Zion Shall Be Redeemed By Justice

I got a message yesterday with an urgent request from a friend. A prominent Anabaptist pastor had addressed child sex abuse on his widely-read Facebook page, and the discussion that followed was taking a dark turn. Could I address some of the harmful myths being peddled there and lift up God’s perspective on abuse and oppression?

This post is my response. I have written this post as a response to one long comment on that abuse discussion, not because this comment was so unusual, but because it included so many of the worst myths about sex abuse commonly taught among my Anabaptist people and in other conservative Christian circles. I won’t name the original poster or commenter, as I don’t intend to attack specific people, but to “tear down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God,” whoever it comes from.

No Apologies

If you are a survivor or current victim of any type of abuse, I hope this message will comfort you and offer you a thread of hope. God sees you and treasures you. Healing is possible.

If you have a history of sexual sin against the young and vulnerable, or any other kind of abuse, and you have not yet openly repented, made restitution, and devoted your life to reversing the evil and harm you committed, I hope what follows will shake you to your core. There is hope for you, but only if you are willing to own your evil, bear the shame, expose yourself to the full weight of consequences, and walk through the consuming fire of God’s mercy to healing.

Below I quote the troubling comment paragraph by paragraph and respond with my own comments. At the end I have added a list of Scriptures on God’s justice for us to meditate on. Even if you don’t care about the article, scroll down and read the words of God compiled at the end. Again, these will be a great comfort to the oppressed, and a terror to oppressors and all who support or excuse them.

A Revelation?

Without more ado, here’s the first paragraph of the writing that troubled my friend.

I decided to say just what I believe about how to confront such a situation, and what to avoid, according to what I believe God showed me. It might not be too popular.

Commenter

For a mature believer, the words “God showed me,” are red flags, especially without evidence of divine revelation, including Scripture, as in this case.

What marks a random claim of revelation as real amid the whirlwind of false claims we all see every day? Did this person gain these insights from God’s revelation in Scripture? From reason? As part of a prophetic gift that has proven accurate in hindsight?

Until one or more of these things can be demonstrated, assume the person claiming “God told me” is using a cheap and popular gimmick to steal false authority for what they are about to say. Don’t fall for it.

How God Gets It Wrong

Folks are quick to stick up for victims. The perpetrators are condemned to hell. Everyone forgets context, the state of the perp when the act was committed, and many more details.

Commenter

The “folks” who trouble this writer by being “quick to stick up for victims” and condemn perpetrators to hell include Almighty God himself. For instance:

Why does the wicked renounce God
and say in his heart, “You will not call to account”?
But you do see, for you note mischief and vexation,
that you may take it into your hands;
to you the helpless commits himself;
you have been the helper of the fatherless.
Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer;
call his wickedness to account till you find none.

The Lord is king forever and ever;
the nations perish from his land.
O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted;
you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear
to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed,
so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.

Psalm 10:13-18 ESV

Like a cage full of birds,
their houses are full of deceit;
therefore they have become great and rich;
they have grown fat and sleek.
They know no bounds in deeds of evil;
they judge not with justice
the cause of the fatherless, to make it prosper,
and they do not defend the rights of the needy.
Shall I not punish them for these things?
declares the Lord,
and shall I not avenge myself
on a nation such as this?

Jeremiah 5:27–29 ESV

To crush underfoot
all the prisoners of the earth, to deny a man justice
in the presence of the Most High,
to subvert a man in his lawsuit, the Lord does not approve.
Why should a living man complain, a man,
about the punishment of his sins?

Lamentations 3:34–36, 39 ESV

And to the house of the king of Judah say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O house of David! Thus says the Lord:
“‘Execute justice in the morning,
and deliver from the hand of the oppressor
him who has been robbed,
lest my wrath go forth like fire,
and burn with none to quench it,
because of your evil deeds.’”

Jeremiah 21:11–12 ESV

Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes;
cease to do evil,
learn to do good;
seek justice,
correct oppression;

bring justice to the fatherless,
plead the widow’s cause.
“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;

Isaiah 1:16–18 ESV

Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees,
and the writers who keep writing oppression,
to turn aside the needy from justice
and to rob the poor of my people of their right,
that widows may be their spoil,
and that they may make the fatherless their prey!
What will you do on the day of punishment,
in the ruin that will come from afar?
To whom will you flee for help,
and where will you leave your wealth?

Isaiah 10:1–3 ESV

When God inspired all these warnings, promising support to victims and fiery judgment on oppressors, was he “forgetting context, the state of the perp when the act was committed, and many more details?”

Compassion and BLM

What many folks miss is that the same crowd of “Christians “ that are behind BLM and socialism, are doing so because they feel for the victims.

Commenter

It shouldn’t need to be pointed out, but BLM and socialism have exactly nothing to do with the church’s responsibility before God toward abuse victims. This kind of irrelevant statement amounts to transparent emotional manipulation. “How can you eat those eggs! Don’t you know eggs are the favorite breakfast of Communists?”

To “feel for victims” of crime is not a mark of some sort of political movement: it’s a mark of any human who has not yet crushed out the compassionate stamp of the Creator in their own heart. Let’s be clear about this: while one need not be a believer to feel compassion, anyone who does not instinctively feel compassion toward victims of abuse, and anger toward those who selfishly harmed them is a spiritual cripple and no child of God.

Introducing Truth


My problem with this is, when you introduce Truth into the situation, which is Christ’s way, there is always an avenue for the victim to no longer be a victim.

Commenter

Christ’s way, according to his own words, does indeed provide an “avenue for the victim to no longer be a victim.” That avenue is not for victims to “just leave it behind” or “get over it,” as so many have been told to do, but for evildoers to be exposed, their sins named, and their victims believed, protected, and led to freedom within a supportive community of faith. Don’t take my word for it:

Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.

Luke 20:46–47 ESV

Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
“Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.
“Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.
“Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.

“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.
“Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry.
“Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.
“Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.

Luke 6:20–26 ESV

Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.” Then the righteous will answer him, saying, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?” And the King will answer them, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”

Matthew 25:34–40 ESV

He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
    and recovering of sight to the blind,
    to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Luke 4:17–21 ESV

True justice never interferes with healing and freedom for victims, and any approach to “justice” that focuses on punishment rather than healing is a counterfeit.

Justice Versus Victimhood

A victim is not held a victim until the perpetrator is judged and meets his just dues; a victim can walk into freedom any time he or she wishes. But forgiveness is required.

Commenter

To uphold justice has nothing to do with “holding a victim in victimhood” until the perpetrator meets his just due. But to say a victim “can walk into freedom any time he or she wishes” is both grossly insensitive and completely false.

As I write this, child victims everywhere are brutalized by family members and others with complete power over them. Some of these perpetrators have “repented” with tears and loud expressions of remorse, and have convinced church leaders and the local authorities too that they are no longer a threat, while they continue preying on the innocent.

Meanwhile, the victim is told that the abuse is their own fault, and that if they open their mouth they will be guilty of slander and unforgiveness, and just as worthy of hell as the predator harming them. Thanks to the kind of false messages we are confronting here, many of these victims remain silent for years after the abuse has ended, believing they are dirty and evil and brought it all on themselves.

Again I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun. And behold, the tears of the oppressed, and they had no one to comfort them! On the side of their oppressors there was power, and there was no one to comfort them. And I thought the dead who are already dead more fortunate than the living who are still alive.

Ecclesiastes 4:1–2 ESV

How exactly does this commenter propose that these victims “walk into freedom” without a community to meet them in their pain and devastation, acknowledge and name the evil that was done, and give them time and space to work through grief to peace and freedom?

Who Gets Justice?

Taking up for the victim by insisting that the perpetrator is meted out justice won’t help the victim, and probably only helps the one helping the victim feel better about themselves, because, in their minds, they are doing something about it.

Commenter

I hate to repeat myself, but the world’s greatest advocate for “taking up for the victim and insisting that the perpetrator is meted out justice” isn’t BLM or “the socialists,” but God Almighty.

This might be a good time to address another misrepresentation of those who resist justice and try to warp it into a vice instead of a virtue. As in the paragraph above, their focus is always on justice being visited on the perpetrator, rather than the victim. This type of person has been so fully trained to identify with perpetrators that they can see justice only from the perspective of the unregenerate oppressor, for whom justice—the dismantling of the self-serving power structures the oppressor has built— always feels like a disaster.

But in Scripture, God reverses this focus on the perpetrator, with justice celebrated first as a healing gift to the victims of oppression.

Zion shall be redeemed by justice,
and those in her who repent, by righteousness.
But rebels and sinners shall be broken together,
and those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed.

Isaiah 1:27–28 ESV

The point of justice is not to hurt oppressive predators: it’s to protect and heal victims. But because the predator has built his world around the worship of himself and the abuse of those weaker, justice—setting relationships back in God’s order—means the complete collapse of their dark, selfish world, the death blow to that twisted, secret life of pride and selfishness built sin by sin on the destruction of the vulnerable.

Hear, you heads of Jacob
and rulers of the house of Israel!
Is it not for you to know justice?
you who hate the good and love the evil,
who tear the skin from off my people
and their flesh from off their bones,
who eat the flesh of my people,
and flay their skin from off them,
and break their bones in pieces
and chop them up like meat in a pot,
like flesh in a cauldron.

Micah 3:1–3 ESV

Your princes are rebels
and companions of thieves.
Everyone loves a bribe
and runs after gifts.
They do not bring justice to the fatherless,
and the widow’s cause does not come to them.
24 Therefore the Lord declares,
the Lord of hosts,
the Mighty One of Israel:
“Ah, I will get relief from my enemies
and avenge myself on my foes.

Isaiah 1:23–24 ESV

Of course perpetrators hate this promise. Of course they think justice is out to get them.

When justice is done, it is a joy to the righteous
but terror to evildoers.

Proverbs 21:15 ESV

Evil men do not understand justice,
but those who seek the Lord understand it completely.

Proverbs 28:5 ESV

What the perpetrator and his protectors fail to understand is this: no matter how unpleasant it is to be forced into the light and held accountable, the alternative—escaping accountability and keeping abuse hidden—is far worse. Those skeletons will pollute the soul and conscience and poison the entire life until they are cleaned out and burned—or until their rotting weight drags the successful secret-keeper into hell itself.

Seek the Lord and live,
lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph,
and it devour, with none to quench it for Bethel,
O you who turn justice to wormwood
and cast down righteousness to the earth!
Seek good, and not evil,
that you may live;
and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you,
as you have said.
Hate evil, and love good,
and establish justice in the gate;
it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts,
will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

Amos 5:6–7, 14–15 ESV

For the Lord loves justice;
he will not forsake his saints.
They are preserved forever,
but the children of the wicked shall be cut off.

Psalm 37:28 ESV

Anyone who wishes to deny justice to either victim or perpetrator sets themselves in direct opposition to God and becomes his enemy. Justice, according to the Scripture, is a beautiful, hope-filled promise of restoration, and the “foundation of God’s throne.” If justice sounds like a bad idea to us, we would do well to reconsider whether we know what we mean by it, or worse, whether we might be among the stiff-necked wicked for whom justice does indeed sound like the worst news in the world.

“How long will you judge unjustly
and show partiality to the wicked? Selah
Give justice to the weak and the fatherless;
maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.
Rescue the weak and the needy;
deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”

Psalm 82:2–4 ESV

Justice is not about revenge, or even about punishment. It’s about setting relationships right. And in Scripture, setting things right means returning on the perpetrator the shame the perpetrator placed on the victim, exposing the evil, and calling the perpetrator to genuine repentance.

Justice also means protection and support of the victim, and ongoing community accountability to ensure that the perpetrator is doing “works suited for repentance,” including restitution to the victim and willing submission to long-term safety boundaries and legal penalties where they apply.

Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes;
cease to do evil,
learn to do good;
seek justice,
correct oppression;

bring justice to the fatherless,
plead the widow’s cause.
“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;

Isaiah 1:16–18 ESV

Smearing the Helpers

But, it ends up being about themselves, not even about the victim. The victim stays a victim. And nobody seems to realize that the perpetrator was very likely also a victim that finally couldn’t hold his or her ‘fertilizer’ together.

Commenter

This claim that anyone who follows the example of Jesus himself in putting the victim’s needs first is making it “about themselves” is a dishonorable and false accusation against the many godly advocates who have led victims to healing and freedom. These advocates know better than anyone that many perpetrators were victims first.

The fact is that not all but many perpetrators of sex abuse were twisted and embittered and turned to the abuse of others after they tried to disclose their own abuse but were silenced by parents or church leaders who told them to “stop looking for justice,” to “forgive and forget,” and that they “can walk into freedom any time they wish.” If this does not qualify as making “children of hell,” what does?

Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob
and rulers of the house of Israel,
who detest justice
and make crooked all that is straight,
who build Zion with blood
and Jerusalem with iniquity….
yet they lean on the Lord and say,
“Is not the Lord in the midst of us?
No disaster shall come upon us.”

Therefore because of you
Zion shall be plowed as a field;
Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins,
and the mountain of the house a wooded height.

Micah 3:9–11, 13 ESV

No matter how a person came to abuse others, the merciful antidote is the same: their sin must be faced, named, repented of, and all consequences faced without regard to reputation or self-protection. A clean break from the past and an embrace of light and accountability are the only hope of restoration for any adult who has done such crimes. Anything less is to invite hypocrisy and continued evil.

And I will make justice the line,
and righteousness the plumb line;
and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies,
and waters will overwhelm the shelter.

Isaiah 28:17 ESV

The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom,
and his tongue speaks justice.
The law of his God is in his heart;
his steps do not slip.

Psalm 37:30–31 ESV

Another Appeal to Special Revelation

If you’re going to actually help the situation, the first thing you need is guidance from above, and in order to have that, you must be empty of your own passion and pride, and you must be willing to see beyond your prejudices. Your heart must be to see the whole picture, and to see things through the eyes of Jesus. If someone is harmed in the process, because you didn’t see it God’s way, you just became a perpetrator. And what does Jesus say about that? With whatsoever measure you mete out( in judgement of others) the same shall be meted out to you.

Commenter

If you are among those who believe the things in the earlier paragraphs, I urge you to follow this advice and “look beyond your own prejudices,” lest you do become a perpetrator by failing to protect the innocent from the masters of fraud who expect to evade justice and continue their predation.

And for the love of God and his little ones, begin by following the “guidance from above” he has already given us abundantly in Scripture, not your own guesses about what “God showed you.” Then listen, without judgment, to the voice of God through the stories of the little ones who have been destroyed by abuse, and pray for a heart of flesh that sees and understands.

To insist that an abuser of children show long-term genuine fruits of repentance, including accountability to the civil laws and permanent boundaries to prevent ever re-offending, is the most merciful act we could possibly take toward a perpetrator. Anything less leaves children unprotected and sets the offender up to fall again. This is exactly the judgment with which any godly man or woman should hope to be judged should they ever walk into such depravity, and the church should never shrink from applying it.

To crush underfoot
all the prisoners of the earth,
to deny a man justice
in the presence of the Most High,
to subvert a man in his lawsuit,
the Lord does not approve.
Why should a living man complain,
a man, about the punishment of his sins?

Lamentations 3:34–36, 39 ESV

God spoke with us
the Lord, the God of hosts,
the Lord is his memorial name:
“So you, by the help of your God, return,
hold fast to love and justice,
and wait continually for your God.”

Hosea 12:4–6 ESV

“Old Things”

The perpetrator, however, must be confronted. If it’s an old thing, where someone messed up in their youth, and became convicted and born again, made things right and a victim never got healed and is now talking about it, restore things between them and get on with life.

Commenter

This statement is naive in the extreme, and makes so many sweeping statements and assumptions that it’s hard to know where to start. How can a perpetrator of child sex abuse have “made things right” if he has never accepted legal accountability for his acts and never revealed his abuse to anyone in a position to support the victim and help him or her heal?

“Restoring things between them,” as discussed earlier, includes at minimum strict boundaries to protect the victim, but it includes more than that. How does anyone know whether the perpetrator whose sin has remained secret all these years did merely “mess up in their youth,” without a careful investigation and a clear public acknowledgment of the sin so that other potential victims know it is safe to come forward?

The world is full of the devastation caused by men or women who “messed up in their youth,” “became convicted and born again,” and went on to destroy the lives of dozens or hundreds more victims because everyone naively assumed their evil was in the past.

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’
“For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.

Jeremiah 7:3–7 ESV

Legality and Consent

If it’s an ongoing situation, it really helps to have an agreement with the local sheriff. I think it’s best to have him informed from the getgo. The law actually wants churches to take care of things like this; they just don’t want things swept under the carpet.

First, those who are being taken advantage of must be removed from danger. Either the perpetrator is removed or the victim is removed, there are different scenarios. All involved must be willing. There are ways to stop the wrongs cold turkey, and still love both parties.

Yes, there are ways to stop the abuse and love both parties, but it takes much more than merely separating the perpetrator from the known victim. Without understanding how predators think and what they want, a church or family’s naive attempt to separate the offender from “the victim” will likely just create opportunities for the offender to harm new victims.

Second, stopping abuse does not require that “all involved” are willing. If that were the case, no abuser would ever be stopped! In child abuse cases above all, steps must be taken to stop the abuse regardless of the preferences of the abuser or the child, who has likely been brainwashed into believing their cooperation will “ruin the life” of the abuser.

And to the house of the king of Judah say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O house of David! Thus says the Lord:
“‘Execute justice in the morning,
and deliver from the hand of the oppressor
him who has been robbed,
lest my wrath go forth like fire,
and burn with none to quench it,
because of your evil deeds.’”

Jeremiah 21:11–12 ESV

The famine of knowledge in many churches about abuse dynamics makes it essential that the response to such a situation is led by skilled, experienced people with a track record of successful interventions, who are quick to seek help when they need it, and who have connections to qualified resources. Suspected crimes need to be reported so trained investigators can follow up, and legal questions need to be dealt with by people who understand the law.

We leaders need the humility to recognize our limits and reach out for reinforcements when we face uncharted territory. With the lives of children at stake, spitballing and trial-and-error guesses at the right response are not good enough. The opportunities to create further irreversible harm are far too great to leave to chance.

An Avenger of God

These both need help, and that’s where our churches have dropped the ball. [Ed.: possibly identifying information has been removed here.] If all are willing, these things can be healed and restored, if the church has the knowledge and the tools.

It can and should all happen outside the court systems, which even the courts prefer many times.

Commenter

It’s unclear exactly what the author means here, but I know of no Scripture that teaches that Christians who commit crimes should be shielded by other Christians from “the court system” or other legal penalties. To the contrary, the apostle Paul tells us:

“But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience.

Romans 13:4–5 ESV

This counsel is given to the church, not the world. It appears clear that Paul is saying when professing Christians have done evil, a godly conscience will lead us to “be in subjection” to the full penalties of the law, not to seek ways to wiggle out of the penalties that apply to those outside the church.

Open communication is a must, between local authorities and the church.

Commenter

Indeed, but not for the purpose of helping shield offenders from honorable accountability to the community and the law.

“Whimpering and Cajoling”

There is so much more. But this thing of bringing perps to justice and whimpering and cajoling and sissifying victims is not helping. The perp remains a perp and the victim remains a victim, and the ‘saviors’ become the spiritual perps, making children of hell on a scale worse than themselves.

Commenter

Once again in this final paragraph, this writer uses justice as a dirty word, alongside “whimpering, cajoling, and sissifying,” and then lumps them all together as “not helping.”

But what’s really breathtaking here is that the writer actually dismisses calls for justice by twisting Jesus’ words to the Pharisees, who made their hard-won converts more children of hell than themselves.

What was it about the Pharisees that Jesus said gave their doctrine such a hellish effect on its converts? Among other things, it was this:

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!

Matthew 23:23–24 ESV

That’s right: Jesus warned the Pharisees that they were creating children of hell by their neglect of justice; yet this author has managed to twist Jesus’ words into a condemnation of it. Whether such distortions of Scripture originate in heaven or hell I think I can safely leave to the discernment of the reader.

The enemy of souls has taken justice, the very foundation of God’s throne, the hope of the oppressed, and twisted it into something professing Christians feel free to scoff at and belittle, in public. What a tragedy, what a victory for Satan, and what a slap in the face of the merciful and compassionate God who calls his people endlessly to do justice and warns them of fearful consequences should they work against justice.

Understanding justice and mercy and their relationship is the key to breaking down the lies Satan has fed so many in the church.

If you have been taught that justice equals revenge and that it stands against Jesus’ call to mercy, I hope the discussion above has given you a new perspective to ponder.

If you have warned others against pursuing justice, ordering silence to protect the good name of those who harmed them, or the churches or institutions who enabled that harm, may God have mercy on your soul and grant you the courage and brokenness to run into the fire of his justice before it overtakes you against your will.

If you have had mercy and forgiveness used as a cudgel to silence you and protect your abusers when you pled for honesty and light and accountability, I hope this look at God’s Word on justice has given you fresh hope.

The Lord is exalted, for he dwells on high;
    he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness,
and he will be the stability of your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge;
    the fear of the Lord is Zion’s treasure.

Isaiah 33:5–6 ESV

Instead of your shame there shall be a double portion;
instead of dishonor they shall rejoice in their lot;
therefore in their land they shall possess a double portion;
they shall have everlasting joy.
For I the Lord love justice;
I hate robbery and wrong;

I will faithfully give them their recompense,
and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.

Isaiah 61:7–8 ESV

For the Lord loves justice;
he will not forsake his saints.
They are preserved forever,
but the children of the wicked shall be cut off.

Psalm 37:28 ESV

Justice is coming. If not now, then at the Judgment, when the merciful judge will render to each one according to his works. The justice of the Almighty is the great hope of history, and the whole creation groans to see it accomplished on earth. Let the children of God rise up and lead the way!


To learn much more about protecting children and responding to abuse, please see the Resources page from A Better Way.

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