Trickles or Torrents of Justice

In my humble opinion, the typical white Christian thinks their occasional trickle of justice actually is a torrent.  So they need to read John Perkins' latest (2017) book, Dream With Me.  Along with many biblical principles such as love and reconciliation, I found justice to be the most important theme.  Kingdom justice, Jubilee justice, not shallow American ideas of justice.  Even in the church I find most American Christian ideas of justice to be small-minded.

A friend told me recently that John laments that many of his closest disciples have compromised on biblical justice.  They have been strong on reconciliation but comparatively weak on justice.  Read a related book, Dear White Christians.

In Perkins chapter titled Real Justice, all of his Scriptures on justice are from the OT.  No NT verses are quoted.  In the KJV of the NT, there are no references, not one, to justice.  In the NIV, there are only 16 references to justice.  To my knowledge, there is no NT theology on kingdom justice in English.  Yet in a Greek NT, there are approximately 300 'dik' stems (justice stems).  In a Spanish, French or Latin NT, there are about 100 references to justice.  The English NT has been "dejusticized."

On the surface, justice seems to disappear when one moves from an English OT into an English NT.  I know of a Bible scholar who actually taught that in the NT justice was replaced with personal salvation.  But if we translate 'dikaiosune' as justice in the Sermon on the Mount:

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after justice . . . "
"Blessed are those who are persecuted for justice's sake. . . . "
"Set your mind on God's kingdom and his justice. . . ." (NEB)

From Dream With Me, page 206:

"The title of my first book is Let Justice Roll Down. . . . Amos didn't tell the people that God wants justice to trickle through their society.  The New Living Translation uses the phrase 'mighty flood of justice,' (Amos 5:24) to describe what God wants to see."

But for God to move in America, the white church must deeply repent and massively restitute; then a flood of justice could flood the land, releasing the oppressed poor.

Isaiah describes the nature of the coming NT kingdom of God in his six Messianic passages---Spirit, Kingdom, justice; a justice that releases the oppressed poor.