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I have felt the pain of men in many ways at the hands of compromising and disobedient pastors as I have shared in various publishing platforms, other blog posts and earlier in this one. I have seen threatened pastors purposely hold down (oppress) eager men lest they show them up in any way and disrespect capable others by purposely putting women over and marginalizing them. I have also heard pastors put men down and treat them with contempt from the pulpit for not being enthused to step up to do humanly invented churchy stuff. Men disillusioned and disengaged from the local church have consistently told me of feeling exploited by pastors that are corrupt, self-focused and see their value only as servants to their ambitions in building personal fiefdoms.
Again, like a man under the controlling influence of alcohol and drugs, so, it is only because of being in the sinful flesh and deceived by demons that for any wicked reasons there are pastors who have refused to honor men and God’s order of mankind in His house (1 Timothy 4:1-2). I know and admit in my book how easy it is to begin down the slippery slope of compromise and disobedience on this; in my case, to avoid conflict with tradition. However, confronted with a pastor friend’s challenge of my own incomplete obedience in 2003, I had to give it up. I was wrong, confessed it and repented! The conflict I tried to avoid came, but I stood and was glad to no longer be in disobedience to God!
Oh, it is so much better to be in conflict with men and demons than the holy God as the Lord Jesus warns (Matthew 10:27-39; Luke 6:22-23)! Then came the Lord’s deeper instruction behind the directives of His Word which we Christians walking by faith are to always trust is there (Matthew 5:17-48; 2 Corinthians 5:7). Thoroughly sinful and ignorant in our finiteness, how could we ever realistically believe we could find wrong in God (Deuteronomy 32:1-6; Job 34:10-30, 36:22-23; Isaiah 40:12-17; Romans 11:33-36; 1 Corinthians 1:25)? Let the guilty even now fall on his face in utter humiliation, guilt, shame and repentance (Job 42:1-6; Isaiah 29:15-16; James 4:4-10)!
So pervasive is the order of God in every realm of existence, it would be most odd if among mankind His highest creation, He had not provided it (Psalm 104, 148; Isaiah 40:21-26). Indeed, God’s set order of mortal mankind is fully rooted in His eternally sovereign Kingdom rule and plans for us as His creatures. The Kingdom of God does not originate on earth with man, but is completely of and springs from Him at His throne in Heaven (Psalm 11:4). Thus, the Son of God and Man who came from Heaven to rescue and bring willing fallen mankind to glory declares to His adversaries that His Kingdom ‘“is not of this world…not from here,’” (John 18:36; Hebrews 2:5-10, NKJV).
Sent into this world by the Father (the Original Patriarch and Source of patriarchy) to restore all things, Jesus Christ His only begotten Son purposely and aggressively began His work among males as the divinely appointed leaders of mankind (Genesis 2:7-8, 15, 18-24, 3:16b, 5:1-2; Luke 3:23-38; 1 Corinthians 11:7-9; 1 Peter 3:7). In so doing, He honored men and God’s order of mankind! Calling first a group of fishermen to Himself, He told them from then forward they would fish for men as their life’s work too (Matthew 4:18-22; Mark 1:16-20; Luke 5:1-11).4 In contrast to many pastors today and true to His calling as the Lord’s Servant, He did not crush or snuff out the yearning hearts of men for God and total restoration to Him (Isaiah 42:1-4; Matthew 12:9-21; Luke 19:1-10).
The Lord Jesus was also the perfect example of Manhood before the Father and faithful service to Him (John 8:28-29). He eventually chose twelve men that He taught and mentored to follow His example (John 6:60-71; 13:12-17). Though one of them did betray Christ, the other men became examples to us brought to Him over the centuries through their eye witness testimony. Their natural male strength, courage, zeal and ambition had been taken over, new abilities added and all energized by the Holy Spirit for the cause of Christ to proclaim the Gospel about Him to earth’s ends (Acts 1:8). So they did and here we are who are born again, faithful followers of Jesus Christ!
As sons of glory in Christ individually and assembled corporately in the churches, the Kingdom of God is supposed to govern every part of our lives on earth now like it has already been manifested since truly it has in us--a very important point I make to pastors in my book (Luke 17:20-21; Colossians 3:1-6). The mandate of Christ our King has been and is to seek out and completely restore men as fallen creatures to God so they might fulfill His purposes for them to rule in His image in the home, His house and if it would accept it, the world during this present age; all creation in the eternal age to come! The Lord has me also stress that because of His preeminent Kingdom rule in us, world culture is not to hold priority sway in our thinking, attitudes and deeds (Romans 12:1-2).
Instead, we by the surpassingly great work of God in, through and for us as we stand on, live out and proclaim His ageless Word are to impact and be transformers of culture (to the extent this is possible even temporarily) as the Bible and history up to the 20th century shows (Daniel 6).5 But how could this be authentically done in that century and now after when God’s own people led by compromising pastors in willful sin are seen to rebel against His Word; allowing my female family members and those of other men contrary to Scripture and God’s order of mankind from creation to teach, take authority and rule over me as an adult male in His house (1 Timothy 2:11-14)? The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, “Who is on the Lord's side?”
4 For a fuller biblical and my first major public exposition of why men are targeted by Jesus Christ prior to writing The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics, purchase the four part Strong Man Of God Audio Release, Fishers Of Men available in the Strong Man Store.
5 No historian of honest scholarship, for example, can deny the general impact for good Judeo-Christian morality from the Bible (even with much sinful human duplicity) has had on Western Civilization and every culture of man it has spread to on the earth since the first century by way of Christianity in its many forms. Certainly, even 20th century men such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. were able to stand on biblically drawn morality to challenge segregated America’s racism bringing about a reluctant and still in progress change to the culture a generation later.
Never could I have imagined that of the chief reasons virile men are relatively few among professing Christians and absent from churches are the purposeful acts of many male pastors to oppress and marginalize those they are not exploiting for personal ambitions unless I had witnessed it for myself. If the temporary door of opportunity for the Gospel God is opening in the Donald Trump era will be bountiful to His satisfaction, men restored in accord with His Word and the image of Jesus Christ must be well represented in the fishing net of the churches. Otherwise, because of the times, the folly of continued rebellion against God will become painfully evident.
As I wrote in the October 2, 2016 blog, Gifted With A Prophet’s Heart under the category, Call To Repent, if it had not been for the timely and purposeful acts of the Holy Spirit to preserve me in my spiritual infancy, I could have easily been discouraged enough by my experiences in the churches as many men have been to give up. Not only was I not intentionally mentored in the faith by a pastor or other leader, but biblical manhood either. During the early nineties and the rise of Promise Keepers, in only one predominantly black American, Fort Worth, TX church I knew of was there even an attempt to instruct on what my then pastor, Howard Caver, titled, God’s Master Plan For The Family.
I remain grateful to Pastor Caver for teaching on male and female roles and responsibilities in the home from a biblical perspective, though with many others, he too refused to fully implement God’s order in the church as taught by Paul, the apostle to us Gentiles (Acts 26:12-18). Even Promise Keepers following the packed stadium glory days and fierce, resentful feminist push back toned down its initial fiery call for men to be restored to their biblical roles and responsibilities so women filling the churches in the majority would not be offended. In full deference to the women that buy their products in the main, Christian retailers and media have largely followed suit.1
Now, what was a burgeoning problem of missing men a decade before the close of the 20th has become severe as David Murrow documents in his 2005 book, Why Men Hate Going To Church and unnecessarily complicated in this 21st century! As I write about in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics drawing upon Murrow’s research among others, the matter is complicated by the confusion the secular culture and pandering pastors and churches following after it have created in attempting to craft male, female and family models that are politically rather than biblically correct.2 Social chaos over gender identity and roles, for example, now reaches right into the public bathroom.
While the content, methods and ministries to “disciple” men has exploded, if it will be done biblically, inevitably their roles and responsibilities in God’s house come up. In my book, I have maintained that only teaching a man he is the head of his family in his house is a sinful coming up short of biblical follow through instruction that he is actually so in God’s house and beyond too!3 But the trend set in motion by compromising male pastors early in the 20th century and later energized by the feminist movement to elevate women to positions of unbiblical authority, has exploded today into a full blown rebellion against the divinely set order of mankind.
We may never know all of the reasons pastors began to compromise and corrupt the plain directives of God in His Word. In the final chapter of my book calling the guilty to repentance, though, I am led by the Lord to charge of prime importance that they were not listening to Him, but sin, self and Satan especially through the culture as is so very apparent at this hour. Tied to and driven by this reason are many others. Foremost obviously, some have believed themselves more compassionate toward women than God who could not have intended to treat them so unfairly in His order of mankind. Such men are like earth’s first human king who listened to his wife rather than God accused by Satan of being unfair (Genesis 1:26-28, 2:7, 16-25, 3:1-6, 17a).
However, can the creature ever be superior to God his Creator in any measure? Even the Lord Jesus--God the eternal Word and Son in sinless flesh--declared: “My Father is greater than I,” (John 14:28c, NKJV). Some have yielded to the desires of the sinful flesh as did the compromising kings of Judah and Israel, Solomon and Ahab (1 Kings 11:1-8; 16:29-33). And like Jeroboam, others forgot who installed them to rule and from motives of the flesh the culture approves of, have sought to govern as they please (1 Kings 12:25-33). Some like king Asa, act out of fear instead of faith in God’s proven provision. Then they end up as he even did persecuting God’s prophets and oppressing the people they are to serve in bitterness toward God after rebuke (2 Chronicles 16:1-10).
Some are like Aaron who gave heed to the people at Sinai because God had kept them waiting for Moses to return (Exodus 20:1-6, 32:1-6) Similarly, like the Pharisees in manmade religion some believe themselves lofty enough to replace God’s commandments with their own (Matthew 15:1-9). Finally, in the flesh and pride as lords rather than servants, some have not consulted the Lord for His counsel as Scripture teaches pursuing selfish ambitions and compromising God’s order of mankind for the sake of expediency (Proverbs 3:5-8, 8:12-36, 14:12; Mark 10:35-45; 1 Peter 5:1-4). The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, “Who is on the Lord's side?”
1 Read my blogs from June 29-July 27, 2014 for more elaboration on what has happened in professing Christianity and the churches on male and female roles and God’s order of His house.
2 Read the July 20, 2014 blog in particular, Confused Men, Compromised Sons, under the category, Call To Repent.
3 Read the September 14-21, 2014 blog, Partial Obedience, Pt. 1&2, under the category Call To Repent.
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