Two New York City Tragedies
September 11, 2018
I’m sure many of you watched the news coverage remembering 9/11 this morning. Fox replayed their actual live coverage from that morning. It brought back the raw emotions of deep sorrow and anguish, along with fierce anger, just as fresh as if it happened yesterday. I was in Court in Hackensack, NJ, about 10 miles north and west of NYC, representing a client on the morning of 9/11. It was before the age of smart phone, and so it wasn’t until about 10 am, there I heard rumblings around the courthouse that something had happened at the World Trade Center in downtown Manhattan. When I got out of court and headed for home, I could see the smoke from the WTC and by then had heard the news that both towers had fallen. Alli was 2 and Brian was 7 months old at the time. All I wanted to do was to be home with my family.
I remember as a young boy, my father used to work in downtown Manhattan. Sometimes over the summer, I would go to work with him. We would take the subway from Hoboken, NJ under the Hudson River to the WTC stop and then walk the few blocks to his office. I remember leaning against the buildings and looking up in awe at these buildings that reached literally into the sky. It would never have entered my mind then or in 2001, that they could be taken down by terrorists. The memory of the people who died that day; the images of people jumping off the buildings rather than being burned; the sight of those incredible buildings collapsing to the ground will always be ingrained in our minds and hearts. I still cry thinking about it. Molly and I and many of our friends from the northeast who will read this post knew several people who died that morning. We should never, ever forget the evil that occurred that day.
Today, there is another tragedy occurring at Union Theological Seminary on the opposite side of Manhattan. John MacArthur and other evangelical leaders published a document on September 5, 2018 called “Statement on Social Justice and the Gospel”, which begins, “In view of questionable sociological, psychological and political theories presently permeating our culture and making inroads in Christ’s church, we wish to clarify certain key doctrines and ethical principles prescribed in God’s word.” The document proceeds to affirm orthodox doctrines of the Christian faith while denying that “political or social activism should be viewed as integral components of the gospel or primary to the mission of the church. Though believers can and should utilize all lawful means that God has providentially established to have some effect on the laws of a society, we deny that these activities are either evidence of saving faithor constitute a central part of the church’s mission given to her by Jesus Christ, her head. We deny that laws or regulations possess any inherent power to change sinful hearts.” (emphasis mine)
In response to the Statement, Union, which is part of Columbia University in Harlem, issued a rebuttal which begins, “Misguided sociological, psychological and political theories have long fostered biblical misinterpretation.” The rebuttal then expressly denies the inerrancy of Scripture, denies that “salvation is only found through Christianity, that’s God’s salvific grace is exclusive to any single faith or religion”, and proclaims that “there is no difference in spiritual value or worth between those who are ‘in Christ’ and those who aren’t. Union affirms that “science and theory’s confirmation that God created humans to live into various sexual orientations and genders-the spectrum of human sexual experience attests to God’s expansive love. We deny that any love that does no harm should be rejected.” (emphasis mine) (You can read the full text of the Statement on Social Justice and the Gospel and Union’s response on the internet.)
I searched Union’s website for a doctrinal statement without success. From the above, it seems that Union subscribes to universalist theology that affirms that all people will go to heaven regardless of what they believe, and that the role of religion and of the church is to do good to others. While we certainly should do good to others, our benevolence does not save us or the person receiving it from the wrath of God. The only way we can get to heaven is not by belief in anything we have done, but belief that we can’t do anything to merit salvation. That’s why it was necessary that Jesus Christ died on the cross. He died to pay the penalty that we deserve for our sins, and He rose from the dead. Believe that and you will go to heaven. Anything else is belief that your own good works can get you into heaven, something that the Bible unequivocally denies. To hold to Union’s universalist social gospel, you must discard or de-value the Bible, sin, the wrath of God, the cross, the atonement, the resurrection, the ascension, and the coming day of judgment. Union calls itself a Christian seminary, yet joins a long list of seminaries and churches that have done just that.
A total of 2,996 people lost their lives on 9/11. It was an unequalled tragedy in the history of our nation. A more subtle tragedy is the number of people who may ultimately lose their souls as a result of the teaching that is coming from Union Seminary and other like-minded seminaries and churches in our country. As evangelical Christians, we believe in the inerrancy of the Bible, the need for a Savior due to our fallen sinful state, that Jesus Christ came as God in the flesh, born of a virgin, who died on a cross for our sins and was raised from the dead, and the only way to get to heaven is trust in Him alone for our salvation. That’s an unpopular message today, but it’s the truth. The only way to prevent the tragedy of people facing God’s wrath and spending eternity in hell is to preach it. Jesus said, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father son and Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you.”
So let’s love others by preaching the gospel to them, and making disciples. If people have physical needs, let’s meet them where we can, not because that saves us or them, but because they were created in God’s image, God loves them, Christ died for them, and meeting physical needs often provides an opportunity to share the gospel that does save.