The Scourge Of Racism
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A blessed Mother’s Day to all of my sisters in Christ. It is a shame that I had to pause and struggle a bit before prayerfully deciding how to express my heartfelt Mother’s Day salute. In these days of confusion we now live in, mothers are being invented in all manner of peculiar ways including by way of men who transform themselves into women and become mothers to children in their care. This state of affairs is supported by any number of emotionally charged arguments that defy the will and instruction of humanity’s Creator contained in the Bible; the God and Book not a few in many churches believe are no longer relevant as they serve the god born of their narcissism: self!
Rebels may not want to honor God or His Word, but that does not dismiss them from existence. According to the Word of God, females were designed and created by God to naturally conceive, carry in their wombs, birth, nourish and nurture children who are the next generation of mankind. In so doing, a female indispensably helps to continue human existence on the earth as part of a team with the male, her head and bearer of the seed that initiates their children’s lives (Genesis 1:27-28, 2:18-25). After the original couple’s fall, God’s program remained in place (Genesis 3:20) albeit with many unforeseen consequences that reach right down into the confusion of our day.
Emotional arguments can be very appealing and strong, but also very wrong as plainly demonstrated by Eve when she led herself and her husband to disobey God (Genesis 3:6-11)! Many male pastors have felt very strongly that women equally gifted as men should serve as God has only assigned men. But they have sinned against the Lord and served as His judge by casting aside the Word of instruction in making women pastors, leaders and teachers over men in His house using emotional arguments; saying for example, “God can use who He wants to.” This is true. However, learn in today’s blog why this emotional argument and all others fail before the God of order!
Originally Published April 2011
Beyond the childish arguments lifted up against God's faithful prophets in order to muzzle them (Isaiah 30:8-11; Amos 2:11-12; Micah 2:6), there are the many rebel arguments lifted up against His Word that are rooted purely in emotion. As the Scripture foretells about these evil days, truth and reason have been exiled to a bygone era (Acts 26:24-25; 2 Timothy 4:3-4). Many have gone after the world and left Christ, the living Word (2 Timothy 4:10; 1 John 1:1-3; Revelation 2:4-5)! The Strong Man of God is written with the subtitle, Back To Basics because within its pages men and the churches are called back to the foundational biblical truths which declare God’s program for man.
The Bible as the Word of God is of the most basic and foundational truths that all born again Christians should hold in common. Yet, how many times I have heard professing Christians rebut sound doctrine with the emotional line, “The Bible was written by men.” They miss the flaw in their argument that if it is a reasoned assertion fallen men writing the Bible dismiss the doctrine being rebutted, it also destroys all of Christianity since the faith is built on the Bible. And so it goes; a desire to disobey a certain portion of God’s Word leads to flesh driven emotional arguments that seek to justify it. This is an approach that is straight out of the world controlled by Satan.
In its forceful move away from objective Judeo-Christian truth and morality, our society more and more offers its own truth and morality based on the emotional arguments of what works for the individuals involved. Here are a few examples. Two people should be able to marry based on love regardless of gender. A person should be able to die (commit suicide) with dignity. A woman's rights over her body trump those of her unborn child (spelled tissue). And of course, directly related to my book and the instruction from God's Word that men as husbands are to head their families, this is now not fair and equal treatment of women since they are capable of leading also.
As a Christian Black American, it is offensive to hear the emotional argument that since women are an oppressed minority like blacks, society must eradicate all perceived forms of inequality for them including the bondage of being the kind of wife the Bible describes. The argument has also been expanded to include those that have willfully chosen sexually deviant lifestyles. As it concerns women, we sinful men surely have messed up to whatever extent women have been unfairly and unequally treated by us in disobedience to God’s Word. I apologize for this in my book. However, by no means do the sins of men justify the all out rebellion now underway against God and His Word.
In the book, I hold firmly to and stand on the testimony of Scripture that it is in fact, God breathed and penned by fallen men made holy He chose and empowered for the task (2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:21). As such, I also in truth and reason point up the right God has as mankind's Creator to set the ground rules for our existence. Every argument lifted up against His program then (no matter how emotional) is of rebellion and sin. For it is written, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” (Genesis 1:1, NKJV). And again, “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man…,’” (Genesis 1:26, NKJV). You and I are creatures with a Maker over us (Revelation 4:11)!
The same Creator that gave the universe, galaxies, solar systems and earth order, also gave it to the apex of His creation, man. Man as male and female in marriage is God's orderly program for them to fulfill His purposes in this age. Man the male as the head of his family--even after falling in sin--is so by divine will, design and order (Genesis 3:16b). If the fixed order of day and night that God has established were to be disrupted, chaos on earth would ensue. So it is now with human rebellion against His fixed order of the family. As a consequence in part, God will soon give those who clamor for disorder fully what they desire (Revelation 8:12). The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, “Who is on the Lord’s side?”
God can and does use whoever He wants to but never in corruption of His already written Word! A donkey spoke in service to the divine purpose of the occasion not because God intended that going forward, dumb animals should now be preachers to men (Numbers 22:21-35). Likewise, Mary Magdalene who was at the tomb of Jesus because of her deep devotion to her Deliverer stood outside weeping because it was empty. She encountered the risen Lord and was commanded to go repeat a message to His disciples not because He was giving her a new ministry or authority over them, but simply because she was there to go to them as she had done earlier (John 20:1-18)!
Arguments from experience attempting to justify the corruption of and disobedience to God’s already written instruction in His Word abound among professing Christians today. From sensational Charismatic claims to of course, the exaltation of females to positions of authority over men in many churches, experiences have played more of a role in bringing these about than the objective truth of God’s Word. This has occurred in spite of our Lord’s foretold royal character and instruction we are supposed to live out in following Him (Isaiah 11:3-5; John 7:21-24). Also, the motives are legion and include pastors that bow to the idol of success by every worldly means.
The Lord’s apparent slowness to righteously judge has deceived many into believing He is fine and even complicit with them doing whatever works to fulfill their selfish ambitions instead of what is actually in accord with His will, way and Word. However, such persons have confused the Lord’s forbearance with His permission as they will soon learn (Psalm 50:16-21). Truly, we have come to the time of God’s severe judgment among the churches because His forbearance is drawing to its close (1 Peter 4:17-18). His judgment will break the demonically controlled stranglehold arguments from experience alone has on a large segment of professing Christianity as I warn in today’s blog.
Originally Published May 2011
Tied directly to emotional arguments are those from experience that are made to justify willful disobedience to God's Word. To hear some professing Christians and preachers discuss or refrain from discussing the matter, personal experience has not only been elevated to a sacred status higher than God's Word itself, but it is forbidden to be questioned. As a result, just about anything goes today in many churches because people are able to say, "I think, I feel, I believe God…" to have their way in either direct defiance of or by clearly corrupting Scripture. Such is how, in part, female leadership over men in American churches has come to be routine over the past 100 years.
God declares, ‘“The just shall live by his faith,”’ (Habakkuk 2:4b, NKJV) not feelings and experiences. Always, the object of our faith is the Lord who is holy, never changes and acts consistently with His already written Word! Human emotions cannot be trusted because they are easily influenced by sin in us and manipulated by Satan from without. For the same reasons, we cannot put unquestioned stock in experiences. In fact, because of sin’s deceitfulness, we put no confidence in the flesh even related to religious stuff understanding that by pride and evil desires, we can and do invent experiences that support our cause to have it our way (Philippians 3:3; Colossians 2:18).
We are commanded by the Lord through the apostle Paul, "Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies. Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil," (1 Thessalonians 5:19-22, NKJV, emphasis mine). For those that trust their feelings and experiences supposedly inspired by the Spirit, there should be no issues about us weaker ones testing these by what He has already inspired in the written Word! In obedience to Paul's instruction, we would hold on to that which is good (consistent). However, we would abstain from (reject) every form of evil. All that leads to the disobedience of God's already written Word is evil!
“On any given Sunday there are 13 million more adult women than men in America’s churches,” an I’m The Man Conference promotional Web page proclaimed.1 With great pronouncements from God but in defiance of Scripture, male pastors have been ordaining women to take authority over men in and to lead churches as pastors. Aside from caving to the feminine power represented in their numbers and the worldly emotional argument about equality in the churches, many feel led to support this movement of disobedience arguing from experience. They assert that they cannot deny those whom God has obviously given the ability to preach and lead the opportunity to do so.
As it concerns biblically defined preaching, it should be no surprise that God would equip women to preach because according to the purpose of spiritual gifts, none of us can do anything in the Body of Christ without being gifted (1 Corinthians 12:1-11). As it is written, however, “God is not the author of confusion (disorder) but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints,” (1 Corinthians 14:33, NKJV). One of the reasons we are in confusion and conflict on this in the churches is because we have made preaching a matter of cultural style, emotion, ego, pride, fleshy show and entertainment rather than what it is--a demonstration of the Spirit and His power (1 Corinthians 2:4)!
This demonstration of the Spirit and His power is not only of ability, but in giving honor and glad submission to all of God’s Word including its instruction that a gifted woman does not stand to speak, teach, preach or take authority over men in His churches (1 Corinthians 14:34-40; 1 Timothy 2:11-14). Women in prisons, for example, are in dire need of gifted women to proclaim to them the “unsearchable riches of Christ” in the Gospel! But there is no glory there; the prize in the flesh is to be admired by men. God gives His strong men and great women spiritual gifts and expects that we will honor His fixed family order in our homes, His assembly and beyond in exercising them.
To their peril, far too many male pastors and women have ignored the fact the church on earth and in Heaven is not an invention of sinful flesh. It is the construction of Jesus Christ, Son of the living God who maintains His Headship over it (Matthew 16:16-18; Ephesians 1:22; Colossians 1:15-18). Church government, protocols and programs do not spring from emotions and experiences that contradict His Word, but Jesus is Lord! Therefore, according to His already written Word, without repentance severe judgment is the indisputable experience of the guilty (Revelation 2:18-23). The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, “Who is on the Lord’s side?”
1 http://www.imthemanconference.com/
Carried along by the Holy Spirit in the spiritual momentum created by what He had led me to write concerning taking the Lord’s side, in this and the next three blogs I stand flat footed in Him to defend against four types of anticipated arguments. The defense against anticipated arguments in the previously published commentaries that have given rise to these blogs also served back then to highlight the biblical worldview of human existence and social organization in this present age I teach in the Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics that was about to be published on June 15, 2011. What I said then is true now because I only repeat what the eternal Word of God says (1 Peter 1:22-25)!
I remain steadfast against every worldly argument lifted up against the biblical worldview of the Lord’s side beginning with the childish argument that I am mad at or hate women. As the apostle Paul queried the Galatians, so, I every professing Christian hatefully angry with me for proclaiming God’s unambiguous Word to you: “Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth,” (Galatians 4:16, NKJV)? In spite of the fact the world is going its rebellious way to foretold destruction, I preach the Gospel so that even now any might be saved that believe. I also call to repentance and exhort to “faith and patience” those “who have fled for refuge” to Christ lest through sharing in the world’s rebellion, they receive its consequences (Hebrews 6:4-20; Jude 20-25, NKJV).
To that latter end, I make the following current statement here in order not to alter the content of the original commentary. It is a corruption of the divinely inspired narrative presented by the New Testament Gospel writers showing the Lord Jesus purposely selecting His twelve male apostles producers Mark Burnett and Roma Downey advance (among many) in their film “Son Of God” and now the television mini-series, “AD: The Bible Continues” that elevates Mary Magdalene into the role of what can only be described as a “thirteenth apostle” due to the character’s overblown involvement and influence with them. This is a clear and unnecessary feminist insertion that contradicts not only the biblical narrative, but the Jewish historical context. Sinners may permit such agenda driven creative license, but not God (Deuteronomy 4:1-2; Proverbs 30:5-6; Revelation 22:18-19).
Originally Published March 2011
It was my great joy to write two chapters teaching on the great woman of God in our soon to be released book, The Strong Man of God: Back To Basics. I did not write thinking about how to balance a book written primarily to men so as not to appear chauvinist or to mask a heart filled with hatred for women. But I wrote as the Lord led to help male and female readers appreciate all the more the awesome greatness of our Creator that purposely designed the great woman to be the perfect counterpart to the strong man of God in this present age (Genesis 2:18-23).
False accusations of male chauvinism and misogyny come just because I have dared to take an uncompromising stand on the Bible’s clear instruction on women and their roles in the home and churches. To harshly and loudly accuse me of these ungodly attitudes is supposed to back me down in shame enough to leave things alone as so many men in and out of the churches have done. However, I cannot help but speak the truth in love and do so at times with great zeal since the living God who called me empowers His messenger to deliver His message (Ezekiel 2-3:11; Ephesians 4:11-16)!
Accusing me of declaring God's Word as it is written out of chauvinism or misogyny reminds me of the childish arguments my children presented me even through their teen years in persistent attempts to have their way. Never mind the righteousness of my stand on their requests, I was still accused of being unfair, insensitive and a few other choice things my ears were not meant to hear. Declaring God's Word as it is written means that He would not tolerate my being a male chauvinist, an attitude of arrogant pride and sin (Proverbs 16:18-19). He also made the woman comparable to the man. Taken out of him, she is equal in person to the man in every way.
I could not hate women or anybody else because Christians are commanded to love foe and brother (Matthew 5:43-48; John 13:34-35). I do not hate women but love God and seek to obey His Word as it is written. This is as it should be for every aspiring strong man of God in the image of Christ. Truly, the Lord Jesus did more than any man in the history of the world to restore God’s original design for how men are to treat women with protective care (Exodus 22:22-24; Luke 7:11-15, 13:10-16; John 19:26-27). Yet, He felt no compulsion to select a female apostle to demonstrate a commitment to equality. No one in his or her right mind today condemns the Lord as a misogynist.
God is revealed to us in Scripture as Father, Son and Holy Spirit; three distinct Persons fully and equally the One, true God. Each Person has His role and responsibilities within the divine unity and is equally God! No complaints are registered anywhere in the Bible by any Person of the triune God about this eternal arrangement. Modeled after the divine unity, God has made no change in the design of human male and female roles in marital unity for this age because they are perfect (Genesis 1:26a). While worldly minded contemporary Christians contend that God's design of male and female roles presented in His Word is flawed due to male headship, it is really the humans called to operate in those roles that are flawed through sin.
Outside of sinful humanity's inability to live out male and female roles as God designed, there is the deceiving and destroying work of our mutual enemy, Satan. He deceitfully stirs humanity to question God's Word (Genesis 3:1) rather than look at ourselves as the real problem. Instead of attempting to shout down God's faithful messengers with childish arguments, professing Christian feminists and their male supporters in the churches should recall this truth. Historically, God sends His faithful prophets to warn and call His people to repentance just before He is about to judge them (2 Chronicles 36:15-21; Matthew 23:29-39; 1 Corinthians 13:11)! The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, "Who is on the Lord's side?"
Scripture is consistent in declaring the divine hostility toward the corrupt thinking of men in their many concocted philosophies that take them away from the simple deductions that lead to God who is the Fountainhead of truth. Nevertheless, the same Scripture anticipates such behavior from rank sinners who in the face of empirical bread crumbs as vast and luminous as the universe still willfully refuse to acknowledge their Creator. What pains the heart of God above the foolish heart of the unbeliever, is for those that profess to know, love and serve Him to reject His will, way and Word through leaning on their own understanding or if you will, philosophies (Proverbs 3:5).
For years professing Christian men that have not wanted to be made to feel inferior by their secular counterparts have sought to raise the level of academic acceptance of Christianity as their discipline and credentials through personal philosophical musings they call theology. While a number have intended good to the Body of Christ, the result today is a mass of confusion and division no serious Bible student can honestly believe was commissioned by God. When the ancient standard of interpreting and applying God’s Word as it has already been written (Mark 12:18-34) is abandoned in the cause of tolerance, nobody can be wrong and everyone is potentially right or so these self-made wise folk wrongly allow. They are deceived (Jeremiah 8:8-9)!
From professing Christianity’s spiritual morass has come the scripturally unconscionable Christian racist, narcissist, chauvinist, feminist, abortionist, sexual immoralist etc. As has very often been the case throughout the epoch of God’s grace and my own experience, the faithful must grasp why a certain consequence of this is that among our worst persecutors are and will be professing Christians as disobedient religionists and impostors following philosophical arguments that contrary to Scripture, condone their evil conduct (John 16:1-4; 2 Timothy 3:12-13). As I warn in this final blog of the 2011 Commentary Series, sinful human philosophies are not part of Christ’s narrow way nor are they a hedge against the approaching severe, but just judgment of God among American churches!
Originally Published June 2011
The churches of Jesus Christ have no business whatsoever being divided into philosophical camps. As the apostle Paul pointed out in his rebuke of the first century church at Corinth, division among professing Christians is a sure indicator of carnality (1 Corinthians 1:10-13, 3:1-4). Yet, nearly 2,000 years later in a world of 33,000 religions, churches are divided into over 3,000 denominations and sects.1 Even within those denominations and sects there is division and philosophical squabbling over issues of doctrine that are plainly settled in Scripture. This state of affairs is not the will of Christ who desires unity and peace within His Body (John 17:20-23; Ephesians 4:1-6).
Human philosophy is all about what sinful men think. No matter how logical or ordered those thoughts, the philosophies of sinful man always come up short. Why? Because when he begins to think he does so in the prideful assumption he has superior knowledge and wisdom (1 Corinthians 3:18-20). As it concerns the topic of a Creator, for example, sinful men have looked at the undeniable evidence in the creation (including within themselves) and decided there is not one. Instead, they have made fools of themselves suppressing the truth with lies such as “The Theory of Evolution” and certified their Creator’s just wrath against them (Romans 1:18-22).
As a created being, man must begin to seek an ordered understanding about existence from the One that gave him existence, God Almighty (Genesis 1:26, 2:7). Truly, men are fools who would rather be proud descendants of monkeys (a derogatory accusation once heaped upon my slave forefathers to justify their enslavement prior to the coming of the “enlightened” thinking of evolution) than creatures from earth’s dust uniquely made in the glorious image of the living God! All born again Christians are supposed to be united on the side of the Lord and His Word that He created us. His Church is not a worldly classroom where contrary views with Scripture are tolerated.
All born again Christians are also supposed be one in our understanding of God's creation of man as male and female in this present age. Their roles and responsibilities are not a matter of clearly flawed evolutionary development as the world philosophizes, but the purposeful and perfectly ordered assignment of an omniscient Creator (Genesis 1:27-28). Evolution needs tweaking by its creatures today because it made them unequal. God--who shows no partiality--from the beginning created man one and assigned him to imitate divine Headship over a equal counterpart separated out from him (Genesis 2:18-24, 3:20; 1 Corinthians 11:3; Ephesians 5:22-24; 1 Timothy 2:12-15).
Thousands of worldly religions and philosophies boil down to the reasoning of sinful men versus the declarations of a holy Creator made in His Word. In the churches, nearly all philosophical divisions can be traced to a willful break with the plain teaching of Scripture. Amazingly, God addresses even this latter day maelstrom of confusion and warns twice through Solomon--a man endued with His wisdom: "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death," (Proverbs 14:12, 16:25, NKJV). Common sense dictates everybody cannot be right. This is why our Lord Jesus also warns about carefully considering which of only two philosophical ways we will choose.
In Matthew 7:13, the Lord Jesus urges His hearers to "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it," (NKJV). Apparently, God is not as "open minded" as philosophers, false prophets and corrupt teachers would have us believe. There is a right way in Christ and it is found in the narrow way of obedience to God's Word, not the many speculative offerings of sinful human philosophy in and outside of the churches (Colossians 2:1-10). The narrow gate and way of Christ alone leads to eternal life and sadly, He says relatively speaking, "there are few that find it," (Matthew 7:14; Luke 13:22-30).
The days are coming and even now are close at hand in America when it will not matter what denomination or sect of Christianity professed believers belong to. Anti-Christians will equally hate and violently persecute all calling themselves Christians (Matthew 24:9-13). Therefore, we ought to quickly repent of our philosophical argument fed divisions or else shamefully, days shortly ahead will force us to do so. Then it will be seen who really is on the narrow and difficult way to life. Aspiring strong men and great women of God who live to please Him and do His will to the death on His side will be prominent among those in that narrow way (Revelation 12:7-11). The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, "Who is on the Lord's side?"
1 I mistakenly transposed the number of world religions with denominations when I took their figures from my original source. I am now completely blown away to see that Christian denominations estimated at 33,000 would outnumber the total number of religions in the world estimated by David Barrett in his 2001 World Christian Encyclopedia to be 10,000--see https://theway21stcentury.wordpress.com/2012/11/23/how-many-christian-denominations-worldwide/. However, while those doing the estimating concede it is nearly impossible to get an accurate count, incredibly, their estimates only get worse going forward with the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary estimating that the number of Christian denominations by mid-2014 had climbed to 45,000 and are projected to reach 55,000 by 2025 (see the sub link under “The Estimates,” Center for the Study of Global Christianity at the Web Site cited in the link provided above). This is a great end time evil.
As God’s preacher, I am compelled by His love to contend for the souls of humanity bound by Satan’s ties through preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ! I fish for men as a first priority because we are His chosen leaders in the human family as He constructed it. Among men are those for whom I am deeply burdened because of our shared experience of being born black in America. If it is true that Satan binds men with spiritual, mental and emotional ties that are common to the human experience, then why have black American males historically had such an extraordinary and disproportionately difficult ordeal in terms of dysfunction, criminality and incarceration?
Nearly two million men are presently on lockdown and just at fifty percent or more of them is black American. They are there for murdering or harming mostly one another through gang and other crime related violence along with all manner of conscience and natural self-control breaching lawless conduct. They are there not only because of a cycle of poverty, low educational attainment, unemployment, fatherless households, culturally conditioned poor choices or the very real white controlled societal apparatus still adverse to them, but also their own self-sabotage as I wrote in June 2015 blogs reflecting on the state of black Americans one hundred and fifty years after slavery.
However, even the foregoing does not get to the root ties Satan has used to bind the black male soul so tautly there is self-hatred enough not only to self-sabotage, but as well, lash out violently on our own people. Again, these root ties are common to mankind, but have been applied during the excruciating events of the black American historical experience; root ties that are the continuing mental and emotional legacies of slavery and racism. By stating this, please do not hear me to be making excuses for the evil behavior of black males as criminals--set free by Christ, I no longer embrace victimization--or somehow diminishing the pain of those hurt by them.
Nevertheless, I can testify to the fact the continuing mental and emotional legacies of slavery and racism as root ties that at some point have bound nearly every black male soul are actual, understandable and hallelujah, removable! As a result of the work of Sigmund Freud and those that have come after him since the turn of the last century, the soul business has become a multi-billion dollar industry in the West. Exploding in the middle of the last century, the troubled souls of mostly whites have paid educated persons to help them identify and cope with any number of mental and emotional maladies through counseling, therapy and drugs. It is even trendy to have a “therapist.”
If the souls of white folk cannot “just get over it” (whatever it is that leads to seeking help), why do the souls of black males have to? Because of the stigma of perceived weakness as a man that remains to this hour though, many pride filled men do not voluntarily present themselves to the soul doctors for help. For black American men, it is also the sense of final capitulation in seeking help after clinging so long to the delusion self-remedies will finally successfully handle the root ties that bind their souls. Besides, if the dismissive attitude from guilt toward the continuing mental and emotional legacies of slavery and racism by white professionals dominant in the soul business is anything like white society at large, why should a troubled black male soul bother?
Among the root ties Satan uses to bind the black male soul as continuing mental and emotional legacies of slavery and racism I have identified in my research and from personal experience are anger, victimization, powerlessness and frustration. Examining just anger for a moment, hostile, violent and subtle oppression as a bully creates anger in its object in short order. Imagine being oppressed almost 400 years with very little relief. Now, imagine being threatened to suppress that anger short of being killed by the bully and add to the mix other sources of anger such as an absent or neglectful father. Any normal human being without any intervening positive coping mechanisms such as Christian forgiveness would be beyond angry (Matthew 6:9-15, 18:21-35)!
I bring up the issue of the continuing mental and emotional legacies of slavery and racism in a number of published works in my “Journal” on our www.fromslaverytovictory.org Web Site. The site beginning on its Home Page points the willing toward the biblical worldview and truths that can begin to bring help, healing and hope to the seeking soul. Too, I mention the legacies related to barriers to black male professing Christians aspiring to become strong men of God in the image of Jesus Christ in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics with an eye toward future elaboration.
In light of all of the trouble black males are having with the police among other white authority figures and their non-coincidental high rate of incarceration, this Black History Month I plead with my brothers by race to recognize we need help; help only God the soul’s Creator can provide through faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Genesis 2:7; Psalm 139:13-14; Luke 4:16-21; 1 John 5:4-5). He alone has the superior power to one by one break every chain as ties Satan has used to bind our souls and enable us to live victoriously as aspiring strong men of God in Him going forward!
With great empathy for the men who serve as pastors in the churches of Jesus Christ among black Americans as I have also done, I must still declare the truth that far too many are the reason the churches they serve are stuck in the house of refuge mentality, spiritually immature and impotent as well as in rank rebellion against God! While over the years I have heard pastors say the people are to blame by being unwilling to grow--which is true in some cases, it is the pastors that are fully guilty before God because they are unwilling to repent from what they know is sin and spiritual immaturity in personal conduct and church priorities as they cling to manmade religious practices and traditions.
Since among many churches the culturally admired preaching skill of pastors cover a multitude of sins, character flaws and spiritual immaturity contrary to the teaching of the Bible (Titus 1:5-9), the spiritual state of members or impact on their surrounding community with the Gospel in obedience to Christ does not matter. Moreover, it is largely immaterial that a pastor may act out to the point of criminality because he is bound by the root ties of the continuing mental and emotional legacies of slavery and racism. Though we know not even the godliest pastors have arrived, we are not supposed to settle for being bound by Satan as normal (Philippians 3:12-16; 2 Timothy 2:22-26).
Pastors bound by Satan with any tie binding work of the flesh in sin (to include pride) or at the root, the continuing mental and emotional legacies of slavery and racism hurt themselves and their watching congregants because like it or not the Bible declares their leadership is primarily by example (1 Peter 5:2-3). A pastor can and will not preach Christ as the Deliverer superior in strength that breaks the ties Satan has used to bind up members of the church if he is complacently bound too (Luke 11:14-22). Satan stronger than sinful men has been able to keep such pastors and members bound even after their supposed new birth because they are unwilling to be set free by Christ.
As a result of being bound, the pastor’s preaching in the house of refuge majors on comforting himself and the people in their spiritual immaturity with God’s grace and mercy, railing against the system depending on his level of social activism and powerless moralizing. In the latter instance, while he might quote or take his text from Ephesians 4:26 wherein the apostle Paul declares from Psalm 4:4, ‘“Be angry and do not sin,’” and adds, “do not let the sun go down on your wrath” (NKJV), because he is shackled by the root tie of anger as a continuing mental and emotional legacy of slavery and racism, rather than obedience, he will urge all to join him in doing their best in their own inadequate strength to comply (Romans 7:14-23). Meanwhile, he remains an angry black man.
I know something about being an angry black man because I was until the Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel and power of the Holy Spirit set me free (Romans 7:24-8:4) as I wrote in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics!3 And how did the Lord come to liberate me? In all confession and repentance before the Lord I owned my sin failures with anger and realization of being helplessly bound by it as a tie on my soul in the light of His Word (Genesis 4:1-8; Proverbs 29:22; James 1:19-20). I then asked Him for help! I have since learned that as sinners, it is why we are angry (Jonah 3-4) and what we do with it after it has risen up that will determine whether it is sin or not. Uncontrolled venting of anger or burying and letting the sun go down on it leads to sin every time.
Righteous indignation at evil, injustice and real or perceived personal injury naturally gives rise to anger which in and of itself is not sin since a holy God in whose image we are made gets angry too and judges (Genesis 1:26-27; Numbers 25:1-5)! Where petition for readdress of legitimate wrongs suffered can be made (to include peaceful protest), we pursue this (Acts 16:16-24, 35-40). In the meantime--regardless of whether or not we get relief, those of us aspiring to be strong men of God in the image of Christ willfully choose to call on the Holy Spirit for supernatural help to forgive the wrong done to us and trust God for vindication as it is written, ‘“Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, says the Lord,’” (Luke 23:33-34; Romans 12:19-21, NKJV).
Now, what I have just written is how the Lord Jesus delivers us one by one from every tie--root or otherwise--binding the soul. Indeed, whether the ties are of the sinful works of the flesh or mental and emotional, we must own them before the Lord and then soberly confront them with the truth of His Word and power of the Holy Spirit! We confront with the truth of God’s Word as the Lord Jesus modeled for us because it exposes and destroys Satan’s lies in sin lifted up against God setting us free (Matthew 4:1-11; John 8:31-32). Through Christ, we confront in the strength of the Holy Spirit as our help because we are truly weak against Satan, sin and self controlled by sin (Philippians 4:13). Alas though, one must want to be delivered by Christ to engage in the process of liberation!4
3 See p. 109-110. Pick up your Hard or Soft Cover Editions of The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics in the Strong Man Store. 4 Please support our Books To USA Prisons Project that will send two copies of my book for incarcerated men to over 800 prison libraries across the nation. Go to https://thestrongmanofgod.org/Books-To-USA-Prisons-Project.
Let it be absolutely clear as of first importance that the value of women to God is exactly the same for the Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God and Man! As the Head of every man immediately under Him in God’s order of mankind and Creator, the Lord Jesus also gives full support to the divinely designed value of women to men and families (Matthew 5:27-32; Mark 10:1-16; 1 Corinthians 11:3). Truly, in condescending to become a Man conceived in His mother’s womb, birthed, nourished and nurtured by her, He has firsthand knowledge and appreciation of the experience of His creatures as well. He was raised as any other Male by Joseph and Mary in a Jewish family (Luke 2:21-24, 39-52).
During His ministry years, women were equally with men the beneficiaries of the messianic preaching, teaching and miracles of the Lord Jesus. Indeed, He modeled for all men the disposition God expects of us toward women as a leader, teacher, provider and protector (Luke 4:31-44, 7:1-17, 36-50). Women were well represented among the throngs that flocked to the Lord; becoming devoted disciples and helpers as major supporters (Luke 8:1-3, 10:38-42; John 12:1-8). However, in accord with His Father’s will in the divine order of mankind, the Lord did not appoint any women to become apostles as I explain in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics (Luke 6:12-16).1
The intense love and devotion women are historically known for showed toward Jesus even after His crucifixion resulting in them being the first recorded mortals to hear the news and see Him alive from the dead (Luke 23:50-24:10; John 20:11-18). There is no such thing as coincidence for the God I serve with my whole heart! Thus, to make this last post discussing the value of women to Jesus Christ on Pentecost is completely a God thing since I did not plan it this way. On this day nearly 2,000 years ago female followers of the now, ascended Christ, were also assembled with the apostles who by divine will had just picked the male replacement for Judas Iscariot (Acts 1:12-26).
Surely, Mary, the mother of the Lord or other faithful women who had followed Him from the beginning of His ministry would seem to have been prime candidates as well to replace Judas as an apostle. But the Lord did not give any sign whatsoever of a change in men alone being appointed apostles as was given to Peter at a later date concerning him as a Jew interacting with Gentiles (Acts 10:1-29). Nevertheless, when the Holy Spirit arrived as promised by Christ, He came upon all of the firstfruits assembly without discrimination; all spoke in ecstatic praise of the ‘“wonderful works of God’” not having learned, but using the known languages of the Roman Empire (Acts 2:1-13, NKJV)!
Of great significance about the crowd that had gathered to this miraculous occurrence, was the fact it was largely composed of men. This is because the “Feast Of Harvest” or “Weeks” also known as Pentecost was of the three solemn gatherings in the seven holy feast calendar God had expressly commanded that all the men of Israel were to be present (Exodus 23:14-17, 34:22-26; Deuteronomy 16:9-12, 16-17; Acts 2:5, NKJV). When it came time to explain what was going on and preach the Gospel to begin God’s full harvest of souls among the assembly of mostly male prospects, it was Peter that did so, though again, Spirit-filled women were present and could have too (Acts 2:14-41).
Clearly, God was continuing to be consistent with implementing His order of mankind from Adam! Men are His chosen leaders and He did not change this at the onset of the New Testament era.2 3 As a result, from this beginning point at Pentecost with the Lord’s apostles (Acts 2:42) forward in the rest of the New Testament, formally appointed leaders, elders and pastors in the churches were all men. The ministry of deacons as formal helpers to leadership was made up of men in any oversight of church run operational or ministry activities, while in no shocker, women in their role as helpers served with their husbands to help them. Married or single, some women engaged in personal service and help ministries to church members and leaders (Acts 9:36-43; Romans 16:1-2).
The Holy Spirit was not confused nor should we be walking in Him! For when He fell on that first assembly at Pentecost without discrimination to give new birth to each disciple of Christ and power to praise God, He also distributed their spiritual gifts knowing the Lord’s will for each and honoring the divine order (1 Corinthians 12-14; Ephesians 4:7-16). Therefore, just as the Lord used women to prophesy in the Old Testament, none of them including Deborah ever stood before the whole congregation of Israel to do so as Moses or Jeremiah (Exodus 15:20-21; Judges 4:1-14; 2 Kings 22:14-20; Jeremiah 7:1-2; Luke 2:36-38). Neither were women priests or worship leaders. All of this carried over into this New Testament era as the Spirit imparted spiritual gifts to women (Acts 21:8-9)!
The Lord gives women the ability to prophesy, preach, teach or exercise sign gifts according to His will that is always consistent with His eternal Word and standing order of mankind. Prophesy is addressed to individuals He may send the prophetess to or that might seek her out. It might also be combined with the leadership gifts of preaching for proclaiming the Gospel and God’s message or teaching for biblically instructing women and/or children in gatherings small or large. Service gifts supernaturally enhance a woman’s natural abilities to help their husbands and/or the churches serve the Lord’s Kingdom causes. To go beyond the Lord’s will is sin (1 Corinthians 14:33-40)!4 The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, "Who is on the Lord's side?"
1 The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics is available through all major internet booksellers, by order from your favorite brick and mortar bookstore and in the Strong Man Store. I also discuss and elaborate on this issue as the Lord leads in the January 27-February 10, 2017 three-part blog series, Jesus, Son Of Man and in a June 2017 series, The Value of Men To God and Jesus Christ respectively, all under the category, The Cause.
2 As the Lord leads me to contend in an Appendix of my book, all of the deceitful arguments that are presented within the churches to allow women to preach to, teach and take authority over men within them in these latter days are all predicated on God having made a change of some kind in His attitude toward or implementation of the divine order of mankind. This is preposterous not only because the divine order is perfect and beneficial to mankind in this present age, but also because among other very important reasons it now includes Christ as the Second Adam and the Head of man! Read my April 8, 2018 post, The Second Adam Rules And Judges,
under the categories Call To Repent and Bible Prophecy to consider this point further. You can read my November and December 2007 two-part Commentary, When Did God Change? to walk through the major arguments of deceit that have enabled rebellion against the divine order in God’s house.
3 Unless one is willing to call God “sexist” or “unfair” (which some feminists do, though, most are careful to attempt to cloak this blasphemy by directing their accusations to those like me that would have the audacity to hold to God’s Word as it is written), there is no other option but to accept New Testament instruction and example as it
is. Doing so, of course, means feminism that opposes God’s order must be rejected because both approaches to human organization cannot be right at the same time
and are in fact, mutually exclusive. For more on calling God “sexist” or “unfair” read my May 8, 2016 post, God A Sexist?, followed the next week, May 15th with God Unfair?, both under the category, God’s Creatures.
4 Since so much confusion swirls around the Word of God in these latter days due in major part to poor interpretation, our Ministry as a Christian service continues to of- fer the free resource, Seven Principles Of Bible Interpretation the Lord led me to prepare to help those that honestly want to know how to interpret God’s Word. Distilled
from the excellent book, Knowing Scripture by Dr. R. C. Sproul that I urge you to get, our free resource is available in the Strong Man Store.
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