Injustice Bible Quotes

If you want to keep people subjugated, the last thing you place in their hands is a Bible. There's nothing more radical, nothing more revolutionary, nothing more subversive against injustice and oppression than the Bible.

I do not know what, in the end, makes a person who they are. If we`re all born one way, or if we only arrive there after as series of chioces. The bible claims that the wicked act on their own desires and impulses, because God is good, only good, and He would never compel a soul to wickedness. That I`m supposed to count on justice in the next life, even if I can`t have it in this one.

It's a scary thing, a life-changing, paradigm-shifting thing, to honestly ask yourself this question: Am I moving with God to rescue, restore, and redeem humanity? Or am I clinging fast, eyeteeth clenched, to an imperfect world's habits and cultural customs, in full knowledge of injustice or imperfections, living at odds with God's dream for his daughters and sons?

Why have the writings of the prophets endured? Because they fearlessly speak truth to power. They call out the injustice and oppression of the system gone wrong. They hold those in leadership accountable for the decisions they make.

We can choose to move with God, further into justice and wholeness, or we can choose to prop up the world’s dead systems, baptizing injustice and power in sacred language.

This is our part in spiritual war. We proclaim Christ's truth by praying it, speaking it and (undoubtedly most importantly) by demonstrating it. We are not to accept with sere pious resignation the evil aspects of our world as "coming from a father's hand." Rather, following the example of our Lord and Savior, and going forth with the confidence that he has in principle already defeated his (and our) foes, we are to revolt against the evil aspects of our world as coming from the devil's hand. Our revolt is to be broad--as broad as the evil we seek to confront, and as broad as the work of the cross we seek to proclaim. Wherever there is destruction, hated, apathy, injustice, pain or hopelessness, whether it concerns God's creation, a structural feature of society, or the physical, psychological or spiritual aspect of an individual, we are in word and deed to proclaim to the evil powers that be, "You are defeated." As Jesus did, we proclaim this by demonstrating it.

We indulge in semantics and slippery-slope rhetoric to excuse injustice. We read a few verses about women in a vacuum of literalism and prideful laziness.

So too, since Christ has in principle defeated the fallen "gods" (principalities and powers) who have for ages inspired injustice, cruelty and apathy toward the weak, the poor the oppressed and the needy (Ps. 82), the church can hardly carry out its role in manifesting, on earth and in heaven, Christ's victory over these gods without taking up as a central part of its missions just these causes. We can, in truth, no more bifurcate social concerns and individual salvation than we can bifurcate the cosmic and anthropocentric dimensions of Christ's work on the cross.

From Moses to Jesus, the Bible tells us that those who fought for justice—those who spoke truth to power, those who refused to accept that injustice and inequality had to exist and that there was no better way—always found themselves hated, hounded, and heaped upon with false accusations simply because they believed in the necessity of speaking and working for the cause of righteousness and building a more just community. This lack of majority support is why the just must live by faith and must know exactly who we are.

God has endowed us with a capacity to love, of necessity there must be within that capacity the ability to manifest anger. If there were no possibility of showing anger there would be no possibility of manifesting love because anger is the response to wounded love. Anger is the rightful response to some wrong or injustice; and if there were no standards of right and of justice, there could be no anger. But because the Bible sets forth standards of right and justice, there will be anger when one beholds violated rights or injustices.

I loved, but Esau I hated.” 14What shall we say then?  w Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means!

Esther did not rely on her own strength. She called on God, and she asked others to mobilize prayer on her behalf.

Boldness is a great virtue, but it does not begin on the battlefield or in the midst of a great conflict. Our boldness must begin in our prayer life.

Better is a little with righteousness         than great revenues with injustice.

You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.

The Bible is clear that discrimination exists and that Christians must resist it. Sinful discrimination indeed causes some disparities. But the Bible never goes to the extreme that we find in the thinking of Ibram X. Kendi. In his award-winning bestseller Stamped from the Beginning, Kendi argues that “racial disparities must be the result of racial discrimination.

There would be no racism if we saw each other as imagers of the same God; imagers estranged from God are still imagers. Injustice and abuse of power would find no place if we valued the fact that we all image God equally. All our relationships—personal, home, business, work, church—would be different if we consciously remembered our equal status as imagers of God.

It’s a scary thing, a life-changing, paradigm-shifting thing, to honestly ask yourself this question: Am I moving with God to rescue, restore, and redeem humanity? Or am I clinging fast, eyeteeth clenched, to an imperfect world’s habits and cultural customs, in full knowledge of injustice or imperfections, living at odds with God’s dream for his daughters and sons?

With the best of intentions, the generation before mine worked diligently to prepare their children to make an intelligent case for Christianity. We were constantly reminded of the superiority of our own worldview and the shortcomings of all others. We learned that as Christians, we alone had access to absolute truth and could win any argument. The appropriate Bible verses were picked out for us, the opposing positions summarized for us, and the best responses articulated for us, so that we wouldn’t have to struggle through two thousand years of theological deliberations and debates but could get right to the bottom line on the important stuff: the deity of Christ, the nature of the Trinity, the role and interpretation of Scripture, and the fundamentals of Christianity. As a result, many of us entered the world with both an unparalleled level of conviction and a crippling lack of curiosity. So ready with the answers, we didn’t know what the questions were anymore. So prepared to defend the faith, we missed the thrill of discovering it for ourselves. So convinced we had God right, it never occurred to us that we might be wrong. In short, we never learned to doubt. Doubt is a difficult animal to master because it requires that we learn the difference between doubting God and doubting what we believe about God. The former has the potential to destroy faith; the latter has the power to enrich and refine it. The former is a vice; the latter a virtue. Where would we be if the apostle Peter had not doubted the necessity of food laws, or if Martin Luther had not doubted the notion that salvation can be purchased? What if Galileo had simply accepted church-instituted cosmology paradigms, or William Wilberforce the condition of slavery? We do an injustice to the intricacies and shadings of Christian history when we gloss over the struggles, when we read Paul’s epistles or Saint Augustine’s Confessions without acknowledging the difficult questions that these believers asked and the agony with which they often asked them. If I’ve learned anything over the past five years, it’s that doubt is the mechanism by which faith evolves. It helps us cast off false fundamentals so that we can recover what has been lost or embrace what is new. It is a refining fire, a hot flame that keeps our faith alive and moving and bubbling about, where certainty would only freeze it on the spot. I would argue that healthy doubt (questioning one’s beliefs) is perhaps the best defense against unhealthy doubt (questioning God). When we know how to make a distinction between our ideas about God and God himself, our faith remains safe when one of those ideas is seriously challenged. When we recognize that our theology is not the moon but rather a finger pointing at the moon, we enjoy the freedom of questioning it from time to time. We can say, as Tennyson said, Our little systems have their day; They have their day and cease to be; They are but broken lights of thee, And thou, O Lord, art more than they.15 I sometimes wonder if I might have spent fewer nights in angry, resentful prayer if only I’d known that my little systems — my theology, my presuppositions, my beliefs, even my fundamentals — were but broken lights of a holy, transcendent God. I wish I had known to question them, not him. What my generation is learning the hard way is that faith is not about defending conquered ground but about discovering new territory. Faith isn’t about being right, or settling down, or refusing to change. Faith is a journey, and every generation contributes its own sketches to the map. I’ve got miles and miles to go on this journey, but I think I can see Jesus up ahead.

He thinks for a long time, about injustice, cruelty and the almighty dollar. About hypocrisy and power ballads. About ego, ambition and politics. The usual reasons stuff got done down here. Jesus looks at the glass, at the hateful, grieving faces, and speaks softly towards the microphone. 'When the truth of all this comes out none of you should be too hard on yourselves. You...I mean, the Bible's mostly a crock, but there's no other way to say this, folks ...you know not what you did. Just try and remember,' he smiles, 'be nice.

7    When a man’s ways please the LORD,          w he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. 8     x Better is a little with righteousness         than great revenues with injustice. 9     y The heart of man plans his way,         but  z the LORD establishes his steps.

The slavery debate alerts us to self-justifying tendencies at work in how we use the Bible. Whenever our interpretation leads to injustice, oppression, or structural violence, then the very heart of the Bible is repudiated. Such views are anti-biblical, no matter what texts they cite.

God can fill in every gap with His great love. If you feel unloved, choose to receive the Father’s affection; if you feel insecure, run into His strong arms; if you feel depressed because of abuse, remember that your heavenly Father was grieved when you were violated. And He can restore your broken heart.

No longer satisfied with easy answers, I started asking harder questions. I questioned what I thought were fundamentals — the eternal damnation of all non-Christians, the scientific and historical accuracy of the Bible, the ability to know absolute truth, and the politicization of evangelicalism. I questioned God: his fairness, regarding salvation; his goodness, for allowing poverty and injustice in the world; and his intelligence, for entrusting Christians to fix things. I wrestled with passages of Scripture that seemed to condone genocide and the oppression of women and struggled to make sense of the pride and hypocrisy within the church. I wondered if the God of my childhood was really the kind of God I wanted to worship, and at times I wondered if he even exists at all.

Brené Brown warned us we can’t selectively numb our emotions, and no doubt this applies to the emotions we have about our faith. If the slaughter of Canaanite children elicits only a shrug, then why not the slaughter of Pequots? Of Syrians? Of Jews? If we train ourselves not to ask hard questions about the Bible, and to emotionally distance ourselves from any potential conflicts or doubts, then where will we find the courage to challenge interpretations that justify injustice? How will we know when we’ve got it wrong?

God explains that where basic understanding lacks in a society, oppression, injustice and suffering, won’t be far behind. The powerful few use the lack of knowledge to exploit the many. The general lack of knowledge about money today is a symptom of the exploitation taking place, hidden behind the obscurity set in place by those in power. The goal of this book is to shine a light into that darkness. This book seeks to explain what money is, how it is often corrupted, and what can be done to fix the problems that exist.

As we have seen so often in this book, religion may begin with mystical experiences but it always leads to politics. It starts with the voice heard by the prophets who are its chosen instruments. And what they hear always leads to actions that affect the way people live: with politics. Sometimes the politics are bad. People are persecuted for following the wrong faith or for listening to the wrong voice. Or they are forced to embrace the message announced by the latest hot prophet. So the history of religion becomes a study in different forms of oppression. But sometimes the politics are good. They are about liberation, not oppression. We saw good politics in the stand the Pennsylvanian Quakers made against slavery in 1688. And in the African American Church today the politics of Christianity are still about liberation. The tactics of Moses and the promises of Jesus are used to make the world a better place. Religion is no longer used as an opiate to dull the pain of injustice and inequality but as a stimulant to overcome it. That’s what keeps many people in the religion game.

We desperately need the gospel. I need the gospel. Every day I need Jesus’ gospel to shepherd my heart and mind. When I see all the bad news on my newsfeed on Facebook, if I’m not in my Bible, preaching the gospel to myself, looking at the eschatological hope, I will lose my mind. And so I’m glad that when we see the injustices and the brokenness of our society we have the tool of God’s Word to help us become change agents—to make a difference in our spheres of influence. The gospel is the truth that unites us. It is the common ground that knits our souls together as one.

For the most part, it is not the artist or individualist, but the average middle-class working man or woman who is lacking the proper release for their desires. It is ironic that the responsible, respectable person - the one who pays society's bills - should be the one given the least in return. It is he who must be ever conscious of his "moral obligations", and who is condemned for normally indulging in his natural desires. The Satanic religion considers this a gross injustice. He who upholds his responsibilities should be most entitled to the pleasures of his choice, without censure from the society he serves.

the challenges of our day-to-day existence are sustained reminders that our life of faith simply must have its center somewhere other than in our ability to hold it together in our minds. Life is a pounding surf that wears away our rock-solid certainty. The surf always wins. Slowly but surely. Eventually. It may be best to ride the waves rather than resist them. What are your one or two biggest obstacles to staying Christian? What are those roadblocks you keep running into? What are those issues that won’t go away and make you wonder why you keep on believing at all? These are questions I asked on a survey I gave on my blog in the summer of 2013. Nothing fancy. I just asked some questions and waited to see what would happen. In the days to come, I was overwhelmed with comments and e-mails from readers, many anonymous, with bracingly honest answers often expressed through the tears of relentless and unnerving personal suffering. I didn’t do a statistical analysis (who has the time, plus I don’t know how), but the responses fell into five categories.         1.        The Bible portrays God as violent, reactive, vengeful, bloodthirsty, immoral, mean, and petty.         2.        The Bible and science collide on too many things to think that the Bible has anything to say to us today about the big questions of life.         3.        In the face of injustice and heinous suffering in the world, God seems disinterested or perhaps unable to do anything about it.         4.        In our ever-shrinking world, it is very difficult to hold on to any notion that Christianity is the only path to God.         5.        Christians treat each other so badly and in such harmful ways that it calls into question the validity of Christianity—or even whether God exists. These five categories struck me as exactly right—at least, they match up with my experience. And I’d bet good money they resonate with a lot of us. All five categories have one big thing in common: “Faith in God no longer makes sense to me.” Understanding, correct thinking, knowing what you believe—these were once true of their faith, but no longer are. Because life happened. A faith that promises to provide firm answers and relieve our doubt is a faith that will not hold up to the challenges and tragedies of life. Only deep trust can hold up.

Before the twentieth century, the phrase pistis Iesou Christou was regularly translated into English as “the faith or loyalty of Jesus.” It did not refer to the faith of ordinary mortals, but only to the “trust” that Jesus had in God when he accepted his death sentence and his “confidence” that God would turn it to good; and God had indeed rewarded this act of faith by inaugurating a new relationship with humanity that saved men and women from the iniquity and injustice of the old order, ensuring that all people, whatever their social status or ethnicity, could become God’s children. But ever since the publication of the American Standard Version of the Bible in 1901, this phrase has regularly been translated as “faith in Jesus Christ,” equated with an individual Christian’s belief in Jesus’s divinity and redemptive act.11 Paul went on to argue that the Torah had not been revealed for

Most people, after arriving at the conclusion that Jehovah is not God, that the Bible is not an inspired book, and that the Christian religion, like other religions, is the creation of man, usually say: "There must be a Supreme Being, but Jehovah is not his name, and the Bible is not his word. There must be somewhere an over-ruling Providence or Power." This position is just as untenable as the other. He who cannot harmonize the cruelties of the Bible with the goodness of Jehovah, cannot harmonize the cruelties of Nature with the goodness and wisdom of a supposed Deity. He will find it impossible to account for pestilence and famine, for earthquake and storm, for slavery, for the triumph of the strong over the weak, for the countless victories of injustice. He will find it impossible to account for martyrs—for the burning of the good, the noble, the loving, by the ignorant, the malicious, and the infamous.

The fact was, as a story—even leaving out the supernatural, especially leaving out the supernatural, taking it all as metaphor, I mean—the Bible made perfect sense to me from the very beginning. I saw a God whose nature was creative love. He made man in his own image for the purpose of forming new and free relationships with him. But in his freedom, man turned away from that relationship to consult his own wisdom and desires. The knowledge of good and evil was not some top-secret catalogue of nice and naughty acts that popped into Eve’s mind when a talking snake got her to eat the magic fruit. The knowledge was built into the action of disobedience itself: it’s what she learned when she overruled the moral law God had placed within her. There was no going back from that. The original sin poisoned all history. History’s murders, rapes, wars, oppressions, and injustices are now the inescapable plot of the story we’re in. The

But even though Naomi was at her lowest point, Ruth somehow saw a glimmer of hope in her mother-in-law—who had a relationship with the true God. (Remember: People are watching you when you are going through tough times, and even if you feel discouraged they can see how you trust Him.)

Being a holy people included seeking justice. The Sabbath and Jubilee Year practices gave everyone equal rights, freedom, and second chances. Slaves would be freed, and land would be restored to the family that originally owned it. Unfortunately, rich landowners eventually claimed the land, and this plan for equality was forgotten. This injustice is one reason that the nation of Israel did not last. Even today God calls his people to seek justice and mercy for everyone.

She had been raised in a house full of faith, and her parents had obviously instilled unusual confidence in her. She

What, then, shall we say in response to these things?” What things? Why, anything! Disappointment, frustration, nervousness, despair, anxiety, injustice: “What shall we then say to these things?” Well, the answer is . . . “If God is for us, who can be against us?” Isn't that wonderful? That is resonant, that is sturdy, that is the essence of victory.

6 ‡ “Is not this the kind of fasting† I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice† and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed† free and break every yoke?† 7 ‡ Is it not to share your food with the hungry† and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter†— when you see the naked, to clothe† them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?† 8 ‡ Then your light will break forth like the dawn,† and your healing† will quickly appear; then your righteousness[112]† will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.† 9 ‡ Then you will call,† and the LORD will answer;† you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

He had never publicly supported or criticized the Ku Klux Klan. He had never defended, opposed, or even acknowledged the legacy of racial oppression in the South. He had never commented on the Jim Crow laws in Texas or preached on what the Bible might have to say about racial injustice. It would have been almost unthinkable for him to express an opinion about such matters. This was true first because his concentrated and only objective was to win souls to Jesus so they could be saved from a fiery eternity in the pit of a literal Hell. And secondly it was true because to do so—in the prevailing atmosphere of Texas and the fundamentalist movement nationally—would subject him to the most bitter and withering attacks from his own constituency. John R. Rice could not possibly offer a critique of racial oppression in the white South without destroying his own ministry and undercutting his movement’s support for The Sword of the Lord.

The tragedy of polytheism and idolatry is not the arithmetic (many gods instead of one), but that they exchange the only true source of salvation for lifeless and powerless substitutes, and in doing so, introduce injustice, bondage, and cruelty into human life (cf. Rom. 1:21–32).

PSALM 112    As the majority of mankind expect to prosper by evil deeds, and as they   generally endeavor to enrich themselves by plunder, fraud, and every   species of injustice, the prophet enumerates the blessings of God which   attend those who worship him in purity, in order that we may know that,   in aiming at a life of piety and morality, we shall not lose our   reward.

Sir 40:12 All bribery, and injustice shall be blotted out, and fidelity shall stand for ever. Sir 40:13 The riches of the unjust shall be dried up like a river, and shall pass away with a noise like a great thunder in rain.

Trouble chases sinners,        while blessings reward the righteous. 22 Good people leave an inheritance to their grandchildren,        but the sinner’s wealth passes to the godly. 23 A poor person’s farm may produce much food,        but injustice sweeps it all away. 24 Those who spare the rod of discipline hate their children.        Those who love their children care enough to discipline them. 25 The godly eat to their hearts’ content,        but the belly of the wicked goes hungry.

I have the word of God and my bible is very interesting, this book was conceived in battle, Jesus Christ our Saviour was conceived in brokenness, out of barenness to redeem a people who were in bondage to their sin. I know exactly where to go when the people start getting confused, trading lies for truth, buying injustice for justice and even when the media starts to show me the prospectives of the world that I am living in, I have my prospective from the word of God.

my worshipers, the daughter of my dispersed ones,         shall bring my offering.     11  z “On that day  a you shall not be put to shame         because of the deeds by which you have rebelled against me;     for then  b I will remove from your midst         your proudly exultant ones,     and  c you shall no longer be haughty         in my holy mountain.     12 But I will leave in your midst         a people  d humble and lowly.      e They shall seek refuge in the name of the LORD,         13  f those who are left in Israel;     they  g shall do no injustice         and speak no lies,      h nor shall there be found in their mouth         a deceitful tongue.      i For they shall graze and lie down,         and none shall make them afraid.” Israel’s Joy and Restoration     14[†]  j Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion;         shout, O Israel!     Rejoice and exult with all your heart,         O daughter of Jerusalem!     15 The LORD has taken away the judgments against you;         he has cleared away your enemies.      k The King of Israel,  l the LORD, is in your midst;         you shall never again fear evil.     16  z On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem:     “Fear not, O Zion;          m let not your hands grow weak.     17  l The LORD your God is in your midst,          n a mighty one who will save;      o he will rejoice over you with gladness;         he will quiet you by his love;     he will exult over you with loud singing.     18 I will gather those of you who mourn  p for the festival,         so that you will no longer suffer reproach. [3]     19 Behold, at that time  q I will deal         with all your oppressors.     And  r I will save the lame         and gather the outcast,     and I will change  s their shame into  t praise         and renown in all the earth.     20  u At that time I will bring you in,         at the time when I gather you together;     for I will make you renowned and praised         among all the peoples of the earth,      v when I restore your fortunes         before your eyes,” says the LORD.

Psychologists have proven that children feel more protected when they are given boundaries. If they are allowed to run wild, they become nervous, insecure and fearful, as well as rowdy and erratic. (Later, when they enter the teen years, they can develop serious rebellion and immoral behavior patterns.) God designed us with a need for moral limitations, and parents have a responsibility to provide this through loving discipline. You

The distant father. This is the father who was physically in the home but was disengaged. He may have been depressed. Or maybe he never learned to show emotion because of painful experiences in his own life such as post-traumatic stress disorder or physical abuse. This type of dad finds it very difficult to show affection to a child or to say, “I love you.” So the child, who is starved for healthy affection, will assume that he or she is not loved.

The critical father. Many children grow up to hate their fathers (or mothers) because of negativity in the home. While parents must discipline their children in order to steer them in the right moral direction, a father who constantly berates his son or daughter will severely impair that child’s success. This type of parent is often found in legalistic religious homes. Strict discipline imposed without a demonstration of tender love can turn a child away from faith.

The addicted father. Some people grow up with dads who are alcoholics or drug addicts. In these cases, a child does not know who his father is. One day he is fun to be with, the next day he is a monster. One day he is playful and friendly, the next day he has red eyes and a frightening demeanor. This can traumatize a child who needs to feel secure at home. Children of alcoholics face severe struggles later in life because they do not know whom to trust—especially if their own fathers were out of control.

Our heavenly Father is kind and gracious, and He is willing to forgive our mistakes instantly when we are honest about them. He even chooses to forget our sins. He does not keep a record of wrongs.

God intended women to be outside as well as men, and they do not know what they are missing when they stay cooped up in the house. —Annie Oakley (1860–1926), American sharpshooter and women’s rights advocate W

God often anoints women to be initiators. He did not create women just to follow the guys around. In fact, when He decided to send His only begotten Son into the world, He looked for a woman. He sent an angel to a virgin named Mary in Nazareth, and He did not ask her father’s permission or seek her fiancé’s approval before causing her to become supernaturally impregnated with the divine seed. God sought out a woman to do this miracle. He challenged the norms of culture and broke with patriarchal tradition. He did the same when He called Sarah, the wife of Abraham, to be the mother of our faith. Isaiah 51:1–2 tells all of us, both men and women, to look to Sarah as a role model: “Listen to me, all you who are serious about right living and committed to seeking God. Ponder the rock from which you were cut, the quarry from which you were dug. Yes, ponder Abraham, your father, and Sarah, who bore you. Think of it! One solitary man when I called him, but once I blessed him, he multiplied.” T

[gospel is that the] right and proper judgment of God against our rebellion has not been overturned; it has been exhausted, embraced in full by the eternal Son of God himself. . . . God uses words in the service of his intention to rescue men and women, drawing them into fellowship with him and preparing a new creation as an appropriate venue for the enjoyment of that fellowship. In other words, the knowledge of God that is the goal of God's speaking ought never to be separated from the centerpiece of Christian theology; namely, the salvation of sinners. This is certainly not elementary theologizing, but a grounding of even the very philosophy and understanding of human language in the gospel. The Word of the Lord (as we see in Jonah 1:1) is never abstract theologizing, but is a life-changing message about the severity and mercy of God. Why is this so important? First, in a time in which there is so much ignorance of the basic Christian worldview, we have to get to the core of things, the gospel, every time we speak. Second, the gospel of salvation doesn't really relate to theology like the first steps relate to the rest of the stairway but more like the hub relates through the spokes to the rest of the wheel. The gospel of a glorious, other-oriented triune God giving himself in love to his people in creation and redemption and re-creation is the core of every doctrine--of the Bible, of God, of humanity, of salvation, of ecclesiology, of eschatology. However, third, we must recognize that in a postmodern society where everyone is against abstract speculation, we will be ignored unless we ground all we say in the gospel. Why? The postmodern era has produced in its citizens a hunger for beauty and justice. This is not an abstract culture, but a culture of story and image. The gospel is not less than a set of revealed propositions (God, sin, Christ, faith), but it is more. It is also a narrative (creation, fall, redemption, restoration.) Unfortunately, there are people under the influence of postmodernism who are so obsessed with narrative rather than propositions that they are rejecting inerrancy, are moving toward open theism, and so on. But to some extent they are reacting to abstract theologizing that was not grounded in the gospel and real history. They want to put more emphasis on the actual history of salvation, on the coming of the kingdom, on the importance of community, and on the renewal of the material creation. But we must not pit systematic theology and biblical theology against each other, nor the substitutionary atonement against the kingdom of God. Look again at the above quote from Mark Thompson and you will see a skillful blending of both individual salvation from God's wrath and the creation of a new community and material world. This world is reborn along with us--cleansed, beautified, perfected, and purified of all death, disease, brokenness, injustice, poverty, deformity. It is not just tacked on as a chapter in abstract "eschatology," but is the only appropriate venue for enjoyment of that fellowship with God brought to us by grace through our union with Christ.

God gave the requirement for the death penalty in Genesis 9:6 at the beginning of human society after the flood, when methods of collecting evidence and the certainty of proof were far less reliable than they are today. Yet God still gave the command to fallible human beings, not requiring that they be omniscient to carry it out, but only expecting that they act responsibly and seek to avoid further injustice as they carried it out. Among the people of Israel, a failure to carry out the death penalty when God had commanded it was to “pollute the land” and “defile” it before God, for justice had not been done (see Num. 35:32–34).

One difference between the Bible and the Constitution is that we can still talk to the author of the Bible to discover original intent.

People who are gifted to preach, prophesy and represent God must be careful to stay humble, or they will contract and spread the deadly infection of pride.

Whereas “ruthless nations” used their strength to bring oppression and foster injustice (vv. 3, 4, 5), God is a “stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat” (v. 4). While they may be forgotten and mistreated by society, God remains a refuge for them. Biblically, a paradox arises: it is precisely God’s impartiality that makes him partial to the poor (Deut. 10:17–18; cf. James 3:17). We think of fairness as treating everyone the same, yet God sees perfectly the many ways in which things are not the same for all people. The world gives inherent priority to the powerful, wealthy, and beautiful. Impartiality for God does not mean treating everyone the exact same way at all times, since he alone perfectly takes into consideration all things (Rom. 11:33–35). It is in fairness that God favors the forgotten and receives the rejected (Psalm 113; cf. Ps. 107:41; 136:23). God’s royal majesty is seen in his tender mercy (Ps. 138:6; cf. Luke 1:52–53). How easy it is for us to forget that God gives priority to the weak, the vulnerable, and the needy (James 2:5). Accordingly, one of the marks of a healthy church, and a healthy Christian, is an impulse to extend God’s compassionate care to those most in need—supremely those in spiritual need, but also those in physical need. The church thus becomes a “stronghold” for those must vulnerable, bringing the peace of Christ to trial-ridden lives.

Several sins in the Holiness Code of Leviticus are described as abominations, but only this one is singled out by itself as an abomination. The use of to‘ebah in Ezekiel, with reference to Sodom’s sin, is an echo of Leviticus 18 and 20. Sodom’s sins were many: pride, social injustice, and pursuing homosexual behavior.

When we defy the God who made us to love him, worship him, and live with him, his only just and proper response is wrath against our treason and our injustice. So

If you believe, as I do, that homosexuality is not a sin and is not prohibited by the Bible, then the next question becomes, How do we heal the church of this injustice that has divided us?

Woe to her who is rebellious and defiled,          f the oppressing city!     2 She listens to no voice;          g she accepts no correction.      h She does not trust in the LORD;         she does not draw near to her God.     3  i Her officials within her         are roaring lions;     her judges are  j evening wolves         that leave nothing till the morning.     4  k Her prophets are fickle, treacherous men;      k her priests  l profane what is holy;         they do violence to the law.     5 The LORD within her  m is righteous;         he does no injustice;     every morning he shows forth his justice;         each dawn he does not fail;         but  n the unjust knows no shame.

As we suggested in chapter one, the Lord expects us to speak out against sin, injustice, immorality, and ungodliness with courage and diligence. But we must do so in a law-abiding manner, according to the civil laws that legislative bodies and governing officials have established for us. The church is to be a godly society within the larger ungodly society, living peaceably and exhibiting good works through the transformed lives of its members. Only in those ways will we truly affect society and allow the Holy Spirit to draw unconverted people to the saving power of God. “Be

Although the word “contextualization” is recent, coming into popular usage over the past three or four decades, its practice and reality have always been present as essential to the Christian faith. Unlike the Qur’an, which sees truth as timeless divine oracles, or the Western Enlightenment tradition that believes truth to be found in unchanging and eternal ideas, the Bible understands truth to be the mighty acts of God in history, authoritatively narrated and interpreted in Scripture, as the true story of the whole world in which all people are invited to find their place. The mightiest act of God and fullest revelation of himself and his purpose for the creation has been disclosed in the person and work of Jesus the Christ, especially in his death and resurrection. Truth is a person along with the historical events surrounding him that have irreversibly changed the course of universal history. Sin and evil, death and demonic power, sickness and injustice, poverty and pain—in fact all that corrupts the very good creation of God—have been defeated at the cross

Jesus’ list diverges from both of these lists and blesses the most unlikely of people. Instead of congratulating the Torah observant or the rigorously faithful or the heroic, he blesses the marginalized who stick with God through injustice.

Second, there is a clear eschatological focus in the word “blessed.”9 If a focus of the Old Testament was on present-life blessings for Torah observance, there is another dimension that deconstructs injustice and sets the tone for Israel’s hope: the future blessing of God in the kingdom when all things will be put right; no text in the Old Testament fits more here than Isaiah 61.10 This second dimension shapes the Beatitudes because Jesus’ focus is on future blessing.

It’s easy to be overcome with a sense of helplessness when we consider issues such as poverty and hunger and injustice in the world. I can’t fix it for everyone. I’m just one person. But it is important that I fix it for someone. I would venture to say that everyone knows someone who could use a little help. Everyone knows someone who is lonely, sick, poor, or imprisoned in some way.

Present injustices must never simply be tolerated or accepted as inevitable. We are not meant to resign ourselves to the evils of the world, while waiting passively for God's coming to sweep them away. Instead, we are to work tirelessly in partnership with God for the greater attainment of justice her and now, knowing that God shall ultimately bring our efforts to fruition in the renewal of creation. God's coming justice is the culmination of no a substitute for, human string for greater justice here and now.

But for Christians, Jesus is the norm of the Bible. And he repudiated violence, even in his historical context of violence and injustice. Given that he is the norm of the Bible, he is the standard by which its divergent views of violence, war, nonviolence, and peace must be judged. His status as the norm, and the fact that his followers for three centuries understood him to be an advocate of nonviolence, create a prima facie case for Christians to be passionate about God’s dream of a world of justice and peace. Borg, Marcus J.. Convictions: How I Learned What Matters Most (p. 202). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.

The Bible says that God’s wrath flows from his love and delight in his creation. He is angry at evil and injustice because it is destroying its peace and integrity.

What is Divinity (The Sonnet) Hands joined in prayer ain't no divinity, Hands stretched in help are true divinity. Saying grace before meal ain't divinity, Graceful kindness is the actual divinity. Marking a cross on yourself ain't divinity, Crossing out the self for others is real divinity. Confessing errors to a preacher ain't divinity, Correcting errors by yourself is true divinity. Selling glories of a dead messiah ain't divinity, Refusing all glory to lift another is real divinity. Sitting cross-legged in meditation ain't divinity, Standing up bold against injustice is true divinity. Divinity never comes from bible, marvel or vatican. Burn yourself for others, and you'll know salvation.

Believers hold that every word in the Bible has not only been inspired but also literally dictated by God. Thus we are to believe every verse and every story as spoken directly by God, and this creates some serious problems, including: Intellectual difficulty with overgeneralizations, conflicts with science, and contradictions. Moral difficulties where God is portrayed at times as partial, vengeful, and deceptive, while in other parts of the Bible universal love is taught; the history of the Hebrews in the Bible shows progress in moral concern rather than a static code; injustice in the Bible including the slaughter of innocent people and minor transgressors. Moral difficulty with concept of endless torture in hell. Problem with occasions of Jesus expressing vindictiveness, discourtesy, narrow-mindedness, and ethnic and religious intolerance. Intellectual difficulties with the human decision-making process for deciding the books of the Bible and questions of the value of other writings not included. Non-uniqueness of Judeo-Christian teachings and practices. Other religions have similar rituals and beliefs, including sacrifice and vicarious atonement through the death of a god, union of a god and a virgin, trinities, the mother Mary (Myrrha, Maya, Maia, and Maritala), a place for good people who die and a hell of fire, an apocalypse, the first man falling from the god’s favor by doing something forbidden or having been tempted by some evil animal, catastrophic floods in which the whole race is exterminated (with details analogous to the story of the flood), a man being swallowed by a fish and then spat out alive, miracles as proof of power and divine messengers. Moral difficulties with intolerance and oppression in today’s society, which are based on the Bible. Intellectual difficulties with New Testament authors’ interpretation of events as fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. There are a number of references to “scriptures” that simply don’t exist.

Bible says in First Corinthians thirteen, “Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

Stearns goes on to write, with Christianity’s terrible track record, “what are the injustices in our world right now that we cannot see?” (p. 196) He states that in the last 30 years the word ‘evangelical’ has gone from an 85% favorable rating to only a 3% favorable rating by those with no strong religious background. He feels the cause is that evangelicals have joined the “cultural wars” and are no longer known for their concern for the “least of those among us” and are now known for the “wars” they are fighting and what they are against. They are not willing to “live peacefully with anyone who doesn’t believe what they believe.” (p. 227) “We

You might not get your apology in this lifetime. They might never confess to the abuse they caused you. They might feel you deserved all of your pain. They might not care, but they will later. Angels witnessed everything they did to you. There will come a day of restitution. You will have your day of justice. God will finally tell you what you did not know about that situation and he will hold a spiritual court with these people. You will be vindicated. God loves you too much to leave you in pain.

Money is corrosive. It ruins the fabric of society. It makes people think irrationally. It creates injustice and makes human nature stick out its ugliest face. The line in the Bible where it says money is evil must be true.

The point at issue is not the social injustice involved, that comes later, but the refusal to allow life to be governed by truth.

In everyday life we know that someone who is a true lover is very different from someone who is a pretender or a playboy. We know that true love should not be motivated at all by self- interest. And such is God’s love for us. It is a love that seeks the very best for us; it is sacrificial; it never stops giving. Perhaps the closest we can come to understanding the essence and quality of God’s love for us—though it is still a faint reflection of the reality—is the way in which we love our children. We bring these helpless, fragile little things home from the hospital and we love them. They have not done anything to deserve our love, indeed they are totally incapable of doing anything for us, yet we love them. From the moment we become a parent we know that from now on, life will pretty much revolve around our child and often they will inconvenience us in ways we can only dream of! Yet, we never stop loving them—really loving them. Parents and their children are a model to help us understand the way in which our Heavenly Father God really loves each one of us. As we think about how unconditionally we love our children and begin to grasp how complete and unconditional the Father’s love for us is, we can begin to scratch the surface of His grace and understand a little of the motivation behind God’s unmerited offer of salvation and forgiveness for our sins. Despite a lot of good teaching on the subject in the Church over the years, many Christians are still mystified by grace. They fail to live in the richness of it themselves and they fail to show grace to others. Many are still trapped by a performance-based theology that thinks God’s love must be earned or deserved. They think that if they behave well and perform good works for God then He will love them more. This is so far from the truth! God cannot love us any more nor any less than He does now, and He longs for us to live in the place of grace where we understand that He gives His love to us freely. God’s love and grace are gifts for us to receive. Do we ever deserve them? No! We are totally undeserving, but we are the undeserving who are the apple of His eye. GRACE AND FORGIVENESS The title of this book Grace and Forgiveness is purposefully chosen because the issue of God’s grace is vitally intertwined with the issue of forgiveness. They are not simply two distinct aspects of our spiritual life that we have decided to place together in the same book. When we come into a real understanding of the extent of God’s grace towards us and what that means, we begin to see how vital and necessary it is that we pass that grace and love on to others. Grace becomes an irresistible force in our lives. When properly understood, the “unfairness” and “injustice” of God’s grace towards us is deeply shocking, even offensive to our human understanding, as we will see. But in the same way that God lavishly and extravagantly pours His grace out upon our lives, He is calling us to learn how to show grace to others by forgiving those who truly don’t deserve it. The great discovery of forgiveness is that, through a selfless act, we open ourselves up to a greater outpouring of the blessing of God on our lives. There are two important things that every Christian needs to realize at some point in their journey as a believer, preferably sooner rather than later! The first is that our God is very big and very powerful and there is nothing that He cannot do. The second is that He is very loving and compassionate towards us. The Bible says that “God is love”. This is not a statement about what He does, but about who He is. He is the very embodiment of perfect, flawless love. His heart for us is to see us living our spiritual lives where we are operating with the dynamics of His Kingdom, just as Jesus did. It is a Kingdom of love, filled with faith, aware of the bigness of our God; aware of His willingness to interact with us and do things for us as we act in loving obedience to Him.

READ Psalm 79:9–13. 9 Help us, God our Savior, for the glory of your name; deliver us and forgive our sins for your name’s sake. 10 Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” Before our eyes, make known among the nations that you avenge the outpoured blood of your servants. 11 May the groans of the prisoners come before you; with your strong arm preserve those condemned to die. 12 Pay back into the laps of our neighbors seven times the contempt they have hurled at you, Lord. 13 Then we your people, the sheep of your pasture, will praise you forever; from generation to generation we will proclaim your praise. BLOOD CRIES OUT. The psalmist hears the victims’ blood crying out to be avenged (verse 10). The Bible often speaks of injustice “crying out” to God, as did the shed blood of Abel against Cain (Genesis 4:10–11). The psalmist calls for God to pay back the invaders (verse 12). What he did not know was that Christ’s blood would someday be poured out in Jerusalem too, blood that “speaks a better word than the blood of Abel” (Hebrews 12:24). It demands forgiveness rather than retribution for those who believe. Christians too can praise God in the face of mistreatment (verse 13). But in addition they love their enemies and pray for their salvation (Matthew 5:43–48). Prayer: Lord, how can I, who live only by your mercy and grace, withhold the same from anyone else? Thank you for lifting from me the impossible burden of thinking that I know what others deserve who have wronged me. Help me to leave that to you. Amen.

not in the sense that it brought on the end of the world, but in the sense that it uncovered, or revealed, divides and contours in the American social landscape many of us did not want to face, deep rifts regarding race, religion, nationalism, gender, and fear. It was certainly apocalyptic for me in the way that it exposed, to my shame, my reluctance to resist certain injustices in this country until the resistance movement fit more conveniently with my political persuasions.

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud + 5or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. + 6It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. + 7Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. +

Ps 72 Woven together throughout Ps 72 are the themes of justice, peace and domestic prosperity. In the prologue to the Code of Hammurapi, and especially in the epilogue, the king boasts that his just rule also brings peace and prosperity to the cities of his realm. Immediately following the prayer for justice in “Ashurbanipal’s Coronation Hymn,” the priest asks that the king’s dominion might also be characterized by prosperity (abundance of grain; cf. v. 16) and “peace” (Assyrian salimu is akin to the Hebrew salom in v. 3 [NIV “prosperity”]). Injustice resulted in social chaos (see note on 94:20). In Egyptian thought, the execution of justice by the king expels chaos from creation, bringing harmony and order to the land. Thus, in both Mesopotamia and Egypt, people set their hope on the king for justice and prosperity. In Egypt, this revolved around a pharaoh who participated in the company of the gods and mediated divine blessing to humanity, but this hope never focused beyond the currently living king, except very late in Egyptian history (c. 300 BC), when expectations arose among some that a king would arise to restore the former glory of Egypt. Similarly, Mesopotamians did not conceive of a future king who would usher in an ideal age. People considered only their contemporary king as the agent of the gods who ideally maintained a prosperous social order. In contrast, in the OT one finds a progressively developing theme of hope for a future, worldwide kingdom ruled by a Davidic king on behalf of Yahweh. 72:4 defend the afflicted. Care for the weak members of society is the practical test of a just and good government throughout the ancient Near East, as claimed by Hammurapi (see note on Ps 72; see also the article “Coronation Hymns in the Ancient Near East”). In the Ugaritic Kirta epic, King Kirta is rebuked for failure to “pursue the widow’s case,” “take up the wretched’s claim,” “expel the poor’s oppressor” and “feed the orphan.” In the Egyptian “Teaching for Merikare,” the king is exhorted, “Do justice, then you endure on earth; / Calm the weeper, don’t oppress the widow.

Here too Luke speaks to our day. Throughout the world, people are coming to the conviction that poverty is in large measure the result of injustice. Those of us who are more affluent, who have never really known hunger, nakedness, and lack of medical services, and who consider ourselves producers of wealth, find it difficult to understand such an interpretation of reality. We look for people who are poor through their own fault, and then claim that we are willing to help “the worthy poor,” but not the rest. Conveniently, we then conclude that the worthy poor are just a few, and that therefore no radical action is needed. The poor in Luke are the supposedly unworthy poor. Quite frequently, “the poor and the sinners” were lumped together. After all, the poor could not offer proper sacrifices, could not keep themselves clean of ritual contamination, and had to deal with many things that the godly considered unclean. It is to these poor that the message is good news. It is to these poor that the great reversal is announced. Thus once again Luke comes into our present reality speaking a word that, though unwelcome by many, our age needs to heed.

Bible, Vedas, Koran (Sonnet 1274) Take my Bible, Take my Vedas; Take my Koran, Take my Suttas; Take my Darwin, Take my creation; Take my Aquinas, Take my Atom; Take my myths, Take my reason; Take my facts, Take my fiction; Take the whole lot, I'll still be human. My humanity thrives beyond all dualities of facts and fiction.

The African American tradition of biblical interpretation was shaped not by the philosophies of the Enlightenment but by the experience of suffering and the demands of injustice.45 Rather than stepping back from the text and evaluating it from a supposed perspective of objectivity, Black preachers and congregants stepped into Scripture.

Rest and play during a Family Sabbath (more on this in chapter 5), generosity as we give time or money to address an injustice, worship and a chance to connect with God through music—all these and more create space for our kids to discover God beyond the world of words. Words are great, but if we aren’t intentional, it’s easy for the words of Bible stories and the words of prayers to make up a disproportionate amount of a child’s faith sensibility. The fact is that the experiential is educational, and kids need the chance to live some things as much as they need the chance to hear or talk about others.

The land is often considered a gift of grace in the Bible, especially in the Hebrew Scriptures. The land was the source of sustenance and thus reflected God’s will that all would have the necessities on this earth. Therefore, it is an image that often refers to natural grace. Those who take this natural, freely-given grace and turn it into a commodity, who privatize the land and sell it back to God’s creatures for profit, rob from the Lord. They are unfree. But the grace of God is not for sale. What God has given in common belongs to all; only by theft and violence does it become the exclusive property of the few.

Many Christians in the modern age think of their religion as peace loving, as well it often has been and should be. But anyone with any grasp of history at all knows also just how violent Christians have been over the ages, sponsoring oppression, injustice, wars, crusades, pogroms, inquisitions, holocausts—all in the name of the faith.

Take my Bible, Koran & Vedas, Take my Origin of Species. Throw me to the fires of hell, My life will still smell of roses.

Iman Insaniyat, Mazhab Muhabbat (Pani, Agua, Water Sonnet) In some circles, I am called a genius, Yet the only genius I know of is service. In other circles, I am branded fraud, Yet the only fraud I know of is prejudice. Saying, you've explored my work, after spending an evening scrolling through a few quotes, is like saying, you've climbed Mount Everest, after spending an evening scrolling through pictures of the Himalayas. Yet I can tell you who I am, I don't need a million lines but one. Iman insaniyat, mazhab muhabbat*; Pani, agua, water, it's all one. Take my Bible, Koran & Vedas, Take my Origin of Species. Throw me to the fires of hell, My life will still smell of roses. (*faith humanity, religion love)

He told me, “Systemic injustice does not exist.” I responded, “Do you believe that the media has an agenda to oppress White evangelicals?” He said, “Yes, I do.” I said, “Do you believe White evangelicals are oppressed on the majority of American college campuses?” He said, “Yes, I do!” I said, “Do you believe White evangelicals face discrimination in America?” He said, “Yes, I do!” “Brother,” I told him, “you do in fact believe that systemic injustice exists. But the systemic injustice you believe in oppresses White evangelicals.” “Well, I guess I do believe in systemic injustice,” he admitted. So I responded, “Are you willing to rethink that perhaps systemic injustice against Black people and other people of color exists?” “No,” he said, “systemic injustice does not exist.

How can children of God sit silently as their brothers and sisters experience racial injustice?

I have found when White brothers and sisters say they do not see color, it is because their color has not been a historic disadvantage to them and their ancestors. Colorblind ideology also creates a false sense that everything is okay. It acts like a spiritual sleeping aid that causes us to ignore certain injustices.

. Because of his holiness, God can offer only resistance to evil. The Bible calls this the wrath of God.23 Many people may at first stumble over this statement and regard it as inappropriate. But God’s wrath does not mean an emotionally surging rage or an angry intervention, but rather God’s resistance to sin and injustice. Wrath is, so to speak, the active and dynamic expression of his holy essence.

American churches are ten times more segregated than the neighborhoods they are in and twenty times more segregated than nearby schools.[4] Echo chambers of segregation and disunity reinforce ethnic division, intensify political division, breed inequality, and foster injustice.[5] The implications of the segregated church in America stifle the mission of God, hinder discipleship, and display a divided church. This segregation does not reflect the character of Jesus that Christians are called to display.

It’s a scary thing, a life-changing, paradigm-shifting thing, to honestly ask yourself this question: Am I moving with God to rescue, restore, and redeem humanity? Or am I clinging fast, eyeteeth clenched, to an imperfect world’s habits and cultural customs, in full knowledge of injustice or imperfections, living at odds with God’s dream for his daughters and sons? He calls his people farther and farther out into the fresh air for the wild and holy work of restoration, renewal, and redemption.

I have found that many believers filter the “hot topics” of race and injustice through Democratic or Republican filters instead of theological filters. People will leave their churches over politics before they leave politics for a church.

To live a distant, withdrawn, and secluded life is diametrically opposed to spirituality as Jesus Christ taught it.     The true test of our spirituality occurs when we come up against injustice, degradation, ingratitude, and turmoil, all of which have the tendency to make us spiritually lazy. While being tested, we want to use prayer and Bible reading for the purpose of finding a quiet retreat. We use God only for the sake of getting peace and joy. We seek only our enjoyment of Jesus Christ, not a true realization of Him. This is the first step in the wrong direction. All these things we are seeking are simply effects, and yet we try to make them causes.

{10:1} Woe to those who make unfair laws, and who, when writing, write injustice: {10:2} in order to oppress the poor in judgment, and to do violence to the case of the humble of my people, in order that widows may be their prey, and that they might plunder the orphan.

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are ajust; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He.