Social Justice Pharisees

Woke Church Tactics and How to Engage Them

AD Robles

• Publisher: Morgan James Faith
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781631955723
• eBook ISBN: 9781631955730
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

Social Justice Pharisees: Woke Church Tactics and How to Engage Them prepares readers for the social justice conflict in their local church, evangelicalism in general, and the culture at large.

Social justice has been able to gain traction in the evangelical church due to a lack of clarity on key issues of biblical justice. The "woke church movement" seeks to capitalize on this lack of clarity and push politically progressive ideas in the conservative evangelical church. Biblical sounding words, such as "justice" and "love", are robbed of their meaning and the lack of clear teaching on these issues has put the layman in an uncomfortable position. The good news is that the solution is straightforward. Social Justice Pharisees shows that there are a handful of easy to memorize verses that teach easy-to-understand principles that refute each objectionable aspect of the social justice movements key errors. They have been there all along and just need to be applied to modern context in a straightforward way.

A.D. Robles is a Puerto Rican reformed Christian. His family tree includes African slaves, European slaveholders, slave traders, and native Americans. All the usual accusations and insults don't work against him and his family. More importantly, he has a knack for teaching biblical concepts in layman's terms, thereby amassing a following on his YouTube channel, which is dedicated to this task. Unlike many major theologians, in Social Justice Pharisees, A.D. does not try to dazzle with complicated words or reference obscure philosophers. Instead, he seeks to be understood plainly. For a handbook of this sort, this is crucial.

PART ONE

WOKE CHURCH TACTICS

CHAPTER 1

Do You Even Know about Justice?

(How the Woke Church Attempts to Frame You)

“But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”

—Amos 5:24, ESV

On July 14, 2020, a few weeks after George Floyd died while being detained by a police officer, evangelical author Paul David Tripp uploaded a video to YouTube titled “The Gospel, The Church, And Racial Injustice.” In this video Paul pleads with his “white brothers and sisters” to care enough about the issue of racial justice to “just get informed.” He suggested four ways to do this. Taking a somber and severe tone he looked into the camera and offered his advice.

First, just get out your phone or your iPad or your computer and google “the Bible and justice” and read the volume of passages on this issue. This is one of your Bible’s most dominant themes because a God of perfect justice will not be silent in the face of the multitude of injustices that a sin-broken world will create.¹

Paul Tripp is correct. If you google the word justice in the Bible you will find many, many verses. If you google the very similar word righteousness you will find many more. So, for everyone who is planning on deciding whether to join the woke church movement or attempt to defeat it based on how many times the word justice is used in the Bible, let me offer my suggestion: Don’t make that decision based on something so stupid.

It is difficult to understand how someone so smart can make such a bad suggestion. (I refuse to call this an argument because it is not one; it is a scam.) But he is not the only one. Megachurch pastor Tim Keller also discusses the frequency of the term justice in his writings on social justice.² Joe Carter, a prolific evangelical blogger, cites Tim Keller to the same effect.³ (Citing each other in each other’s article is one of the best ways to give the appearance of a consensus among authority figures.) The list could go on and on because it is a very popular way to address this topic: “The Bible says the word justice an awful lot, therefore….” We will get to that in a moment. Let me show you another tactic of the same kind.

At the 2018 T4G conference, Pastor David Platt gave a speech (or delivered a sermon; I can never tell what to call conference presentations) titled “Let Justice Roll Down Like Waters; Racism and Our Need for Repentance.”⁴ This was a speech that presented “social justice” as a primary issue of concern for a gospel-centered, Bible-believing church. As you might have guessed, the primary Bible passage he used was Amos chapter 5, starting at verse 18.

In this talk Platt makes the argument that God cares a lot about justice. He cares so much about justice that if you are committing injustice He does not want to hear your songs of praise. He does not even want to consider your sacrifices or offerings. In fact, God cares so much about justice that He gets no pleasure at all from our church gatherings. It all sounds pretty serious, and it is. When you look at the passage he quotes, it seems to make the case pretty plainly.

Verse 18 starts,

Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord! to what end is it for you? the day of the Lord is darkness, and not light.

Verse 21 and 22 continue:

I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts.⁵

And finally, the climax, verse 24:

But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. (Amos 5:24, ESV) ⁶

It seems like a pretty open-and-shut case. God reveals in His Word that He cares a great deal about justice. Christians want to be holy as God is holy; therefore we should care about justice. Done deal.

One thing I have noticed over a few years of talking to social justice advocates in the church is that these kinds of arguments are typically used in the beginning of a longer presentation. This is true in all the examples above. Paul Tripp’s very first piece of advice, before you do anything else, is to google the word justice in the Bible. Tim Keller starts his article with the statistics on how often the word justice occurs in the Bible. Similarly, David Platt’s speech on social/racial justice begins with a Bible verse that contains the word justice. (Just in case anyone is wondering, there is nothing wrong with starting a sermon with a Bible verse.)

What is happening here is that you are being framed. That’s right: The woke church movement is attempting to frame you. That might sound nefarious to you, and that’s good because it is. Debates are often won or lost, based solely on how the conversation is framed. You must never allow a false framework to stand if you are going to defeat the woke church movement. Allow me to illustrate.

Suppose you are an upstanding American citizen who has never used illicit drugs in your life. One day you get nominated by the president to be the next Supreme Court Justice. Congratulations! Then you remember how confirmation hearings go for conservatives. Not good. They drag you into the interrogation, MSNBC’s cameras are rolling, and the judiciary committee sits in gleeful anticipation. As you sit down you are instantly asked the first question.

“Exactly when did you stop using crack/cocaine?”

Most people can see that the way this question is framed is a bit tricky. If you do not answer the question, you look like you are evading. If you do answer the question, then you are admitting that at some point you stopped using an illicit substance, meaning that at some point you were using an illicit substance. This is a simplistic illustration, but the only way to defeat a question that has been framed against you is to challenge the framing of the question itself.

“Mr. Chairman, that question is framed inappropriately. Let it be known that I have never used crack/cocaine; therefore, to ask when I stopped using crack/cocaine is ridiculous.”

It is simple enough to spot a question framed against you. Spotting an argument that is incorrectly framed can be a bit more challenging. Let us try a quick warm-up.

In the weeks leading up to the 2020 presidential election many evangelicals attempted to make a pro-life case for voting for Joe Biden. This was weird because Joe Biden was one of the most pro-abortion presidential candidates in history. So how did they make this case? They framed their arguments in a particular way. Evangelicals started arguing that the primary goal regarding abortion was to limit the number of abortions happening in the United States. This statement sounds reasonable, and it has an element of truth to it. Who would not want to limit the number of abortions happening? Sit tight for the rest of the argument.

Because the primary goal is to limit abortions, then any strategy that accomplishes this task should be allowable for a Christian. Joe Biden favors caring for the poor and marginalized which helps limit abortions through superior contraception services and financial stability. Therefore, voting for Joe Biden could actually help limit abortions more than voting for President Trump despite Biden’s pro-choice stance.

Some will even quote convincing-sounding statistics.

If you look at the historical statistics, there are fewer abortions when democrats are in charge; therefore if you want to reduce abortions you will vote democrat.

Many people will find this line of thinking convincing. I believe this is because of the false, yet reasonable-sounding way the argument is framed.

How do you defeat this? You could try to poke holes in each claim individually. You could challenge the validity of the statistics or challenge the value of studies that show a larger welfare program resulting in fewer abortions. To me, this is like playing whack-a-mole. The more you whack each claim, the more claims keep coming at you. Instead, my recommendation is to cut the argument off at the root. The way the argument is framed is wrong, so challenge that directly.

I am a Christian, so while I do want to limit the number of abortions that take place, my highest goal is to honor Christ and love my neighbor according to His commands. Love requires that I defend my preborn neighbor the same way I would anyone else. Murdering them should be illegal under penalty of death. That is what love requires. I personally believe this approach will also limit abortions effectively. Using your framing of “limiting abortions” as the highest goal, one could argue that we should require everyone to be sterilized, since, in theory, that would make the abortion rate zero. I am sure you can see the problem there.

Before you think to yourself, That’s a ridiculous example, do not forget about the way the nation of Iceland was recently celebrated for finding the cure for Down’s Syndrome. They simply abort every baby that tests positive and call it a day.

Let us get back to social justice. How are you being framed? In the case of both Paul Tripp and David Platt, it is made clear that their video presentations are targeted for a white audience, white evangelicals specifically. (I guess I am off the hook depending on how you define white.) So the question really is, how are white people being framed by the arguments of the woke church movement?

Think about Paul Tripp’s advice in his viral video on social justice. When he recommends you search the phrase “Bible and justice” in Google, what is he assuming about his audience? I think it is clear his expectation is that his audience, in general, is unaware the Bible speaks about justice. His expectation is that when you click the Enter key, the wall of results you get from your keyword search will surprise you to such a degree that you will have to admit you were simply ignorant about the subject of social justice and must now sit at the feet of those pushing the woke church doctrines in order to educate yourself. In fact, only a few sentences later Paul Tripp recommends one of the worst books ever written on the Bible and justice, Woke Church by Dr. Eric Mason. Dr. Mason is Paul Tripp’s pastor. (Consider checking out the AD Robles YouTube channel for a thorough review and response to this book. I suffered through it so you don’t have to.)

Think about David Platt’s speech at the T4G conference. When he starts his talk about social justice by quoting the verse

But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream

what is he assuming about his audience? I think it is clear he is assuming that the fact God takes justice so seriously will surprise people. Can you imagine? God is so concerned about the topic of justice He actually hates the church gatherings of those who ignore it? David Platt expects this extreme emphasis on justice from the Bible will take his audience off guard. He expects this approach will be enough to shock the system so you will listen and believe the woke church presentation he is about to launch into for the rest of his time on stage. After all, nobody wants to go to church on Sunday if God actually hates your assembly because you still do not care enough about justice. Time to get woke, right?

I think both of these are great examples of improper framing. Paul Tripp and David Platt are attempting to make arguments for the woke church in their presentations. Both are presenting ideas of systemic racial injustice, white privilege, and other buzzwords of various kinds. These are extraordinarily complex ideas that are quite difficult for anyone to sell in just one sitting. Both men know this. This is why framing is so important to these discussions in the church.

Is it true that white people, in general, do not realize the Bible speaks often about justice? Is it true, in general, that white people do not realize God cares deeply about the issues of justice? I have no reason to think these are even remotely true.

I grew up in an evangelical church, but I truly came to Christ as an adult. The issues of the law of God, righteousness, justice, and partiality were clearly taught to me from as early as I can remember. I knew justice demanded certain things of me. I knew God cared so much about justice that He sent Jesus to the cross to die for the sins of His people. I knew God did not have different standards of morality for people of different ethnicities or different financial means. I knew from an incredibly early age there was no partiality with God and I should imitate God in this way. All this, with most of my Bible teachers being white evangelicals. I have no reason to think it is true that somehow white evangelicals do not know God cares about justice even though our Bible contains four gigantic books of law. I think this is an absurd assumption on the face of it.

The absurdity of this claim is why it is so important to the woke church to frame it in this way. If you can make someone accept the absurd claim that social justice doctrine was always there, but you simply missed it, then you can fill in the manufactured “void” with all kinds of strange beliefs. In fact, this is exactly what happens in the David Platt T4G speech. It goes like this:

1. Claim that white people have ignored the biblical issue of j...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Part One: Woke Church Tactics
• Part Two: How to Engage
• About the Author
• Thank you for reading!