Since CRT redefines sin it therefore redefines salvation. And that means a different Gospel. Which means the destinies of souls are in jeopardy. And that means Paul had something to say about it, “If anybody preaches to you another gospel let them be under God’s curse.”1 CRT’s view of salvation is not going to save anyone from God’s judgment.
Just like the Bible, CRT has a concept of conviction. It’s called being “woke.”2 Woke means the moment a person becomes aware of and alert to the persistent racism of our society that continues creating racial injustice and inequity.3 But this is not a biblical conviction, which instead means becoming aware of and alert to one’s own sin against a holy God.4
Conviction brings about a response, and a biblical response is seen in confessing sin to God and repenting. He is the judge. “If we confess our sins he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9) Or as Psalm 51:4 says, “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge.” God is our judge and it is from His wrath that each of us must be rescued, “Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3)
CRT salvation, however, means confessing and renouncing one’s privilege and racism to the Social Justice judges at large. It is to society in general and marginalized groups specifically that one owes repentance on the basis of nothing other than their social identity. White people, John McWhorter says, “were seen posting photos of themselves holding White Fragility, showing their comrades that they were ‘doing the work.’ Coates and DiAngelo are calling these people sinners. Yet the sinners eagerly drink in the charge, revering their accusers, and come away from this self-mortification feeling energized. Cleansed.” (emphasis original)5 Jemar Tisby insists churches should research to see if they have racism in their history in order to communicate that to the church in meetings and to the public on its website “history” and “about” pages. “Even if you did not personally commit the error, you are still responsible for restoring trust and building relationships.”6 “Whites” Michael Emerson says in Divided By Faith, “as the main creators and benefactors of the racialized society, must repent of their personal, historical, and social sins.”7 They read Ephesians 2:3 to mean, “By nature, you who are privileged and belong to the oppressor groups are deserving of wrath.”
All this is contrary to biblical teaching that says salvation happens when a person confesses to God and repents of their own personal sins. It is no longer about pleasing God, but men - something the Bible condemns.8Furthermore, the doctrine of salvation by grace alone through faith alone is rejected by CRT. Biblically salvation is by God’s grace, freely given in Christ. Ephesians 1:7 explains, “In him [Christ] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.” Or as Ephesians 2:8 would say, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works…” A complete forgiveness of all our sins is ours, by God’s grace, once we put our faith in Jesus Christ. “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more” God says in Hebrews 10:17. This is the language of divine pardon - our sins are never remembered by God again and thus never again will he treat us according to those sins. But, such divine forgiveness is entirely foreign to a CRT worldview where the doctrinal demand is to always remember and never forget. Indeed, if biblical forgiveness were applied CRT would crumble. The point here is that there is no work we must do or ever could do to gain salvation because its all been done for us by Christ. As he said with his last breath, “It is finished”9 And we rest on that completed work. Not any works we do - whether CRT, religious or otherwise.
CRT, however, preaches a works-based salvation. It is “the lifelong work that is uniquely ours [white people]”10 whereby a lifelong commitment to antiracist works maintains a person’s good standing. “Whites must be held at gunpoint” John McWhorter explains, “and demanded to do ‘the work’ of becoming ‘antiracist’ in their every waking moment and to despise themselves for lapses in doing so, despite that it is a work they are condemned never to finish. This is performance art.”11 CRT salvation makes spiritual slaves of its adherents requiring they continue “doing the work” of antiracism and continue berating themselves to stay in a “reconciled” status. This is not “by grace you have been saved.” (Eph 2:5). Nor is it “a righteousness apart from the law given through faith,”12 but rather a righteousness attained by the “law” of CRT activism (antiracism).Biblically, salvation is for individuals. Jesus died for all individuals and every individual has to choose to accept Christ or reject Him.13 “The one who sins” Ezekiel 18:20 says, “is the one who will die. The righteousness of the righteous will be credited to them, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against them.” CRT salvation, however, rejects this individualistic salvation. Jim Wallis, mocks it when he calls it “a private atonement gospel.” Salvation, as redetermined by CRT, is political liberation and social transformation. A CRT Christian will never promote the individual-salvation Gospel, which is the true Gospel. Instead they will ignore it entirely while promoting the social-transformation gospel. If the individual-salvation gospel is addressed at all it is always briefly and criticized. Emerson, for example, is representative of so many CRT Christians when he argues against a gospel that is individualistic,
“The need to work for social justice and social equality between races is minimized, even dropped [if individualism is maintained]. If we are to focus on individuals only, then justice does not mean working against structures of inequality, but treating individuals as equals…”14
CRT says Christ died for sinful systems and salvation is seen in transforming (redeeming) those systems.
The point here is this: under CRT, there is no sense of personal guilt against a holy God. Jesus didn’t die for guilty individuals, but guilty institutions. Jesus’ death was him identifying with the marginalized, it was an example of someone suffering under systemic oppression. But, it was not to reconcile individuals to God; and it is not by faith alone.CRT is deterministic. Individuals are determined products of the system they live in. White people are conditioned by the system to have unconscious bias,15 crime is the fault of a racist system that made criminals commit crimes,16 people only believe what they believe because of the hegemony of the society they live in.17 Therefore, transforming individuals requires transforming the system.
This rejects individual agency. People can choose differently than whatever social influences are exerted upon them. Certainly all of us are influenced to greater or lesser degrees by the environment we are in. For example, we promote regular fellowship with believers because it influences us towards greater godliness and obedience to Christ. Or, consider the debate over singing contemporary Christian music or only hymns. We would certainly affirm the influence that environment has on one’s views and preferences. However, this is not to the negation of individual agency. Systems influence but they do not determine individuals. Otherwise we would never see differences of conviction between people who exist in the same social conditions. Just think about how radically different siblings can turn out even though growing up in the same family context. Or think about the numerous examples in the Bible: one healed leper returned to Jesus when the others did not (Luke 17:11-19); the Roman soldier worshipped Jesus at the cross when the others did not (Mark 15:39); seven thousand did not bow the knee to Baal when all the rest of Israel did (1 Kings 19:18); Nicodemus and other Jewish leaders believed in Jesus when the majority of the Sanhedrin did not (John 3:1-2; 7:38); Noah was righteous when the rest of mankind was not (Genesis 6:8-9); people will refuse the mark of the beast when most will take it (Revelation 13:16; 20:4). Despite the social climate they lived in people chose different than what was trending or considered “normal.”
Actually, most often throughout history and even around the world today turning to Christ is going against the system. Foxes Book Of Martyrs chronicles this very fact of history as does Voice Of The Martyrs with current persecution around the world. The point is that a person’s individual transformation happens not by a system, but when they turn to Jesus Christ in faith. Our Savior alone has the power to revolutionize individuals regardless of their environment. “Therefore, anyone who is in Christ is a new creature,” says 2 Corinthians 5:17, “the old is gone and the new has come.” That is true whether a person is under a pagan Rome, a legalistic Sanhedrin, a Stalinist Communism, a Nigerian dictatorship, a North Korean totalitarian state, or a constitutional republic. Its even true under an Antebellum slave-holding South. The type of system does not prevent Christ from recreating someone. Christ and Christ alone makes a man a new creature - no matter what their circumstance. This determinism of CRT is a rejection of Christ’s power to transform individuals and shifts faith away from Jesus and instead into a newly formed, race-based Marxist system to make people new creatures. This is soteriological. And it is heresy.
So the problem is that the CRT gospel does not call individuals to personal repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. CRT’s gospel will leave someone in their sin and never result in God’s pardoning. Rejecting the true biblical Gospel, CRT replaces it with a different gospel that leaves people guilty and will not save anyone on Judgment Day. As Paul said, “If anyone is preaching to you another gospel…let them be under God’s curse!”
Galatians 1:6-9
“Woke was another way to say “conscious”: having awareness of our conditions and history in an America that lulls us with myths of a post-racial, colorblind, meritocratic society.” (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/nov/09/woke-word-meaning-definition-progressive)
“Black Americans have used the term "woke" since at least the early-to-mid 20th century to mean being alert to racial and social injustice.” https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/03/09/what-is-woke-meaning/11425775002/
“Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge.” (Psalm 51:4); “Let everyone give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent…” (Jonah 3:8-9); “When he [The Holy Spirit] comes he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment.” (John 16:8); “When they people heard this they were cut to the heart” (Acts 2:37); “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation” (2 Cor. 7:10)
McWhorter, John. Woke Racism. Portfolio/Penguin. 2021. (33)
Tisby, Jemar. How To Fight Racism. Zondervan Reflective. 2021. (95-100)
Emerson, Michael O. Divided By Faith. Oxford. New York. 2000. (55)
1 Cor 4:3; Galatians 1:10
John 19:30
DiAngelo, Robin. White Fragility. Beacon Press. Boston. (33); Latasha Morrison’s Conversation Tips For White Bridge-Builders ends with “Don’t give up, this will be a hard, lifelong process.”
McWhorter, John. Woke Racism. Portfolio/Penguin. 2021.(148)
Romans 3:21
Ezekiel 18:19-20; Matthew 12:36; Romans 14:12; 1 Corinthians 3:12-15; 4:5;
Emerson, Michael O. Divided By Faith. Oxford. New York. 2000. (59)
DiAngelo, Robin. White Fragility. Beacon Press. Boston. (4, 9, 21)
“Black people killing each other at high rates is a direct output of white supremacy” (afterschoolalliance.org/afterschoolsnack/VOX-5-Reasons-why-Black-on-Black-crime-is-not-a-valid_09-08-2020.cfm)
The postmodern belief inherent in CRT creates a radical skepticism of our ability to access universal and absolute truths, and insists that all knowledge is locally constructed and really only about power. ConsiderChristian sources repeating these concepts: “everybody has been reading the Bible from their locations” (McCaulley, Esau. (2020). Reading While Black. IVP. p20); See how McCaulley insists a person’s perspective of the Bible is shaped by their social location, and the implication is no one really has access to absolute truth. Later he repeats the postmodern view that a full picture of truth requires including all marginalized perspectives: “The voices of black women are vital if the whole people of God are to join in the interpretive process.” (ibid, 181) The point is we can’t know all truth without all perspectives from all social groups; “what we presume to be true of the Bible is primarily the result of the history of European interpretation as translated into European languages… we would have a completely different understanding of the Bible if we read it through Indigenous languages translated directly from Greek and Hebrew.” Jennings, Willie James. Can White People Be Saved? Intervarsity Press. p. 54)