I'd ask you to take your Bible and turn to Colossians chapter 2 and verse 8, and we're continuing our study in defense of God's order and the gospel. In defense of God's order and the gospel. The subject that I'm dealing with this morning is the danger of of cultural Marxism in light of Scripture. The danger or the error of cultural Marxism in light of Scripture. Each subject that I have addressed in this series in various ways and to various degrees undermines God's order or the gospel or both. But in my estimation, none so seriously as what we're going to be talking about today in the coming few weeks, and what we'll generally call cultural Marxism. Let me read Colossians chapter two and verse eight. And Paul warned the church at Colossia See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. And what they were dealing with, the Colossians at that time, was tradition getting it from tradition rather than Christ. And what I'm addressing today is getting it from Karl Marx rather than Christ. What Does critical race theory mean for me? I have an article that I posted on my blog. This is a very complicated subject. I'm going to try to let you see it in this series about what cultural Marxism says and what the Bible says so you can clearly see the errors. But I wrote a blog, it's only 500 words, so you can read it in three minutes. And it's at RonnieWRogers.com and it is, What Does Critical Race Theory Mean for Me? And so I just give you a few simple things of what comes out of this. that affects you, your children, your grandchildren, no one is immune to the impact of this if it continues to go unbridled. So I would encourage you to look at that, and not now, but later, when we're through, you can do it between now and next week. And so I'm going to be explaining it in greater depth and length here, but this was written so that, because most of us are not familiar with these terms or the ideas except in a very I mean, we know about Karl Marx and so forth and communism, but just generally. And so that will help you to see how it is very relevant to you, to your family, children, and grandchildren. A lot of the terms I'm going to be using are just unfamiliar to us. And so you're going to be learning some new terms, and what I want to encourage you, I'm going to try to simplify this in a minute, but what I want to encourage you is stay on, rather than thinking you have to memorize all these terms and know all the distinctions, there's really about four terms, maybe five, that we'll be dealing with. They're just not our normal terms we use. So don't think you have to keep all the nuances distinct. Just keep your heart and mind on what is coming out of under the umbrella of either cultural Marxism or what's called critical theory. So critical theory is actually where everything else is derived. So, the theories that we're going to be discussing in this series have been taught in academia, in secular universities, for decades. And they provide the basis for what you hear over and over from democratic politics is identity politics. Well, that emanates from cultural Marxism or critical theory. But what brings me to having to speak about it and to write about it so much in the last months and so forth and research it is because it's no longer in secular academia. It's no longer contained in liberal Christianity or religion, but it has made its way into conservative evangelicalism. And it has made its way into the conservative Southern Baptist Convention in some very high places, as you will see. I do believe that genuine racism does exist. So this is not a denial of genuine racism, which we'll define and go through biblically and everything, but it is a denial that cultural Marxism, critical theory, critical race theory, or intersectionality can define racism or help to explain true racism, or to deal with true racism. That's the denial that we're making. Unlike other social theories, so the first thing I want to mention is what's called critical theory. Anytime you hear the word critical, critical theory, critical race, remember this, critical theory, unlike other social theories, Social theories look at culture and society and they try to explain it and help you to understand it. But critical theory does not do that. It seeks to change culture and society. And that's the word critical. critiques everything, deconstructs everything, and then raises a new culture in its place. So it is unlike the others. It will seek to bring about change in the culture and change society, and it can do this maybe through peaceful means, democratic means, but generally, the thinkers of this would say it will take a revolution. So it can be done by peaceful means or by force, but it will be done. The origin of critical theory, and remember, everything flows from that. It's hard to get a handle on what comes from what, but everything comes from critical theory. So cultural Marxism and intersectionality and critical race theory all flow from critical theory. Its origin is in what's known as the Institute for Social Research, which was a part of the Frankfurt School in Germany. And now through time, it's just referred to as the Frankfurt School. What happened was the unexpected utopia that was supposed to arise out of classical Marxism did not arise. And so they went back to the drawing board and devised what later is going to be called cultural Marxism but critical theory. So critical theory arose out of the deficiencies of classical Marxism. When Hitler came to power in Germany, and the ascendancy of Hitler, these are all Marxists, and Marxism was hated by Hitler and the Third Reich. So these thinkers of the Frankfurt School fled Germany, came to New York, and took positions of teaching at Columbia University. When Hitler and the Third Reich were defeated by the Allied forces, all of the major thinkers of the Frankfurt School that had come over here went back to Germany, to the Frankfurt School, with the exception of one, and his name is Herbert Marcuse, I believe is the way you pronounce that. So he stayed, unfortunately. And Herbert Marcuse is where we get the phrase or the term cultural Marxism. So he said, but remember his connection to the Frankfurt School, and many years later he did ultimately go back, but he stayed after the others had left. Stephen Thomas Kirschner says, and I quote, in the 1950s, Marcuse stated, the Marxist revolution would not be brought about by the proletariat, but by a coalition of blacks, feminists, women, homosexuals, and students. This is where we get the term cultural Marxism, as it is applied to the marginalized groups rather than class. So that's a key distinction. Classical Marxism was class warfare. And cultural Marxism, it's the majority versus the minority, the oppressors, the majority versus the oppressed, the minority. But in both classical and cultural Marxism, you have to realize you have to have opposing groups. And so if you're going to bring about utopia, you have to set these groups up and you have to focus on them. You cannot focus on unity. You must focus on division and create division over and over and over and over again. That's what identity politics does. So cultural Marxism is the advocacy and the application of critical theory, critical race theory, and what's called intersectionality. So that's what's going on when we're talking about cultural Marxism. Critical race theory, and again, these terms are gonna become more clear as you hear them and you see them defined. But what makes it so difficult, and anybody who's studied and tried to really assimilate this in a way that you could tell somebody where it makes sense and it's understandable, is what makes it so difficult is that it is composed of a broad complex of essentially different ideas and individuals with a myriad of nuanced approaches. So in other words, you're reading something and you think you've got it, and then you go over here and read something and they're stating it different, and then you go over here, and then it's different people. And then it's different ideas that don't seem to go together. Dr. E.S. Williams does explain what is common to all of these different ideas and groups and people, and he says, quote, it is the creation of interdisciplinary theories that might serve as instruments of social transformation. So there it is again, not explaining culture, not helping you understand it, but transforming it. This can be things such as social justice, feminism, neo-progressivism, and many other things. But all of those are born out of and inspired by critical theory. Remember, critical is you deconstruct, you criticize everything, and everything's on the table, and then when it crumbles, then you have a new situation, a new society, and ultimately you're headed towards the utopia. So this should be on the PowerPoint for you. In cultural Marxism, and this is again, Dr. E.S. Williams, Every aspect of a person's identity is to be questioned. Every norm or standard in society challenged. And ideally, altered in order to benefit supposedly oppressed groups. So this includes things like family. What's the definition of family? What's the definition of government? What is the definition of faith and religion? And those that have been around, we've noticed that family has been totally redefined. Government's being redefined. What is a true faith or religion is being redefined. He goes on to say, key points of CRT, that's critical race theory, include the existence of pervasive institutional racism in white culture. And people of color are oppressed by white privilege and white supremacy. So you'll hear the phrase systemic racism, which means every institution, church, government, city clubs, whatever it is, are permeated with racism, and whites are white supremacists, and they're the oppressors of black people. The Encyclopedia Britannica says of critical theory, remember where everything flows from, Marxist-inspired movement in social and political philosophy originally associated with the work of the Frankfurt School, drawing particularly on the thought of Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud. Critical theorists maintain that a primary goal of philosophy is to understand and to help overcome the social structures through which people are dominated and oppressed. Now it is vitally important as we talk about this to remember that the people associated with the founding of this, including Frankfurt School of the Cultural, but back to classical Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Engels, they're all atheists. They deny the reality of the immaterial world, that is, that there is a God, that there is eternity where you live, that there is a soul, that there is a spirit. So at its most basic and fundamental level, critical theory absolutely, incontrovertibly antithetical to Christianity. This is why when Resolution 9 was passed at the convention, we'll talk about and explain it, but it basically was trying to show critical race theory and intersectionality as though they have some valid place as analytical tools. But they're not good analytical tools because what they do, if you use them to evaluate race and racism and society and utopia and all of these things, they will inevitably lead you to Marxism. You can't disassociate them from that. And Marxism and critical theory are in absolute contradiction to Scripture at every level. So to avoid confusion, I want you to just think about it this way. If I say critical theory or cultural Marxism, we're talking about big umbrella terms, meaning generally the same for our purpose. If I talk about critical race theory, that's a component of that, but again, it's used in a major way. And then intersectionality, you'll see that as we develop it. along the way. So don't get caught up in the distinctions. I've made those for you already. You can go back and listen. But just remember, whether we say cultural Marxism, critical theory, or intersectionality, or critical race theory, we're talking about a system that is absolutely, from its very foundation and essence, antithetical to the existence of God and the truth of the Word of God and eternity. What I'm going to do is compare cultural Marxism with biblical truth. So I'm going to give you what cultural Marxism teaches, and then I'm going to give you the biblical truth. And what you need to remember is, as you will see, and I will show you much later, but I want you to keep it in mind, that this has been adopted by some in our convention, in high places of leadership, and we have some professors who are endorsing and teaching these things. So this is one of the things the Conservative Baptist Network is trying to address. So race, so let's define race. Defined by cultural Marxism, This is according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, defining critical race theory says, race instead of being biologically grounded and natural is socially constructed and that race as a socially constructed concept functions as a means to maintain the interest of white people that constructed it. So that perspective makes race merely a social construct. It's not connected to biology or anything in any way, and it was created by white people to maintain white supremacy and to keep everybody else down. Now I want to define it biblically, because you need to be thinking biblically when we're engaging in these conversations. So this is the way I would lay it out biblically. By creation, all people belong to the human race and are, therefore, all equal being made in the image of God, Genesis 1, 26 through 28. God later created multiple languages and dispersed the people into different and separate locations, Genesis 11, 7 through 9. Out of this dispersed and multilingual human race developed different biologically common traits languages, dialects, and subcultures among the various groups, which became known as ethnicities, nationalities, or races. These are often associated with language, skin color, or geographical origin. Accordingly, all races, ethnicities, are understood in the sense of Genesis 1, 26 through 28, Genesis 11, 7 through 9, and other biblical distinctions such as tribe, people, tongue, and nation, Revelation 7, 9, and chapter 11, verse 9. So that would be a biblical understanding of what we mean by race. So let me give you five things that are entailed in that. Number one, all people belong to the human race. That's the biblical view. Number two, all people are created in the image of God. Number three, all people fallen in sin. The fall affected every human being. Number four, all people are salvifically, salvationally loved by and died for by Christ. And number five, the saved are reconciled to God and each other forgiven of all their sins, Romans 8. And Ephesians 2.14 says in Christ all barriers are broken down. So when we're taking the gospel and the message of reconciliation, we've been reconciled, we're taking it to the world, and that gospel is what breaks down the barriers between human beings, not cultural Marxism. Now, the Bible goes on to reject actual racism. The Cambridge Dictionary defines actual racism as a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities, and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race. And remember the word inherent means you cannot Get it out of the person. You can't extricate this deficiency. So one has supremacy, and another has inferiority, and it is in them, and you can't change it. So the Bible rejects racism as defined by cultural Marxism. It rejects, I believe, popular racism, which is just weaponized to shut down discussions and to just push their agenda, which is generally much of cultural Marxism. I mean, if you read the book, Mein Kampf, by Adolf Hitler, who was clearly by anybody's measure a racist, to put his 700-page diatribe in context where you can break it down and understand it, he divided the world in three races. There's the Aryan race, which is the superior race, and that's the race that builds. Then there's the Asian, and that would include all Asians, and that would be, they are the maintainers, but they don't build. So they're not a part of the superior race. And then the third race are the Jews, and they destroy everything. So in his system, you get rid of the Jews who destroy and you either marginalize or eventually get rid of the Asians and you only have this superior race. So there could be no intermarrying or anything like that because that would always bring the Aryan superior race down because it modified that purity of the race. So it is that these things are in a race and they can't be taken out or extricated. You can't educate them out. It wasn't because of culture or anything like that, but it's in them. That's actual racism. And the Bible is against that because we're all created by God as a human race, and we're all in the image of God, and we're all loved by God, and we all get saved the same way, see? So it's totally against these false ideas of racism, but also true racism. True racism in the Bible would be the sin of partiality. which is condemned in Scripture, like James 2, 1-9, and chapter 3, 13-18, where you're preferring someone over another human because you somehow sense they're superior, and it gets back to their essence. So that's kind of what we're talking about. Now, let me back up in history and talk about classical Marxism, because cultural Marxism, which we're dealing with today, came from there, and yes, there are still some remnants of that going on in the dialogue of today. Classical Marxism. Classical Marxism proposes a clash between the proletariat, which is the working class, and the bourgeoisie, which is the middle class today, but would really be the upper class, the wealthy, the business owners of the day of Marx. So the problem, as Marx saw it, was economic oppression. The fundamental evil in the world is the oppression of workers, by the capitalists, by those with capital, with business, that own businesses and so forth. And so what you had in classical Marxism is you had a class warfare of those that are the haves or have-nots and those that are the haves, the proletariat and the capitalist. When you look at classical Marxism, what you see are the sinners, we would call them, they are the haves. And the have-nots have no sin that stands in the way of bringing utopia. In other words, the only people that are the problem to utopia are the haves. They have the sin, but the have-nots have no sin to repent of or to walk away from. Therefore, the haves had a need to repent but cannot because they still have. And the have-nots do not need to repent. So what is the solution to classical Marxist problem? It is to eliminate the free market through socialism and things like that. Think of Bernie Sanders. through the expansion of state ownership by taxation, particularly graduated taxation, but if necessary, by government confiscation of the capital of the bourgeoisie so that the state can take the capital and redistribute it so that the proletariat has the same amount as everybody else, regardless if individually they deserve it or not. If you do that, if that would have happened, they said, the utopia would have arrived. But it did not arrive, and there are various theories why. So let me answer that biblically. That's their view of what's the problem. So biblically, what are we saying the problem is? Biblically, the problem is sin. in which all humans are infected and purveyors of, distributors of, Romans 3, 10 through 18. The solution for all mankind's ills are found in trusting Christ as Savior, which God desires everyone to do, John 3, 16, God responds to that trust by making the repentant into a new creation. John 3, 1 through 4, chapter 16, or verse 16, I'm sorry, and 2 Corinthians 5, 17. and the redeemed are to walk according to his word, 1st John 5.3, and the power of his spirit, Ephesians 5.18. Remember, both in classical and cultural Marxism, the thinkers believe that you cannot get to utopia More than likely, it's almost impossible, maybe impossible, to get to utopia through consensual or democratic republic politics. It will take a revolution. The system has to be destroyed and rebuilt from a cultural or from a Marxist perspective. So let me just give you four real quick things out of that. The biblical picture is the opposite of that. Number one, cultural Marxism because, opposite of cultural Marxism, because scripture confirms creation, whereas cultural Marxism holds to materialism. So again, at its very core, they are mutually exclusive. In the biblical picture, sin is defined as a breach of God's holy standard and is against God first, rather than the wrong or sin being defined as oppression of the working class. Number three, in the biblical picture, all sin, and all need forgiveness. and all can be forgiven in contrast to classical Marxism. And number four, it is not political revolution that ushers in the utopia, but it is the king of kings that does that, Revelation chapter 21. And so you have two absolutely mutually exclusive systems. And when you adopt even some of it as analytical tools or you find something in it you kind of like, it is a part of a system. that is diametrically opposed to biblical Christianity. Now, let me talk about cultural Marxism. So that's classical, and now we're looking at what we're dealing with proper, even though there are things that hold over, of course, from classical. But as we're talking about in the convention and evangelicalism and we're seeing it in politics, we've been seeing it there and we've been seeing it in academia for years. So cultural Marxism. Cultural Marxism proposes a clash, instead of being between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, it is the oppressed minorities and the oppressor, the majority. So the problem under cultural Marxism, the majority groups are privileged and oppressive, and minority groups are typically underprivileged and oppressed. That's Dr. E.S. Williams again. So when you look at the United States and you look at Europe, and you talk about the oppressors and the oppressed, and the oppressors are the majority, and the oppressed are the minority, the black people, you are primarily dealing with white people being the oppressors. and the blacks being the oppressed. It includes other minorities. The contrast or the paradigm is the majority-minority. There are different minorities and different majorities you'll see in a moment, but the dominant one that's talked about in the racism and critical race theory is that the white people are the oppressors and the black people are oppressed. because of a majority and a minority. So what is the solution to the problem? The solution is the redistribution of wealth and power by challenging and dismantling, critiquing, all structures of current society because the problem is systemic. So notice when I'm talking about this, which will come up many times The problem is systemic. It goes beyond the individual. It even goes beyond this particular group. And racism and things like that, they're not individual, but they're groups. Everything is a group. So in American society in the past, we've always said we are individuals. And if you are individually responsible, you're guilty. And if you're not, you're not. But in Marxism, it focuses on the collective and divides you into groups. And so you are in that group. So if you are white, you are a racist. Period. Why? It doesn't matter if you've never had a racist thought or you were a true racist and repented of it. None of that matters. You are a racist because you're white. Because in Marxism, you are in a group and they define the group. So the majority of the oppressors must be punished and seen as evil and the source of all oppression. Majorities include, as I said, white people, black people, white people, and other minorities in the culture that you're in. But it also has other majority and minorities. For example, it can include Christians, Christians being the majority, non-Christian minority, a certain group. And so Christianity is the oppressor and sinful and evil. where this group is not. So think about the minority of Muslims in our country, and think about how liberals are always attacking conservative Christianity. It's always seen as evil, and yet the people where there is the most undeniable evidence that the Islamic religion, not every Muslim, but the Islamic religion is the most torturous and inhumane religion on planet Earth. But it doesn't matter because Christianity sees in the majority. Again, white people, heterosexuals. Heterosexuals are the majority over homosexuals or transgenders or cisgenders, non-cisgenders. And so therefore, because you are heterosexual, if you hold to that, you are an oppressor. You are sinful, you're evil, and we need to do something with you. Notice how they're always promoting the minority as being so great and so wonderful. And they don't have any of these evil things, by the way, because they're the minority. So the majorities, the oppressors, must be repudiated, and their power and privilege must be transferred to minorities, the oppressed. And if it happens, then a just society, social justice, utopia, will come about. But the truth is, it will not come about. Remember, that this can come about through peaceful means, consensual politics, so if they could promote, for example, the graduated taxation. I mean, if you just think about it, and I'm not a promoter of any kind of taxation, I'm just trying to say, what is fair about this person making $100 and they pay 10% tax, and this person making $1,000 and they pay $20? What happened? What happened in that? Well, they have more. You understand the Marxist idea there? You have more, you're evil, you gotta be penalized, and we have to take more from you and give it to these people, and remember that group identity is all that matters, so we're never concerned in a Marxist idea of whether the people we're giving it to actually as an individual deserve it or not. So in the group, some of the people don't work. Some of them are drug addicts. Some of them don't care about anything. It doesn't matter because the group is oppressed, you see. So we're thinking biblically and we're thinking, yeah, but that guy can work and he won't work. Doesn't matter. He's a part of the oppressed group and you're the oppressor. But if it cannot happen through graduated taxation and so forth, then the government can seize it, and it can happen through revolution. You hear a lot of talk about privilege today, and it's white privilege. And what white privilege includes is that the whites have benefited by the oppressive system they've put in, and so there is a white privilege, and thus white supremacy. White supremacy used to only refer to skinheads, you know, Nazi groups, KKK, but you're hearing it used all the time and you're wondering, why are they using it so much? Because all white people are white supremacists, period. Why? Because you're white. And you can't quit being a white supremacist because you are white and you are part of the majority. And therefore, you as a white supremacist, privileged person, should feel guilty and repent of your privileged life and give everything up for others. But the problem is, the white supremacists, which all white people are, cannot remove the stain of living white, racist, privileged lives. And their guilt, they can't get away from that because they're white, according to cultural Marxism. White people are racist. They're white supremacists. Even if they or you reject every form of true racism, or you've never had it in your heart, or you have repented of it, makes no difference. To show you how this works, I mean, just think of this church. True white supremacists will not join our church, I'm just telling you. They're not gonna come here. And if they walk in the door, they're leaving. But according to cultural Marxism, all the white people in our church are racist. And if you want to top that, we have families, and I've married couples that one was black and one was white. We have families with biracial children, black children, and other minorities. So on staff, Ryan Polk, Randy Presley, But according to cultural Marxism, they and their spouses are racist. You understand that that makes no sense, biblically. Cultural Marxism is the source of identity politics. And critical race theory and intersectionality serve as the means of promoting that. So here's one of the things you have to grasp out of this as well. Truth claims by oppressors, so all white people, heterosexual people, Christian people, truth claims by oppressors are always suspect. So when you say something by the cultural Marxist, it is suspect. It doesn't carry the weight. Whereas truth claims made by the oppressed are always credible until proven wrong, which intersectionality makes almost impossible, as you'll see later. In other words, the truth claims of the oppressors or the majority, it's always suspect. They don't give much because you really can't know truth. See, if you're the majority, and particularly if you're a white man, you're at the end of the scale. But the oppressed, the minority, their truth claims are always assumed credible. What you'd have to do is prove them wrong before it would be seen as wrong. But intersectionality, once you understand that, makes proving them wrong almost impossible because unless you have been a part of the oppressed, you can't know truth. As hard as it may be, even at this time, to think that this kind of stuff is being used and valued in various degrees by some of our seminary professors. The oppressor, the privileged, simply do not understand and cannot know truth. So think back when we talked about the Me Too movement, and what did we see in that, and what did I show you? Accusations by the minority, those that had been abused, they were considered true. They were considered not an accusation, but evidence. But the one who's saying, I didn't do it, got no value because his claims were suspect. And what it did was, in a very public way, turn innocent until proven guilty into guilty until proven innocent. that is a fundamental change historically and culturally and biblically and legally in our country that will destroy it. So let me give you the biblical answer to this, you're white, you're privileged, and all of this. Biblically, all people are privileged in some way over other people. Privilege is not a sin in scripture, but it can lead to it, but it's not in and of itself a sin, which is what cultural Marxism says it is. Luke chapter 12, verse 16 through 22, remember the rich guy who owned the land, he said, I know what I'll do, I'll build more barns, so he was greedy. So his wealth and privilege led to it, but wealth and privilege in itself is not a James 2, 1 through 6 is partiality, which again is discrimination, and that is sin. But again, having privilege is not a sin. Privilege does not equal or make a person an oppressor. Abraham was wealthy, Genesis 24, 35. Israel was privileged in being God's chosen nation, Romans 3, 1 through 2. And Paul was privileged as a Roman citizen, Acts 16, 37 through 38, and chapter 22 through 28, verse 28. So there were many privileges of just being a Roman citizen. So these privileges were given by God. The truth is, everyone experiences some privileges over someone else. And everyone experiences the lack of privilege in compared to someone else or another group. But just think about being born in America, somebody growing up in a good loving family, the education, physical ability, mental ability, all of us have privileges blessings that somebody else doesn't have, but that doesn't make us sinful and in guilt and needing to repent. So biblically, all blessings, privileges are from God and only require thanksgiving and stewardship. In Matthew chapter 25 verse 14 through 30, you have the parable of the talents, and if you remember, He gave one talent to one, he gave two talents to another, and he gave five to another. But the one who had five had greater privilege and blessing, but it didn't make him a sinner. Nowhere in there is he called a sinner. Nowhere does he have anything to be guilty about because he has five and this one has one. Two of the people were more privileged than one. Nor did it give the one with one a reason to think that he was being discriminated against, or that the one with five or three was oppressing him. You see, none of that's there. What is there, very lucidly, is this, that what he judged them on was their stewardship of what they had been given. They had to use it in a way that glorified God. So no one was accused of supremacy or guilt or anything like that. And this thing about receiving blessings and being a steward and being thankful for them. It's true of spiritual blessings like Ephesians 1, 3 and 1 Corinthians 12, 1, which would refer to believers, of course, but also common grace blessings like Matthew 5, 45, the rain and the sun that blesses all of us. All of us are to be good stewards of blessings, whether they're common or they're spiritual, and we're to be thankful for them. But having them There is nowhere that suggests that it requires guilt or repentance. Only stewardship and thanksgiving before God. Luke chapter 17, verse 11 through 17, remember the lepers that they came and he healed them and they left and only one turned around and said, thank you. And he said, were there not 10? That's the sin, not being healed, the blessing of it. They shouldn't feel guilty, they should feel thankful, and that's what he judged for. So privilege and receiving blessings are not sins, nor do they make a person oppressor or oppressed. The lack of blessings does not make someone oppressed. But ungratefulness is a sin. Luke 6.35, Romans 1.21, and 2 Timothy 3.2. Using blessings and privilege to treat other people as less than created in the image of God is a sin. Matthew 7.12, it says, this is what the law and the prophets is all about. Treat other people like you would want to be treated. someone creating the image of God, and we are to do likewise. So privilege and blessing, while it does not require guilt and repentance, it does require humility, thankfulness, and stewardship toward God. So I want you to think about this very moment, that the three things that we've looked at so far are They are absolutely between cultural Marxism and the Bible are mutually exclusive. You don't mix them. We do not benefit in bringing God's love and holiness to the world by cultural Marxism in any sense, period. does not help us as analytical tools for anything unless you want to be a Marxist, unless you want to color the Bible with a Marxist magic marker. The gospel, the truth of the Word of God, is sufficient to change one life, all the lives in a group, are all groups and the entire world. Let's pray. Lord, we just realize we're in a battle that still seems so unthinkable. And even that those who have been, and I suppose are in so many ways conservative or an erotist and things of that nature, But they have, some so unwisely, adopted the very thing that undermines their other beliefs. I pray there would be a consistency that would flow through the hearts of these people. I pray there would be repentance for trying to mix the Bible and these godly theories, these philosophies that Colossians tells them about that are antithetical to Christ. And Lord, may we have enough love for you and enough love for our society, unbelievers and believers alike, and for the gospel and for the salvation of other people. that we will speak clearly from your word, aided by the Holy Spirit, not the tools of godlessness. We ask these things in Christ's worthy name. Amen.