Critical Grace Theory

Henry Reyenga and Steve Elzinga 

What this mini-course is about:

•Critical Theory
•Seven current hot, culturally divisive topics
•Why have these topics become so prominent in our society?
•How does grace change everything?

Topics

1.Race
2.Gender
3.Pleasure
4.Equality
5.Evolution
6.Blame
7.Conflict

Topic One: Critical Race Theory
1.Everything relates to race.
2.Races with the power use their power to keep their power over other races (inequality).
•

Current Social Manifestations:

•Black Lives Matter
•White supremacy
•Affirmative action

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

Martin Luther King Jr.

What is race?

–biology or social construct

Are we all racists?

–or are we all opportunists willing to take whatever advantages we have to get ahead.
–We are all sinners.

James 2:9 But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers.

Critical Grace Theory 

•Everything relates to grace
•Those with the grace share the grace with those who do not have the grace

Saved by Grace Identity

Galatians 3:26-29

So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith,  for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Topic Two: Critical Gender Theory
1.Everything relates to gender.
2.Genders with the power use their power to keep their power over other genders (inequality).
•

Current Social Manifestations:

•Gender equality
•LGBT
•Self identify
•Bathrooms and sports
•Pronouns

What is gender?

–biology or social construct

Bible

–Genesis 1:27   So God created mankind in his own image,  in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

The problem of conflicting rights

–One persons right to identify one’s own gender as one pleases versus another's right to not believe in it.
–LGBT version of reality versus the parents right to teach their own children a different version of reality.

The problem of relativism and the loss of objective, agreed upon truth.

–When does one person’s right to identify as whatever gender negatively affect others.
–i.e. Sports
–i.e. What if someone identifies themselves as a…?

Why are we obsessed with things like race and gender?

Genesis 32:1   When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us.”

Critical Grace Theory
•Everything relates to grace.
•Those with the grace share the grace with those who do not have the grace.

Saved by Grace Identity

Galatians 3:26-29   So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith,  for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Topic Three: Critical Pleasure Theory

1.Everything relates to pleasure
2.Those with the power tend to maximize their own pleasure at the expense of others.

Current Social Manifestations:

•On demand abortion
•Right to life argument – Every human being has a God given right to life including the unborn.
•Right to choose argument – Women have been abused by men for most of human history because they have the burden of bearing and often caring for the children. It is a woman’s body and she should have the right to do with it as she pleases. 
•There has always been the dilemma of personal choice and how that choice affects others.
•i.e. You can do what you want with your own body, but you can’t smoke in a restaurant.


So how can a woman have the right to kill an innocent human being in the name of personal choice?

1.Question of the humanity of the unborn.
2.If there is no God, let us eat, drink, and be merry (sex as recreation).
–My life, my happiness is what really matters.
–The unfairness for women to have to bear the consequences for the bad effects of a strictly recreational activity that men can participate in without consequence.

This leads to this dilemma: Many women want a consequence-free sex life as they believe men have. So, abortion takes away the negative consequences. But because of that, men take even less responsibility for their actions.

Critical Grace Theory 

•Everything relates to grace.
•There is a righteous God.
•We are sinners in need of grace.
•Once we have received grace and become forgiven children of the King, we are in the kingdom.
•Part of what it means to be in the kingdom is to procreate thus elevating sex to an incredibly purposeful, pleasurable, and meaningful level.
•Since we are undeserving of grace, we don’t run around seeing how we are missing out.  We don’t dwell on how unfair things might seem to be. We realize we have been blessed with the honor of creating as God did Adam and Eve (or the worldview of creating).
•Since we have purpose as children of God, we do not need to eat, drink, and be merry as a life goal.


Genesis 2:26    That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.

Topic Four: Critical Equality Theory

1.Everything relates to equality.
2.Those with the power use their power to keep those who do not have the power from the goodies of life.
•

Current Social Manifestations:

•Gender equality
•Pay and job-related equality
•Socialism vs. free enterprise

The equality issue is about fairness and unfairness.

Genesis 4:5   The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.

Socialism vs. Free Enterprise

Socialism: fair, equality, but who pays?

Free Enterprise: competition, potential reward tied to what you do, but seems to lead to inequality.

–Example: Church
–Example: Brothers and their allowance

Critical Grace Theory

How does grace work?

1.The fairness of a reward based on what you do (the law or free enterprise).
2.The unfairness of being forgiven regardless of who you are or what you have done (grace or socialism).
3.When you receive grace, you know you don’t deserve it, you don’t have it coming to you, no one owes it to you. So, you tend to respond to grace in humble, thankful service to God (you take responsibility for your life).

Topic Five: Critical Evolution Theory

1.Everything relates to evolution/change.
2.Those with the power abuse that power at the expense of others.

Current Social Manifestations:

•Climate change
•Homo Deus

•Life is all we have.
•Everything dies.
•We need to be saved.
•If you don’t believe in God’s salvation, you find a surrogate
– the planet
– humanity

 “Humanity is now standing at a crossroads. We must now decide which path we want to take. How do we want the future living conditions for all living species to be like?” – Greta Thunberg

St. Greta Spreads the Climate Gospel

December 12, 2019, by Peter

A movement that believes in sin, penance and salvation doesn’t sound very scientific.

It’s been noted before that the cause of addressing climate change has become something like the modern world’s version of a secular religion. In much of Europe especially, but in sections of American society too, a kind of climate theology has replaced traditional Christianity as the ultimate source of authority over human behavior, comprising both an all-embracing teleology of our existence and a prescriptive moral code.

The book Homo Deus

•All of earth’s major problems have been solved.
•One last challenge: eternal life.

Problems:

1.Global freezing.
2.You and I will miss the biological eternal life miracles.

Critical Grace Theory

Acts 4:12   Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.

Topic Six: Critical Blame Theory
1.Everything relates to “somebody owes me.”
2.Those with the power are to blame for all the problems that I have in life.
3.No one is at fault; everyone is at fault

Current Social Manifestations:

•Defund the police
•Empty jails
•Open the borders; Close the Borders
•More government; less government

Where does this blame culture come from?

Where does this “somebody should do it for me” culture come from?

If there is no God and no morality based on something higher than ourselves, then all there is left is …

                                 … ME

Critical Grace Theory

Without God and grace, how can I own up to my faults?

With grace, I can face my own failures and take responsibility for my life.

– AA

1.Blame is rooted in human fallen spiritual DNA.
2.Without someone taking on the blame, the blame must be placed on someone else or myself.
3.Most put the blame on someone else.

Critical Grace Theory

1.Someone must be blamed; something must be paid.
2.God steps in with his grace through sending his Son to die on the cross to take on the blame.

2Corinthians 5:21   God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Hebrews 9:22   In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

3.Once we receive the grace offered through salvation, we can now confront the blame as it relates to ourselves and others.

Ephesians 4:32   Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Topic Seven: Critical Conflict Theory

1.Everything relates to conflict.
2.Everyone competes with everyone else and fights for one’s own cause.

Current Social Manifestations:

•Politics
•Marriage
•Church
•Family

1.Why is everyone fixated on winning?
–Sports
–Business
–Politics
–Social issues
–Relationships

Because winning feels like salvation. The euphoria of winning is all you get.

Critical Grace Theory

1.Contest is introduced before the fall of humanity. 

Genesis 2:15-17     The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”

2.Conflict happens after the fall of humanity.

The Blame and Shame Game creates enmity. The real conflict is good and evil, life and death, and chaos and peace.

Genesis 3:15     And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

3.As Christians, we already won the cosmic game of good and evil, life and death, and chaos and peace.

1Corinthians 15:55-58     “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Why all of this social unrest?

Why all the narcissism, selfishness, and self-absorbedness?

We live in a culture that has …

1.Let go of the belief in God
2.Let go of the belief in the Bible and therefore any sense of truth
3.Let go of the community called the church
4.Let go of our belief in the need for grace
5.Let go of our belief in the acceptance of the work of Jesus on the cross

Romans 1



Last modified: Thursday, June 3, 2021, 8:38 AM