our intelligence.
Christians are not Anti-intellectual that is a myth that has cropped up that christians turn their mind off when they Exercise faith and that faith is a mindless exercise. That's wrong. And I remember I was teaching the theology class and I used this quote.
I said that we need to get away from Making everything about how we feel and we need to get back to Thinking about our faith and thinking about the world around us. So Again, this is how I was introduced to thomas soul.
I began to look in More about him getting more quotes from him. And I began to see that he was not only an author, but he was An author of many books. He is an american economist. He is a social theorist and he is the senior fellow at stanford university's hoover institution he is.
He really is an amazing intellectual. And he has taught on a variety of subjects, but most importantly and probably most specifically on the subject of economics and how The the societies Uh are affected By different trends in behavior and economics again.
He is a social theorist. He studies behavior and how societies function how economies function. And he is certainly a conservative. I want to read to you. Just uh, just one day ago on twitter. He said this he said people who have achieved success are often referred to as privileged especially by the intelligentsia.
Achievements used to be a source of inspiration for others but have been turned into a source of grievance for those without comparable achievements. That's an amazing statement and it's true. Uh, I think it was soul and uh.
That that said that ultimately Marxism and the is is Is all about seeking uh, or it's based on the the fundamental idea of of coveting. It's coveting what others have it's coveting the and I don't remember if he used the word coveting.
I think actually uh. He used a different word. He used the word envy. He said that that ultimately uh, uh. The ideas that were were being put out by by marxism. What was ultimately uh, it was it was it was envy.
He said envy used to be a sin. But now it's virtuous. Um, because it's the foundation for this this belief system. And so what I want to do today is I want to introduce you to soul's book the quest for cosmic justice.
And uh, this is something that I actually read a couple of years ago. So, uh, I I came back into my mind this week primarily because of the program from wednesday. And if you listen daily, I appreciate it.
I want to say thank you. Our wednesday program was our response to tim keller. And tim keller had uh said some things about white privilege. He'd said if you're a white person you uh, that's worth over a million dollars over a lifetime and ultimately you are a product of Uh injustice because of your white skin and he made this this strong explanation about the the basically the sin of being white and I said that that was an example of cultural marxism and uh, I think that This was this is a good time for me to point out The quest for cosmic justice, which is soul's book and if you want to understand what he means by Cosmic justice basically that soul's language for the sub for for That that he uses instead of the word social justice because according to soul and I think this is true.
He said ultimately all justice is social because if someone was on a desert island, they're not going to be just or unjust. Justice in that sense requires being part of a society. So in that sense justice is social.
But he says what it is is not not they're not trying to get social justice they're trying to achieve Cosmic justice now. I want to let him speak for himself. This is a very short quote from thomas soul where he explains what he means by cosmic justice.
Dr. So when you talk about cosmic justice in intellectuals and race, what do you mean by that?
I guess I mean what some people mean by social social justice. Which is which is a justice for groups. An initial. Opportunity to have to have the same life chances. Uh, but I call it cosmic justice because no society is able to do that or has ever done that in any country uh, and so what you're asking for is for the whole.
For life chances to be the same when you think of all the differences. It's virtually impossible uh. You know. Some kids are maybe raised in families that are the same economic level. But one family will have one set of attitudes toward education.
And the other will not. And the one who's in the family that does not have that same attitude. He may be a fine fellow. He may be bright all of that. He doesn't have the same chance. There's almost no way he could have the same chance.
So that's a An example according to thomas soul of what he means by cosmic justice and Ultimately, this is where I bring it back to a theological perspective the goal of social justice, which soul cause calls cosmic justice Is a form of equality which would really only Be able to come from god.
But there is not that equality from god we are all born with certain inequalities, I mean we could we could discuss the We could discuss the the reality of severe inequality such as those who are who are born with certain Inabilities to maybe speak or see or hear there are Uh, you know disabilities that we would refer to as saying those are those are difficulties.
And we know those do happen but there are also where you were born is certainly a something that would reference and either a Advantage or disadvantage and that's what he said. He said he said that somebody can be extremely bright somebody can be smart.
But if they are raised in a home where education is not seen as a value. Then they may not have the same Advantage as someone who may not be as bright but is raised in a home where education is set at a premium and and and education is encouraged and and rewarded and so that that creates uh All kinds of distinctions among people and so the the idea of social justice is trying to find A specific type of equality that is.
It's not really possible. And it's not even really it's not only that it's not possible. It's not even really Uh good in the sense that What it does in the attempting to get it is actually very dangerous.
Um. And and he talks about this in the book. He talks about the idea that Uh, I want to I want to read this quote. Now. This is this is not from the book. This is actually from a article from the hoover institution.
But this is this is by soul but on the same subject. He says this in its pursuit of justice for a segment of society in disregard of the consequences for society as a whole. What is called social justice might more accurately be called anti-social justice.
Since what constantly gets ignored or dismissed are precisely the costs to society. What what are we seeing all around us? We are seeing the the dangers of people who are bent on social justice and uh, you know, we're seeing extremes extreme examples of it right now with with the the Mob violence and looting and things like that.
Certainly we're seeing extreme examples right now, but. But he's saying that there there are dangers to society with thinking like this. Because ultimately and going back again to to his tweet just from a day ago.
He said used to Achievements were a source of inspiration, but now they have turned into a source of grievance. I don't look at someone who achieves and I say Good for them and I want to I want to seek to be That successful rather I look at someone who has achieved and I am upset.
Because I don't have the same achievements that they have and uh, and and it's caused Untold harm to how we understand our world and so This is the the book. This is again. The book is called the quest for cosmic justice.
It's only four chapters. It is a relatively short read. Uh, it's around 200 pages. It's uh, the four chapters are the quest for cosmic justice the mirage of equality where he talks about this. This mirage that people are seeking to get that which is this idea of equality the tyranny of visions.
Uh, that one is great. He he mentions he talks in that when there's a quote in there About linen and he said, you know linen never visited a factory. He never set foot on a farm. He he had a vision, but he was insulated from how that vision actually affected people.
And that's so important. And then of course in chapter four he talks about the quiet repeal of the american revolution so uh again today is My recommendation my review of this book. It is not a It is not a theology book.
It is a book, uh that talks, uh from an educated man about the uh about the subject of social justice and the The seeking out of what he says is not really social justice, but is cosmic justice and how ultimately it is not only a Uh bad thing, but it's a very dangerous thing that people are thinking in this direction and going in this direction.
So so I would recommend to you. If you've never heard of thomas soul before look him up look at his uh, twitter page look at his quotes. He has some wonderful things to say. Uh, and again, he is he is not speaking necessarily from a christian perspective.
So I can't endorse everything that he's ever said. And you may know of some things that he has said that I would disagree with and that's certainly certainly possible. Uh that he has said some things that I would disagree with but on this program I have an opportunity to share with you things that have benefited me.
And one of the things that benefited me over the last few years was reading the quest for cosmic justice by thomas soul. So that is my recommendation. And my review and I hope that you have found it to be helpful to you today.
Thank you for listening to coffee with a calvinist. My name is keith foskey. And I have been your calvinist. May god bless you.
Thank you for joining in for today's episode of coffee with a calvinist. Keep in mind. We have a new lesson available every weekday morning at 6 30 a .m on youtube and facebook. If you enjoyed this lesson, please take a moment to respond by hitting the like button leaving a comment and subscribing to the channel.
On behalf of pastor foskey, thank you for listening. May god bless you.