Moving Forward
I took a brief hiatus in the Social Justice Project while completing an online course called “Evangelism in a Scientific Context,” as I wrote about last week. Even though I took a brief respite from the project, justice continues to be on the minds of everyone. Recent events in the news have only increased the relevance of this discussion. It also calls on us to remember what has taken place in previous articles.
We began with a definition of justice,
Justice is the moral quality of individuals receiving fair treatment in their interactions with other individuals and government. It also gives the possibility of redress when violations occur.
We also reviewed Greek and Hebrew words that are used by the Biblical authors and reviewed those words and terms. Testing our definition by those words and terms allowed us to continue with that definition.
Continuing to look at the Biblical materials, we looked at uses of justice in their Scriptural context. This included examining popular passages used in discussions of justice. In the case of Amos 5:24, the Hebrew term makes “judgement” a better rendering, especially in the context of God’s dealing with the nation of Israel because of their continued sinful behavior.
Our most recent set of articles surveyed justice in light of the attributes of God. God has attributes that are communicable and incommunicable. That is, God has certain attributes which He does not share with humanity and those which humanity shares to a limited degree with God. Specifically, those articles focused on how justice is an application of those attributes in both God and man.
With these foundations, it is time to move forward. In the next phase of this examination of justice, we will attempt to answer practical questions and apply these ideas to the challenges of today.
Mark Riser - Apologist 