Earlier this month, a statement titled “The Statement on Social Justice and the Gospel” was released to the public.  The heart of this statement can be identified by these words from the introduction to the statement itself:
“Specifically, we are deeply concerned that values borrowed from secular culture are currently undermining Scripture in the areas of race and ethnicity, manhood and womanhood, and human sexuality. The Bible’s teaching on each of these subjects is being challenged under the broad and somewhat nebulous rubric of concern for ‘social justice.’”
It is not my intention to debate each of the various affirmations and denials, some of which I can wholeheartedly support (Article II which affirms that all humans are created in the image of God) and others of which are strikingly tone-deaf (Article X which rejects “gay Christian” as an oxymoron).  For that, one good place to start is: http://ryanburtonking.blogspot.com/2018/09/why-i-cannot-and-will-not-sign-social.html
Rather, it is my intention to remind the anonymous writers and the public signers of this document of the well-established tradition of social justice in Scripture, and especially in the Old Testament prophets.
These prophets would find the statement’s “WE DENY that political or social activism should be viewed as integral components of the gospel or primary to the mission of the church” as anything but honoring to the God who created all human beings in the image of God.
In particular, the 8th century prophets (Isaiah of Jerusalem and Amos) are constantly pronouncing God’s judgment on those who choose to ignore the demands of social justice in the Israelite society as a whole.  (All quotations which follow are from the NIV.)
In Amos 5 (a prophetic pronouncement of judgment), we read that “There are those who turn justice into bitterness and cast righteousness to the ground” (v 7), that “there are those who hate the one who upholds justice in the court and detest the one who tells the truth.  You levy a straw tax on the poor and impose a tax on their grain” (vv 10-11).
One verse later, we read that “there are those who oppress the innocent and take bribes and deprive the poor of justice in the courts” (v 12).
The prophet exhorts his hearers to “seek good, not evil, that you may live… hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts.  Perhaps the LORD God Almighty will have mercy on the remnant of Joseph” (vv 14-15).  And in the best known verse of this chapter, Amos exhorts his hearts to “let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream” (v 24).
The Introduction to the NIV translation of Isaiah in the youversion Bible app reminds us that “Isaiah urges the people to care for the poor and the needy, commit to follow God’s ways, and pursue social and economic justice” (accessed September 5).
So it is not surprising that in the very first chapter of the book that bears his name, we read Isaiah’s exhortation to “Wash and make yourselves clean.  Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong.  Learn to do right; seek justice.  Defend the oppressed.  Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow” (v 17).
As for the capital city of Jerusalem itself, “She once was full of justice; righteousness used to dwell in her…  Your rulers are rebels, partners with thieves; they all love bribes and chase after gifts.  They do not defend the cause of the fatherless; the widow’s case does not come before them” (v 23).
Two centuries later, after the Judeans had returned from exile in Babylon, we read “Is this not the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and to untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?  Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter – when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?” (Isa 58:6-7; compare the parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25).
And during the ministry of Jesus, Luke 4 tells us in Jesus’ own words that he has been anointed “to proclaim good news to the poor… to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to see the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (vv 18-19, quoting Isaiah 61).
I can’t imagine that these (and other) texts from Scripture are unknown to those who wrote and those who subsequently signed this statement.  So I can only assume that in some way they are trying to dismiss or deny their normative value which in turn seems to be a contradiction to Article I, which affirms that “that the Bible is God’s Word, breathed out by him. It is inerrant, infallible, and the final authority for determining what is true (what we must believe) and what is right (how we must live).”
I can’t imagine how Bible-believing Christians could deny that Isaiah and Amos proclaim social justice to be a non-negotiable part of Bible-believing Christian living.  Does not Scripture proclaim with one unified voice the God who rules the heavens and the earth in justice and righteousness?  Don’t the prophets proclaim justice and righteousness as social values?  How then could these be anything besides a proclamation of “what is true (what we must believe)” and “what is right (how we must live)”?
Those who seek to live a vibrant faith in the 21st century will not shirk Scripture’s call to fight injustice and to work against oppression.  This statement is right to affirm that the demands of social justice and social activism should not be a part of the Sunday worship service (Article VIII).  The demands of social justice and social activism are no more limited to 60 minutes on Sunday morning than are prayer, meditation, and devotion.
Scripture’s call for social justice and social activism is instead the default way of life for Christians.  For followers of the Risen Lord, this lifestyle should be as natural as praying and reading Scripture.  It does not replace the gospel’s call to proclaim the Kingdom Come in evangelism, but it stands as an equal partner in the service of that Kingdom, no more but certainly no less important than evangelism.
May the one holy, catholic, and apostolic church reflect on its failure to embrace social justice as an integral part of the Christian lifestyle, repent where it has used its theology to hamper and obstruct the pursuit of social justice, and recommit itself to both the saving of human souls and the ending of human oppression wherever it may be found.

Rev. Henry Sun (Ph.D., Claremont Graduate School) is the pastor of Heritage Presbyterian Church and a high school math teacher at John Finney High School in Vallejo.

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