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To begin this series, I want to briefly read these verses from 1st Chronicles 12:23, 32. This portion is mainly focusing upon the transition of the kingdom under Saul being transferred to David’s kingdom. Notice, the author notes that the sons of Issachar were men who, “understood the times”. This series entitled, “A Biblical Examination of the Cultural Marxist Movement” stems from the elders seeking to understand the times we find ourselves in and how to respond to everything. How many of you have heard of some of these terms more frequently or recently: white privilege, systemic racism, oppression, social justice, equity, diversity, equality, power structures, white fragility, antiracism? How many of you keep up with, follow, or are associated with any of the following: politics, movies, sports, social media, news, academia, public schooling, or Christian books/conferences? If you have the wonderful privilege of never having heard any of those words or not being in any way associated with any of those things I listed, well I am very blessed to hear how God has spared you. For most, I am sure you have noticed much going on in our society and there is much confusion and turmoil from it all. To briefly summarize, there is much happening under the banner of Social Justice. That term is so broad, and it encompasses much of what is taking place. The purpose of this series will be to get to the core beliefs and doctrines that are fueling this movement. If Social Justice is a tree, the roots are, what has been called, Cultural Marxism (or, even by some, Neo-Marxism). We are going to examine biblically what the main teachings of this movement are, and by God’s grace, we will discern the danger it presents to the Christian church and how we ought to respond.
So, what should you expect? Thesis – “a statement or theory that is put forward as a premise to be maintained or proved.” This series will be founded upon this thesis, “Cultural Marxism, and all of the ideologies that are associated with it, are both cancerous and incompatible with the Christian faith and message.” This series will consist of six sermons/Sunday school lessons. I stated that we will have a thesis, but don’t be intimidated, this won’t be some lofty-minded or scholarly series, this series will seek to help the everyday Christian understand the dangers of this movement and how it is truly opposed to our beliefs. Each sermon/lesson will have two specific goals:
Biblical Examination – I do not believe in making empty slanderous claims, if I make the assertion that this movement is cancerous and incompatible with our faith then I need to provide proof and documentation of its errors. How we will do that is quite simple, much like examining a hundred dollar bill for a fake, we will begin each session by going through Scripture and reaffirming what we hold as truth and then the second part of each sermon will consist in ‘holding up’ the teachings of Cultural Marxism with the truths of God’s Word. In the light of God’s Word, the errors will reveal themselves.
Shepherding resources – The second of the two goals of this series will have to do with the elders seeking to shepherd this local fellowship well. There have been many brothers in Christ and ministries that have produced great resources that our elders deeply trust and respect. I will often quote and point you to them so that you can learn more and be better equipped in this area. BUT there are also, sadly, many pastors, churches, ministries, books, and organizations that have, to one degree or another, either been influenced by or have fully bought into these ideologies. Let me make this clear, not every professing Christian who is social justice minded is a Cultural Marxist nor do they automatically buy into every ideology that I will speak against. The sad truth is this is why we must preach and teach against this is because there are some who clearly are wolves in sheep’s clothing and there are others who are falling prey to these errors and so our elders, “understanding the times” are desiring to, not only point you to good resources on this issue, but they want to warn you of those who may just be sadly influenced by these ideologies or are just wolves in sheep clothing. I will seek, in all charity, to be as gracious as I can but we have clear and ample instructions on how to deal with false teaching, in short, we must have nothing to do with it!
Today we will be examining worldviews, the one presented by Scripture compared to the worldview of Cultural Marxism. To begin, for the sake of clarity, what is a worldview? Our dictionaries define this as, “a comprehensive conception or apprehension of the world, especially from a specific standpoint” or “a particular philosophy of life or conception of the world”. Think of a worldview as a pair of glasses by which you look through the lens to see the world around you. All people have a pair of glasses, or a worldview, by which they view and interpret the world around them. As Christians, we have our own worldview, it is a pair of glasses given to us by the Word of God whereby we view and interpret the world through these lenses. To understand our, or any, worldview there are two things you must understand: authority and doctrine. Authority deals with where your beliefs come from and doctrine deals with the exact beliefs that come from your authority(repeat). So, let us start looking at the authority and doctrine of the biblical worldview.
The authority for our worldview is found in the term itself, it is a ‘biblical worldview’. Our authority is summarized by the confession that our Lord declared to Satan in the wilderness, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4) We are to live by and upon every word that comes forth from God, that is why we believe in Sola Scriptura. We say that phrase often, ‘Scripture alone’ and the primary idea behind it is that the Scriptures are the sole (only), infallible (incapable of being wrong) rule of faith (what we believe) and practice. The Scriptures, both OT and NT, are our only and final authority on everything we believe, and this comes from our understanding of what the Bible is. As 2nd Peter 1:20 and 2nd Timothy 3:16 both inform us that all the Bible is inspired by God or breathed out by Him. As Peter puts it, “for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.”
We, as a church, are united on our conviction of the Bible being our final and only authority on what to believe. Having that foundation of Sola Scriptura planted, the next thing to examine in a biblical worldview are the teachings that come from our authority. Over the course of this series we will actually address a variety of specific Christian doctrines, the topics are; worldview, Scriptural authority, unity in Christ, sin, God’s law, atonement/forgiveness, ethics, morality, hope, justice, evangelism, missions, and the Gospel itself. Since we will dive into those other areas of Christian authority in the following lessons, I want to simply expand upon one specific doctrine.
This one doctrine is probably our most foundational belief, it is our most significant presupposition. A presupposition is simply something you assume beforehand to be true. For all those Christian doctrines I mentioned earlier, one specific Christian doctrine finds itself first in priority. It is the doctrine that Moses asserts in the first verse of the Bible, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth.” (Genesis 1:1) The doctrine of God Himself presupposes all that we believe from the Bible. What I mean is quite clear, we start with the presupposition that God is, and that God has spoken, all our other doctrines flow from this primary presupposition. The Scriptures, that we take as our final authority, are so connected to the fact that the One, True God has revealed Himself to His creation.
In God’s self-revelation, He has revealed to us much about Himself. We learn that God is holy (Isaiah 6:3), God is love (1st John 4:16), His triune nature (John 1:1), and there are many other attributes of God that we learn from His self-revelation. There is one particular attribute of God that we will focus upon in this sermon and that is the doctrine of God’s sovereignty. To briefly define, I will borrow from the 1689 LBC, 5:1 states, “God the good Creator of all things, in His infinite power and wisdom, upholds, directs, arranges and governs all creatures and things, from the least to the greatest, by His perfectly wise and holy providence, to the purpose for which they were created. He governs according to His infallible foreknowledge and the free and unchangeable counsel of His own will. His providence leads to the praise of the glory of His wisdom, power, justice, infinite goodness and mercy.” To simplify, I have heard one pastor put it like this, “God is sovereign and is in complete control of history. He has mapped it out and it’s going to happen exactly according to His plan; exactly as He chooses.” This doctrine is such a foundation for our church, we have 9 values, 6 distinctives, and 8 objectives here at Evansville Bible Church. Our first value and distinctive is a commitment to, “A High View of God” and our first goal is, “To Glorify God in All Things”. Because of these convictions of ours we want to glorify God in proclaiming the truth of His sovereignty.
Let us review the biblical evidence for God’s sovereignty. In Scripture, we have two main lines of support the explicit passages and clear implicit verses. A few weeks ago, Dan Jost, during Scripture reading, read Psalm 103 which states in verse 19, “The LORD has established His throne in the heavens, and His sovereignty rules over all.” Paul, in the opening of his letter to the Ephesians, tell us how God, before the foundation of the world, chose us to be in Christ and how God has predestined us to adoption as sons. And where does this foreknowledge and predestination come from? As Paul goes on to say, “… according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace,” (Ephesians 1:5-6) He will go on to tell us that, “also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will.” (Ephesians 1:11). The sovereignty of God comes from the reality that God has a sovereign will or decree and that He, to the praise of His own glory, is accomplishing His own purposes in His creation. Therefore, we find such tremendous joy in Romans 8:28-30. One of the greatest confessions to the greatness of God’s sovereignty comes from Daniel 4:34-35.
There are passages upon passages of clear, explicit statements of God’s sovereignty over His creation. From Genesis 50:20, [God meant ‘it’ for good], throughout Isaiah and the prophets, in the NT (for example, Peter’s statement in Acts 2:23), but there are also strong, implicit passages. The author of Ecclesiastes, especially in 5:18-19. This same idea, of God’s sovereignty being over what we have received, is expressed by Paul, in 1st Corinthians 4:7, when he rebukes the Corinthians for not remembering that all that they have comes from the fact that they had received it from God. Paul’s sermon on Mars Hill, is primarily an evangelistic sermon to these unbelievers, but notice how in the midst of his sermon how Paul informs them of God’s sovereignty even over the kingdoms of the Earth when he states, “and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the Earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation.” (Acts 17:26)
Again, there are many more passages and evidence that could be examined but for the purpose of the sermon we will move on to examine this other worldview. Before we do that, keep in mind these two points I was seeking to establish and remind you of: (1) The Scriptures alone are our only and final authority for all faith (what we believe) and practice. (2) Our worldview, grounded in God’s Word, begins with the presupposition of the reality of God and His sovereignty over His creation.
Moving onto this other worldview, the term I have used ‘Cultural Marxism’ is sometimes just replaced by saying social justice or Critical Race Theory, but just recognize we are using it as an umbrella for all of the different ideologies that we will discuss. So, how do we begin to understand the teachings of ‘Cultural Marxism’ and this Cultural Marxist Movement in general? Jon Harris, from ‘Conversations that Matter’, has stated before that this whole worldview is comparable to following a water stream or even a virus. Just as you can follow a water stream to its source or how a virus mutates and changes so what we are seeing now, in Cultural Marxism, is a developed worldview. It has adopted certain beliefs throughout time but if you want to see its origins, you must trace it back to classical Marxism. [‘By What Standard’ documentary details this well]
Karl Marx (1818-1883), the first thing you must realize about Marx was that he was a materialist. It means that he did not believe in anything besides matter and energy, or that, everything was physical. As a materialist he denied spiritual realities and so he was an atheist. Since Marx denied the supernatural, he developed his own worldview on how to interpret the world he found himself in. A primary focus for him was upon the economic system and the idea that the systems in place were benefitting the owners or the bourgeoisie (haves or oppressors) at the expense of the workers or the proletariat (have-nots or oppressed). His whole worldview was complex but the two things to note from the start: (1) Marx’s authority for his beliefs stemmed from his own perception about the world. (2) Marx saw the world through the lens of economic class warfare and power structures. The haves and the have-nots or the oppressors and the oppressed and the systems that are in place to benefit one group at the expense of the other.
Marx’s ideas and worldview were passed down to other thinkers and various men. This is where we see the evolving of his original beliefs tweaked and adjusted through different people and ideologies. The group of people who inherited Marx’s beliefs were called postmodernists. To understand where postmodernists came from, we must look back historically. During the time of the Reformation (1500’s) we had the era called modernity, which was the start or the rise of Modernists. These thinkers and men, to summarize, held their chins high and chest out with such confidence that through science, study, reason, and the intellect that we could learn everything. Postmodernism, which developed 60-70 years after Marx’s death (1940-1960), is very complex and has too much to even explain, but it partly stems from the failures and doubts that we could truly learn everything and so they became extremely doubtful about everything we can or even have learned. The modernists lift their chin up and believes he can learn it all while the postmodernists cannot even lift his head up from all the doubts, he contains within himself. One brilliant author I have read said this about describing postmodernism, “Postmodernism isn’t just hard to define; it’s also notoriously difficult to summarize.” So, I will not be able to completely explain these thinkers and their beliefs to you as much as I would desire. But what must be noted is that postmodernists took the worldview of Karl Marx they denied certain things he proposed and adjusted other ideas of his. Before I get to what they added to Marx’s worldview, I do want to present a few key principles or emphasis found in postmodernism: (1) Radical skepticism, especially about objective reality. (2) The emphasis of oppressive systems of power and hierarchies within society and how they control language and power. (3) Deconstruction activism, of language and perceived systems. (4) The loss of the individual and the universal, identity is found within the group. (sex, ethnicity, gender)
With these principles in mind, we can now gain a view of Cultural Marxism as a worldview. Karl Marx’s worldview strictly dealt with economics and wealth; he saw this as the battleground where he must fight. The postmodernists took his idea of class warfare a step farther and saw it not merely as economic but a cultural issue. There are systems of power and groups within society, some groups are oppressors and other groups are the oppressed. According to Cultural Marxism, all of society is divided, not into individuals, but into groups that are at constant conflict. The new bourgeoisie (or oppressor) is anyone within the majority-culture or who is sympathetic/in allegiance with the majority-culture. The majority culture, or what is also called the hegemony, has created our country to benefit the majority-culture and we have constantly and consistently oppressed minority groups. [Voddie Baucham, ‘Ethnic Gnosticism’ details this wonderfully] So, for us Americans, the hegemony is made up of white, heterosexual, cisgender, males and their ‘allies’ (i.e. anyone who is not that but that would dare to disagree with Cultural Marxism) The problem is ‘whiteness’ and the fact that our whole society has been built with racism, bigotry, plunder, and evil, thus just by being -part of the hegemony, or being an ally, means you are complicit with systemic racism and bigotry that are society is founded upon.
So, assuming that worldview is correct, what can I do to redeem myself or repent? If you are a part of the hegemony, or an ally, you must now be born again by becoming ‘woke’. You must take up your cross of denying your white privilege, renouncing your complicity in systemic racism, and become an activist and ally for the oppressed!
This is where a new authority comes in intersectionality and standpoint epistemology. If you are going to stand up for the oppressed and do justice, then you must be able to identify who the oppressed are. Intersectionality is a concept coined in 1989 that helps identify who the oppressed are. The hegemony, or the majority-culture, is the standard and the group that society is made from and who it benefits. Wherever you do not meet the qualifications of the hegemony is where you intersect and thus it reveals how oppressed you are. With intersectionality we can now define and see who are the real oppressed by the systemic sins of America and if we are going to help them, we must first listen to them. This is what we call standpoint epistemology and in simple terms, it is the ideology that your position in society influences how one comes to knowledge. So, it is teaching that truth is relative to your position in society. If you are an oppressed victim then your understanding of oppression is truer as compared to what someone in the hegemony believes about oppression. You might see this in society, especially if you have white skin, when someone tells you that you need to be silent and just listen. Whether they want to call it standpoint epistemology or not they believe that a person’s perception of their own perceived oppression is the standard of truth and you need to listen to it, your facts and opinions are both irrelevant and oppressive.
So, having intersectionality on our side to show us who is oppressed and standpoint epistemology to direct us to our voices of authority, we must now go and identify where oppression and injustice are taking place. This is where the term Critical Theory or Critical Race Theory comes into play. CT or CRT is seeking to apply the worldview I have been presenting, as one of the leading opponents of CRT puts it, “… what is going on in critical race theory — racism is present everywhere and always, and persistently works against people of color, who are aware of this, and for the benefit of white people, who tend not to be, as is their privilege.” Here is another quote from the same author who is explaining what CRT looks like at work, “However, there is nothing complex about the overarching idea of intersectionality, or the theories upon which it is built. Nothing could be simpler. It does the same thing over and over again: look for the power imbalances, bigotry, and biases that it assumes must be present and pick at them. It reduces everything to one single variable, one single topic of conversation, one single focus and interpretation: prejudice, as understood under the power dynamics asserted by CRT. Thus, for example, disparate outcomes can have one, and only one, explanation, and it is prejudicial bigotry. The question is just identifying how it manifests in the given situation. Thus, it always assumes that, in every situation, some form of theoretical prejudice exists, and we must find a way to show evidence of it. In that sense, it is a tool – a “practice” – designed to flatten all complexity and nuance so that it can promote identity politics, in accordance with its vision.” I mentioned earlier how one of the emphasis of postmodernism is deconstruction and you must understand in social justice activism they use CRT as a tool to deconstruct society. They want to help the oppressed and fight the oppressors so to destabilize and destroy society they use CRT as their weapon to investigate and search out all forms of racism, oppression, and injustice.
This, brothers and sisters, is a brief foundational look at what Cultural Marxism is as a worldview. I understand that much was said, so to summarize we will recap a few key points: (1) Cultural Marxism, and all the ideologies presented, come from an atheistic and materialistic worldview. (2) The sole, infallible authority for Cultural Marxism is intersectionality and standpoint epistemology. (3) Cultural Marxism’s primary presupposition is a worldview that starts with class warfare
Having examined both worldviews we will begin to conclude by proving the thesis presented at the beginning of this sermon, ‘Cultural Marxism, and all of the ideologies that are associated with it, are both cancerous and incompatible with the Christian faith and message.’ In the rest of series, we will continue to examine where this thesis is proven true, but based off what we heard today, I want you to consider a few points:
Will we be obedient to the Scriptures or not? There are many passages and a wealth of verses that command us to be on guard and to stay away from false teaching. I want to only direct you to two such passages, Colossians 2:8 and Jude 3. In Jude we are commanded to, “… contend earnestly for the faith once for all delivered to the saints.” and Paul commands us in Colossians, “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.” This worldview is replacing the biblical worldview that America once had, and the worst part is that it is coming into the church and deconstructing and devastating everything it touches. Cultural Marxism was not around during Paul’s time, but it fits the criteria, it is not based upon Christ, but it is according to the tradition of men. This worldview, as we will see in the rest of the series, is antithetical to Christianity, and so if we are going to be obedient to the Word of God then we must defend the faith and not be taken captive by this worldview. We cannot be like the SBC and take it in as an ‘analytical tool’, nor can we hold/promote it like in the Revoice and Sparrow conferences. In summary, to accept Cultural Marxism would force us to disobey multiple, clear commands from our own Scriptures, thus it is both cancerous and incompatible with Christianity.
Sola Scriptura or not? What will be your final authority on what to believe? In Cultural Marxism, intersectionality, CRT, and standpoint epistemology, are the ultimate determiners of truth. You cannot avoid that according to this ideology that these must become your source of truth if you accept the worldview. Jesus says that man is called to live upon every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. When ideologies and isms come in and seek to replace the sole authority of God’s Word, we must obey God and not man. This ideology not only attacks the sole authority of Scripture but its sufficiency. It tells us that to understand how to identify and address oppression that your Bible is not enough and is not able to help identify or remedy this situation. Let us not deny the authority or sufficiency of God’s Word, let us instead choose to follow the same path as Joshua when he told the people of Israel, “… but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” (Joshua 24:15) In summary, if we accept Cultural Marxism, we must therefore reject the sole authority and sufficiency of Scripture, thus proving that it is both cancerous and incompatible with Christianity.
Will you have our Sovereign God or materialism? The foundations could not be any further from each other. As Christians, we believe in a Sovereign God who has so ordered all of creation, time, and every event in His universe to the praise of His glorious name! In Cultural Marxism, you have random matter in motion. In this universe of chance, and no God, random humans have established hierarchies and systems of power. The only thing certain is that there is oppression and injustice coming from one group to another. This worldview not only presents as truth the opinion of skeptics, god-haters, and men devoid of God’s Spirit, but look at what you must remove to accept their worldview. You must give up the notion that our sovereign God reigns! You must lay aside the reality of what one pastor called, fatherly sovereignty, which is at the heart of what we believe. This world is not made up of random matter in motion and reality is not determined by the materialist mind of atheists. ‘This is my father’s world: and though the wrong seems oft so strong God is the ruler yet!’ Brothers and sisters, Spurgeon says of God sovereignty that it is the pillow upon which we lay our heads. The sovereignty of our God is a treasure that we must take throughout our lives daily and remember that the One who loved us and gave His life for us, the One who was stricken, smitten, and afflicted, who by His wounds we have been healed. That Jesus Christ, our only Savior, is also our sovereign Lord who is interceding for us even now and that our Father is working all things together for our good that we might be conformed to the image of our Savior. To summarize this last point, and finally conclude, the very foundations of Cultural Marxism are based upon materialistic, atheistic, and postmodern theories and not upon the reality of a sovereign God who is in absolute control over His creation. Thus, proving that it is both cancerous and incompatible with Christianity.