http://www.shadowsofthecross.com/

I think social justice unaccompanied by the message of repentance necessary for salvation is usually done so we can feel good about ourselves.

The very meaning salvation is being saved from something, in our case an eternity in hell.

What we’re searching for is a biblical view of salvation — one that is more akin to the Hebrew concept of “shalom.”

Anyone who is not born again of the Spirit and bearing fruit in accordance with repentance is going to hell. This includes those who do not love there neighbors as themselves as you stated above. Jesus also said that those who look with lust are going to hell… and here are many more

1 Corinthians 6:9Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God

Revelation 21:8But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

In Christ - Jim

Jim,
You are correct. Hell is in the picture. But as Jesus teaches, it is reserved for people like you. People who displace social justice from the center of Jesus’ good news.

response:
Thank you for writing this sir (or mam), that your views may now clearly be seen that they are not of the Holy Spirit but are of your father the devil.

On top of my 9-5 job, wife and 4 kids, I spend 2 days a week in the inner city feeding the poor out of my own finances, (sometimes 300 meals) so my family lives a very scaled down lifestyle relative to our income so we can do this and feed the orphans and widows overseas as well. I go to “church” in the back alleys and dark underground tunnels of the city, taking not only hugs, food and encouragement to the prostitutes, addicts, criminals, widows and the least of these but the message of the redemption of Christ both here and “here after”. To offer a man hope only in this life and to let him die in his sin (even if his life of sin is more comfortable and middle class) is not biblical.

When writing like this, I risk losing my rewards like the pharisees, but I will gladly give up those rewards if one person here escapses from the antichrist theology that is propogated through the false dichotomy of social justice vrs the message of repentance and faith and sees that we are to glorify Christ in everything.

It is not one or the other, all though it is easy to live in sin and compromise and tow the social justice line, as opposed to humbling ourself and crying out to God to save us from our wretched state of sinfulness and give us new hearts and new thoughts. (Including how to live not for worldly pleasure but for the love of God and our neighbors)

Isaiah 30:
9 These are rebellious people, deceitful children,
children unwilling to listen to the LORD’s instruction.

10 They say to the seers,
“See no more visions!”
and to the prophets,
“Give us no more visions of what is right!
Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions.

11 Leave this way,
get off this path,
and stop confronting us
with the Holy One of Israel!”

love,

Jim

My you have ears to hear:

Matthew 25
31″When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

34″Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

37″Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

40″The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’

41″Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

44″They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

45″He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

46″Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

or as the Apostle Paul put it as he stood on Mars Hill and preached to heathen philosophers…

God now comamnds all men everywhere to repent because He has appointed a day in which He will judge the world in rightousness.

This is similar to what we have in the emergent church movement today, only our heathen philosophers hide behind the name of Jesus (who is another Jesus actually)

The above quote indicates that we have no idea how exceedingly sinful sin is and how worthy of damnation sinful men are. Which in turn gives evidence that we know nothing of the holiness or mercy of God either as it is not weighed against the sinfulness of man and vice versa.

There is an actual event of being born again where by a person realizes the wickedness of their sin against God (lying, stealing, sexual immorality, greediness, pride, etc) and the rightful punishment which is eternity in torment (no need to argue the western ideas of the lake of fire, scripture is clear enough that it will be tormenting to miss out on the wedding supper of the lamb and suffer under Gods wrath for eternity in whatever meta/physical sense God has ordained) and cries out to God for a new heart and new thoughts that Christ purchased for us on Calvary. This is far different then an unregenerate person doing good deeds and trusting in their own self righteousness because they give someone a glass of water.

I spend a lot of time with addicts, gang bangers and prostitutes and they dont just need a cold cup of water… They need the power and reality of the kingdom of God to enter their lives by believing that Jesus died to save us from our sins, to destroy the devils work on our lives and to set us free to live and preach the whole council of God.

Scott-

I do study Greek and early church history such as polycarp (a disciple of the apostle John) and many writings that are available prior to the church falling into apostasy under Constantine (which is where dominion theology appears to have its origins). I believe you are off on your use of Romans and the groaning of creation to support this theology but I do GREATLY appreciate talking with you though. The worse thing a man can do is surround himself with those who agree with him on everything and never be challenged in his beliefs. If you care to dialog more about this shoot me an email at repent_trust at yahoo.com sometime. BTW the love they will know us by is our love for each other.

I do agree also that unconverted men should love us for our kindness (such as caring for the orphans and widows) and will usally hate us for our declaration of their sinfulness and need to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Scripture and Church history support both. I feel some in the emergent camp create a false dichotomy when it comes to these most important issues.

In Christ - Jim

Our normal “transactional” approaches to the salvation of individuals–about the only sort of salvation we are concerned about in the church of your and my heritage–is clearly inadequate, but very useful and comforting. I say “useful” because we can respond as individuals to the “invitation,” receive the grace we need and then go about our “normal” life–accomodating to many “respectable” aspects of our Western culture without thought, remorse, repentance or redemptive/corrective action. In other words, I “give my life to Jesus” and then move on into my life–going to church, enjoying the benefits of my life, many of which come to me from a system dominated by injustice, oppression and a real politic of exploitation.

I say “comforting” because I can come to the inner city poor, for instance, and I can tell my story there, encourage people to take the necessary steps to receive salvation, set up the institutions and systems to accommodate that cross cultural transaction and then go about my business–never having a word to say about why my new “friends” in the city are so poor, or so disadvantaged. When pressed or in private, in this system of transactional, individual salvation, I can point out that the poor suffer because of their bad choices, sin, etc.

My point here–not speaking to the inadequacies of such a view of personal salvation, I’ll leave that alone here–is to simply point out that there is a real need for collective, systemic redemption. I believe Jesus and Paul understood the reality of systemic evil or corporate sin. Paul seems to be getting at that in Romans 3 and in what he says about the status of creation and its longing.

The only time I was called down by an elder was in an annual review about a year after I had used the bombing of Hiroshima as an example of corporate evil or sin that implicates us all–my text was Romans 3.

It is just not as simple as “believe the story, take the steps,” etc. My experience teachs me that most of the suffering experienced in this world today is the result of systemic, corporate, collective forces of evil that are often masked by the dutiful proponents of “personal salvation”–after all, this world is passing away, they say. Such logic does not relieve me from the call to engage the world I face this morning. It is so much deeper than “helping people” who are in trouble.

We need to take up our initial charter to rule over the earth as God’s image-bearers and get on with the kingdom business of loving and blessing in the name of Christ. Our submission will speak volumes to those who don’t know him: “They will know we are Christians by our love.”

P.S. You are going to hell.