Learning a theology lesson from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

On August 23, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Junior, delivered his epic “I have a dream” speech on the mall in Washington D.C. I would like to offer a quote from this speech that shows the brilliant, if not so subtle, criticism of Christianity at the time. It was a reference that he made in the speech. Here’s the quote:

“There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. *We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by a sign stating: "For Whites Only."* We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."¹” 

The scripture passage that he used in the above quote is from Amos chapter five. The exact clause is “until justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.” I would like to include the scripture passage where this quote is taken from, so that I may give it the context, that no doubt Dr. King, wanted it to have.

They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks the truth. Therefore because you trample on the poor and you exact taxes of grain from him, you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not dwell in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine. For I know how many are your transgressions and how great are your sins-- you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and turn aside the needy in the gate. Therefore he who is prudent will keep silent in such a time, for it is an evil time. Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so the LORD, the God of hosts, will be with you, as you have said. Hate evil, and love good, and establish justice in the gate; it may be that the LORD, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph. Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of hosts, the Lord: "In all the squares there shall be wailing, and in all the streets they shall say, 'Alas! Alas!' They shall call the farmers to mourning and to wailing those who are skilled in lamentation, and in all vineyards there shall be wailing, for I will pass through your midst," says the LORD. Woe to you who desire the day of the LORD! Why would you have the day of the LORD? It is darkness, and not light, as if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him, or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall, and a serpent bit him. Is not the day of the LORD darkness, and not light, and gloom with no brightness in it? "I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

(Amo 5:10-24ESV)

As you read the above passage, it should become clear that Dr. King was showing any and all who would listen and hear, that the white religious establishment in the south, was truly hypocritical, and that if they would in fact read the warnings that God had given Israel through the prophet Amos, they would have been given pause considering their treatment of fellow African American Christians. The gate is symbolic for government and commerce. Amos was telling Israel that their national sin was injustice.

As I look at the current situation here in the richest country in the world, we have not made much progress since the days of Dr. King some forty-four years ago. There is little concern for the poor and disenfranchised. Taxes are still exacted at the expense of the poorest Americans. Most of our charity efforts, allows too much of the finances meant to help with the distribution to the poor, to be consumed by unnecessary administrative costs. All to often in our courts, justice is not available for the poor but can be bought by the wealthy. If God is the same, yesterday, today and forever, and I believe He is, then we as a country, as Christians, should reflect on the fact that God brought judgment to Israel because of the warnings of the prophet Amos.

When will we let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a might stream?

The sovereignty of God and the free will of humans

Ephesians 1:11  “In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will,”

Isaiah 45:7  “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.”

There is an age old debate within Christianity concerning the sovereignty of God and humanities free will. It goes back to Augustine and Pelagius in the fifth century. It resurfaced with Calvin and Arminius during the Protestant Reformation and it rages on today between Calvinists and Arminians. Luther wrote a treatise on it called “The Bondage of the Will.” This debate becomes very important in theologies that emphasize hell because as hyper-Calvinists teach, taken to the extreme, God predestines some to heaven and others (perhaps most) to hell.

Likewise, it has deep ramifications in the salvation of individuals. If salvation is a choice then mankind must fear that they will not be able to keep their salvation over the long haul… and therefore must always be in fear. If salvation is by the sovereignty of God then one can rest assured because it is not up to them and they can rest and trust solely in God. I would go so far as to say that if salvation is up to the individual no one could be saved. As I stated a couple of posts back, humans participate by apprehension, i.e., they apprehend what God did in Christ

The above quoted passages are two that speak strongly of the total sovereignty of God. God is sovereign in all things. In fact, it is so unpopular to think that God creates evil that all of the modern versions of the bible have substituted the word calamity for the word evil in Isaiah 45:7. If you look at the Hebrew word rahaah it definitely means evil and Young’s Literal Translation backs it up. The fact remains that both of the verses do in fact point to the absolute sovereignty of God in all things. Therefore, those that take the bible literally must see that God is sovereign in all matters… after all, God works ALL THINGS according to the counsel of his will. That pretty much establishes God’s sovereignty and eliminates any eternal choice for humanity.

So, how can it be resolved? I think that it is resolved nicely by the fact that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself not counting sin against anyone (2Cor 5:19.) All have been reconciled to God. This is why the ministry of reconciliation is so important. The gospel preacher should be proclaiming the fact that humanity is reconciled to God. People do not need the sinner’s prayer or the four spiritual laws. They simply need to be told that they are reconciled to God through Christ and allow the Holy Spirit to convince them of the fact and rest in it.

Rather than make this post too long let me list some bullet points that explain some of the questions you may have:

• What about hell? Well, evangelical-orthodox teaching about hell is not all that sound when considering the biblical record… see post1 & post2.
• Human choice effects our lives drastically, and what-ever we sow we reap but here in this life and not eternally.
• If humans are eternal beings then, evil in this life is for a specific time and not eternity and can have a greater purpose.
• Ultimate reconciliation is to the praise of God’s glorious grace (Eph 1:5-6.)

So you may ask if there is ultimate reconciliation why preach the gospel if everyone is reconciled by Christ? That’s a good question but consider this. There is great benefit in realizing that one is reconciled while here in this life. Predominantly, it gives one peace with God.

The Antinomian Accusation

(Col 2:14-15)  “by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.  (15)  He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.”

There are a number of self-appointed heresy hunters within orthodox-evangelical Christianity. One accusation that they often level against those that teach the law was canceled and grace is the rule is this… they label them antinomian. NOMOS, is the Greek word for law and antinomian means against the law. So then, in English, antinomian is anti-law. What part of “canceling the record of debt” in Colossians 2:14 do they fail to understand? What was canceled anyway? The simple answer is the penalty of the debt, death. The cancellation of the penalty for all intents and purposes cancels the record also. Still the anti-nomian accusation continues.

The main proof text for their position comes from Jesus words. Matthew 5:17-20 says this; "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.  (18)  For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.  (19)  Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.  (20)  For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” I have and entire blog post that deals with this passage; you can read it here. The crux of the post is that all has been fulfilled and jots and tittles have been removed.

When one looks at progressive revelation, and the way that the scripture unfolds the story of redemption, one sees that Matthew 5:17-20 was said to Jews who were under the law before the resurrection. I have time and again shown here that the New Testament is a document that shows a transition from Old Covenant to New Covenant. It runs the gamut from John the Baptist the last Old Testament Prophet, to Jesus, the cross, the resurrection, Pentecost, the solely Jewish Church, the inclusion of the Gentiles and the anticipation of the end of the age of Moses with the destruction of the temple. This becomes very important in the cancellation of the Law of Moses. Make no mistake it has been canceled.

I wish that the heresy hunters would engage in honest debate. I am quite certain that they will not. We need to become less afraid of the word heresy. It is time that someone unveils the simpleton behind the curtain pulling the levers. Heresy is a word that simply means not orthodoxy. Orthodoxy simply means the accepted theory. I have shown over and over again here, with a PREPONDERENCE  of scriptural evidence that the accepted theory of orthodoxy is grossly in error in so many areas.  Orthodoxy is wrong in their view of scripture… wrong in their view of eschatology… wrong in their view of the transformation process…. ah the lines of that song is coming back… “when will they ever learn… when will they ever… learn?

Blessed are those who care for the poor

Psalm 41:1  (A psalm by David for the music leader.) You, LORD God, bless everyone who cares for the poor, and you rescue those people in times of trouble.

There are so many Christians that object to social justice and call it socialism disguised; They say that it is merely a term for taking wealth from people and giving it to others. They claim that anyone who emphasizes social justice mis-quotes and mis-interprets the scripture. They insist that Jesus was not an advocate for social justice. Are they correct? In two words, absolutely not!

Social justice was not *just a theme* that Jesus promoted. The truth is that it is one of the over-riding themes of the Old Testament also. When God found fault with Israel for their corporate national sins, often times it was greed and the mis-treatment of the poor. Read Amos chapter five. Let’s look specifically at verse 11-12. (Amos 5:11-12)  “you abuse the poor and demand heavy taxes from them. You have built expensive homes, but you won't enjoy them; you have planted vineyards, but you will get no wine.  (12)  I am the LORD, and I know your terrible sins. You cheat honest people and take bribes; you rob the poor of justice.”  This could be an indictment of Wall Street and the global corporations today. They over tax the poor and pay little or no tax themselves.

When you search the word *poor* in the bible you find that there are over 170 verses that deal with the treatment of the poor by the wealthy. It is a VERY IMPORTANT concept with God. It was not just Amos. Isaiah also found fault with corporate, national Israel for the treatment of the poor. (Isaiah 3:14-15)  “He will even judge you rulers and leaders of his own nation. You destroyed his vineyard and filled your houses by robbing the poor.  (15)  The LORD All-Powerful says, "You have crushed my people and rubbed in the dirt the faces of the poor." The idea that Christians should not want nations to care for the poor is unbelievable, and it would be repugnant if it were not done from ignorance.

While the church judges drug addicts, drunks and sexually addicted individuals… they support people that rob the poor to increase their own wealth and ignore social justice. If the church would spend even half of the time on social justice that it does on condemning people the lot of the poor would be increased immeasurably. Now there are those in the church who care for the poor, but they are the minority; especially in Euro/American-protestant denominations. I find it amazing that those who take such a literal stance on the bible ignore the social justice themes of scripture. This is especially true in view of Matthew 25:31-46. It is a warning of judgment and the sole criteria for judgment is social justice.

I have often said, that if church folk would just rest in redemption by the grace of God, and then begin working hard at social justice issues, they would find that they are too tired to sin so much ;-).

Misrepresenting and misunderstanding James 2:17

James 2:17  So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

Whenever someone stresses the idea of God’s grace and the gospel, invariably someone will quote James 2:17. They will say *faith without works is dead… being alone.* What they always mean is faith without *law obedience* is dead being alone. They equate the works proscribed in James 2:17 as being works of the law with law obedience as the proof of the works. The problem is that they do not understand James 2:17 in its context and they neglect to understand that the works that James is speaking of are very narrow works of love; mainly, feeding the hungry, giving shelter to the homeless, dressing the naked etc. If anything, James chapter two provides a call to social justice works. It is a call to not favor the wealthy in assemblies and it has *NOTHING* to do with the works of the law or law obedience.

This is a passage that fits in well with Matthew 25:31-46 and Isaiah 58:6-12. Social justice is a very important part of God’s agenda. Taking care of the less fortunate and underprivileged is a theme that God has stressed over and over again in the scripture. There are 170 verses that focus on treatment of the poor. Psalm 41:1 is one of many verses that explains how God views those who consider the poor. This is the entire focus of James chapter two… and it is the foundational context of James 2:17. James two is not about obedience to the works of the law in general and it distorts the meaning to believe it is.

What is the point of this you ask? Well, plainly stated it is to counteract those who claim that James 2:17 is an admonition to show that grace alone is not the driver of the gospel. The fact is that grace alone is the driver. The law acts as a tutor to drive one to grace. Grace then acts supernaturally to provide peace with God. Peace with God from grace is the source of true love for God and true love for God is the motivating force in the obedience of faith… or the obedience brought on by faith. I am not suggesting that there is not an obedience that is driven by faith. I am merely stating that evangelical-orthodox dogma, doctrine, and practice eliminate the possibility of this faith obedience.

On the other hand, the works proscribed in James 2:17 are works that anyone can choose to do. Whether one has an addictive personality or not all can choose to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, give shelter to the homeless and visit the sick. Interestingly enough, these faith works are mostly ignored by orthodox evangelicals. Oh, there may be an occasional Thanksgiving dinner or turkey give away… but feeding daily? … not many of those in the evangelical orthodox realm. They are too busy trying to elect congressmen that will take even more away from the poor.

Transforming Grace not Law; a comment and answer from an older post

Over the time of writing this blog, I have written many posts demonstrating that the true transformation is brought about by unrestrained grace and not conforming to the law. One such post, Need, Rest, and Reasonable Service… was written back in February of 2010. I just recently received a comment on it and I thought the exchange would be very beneficial. It was written by someone who thought grace alone was not the transforming power and posited a view similar to the evangelical party line. I am going to post the discussion in its entirety. You may want to read the original post for background.

Anonymous writes:

“I do not think Christians need to be told to stop "striving to please God, striving to love each other...". This is all Christians ever hear anymore. It’s not unloving, legalistic or contrary to the Holy Spirit to "work out our salvation with fear and trembling"...It is the same Spirit who said "faith without works is dead"... and "those who love me will obey my comandments..." not to mention Galatians 5:19-21.

"Faith expressing itself through love" is indeed all that counts but genuine faith is rooted in the indwelling Holy Spirit which "compels" us to obey God's Torah/commands. If we have the Holy Spirit wont we be compelled to strive to please God, love others... and aren't we obligated by the nature of a covenant relationship with God to obey Him whether we feel like it or not? As someone who personally has struggled with addiction in the past, I know that this "God does it all we just wait around for it to happen ("rest") mentality" does not work. In fact I continued to struggle no matter how much I begged God to remove my addiction. It was when I seriously intended to stop sinning that my recognition of my powerlessness over sin could begin to open the door for the Holy Spirit to change me. We are called to strive to align our wills with God's through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. That involves effort on our part and is our "reasonalbe service".

Anonymous continues:

In other words I think that, in the Spirit of love, that we as Christians should be warned that our behavior is the only indication of our salvation. What else is there? Words? Professions of belief? Those are meaningless without concrete change. There simply can not be a change in heart with out a change in behavior.

My Reply:

Thanks for the comments. I intend to turn these into a blog post. What I think you miss is the idea that the catalyst for obedience is love brought about by unrestrained grace. I can appreciate that you overcame addiction. The fact is that Atheists do that also without any faith at all. So overcoming addiction is not a sign of spiritual transformation, but rather could be merely moral reformation. What this blog post is driving at is how the gospel will/does transform people. Yes, gospel not law. You said that the gospel will not work in that way and I say that you cannot possibly know that because there are no fellowships that emphasize grace as the transformer. If there were, then perhaps you could have received help to stop your addiction by brothers and sisters that would lovingly help you with accountability.

As it stands now, most fellowships put the addictive personality in a position where they have to doubt their salvation. They are forced to either change, hide or leave. That is not the way the bible explains the working of the Spirit. The Spirit transforms. The read and do mentality brings about reformation not transformation... it is not trans-formative, and getting free from addiction by the “read and do” method is not a testament to Spiritual transformation. No one is saying that people should not obey God from love. The problem is obedience that comes from a place of fear. It does not promote real love for God and does nothing to transform lives over the long haul.

The Christian life should be known for uncommon love and not strict moral obedience. Certainly a moral, ethical life is an important goal to reach but not to assure salvation and our eternal station with God.

The All in All

1Corinthians 15:28  “And when all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will be subjected to the one who subjected everything to him, so that God may be all in all.”

I personally think that the fifteenth chapter of 1Corintians is mis-understood with too much read into it. We are now living in the days of the All in All. If God is our father and Jesus taught that metaphor to be truth, then our Father is the All in All. If you look at New Testament Prophecy in the way it was written, you will see that it was meant for the first century believers. It was pointing to the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem and the dispersion of the Jews. You can find all of the many posts that show this at this link; it is the link that shows all of the posts that discuss and include eschatology.

The Psalmist said the following: (Psa 110:1)  “Here is the LORD's proclamation to my lord: "Sit down at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool!" Who were Jesus enemies? It was the Sanhedrin. It was the rulers and authorities, principalities and powers of second temple Judaism. How did God make Jesus enemies his footstool? He used Titus of Rome to destroy the temple and Jerusalem, and disperse the Jews away from Judea. Jesus enemies were in fact made his footstool in 70CE. He was exonerated. His prophecies were proven to be true. All things were put under his feet including death. The sting of death was sin. The power or strength of sin was the law. The last enemy was the death brought about by the law. Christ provided the victory over death with the assurance of eternal life. Once Jesus had proclaimed eternal life, had risen from the dead to prove it --- death lost its sting. But, when the temple was destroyed, the ministry of death was destroyed along with it, and all things, including his enemies and death were put under his feet.

That being the case, the kingdom has been turned over to the Father so that the Father is the All in All. Jesus prayer is answered; (John 17:23)  I in them and you in me — that they may be completely one, so that the world will know that you sent me, and you have loved them just as you have loved me. It is not necessary to see a distant eschatological future fulfillment. It is current reality. The kingdom is now and we are to be manifestly the children of God now. The fact is that we have become partakers of the divine nature and have been given all we need for life and godliness. The problem is that we must realize and believe it. This will only come as more and more people embrace the provision of God’s grace and rest in our eternal connection.

Isn’t it  a shame to be waiting for what is already here? If believers would corporately re-enforce one another in resting in God’s grace, it would be possible to experience the All in All continually. It is so simple… all that we need to do is shift our paradigm.