Grace Thoughts
God’s Justice: How It Works (Part Eleven)
What is a “social justice warrior”? The definition you choose might depend on your political or social views. The phrase (social justice warrior-SJW) is often used in a negative way to describe someone who is viewed as being overly progressive.
Social justice warrior and SJW are typically used with sardonic application, referring to a person who is seen as overly enthusiastic about issues of fairness in the treatment of matters of race, gender, or identity. Merriam-Webster
However, SJW can also be used in a positive way to describe someone who fights for a “just” or “righteous” cause within a society. One question we might ask ourselves is who determines what cause is just or righteous?
[Listen to a Podcast of this study by clicking this link.]
Fighting For A Just Cause
A “warrior” is someone who “fights” for a cause.
One who is engaged in or experienced in battle. One who is engaged aggressively or energetically in an activity, cause, or conflict. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
Credit San Francisco Chronicle, Oct. 17, 1967
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Not all warriors agree that the war they are fighting is a just one. I served in the military during the Vietnam War and knew many young warriors who believed the war they were fighting in was unjust. I also knew warriors who served during World War II and they believed that war was just. What was the difference?
To some degree the differences were based on political or social views. Many people in the 1960s viewed the Vietnam War as immoral and unnecessary. Many people in the 1940s viewed World War II as moral and absolutely necessary.
The number of people who died during World War II (more than 70 million) eclipsed the number who died in the Vietnam War (about 3.8 million), so the number of deaths is apparently not the determiner of whether a war is just or unjust. There have to be other reasons.
The number of people who have died in wars and conflicts from just 1900 to the present day is staggering. Estimates are as high as 200-million people around the world. The number of people who died in wars and conflicts prior to 1900 is also estimated to be in the hundreds of millions. These are just the numbers of people who died from war and conflict. How many people were injured? How many people were made homeless? How many people were mentally and emotionally scarred? Hundreds of millions? Certainly.
Which of those wars and conflict were “just” wars? The answer probably depends on who you ask? Many people who fought battles through the millennia believed they were involved in a just conflict. They believed that justice was on their side. Ask leaders, soldiers and civilians from each side in a conflict and they would probably tell you they were fighting for a just cause. Why? Because they saw themselves as “just.”
They might echo the words of the Bible:
It is a joy for the just to do justice, But destruction will come to the workers of iniquity. Proverbs 21:15
That sounds nice, but what if everyone thinks they are on the side of justice? Can everyone involved in a war be on the side of justice? Isn’t that a logical immpossibility? Who then determines what is just and unjust?
Again, we turn to the Bible:
Many seek the ruler’s favor, But justice for man comes from the Lord. Proverbs 29:6
There you have it. Justice for man comes from the Lord. We know what is just and unjust by discovering how God views anything and everything. God is the Creator and Sustainer. He is also the Lawmaker and the Judge. God determines what is justice.
God’s Justice
God in Heaven is a different type of ruler than people on earth. He cares deeply about administering justice and will not take bribes to do otherwise.
For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe. He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing. Therefore love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. Deuteronomy 10:17-19
He is the Rock, His work is perfect; For all His ways are justice, A God of truth and without injustice; Righteous and upright is He. Deuteronomy 32:4
I firmly believe that there can be no true justice without God. People can call any cause just, but that does not make it so. Only those causes that God confirms as just are in fact just causes. Showing no partiality and not taking a bribe is a just cause. Administering justice for the fatherless is a just cause. Administering justice for widows is a just cause. Loving the stranger and giving them food and clothing is a just cause.
James, the half-brother of Jesus, echoed those causes in his letter. He went so far to claim that these just causes are pure religion before God.
Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. James 1:27
Does God support war and conflict? If He does, how can He claim to be perfect? How can He claim to be a God of truth and without injustice? How can God claim to be righteous and upright if He endorses war?
Good question and worthy of an answer.
After God destroyed the wicked of the world and started fresh with Noah and his family, God gave Noah and his descendants a just cause of taking human life for a particular purpose:
Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man’s brother I will require the life of man. ‘Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God He made man. Genesis 9:5-6
God said that He “will demand a reckoning.” Giving Noah and his descendants the authority to take the life of someone who shed the blood of another person was a just cause. We have addressed that issue in detail in earlier parts of this series, so we link to them here if you’re interested in reading more about that subject.
While God gave Noah and his descendants authority to take the life of someone who shed another person’s blood, God continued to use His authority to do the same. It’s helpful to understand just causes from God’s perspective because some belong to humans and some belong to God.
Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord. Romans 12:19
Here are a couple of early examples in the Bible.
Abraham’s Battle Against Kings
In Genesis 14 we learn about several kings who fought each other. Some of the kings took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and went their way. They also kidnapped Lot, his family, and goods. That type of kidnapping usually led to murder or slavery of those kidnapped. Here’s what happened next:
Then one who had escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew, for he dwelt by the terebinth trees of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and brother of Aner; and they were allies with Abram. Now when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his three hundred and eighteen trained servants who were born in his own house, and went in pursuit as far as Dan. He divided his forces against them by night, and he and his servants attacked them and pursued them as far as Hobah, which is north of Damascus. So he brought back all the goods, and also brought back his brother Lot and his goods, as well as the women and the people. Genesis 14:13-16
We don’t see Abraham asking God whether engaging in battle was a just cause. Abraham acted on the rights God had given to people to act justly. Members of his family were kidnapped during the actions of warring kings, so Abraham and his trained servants attacked the kings and their armies and rescued his family.
God Destroys Sodom and Gomorrah
Lot got into more trouble living so close to wicked people. It was the wickedness of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah that became a just cause for God’s declaration of war against them. You can read the full story in Genesis 19, but here’s a short note about what happened:
Then the Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the Lord out of the heavens. So He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground … And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot had dwelt. Genesis 19:24-25, 29
This is an example of God’s vengeance on the wickedness of evil people — a just cause indeed.
SJW in the Bible
I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Genesis 12:2-3
God chose Abraham for the purpose of becoming the father of a great nation. That nation became known as Israel. Through Israel, God would bless all the families of the earth. How? By sending His Son to die for sin and to conquer death through His resurrection. God promised Eve a Seed that would destroy the seed of the serpent. That Seed was Jesus.
He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. 1 John 3:8
The final destruction of the devil’s works is coming soon.
The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. Revelation 20:10
That’s the good news. The bad news is what happens next:
Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire. Revelation 20:11-15
God is Perfect. All His ways are justice. He is a God of truth and without injustice. He is Righteous and Upright. God will judge all people justly. Those whose names are not found written in the Book of Life will be cast into the lake of fire.
Many people today, including many Christians, believe God would be unjust to punish people for their sins. In order to believe that, they must ignore or twist Scripture. The plain reading of God’s Word points to a time of ultimate judgment for the devil and his angels, and every person who has ever lived. The key is your name in a Book.
Is your name written in the Book of Life?
Two of the clearest Scriptures about salvation are the words of the Apostle Paul:
Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. And he brought them out and said, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ So they said, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.’ Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptized. Now when he had brought them into his house, he set food before them; and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household. Acts 16:29-34
But what does it say? ‘The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart’ (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, ‘Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.’ For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For ‘whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Romans 10:8-13
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
Notice the promise — “you will be saved.” Being saved means your name is written in the Book of Life. What does that mean? It means living in the luxury of God’s presence forever.
Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. Revelation 21:1-4
[Listen to a Podcast of this study by clicking this link.]
Next Time
We’ll continue our look into the history of social justice warriors in the next part of our series, God’s Justice: How It Works.
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