“No justice, no peace!” This is the call to arms for Black Lives Matter (BLM) in the wake of practically any police-involved shooting in 2020. As BLM demands “No justice, no peace,” where could justice found?
We are certainly living in a Biblically illiterate society. Study after study shows that Christians increasingly do not know who Jesus was, and more properly is. One study[1] by Ligonier Ministries found that 52 percent of Americans believe that Jesus was “only a good teacher, but not God.” In another study by American Worldview Inventory 2020[2] conducted by Dr. George Barna and sponsored by Arizona Christian University found that 58 percent of Americans believe “there is no absolute moral truth”; and 77 percent believe “right and wrong is determined by factors other than the Bible”; and 59 percent of Americans say that “the Bible is not the authoritative and true Word of God.” This study also found that Americans do find faith important, but it doesn’t matter what that faith is.
What we have
is a spiritual problem.
How many of
us open our Bible or catechism in search for answers? (Thankfully, the Lutheran
Church – Missouri Synod publishes[3]
an even further explanation of the catechism that helps to answer many
questions.) From what study after study find, there are not many who search the
Scriptures or any catechism. One thing that study after study on American Christianity
has found is that Christianity is no longer favored by the American society at
large. If anything is favored it would be American paganism, seeing your
political party as your god, and the religion of Islam. But, surely
Christianity is no longer favored by society. In fact, society would likely say
devout Christians are no longer welcomed in society at large.
Today, we
have thousands, if not millions of Americans, demanding justice in the wake of Michael
Brown (Ferguson, Missouri in 2014), George Floyd (Minneapolis, Minnesota in
2020), Breonna Taylor (Louisville, Kentucky in 2020), and Jacob Blake (Kenosha,
Wisconsin in 2020). Each of these police-involved shootings was tragic, but at
the same time, each of them could have been prevented if they had not resisted the
police. But, it actually began sooner as each person made wrong choices that
led them to being confronted by the police. If Brown had not held up that
Ferguson convenience store, if Floyd did not pass a counterfeit bill and not
ingested fentanyl and methamphetamine, if Taylor had not been involved in drug
dealing, if Blake would have not resisted and reached for the knife. So, each of
these officer-involved situations could have been avoided.
The First
Commandment states: You shall have no other gods. What does this mean? We
should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.[4]
The Fourth
Commandment states: Honor your father and your mother. What does this mean? We
should fear and love God so that we do not despise or anger our parents and
other authorities, but honor them, serve and obey them, love and cherish them.[5]
Again, what
we have is a spiritual issue. Who is your god? Is it the one true God (Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit), or is it something or someone else? Are we honoring our
parents and other authorities? Are we respecting the police? Yes, in every
occupation there are bad eggs, but not every police officer is corrupt.
Instead, we are to fear and love God so that we do not despise or anger our
parents and other authorities, but honor, serve and obey them, love and cherish
them.
Since BLM is
shouting “No justice, no peace,” where could true justice be found? True
justice can only be found in God. God Himself teaches us “Vengeance is
mine, I will repay, says the Lord” (Romans 12:19; Hebrews 10:30;
Deuteronomy 32:35). Also from Proverbs 20:22: “Do not say, ‘I will repay
evil’; wait for the Lord, and he will deliver you.”
But, how
does God deliver justice? God delivers justice in two ways: (1) the Temporal
Realm (or Temporal Kingdom) and (2) the Spiritual Realm (or Spiritual Kingdom).
This doctrine is known as the Two Realms or the Two Kingdoms. Within these two
ways, God works with His left hand as He rules the Temporal Realm and with His
right hand as He rules the Spiritual Realm. So, what is going on here?
The Temporal
Realm (Left Hand of God) is God’s kingdom of the sword. The Spiritual Realm
(Right Hand of God) is God’s kingdom of the Word.
Within the
Temporal Realm, God established government as the institution in which to
preserve and protect society. Within the Spiritual Realm, God established His
Means of Grace for redemption and restoration.
So, through
these two Realms, God establishes justice temporally and establishes justice
spiritually. The criminal justice system is one of the ways God establishes temporal
justice. This begins with Laws that are put in place in order to keep an
ethical society and is focused on the behavior of the people. When the ethical
society breaks down, such as a robbery, then a police officer comes to restore that
situation back to peace. Eventually, the accused finds himself or herself in
the criminal justice system and eventually to a court date to find out from the
judge or jury if he or she is guilty of the crime. And, where we may believe
the justice system has wronged an individual, there is also an appeals process.
This is how God establishes justice in the Temporal Realm.
In the
Spiritual Realm, God aims at justification. However, if a person does not believe and trust in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, then that person is not
justified through the merit and work of Christ, but is instead sent into outer
darkness in hell, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth for eternity.
These days, activist
groups like BLM and Antifa call for justice in places where true justice is not
found – on the streets. Instead of accepting justice as God has ordained it,
they loot and burn their neighborhoods and cities as they cry out: “This is not
fair! No justice, no peace! You shoot, we loot! The only good cop is a dead
cop!”
Instead of searching
out what justice truly means, through God’s Word, they follow their sinful
nature and create more turmoil, more death, and more destruction.
It also does
not help that the mainstream media appears that they are on the side of BLM and
Antifa. As the mainstream media does not tell the whole story about the various
police-involved shootings, they have gotten more and more people worked up. For
each of these police-involved shootings, after the looting, burning and violence,
we keep learning that the media was plain wrong in their original reporting.
Investigation after investigation shows the truth was hidden. Instead of focusing
on the facts, much of the media is focused on feelings. The thing is, we cannot
trust our own feelings, because our feelings are rooted in our sin.
Even worse
is that many mainline denominations – that are no longer rooted in God’s Word –
have lifted up the causes of BLM and Antifa. This has only made the situation
worse. For these denominations, namely the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America (ELCA), the United Church of Christ (UCC) and the Episcopal Church, they have abandoned Scriptural truth and replaced it with social justice. Instead of
looking to Jesus, who is the Prince of Peace, they too scream out “No justice,
no peace!” Instead of looking to God’s ordained plan of justice, they cry out “No
justice, no peace!”
If we search
for racism, we will find racism everywhere we look. Sin is destructive. Sin
separates us from God and His will.
So, trust in
God and trust in His ordained will. Now, His will may not match our will, but
remember these words of God: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your
thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9).
Remember,
God executes justice in His way through His Temporal and Spiritual realms. This is all by God’s
ordaining.
[1] https://disrn.com/news/one-third-of-evangelicals-believe-jesus-was-a-good-teacher-but-he-was-not-god?fbclid=IwAR3Bsg8vqGTPSfhJ2gaLms1weBuEPejfoeqlDd0DH9nN0Um622c_84K_0TM
[2] https://witness.lcms.org/2020/more-than-half-of-christians-dont-believe-the-gospel/?fbclid=IwAR3YWXBMKWc58fFfOq7ve3H5SGvce3x8_J6XpT3gjpvvZNs-Q8bHUTYwjIE
[3] https://www.cph.org/p-32272-luthers-small-catechism-with-explanation-2017-edition.aspx
[4] Luther’s
Small Catechism with Explanation – 2017 Edition (St. Louis, Concordia
Publishing House, 2017).
[5] Luther’s
Small Catechism with Explanation – 2017 Edition (St. Louis, Concordia
Publishing House, 2017).
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