Justice Issues Today: Theology of Liberation or Salvation?

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Christina Robbins
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1 Justice and the Gospel 4 Texts: Gal. 4:21-5:1, Matt. 25:31-40 Valley Community Baptist Church Jan. 28/29, 2017 Avon/Bristol, CT Pastor Jay Abramson Justice Issues Today: Theology of Liberation or Salvation? A true story is told of a young kindergartener named Dorothy who was riding in the car with her mother when she asked, Mom, do you believe in hell? Her mom said, Yes, honey, I do. Dorothy then asked, Does everyone believe in hell? Her mom simply said, No. Dorothy then nearly shouted, Well, my teacher does! She talks about it every day. Her mother, now staring at her daughter in the rearview mirror, asked, What does your teacher say about hell, honey? Raising and lowering her hands to imitate her teacher, Dorothy said, Every morning she says, In-hell, ex-hell, in-hell, ex-hell. 1 It s easy to misunderstand someone. In this series, I think I ve already introduced plenty of possibilities for misunderstanding, but today I m going to introduce one more! Today we ll examine two different ways that the church has historically addressed the issue of justice. Obviously, this won t be an exhaustive study. My hope is that it just won t be exhausting! I m labeling these two approaches to justice by the church as Liberation Theology and Salvation Theology. First, we need to see their I. Definitions The word theology simply means The study of God. So, there are many different styles, flavors, and shapes of theology. The question many people ask is, Which one is right? The only way I know to answer: The one that s most biblical. And by biblical, I mean, The one that takes the Bible at face value, allowing the Bible to define itself, not imposing definitions upon it. Now, regarding the issue of justice, I want to talk about two theologies today because they both address the categories of justice, such as, poverty, racial inequality, and oppression. But they each will lead you to very different solutions. First, let s consider Salvation Theology. Salvation Theology is basically Reformation Theology, meaning the theology of the Protestant Reformation. For a thousand years before the Reformation, there was one authority that determined the beliefs and Bible interpretations for Christians, namely the papacy. The Reformation changed all that. Reformers like Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli asserted a return to the authority of the Scriptures; in Latin, sola scriptura the Scriptures alone. One of the greatest theological changes came in the definition of salvation how sinners could be saved from the wrath of God, which is the consequence of our sin. The Roman Catholic Church had introduced the practice of literally paying money to have your sins forgiven through the sale of indulgences. It was this practice that put Luther over the edge. In Luther s classic commentary on Romans, he said that it was Rom. 1:17 that opened him to understand that salvation was by faith alone; in Latin, sola fide. Romans 1:17 says: For in it (the gospel, v.16) the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, The righteous shall live by faith. (cited from Hab. 2:4) 1

2 So, it s not our work, or our obedience that remove the guilt of our sin, but faith in the work of Jesus on the cross, which works on our behalf through faith. The heart and sou,l then, of Reformation Theology is sola scriptura (Scripture alone as our authority) and sola fide (faith alone as our only means of salvation). And this salvation is individualistic as opposed to corporate. Ezek. 18:20: The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself. What does this have to do with poverty, racial inequality, and oppression? Well, what it should do is nearly eliminate them. (I say nearly only because to completely eliminate them would require that everyone become a Christian.) I say this not only because of the hundreds of Old Testament passages that tell followers of God to give to the poor or to treat sojourners, foreigners in Israel, with respect and kindness, or to take action on behalf of the oppressed (widows, orphans and aliens), but also because of what Jesus taught. When Jesus was asked to define who my neighbor is, what did He say? He told the story of a non-jew, a Samaritan, who cared for a wounded Jew better than the religious Jewish leaders. And in Matt. 25, Jesus describes the righteous, the ones who will enter eternal life, (the ones who will be SAVED!). He described them as those who feed and clothe the poor, those who welcome the stranger (Greek=xenos, foreigner) treated them like a fellow Israelite and visited the one who was oppressed (visited the one in prison). The ones who do that are the sheep. And those who DON T feed and clothe the poor, welcome the foreigner, or visit the oppressed will not inherit eternal life, but will go away into eternal punishment. (They will NOT be saved.) Jesus said these are the goats. Now, doing these acts of justice doesn t make them sheep or goats, it just identifies them as sheep or goats. So, this is what Reformation Christianity is supposed to look like: Sins are forgiven by faith in the work of Christ, and behaviors demonstrate a passion for obedience. Unfortunately, at different periods of history, people called themselves sheep but acted like goats. And any of us are capable of this; any Christian is capable of sin. But thankfully, the Bible has a solution for a Christian who s acting like a goat. It says in Gal. 6:1 and 2: Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. But in certain dark periods of history, Christians did NOT stop other Christians from transgressing the law of Christ. The Holocaust happened in the same nation that gave birth to the Reformation! And our country was founded by the Puritans, who had a dream of establishing a Christian nation that would be a city on a hill, a beacon light of Christianity for all the world to see. Yet it was in this country that human slavery was practiced, basically from the beginning. It was two hundred and forty years after the Mayflower landed at Plymouth before slavery was forcibly abolished through the Civil War. Why do I drag us all through those nasty memories? Because Liberation Theology largely came about as an alternate solution, because Salvation Theology s solution didn t seem to be enough. So, what is Liberation Theology and how is it different from Salvation or Reformation Theology? Liberation Theology is a much more recent approach. It basically appeared in the midseventies (1970s!) so, less than 50 years ago. But it is having a major influence in non-white Christian ethnic groups around the world today. There are primarily two prominent tracks: Black 2

3 Liberation Theology, championed by James H. Cone, a professor of theology at Union Theological Seminary in New York; and Latin American Liberation Theology as expressed by various theologians, such as, Peruvian professor Gustavo Gutierrez; and Uruguayan Jesuit priest, Juan Luis Segundo, and an ex-jesuit priest, Jose Porfirio Miranda. So, how does Liberation Theology approach the justice issues of poverty, inequality, and oppression? Rather than focusing on individual sin, Liberation Theology focuses more on corporate sin, institutional sin. Liberation Theology describes sin, not in terms of an individual s rebellion against God, but in terms of structural and corporate injustice. The favorite biblical image is the Exodus where the oppressed, impoverished Jewish slaves are freed corporately by the actions of Moses. So, Liberation theologians focus on solutions that start at the top: government policies, business-hiring practices, school-segregation laws. Is this biblical? Well, if by that we mean is corporate sin biblical and real, then we must answer, yes. Ron Sider, president of Evangelicals for Social Action, writes: The explosive message of the prophets is that God destroyed Israel not only because of idolatry but also because of economic exploitation and mistreatment of the poor. 2 Isaiah prophesied to the nation of Judah and said: The LORD will enter into judgment with the elders and princes of his people: It is you who have devoured the vineyard, the spoil of the poor is in your houses. What do you mean by crushing my people, by grinding the face of the poor? declares the Lord God of hosts. (Is. 3:14-15) Unfortunately, most liberation theologians have sought ONLY political or corporate solutions to solve the sins of injustice, rather than individual confession. Many Liberation theologians embrace the ideology of Marxism to fashion their action plans. This means that the real enemy is Capitalism. So, what then is salvation in a Liberation Theology context? Father Gutierrez writes: emancipation... is to see man in search of a qualitatively different society in which he will be free from all servitude 3 So, while there is much more that can be said about Liberation Theology, its greatest problem is that it fails to treat the Exodus as a foreshadowing of the spiritual deliverance that Christ brings. In the New Testament, Jesus is pictured as a greater Passover Lamb (I Cor. 5:7), a greater Moses (Heb. 3:1-6), and the true Israel (Matt. 2:15). Simply put, the Exodus isn t only a rescue from physical poverty, inequality, and oppression. It is that, but it s also a liberation from spiritual poverty, inequality, and oppression. So, the gospel of Liberation Theology is only half a gospel. In other words, the liberation offered by Liberation Theology is only for this world, not eternity. So, you might be thinking about now, this is why I steer away from studying theology. It s so impractical! Well, let s address that next. II. How Can We Apply Any of This? Both of these theologies can be used to affirm biblical truth, or misused to teach biblical error. Salvation Theology has been misused to ignore institutional sin, sin which infected whole cultures and brought tremendous suffering to millions of people. And Liberation Theology has been misused to ignore the greater liberation being offered by God to all humanity, namely spiritual freedom found only in Jesus Christ, and instead has focused on political freedom that has sent thousands of people to a Christless eternity. So, how do we as 21 st century Christians avoid these two misuses of theology? 3

4 First, we need to listen to the biblical truth that Liberation Theology contains. And it does contain significant biblical truth! Of first importance is the fact that untreated individual sins of injustice hurt people and are an abomination to God. Ignoring the poor, treating the foreigner (those of another race) as of lower value than my race, and using whatever social influence or power that I have to oppress other people, are sin. And we all, even the most spiritually mature among us, are capable of sinning like that! Jonathan Edwards was a remarkable preacher and God used him incredibly. He preached his famous sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God right here in Connecticut, just up the road in Windsor. And it was in his church that George Whitefield did a series of sermons that launched the first Great Awakening in this country that (conservatively) saw hundreds of thousands of people genuinely saved. Edwards is considered by many Bible scholars as the greatest theologian this country has ever produced. He wrote at length about the commands of Jesus to love the poor and the needy and the oppressed. Yet, until the day he died, Jonathan Edwards owned slaves. He went to the public auction block and bought trembling little African girls and boys. How is this possible? In Gen. 4, we find the story of Cain and Abel. God asks them each to bring an offering and God accepted Abel s, but not Cain s. So, Cain killed his brother Abel. And what s the first thing Cain did after killing his brother? Nothing. He tried to just ignore the issue, as if it had no spiritual significance. Pastor Mika Edmondson makes this observation: Not only did Cain not bring up his sin, he became irritated when God brought it up He denied knowing anything about it. You will hear people actively deny that racial injustice is even an issue. We wouldn t have a race problem if you didn t keep bringing it up. Cain then got irritated with the whole idea that he should know about his brother s whereabouts He asked with a sneer, Am I my brother s keeper? When you bring up racial sin, people will say, Why should I care about that? You re just playing the race card. Is this our way of saying, Am I my brother s keeper? 4 The truth we need to take from Liberation Theology is that sin is sin and oftentimes hard to see in ourselves. We need one another to shine the light of truth, gently, into our lives. And what truth do we need from Salvation Theology? At the end of Gal. 4, Paul is drawing a very significant truth from the Old Testament story of Abraham. It says: Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. (Gal. 4:22-23) What is this about? Paul says this is God giving us a picture of reality. There isn t just one kingdom in this world! There are two one visible and one invisible. The visible kingdom is real, it s important, but its temporary. It s of the flesh. The invisible kingdom is just as real, maybe more real, but it s eternal. Then he makes this profound application: Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. (Gal. 4:28-29) Paul is unwinding a riddle. For a period of time, Ishmael, the child born from non-faith because Abraham and Sarah couldn t wait for God to fulfill His promise to them in His time; that son persecuted the son born of faith, Isaac. And Paul says that s what s happening today! Nonbelievers are persecuting the believers, born through promise. It s always been this way and it will continue to be this way until Jesus Christ, the greater Moses, returns to set us free. 4

5 So, how do we apply this? Does this mean we should ignore the poor, abuse the foreigner, and let the oppressed be oppressed? No! No, we should do what Jesus said we should do: feed the hungry, clothe the naked, welcome the foreigner into our homes, and visit the oppressed in prison. But we should never be satisfied only to give physical food, emotional healing and political freedom! If we do that, we re literally leaving them as slaves in a kingdom that one day will be destroyed by fire! No, while we meet physical, emotional and relational needs, we must also show them the deeper truth of the existence of an eternal kingdom and the salvation that is available to anyone through faith alone in Jesus. Then they will experience the deepest meaning of the Exodus: that by the smeared blood of the Lamb on the doorpost of our lives, we will find not a temporary freedom, but an eternal freedom! For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. (Gal. 5:1) At the end of the passage from Matthew 25, it says: And the King will answer them (Matt. 25:40a) This is talking about Jesus when He comes at the end of the age. He s now revealed for what He truly is, the King of all the universe. And when He comes He will speak to us who are saved: Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me. (Matt. 25:40b) He said, as you did it, which means that once He comes, it s all over. Our record is in the book. So, this week, we still have the chance to write our story in God s eternal book. How might that fact edit your plans for this week? First, it would be good to erase some things from your book, right? God s the only one with the eraser. Whom will you ask to help you see your sin, which needs to be erased? I think, If Jonathan Edwards could miss something as big as slavery, what sin am I missing in my life? Secondly, Jesus makes it personal. He said, As you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me. What specifically does He mention we could do? Feed the hungry (both physically and spiritually); clothe the naked (both physically and spiritually); welcome the stranger, the foreigner (the one not carrying your genetic code); and visit the prisoner (both physically and spiritually). It all comes down to this: How will I treat Jesus this week? Let s pray 1 Child Asks if People Breathe in Hell. 2 An Evangelical Theology of Liberation, Ronald J. Sider 3 Rev. Gustavo Gutierrez, The Theology of Liberation as quoted by Michael Novak, The Case Against Liberation Theology, New York Times, Oct. 21, Is Black Lives Matter the New Civil Rights Movement? Dr. Mika Edmondson 5

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