The Woke Deception

A friend recently observed, “If the church doesn’t offer our young people the Kingdom of God, they will look for it in “wokeness.”   That statement landed on me like a load of bricks.  So-called “Woke” Christianity is a deadly counterfeit of the Kingdom that promises a world of tolerance and equity at the expense of the God-man and Savior of the world.  The Christ of the woke church is Jesus the social-reformer, Jesus the revolutionary, the activist, the anti-racist, the Neo-Marxist, or the abortion crusader.

In past centuries there seemed to be enough godly fear and Biblical literacy in Western culture to tamp-down the counterfeits of liberal, progressive, and “woke” Christianity.  People had little interest in a church focused on issues yet bereft of life-changing power.  But in today’s Western culture the fear of God is so rare, and the human race is so desperate that every impostor and counterfeit Christ is welcomed like the latest episode of Yellowstone.

How can we identify the counterfeit?   Here are a few red flags to look for:  

1. Woke Christians are often identified by their open disdain towards the historical church. While Biblical Christians lament the failings of the church, which are mentioned often in the Epistles, they still embrace the church as the flawed yet  beloved bride of Christ.  
2. “Woke” Christians often display an air of patronizing superiority. “You just wouldn’t understand.”  To become woke is a counterfeit conversion, an initiation into a special priesthood which lectures and judges the unenlightened.   
3. Woke Christians are often overly focused on causes rather than Christ: equity, anti-racism, special rights, over-population, climate change, and  immigration to name only a few.  In the woke world these causes become frontline issues while the saving life of Christ is minimized, if not forgotten altogether. (It’s important to mention here that the Kingdom of God squarely addresses every one of these issues with the utmost tenderness and grace, yet always in context of Jesus first).  
4. Woke Christians are prone to elevate government, environment, feelings, and selfhood, to the place of idolatry. 
5. Woke Christians often embrace abortion almost as a sacrament of the faith.  
6. And finally, woke Christians utilize a distinct language and vocabulary to express their unbiblical theology and worldview.  Examples include “heteronormativity”, “white patriarchy”, “parity”, “implicit bias”, “systemic racism”,  “micro-aggressions”, “hegemony”, “gender binary”, “intersectionality”, “social justice”, and “equity”, to name but a few.    

If you see these things in your friend or brother, pray for him and look for ways to help him see the destructive course he’s on.  It’s no small thing to follow a counterfeit Christ.

© 2023, Don Stephens

If you want to know more, see our review of Woke Jesus at our Library,