Psalm 139 is one of the more famous Psalms of David. In it we find the famed Psalm 139:7: Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? Other parts of the Psalm are widely recognizable to many. Pro-life advocates are fond of citing Psalm 139:13-14: For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are… Read more
A few weeks ago, I was preaching on the Bible, women, and injustice. As I was concluding the service I started to break down. No one noticed. But I was suddenly struck with grief as I contemplated my wife, my daughter, my daughters-in-law, and especially my new granddaughter who had been born the previous week. I wondered what kind of world is she going to have live in? Injustices towards women[1] It is fairly well known that women historically have… Read more
I suspect that most everyone would agree that women face unfair treatment on a global scale. I also suspect that when most men are asked to consider the injustices that women face, they will think of matters such as wage discrimination. Well, how about if I were to suggest that injustice towards women presents us with some of the greatest issues of injustice in the world?[1] The fact is: Women are far more impacted by the global practices of sex-selective… Read more
Are you willing to follow Christ even if it means ______________? Hopefully, we would all say “yes” here. But what if, like the rich young ruler, Jesus said, “go, sell your possessions and give them to the poor” (Matt 19:21)? I wonder if I would balk and come up with a reason why I wouldn’t do it: like, “I mean that I would do it if God were asking me, but I really don’t think that this is the… Read more
In the last few posts, we have been noting that any attempt to apply the biblical call to justice by directly translating what the Scriptures say into our present context may be problematic for two reasons. First, which we addressed in the post, “Doing Justice Today: what does it look like? Understanding Empire,” we noted that we often have a poor, or at least a very limited, understanding of the empires that resided behind the biblical world. In addition, which… Read more
Many efforts to discuss justice and the church fail to account for the biblical view of empire. In my view, this is a serious mistake with a multitude of repercussions. When it comes to applying the biblical view of justice to our current contexts I would contend that we have three hurdles to overcome: We often have a poor conception of the empires behind the biblical world. I addressed this in my last post. We have a poor conception of… Read more
My wife and I have always enjoyed the Sherlock Holmes movies. We recently decided to watch the Netflix film Enola Holmes. The movie tells the tale of Sherlock’s younger sister Enola who has fled to London both in order to search for her missing mother and to escape being sent by her brothers to finishing school where she was to learn to behave like a lady. Sherlock, in search of Enola, makes his way to London. There he comes across… Read more
We have recently learned that the accusations of sexual misconduct against the deceased, iconic apologist Ravi Zacharias were in fact justified. The board of RZIM issued a statement in which they acknowledged: “Our trust in Ravi’s denial of moral wrongdoing and in his deceptive explanations of emails and other records that became public was severely misplaced, and our failures in 2017, including our failure to commission an independent investigation at that time, allowed tremendous pain to continue. . . .”… Read more
Have you ever been reading the Bible or contemplating it and suddenly a light bulb goes off? You have an understanding of it that you had never considered before! Maybe a good teacher or preacher was expounding the text and gave you an insight you hadn’t thought of. It is awesome (btw: this is one of the great blessings of memorizing Scripture). A few years ago, I was meditating on the Lord’s Prayer (it is good to say it daily,… Read more
“For you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have Me” (Mark 14:7; Matt 26:11; John 12:8). I have personally heard this verse used by other Christians to suggest that ministering to the poor is a futile venture. A look at the context suggests it means precisely the opposite. This series of posts on Justice intends to provide a biblical context for doing justice and to provide a foundation for discerning what biblical justice looks… Read more
