Wokeness is incompatible with the Biblical worldview because it attributes intrinsic guilt or innocence to the individual based on their group identity, regardless of individual actions. Proverbs 17:15 condemns this line of thinking: He who justifies the wicked, and he who condemns the just, both of them alike are an abomination to the Lord. What wokeness does is attributes evil to so-called “oppressor” races and social structures rather than to the real problem – sin. The concept of being woke is an attempt to create moral boundaries without God. It offers only a bleak and hopeless world in which a stern and constantly shifting morality subjects all to a judgement from which there can be no redemption or restoration. Far more preferable is the message of the gospel which, while it points to our deepest moral failures because of the fall, offers us forgiveness and a changed life through Jesus Christ. Sadly, some pastors are ignoring the gospel and Great Commission, instead choosing to take up the social justice causes of our day in order to gain popularity with the world. They blindly jump on the latest cultural train without filtering its ideology and its goals through the lens of Scripture. In so doing, the principle of cultural relevance is being held in higher esteem than revelation through God’s Word.
But so many ministry resources are now being directed to wokeism. Did Paul face the Roman tyrant for the sake of wokeism? Did Corrie ten Boom suffer the horrors of a concentration camp for the sake of wokeism? Did Richard Wurmbrand suffer 14 long years of torture in a Communist jail for the sake of wokeism? Did untold missionaries sail the seas and face the spears for the sake of wokeism? No, they stood resolute and faced their plight because they stood for the truth. And the church must do the same.
So let us not rally around the banner of wokeism, but around the banner of the cross. What the pulpit prioritises, the people will pursue.
Our pulpits should be prioritising the preaching of the gospel and the urgent warning to all humanity that God’s wrath is about to fall on this Earth in the form of the Tribulation Period. God isn’t concerned about how well you conform to culture – He is concerned about whether you are justified by saving faith in Jesus Christ.