A Brief Book Summary from Books At a Glance
by Steve West
Introduction
By What Standard? is a collection of writings on the broad theme of social justice and how the church should respond to it. The secular approach to social justice is critiqued and analyzed, and proposals are made for biblical alternatives. The relationships between racism, Cultural Marxism, Christianity, Scripture, and the gospel are probed. The authors argue against secular understandings of social justice and argue for the necessity of finding true justice through upholding God’s design as revealed in God’s Word.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Hollow and Deceptive Philosophies: Tom Ascol
Chapter 2: Cultural Marxism: Voddie Baucham
Chapter 3: The Religious Roots of our Sexual Perversion: Jared Longshore
Chapter 4: White Privilege: Tom Ascol
Chapter 5: Biblical Justice and Social Justice: Tom Nettles
Chapter 6: God’s Created Order—Living Justly as Male and Female: Jared Longshore
Chapter 7: Ethnic Gnosticism: Voddie Baucham
Chapter 8: Mature Manhood: Mark Coppenger
Chapter 9: Racial Reconciliation: Voddie Baucham
Chapter 10: Gospel Privilege and Global Missions: Chad Vegas
Appendix: Timon Cline
Summary
Chapter 1: Hollow and Deceptive Philosophies
There are numerous spiritual dangers this side of heaven. There are large numbers of false teachers and false philosophies. False prophets abound. The shepherds of God’s people are called to help guard the flock against those with smooth and deceitful tongues. In the church today, people and leaders are complacent as society is controlled by isms and those who have the power to label and name things according to their agendas. Under the guise of “social justice,” the church has allowed many harmful ideologies to influence its thinking and activities. Only through Scripture can we have real justice, but this is being lost sight of even in some parts of evangelicalism. Paul called the Colossians to be on guard against false philosophy and wisdom. The world is trying to take us captive and lead us away from the Word of God, and they do so through false philosophy and deceit. This philosophy is according to human thinking and traditions rather than God’s thoughts. It is also in line with the elemental spirits of the world. It does not come from Christ. The greatest danger is that false philosophy can lead us away from Christ.
Colossians 2:8 applies to today’s “social justice” movement. The secular social justice movement is—at its heart—antithetical to God’s Word and Christian ethics. Christians above all other people should strive for justice, but justice cannot exist outside of the biblical worldview and framework of Scripture. Instead of “social justice” we should work for biblical justice. Social justice is hard to discuss because the term is used by so many people in a large variety of different ways. Christians are being deceived because we should stand for the oppressed, but we need to let Scripture rather than the world define who the oppressed are. We also need to ask by what standard justice will be seen to be done. Cultural Marxism is a dominant force in the left that moves classical Marxism from economics to a cultural and social theory. All minority groups are considered oppressed, and the others are privileged.
Cultural Marxism has given rise to Critical Theory. This theory seeks to unmask and overthrow all the structures in society that allow certain people to be privileged while others are oppressed. Fundamental to your identity are the groups to which you belong, and whether they are the oppressors or oppressed. No matter what your personal attitudes, you can be racist and homophobic depending on your social demographic. You are called to work for the liberation of oppressed groups; if you don’t, you are complicit. Regardless of reason or statistics, feelings of oppression are all that count. There are numerous examples of how CT has affected evangelical thinking. When other Christians disagree, they are shut down as racist or misogynistic. However, this is God’s world and we must follow God’s rules. . . .
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