A Fiery Latino Responds to Dr Ellis and Gospel Coalition Justice Extravaganza!

Well, all right. I was told that this last night's feed on the gospel coalition website Was got really good around minute 29, so I haven't watched it all yet. I haven't watched any of it yet actually, so let's just see what happens here, and maybe this will be a video.

Maybe it won't all right. Let's get this thing started well and.

The Gospel as the Answer and the Question of Complicity

The problem that I had when I read the article it said. That he said that the the gospel is the answer. Well absolutely the gospel is the answer. But that begs the question if the gospel is the answer Then why?

Has the American Church? been complicit. So much of the American Church. Why is so much of the American Church been complicit in slavery in Jim Crow and a whole lot of other things? If the gospel is the answer and the church says it has the gospel then Then what happens.

It gives me two possible answers all right?

Let me answer that first if I actually like this this line of thought because I've I've many times said that a big pet peeve. Of mine is when people say the gospel is the answer. But they don't explain what that means or Jesus is the answer.

But they don't explain what that means and I would say that the reason why the church had the gospel but still was involved in slavery was because they had a Fundamental inconsistency in how they interpreted scripture.

And the reason today that I would stand against a lot of the social justice warriors out There is because there is a fundamental they have the right gospel. But they have a fundamental inconsistency and how they interpret the scriptures.

It's just that simple so we need to have a Theological debate we need to have exegesis. We need to have people unpacking the scriptures being specific and this presentation by dr. Carl Ellis last night's anyway.

It doesn't do that. This is not going to cut it. This is not going to cut it and so Hopefully that stuff is coming these debates about what the scripture actually says because that's what's necessary.

That's why the the church was complicit in slavery. That's why the church was complicit in all these things and that's not to say that the church has been a force for evil. The fort the church has been a force for good abolitionist movements were motivated by the gospel by motivated by the way, they understood scripture, so.

Anyway, that's that's what I would say.

A Truncated Gospel or a Broken Interpretation of Scripture

Number one that the gospel really isn't the answer but number two. The gospel we think we have is a truncated limited watered-down.

Version of the gospel in the Bible. I disagree. It's not that it's truncated. It's that we have an inconsistency. That's it. That's it because to say that it's truncated means to say that that we don't understand what the gospel is.

No, we understand the gospel, but we have inconsistencies and how we apply the scriptures because of the gospel.

And I like to think about the second answer I'll bet you do because when I look at the Bible and I see when God talks about the The grace that he gives us his salvation and all the rest of that it covers all of life.

It covers all of life. Not just not just my my my spiritual life. It covers everything and. And so what we need to do is then we need to think through. If we in the church have been complicit in all these cultural sins And we claim to have the gospel then maybe either we only we don't have the the fullness of the gospel or we've been terrible and.

So and so sorry one of the areas where we've been disobedient isn't is in this whole area of justice. All right. Now, let me back up.

All right, you got to prove that though, right? You got to prove that. Hopefully that's what he's backing up to do.

Dominant Culture, Subdominant Culture, and Critical Theory

Last night. I talked about the dominant culture and the non-dominant culture. And here is just a general axiom when people are in the dominant culture the system as I said last night the system works for them and It's hard to see the bugs in the system.

When you're in the dominant culture and your subdominant culture you see it.

This is about so so if I'm gonna understand this correctly. This is coming from critical theory where you storytell that the people who are being oppressed. He's not using that language, but it's the same methodology the people who are oppressed know what's really going on.

But the oppressors don't know what's really going on. And so the white people because there are the dominant culture. They don't know what's going on. And so what we need to do is defer to the morally superior more wise.

Minorities and that's not how you do it. How you do it is you compare your culture you what you do your law your everything to the scripture. It doesn't matter if you're black or white. I love that song.

By the way, that's a good that's a good Michael Jackson song. It doesn't matter if you're black or white. What matters is it? Are you understanding the scripture correctly? Are you pulling out the the meaning the exegesis of the scripture?

Is that correct and you hold that hold up your culture up to the light of the gospel? I'm sorry of the scripture and you'd compare it and where it fails you change it and where it doesn't fail you keep it.

That's it. It'd be a minority does not give you any special insight into the scripture. I'm sorry to say that but it's true. My skin color does not make me any smarter in the scripture than anybody. Okay, that is a reality so let's hear what he has to say, let's hear him out.

I'm getting fired up.

I'm ready to go. Let's hear it. And so what has happened to the American Church, I think. It's kind of this is kind of an anomaly. The American Church is an anomaly because the American Church has has has has been given the the perks and the privileges of the dominant culture.

We we you know, we've had the tax-exempt status there's been respect and I know and all of that but what's beginning to happen is we're seeing an erosion of that and.

But during the times when we had there's nothing not there's no anomaly anomaly about it because Western culture Western civilization was founded on foundationally biblical principles. Obviously the church as part of the the Bible is you know, the church is the people of God.

It would make sense that the church would thrive in a culture that was built on Foundationally biblical principles. Now that's changing. So the reason it's eroding it's not because of white privilege or white supremacy or any of that nonsense.

It's changing because our fundamental presuppositions are changing. We are becoming more of a pagan nation than a Christian nation. So that is eroding and that is changing.

Justice, Restitution, and the Civil Rights Movement

Let's see. What? Dr. Ellis says is the problem and these the status in the American context. We atrophied in areas of justice and things like that and We just got out of practice. And so we don't know what to do in a case where there's oppression systemic oppression.

Personal oppression and all the rest of that. We just don't know.

Now, well, we should though because the Bible is very clear about it. There's no special secret sauce. It's very clear if you steal from somebody whether they're black white Asian, whatever you owe them.

What you stole plus, you know times the multiple. Essentially, you owe them biblical restitution. If you kill someone then use your life is forfeit. That's biblical restitution. If you rape somebody your life is forfeit.

That's biblical restitution. So so we should know but for some reason we're not teaching that and in fact even in this presentation He's not teaching the general equity of the law of God. He should be because he's at RTS.

I wonder why he's not one of the reasons we started the center. For example the Center for the study of the Bible and ethnicity which has nothing to do with justice by the way.

Ethnicity. Your ethnicity does not change what justice is. Whether you're black or white has nothing to do with it. Biblical restitution is the same. In fact, the law of God is explicitly clear on this.

You shall have one law one law for the native one law for the soldier. It's the same law.

To begin to explore as it grew up in the subdominant culture. Here's one example, here's a clear example. The civil rights movement. People don't realize that the civil rights movement was driven.

By theology, I think that's I think that's probably accurate. But the problem is it got lost its way. It was driven by overarching principles of theology like love and oppression and the and the Imago Dei which are fine.

There's there are overarching principles in the Bible that we can draw from but there's also Specific details that we can find the general equity of and apply and that's where the civil rights movement failed.

The civil rights movement was driven by theology. When we think of theology. We think of. Like, you know, most people define theology as the study of God, right? And it is that it is that. But I like to use a broader definition given by dr John frame professor of a retired professor at RTS in Orlando.

Theology is the application of God's Word by persons in every area of life. So that does include the study of God.

Hey, man, I agree with that. But when we talk about theology.

There's two sides of it as I said last night. There's the side side. A that what we should know about God. The epistemological side. Orthodoxy side. Be the proxy how we should obey God. The ethical side.

Well when you're in the dominant culture, you have a tendency we have a tendency to lean much more. Just decide. A what we should know about God his attributes and all the rest of that. That's good stuff.

Don't get me wrong. That's good stuff but we tend to be weak on the ethical side because why. If you're in the subdominant culture, then chances are you will Experience more injustice and Inequality than those who are in the dominant culture.

So the African American. African American theology that grew up in the context of the subdominant culture tends to be much more on side be the ethical side and.

Ethical Superiority, Orthopraxy, and the Limits of Critical Theory

So do you see what is being said here? Honestly, like this is this is pretty radical stuff now if if you could prove some of this stuff I you know, I'd be more open to it. However, what he's saying. It's what I've been saying all along.

It's that what you do is you assign? Superior ethical morality to the minority. That's what you do. That's what he's enunciating here. He's not using the terms of critical theory. He's not using the exact Terminology, but that's what he's presenting here.

The the ethical moral superiority of people like me who have a little color in their skin. That's what he's doing and I can assure you. I know my own soul brothers I have no ethical or moral superiority to anybody.

That's a reality. I know my own soul this this bothers me because yesterday he said critical theory is not compatible with the Bible and today He's enunciating Not not specifically, but he's drawing from critical theory.

This is not you will not find this in the Bible. The Bible does not present this idea that the oppressed knows better than the white at least ethically and morally and with orthopraxy. They practice better the whites may you know, the dominant culture.

They might know about God more, but they don't live it. That's that you'll never find any of this nonsense in the Bible and you know, this is where we're gonna stop I'm getting fired up and I like it.

But here's the thing. I want you to hear what's being said here. I've been saying that this is what's this is what's being presented all along this Superiority this ethical superiority of the minority and people tell me you're misrepresenting me here.

He is saying it right here. I just All right. Well, hey, I'm gonna calm down. I'm gonna go work out. Maybe y 'all, you know blow off a little steam. And we'll see the see on the next one. Yeah, that brother was not right 20 right around minute 29.

It gets interesting I hope this is helpful. God bless.