Through his sacrifice Christ brought the offer of reconciliation to the world, tearing down the dividing wall of hostility. Christ appointed his children as peacemakers; his children have now put to death their hostility (Romans 14:19). Despite their many blind spots, faults, and failings, it has been Christians, the new humanity, who have fought to end racism, slavery, inequality, and every kind of injustice throughout the world for the past 2,000 years. 

First and foremost Critical Theory is, as its name implies, critical of something. But before we get into all of the details we need a little history.
Karl Marx, in his 1848 book, The Communist Manifesto, was critical of the social, political, and economic systems in his day. He simplistically divided the world into two artificial categories. The oppressors were the wealthy people who owned factories and businesses, in other words they owned the capital. The oppressed were the poorer people who worked for the oppressors in the factories and businesses. Marx envisioned a world where the oppressed would rise up in rebellion and take over the factories and businesses so that both groups would be socially, politically, and economically equal.
In addition to his writings on economics Marx was openly a disciple of Lucifer, writing many works in his praise:
“Heaven I’ve forfeited, I know full wellMy soul once true to God, Is chosen for hell”(“The Devil and Karl Marx: Communism’s Long march of Death, Deception, and Infiltration,” Paul Kengor, August 18, 2020.)
Marx taught that because economic and political systems were flawed they needed to be torn down.  He believed that these systems were rigged by the powerful and wealthy to their advantage, keeping the underclasses in subjugation. His solution was to stir up disunity and resentment in the oppressed so that they would rise up and tear down the existing system. The old system would then be replaced.
Marx’ society did not value freedom or equal opportunity, rather he envisioned a society of equal outcomes. No matter where you started out in life and no matter how much effort you put into your life, everyone ended up with the same amount of money, possessions, education, freedom, etc. To make this possible an all-powerful government would be established to redistribute all the resources necessary for life equally to everyone.
The problem that the Communists faced was that everywhere Communism was tried it was discredited as a violent, non-functioning, failed economic system, that brought the world nothing but servitude, genocide, and crushing poverty. And this makes sense because God designed man to be free and God designed an industrious and entrepreneurial economic system that included private property rights. As a result, the masses of people that Marx identified as oppressed never rose up, as envisioned, against the people and systems that he identified as oppressors.
To make Communism more acceptable it was repackaged in the 1930’s as Critical Theory. Like Marxism before it, the Neo-Marxists, teaching Critical Theory, seek to deconstruct and tear down all of the traditions and norms of society including systems of power: government, courts, family, religion, individual ownership, and private business. This time, instead of violent revolution, Marxist Philosopher, Antonio Gramsci planned for “a long march through the institutions… Socialism is the religion that must overwhelm Christianity. In the new order, Socialism will triumph by first capturing the culture via infiltration of school, universities, churches, and the media to transform the consciousness of society.”
This process was helped along by Saul Alinsky. In his book, “Rules for Radicals, Alinsky, a Marxist community organizer, laid out the steps necessary to successfully dismantle competing social and economic systems, making way for the Marxist system to be built in its place. This would be accomplished through the use of community organizers. He wrote, “In the beginning the organizers job is to create the issues or problems.” In other words, to dismantle a functioning but flawed system the organizer must sow disunity. Perhaps you have heard the Critical Theorist’s political maxim, “Never let a crisis go to waste.” The organizer, seeking to “create issues or problems” is taught to seize upon any crisis that can be used in disrupting the existing system. The goal is to create a class of people who see themselves as victims. The victims are taught to fiercely covet whatever their “oppressors” have: wealth, power, privilege, property, education, freedom, etc. so that they will tear the existing system down.
Critical Theorists are currently seeking to divide and exploit people by dividing them into many different victim groups. Perhaps you have heard of Critical Race Theory, or Queer Theory, or Post-Colonial Theory, or Fat Studies, or Disability Studies, or Gender Studies, or ageism, or economic justice, or racial justice, or environmental justice. I could go on but though their speech is as smooth as butter, there is war in their hearts (Psalm 55:21). The point is that they want to dismantle the foundations that society rests upon, including the concept of truth.
Interestingly, Alinsky dedicated his book to Lucifer, “the first radical… who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he won his own kingdom.” Lucifer rebelled against the God of truth, and Lucifer’s followers, Marx, Gramsci, and Alinsky, have continued in that rebellion. Objective truth does not exist. In fact, truth is defined as an artificial system, put in place by the oppressors, to keep the oppressed in line.
The new subjective “truth” is whatever advances the Critical Theory narrative. Perhaps you have begun to notice this double standard in regard to truth. When Critical Theorists riot, loot, occupy buildings, and burn, “creating issues and problems” their actions are reported as peaceful speech. In contrast, those who speak up against such behavior are condemned for hate speech and de-platformed from popular social media sites. Or perhaps you have heard that gender is just a social construct, meaning that you may choose your own gender. Or perhaps you have heard that both the family and marriage are social constructs, meaning that anyone or anything can be married; two men, two women, two men four women, a woman and a horse, or any other combination that you may want. Or perhaps you have heard that punctuality, knowledge, reason, loyalty, reliability, science, facts, math, evidence, productivity, virtue, freedom of speech and Christianity are all inventions of the oppressor class and must, therefore, be overthrown.
You don’t believe this? While I could show you many examples, because this is the subject of an ongoing national debate that is infiltrating the church, the following is taken directly from the official Black Lives Matter website:
“We do the work required to dismantle cisgender privilege. Everybody has the right to choose their own gender by listening to their own heart and mind. Everyone gets to choose if they are a girl or a boy or both or neither or something else, and no one else gets to choose for them. We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure,.. We demand the defunding of law enforcement.”
Because the Critical Theorists in the leadership of Black Lives Matter have a catch phrase that everyone can agree with (of course black lives matter!) and because they cleverly claim that they are seeking Social Justice, many Christians are deceived. Social Justice sounds good but because it is really a Marxist term it is counterfeit justice. It opposes God’s true justice at every step, preaching a gospel of hatred against marriage, family, patriarchy, private property, free speech, binary genders, and much more, opposing truth and God’s created order. This amounts to reimagining the world in the image of the father of lies, Lucifer (John 8:44).
Alinsky was correct in connecting Lucifer’s rebellion and the necessity for sowing division in bringing down a society. Lucifer sowed rebellion, convincing Eve, “You shall be like God” (Genesis 3:5). Covetousness is breaking the Tenth Commandment of God. Desiring what you don’t have and feeling like a victim is the path to resentment: the perfect emotion to use in building the angry mob necessary for revolution.
Christians must never make common cause with those Marxist organizations seeking to sow division. In ‘Strength to Love” Martin Luther King Jr. wrote, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.” And what does that look like in practice? Forgiveness. As Christ taught and as James urged his congregation, we must forgive others as God has forgiven us (Matthew 6:12). Christians must never harbor resentment or nurture hatred because of wrongs suffered (1Corinthians 13:5).
Sowing disunity cannot bring unity. Dwelling on hate will only produce hate. But remember, Critical Theory is all about criticism. The Social Justice that the official BLM organization seeks can never produce unity. They intentionally and deceptively use great sounding catch phrases like social justice, racial justice, and black lives matter to gain support for their cause. But they have redefined the meaning of these phrases. “Their paths are crooked, they are devious in their ways” (Proverbs 2:15).
In reality, they don’t want solutions. The Critical Theory end game is tearing down society so that another can be built on the ashes. If they have to foment a race war, recounting past sins and present failures to reach their goal they are willing to do so. They depend on the historical fallacy, re-litigating the historical sins of the past. They do this, not to build unity but rather to destroy. Remember: “The organizers job is to create problems.” They are not reformers seeking to “strengthen what remains” (Revelation 3:2), they are revolutionaries seeking to “destroy even the foundations” (Psalm 11:3).
And not surprisingly, like both Marx and Alinsky before her, BLM founder and avowed Marxist community organizer, Patrisse Cullors, worships Lucifer. Further, contrary to Deuteronomy 18:11, she has stated that she calls on the spirits of the dead victims of racism to give her supernatural guidance in tearing down the system. She reports that she has developed close relationships with the spirits of these people that she “never knew in this life.” She has gone so far as to admit that the chants, “Say her name” and “Say their names” are acts of worship. She stated that when she is able to coerce people to chant the names of her spirit guides she “pours out libations in the street” in worship, to gain “spiritual power and guidance” (The Occult Spirituality of Black Lives Matter, including video interviews with Patrisse Cullors, Melina Abdullah, BLM cofounder, and Nissy Tee).
In contrast, Christians, because we are unified in Christ, are instructed how to work together for true justice, seeing to it that racism and injustice of all kinds come to an end in our lives, in our churches, and in the world. As Paul taught:
“Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility…” (Ephesians 1:12-19).
Through his sacrifice Christ brought the offer of reconciliation to the world, tearing down the dividing wall of hostility. Christ appointed his children as peacemakers; his children have now put to death their hostility (Romans 14:19). Despite their many blind spots, faults, and failings, it has been Christians, the new humanity, who have fought to end racism, slavery, inequality, and every kind of injustice throughout the world for the past 2,000 years.
Christians should continue to follow the teaching of Christ, who entered into our world showing us the way to life: forgiveness, mercy, reconciliation, and peace. We should pursue Christ’s path of love rather than joining with Critical Theorists, whose goals include destroying Christ’s Church. Christians, of all people, are no longer strangers but are fellow citizens, members of the same household. As such, Christians should build up with the truth; not tearing down the culture by embracing the guilt and victimhood based on the Satanic Marxist lies of Critical Theory. To make common cause with Critical Theorists is to throw fuel on an arsonists fire; exactly what they want.
Richard Loper is a member of Chapelgate Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Ellicott City, Md.

Communing with God is like eating with someone around your table in your dining room. In that kind of setting, you can let your guard down; there’s no need for pretense. Dining with someone is an opportunity for you to listen to them, to get to know them, to enjoy their company. It is an opportunity to share your heart, to communicate something of yourself. There is a mutual give and take that happens around a table. You listen as the other person speaks, and then you respond in dialogue with that person. And as you do, your relationship with that person grows deeper as you get to know them better.

The man was a scoundrel, certainly not worthy of the invitation he had just received. He had stolen before—he had even stolen from the king’s treasury. And now he was eyeing the fat purse on the richly-dressed nobleman headed his way on the main road, when he felt a tap on his shoulder.
Oh no, he though. Caught at last.
“Sir,” a voice behind him said. He turned around.
“Sir, the king is giving a wedding feast for his son.” This was clearly one of the king’s servants. He continued, “He has prepared the dinner, his oxen and fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready.”
And what would someone like me have to do with that?
“The king would like you to come,” the servant said. “Come to the wedding feast.”

And those servants went out into the roadsand gathered all whom they found,both bad and good.So the wedding hall was filled with guests.(Matt 22:10)

Let Us Draw Near
Imagine—the sovereign, holy, all-powerful Ruler of the universe invites lowly, finite, severely flawed creatures into his presence.
This is exactly what he calls us to do. The end of Hebrews 10 contains such an invitation:
Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. (Heb 10:19–22)
“Let us draw near.”
This idea of drawing near is an important focus of the book of Hebrews, evident by its presence in the three major climaxes of the book. Here in chapter 10:22 we find the second of these climaxes. The first is found in 4:16, which says, “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” And the final climax of the book is 12:22, which says, “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering,” and that phrase “you have come” is a translation of the same Greek term translated “draw near” in Hebrews 10:22.
Not only does this concept of drawing near appear in the book’s main literary climaxes, but it also appears in several other places in the book as well. Hebrews 7:25, 10:1, and 11:6 all focus our attention on the call to draw near to God, the basis for drawing near, and the means for drawing near. The concept of drawing near is critical in this book.
So what is the importance of this command? What does “drawing near” mean?
This idea of coming or drawing near is a translation of a term that means more than just a casual coming toward something. Rather, it specifically refers to approaching God, and we can see this by how it is used in the book of Hebrews; we find commands to draw near to God, draw near to the throne of grace, and 10:19 implies that we are to draw near to the holy place of God’s presence. So it is clear that this drawing near is coming to God, and throughout the book of Hebrews the author compares this idea of drawing near to the Hebrew worship practices—they are in chapter 10 as well, terms like “holy place,” “the veil,” “high priest,” “sprinkling” and “cleansing”; drawing near to God is what the author defines as the essence of worship—communion with God.
Drawing near to God in worship permeates the storyline of Scripture. It is what Adam and Eve enjoyed as they walked with God in the cool the day (Gen 3:8). Exodus 19:17 describes it when Moses “brought the people out of the camp to meet God” at the foot of Mt. Sinai. He had told Pharaoh to let the people go so that they might worship their God in the wilderness, and this is exactly what they intended to do at Sinai. It is what Psalm 100 commands of the Hebrews in Temple worship when it says, “Come into his presence with singing and into his courts with praise.” It is what Isaiah experienced as he entered the heavenly throne room of God and saw him high and lifted up (Isa 6). To draw near to God is to enter his very presence, to bask in his glory, to fellowship with him. It is the plea of the psalmist when he says,
One thing have I asked of the Lord,
that will I seek after:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord
and to inquire in his temple. (Ps 27:4)
Koinonia
This idea of “drawing near” is a central picture of communion with God throughout Scripture, but the word most often translated “communion” or “fellowship” in the New Testament is the term koinonia. The core meaning of this term helps to further uncover the essential nature of communion with God.
At its root, koinonia simply means sharing something or having something in common with another person. For example, Luke uses the term to describe the “partnership” in fishing shared by Peter, Andrew, James, and John (Luke 5:10). Similarly, Paul uses the term to describe the sharing of material goods to meet the need of Christians in Macedonia (2 Cor 8:4).
This helps us begin to understand that communion is not something mystical or mysterious; rather, it is a relationship between individuals in which they share of themselves with each other.
Tri-Unity
The Tri-unity of God presents the perfect example of, and is indeed the ultimate source of this concept of communion. God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each individual and unique persons within the singular godhead, experience perfect fellowship one with another. The very truth of three-in-one and one-in-three reveals the amazing communion shared by the persons of God. Their communion is so complete that to divide their being would be to divide God himself; as persons they are distinct, but in essence they are One. Jesus himself tells us of the unique relationship that he has with his Father; it is a relationship so profound that in reality, no one knows the Father except the Son, and no one knows the Son except the Father (Matt 11:27).
This reality about God—something that is unique to the God of Scripture compared to the gods of other religions—provides the basis for all discussions of communion with God and with others.
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The unified God has united believers to himself, the church ought now walk worthy of its calling by pursuing a full-orbed unity. This unity does not require uniformity, but it presumes a diversity of opinions, personalities, social roles, and people groups. Because diversity naturally produces friction, the church ought to give particular attention to humble and patient purity, love, wisdom, and spiritual warfare in its pursuit of unity. This is the sort of walk worthy of the calling of the one God, who is Father, Son, and Spirit.

The first half of Ephesians lays out God’s plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth (Eph 1:10). Paul’s doctrine of unity can be summarized in the shape of a capital “I” (in a font with bars across top and bottom). The top horizontal bar represents the unity God has with himself, among the persons of the Trinity. The vertical bar represents the unity between God and his people, brought about by grace through faith. The bottom horizontal bar represents the unity among God’s people that ought to result.
Having followed Paul’s argument in Ephesians 1-3 in the previous post, let’s now walk through Paul’s application of the doctrine of unity within the life of the church.
Diversity Shouldn’t Divide the Church
Paul transitions to application with the urging to walk in a manner worthy of the calling described in the first three chapters (Eph 4:1). And what exactly is a manner of life worthy of the call to unity, in light of God’s plan to unite all things in Christ? It requires humble, gentle, and patient forbearance toward fellow church members (Eph 4:2). Such character arises only from an eager commitment to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Eph 4:3).
Paul roots the unity of the church, explicitly, to the unity of the Trinity (Eph 4:4-6), which includes a victorious Christ ascending to take his throne while dishing out good gifts to his people. Psalm 68, quoted in Eph 4:8, likens the ascension of the ark of the covenant into Jerusalem to the arrival of God’s glory-cloud on Sinai. And Paul capitalizes on the image to explain how Jesus, the true ark, has entered heaven, the true sanctuary. This king cares enough about the unity of his body that he provides the church with leaders tasked with equipping members to serve one another—all so the community can grow together to maturity, according to the image of Jesus himself (Eph 4:9-14). That theological truth plays out in real life as people speak the truth to one another with love and build up one another in love (Eph 4:15-16).
In short, Eph 4:1-16 teaches that every church member is not required to be the same thing, do the same thing, or think the same thing. It assumes that there are differences among people, requiring patience and loving speech toward one another. In other words, diversity shouldn’t divide the church. But sadly, it often does, so the rest of the letter tells us what to do about that. We must give attention to four key areas, each marked with a renewed exhortation to walk (or, in the last case, to stand — Eph 4:17, 5:1, 5:15, 6:10-13).
Four Areas With Potential for Divisive Behaviors
The first area that requires attention in pursuit of unity is purity (Eph 4:17-32). However, notice that the chief problem of impurity is that it makes people like those who are alienated from—not unified with—God (Eph 4:18). The opposite of building up others in love is to serve oneself in sensuality and greed (Eph 4:19). This is not how you learned Christ! (Eph 4:20). A pure life according to the truth in Jesus requires each church member to do three things with their divisive behaviors:

Put off the old self, with its divisive and selfish desires (Eph 4:22).
Get a new way of thinking about how the calling to unity ought to drive your behavior (Eph 4:23).
Put on the new self, which is like God—fully unified with himself and with his body (Eph 4:24).

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