UNDERSTANDING THE TRUTH ABOUT CRITICAL THEORY AND 'WOKEISM'

 

‘To be asleep’ in Scripture often is a symbol of death, physically and spiritually speaking. (see Jeremiah 51:39, 57). In Revelation 3:2-3 the church in Sardis is told by Christ to ‘wake up’! “Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die; for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of My God. So, remember what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent. Therefore, if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you.” The church at Sardis was a dead church. Her members were unredeemed and unregenerate. In other words, they were the walking dead. They were physically alive but spiritually dead.

 

What does it mean to be ‘woke’? Being ‘woke’ does not mean one is awake spiritually. Wearing a disguise of compassion and justice, ‘wokeism’ is an evil ideology that has been growing for decades which is incompatible with western values and a Christian worldview. What makes it so insidious is that it plays on people’s desire to show compassion and support justice. Oh, how crafty and deceitful is that serpent of old! Distorting and twisting truth still works for him, so he has no need to change his strategies. To be ‘woke’ in a cancel culture is politically correct but spiritually fatal at the same time. We must understand that what is being purported under the umbrella of Critical Theory fits beautifully in Satan’s agenda for the last days as seen in a one world government and one world religion under Antichrist.

 

The void left by the philosophy of secular humanism that gave no real meaning and purpose to life, wokeism has attempted to fill. Under this ‘woke’ religion, one cannot go down the street to a building with any formal religious structure…yet. Make no mistake about it, however; wokeism is a religion. Wokeism has its own false theory of knowledge, an improper evaluation of the human condition, and its own redemptive narrative, as one writer has said (in the below-referenced article). Wokeism promotes its own version of truth (based upon experiences of oppression), justice (taking from the oppressors and giving to the oppressed), righteousness (victimhood), sin (privilege) (offering rituals of penance), and judgment (cancellation). Offering a chance to show piety in alliance to CRT “truth”, one can take a knee during the national anthem or post black squares on social media. What one can NEVER get from this religion is forgiveness.

 

As we get ready to look at the next and last ‘woman’ of the Apocalypse, the great harlot who represents the one world church in the last days, my mind kept going to these questions: “How can the church recognize the spirit of Antichrist in keeping with Satan’s all-time purpose for this world? How should we view things going on around us to discern whether it is of God or of Satan, especially since so much of what is in the world seems to be coming into the church and threatening to divide it?” So, I want to take a small diversion from our current study and look just briefly at a hot topic—Critical Theory (Critical Race Theory falls under the main umbrella of CT).

 

In a brief word, how the church recognizes anything that is not of God is through an understanding of the Gospel and being thoroughly familiar and constantly immersed in the truth of God’s Word. Simply put, we cannot have discernment apart from knowing God’s truth.

 

We are all being barraged with terminology like “cisgender”, “intersectionality”, “white fragility”, “Critical Race Theory”, being “woke”, etc. My first real encounter with this “agenda” was when I heard Pastor John MacArthur speak about the social justice movement from the pulpit a few years ago. “Social Justice”—it sounds like it would be simple enough to understand. Hey, as a Christian, I’m all for justice because God is for justice, right? It sounds like it would be a good thing, something that would align itself with the truth of the Bible. I was most shocked to listen to the sermons by Pastor John when he showed why SJM undermines the true gospel. Typing “Social Justice Movement” into the search bar at Grace to You will bring up many resources that can help one understand why this is so.

 

The Christian view of social justice is that God is a God of justice. All His ways are justice (Deuteronomy 32:4). The nation of Israel was commanded by God to care for the less fortunate in a society. When they failed to do so, God judged them and removed them from their land. So, yes, a society has a moral obligation to care for those who are less fortunate. God’s provision in the old and new covenants to care for the outcasts in a society was first to bring the gospel message to them, not a man-centered philosophy. Man’s greatest need is for salvation that only God can give through faith that believes the Gospel.  

 

I have often heard the phrase, “You can’t legislate morality.” This is exactly what the social justice movement is trying to do. This blurs all lines between law and grace as seen in the true gospel message. As a Christian, taking care of the poor of a society is an individual responsibility that God expects His children to do from the heart. Love your neighbor as yourself is something that only a Christian, through the work of the Holy Spirit in his or her heart, can even have a true desire to do. What today’s politicized idea of social justice does is try to replace the individual with the government through taxation and other means to redistribute wealth. When people begin to have their homes taken away or other assets that they have worked for, do you think these things will be willingly given over out a sense of love in their hearts, or will be fought against with deep resentment? Further, what happens to those who do not wish to willingly give over to the government what they have worked for their whole lives? At the logical end to the reality of what this philosophy proposes, I believe prison would be the better of only two real options.

 

A social justice concept is that anyone who is wealthy is guilty of some ill-gotten gain, and that all wealthy exploit the poor. In a God-centered economy, the Christian gives to whatever charities he or she is called to by God. Under a contemporary form of social justice, it is those who are in power in government that decide who receives the redistributed wealth. In a man-centered approach to social justice, the government is seen in the role of savior. In other words, utopia comes through governmental policies. This has cultural Marxism written all over it. Christians know that at His return, Christ restores all things and executes perfect justice, as only He can!

 

The first week after hearing the first message in the series Pastor John had done, I went to the women’s Bible study I had attended for a few years. Most all the women there had been a part of Grace Church for decades. I remember mentioning the fact that I was intrigued by this latest series from the pulpit and wholeheartedly agreed with what was being taught. I was intrigued because I would not have thought two simple words “Social Justice” were defined as this movement had re-defined them. My comment was first met with silence, then with uncertainty and doubt. They just weren’t sure. Women, my age and older, were apprehensive to believe what was being preached because they were hearing something far different from their adult children, which on the surface also sounded right. Did you ever have an ‘uh-oh’ moment because you realized there was something much deeper going on than you had originally thought? I could see a rift inside the church…a solid church that has been known for its commitment to sound biblical teaching for over 50 years.  

 

I didn’t study this whole idea much outside of what Pastor John continued to teach for a couple of years, but I watched and listened to what was going on in the world politically and culturally and the affect it was having on the church. In early 2020, my family moved to Colorado Springs, the pandemic hit, and all hell broke loose in our country with BLM protests, riots, defund-the-police outcries, and overall political unrest. At first, BLM sounded like a no-brainer. Of course, black lives matter! Once I began to research what BLM stood for (the message behind the simple slogan) bringing its tenets up against Scripture, I could easily see that what was going on in and through this organization was not of God. I admit I had no concept of the bigger picture of Critical Race Theory at the time.

 

I’m not even sure on one particular Saturday morning whether I associated what was happening with the Social Justice Movement. I had not connected the dots yet. I posted some meme on FB with some message such as “All Lives Matter” because who doesn’t believe that? Innocent enough…one would think. Within minutes, a young Christian girl whom I didn’t really know from a church I had attended back home came at me full bore with “the facts” needed to change my opinions (because, apparently, they were baseless). She talked about all the black deaths by police, what is wrong with the “criminal justice system”, etc. She, a white girl, accused me of being “white”! Ummm, okay! Her words didn’t sound as though they were correcting me in love but rather with strong words of judgment. She accused me of not knowing what was happening in the criminal justice system. When I informed her that my “whiteness” had not helped me when I was falsely accused and imprisoned, she backed down somewhat. Once I assured her that I was fully aware of the problems with our justice system from firsthand experience, she disengaged from the conversation.

 

I have had other encounters with close loved ones and have realized that this whole movement has really done a number on their faith. Where once they were filled with love for the Lord and His church, it seems hatred for the “white system”—in particular, “white male hegemony” (closely tied to a feminist agenda) has formed a virulent taproot growing deep down into their hearts. Most of these loved ones have sadly admitted that they have never read the whole Bible, even though they have sat in biblically sound churches for many years. But that doesn’t stop them from outlining why they now believe that the Bible is full of philosophies handed down from “old white men”. The biggest problem is that, for the most part, anyone who believes the Bible is shut out of the ‘conversation’ because he or she is not woke enough to see the “real” truth that comes only from having personal experiences of oppression! Over this last year, I have seen this ‘movement’ split whole churches, families, and even our country in a way such as I’ve never seen before!

 

What are Christians to do? What ‘conversations’ are you having? Now, is definitely not the time to bury our heads in the sand and “let others” pick up their swords to fight these strategic errors that Satan is disseminating in the world around us. You WILL encounter this in your own life! This philosophy WILL directly affect you somehow in the future if it hasn’t already done so. Get in the Word. At the same time, find out as much as you can about this distortion of truth that is literally everywhere! Expose the lies and offer truth in their place. This very strong agenda is being pushed through our school systems; if the church doesn’t stand up against it, the next generation will be indoctrinated with its lies infecting the world politically and religiously. Though we all have a lot going on in our lives, this agenda—this world view—is something we need to take time to understand.

 

I was greatly encouraged a couple days ago while attending a brunch of the women’s Bible study in the church I now attend. Sitting at a round table with three other women, I think I may have mentioned Critical Race Theory. Two women around my age asked me what CRT is about. The 81-year-old woman sitting across from me knew exactly what it is by stating concisely: It is all about how the culture views the oppressors and the oppressed in a society. I was blown away! She asked me to elaborate, but I knew she knew.

 

In the early 20th century, a German school of philosophy called the Frankfurt School developed a social philosophy called Critical Theory that critiques and challenges a culture based upon its underlying power structures. Rioters tearing down historical statues recently represents the goal of this movement which is to completely dismantle and then rebuild a western culture from ground zero.

 

(Article by Max Funk, October 20, 2020). “Critical Theory started to become prominent among western academics in the 90s and eventually infiltrated almost every university in the western world. In recent years, the ideology has left the university and has made the jump to media and corporate culture, establishing itself as the primary moral culture within western societies. It’s not just a political or social movement within the framework of traditional enlightenment values. Concepts such as logic, science, and reason are viewed as tools of the oppressive white patriarchy. Values like individualism, hard work, punctuality and delayed gratification would be understood as perpetuating white supremacy. Critical Theory has become much more than a social philosophy and is the primary philosophical driving force behind the new civil religion of wokeism.”

 

Basically, there are two groups in a society, the oppressors and the oppressed. The lines of separation between oppressors and the oppressed are race, sex, and gender identity. The more oppressed status one has, the greater her voice in a society to speak truth based upon her own experiences as the oppressed. I say ‘her’ because in order to be in one of the greatest oppressed groups, one would be a female. “Intersectionality” deals with cumulative societal effects of systemic discrimination on people who belong to more than one disadvantaged group. For example, a black lesbian woman faces discrimination on three fronts so she can identify with others who face multiple types of oppression. This gives her a louder voice to speak a “narrative” that will reform and reshape society.

 

I am a woman. Period. As someone who believes there are only two genders (and two sets of pronouns that align with those genders) I would have no real voice in contributing to this restructuring of our society, because I can’t possibly ‘get it’. I’m not ‘woke up’. The logical conclusion is that my ‘life’ doesn’t matter unless I quietly submit to the new narrative. Today’s society would attempt to define me as a ‘cisgender’ woman. Someone who is cisgender is a person whose gender identity matches their sex ‘assigned’ at birth. In other words, it is the opposite of transgender.

 

What does it mean to be ‘woke’? It means that someone woke up to what is really true about a society. Unfortunately, wokeism defies real truth. Woke is the term that refers to awareness of issues that concern social justice and racial justice. Some of have called ‘Wokeism’ the new religion of the west. In fact, it is that. With all its tentacles it is moving through western culture like a tidal wave in an attempt to reshape and redefine society as we know it.

 

I wrote a lot about true justice in my book, “Living Beneath the Tapestry and Within the Veil.” Proverbs 17:15 says that he who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the Lord. Our legal system, our justice system is supposed to be built upon this biblical foundation. In many ways, it has been perverted and corrupted. We do need reform in our justice system. But the idea that morality bringing change will come from how we were born into this world—simply based on race or gender—is ludicrous.

 

The Bible is clear that the followers of our Lord Jesus Christ are not to judge others based upon race, age, sex, etc. Judgment belongs to the Lord, and He judges based upon the righteous standards of His truth that He has revealed to us in His Word.

 

Where does Wokeism end? Please go to the end of this very insightful article where the writer gives two option. Article on Wokeism He says it will either end with wokeism dissolving due to its self-consuming nature, or it will end very badly for anyone who opposes the ideologies. Why? Because they must get rid of the oppressor groups for the philosophy to succeed. He says it could very possibly end with beheading (exactly what you think it means). He says: “We have already seen an autonomous zone called CHOP (named after the French Revolution) and a guillotine in front of Jeff Bezos’s house. People seem to think that something like “The Great Leap Forward” couldn’t happen in the western world, but it’s precisely this assumption that could be our undoing.” In no way am I suggesting that Christians need to fear what is happening. My goal is to equip believers to understand what is happening and to foster an even greater urgency in spreading the good news. In a word—to sound the call to wake up for those who have grown too comfortable in this world. Critical Theory cannot be mixed with the true Gospel. Our purpose, as the Church, is to offer the world the only message that saves. We must be about our Master’s business. He is coming soon! Maranatha!

 

O Church Arise and put your armour on

Hear the call of Christ our Captain

For now the weak can say that they are strong

In the strength that God has given

With shield of faith and belt of truth

We'll stand against the devil's lies

An army bold whose battle-cry is Love

Reaching out to those in darkness

 

Our call to war to love the captive soul

But to rage against the captor

And with the sword that makes the wounded whole

We will fight with faith and valour

When faced with trials on every side

We know the outcome is secure

And Christ will have the prize for which He died

An inheritance of nations

 

Come see the cross where love and mercy meet

As the Son of God is stricken

Then see His foes lie crushed beneath His feet

For the Conqueror has risen

And as the stone is rolled away

And Christ emerges from the grave

This victory march continues till the day

Every eye and heart shall see Him

 

So Spirit come put strength in every stride

Give grace for every hurdle

That we may run with faith to win the prize

Of a servant good and faithful

As saints of old still line the way

Retelling triumphs of His grace

We hear their calls and hunger for the day

When with Christ we stand in glory

 

Song by Keith Getty, O Church Arise

 

What is Critical Race Theory?