Statement on Social Justice with Josh Buice | Rapp Report Weekly 0026 | Striving for Eternity

All righty, we have a special announcement to the special announcement. You're going to hear a podcast that was recorded back Some time ago a couple weeks ago when we were going to drop and release the statement on social justice and you'll see her throughout this podcast that we're referring to it as having.

You're going to drop on The 20th of August I think was the original date and what had happened was I some may even heard the original because this dropped early. Accidentally it dropped on a Friday when it was supposed to go on a Sunday and the reason that caused some issues is because there were some folks that still want to do some tweaking in the language of the Statement and so that has been done and the statement is now Released and you can go to the website that we refer to we say it's going to drop.

Well, it has now dropped and so you'll be able to go there read the statement Hopefully agree with the statement and sign the statement in agreement. And so that is some Changes that we ended up having to do so when this originally dropped we had to pull it back.

So with that I'll also give you an announcement for folks listening that Matt slick from calm Christian apologetics research ministry and I who used to do a live apologetic show together will be starting up again.

We are going to be doing this on Thursday nights. No longer on Sunday nights. We're gonna do this on Thursday we are going to be starting this in the end of September on Thursday the 27th and so the 27th 8 o 'clock Eastern Time.

This will be Called apologetics live and we will have a website called apologetics live .com. You'll be able to go there get the links so that you can watch it interact with it. We'll have all the ways to join and ask your apologetics questions.

You want to challenge Matt or I on things that we believe will be glad to address that? What this show is going to be doing is as we did in the past several years ago when we used to do this For several years.

We not only do the apologetics by taking on atheists and folks who disagree with us but then afterwards we'll explain why we may matter. I asked the questions we did and did the Argumentation we made so you as maybe a new apologist can learn so without further ado.

We're gonna give you the podcast that we had recorded some time ago with pastor Josh Bice on the statement of social Justice. Okay. We have a special episode today one that is so important that we pushed off What we originally had scheduled for this week's rap report because we have a very very special guest and this issue We're gonna talk about is so important.

Let me read to you what dr. John MacArthur wrote in a recent blog. He said quote over the years I have fought a number of polemical battles against the ideas that threaten the gospel this and Recent and surprisingly sudden detour in quest of quote social justice unquote is I believe the most Subtle and dangerous threat so far unquote.

That's what John MacArthur says about this topic. How are many evangelicals looking to address this? We're gonna discuss that now.

The Purpose of the Rapp Report and the Upcoming Statement on Social Justice

Welcome to the rap report with Andrew Rapaport. We provide biblical interpretations and applications. This is a ministry of striving for eternity and the Christian podcast community. For more content or to request a speaker for your church Go to striving for eternity dot org.

All right. Well, we welcome you back to the rap report.

I am Andrew Rapaport striving for eternity and we have a special guest. Maybe you've heard of him if you have ever heard of or attended the g3 conference and folks sometimes wonder you know, what does g3 stand for because it seems like.

You know the G squared what what is that but we're gonna talk with none other than Josh Bice Who was the founder of the g3 conference, but we have something we're gonna talk about after we discuss g3.

That's gonna be even more important. So Josh, welcome to the rap report and you're glad to be with you. And and I'm gonna test my memory. I'm not gonna look go look this up, but G3 if I remember correctly was grace.

I think grace God and I'm drawing a blank on a third G, but.

Yeah, yeah, so it's like gospel grace and gospel, how can I forget as an evangelist how could I forget gospel?

What kind of evangelist am I. Shoot me. Hey, I'm glad to have you on. I've gotten to to meet you when I've been at the g3 conference Which is a great conference. I enjoy. I've been. I've been there two years in a row and thoroughly enjoyed it.

So how. Let's talk g3 first, why did you start that. How'd that come about?

The Origins and Growth of the G3 Conference

Yeah, so the conference itself was burnt out of our local church. They're just west of Atlanta, Georgia. And so after I arrived there to serve as pastor One of the other elders and I started talking about wouldn't it be great to have a good theology conference in the Atlanta area?

So we started, you know working through the ideas of what that looked like it ended up Crafting a plan to do sort of like a month-long Conference, but it was just on Monday evening. So before consecutive Monday evening after we finished it.

We kind of went back to the drawing board and look to see if we accomplished the goals and I was just bluntly honest I thought that it was not successful. I thought that it was very much not hitting all of the areas that we wanted to try to Accomplish in the original plan.

And so we went back to the drawing board and prayed and just asked for God's You know wisdom and clarity and from that we I just posed the idea that we would start a conference. It would be a weekend conference.

So the Thursday through Saturday. And we would take a theme every year and you know. Just try to keep everybody together instead of spreading it out over an entire month. And so 2013 we This conference known as the g3 conference.

We wanted it to be know when people asked us what it stood for that. It was based, you know on a robust theological position. And so it was not a pep rally for Christians or anything like that. And so 2013 we chose the theme of the gospel and we ended up thinking that you know We might have 200 people max that would come and to our surprise that December for the January conference.

It was completely sold out in our congregation that the church campus we can only see in our worship center about 700 to 750 and so. We were sold out with waiting lists had college students sleeping in the parking lot and in January.

Yeah, and so I was like no you're gonna come to our home and stay there. So we brought them to our home and let them sleep in at least a warm bedroom but but the fact is God really just did something quite different than what we had planned from the beginning and he turned it into like a national Conference because people did not come just from the southeast or from the Atlanta area.

They came from all over the United States and outside of the United States. And that was really the pattern for the first four years and then leading up to the 2017 conference I posed the idea that we would pray about moving it off of our church campus to a convention center over near the Atlanta Airport for the Reformation conference so we did that in 2017 went from 750 to 2 ,500 the first year that we moved last year we had just under 3 ,000 and this year we could hit 4 ,000.

I mean, it's just it's just really Mind-boggling to consider how God has grown the conference. I have people occasionally Andrew that will call me or email me and they're like, hey, man, can we get lunch or coffee?

I just want to kind of figure out like what they're really asking for is like the secret sauce like How did you do this like can you give me the blueprint, you know that type of thing? I just I'm just bluntly honest with them.

Just a little bit. I don't have any of that kind of stuff that I could share with them. That might be successful. This is just simply a conference that we prayed about doing and God really did all of it.

And so I don't have like this this special secret for success when it comes to conferences.

Well, I think I think the secret probably would be you have a tremendous number of speakers. I don't know of a conference that has as many speakers Top-notch speakers that that you have all in one place speaking.

There's there's so many breakout sessions that you have it's I think really what is the evangelical church in America is is so Starving for biblical teaching that may get all of these great speakers in one place.

Everyone wants to be there.

Yeah, you know, I think that you're hitting on something there. I think that there is a Definite hunger for sound biblical theology and we found that to be true as we've talked to people through the years of the conference.

And so, you know what if the g3 conference can be used of God to you know. Help encourage and equip people in sound biblical theology and send them back to their local churches. Encouraged in the faith and do that with pastors and missionaries and pastors wives and people like that.

Then you know praise God for that. So that's what we're seeking to accomplish and and for folks who don't know I mean, I've had the privilege of seeing some of the behind the scenes of Conferences I run but even some of g3 it is a ton to put together.

There's a lot of running around you don't really get to enjoy much of it probably because you're usually running around.

Solving problems for people but yeah, you did see that like with Justin's breakout session last year that. So I mean we have just have problems and thankfully, I mean we have people like you that you stepped up to the plate and help.

I mean, but you know, you can't control things when it's not on your church campus and you're relying on, you know. People who work for the Convention Center itself, but yeah, I mean, I would say that it's a joy.

It's a privilege. It's an honor to serve so many people. But it is definitely a lot of work. And so I don't get the privilege to just come and take in the conference. So I typically go to like Shepherds conference somewhere like that.

Just be able to really enjoy a conference.

That's you know, people think that my favorite events would be one of the conferences that striving for attorney puts on they're not. I get to enjoy those I'm running around making sure everything works, right?

I enjoy a conference g3 somewhere else. Yeah. So so this year g3 g3 is gonna be on missions, right? And so that's that's a great topic. I think a lot of Christians think when they think of missions. They think all those people who go overseas and we support them through our church.

So they could share the gospel or build homes for someone in a third world country. I tend to think of Missions is what every Christian should be doing. Right the Great Commission. Oh, yeah. Which may be making disciples where we are now some of us go overseas.

But not all of us and I think that's what g3 ends up doing for a lot of folks. I think a lot of people go because they're hungry for the Word of God and people don't understand. Conferences like g3 you have like that the top 1 of people who are really looking to grow in their spiritual life.

In all the churches around the country all coming to one place and people are always like why can't church be like this every week? It's because you're all gathering. It's all the people that are people that are willing to travel the country to go to a conference like g3.

They're looking to be spiritually fed. So when they get together with everyone else that looking to be spiritually fed the same way it creates such a an atmosphere of joy and Spiritual development that you know for folks who don't attend a conference like g3.

They they can't understand it. Yeah.

Missions, the Great Commission, and the Value of Conferences

Yeah, I think you're right. I think it. I think Paul Washer framed it very well when he said that you know coming to a conference like G3 is something like a foretaste of heaven on earth. Just a little piece a sliver of great joy that we get to engage with one another.

But to be quite honest It's not a local church. It's not to replace the local church and we don't have the messiness and the difficulty of personalities and sin and Confrontation and discipline and all of the ebb and flow of regular church life.

It's like going on vacation and staying in a guest house someplace. I mean, you don't have to look at the problems that you have around your own home. But when you return home, you still see that that wall that needs to be painted.

You see, you know the different issues that need to be dealt with and so that's the way it works for a conference. I mean it can be a really Encouraging thing to take in but it's not something that should ever or could ever replace the local church.

That's right.

I mean, it's a great place for feeding but it is not where you should be spending all your time. I mean it we need to take what we learn from G3 and bring it back to our churches. So that we could take what we've learned and help others to grow.

I mean that is the Great Commission right to make disciples teaching them all things that Christ has taught us. So as we learn we should teach. All right. So let's let after this commercial. I would I want to talk about the main issue.

We want to talk about something that's going on from from the time that we're recording this Monday a Something special it's going to be happening. And so I want to pick that up right after this commercial.

Mormons Christian, are you ready to defend the faith when false religions ring your doorbell? Do you know what your Muslim and Jewish friends believe you will if you get Andrew Rappaport's book? What do they believe.

When we witness to people we need to present the truth. But it is very wise to know what they believe and you will get Andrew Rappaport's book at what do they believe but calm? The good news is striving for eternity would love to come to your church to spend two days with your folks.

Teaching them biblical hermeneutics, that's right. The art and science of interpreting scripture. The bad news is somebody attending might be really upset to discover Jeremiah 29 11 should not be their life first.

To learn more go to striving for eternity org to host a Bible Interpretation made easy seminar in your area. Okay, sir. Josh on Monday, August 20th.

There's gonna be a special website that is gonna go live. So if you're if folks are listening to this before then they're the site's not going to be live until Monday. But I want to talk about this website.

The site itself is called statement on social justice. Calm. And so Josh what brought this about and who all's involved with this? Okay. Yeah.

The Statement on Social Justice: Why It Was Needed

So over the course of the last couple of years I've been watching of course like many people just noticing a lot of really goofy things that people have been stating and writing. Preaching in conferences or stating in chapel services and a lot of this stuff centers under the umbrella.

But we're hearing framed as social justice terminology social justice politics and so there's just a lot of ambiguity as to you know, what is social justice for instance and What does it entail that type of thing?

So as I'm listening to people make these statements at conferences Leading all the way up and to like the recent MLK 50 conference and that type of thing I was really burdened with the type of language that I'm hearing the type of open Apologies that are being written and the statements that are being you know Made publicly about preaching a deficient gospel by very well-known individuals and authors and conference speakers and so I just started talking to some friends and you know just basically felt the need to get a group of men together to have a Conversation on what this this whole thing related to social justice actually is to try to Diagnose it and then to try to work towards a solution.

So back in June, we gathered in Dallas, Texas with a group of men and we just really tried to work through the issues. You know trying to listen to what people are saying looking at social media and conference sermons and things that people are Stating and then trying to figure out how we can not only diagnose it and see the problem.

But how can we really address it? How can we speak with a corrective tone but yet a tone of love at the same time and try to push back against this type of political agenda really and so Emerging from that meeting in Dallas was the idea that we would develop a website in a statement a theological statement with affirmations and denials where we would claim the idea of here's where we stand and then here's what We reject so we affirm this and we deny this and then we would simply put it out to the evangelical world and say if you can agree with us on these issues then please sign this this Statement and stand with us on these matters and we hope that it'll be an encouragement to so many people who have been you know Really burdened and just asking questions about where this is coming from.

Where are we going? Why do we need to apologize for our skin color suddenly? Am I preaching a truncated gospel? Am I guilty of not preaching the full counsel of God's Word that type of thing? So really the statement is to provide some light and heat at the same time.

Yeah, and and I you know men like for this group that got together in June. I mean people like dr John MacArthur Phil Johnson James White Vodie Bachum yourself even even Justin Peters and others got together to develop this.

So this is not some just guys off the street. I mean, these are people who are Theologians thinkers people who wrestle with these type of issues and wrestle with theology. So I think that this is something that we need to stand up and recognize if there's folks like this.

They're saying this is an issue. Especially when we consider what what dr. MacArthur said in his blog when when he said, you know he's he's talking about the fact that this may be the most dangerous threat from all of them and you think about the The inerrancy debates and all the others that have been going on that he has addressed over the years.

That he's been in ministry over almost 50 years now at one church and yet and he says this he thinks is the most dangerous. Why do you think it is the most dangerous? Why do you think we have to address this?

So yeah.

Why Social Justice Is Seen as a Dangerous Threat

So yeah, so Andrew, I think you're right when he makes that statement. I would I would agree with that I would think it's probably ranks up in the top Issues that the church has faced in the last one or two hundred years and I think that that can be substantiated.

Simply because of the fact that this is such a fluid agenda. It's such a it's such a Difficult agenda to really put under your thumb. So it's not like the inerrancy debate where you could just say, okay.

These guys don't believe that the Bible is the Word of God. So now you've framed the whole argument you understand at least at a superficial, you know. Level, okay. This is the main idea now. There were lots of different nuances under that but you could at least spotlight the main idea when you say social justice people don't really understand what you're talking about when you say That the church needs to care for those who are oppressed.

Well, then that sounds very attractive to a lot of people especially the millennial population. Let's just be honest a lot of the Millennials want to buy a leather bag. But they want to buy one that they know that 30 of the profit has gone to build wells in the very community of which the bag was, you know manufactured and so you start thinking about the cause type of approach to millennial purchasing and you know that type of idea that there's so much interested in supporting and then you think about throwing this idea of Oppression, you know that certain people certain segments like different skin color people of color have been oppressed.

So we need to apologize and we need to empower them. Women have been oppressed held back from flourishing in evangelicalism. So we need to apologize to them and empower them to the highest level of office in denominational life or local churches so that they can Bloom for the glory of God all that sounds really good on the on the surface if we really have been oppressing these individuals.

But really the question becomes have we oppressed these individuals and is the system really rigged in such a way to hold back? Certain people in our culture and so this whole social justice agenda is so dangerous because it really starts to bypass the sufficiency of Scripture and then it starts to import very dangerous political and cultural agenda on on to the or into the Evangelical circles in religious clothing and so it can be very attractive and very dangerous at the same time.

You know, I've done a couple of podcasts on this issue of social justice did one with Daryl Harris when the there was an article that came out I forget who wrote that at this time, but there was an article about black and white and there was.

The other issues we dealt with on social justice and here's the thing. I'm always bringing it back to it. It comes back to the gospel. It comes back to who's defining the people that are being Mistreated because I coming from my background my generation.

I grew up in a Jewish home going to Hebrew school a generation after the Holocaust. Should every person in America have to support me because you know. They didn't they didn't come and defend the Jews that were being murdered.

The Catholic Church actually funded it. Should every Catholic be are they at fault because they didn't do anything? When you get to this trying to make rights make right for wrongs that were done by other people.

That's not biblical. I mean it we don't punish someone else for a sin that another person does. And I think that trying to say that if you don't see that you're racist. Then you have a you're hidden. It's you don't even recognize it is just a way of trying to argue to silence people in my name.

Because there's there's really no answers. I've said this over and over again. But if you want to end racism, the only way to end racism is to actually end racism. You will never end racism by using some sort of reverse racism.

That doesn't end it. It's still.

The Fluidity of the Social Justice Agenda and the Sufficiency of Scripture

Firmly believe that this is the case at least in American culture as a whole the idea of racial reconciliation. And even I knew this is probably going to get a lot of negative Remarks, maybe from certain groups or segments, but even the civil rights movement as a whole.

I think the end game was that there is no end. The end game is that there is no end at all. And so we we frame this idea that we're going to come as the hero to help Organize a movement to help those who are oppressed and so what we do is we keep keep the different segments.

We keep the different ethnicity Divided so as to keep the sympathy coming. The and the whole movement itself continues to roll forward. And it never really comes to a close because those who are seated in the positions of power Continue to be empowered by this system.

So if they ever arrive at a cul-de-sac So to speak or if they ever arrive at the end and there is genuine unity that comes about then they're moved in. And so I firmly believe that that same type of idea.

It might not be as devious or depraved in that sense. But the same model so to speak is now being used within evangelical circle day. So again, it's what some are calling like neo-marxism or cultural marxism.

Gramscian Marxism is really what it is. And so it's that it's that approach that divides up a culture into different segments of race class and gender and it tries to Create, you know a sympathy movement and that sympathy movement is very lucrative.

It's a business.

Let me give it let me put some weight to that by giving a quote from Booker T Washington he said this quote. There is another class of colored people who make a business of Keeping the troubles the wrongs and the hardships of the Negro race before the public having learned That they are able to make a living out of their troubles.

They have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs. Partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances. Because they do not want to lose their jobs.

Unquote if you read Barack Obama's book that he wrote before he was president before he ran for Senate. He said he recognized the fact that as a black man and by the way For the record Barack Obama was just as white if not more than black because he was raised in a white home White mother and barely knew his his black father.

So when you when we realize this he said in his own book his own writings that he recognized that as a black Man raised in a you know white neighborhood. He could get votes. He would be able to run for Senate and his Explanation was he would be able to hold that job for life being a black man able to reach out to whites.

Yeah, absolutely. And so that quote is it's extremely important as we frame this understanding and so you have this Gramsci Marxism. Which is exactly what that quote is driving at and then you have the reason that this is such a devious agenda so dangerous as John MacArthur has said it was or is it simply because of the fact that social justice not only encompasses the idea of racism that that whole idea of Continuing to keep the ethnicity divided all under the umbrella and the agenda of racial reconciliation.

Like we're trying to unite everybody but really it's just keeping everyone divided like when you have a guy stand on a platform at an evangelical conference at the MLK 50 event and he gives a spoken word poem about dear Mike Brown and he's Slapping Vodou Bacchum across the face without calling his name in the pole and he's just driving at this this harsh Racism with this divisiveness, that's very unhelpful.

But then you go beyond this the social justice train not only has that shipping container. But the second shipping container is the idea of complementarism. Now we as conservative evangelicals for a long time have really held the line on the issue of the office of elder the responsibility of the local church to be led by Capable biblical men who are who are called to that office and then also Again with the idea of different roles and responsibilities of both men and women although both created equal and as image bearers.

There are distinct roles that are given to women that are not given to men and very distinct roles that are given to men that Aren't given to women. This is not only true for the local church, but for society as a whole.

And so now suddenly there's this this this massive need to redefine Complementarianism and so now we're having this conversation within the Southern Baptist Convention. Do we and should we allow for the election of a woman to serve as the president of the Southern Baptist Convention?

And you're having people like, you know, like Russell Moore and you know. Even former presidents of the convention, you know. Like James Merrick who are making statements openly that there's nothing that would prohibit a woman from serving as the president of the Southern Baptist Convention.

So now we're having to deal with that. That's like what you call the second shipping container in the social justice train. But then the third that a lot of people aren't really noticing just yet. But it's coming quickly and it really is the third shipping container on this train.

And it's the whole idea that we have not only oppressed people of color and women, but we have also oppressed LGBT Christians as well. And so we've seen that we've seen the recent Revoice conference That was held at a PCA church in st. Louis and the idea now is that we should allow LGBT Christians, which by the way, there is no such thing.

Amen. Into the local church. And to have a seat at the table in full membership status because they struggle with their sin that you might not struggle with. But they're sinners and they they should be accepted into the life of the local church as well.

And so these are issues that are all coming quickly. And so this is why this agenda is such a dangerous agenda.

I don't remember at a time ever in the church where we had adulterous Christians murdering Christians. Rapist Christians lying Christian. Aren't they all just repenting of that and becoming Christian.

They worthy of those things and now they're yeah.

I mean, yeah, exactly I mean, what did the Apostle Paul say he uses the past tense that such were some of you but you have been washed you Have been cleansed you have been, you know, redeemed by the blood of Christ.

That's the idea. And so, you know. Anytime and I said this on Twitter had some pushback. But I think I stand behind what I stated as it pertains to the whole idea of gay Christianity any time that you allow for a dual title, you know or a dual identity so if you share like if you allow a Hyphenated identity like so I'm a I'm a gay Christian.

Well, eventually your sin it's going to whisper in your ear and ask you to do away with this Jesus guy. You know, or if you say that I'm a I'm a I'm a lustful Christian or whatever it might be. Eventually your sin is is pretty soon is going to whisper in your ear to do away with this Jesus.

And so you can't have light and darkness abiding together. The scripture is abundantly clear that Satan and Christ are not linked together. And so we just cannot stand for this idea of LGBT Christianity or you know, like you've mentioned before, you know adulterers who are adultering Christians and murderous Christians or whatever it might be.

We just need to be clear. We are Christians who have been called out of darkness into the marvelous light of Christ.

And I dealt with this on a recent podcast with the revoice conference because some of the guys that organize that are now trying to argue for Romantic celibate relationships where they live together. I don't know of a church where we would have someone even if they're engaged to be married heterosexual couple.

We would never at least in my church never allow them into membership if they're living together. Even if they're engaged even if they're planning to get married and they're saying but we're celibate.

We're not gonna do anything. We would never do that because you it's like no you shouldn't be in that position of temptation and and and the next step I think you're totally right. The next step is going to be to say It should be accepted.

They keep trying to push the envelope and I find it amazing. It's always within Christianity and social justice warriors are not out there trying to push the envelope with Islam or Mormonism or any of those.

It's always you know, the the true biblical gospel that they're going after. I remember in the 80s late 80s early 90s I was in college end up always having to explain this the the history of this because it's Bill asked.

Why was I reading a homosexual magazine? I was alone in college During Christmas break and the only person around with foreign students and my RA Resident assistant came in very drunk one night wanted me to read something that he said he found in the in the janitor's closet.

It was it was an article in a homosexual magazine. I personally think he may have been a practicing homosexual and wanted to see if being the only other Person on campus if something could happen. But he knew I was a Christian.

Here's the interesting thing about the article the article was a game plan for how Homosexuality would be mainstreamed in in America in culture and they had a game plan. They said we have to be victims and we have to constantly be victims, but it was interesting.

They said we have to be victims of a group that won't actually attack us. And so they laid out a case why Christians would be that group. They said Christians would never actually sue them never actually punish them never actually hurt them in fact.

If they're getting plan works. The Christians will actually further their cause and endorse them and they laid out an argument for playing the victim. Needing to be taught to have this taught in schools so kids growing up would understand that this is just the way people are to argue that they have no control over this and then to get people in politics that would push the agenda and Eventually go after the church to try to push that and that's the stage we're at and we're seeing this we're seeing people with it.

They're trying to go after conservative churches conservative groups. Like you mentioned the PCA to try to get them involved and now the Southern Baptists I think are gonna be the next ones to get drawn into this to try to push an unbiblical agenda and here's the real issue I see with this and why I'm so supportive of This statement on social justice that's coming out on Monday, August 20th at statement on socialjustice .com.

The reason I think this is so important is I think this affects what the gospel message the church proclaims is this is a core issue and the Christian should realize that God has clearly said there is no division between Jew and Greek free and slave male female when it comes to salvation.

We the church are about the gospel presenting the gospel and reaching out to a lost world with the gospel not reaching out to a lost world to try to make them feel better about their sin or to reach out to a lost world to try to get them to like us more because I think that's underlying for many of these people what it really comes down to there.

They're seeing a world that is attacking is getting more and more aggressive against Christianity. And they want to be liked and and this is not new to history. This happened in World War two, Nazi Germany you're growing up when I did and how I did we would sit in Hebrew school and have a we'd watch a lot of Films and documentaries and read lots of books about what happened in Nazi Germany.