Implications of Limited Atonement contra Social Justice

Here’s two fundamentally incompatible doctrines:

Limited atonement
Social justice

Disobedience to God’s law results in curses and obedience to God’s law results in blessings (Deuteronomy 27 – 28).

Covenantally, God builds his kingdom by blessing the righteous and cursing the unrighteous. Combine this with our command to show preference to brothers and sisters in the faith,

Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith. (Galatians 6:10)

and you have a biblical justice system which effectuates the advancement of the elect over and even at the cost of the non-elect. This is fundamentally anti-egalitarian and differs radically from social justice which effectively sees this selective blessing and cursing as problematic and unjust. Social justice offers no room for the just suffering of the wicked. We are certainly not to take pleasure in the suffering of the non-elect, but we are to, for example, donate our time and money to where God’s kingdom can be most advanced among the household of faith, as opposed to simply where there is the greatest immediate shortage among the household of Mephistopheles.

In practice, building a Christ honoring church or hospital in your home town may take precedence over feeding the wicked poor 1000 miles away. Social justice “thinking” does not allow for this because it is fundamentally prioritizes leveling the distribution of human suffering over seeking the Kingdom of God. In short: social justice views the advancement of Christian culture and the destruction of non-Christian culture as problematic, because it violates its ultimate principle of human equality.

Author: jetbrane

I am a Pastor of a small Church in Mid-Michigan who delights in my family, my congregation and my calling. I am postmillennial in my eschatology. Paedo-Calvinist Covenantal in my Christianity Reformed in my Soteriology Presuppositional in my apologetics Familialist in my family theology Agrarian in my regional community social order belief Christianity creates culture and so Christendom in my national social order belief Mythic-Poetic / Grammatical Historical in my Hermeneutic Pre-modern, Medieval, & Feudal before Enlightenment, modernity, & postmodern Reconstructionist / Theonomic in my Worldview One part paleo-conservative / one part micro Libertarian in my politics Systematic and Biblical theology need one another but Systematics has pride of place Some of my favorite authors, Augustine, Turretin, Calvin, Tolkien, Chesterton, Nock, Tozer, Dabney, Bavinck, Wodehouse, Rushdoony, Bahnsen, Schaeffer, C. Van Til, H. Van Til, G. H. Clark, C. Dawson, H. Berman, R. Nash, C. G. Singer, R. Kipling, G. North, J. Edwards, S. Foote, F. Hayek, O. Guiness, J. Witte, M. Rothbard, Clyde Wilson, Mencken, Lasch, Postman, Gatto, T. Boston, Thomas Brooks, Terry Brooks, C. Hodge, J. Calhoun, Llyod-Jones, T. Sowell, A. McClaren, M. Muggeridge, C. F. H. Henry, F. Swarz, M. Henry, G. Marten, P. Schaff, T. S. Elliott, K. Van Hoozer, K. Gentry, etc. My passion is to write in such a way that the Lord Christ might be pleased. It is my hope that people will be challenged to reconsider what are considered the givens of the current culture. Your biggest help to me dear reader will be to often remind me that God is Sovereign and that all that is, is because it pleases him.

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