Tag: gospel

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A Letter In Response to John MacArthur’s Statement against Social Justice

To my brother John MacArthur,

You recently wrote a post warning the selling out of the gospel for social justice fad. Like Paul did in Galatians, you warn us about this “different gospel.” I tried to keep my mouth shut because I didn’t want to fan the fire your post ignited. But like the jackass whose tongue was loosened by an angel and saved Balaam, I (yes, I’m comparing myself to an ass) can’t keep my jaws clamped. Corrected, Balaam turned a curse into a blessing — so you aren’t beyond meta-noia/repentance. I’m going to take your same no-nonsense approach and warn you that you might be the false prophet, the one “bewitching” people to a “different gospel.”

I’m not arguing here for any social justice commitment you call a threat to the gospel. I’m only pointing out the huge lumber in your eye. I know you can’t see it. I can’t see mine and you are eager to dislodge it from my eyes — and thank you for warning me against identification of any movement with God’s Kingdom and the self-righteousness oozing from such absolutism. With that same compassion and eagerness, I’m returning the favor. You don’t seem to know you also stand in a particular culture and language because you are a human person, like the rest of us, bound to time and space by your flesh. You are part of an American evangelical movement, which is not the Kingdom of God. You are, of course, trying to be faithful to the gospel in your context, but the lumber-in-your-eye is that you don’t think you have a context. That lumber-induced blindspot is more dangerous in you due to your prominence. You have inordinate influence and you are not being careful with that. I will try my best to pull that lumber out by spelling it out. I hope at the least I can give pause to you, if not, a pause to anyone ready to jump into your crusade.

Here are some of the flaws in your argument.

You brandish the word “biblical” as if you have a vantage point guaranteeing your access to the “true” meaning of Scripture(thus you know what “true justice” is in contrast to social justice). By “biblical,” do you mean the original intent? Of course you can’t mean that because originally, every biblical text spoke to an audience distanced from us by language, culture and history. What Isaiah meant by “righteousness” is not what an American Christian means by “righteousness.” We are always translating what the author said. And like any translation, there is a transference, accretion and loss. That is, as much as those advocating for social justice are influenced by the culture of their times, you too are influenced by the culture of our times, only that you have chosen other subcultures. You are translating everything you read in the Bible with the help of your culture, that is, your language which …..
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Corinthian Heartache

2nd Cor

The Corinthians Church kept Paul awake many a nights. He suffered ulcer, anxiety attacks and self-doubt. When they questioned his authority, poo-pooed his preaching, and raised suspicion of his so called “non-profit” ministry, it was the skewering of a dagger by a best friend. The attack was painful because it was personal.

Romans is a theology that has been tested. It is not the emotionless theology of an academician, but an emotionally grounded theology of a mature pastor. Paul knows the deep power of the gospel; it was what reconciled Paul and Corinth, his first love.

There was no church Paul loved more than this Corinthian Church. When he wrote the poem of Love (1 Cor 13), the words spilled from his quill because his heart was swelling with affection for them. Pastors have their favorite church as much as parents do. Paul’s favorite was Corinth. But Corinth kept dumping him and dating other leaders because they were better looking, had better family, and more loaded with cash. Paul was their first love, but dropped as soon as a handsomer apostle came striding into their city. Paul’s heart bleeds in 2nd Corinthians. This is why he keeps going back and forth (which leads scholars to think it might be a collage of two or even three letters). His emotions are not fully settled even when trying to ground them in a strong theology of reconciliation and new creation. He is full of bravado and fear, confidence and despair, proclamation and pity parties.

In fact, Paul wrote 2nd Corinthians because he could not muster himself to go visit them. He feared he would lash out because he knew well that hurt people hurt.

Wouldn’t Paul’s ministry have had greater influence if his emotional energy was not drained by those thankless Corinthians! Two letters, definitely another one, maybe even four letters altogether to keep the messy relationship between them alive. And he had to visit them three times. Such a needy congregation!

What Paul could have done if not for Corinthians!

But consider the reverse question.

What would have Paul done if it wasn’t for the Corinthians?

For sure, we would not have the two letters that now sit right in the middle of New Testament providing some of the most inspiring, not to mention quotable, lines. Very possible that we would not have had Romans which he wrote on his third visit to Corinth. The Roman letter is very calm compared to the storm of emotions that surge in 2nd Corinthians. But it is the calm after one has ridden out a storm, a calm that can be explained only by the eyes that has seen the rage of the waters the night before. Romans is a theology that has been tested. It is not the emotionless theology of an academician, but an emotionally grounded theology of a mature pastor. Paul knows the deep power of the gospel; it was what reconciled Paul and Corinth, his first love.

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Gangnam-Style and Gospel-Style, Psy and Pentecost

Remember “Oppa Gangnam-Style” the surprising phenomenal hit? It was a Korean dance song that became an international hit and first to get one billion views!

And it was all Korean words – except for the “you know what I am saying” hip-hop phrase a side-splitting incongruity of a Korean nerd with no street cred flicking his wrist as if he grew up from the hood. English would have been the way to go if Psy sought international fame. But Turks flash-mobbed the dance and Australians horse-galloped to the song though they did not know a single Korean word!

People caught the spirit of the words and they danced without understanding many of the jokes in the lyric. Many wanted to the get the inside scoop and began asking any Korean they could get their hands on. Ian’s 2nd grade classmates asked him if he could translate what Psy was singing. This changed Ian into a fervent student of his mother’s language,  for two months, good while it lasted.

The spirit in the Gospel-Language is far different than what thumps in Gangnam-Style. But we should imitate the courage to simply speak one’s own language. Christian apologetics has too often become what it sounds like, an apology. We lose courage and in translating to sound eloquent or cool to the modern critics, we lose the meaning.

This past week, I invited a person to our new church plant saying, “we have a great child care program!” I was trying to sell the church as a drop-off child care center. What I should have said was, “God wants to renew your life so come worship with me this Sunday” even if it might have gone over his head or make him fidget. At certain point, a medicine diluted by water and honey to make it palatable is made ineffective.

At Pentecost, Peter preached in Aramaic. The crowd, however, understood it in their own language. It wasn’t because the apostles were speaking their language but because the Spirit was doing the translation. Trust the Spirit to do the translation and speak the Gospel-Language. They will want to first join you in the dance, then ask you what it all means.