I do not know of a single holistic Biblical university or seminary in the U.S. though I am sure that all of them would claim to be biblical. There are over 100 Christian colleges and universities in the U.S. and 251 seminaries in the U.S. and Canada. To my knowledge, none of these institutions have developed and integrated a biblical theology of:
1. Oppression, Old and New Testaments
2. Justice, especially justice in the NT.
3. Jesus Christ and the contemporary kingdom of God.
4. The relationship of the Holy Spirit and the kingdom of God.
5. The church and community development.
A suggested motto for such a fully biblical university might be: Christ, kingdom, church and community.
1. Jesus Christ---crucifixion, resurrection, justification by faith.
2. Kingdom of God---Spirit and truth, Spirit and justice.
3. Church---that combines spirituality and justice.
4. Community---a church that incarnates Luke 4:18-19 and 4:25-30 in its surrounding community.
A concise summary of the complete biblical gospel can be found in Acts 8:12; 28:23 & 31. Simply stated, the gospel is the kingdom of God and Jesus Christ. The kingdom is mentioned first in each of these verses. The kingdom of God is Jubilee justice for the oppressed poor; Jesus Christ provides justification by faith, forgiveness of sins.
Luke 4:18-19 and 4:25-30 provide eight crucial concepts that are key to creating a fully holistic NT gospel; these concepts are: the Spirit, the poor, the oppressed, Jubilee justice, the rich, the oppressors, shalom and the kingdom of God.
1. The Spirit
Only a Spirit-anointed revival/movement, a spiritual/social movement greater than any previous movement in all of U.S. history, will be able to fundamentally transform America. One Spirit-anointed movement, the Azusa Street revival, started right but was soon coopted and divided by American racism. Without a theology of society, it was soon distorted by the American trinity.
All four ministries of the Holy Spirit are needed to implement a holistic gospel:
1) The Spirit of Truth---John 14, 15, 16 and I John.
The Spirit of Truth will help the church discern truth in the midst of a society full of false teaching, deception, and half-truths posing as the whole truth.
2) The relationship of the Holy Spirit and the kingdom of God---the Messianic passages from Isaiah, 9:6-7; 11:1-4; 16:5; 28:16-17; 42:1-4; 61:1-4. See also Luke 4:18-19; Acts 1:1-8: 8:12; 28:23-31.
3) The fruit of the Spirit---Galatians 5:22-23 provides Christian character.
4) The gifts of the Spirit---Romans 12 and I Corinthians 12. Without character the gifts can become focused on self edification rather than church edification.
John Perkins life and ministry is the best example of a balanced and holistic ministry of the Holy Spirit. My chapter on the Four Ministries of the Spirit in the life of John Perkins can be found in the book Mobilizing for the Common Good.
2. The Poor
If Jesus put the poor front and center in his gospel, so must the Haitian church. There is an extensive biblical teaching on the poor. Who are the poor? Why are the poor, poor? A bishop once said, "If I feed the poor they call me a saint. If I ask why the poor are poor [a justice question], they call me a communist."
I am a follower of John Wesley who may have led the greatest spiritual/social movement since NT times. But I am not sure that Wesley wrestled deeply with the why question, the justice question, involved in any fully biblical ministry to the poor.
3. The Oppressed
There is a great need for a biblical scholar to produce a book on the complete biblical teaching on oppression. There is very little evangelical literature on oppression. Luke 4:18 is a quotation of Isaiah 61:1-2. But as Jesus was reading directly from the Isaiah scroll, he ad-libed; he inserted a phrase from Isaiah 58:6. This is no reference to oppression in Isaiah 61, unless you translate the Hebrew word for poor as oppressed as at least two English translations do (CEV and NRSV).
Jesus goes out of his way to include the concept of oppression in Luke 4:18. Why? Because most poor, but not all poor, are poor because they have been oppressed. Good news to the poor must include release from oppression, an idea missing from most evangelical expressions of the gospel. What are the major systems of oppression in Haiti that must be identified by the church and confronted by the church?
4. Jubilee Justice
The phrase "the year of the Lord's favor" has little meaning to the typical reader of the Bible so I prefer to paraphrase this phrase as "Jubilee justice".
The God-designed Sabbatical/Jubilee laws were given to the children of Israel so that there would be no poor among them. Three fundamental actions were required: 1) release slaves every seven years, 2) cancel debts every seven years, and 3) restore land to original family owner every 50 years. These actions would prevent any lifelong or generational systems of oppression. Landownership could not be monopolized by the rich.
Also implied in Luke 4:18-19 are four additional concept: the rich, the oppressors, shalom and the kingdom of God.
5. The Rich
In a fallen society, the rich and poor coexist; the poor do not live in isolation from the rich. They may be segregated, but through systems of oppression controlled by the rich, the rich impact the poor.
In Luke, Jesus spent much more of his time ministering among the poor, but there is much more teaching about the rich, wealth money and possessions than teaching about the poor. So any biblical theology of society will need to include a careful analysis of the rich, who they are, what systems of oppression they run, and why the rich are rich.
Some biblical clues: Jesus said, "Woe to those who are rich," "You cannot serve both God and Money." The Temple was operated as "a den of robbers."
6. The Oppressors
In a fallen society (cosmos), if there are the oppressed, there also obviously oppressors. In Luke, who are the oppressors? Contrary to popular opinion, the number one oppressor of the Jews, according to Jesus, was not the Romans. Instead, Jesus' main focus was on the religious rich who ran the temple, who"were lovers of money," who "neglected justice and the love of God." In other words, the religion-politico-economic elite.
An Afro American friend of mine once summed up the history of Mississippi---and Palestine---in one concise sentence: "For injustice ran deep and cloaked itself well among those things that appeared just."
7. Shalom
The word shalom---a wholeness, community concept---is not mentioned specifically in Luke 4:18-19. But if the Spirit-anointed church is preaching good news to the poor, is releasing the oppressed, is incarnating Jubilee justice in a poor and oppressed community, then a measure of shalom exists in that community. Shalom is the end result of operationalizing Luke 4:18-19.
8. The Kingdom of God
The phrase the kingdom of God is not found in Luke 4:18-19. But if the Spirit-filled church has fulfilled their assigned mission, if justice and shalom are manifest in a formerly poor and oppressed community, then the kingdom has come, is here.
Paul, in Romans 14:17, sums it up in this way (Noble paraphrase): "The kingdom of God is justice, shalom, and joy in the power and wisdom of the Holy Spirit."
9. Reconciliation
In Luke 4: 25-30, Jesus exposes the deep ethnocentrism of the Jews against the Gentiles and asserts that God's grace is equally available to the Gentiles; this provides the basis for reconciliation between Jew and Gentile.
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