LOS ANGELES – Last week, more than 3,000 evangelical Christians and churches became signatories along with Dr. John MacArthur to The Statement on Social Justice and the Gospel. The statement grew out of a series of messages by Dr. MacArthur in which he named the growth of “social justice” as a leading threat to the Gospel. The determination to document the Biblical position was made by 14 men who had gathered for prayer in a coffee shop in Dallas, Texas.

The introduction to the 14-point statement of affirmations and denials says:

Specifically, we are deeply concerned that values borrowed from secular culture are currently undermining Scripture in the areas of race and ethnicity, manhood and womanhood, and human sexuality. The Bible’s teaching on each of these subjects is being challenged under the broad and somewhat nebulous rubric of concern for ‘social justice.’

If the doctrines of God’s Word are not uncompromisingly reasserted and defended at these points, there is every reason to anticipate that these dangerous ideas and corrupted moral values will spread their influence into other realms of biblical doctrines and principles.

The affirmations declare the position of Biblical Christianity relative to God Himself and the Holy Scriptures.

The denials are rejections of social justice philosophy positions that are in contradiction to the Bible.

Liberal theologians and social justice advocates have been rising in objection to the document that rather clearly defrocks social justice of its primacy and places it in a position subservient to the Word of God.

For instance, the third of the 14 affirmations states:

WE AFFIRM that since he is holy, righteous, and just, God requires those who bear his image to live justly in the world. This includes showing appropriate respect to every person and giving to each one what he or she is due. We affirm that societies must establish laws to correct injustices that have been imposed through cultural prejudice.

The accompanying denial follows in kind:

WE DENY that true justice can be culturally defined or that standards of justice that are merely socially constructed can be imposed with the same authority as those that are derived from Scripture. We further deny that Christians can live justly in the world under any principles other than the biblical standard of righteousness. Relativism, socially-constructed standards of truth or morality, and notions of virtue and vice that are constantly in flux cannot result in authentic justice.

Every set of affirmations and denials are accompanied by the Scriptures upon which they are established.

Dr. MacArthur posted in a blog recently that a sea of change has developed among evangelicals that is a subtle and dangerous threat which has little in common with Biblical principles that focus on Jesus Christ.

Dr. MacArthur concluded that “the only long-term solution to every brand of ethnic animus is the Gospel of Jesus Christ,” noting that He alone is the one in whom all barriers are broken down and in whom all ethnic groups are bound together into a new creation as one.