While the Bible clearly instructs us to be concerned for justice and all Christians should strive to live justly in society, we must ask the question "How do we determine what is just or unjust? What is the standard?" The Christian perspective is that the Word of God, rightly handled, is the only sure and steady standard by which all actions are judged to be just or unjust. But in the modern social justice movement other concepts and philosophies like intersectionality and critical theory have become the standard and gauge which we are being told to embrace - even in the church. But how should Christians understand and view these concepts?

Okay, so as Scott said, I'm going to be discussing issues of intersectionality, critical race theory, and your first thought in hearing these things is Why should we care? Why should we care about intersectionality? What's the big deal with this? I want to begin with a quote from Dr. James White that he said at the beginning of his presentation on intersectionality at the g3 conference at the beginning of this year quote Intersectionality is a rebellious sinful way of thought for a Christian end quote That is why we should care because this is not a worldview or a way of thinking that is permissible for someone who follows Jesus Christ.

That is why we should care. So hopefully that has gotten your attention and I will hopefully be able to show you in the next little bit of time that I have briefly why this assessment is accurate. So when we come to the modern conversation about social justice, much of this debate revolves around the twin concepts of intersectionality and critical race theory. But before we get exactly to what those things are, we need to get a little bit of background first. So these two things are two sides of the same coin, or if we use a more biblical example, they are the same bad fruit from a corrupt tree.

The corrupted tree, the root of the problem is cultural Marxism. Now Marxism, as I'm sure most of us all know, is a theory of economics and production. It dealt with the conflict between the lower class, the proletariat, and the upper class, the bourgeoisie, and how These two groups need to be brought into harmony through the redistribution of wealth and the seizing of the means of production, taking the control over production of goods from those in the capitalists in charge and giving that to the workers. Well, cultural Marxism is the application of Marxist theory to society and the interaction of groups of people within society beyond the economic sphere. Dr.

Andrew Sandlin summarizes cultural Marxism this way, quote, unlike the original Marxists, they, the cultural, unlike the original Marxists, they, the cultural Marxists, hold that humanity's main problem isn't economic. It's that society's ideas and institutions prevent us from fulfilling the good life. And what is the good life? It is being able to be exactly what we want to be, to live exactly as we want to live, maximum autonomy. Every individual should be an artist but in a very basic and profound sense.

Every person should be able to paint his own life, his own meaning, his own reality. The world should be the canvas on which the person paints himself." End quote. So the goal of cultural Marxism is to have complete unrestrained autonomy. And all of this is built on what on this foundation of what they think will allow people to have this maximum autonomy. So being Marxist, the cultural Marxists will say that there is an irreconcilable conflict between groups of people and society.

And that conflict will continue until all people and all groups of people are equal, not simply ontologically, not only equal in their nature, but equal in their position and privileges in life. So equality of outcome for Groups in society is the goal, not equality of opportunity for the individual. That is the goal. And so to this end, laws and society itself must be reordered so that all disparity of outcome is abolished. To get an idea of what this looks like, a simple picture, this would be akin to a little league team challenging a major league pro team to a game, But beforehand fixing it so that once the game is over the points are totaled and then divided in two so that neither side loses That is what we've got here in society regardless of your ability regardless of of any other factor everything must come out in the end equal.

That's the goal. Cultural Marxists want to rig the law in order to create pre-established results. And so this goal is in theory that they will have this This success the success of this vision of equality in every place in every part of society all around the world This is a a twisted secular form of post-millennialism. There's this egalitarian utopia that is brought to earth. Peace and equality brought in not through the gospel of Christ or the power of the Spirit, but brought in through the gospel of Marx with the coercive power of the state.

So that is the tree. And now the fruit, critical theory and intersectionality. Now critical theory itself is a development of thought from a group of philosophers called the Frankfurt School. I'm not going to spend any time on that. Feel free to Google that when you get home.

But what separates critical theory from traditional theory is this idea that traditional theory provides a way of achieving the goal of liberating people from oppression. That's what makes something a quote unquote critical theory in philosophy. It prevents what is supposed to be a practical way to remove oppression and slavery from society by satisfying needs and empowering the oppressed. These theories bifurcate people into groups of oppressor and oppressed, privileged and marginalized. Now most often you will hear about critical race theory.

That is not the only critical theory. You can take nearly any descriptor, put it in between the words critical and theory, and you will find someone who's written a book on it. You will have critical gender theory, critical social theory, critical political theory, so on and so forth ad nauseum. But that is the the the essence of what critical theory is. They are attempting to explain what is wrong with society, who is doing the wrong, and how do we fix it.

And this is today most often applied to the issue of race. So we almost always hear critical race theory. And so all this to a degree sounds good. We want to remove oppression, we want to free people who are oppressed. These are good things.

Any Christians should say yes and amen. We want a just and equitable society. But the problem is the words, the definitions, as our elder had pointed out, Their definitions that they give to these terms are arbitrary because the Frankfurt School rejected objective truth. They rejected absolute morality and they rejected the revelation of God. And so this school of thought ultimately rejected inherent human rights because they did not believe in the Imago Dei.

They did not believe man was made in the image of God. And they rejected individual liberty as the standard of what is just and what is right in society. Instead, they advocate for parity or equality of outcome in the group, in between the various groups of society, as the definition of justice. So justice is not personal liberty and the right to do what God has enabled you to do, but justice is equality among and between all the groups and strata of society. And therefore, any hierarchical structure is inherently oppressive in this system.

I want you to get that. Any hierarchy is inherently oppressive. Any distinction between people is unjust. And everything is defined in categories of power, divorced from any objective standard of morality. And so therefore what is moral is not what is in accord with the revealed moral law of God But what is moral is the abolition of oppressive power structures?

That is what you have to get out of this. This is the goal of critical theory the abolition of what they consider to be oppressive power structures, wherever those things may be found and at any cost. So that's critical theory on one hand. Now intersectionality, Oftentimes these terms are used almost interchangeably today. That is often simply the case but intersectionality itself was a coin a term coined by a woman named Kimberly Crenshaw who is a lawyer and professor at UCLA and She brought the theories that she brought the philosophy of critical theory into feminism and women's studies and she coined this term intersectionality and to get a handle on what this means it may be helpful for you to imagine an actual road in your mind And so essentially this is the concept of having multiple lanes of identity, multiple streets that your identity runs down.

You have race lane and ability way and sex street. All these different things, your race, your sex, your ability, your wealth, all these various things. And where these roads cross one another, where they intersect, imagine a road with an intersection, you are more oppressed if you identify with a minority lane or a minority street. So therefore the more intersections that you have, the more oppressed you are by default, as well as the more likely you are to experience it in reality firsthand in the world. So think of it as you have a someone who is a female, so that's one lane that her identity runs down, but she's also a minority.

She's a black woman, so she has two lanes, and these intersect, and not only is she a black female but she's also a lesbian. So she now has a third street going through that intersection. So she has all these intersections of her identity where she is more likely to be oppressed in society. Think of it as being more likely to get in a car crash at these intersections. But again, this is an inherent oppression this person has.

It is regardless of that person's state or place in society. This woman, this theoretical woman I just created, she could be the head of a major international corporation, but she's still oppressed. And on the flip side, you have those who have numerous intersections of oppressor identities and who are therefore inherently oppressors in society regardless of their actual status or the intention of their heart. And so a black woman is oppressed simply by virtue of who she is, being black and female, regardless of what she does in life, what happens to her, her actual status or station. She is oppressed.

And a white man is an oppressor, regardless of his actions in life, his status, or what he does, or even what he thinks. By virtue of who he is, he is an oppressor. And so you've got this, this oppressor, oppressed, privileged, and marginalized, and those who have privilege are seen as being fundamentally unable to identify with the marginalized Due to their different identities and their the oppressor status as a de facto oppressor regardless of what they do. And you will see this at work when you hear the phrase, well you just can't understand because you're blank, whatever. Often we will hear men can't understand the issue of abortion because you're a man And only women have this knowledge revealed to them that enables them to understand this issue.

It's almost a gnostic idea of understanding of knowledge. Or white people cannot understand the issues that black people face simply by virtue of them being white. Now, there is a degree to which this is true. I don't understand fully what it's like to be a woman. Obvious.

But There comes a point where I can empathize as someone made in the image of God with what it's like to be on the end of being wronged, what it's like to have been sinned against, And more importantly, being a creature made by God in the image of God, I can bring God's word to bear to anyone regardless of who they are or what identity they claim. And often this statement of, well, you just can't understand is then taken further. Therefore, you have no right to say or judge me for anything I do. You cannot say a word. That's usually where this ends up.

And so this will drive people to find their identity in the groups or classes that they are a part of. And This comes into the political sphere as what is called identity politics. And therefore we have the never-ending drive of politicians to appeal to the female voter or the Hispanic voter or the Hispanic female voter or the left-handed Hispanic voter that bartends in New York City. You have this drive to get these smaller and smaller niche groups that politicians are all trying to satisfy all these different groups all at once. That is the the the end result of intersectionality in the political sphere.

But what really concerns me is when this comes into the church. This comes into the church with men like Jamar Tisby, who is a black man who graduated with a Master of Divinity from Reformed Theological Seminary. These are not just the the wacky Charismatics and Evangelicals out there. This is in our group, guys. A man like Jamar Tisby who graduated with an MDiv from RTS who said after Trump was elected that he was afraid to worship with white people.

Or Eric Mason who is a graduate of Dallas Theological Seminary and Gordon Conwell Seminary who argues for separate black and white spaces at the Lord's table, while also saying that all white churches are an evil thing, but all black churches are a necessary good. This is why this is important. It divides the body of Christ. So now once power structures have been defined and the oppressors and oppressors are identified, what is to be done? Well, the marginalized are to be given more authority.

And authority would be best seen as time and opportunity to speak, position of power, and social clout and influence. But this should be given to them not based on their personal ability, but simply as an act of restitution by society to that whole marginalized class. Conversely, those who are privileged must give up their privilege either voluntarily or by coercion so that their privileges can be given to the marginalized. And this can be seen in colleges and universities around the country where there are young white men who are being gagged, sometimes literally in their classes with bandanas and being made to sit in the back of the classroom unless they give full-throated, full-hearted support to the sexual and moral revolution. And so intersectionality, once it's applied, promotes the freedom of the oppressed by oppressing the oppressor.

It would be fine if it wasn't so sad. Therefore, transgenders are freed by the finding and imprisonment of those who misgender them. Homosexuals are freed by having marriage degraded and punishing those who oppose the redefinition of marriage. Racial minorities are freed by having hiring quotas that must be met regardless of personal qualification or ability. And this is coming into the church.

One of my favorite professors that I've had at Southeastern, I had him for my New Testament class. Loved the class. Great man. Clearly loved God. He will tell you openly he was hired because he's black.

I mean he's a great teacher. Don't get me wrong. I wouldn't want to see him gone. But he will tell you that's why he was hired, to fill a quota. Or it's seen by men like Matt Chandler, who openly said that he has a preference to hire less qualified minorities in place of more qualified white men.

But just as long as that difference isn't too much so it's not obvious. He said that in a sermon about a year and a half ago. Or by people like Beth Moore who has insinuated that if you have more white writers than minority writers on your bookshelf, you're probably a racist. Obviously, I have no problem whatsoever with a seminary hiring black professors or a church hiring non-white pastors or for you and I reading minority authors. All those things are whatever.

It's not a big deal. The reason that we hire these people and the reason we read their writings is not the color of their skin, but the content of their doctrine and their competency to communicate it. That is all that should matter in the Church of Jesus Christ. So the ultimate goal of this philosophy is the complete transformation of culture. Transformation in society to where the oppressed are now the privileged and the privileged are brought under them but I hope you see that that is a game that has no end.

There is no possible conclusion to this conflict and this just further creates division both in society and in the church, because you can always divide more and more. You start with people, You divide men and women. Then you take the women and you divide majority culture and minorities, white and black, Hispanic, all that. But then that group can divide, well, black and Hispanic and Asian. And now you've got wealthy and poor.

You can always divide more and more and that's what intersectionality does it inherently drives more and more division between groups of people in society It only breaks people down because the more victim statuses you can claim, the more authority, and often the more money, you can demand as a recompense. And so this theory cannot unify because the drive is always to further identify more categories of oppression and to seek the redress of those marginalizations. This creates a victimhood mentality that is used to rationalize and justify not only feelings of victimhood and anger, but even physical violence and breaking the law, as well as sin in the church and in personal lives. We cannot allow a mindset like this to develop in us as individuals or in the church as a whole. Like we heard this morning, we are not called to have a self-conception as victims.

A victimhood mentality is not a Christian virtue. We must fight against anything that promotes it. Hopefully, this brief look at intersectionality and the theory behind it can help you to see why the system and worldview is wholly incompatible with the gospel of Christ and the law of God. There is much more that can be said, and it's a lot to try and take in. I understand this is like drinking from a fire hydrant, But hopefully this brief overview is enough to try and see the massive problems with this unbiblical and rebellious philosophy.

But sadly, this evil and ungodly theory has crept in, and in reality it's more like it's kicked open the front door and made itself at home in the American church and even in the reformed community. And it is creating havoc and causing divisions in the church. And I want, when we, I do want to make one clarification. When we talk about this debate of social justice and the like, this is a prime example of the idea that those who control the lexicon control the conversation. When we say that we are against social justice, that does not mean, oh well, you're for social injustice.

Well, no, obviously not. We are for justice. We want justice. We serve and worship a God whose throne is founded on justice and who reveals justice and requires justice of all his creatures But we are not after social justice as these people define it. We want biblical justice We want social righteousness to use the phrase of Andrew Sandlin, not secular theories of justice.

And this is why the law of God is so important. We must be for justice, but we must be for true justice as God has revealed it. And so, while we distance ourselves from these theories and philosophies, we at the same time repudiate misogyny, the real stuff, the actual hatred of women, not simply saying that there are distinctions between the sexes. We repudiate racism, the real stuff, the actual thoughts and actions of prejudice based on skin color. We repudiate and we call on racists to repent.

And we repudiate unjust economic practices, the real things, not the fact that there are rich and poor in society, but things like excessive, or things like government theft through excessive taxation and Wealth redistribution and all this is based on God's law non-worldly philosophy Now having seen that I want to us to not simply have seen the corruption of the system. I want to show you the better way. So if you will grab your Bible and turn to Colossians chapter 3. So we can see God's way in contrast to man's theories. Colossians 3, starting in verse 1.

If then you are raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth, for you died, and your life is hidden with Christ and God When Christ who is our life appears then you also will appear with him in glory Therefore but to death your members which are on the earth the parts of you that are earthly, fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. But now you yourselves are to put off all these things, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy. Quick note here, I think this would be better rendered as slander, blasphemia.

It can be both. This is clearly, I think, interpersonal relationship in the church, so this should be slander. Filthy language out of your mouth. Put off all these things. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and I've put on the new man who was renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him.

Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, skivvy, enslaved nor free, but Christ is all and in all. Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering, bearing with one another and forgiving one another. If anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love which is the bond of perfection and let the peace of God rule in your hearts to which you are also called in one body and be thankful The Apostle Paul writes to this church in Colossae, and he tells them that this is how you are to live. This is what the body of Christ looks like.

This is what a local church looks like. They have their mind on the things above where Christ is. They look for His coming. They are putting to death what is still sinful within their own hearts. They are treating one another with love and respect and dignity.

They have put away lying to one another. They have put away anger with one another. And if I may give you my own translation of verse 11, in verse 10, he says, and you've put on this new man, there's this new creation in Christ. In verse 11, where there is no Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, skithian, slave, freeman, but the all and in all, Christ. The whole point there, Christ is the focus, Christ is everything.

And so he goes through these different groups of people, these groups of people that he's told put off all these things. You've come to this place where you're putting to death what is sinful in you and you're living together in one body, because in this one body there is no Greek and Jew. And then we can read circumcised and uncircumcised and think, well, isn't that just an unnecessary repetition? No, I don't think so. Greek and Jew would be a racial distinction.

There were the Jews and there was everyone else. That was a distinction instituted by God, but that racial division does not exist in the church. The Jews were no more Christian than the Gentiles who had believed in Christ. Circumcision and uncircumcision. You can think of this as, to borrow their language, religious privilege.

Those circumcised were no closer to Christ than those who came to him uncircumcised. It's one body. The divisions have been broken down. Barbarian, the non-Greeks, those who spoke languages that the people couldn't understand, who were outside of the Roman Empire, those dangerous others, they're in the body. There's no distinction.

And now instead of doing another couplet like he had done with Greek and Jew and circumcised and uncircumcised, he actually intensifies. You've got the barbarians, and then you have the Scythians. The Scythians were the barbarians of the barbarians. These were the folks the barbarians were afraid of. These were the Huns before the Huns.

This was a nomadic, vicious tribe that lived in the Russian steppes near Colossae. Colossae was in Asia Minor, Russian steppes, right up through the Caucasus Mountains or around the Bosphorus Strait. Herodotus described the Scythians as living in wagons, offering human sacrifices, scalping and flaying their dead enemies, drinking their blood, using their skulls for cups. And when a king would die, one of his concupines is strangled and buried with him, and at the close of a year, fifty of his attendants are strangled, disemboweled, and mounted on dead horses, and left in a circle around his tomb as a memorial. But Paul says you don't see that in the church.

There are people who were Scythians who have been converted, but they are not to be treated differently. You understand? He's writing to this church that there were people in Colossi whose family may have been killed by Scythian invaders. Family members may have been carried away in slavery. And Paul says there is no Scythian.

There is no barbarian. There is no Greek or Jew. And he says slave and free, social status and social privilege doesn't exist. That distinction's been broken down at the Lord's table. You have all these people together sharing one cup and one loaf of bread in celebration of their one risen Lord whom they all serve together in one body.

Therefore as the elect of God, God has chosen all of you from all these different groups and we can look around in our own church and see all these different groups God has chosen you and brought you into this one body put on tender mercy kindness humility meekness long-suffering bearing with one another forgiving one another If anyone has a complaint even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. Above all, put on the put on love which is the perfect or which is the bond of perfection. Let the peace of God rule in your hearts to which you are also called in one body and be thankful. Intersectionality says no. We will not bear with one another.

It says we will not forgive. We will continually drag up the past and use it as a sledgehammer to beat you over the head with. We will not be bound perfectly together in love with one another. We will pursue our own space even at the Lord's table. We will not be one body.

We will not be thankful. That is what intersectionality says, and we have to reject it. Just to try to tie this together, thank you. I thought, I really appreciate that. We're talking about dividing the church by creating intersecting levels of oppression because of genders and races.

That's what we're talking about here. And Christians must be very concerned about justice. The Bible calls us to be a just people according to his word only. And these unbiblical divisions of justice regarding the sexual revolution, regarding gender rights and race and ethnicity is the issue. This really is about the unity of the body of Christ.

It's so important. Let's pray. Our Father, we come before you as one body, many members made one by our dear Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. I pray, Lord, that you would help us to have that perfect bond of unity. God, may we stand in peace with one another and stand in our opposition to evil and ungodly philosophies that are trying to beat down the doors of Christ's Church.

God, may you give us strength and may you give us help. And God, above all, may we glorify you. In the name of your Son we pray, amen.