Back in September I posted an article concerning the The Statement on Social Justice & the Gospel. Not surprisingly, this statement has drawn some criticism, and, given the nature and importance of the issues, it led the the team at the Reformation21 blog to invite the authors of the statement to write a series of posts explaining each of the fourteen articles contained in the statement. So far, from September through December, they have written thirteen of these posts. Here is the editorial note written by the editor of the blog:
[Editorial Note: At Reformation21, we aim to offer a confessional Reformed perspective on contemporary issues. Many times contemporary issues are also controversial. We have never shied away from controversy. Controversial issues are sometimes also complex. We believe that in the case of things that are complex and controversial, we need to be even more careful that we are listening well and exercising biblical discernment. As the Bible instructs us: “Know this, my beloved brothers, let every person be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger” (James 1:20).
Our friends at Founders Ministries have recently been involved in helping to produce “The Statement on Social Justice and the Gospel.” It has caused quite a stir. It is a controversial statement on a complex issue. Some have said that the Statement is too broad and vague in its criticism. So we want to give the authors of the Statement a chance to elaborate further. Others have charged its writers with effectively implying that caring for the poor and caring about injustice should not matter to Christians (though the actual language of the Statement suggests otherwise). We believe the authors deserve a chance to explain what they were saying and what they intended.
The Statement on Social Justice was not produced by the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. Some of its defenders have close ties to the Alliance, while others have convictions that lie outside of the boundaries of the confessions to which we subscribe. While we are not officially endorsing the Statement, we certainly do believe its authors ought to be able to speak for themselves on these timely and important matters. We are mindful of the wisdom of Proverbs 18:17: “The one who states his case first seems right until the other comes and examines him.” So we invite you to come and examine these important issues. And our prayer is that all of us can conduct this examination in a spirit of discernment, wisdom, and brotherly love.
Jonathan Master,
Editorial Director of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals]
In order to aid you in locating and reading each of these articles, I thought it would be good to list and link them all here in order:
The Statement on SJ&G Explained: Article 1, Scripture
The Statement on SJ&G Explained: Article 2, The Imago Dei
The Statement on SJ&G Explained: Article 3, Justice
The Statement on SJ&G Explained: Article 4, God’s Law
The Statement on SJ&G Explained: Article 5, Sin
The Statement on SJ&G Explained: Article 6, Gospel
The Statement on SJ&G Explained: Article 7, Salvation
The Statement on SJ&G Explained: Article 8, The Church
The Statement on SJ&G Explained: Article 9, Heresy
The Statement on SJ&G Explained: Article 10, Sexuality and Marriage
The Statement on SJ&G Explained: Article 11, Complementarianism
The Statement on SJ&G Explained: Article 12, Race/Ethnicity
The statement on SJ&G Explained: Article 13, Culture [Apparently skipped or not yet written. I could not locate it on the blog. When, or if, it appears on the blog, I will edit this post to add the link here.]
The Statement on SJ&G Explained: Article 14, Racism
As always, we welcome your feedback here on the Reformed Baptist Blog, and I feel certain the team at Reformation21 would welcome your feedback as well.
