Giving Wokeness the Boot!

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective

Listen to this article here

Since Donald J. Trump has been successfully elected to be the 47th president of the United States of America, it is very interesting to see that he seems to have learned a few things about how Washington DC works. Based on his announced nominees for various positions throughout government offices, he seems to be intent on picking people who have an “America first” view of things. Of course, who really knows with people in DC with all the backroom deals?

There is also going to be a GOP majority in the House and Senate, so when it comes time to approving those nominations in the Senate, things should go smoothly. Then again anti-Trumper Thune has been voted in by the majority of Republicans in the Senate as the new Majority Leader. Beyond that, there are always the RINOs (Republican in Name Only), to contend with, which never seems to have counterparts within the Democratic Party (DINOs). Gosh, one would think people like Adam Kinzinger, Liz Cheney, Dan Crenshaw and a host of others only pretended to be actual Republicans to get elected and then in fairly quick time, showed their true colors. We also need to remember that the intelligence agencies are not going to stand down either as they have much to lose. The road ahead for Trump and America is not an easy one and filled with many pitfalls.

One thing is certain that Trump appears to be picking people who side with him in his stand against the wokeness within America and the world. Whether it’s Critical Race Theory (CRT), Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), the constant push for increased LGBTQ+ “rights” including so-called transgenderism, climate change or something else, these issues tend to divide people greatly. In fact, this appears to be the intended result of those ideologies; to divide, conquer and enslave. This is what Marxism has always done.

The issue of “climate change” is essentially based on “social and racial equity,” which is absolute hogwash. But the Left has to find a way to keep society divided because it is through such division that the real issues are not being dealt with at all.

Trump wants us out of The WHO and the Paris Climate agreements. He wants to “drill, baby drill” in this country to make America once again energy independent. He wants to get rid of “green” energy, which is nothing but a mirage that will not work. He wants manufacturing to return to the USA and to do that, he is willing to place higher tariffs on imported goods, with the intention of wanting those foreign manufacturers to create factories in the USA, as there used to be.

There are a lot of things President-elect Trump says he wants to do. Will he get them done? He will if Congress cooperates and there are no further attempts on his life and the intelligence agencies stand down. But all of this is up doubtful so it is important that faithful Christians continue praying for Trump, his administration and what God may have plans to do through him.

Tucker Carlson stated at the recent Genius Network[1], that because Trump won by such a huge margin (including the popular vote), he was clearly given a mandate by Americans. That mandate is to dump DEI, climate change, transgenderism, and the rest because all it does is divide people. This is what began since Obama became president and that division has increased annually to the point where we are experiencing the absurdities of the Left that they want us to embrace as the new normal. Well, people have had it. They don’t want that new normal the Left is pushing and they made that statement loud and clear this past November 5th.

But what I’d also like to note is that what often happens in the secular and political arenas, often ends up finding its way into the Church (or Christendom). It doesn’t enter as quickly into the Church, but it eventually gets there. This “wokeness” dark cloud manages to attach itself to people who sound intelligent, because they are nuancers, and hold great sway over their congregations and people within Christendom who are not in their congregations through their speaking engagements and books. In the end though, these people are nothing more than false teachers, who have embraced a false gospel: the Social Justice Gospel.

We all know the true Gospel as outlined in God’s Word (Matthew 28:16-20, aka the Great Commission). The job of the Christian, beyond living a life that pleases God by living a life of loving others, is to share the Good News with all people that Jesus died for our sins and has a way available that will gift us with eternal life through faith. This is not nuanced so that it takes a million words to explain it.

Just read Acts 4:10-12 to get a clear understanding of just how simple the truth is; a truth that uneducated Peter was easily able to explain to the “learned” men of the Sanhedrin he stood before.

10…It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. ¹¹ Jesus is

“‘the stone you builders rejected,
which has become the cornerstone.’

¹² Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

That truth does not need to be nuanced to the point where it somehow takes on other meanings (plural). It is clear. It is evident. It is truth that people either receive or reject.

But because of people like Tim Keller (who founded The Gospel Coalition; TGC), nuancing the truth of the Bible has become an artform, with a heavy reliance on CRT, feminism, homosexuality/LGBTQ, climate change and feelings. The entire thing can be summed up in the following way: If you are white (especially male), you are privileged. Because you cannot change your skin color, you must choose a life of penance so that people of color and women will understand that you are continually repenting of your whiteness and trying to rectify that situation.

This social justice gospel dictates that Christians – especially white Christians – must spend the rest of their lives in an attitude of repentance for simply being white (something I had zero control over). In this way, we must be willing to always go to the back of the line, pushing people of color and women ahead of us. The absurdity is seen for what it is by intelligent people with critical thinking skills, though it is masterfully explained to us by the likes of Tim Keller, J D Greear, David Platt, Andy Stanley and many others who have or had leadership positions within large congregations (aka mega churches).

I recently saw a video of Greear talking about how he wanted to see what he called 25/25 in his church. He wanted to see a 25% increase in people of color in his church by the year 2025. He denied that was tokenism or bean counting, etc. (my paraphrase). It most certainly is that! The implication is that blacks and others of color do not attend “white” churches because of systemic racism; a complete LIE.

In my area there are any number of black churches. Many blacks have their own worship styles and are often very vocal in response to the pastor during sermons. Most white people are more reserved. This is simply the nature of things. It doesn’t mean one is better than the other. Why would blacks, who desire a more upbeat worship style and are more willing to echo the pastor’s statements from the pulpit opt to go to mainly white churches that do not have those things? It doesn’t make sense to me and has nothing to do with race or racism and everything to do with personal preference.

In a related matter, this past week, we had dinner with some Christian friends from our church. During the conversation, the subject of David Platt was brought up. I had not heard of him, though through my research since I’ve learned enough to shake my head.

A documentary in two parts called The Real David Platt Documentary, Part 1 and Part 2 explains it.[2] The entire thing is very interesting (and tragic), regarding how David Platt, previously in the executive halls of the Southern Baptist Convention (or SBC; related to missions), but eventually became the “lead teaching pastor” at a church that was originally not Southern Baptist at all; McClean Bible Church. This was a non-denominational church in the Virginia area of the DC suburbs and the church’s constitution forbade them to become directly connected to a specific denomination.

In spite of this, SBC member David Platt managed to get his foot in the door, though there was already a senior pastor – Lon Solomon – a Jewish Christian who had been there since 1980 and had no intention of retiring or leaving anytime soon.[3] Yet, a year after Platt arrived, Solomon was gone – poof! – and David Platt became the senior pastor.

There are many things that are very troubling to me about this whole situation. Why would Platt – a key member of the SBC – go to a church that was not SBC and then essentially convert that church over to an SBC church? Platt did this allegedly in a surreptitious way by having MBC make several huge donations to the SBC. MBC was considered a mega church, with a budget of $32 million annually with many ministries to the community. That is not peanuts!

There are too many unanswered questions about this whole thing and the two-part documentary does its best to uncover and explain things. Beyond this, at least one independent journalist has uncovered things that point to the SBC using Platt to gain control of MBC’s huge budget.[4] Good Lord, is this what “evangelical Christians” have become? It’s all about the dollar?!

My understanding is that David Platt was part of The Gospel Coalition (TGC). When you hear him speak, it becomes obvious that he, like Keller, Greear, Matt Chandler and others, are big into nuancing the Bible to make it say something that it does not say. In Platt’s case, he seemed to have wasted no time in introducing CRT and the Bible’s alleged woke stance on race and homosexuality to the congregation at McLean Bible Church (MBC). Most of MBC’s staff now are also those who have had direct or indirect association with TGC.

The largest problem here (aside from the false teachings), is the division it caused at MBC. When people tried to protest or push back against the direction Platt was taking the church, they were told to leave or simply left on their own. This is the actual point to CRT and other social justice issues. They are designed for two main purposes: first, to cause major division and second, to install a new way of thinking. This is what it always does whether in the secular, political or religious realms.

At an upcoming conference TGC, there will be a host of controversial speakers and I see that Alistair Begg will be one of them. Many (not all), of the speakers are what are called “B side” speakers (as noted by Pastor Michael Grant in his video linked below[5]). He explains that B side speakers within Christendom support Gay Christianity (an oxymoron to be sure). So Greear, Piper, Allberry, Platt and now apparently, Begg to some degree, tend to support the LGBTQ movement.

The Bible appears to have a great deal to say about leaders like this. Are they authentic Christians? Are they true to His Word or were they at one time true to His Word, but have now gone off the deep end with the social justice gospel? Whether they are authentic Christians or not is something God and God only can and will judge. But one thing we can and should judge is what these people teach. It is by their teaching that they are known as either true or false teachers.

These people are moving away from the truth and reality of God’s Word, trafficking in lies and a false gospel, doing what they can to lead astray as many people as possible. But because their teachings and explanations sound so intellectually true (via nuance), many people embrace it.

I recently saw a video of Tim Keller speaking with two black folks during an interview. He essentially said that white privilege is the root of problems that people of color have had to deal with for decades and decades in America. He blithely said the Bible speaks about that yet not once did he reference Scripture. As he talked, the two sitting on the dais with him smiled benignly and shook their heads as though knowing exactly what Keller meant.

I don’t recall Jesus spending time talking about anything that resembled CRT, do you? I don’t recall Him propping up homosexuals as having a far more difficult time because of all the alleged homophobia directed at them, do you? Yet, this is becoming normative and a staple in many pulpits and books today!

Because of the heresies that the apostle Paul (and other apostles) constantly dealt with, he got to a point where he actually wished the false teachers would emasculate themselves (Galatians 5:12)! It was very frustrating to him to see and hear the false teaching of those who believed salvation came by faith and keeping aspects of the Mosaic Law (circumcision). Those “Judaizers” were doing their best to keep people bound to the confines of the Law so that new converts would never really be free from the past or their sin. This is essentially what “wokeness” is doing today, whether it’s in the secular, political, or religious realm.

This is ultimately what the social justice gospel does. It forces people (especially white people), to constantly be mindful of their “sin” of white privilege as they work to eliminate it. It’s similar to Roman Catholicism in a way, with their many forms of penance and purgatory.

As I said at the beginning of this article, Donald J. Trump wants to do away with all the wokeness in the federal government that has been destroying this country and society. He has a good chance to do that.

With respect to the religious realm, there are a growing number of leaders who have jumped on the CRT/DEI/LGBTQ bandwagon. It has done nothing except divide people into two groups. Because of that there are now “conservative” Christians and “liberal” Christians. This is ridiculous! There is only one type of authentic Christian, but it seems today, Christians can and should be for anti-whiteness, abortion, homosexuality, lesbianism, transgenderism and even pedophilia! This is absolutely insane, yet Jesus warned us in His Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21), about the end times and the increased proliferation of demonic activity and false teachers.

The apostle John also has something to say when false teachers become obvious, in 1 John 2:19.

They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.

Consider what John is saying. He notes that the people he was talking about were, at one time, physically part of a group of Christians. However, at some point, they left, they went out, essentially separating themselves from them. However, it doesn’t even have to be physical separation from authentic Christians. It could also mean they separated themselves from the truth of the Word in their hearts and minds, but remained in the same physical place.

The first characteristic mention of antichrists (i.e. false teachers and deceivers (vv22-26), is that they depart from the faithful…They arise from within the church and depart from true fellowship and lead people out with them. (John MacArthur).

It’s not just that false teachers or false Christians leave the Church within Christendom. What is more insidious is when these false teachers actually wind up staying and simply start teaching their heresies, which then forces true Christians to either embrace the errors or leave for another church. Is it possible that these false teachers (like political RINOs in our government), infiltrate churches presenting a certain guise as though they are an authentic believer appearing to embrace the absolute truth of God’s Word, only to eventually begin to outwardly veer from it, while remaining in their positions as lead pastors?

Now, I’m not saying that everyone who starts teaching a doctrine opposed to the truth of the Bible is a false teacher (although they are certainly teaching falsely at that point!). I am simply saying it is possible that at least some of them are false teachers from the beginning (as RINOs are actually Leftists in disguise), eventually letting their real beliefs surface. This has happened repeatedly at many biblical-based institutions throughout history.

In my opinion, all of this clearly indicates to me that we are living in the last days. The proliferation of biblical error is growing, replacing the truth of God’s Word with a social gospel that literally only has the capacity to divide people by race, gender and ideology. If a Christian does not study and know God’s Word, they have zero chances of seeing the error.

I personally believe it will worsen before it gets better. However, maybe with Trump as president and his rejection of the wokeness that is all too apparent today, maybe church leaders will also begin to follow suit. Maybe God will clean houses.

[1] https://tuckercarlson.com/tucker-speech-genius-network

[2] https://therealdavidplatt.com/

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lon_Solomon

[4] https://youtu.be/-CyFIBV8ZsI?si=MeTA36GDQhG3R1d4

[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLTUSIZbFcw&t=7s

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective

Source: https://studygrowknowblog.com/2024/11/14/giving-wokeness-the-boot/