Today's Devotional
March 17, 2008
Subject: Liberation Theology
1 Timothy 1:15 "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief."
My brother and I had one of our patented "discussions" yesterday after church. He was trying to make a point of justification, not necessarily of the now infamous Jeremiah Wright, but of this thing called "Liberation Theology" or "Black Liberation Theology," which is supposedly what Rev Wright and some others use to support their views. I wasn't read up on the subject and had not reviewed it so I did a lot of that yesterday and as I immediately professed when he began to make the argument yesterday, it misses. It misses because it plain and simply makes the word of God, "about us."
We've talked about it before. The bible was created to be God's word to us. Not just part of it, but all of it. That word is all about Jesus Christ. One of the preeminent Black Liberation Theologians, James Cone a minister from Arkansas who grew up in the segregated south said, "that many white Christians emphasized ideas like justification by faith and grace as central Christian themes." Against this he argued that, "from the perspective of black Christians, the idea of liberation from oppression was much more important and had a much more immediate relevancy to their lives."
So justification by faith and the concept of grace need to take a back seat to my current circumstances is what that seems to imply to me. The problem is that if we continue to change the central message of the gospel based on the fallibility of sinful man, then we end up with a theology based on sinful man and I believe that any theology should have as the central character, the infallible, perfect Jesus Christ Himself.
I understand what the "liberationists" are doing. They are trying to address grievances that they have with society, but you don't do that by subjugating portions of God's word. It would amount to Job determining that he needed to address his trials with something other than understanding God.
The word of God is simply not about us, it's about Christ and it is indeed a word to us about our fallen condition. Our current circumstances need to be viewed through the lens of what Jesus Christ has done. From my viewpoint, if you want "Liberation" in your theology, you need to know the concept of God's grace, because liberation doesn't come from finding passages in the bible that exhort you to be free, but instead, from understanding how regardless of your situation in life, as a believer, you are free.
Carlen
