Preface: Awake? Or Woke? How Language and Culture Collide

Can you imagine going into a foreign country without knowing the language and culture of the people there!  There are people who think that they can go anywhere throughout the world as if people from other countries speak the same language along with having to be brought up within the same culture. Every culture has its own different language by which culture and language go hand in hand with each other. 

There are culture wars among leading evangelicals who are ignorant of the language and culture by which they accuse each other of abandoning the gospel. It depends on their understanding of what the gospel is by which it becomes vague. Are they talking about the gospel of God's grace by which people are saved? Or is it perverted gospel by which it is based upon "mere" human works or accomplishment? The Social Justice and the Gospel advocates have so strongly accused the Woke church movement of deserting the gospel for what is the social gospel. The fact that people who stand up and speak out against social injustice are labeled as being woke. How does the concept of wokeness fit within the biblical narrative of the Bible? There is nowhere in scripture that gives warranted that those who speak out against injustice are considered as being "woke." Woke is not anti-racism nor is it anti-racism is wokeness. It is so important to give a clear definition and understanding of the biblical concept of "awake." (Eph. 4:15)

When the apostle Paul mentioned in Ephesians 4:15 where says, "Awake you that sleepest, arise from the dead, and the Lord will shine on you" we have to understand the language and culture by which it is being utilized.  First, unbelieving people need to wake out of their slumber. They are spiritually asleep by which they are children of darkness. They are under Satan's influence and control. They love darkness by which they cannot be exposed. Everything that is done in darkness is made manifest by the light. What done in the dark will come to the light. To be awake does not mean people are to be aware of such socio-economical and injustice in the world. I know of social and political activists who are aware of the systemic racism and injustice within many human institutions across this country. Just because people are aware of these things don't say that they are awakened from their spiritual slumber. They are dead in their trespasses and sins by which it is a necessity that they are quickened or made alive by the Spirit of God. (Eph. 2:2) 

Secondly, the spiritual condition of unbelieving people is that they are dead in sin. To be dead in sin is to be alienated from God, separate from self, and others by which the unsaved are slaves to sin. We cannot expect a person who is lying dead in a coffin to raise themselves from the dead. We have to let the dead bury the dead. The dead cannot raise the dead. God Who is powerful can raise the dead by which He gives eternal life whom God has chosen unregenerate unto His election of grace. As Titus says according to Titus 3:5 says we are "renewed and regenerated by the power and work of the Holy Spirit." That which is born of the spirit is spirit. We must be born again. (Jn. 3:3, 5)

Thirdly, once people are saved our Lord Christ shines within the sin-darkened heart of the unbelieving. Prior to salvation is that Satan has blinded their minds and hearts from understanding and receiving the glorious gospel of Christ. (2 Cor. 4:4) It is the light of the gospel that Christ shines within people's minds and hearts. As the old hymn once says, "I was once blind but now I see."

When it comes to the language of the Bible (e.g. "wake up")  it must be defined according to the standard definition of the Bible. Not within the social and cultural construct of the social justice movements of today. Language and culture go hand in hand with each other. In order to understand culture is that of its values, beliefs, and customs by which the language of that particular culture has to be understood in light of how it is defined.  Also, whenever biblical concepts and languages are "redefined" become perverted by which both language and culture collide. Biblical perversion, language, and semantics lead to propaganda and deception. 

Rev. Darryl Miller is president & Chairman of Darryl Miller International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia. He is the best-selling author of "The Prosperity Gospel: Where Did It Come From? Gnostic Source? Or Spiritual Revelation?" Darryl is the Host of "Darryl Unplugged Podcast" which airs 24/7 at www.spreaker.com. As an apologist, pastor, conference speaker, and lecturer he is in great demand both in the United States and around the world. Darryl lives with his wife Vivian outside metro Atlanta with their puppy "Little Baby."