The woke gospel is a false gospel. The gospel that we teach is a Biblical gospel that does not reject the principles of the Old Testament law. It is a gospel that is focused on Jesus Christ. That gospel sets us free to establish order and justice under the good and gracious rule of King Jesus.
I have been reflecting on the civil law in the Bible and wokeness in our current culture. I recently wrote on Christianity and wokeness more generally here in a mix of commentary on and book review of Dr. Strachan’s book “Christianity and Wokeness”.
Now what do I mean here by “civil law”? I am using the term “civil law” here as a distinct category from both the “ceremonial law” and the “moral law”. The ceremonial law existed in the Old Testament as shadows and pictures that pointed forward to Christ who would fulfil it (Hebrews, BC Art. 25, HC LD 6). To go back to these laws would fall into the heresy of the Judaizers whom Paul condemns in his various letters to the churches in the New Testament.
The civil law is the law that was meant to order society in Old Testament Israel. The moral law was the basic principles for morality: the 10 commandments.
But to make these distinctions does not mean that these laws are hermetically sealed. There is some overlap between the ceremonial law and the civil law in the Old Testament. For example, it seems that there was a ceremonial aspect to the specific practice of stoning. But while those ceremonial aspects have passed away (they still teach us about Christ which means that they are still valuable), there are still principles to learn from the many OT civil laws that should protect us today, including against the woke mob. In the civil law we find many practical applications of the moral law (10 commandments) which remains unchanged in these New Testament times. The law of love does not replace these 10 commandments. The Law of Love simply summarizes the 10 commandments. In the 10 commandments and the civil law, we learn how to love God and our neighbor.
As we have seen especially in the last 10 years, wokeness seeks to separate the laws that govern men from the changeless laws of God that establish Biblical justice and equity in the land.
For example, while the MeToo Movement may have arisen from real cases where male power was abused in the workplace, it forsook certain rules that protected employers and co-workers from false allegations of sexual harassment. In the Old Testament civil law, an allegation had to be established by two or three witnesses (Deuteronomy 17:1-7). This is affirmed in the New Testament by the Apostle Paul in his exhortations to the church in Corinth in II Corinthians 13 as a timeless principle. As such, the church should be a model to the secular world, of true justice and equity.
