Critical Race Theory and Woke Religion vs. the One Mediator of True Religion

“For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men,
the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all,
the testimony given at the proper time” (1 Tim. 2:5-6).

We require a mediator between us and God because we are in conflict.  So, to use the imagery of Job 9:33, God sent an umpire or an arbiter to “lay his hand upon us both.”  This is the only point of arbitration by which we can come to God, regardless of your socio-economic or ethnic background.

In fact, there is a play on words here to describe who this is.  We see this in the English translation: “there is… one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”  The same word is used here in both cases, a word that speaks generally of people (whether male or female).  In other words, Jesus Christ became as we are — human — to be a sympathetic mediator (a la Heb. 4:15).

As such, we can’t look to another mediator.  The Gnostics would later teach falsely that Jesus is but one of many emanations between us and the divine.  Likewise, Roman Catholics err by calling upon heavenly saints and Mary as a buffer between people and Christ.  There are no other mediators between God and man, and these blasphemies distract us from the unique work of Christ.

The twentieth and twenty-first centuries provide new blasphemies.  Perhaps you’ve seen videos from these protests of white people bowing and praying, kissing and shining shoes, chanting slogans with upraised fists, and have wondered what’s happening there.  The influence of Critical Race Theory and Liberation Theology has birthed a new religion, one with a new way of salvation through a new class of priests.  

For instance, one theologian, the late James Cone, wed issues of Christianity and black power into black theology.  He stated that, because God choose a slave race in the Hebrews, that God is the God of the oppressed (rather than of kings as well).  His conclusion was that God is therefore black (and Jesus Christ is also black).  Moreover, he saw sin not ultimately as an affront to the holiness of God but as an act of oppression (the foremost of which is racism).  Of course, we would agree that racism (partiality) is sinful, but Cone redefined God and sin.  

Dr. Eric Mason embraces James Cone in his 
book, associating salvation with 
redistribution of wealth

As a result, salvation could not be found in any church other than a black one, for salvation is social justice work.  White people must come to God through black people, becoming saved by mourning “whiteness” instead of sin.  Promoters explain that terms of “blackness” and “whiteness” are psychological as much as ontological (which, incidentally, is why black Christian theologians who disagree with this social justice gospel this are called “Uncle Toms” and told they’re not “really” black).  Because of this physiological element, those with lighter skin can become “black” by performing penance through acts like reparations, so atoning (at least for the year) for the original sin of white America — racism.  

This false gospel not only separates peoples God desires to save, it creates other mediators of salvation.  It provides no lasting hope, as one microagression or offense against the ever-shifting social-justice narrative places a white person back in the racist or white supremacist category.  The irony is that woke religion is no less racist than the Mormon religion which once taught that those with darker skin become “white and delightsome” through repentance, and it is no less a heretical error concerning Christ and salvation than that of the Roman Catholics.

These as distractions from the work of Christ.  Jesus even said He came to serve (Mt 20:28) and to give Himself (Gal 1:4).  We read here in v. 6 that He gave Himself as a ransom “for all,” meaning all kinds of people — Jews, Gentiles, rich, poor, black, white, princes, and paupers.  And since He’s the ransom, there’s no other way to come to God. 

Thus, the work of Christ on the cross isn’t an example of oppression that must be resisted in this world, but a voluntary offering on behalf of sinners.  Quite apropos, the term refers to the slave market.  We were enslaved to sin, but He purchased those He died for with His blood.  The only path to true unity is through the finished work of our Lord, Jesus Christ.  

That is the only true religion.