When Woke Theology Comes For Your Study Bible

Zondervan Publishing has just released a new study Bible, the Upside-Down Kingdom Bible, with notes, essays, and book introductions that, according to the Amazon listing, feature "difficult issues facing Christians today, with features that are honest, nuanced, and filled with grace." Should Christians use this study Bible?

Let me say upfront--stay away from this compromised woke study Bible!

The notes in this NIV Bible, edited by Preston Sprinkle, focus specifically on a series of the aforementioned "difficult issues facing Christians today," including "race and ethnicity, creation care, science, abortion, wealth and poverty, gender and sexuality, politics, baptism, technology, and others." 

Anytime they believe these topics are directly mentioned, alluded to, or thematically present in the text, the notes give a supposedly biblical take, showing how the Bible "flips the wisdom of worldly kingdoms on its head." The goal is to help Christians in an "exponentially polarized" culture to "think deeply and love widely." And the result is, well, the opposite of that!

One of our writers and speakers, Avery Foley, took a look at a variety of the notes and essays in this new Bible (particularly the ones on the early chapters of Genesis), and here's what she said about it,

Rather than showing how God's Word is unique, giving us a set of glasses through which to view the world that is "upside down" to the world's way of thinking, the writers take the world's lenses of feminism, Marxism, evolution, and CRT and read the Bible through them.

That's why many of the notes I read were sprinkled with references to man-made climate change, terms like "forced migration experiences," and "systemic injustice." From what I saw, these terms weren't really defined, but all such terms are routinely used by "woke" and progressive Christians the same way the world uses them, so I think it's safe to assume that the world's definition is how they're likewise being used here.

Also, this study Bible is supposed to be "nuanced," and it certainly is. It's so "squishy" on most controversial topics (but not certain "woke" ones--on some of those the authors took obvious positions) that the notes lose any authority, turning into "some people say this, and some people say that, but we can't really know." But in many cases, we can really know. For example, in Genesis we can know how and when God created!

Yes, Christians should "think deeply and love widely." But we don't "think deeply" from our own wisdom or by applying the world's wisdom to our interpretations of the biblical text. And we don't "love widely" by defining love according to how our culture defines it. We think and love according to the standard set in God's Word! It must be our starting point and biblical truth: the lens through which we filter the world. This study Bible has it the other way around--in many cases, the world is the starting point and its wisdom the lens through which it filters the Word.

I warn Christians to stay away from this study Bible! 

Conservative advocacy group One Million Mom has launched a campaign opposing Zondervan's Bible saying it promotes "woke theology" and undermines traditional biblical interpretations. 

The organization has urged Christians to avoid the publication and to sign a pledge boycotting Zondervan's product.

"Zondervan's newest NIV study Bible is unlike other Bibles in that it includes elements of theological and gender diversity. As such, Christians should be aware this could be called a DEI Bible. (DEI is an acronym for diversity, equity and inclusion.)," the group noted in a January post.  

It warned this Bible can be more accurately described as upside-down theology because it includes interpretations of scriptures from a woke mindset, with opinions based on a magnitude of cultural and sexual perspectives."

Editor's Note: Reading A Worldview Into Scripture

Preston Sprinkle, the editor of the "Upside-Down Kingdom Study Bible," has authored over a dozen books filled with "woke theology."

His book, "People To Be Loved: Why Homosexuality Is Not Just An Issue," argues that the Bible's condemnation of homosexuality is an inaccurate "traditional view" from the church. He insists that the areas of the Bible that prohibit homosexuality are superseded by "radical grace" (a grace which apparently carries with it no need for repentance).

He additionally wrote other books on the same subject, such as "Living In A Grey World: A Christian Teen's Guide to Understanding Homosexuality," "Scandalous Grace," "The Widening Of God's Mercy," and "Embodied: Transgender Identities, the Church & What the Bible Has to Say."

Sprinkle is also the founder and president of "the Center for Faith, Sexuality, and Gender," a group that seeks to train pastors, Christian educators, and children to take a "more robust" (i.e., favorable) view of gender ideology and "create a safe and compassionate environment for LGBT+ people" in the church.

According to his books and the "Upside-Down Kingdom" study guide, passages of Scripture such as Genesis 1:27 and others that outline God's design for gender and marriage are simply misinterpreted by the church and are meant to outline the workings of reproduction rather than laying out a moral foundation.

That is not the only subject in which Sprinkle encourages compromise and twisting of God's unchanging Word. On his social media platforms, Sprinkle has been a vocal critic of the nation of Israel.

In a recent post, he encouraged his followers to read "Christ In The Rubble: Faith, The Bible, And The Genocide In Gaza," a deeply anti-semitic book that he called "the most important book of our generation."

The description of the book, which has not yet been released, scolds Christians for embracing the modern state of Israel and falsely accuses the world's one and only Jewish State of carrying out "Zionism's genocidal project" to "eliminate Palestinians"--a campaign the author insists has been ongoing since before the nation's founding in 1948.

This is yet another example of the dangers of reading a worldview into Scripture rather than having the plain, literal reading of the Bible form your worldview. The Bible is far from silent on the issue of marriage, sexual morality, the protection of children, and God's chosen people and nation: Israel and the Jews. 

Today's "woke theologians" simply don't like what the Bible has to say and would rather warp the text to an ideological idol of their own making. To make matters infinitely worse, they want to deceive young and/or undiscerning Christians to bow down before it also.

Originally published at Harbingers Daily