Christian Reconstruction

Is our mission as a church social justice or social reform? According to Jim Wallis former editor of Sojourners the church’s mission is social justice. The three objectives of Sojourners are stated on his website:

A few years back Glen Beck ignited a firestorm when he said if you see the words “social justice” on a church website run as fast as you can. Beck mentioned Jim Wallis as an example of a social justice advocate. Was Beck right?

Our mission as a church is not social justice but we should practice social justice as individual Christians as one of many means to fulfill our mission. For example, feeding the hungry can provide an opportunity to give them the gospel. By the way, we don’t practice social justice because it is trendy but because this is what James 2:14-17 teaches. James teaches the church should take care of the physical needs of its members.

The mission statement for the non-profit COAT (Community Outreach for Archdale and Trinity) which ministers to over 500 needy families in Archdale and Trinity will include social justice. We are happy to help them, but our mission as a local church is not social justice. The mission of the church is the Great Commission given by Jesus in Matthew 28:19-20.

The Christian Reconstruction Movement

Gary North and Gary DeMur in the Christian Reconstruction Movement take social justice to another level. They teach the church should practice social justice to reconstruct society in order to bring in the kingdom.

Gary North writes that the church should provide “health care, education, welfare, social security, and many other social needs” (Christian Reconstruction, page 126). Gary North wrote how this social reform can happen:

“Every revolution needs slogans. Here is mine: politics fourth.

First comes personal faith in Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord (not just Saviour).

Second, comes Church renewal. There can be no successful reformation of society without first beginning a reformation of the Church.

Third, comes family renewal. This involves pulling your children out of public schools.

Fourth, comes local politics. At a minimum, this would involve public protests against abortion. From there we go to state and national politics” (page 124, 125).

All Christians who have not pulled their children out of public schools or protested at abortion clinics are not according to North, therefore, fulfilling God’s mission. Charles Ryrie calls this movement theonomy on page 231 in Basic Theology. He also defines theonomy as the state of being governed by God (page 515). Theonomy is being ruled by the OT Mosiac civil laws today.

The Cultural Mandate

There are three views concerning the Cultural Mandate:

  • The Cultural Mandate is for the church today. This social reform of society is based on Genesis 1:28 called the Cultural Mandate. There is an interesting discussion at The Gospel Coalition on the mission of the church by Kevin DeYoung, Greg Gilbert, and Ryan Kelly. I appreciate their emphasis on the proclamation of the gospel as the mission of the church. I disagree with them on interpreting the Cultural or Creation Mandate as operative today for the church.

  • The Cultural Mandate was cancelled after the Fall. God gave Adam dominion over all creation before the Fall into sin according to Genesis 1:28 when God said “subdue it and have dominion over… the earth.” This is why Christian Reconstruction is also called Dominion Theology (Christian Reconstruction, page 65). This truth is similarly stated in Hebrews 2:5-8a. The Fall, however, changed everything. Because of man’s Fall into sin, man does not NOW have dominion over creation. The same mandate is repeated after the Fall in Genesis 9:1 without the commands “subdue” and “have dominion over.” The author of Hebrews also marks this change in Hebrews 2:8b: “But now we see not yet all things put under him.” This is Charles Ryrie’s view.

Gary North and Gary DeMur in their book Christian Reconstruction quote Genesis 1:28 as the basis of Christian Reconstructionism several times but never Genesis 9:1 nor Hebrews 2:5-8 which record God’s reversal of man’s role because of his rebellion against God.

  • The Creation Mandate was given to mankind, not to the church. McCune explains, The prefall ‘dominion mandate ‘ of Gen 1:28…is given to all men as human beings… all people are to ‘subdue’ the earth for the benefit of mankind” (McCune, A Systematic Theology: Volume 2, 33-34). In the Noahic Covenant in Gen 9:1-11 the “responsibility to govern the world and its people is given, not specifically to God’s redeemed people as such, but rather to mankind in general” (Scott Aniol, “Polishing Brass on a Sinking Ship: Toward a Traditional Dispensationalist Philosophy of the Church and Cultural Engagement,” The Journal of Ministry & Theology 24, no. 1, Spring 2020, 19).

The Slavery Issue

What about the slavery issue? What is the church’s responsibility? There are more slaves today with human and sex trafficking than before the Civil War. Free The Slaves reports there are 27 million slaves today who are forced to work without pay. In Haiti, there are 300,000 slaves.

In April 2014, it was reported that forty people have been arrested for human trafficking in North Carolina, including thirty in Winston-Salem. Tragically, children and young people are bought or kidnapped for prostitution.

How did the apostle Paul respond to the slavery issue in the Roman Empire? He advised slaves and their masters how to treat each other as Christians. Why did Paul not raise the inhumane treatment of slaves who were equally made in the image of God? Why did Paul not initiate a programmatic plan for social action? Perhaps because slaves in some situations had higher standards of living than freedmen. Some freedmen sold themselves into slavery to better their lives. In the first century, slaves were teachers and medical doctors. Also, Paul indirectly dealt with slavery by winning slaves and their masters to Christ (which is our mission) and then encouraging the masters to free their slaves (Philemon 15-21).

Are we against human and sex trafficking? Absolutely! While abolishing human and sex trafficking is not the mission of our church we still can get involved in this social justice in order to do the mission of our church which in part is to witness and win the lost to Christ. Our mission, however, is not the reconstructing of society by the abolition of slavery to bring in the Kingdom.

The Christian Reconstruction Movement and the Civil Law of Moses

How does The Christian Reconstruction Movement propose reconstructing society? By placing our nation under the Law of Moses. Not just the Moral Law where most Reformed theologians are, but under also the Civil Law of Moses with capital punishment for a multitude of sins. Reconstructionists espouse “the continuing validity and applicability of the whole law of God including the Mosaic case laws is the standard by which individuals, families, and civil governments should conduct their affairs” (page 82).

This use of the law, according to Gordon R. Lewis and Bruce Demarest in their Integrative Theology, means capital punishment for a rebellious son (Deut 21:18-21) witchcraft (Ex 22:18) bestiality (Ex 22:19) adultery (Lev 20:10) homosexuality (Lev 20:13) and blasphemy (Lev 23:16) (page 352).

According to Christian Reconstruction Movement, the Law is a means of sanctification (page 105). Paul wrote clearly in Romans 6:14 that believers are not under the Law. North and DeMur say Romans 6:14 prohibits the law as a means of salvation (pages 100, 102). Paul’s intention by making this statement in Romans six is not salvation but sanctification. Paul says earlier in Romans six to Christians, “yield not to sin” (6:13). The context is sanctification. In Galatians, Paul argues that the Law is not a means of salvation nor a means of sanctification. The means of sanctification according to Paul is yielding to the Holy Spirit not placing yourself under the law (Galatians 5:16-23). Under the law in the Old Testament adulterers were stoned, but in this church age according to 1 Corinthians 5, adulterers are church disciplined not stoned.

The Mission of the Church is the Great Commission

The mission of the church is the Great Commission commanded by Jesus in Matthew 28:19, 20. Our focus is on making disciples who give out the gospel to their communities, workplaces, families, and classrooms. We stand up for justice in all of those arenas because God is just and the justifier of those who believe the gospel. We should be involved in helping needy families, victims of trafficking, and other social injustices as a means to fulfilling the Great Commission.

Peter wrote in 1 Peter 3:15 that we should “be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.” Are people asking why we do what we do because of our life and also our involvement in social justice? How have we as a church been involved in social justice? Sponsoring blood drives, collecting food and clothing for the needy, providing meals for homeless veterans, conducting a banquet for unwed mothers, and ministering to troubled girls. While social justice is not our mission, we practice social justice as a means of getting the gospel out which is our mission.

Our Mission is not the Social Gospel

The danger we must avoid is allowing social justice to become the social gospel. At the turn of the 20th century, Walter Rauschenbusch who pastored in Hell’s Kitchen in Manhattan became the Father of the Social Gospel. He wrote Theology for the Social Gospel.

Mohler writes: In a 1904 essay, “The New Evangelism,” Rauschenbusch called for a departure from “the old evangelism” which was all about salvation from sin through faith in Christ, and for the embrace of a “new evangelism” which was about salvation from social ills and injustice in order to realize, at least partially, the Kingdom of God on earth. He called for Christian missions to be redirected in order to “Christianize international politics.”

Our Mission is not to bring in the Kingdom

The Christian Reformed Movement is postmillennial in believing that the church will bring in the kingdom not only through the gospel but through social and political activism (page 59, 60; 127). Christ brings in His pre-millennial kingdom according to Revelation’s chronological outline: Second Coming to earth in Revelation 19 and the 1000 year millennial reign in Revelation 20 and eternity in Revelation 21, 22.

The Christian Reformed Movement is joined by charismatics in believing we are in the kingdom now with the prosperity promises of the millennium experienced now (page 127). “Kingdom Now” is the charismatic wing of the Christian Reconstruction Movement. A proof-text referenced Gary North and Gary DeMur is Isaiah 65:17-25. These millennial promises of prosperity include long life as before the flood. How can this be according to Christian Reconstruction? The reconstructing of society will include better medicine, health care, and technology so that these millennial prosperity promises come to pass.

How to interpret Millennial Promises of Prosperity

Wayne Grudem who is Third Wave correctly teaches that these promises in Isaiah will be fulfilled in the future millennium because they are not being fulfilled today nor will they be fulfilled in eternity (Systematic Theology, page 1127).

Misinterpreting Genesis 1:28 as the Cultural Mandate for today for the church has serious consequences. We don’t need the Cultural Mandate to practice social justice and impact our cities and our culture. The Great Commission mandates that we make disciples by winning the sinner, baptizing the convert, and then teaching the convert to observe all things whatsoever Jesus taught? Jesus taught repent and believe and also feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the prisoners, and take in the strangers (I know Matthew 25 is a Tribulation Period passage but the principle is the same). He also said the Spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach the gospel to the poor. The Great Commission is our mandate to use social justice as a means of making disciples.