The Scourge Of Racism
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First it was the humiliation of missionaries coming from the former imperial possessions of Western nations including America in recent years to evangelize them. Now, in a stunning and decisive stand, United Methodist Christians from largely African nations recently stood against the formerly dominant Western denomination’s insistence on sanctioning the ordination and same sex marriage of LGBTQ persons within its ranks.1 Such is the intense spiritual warfare of these latter days as those that would be faithful to God and His Word as it is written not only must stand against a secular world in rebellion, but those that have infiltrated and would foment it in God’s house!
As a Christian descendant of African slaves in America, I am pleased in the Lord to have founded this Ministry and to be leading its Kingdom cause to restore men, families and communities also standing firmly on God’s Word!2 Surely, it was ‘“for such a time as this’” (Esther 4:13-16, NKJV) in the Body of Christ that God has touched many hearts among those once considered of no account and inferior by their former masters to stand with the faithful of all hues against the “madness” of rebellion and apostasy now underway in the West and a large number of its churches as I write of my own labor in the Preface of my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics; with joy replacing a “dumb donkey” for Christ’s sake (1 Corinthians 1:27-29; 2 Peter 2:12-16, NKJV).3
Prior to the book’s first publication in 2011, the Lord led me to write this edited 2010 Commentary contending for lifelong marriage as He designed it.
Originally Published March 2010
As an institution, marriage is under attack as never before as humanity in rebellion seeks to loose itself from all of God's program laid out in His Word (Psalm 2:1-3). Not only is marriage on the decline due to abandoned moral standards that permit temporary relationships of casual sex and living together, but it is being outright corrupted by those who want to legitimatize their same sex relationships. Destroying marriage as the Bible knows it too is the incredible divorce rate both in and outside of the churches. These divorces occur for many reasons beyond what the Lord Jesus Christ has permitted.
Marriage as God designed it is foundational to human existence and the oldest of all forms of human relationship. Indeed, before God introduced marriage, mankind was bottled up in the seed of the first man. The Bible does not glamorize God's purpose in creating the female version of man; it was to facilitate His will that the earth be filled with humanity through procreation (Genesis 1:27-28a). However, as a blessing to humanity and to sweeten the means to His end, the Lord gave us the gift of marital relationship. Thus, marital relationship exclusively between a man and a woman is of the purposeful construction of God, not society or the State since neither yet existed.
In the presence of Adam God declares, "'It is not good that man should be alone,'" (Genesis 2:18a, NKJV). God already knew that He was going to create a female for the man, but Adam had to know that being alone was not good. Adam also had to appreciate the value of relationship with another creature like him. If relationship for its own sake had been His sole purpose, then God was more than enough! However, procreation as He designed it would require Adam to have a suitably created, committed companion and helper with whom he could relate to for life.
God proclaims, "'I will make him a helper comparable to him,'" (Genesis 2:18b, NKJV). This helper God has in mind would not be an exact duplicate of Adam, but correspond to him as no other creature on earth (Genesis 2:19-20). After putting him to sleep and removing one of his ribs, the Lord God purposefully fashioned a woman and presented her to Adam. As evidenced by his joyful words, this woman corresponded to Adam in every way human--spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically (Genesis 2:21-23). They were equal in their humanity, but had different roles and responsibilities as plainly seen in their order of creation and the unique construction of their bodies.
Adam and his wife had a basic and functional relationship built upon their correspondence that would be mutually satisfying and endure for a lifetime apart from the romanticized notions of love we have today in which an estimated 40-50% of marriages fail in divorce.4 This does not mean they would not enjoy romance. However, this was only a small part of a total relationship that would be sustained in the main by a committed love for each other in unity and their Creator whose purposes they gladly sought to fulfill.
The Lord Jesus Christ, our Creator in the flesh declares, "'What God has joined together, let not man separate,'" (Matthew 19:4-6, NKJV). In God's design of marriage, it is permanent! While because of men's sin hardened hearts He allowed the concept of divorce to enter human experience, the Lord makes it clear before sin "'from the beginning it was not so.'" He permits divorce only after sexual immorality, which is already a break in the marital covenant (Matthew 19:7-9, NKJV). The Lord's apostle, Paul, later addresses the de facto divorce that occurs when an unbelieving spouse permanently deserts the marriage (1 Corinthians 7:10-16).
Aspiring strong men of God in the image of Jesus Christ living to please Him and do His will, must labor vigorously to restore marriage as our God designed it. This means that we have to first be sure we are honoring His marital design.5 Then we must lock arms with our pastors that are faithfully holding the line on marriage as God designed it. Unless God's design of marriage is restored, we can count on seeing the rapid fracturing and decay of our society along with its descent into social chaos continue to the point there is “no remedy”6 and in the end, “wrath” (2 Chronicles 36:15-16, NKJV).
1 View the short news story produced by CBN News on its Christian World News program starting 13 minutes and 40 seconds in that interviews a Liberian leader in the denomination.
2 See the April 26, 2015 repost, Obeying God’s Word On His Side, under the category, The Cause and many others among my blogs using the search word, “marriage.”
3 The book is available at all major internet booksellers, by order at your favorite brick and mortar bookstore or in the Strong Man Store.
4 Google “2018 divorce rate.” Some social scientists actually see a downward trend in divorces driven by millennials for such reasons as marrying later in life (which still
does not conform to God’s will) according to a Bloomberg article.
5 As I discuss in my book, this means among other things marrying “only in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 7:39, NKJV), loving his wife in the sacrificial, constructive and es-
teeming care displayed by Christ for the Church (Ephesians 5:25-33a) and honoring the vow of marriage as God intends for men to honor all of our vows (Numbers 30:
1-2; Matthew 5:33-37). Christian women too, must marry only in the Lord and honor the wedding vow as well as love their husbands as Christ loves the Father and the
Church, Him, in all submission and respect (John 6:38, 8:48-49; Ephesians 5:22-24, 33b).
6 A point which since I wrote this in 2010, the Lord led me to proclaim has arrived! Read the first mention of a “point of no return” in the July 15, 2015 part one 2012 re-
post, Powerlessness Of Being The Minority, under the category, Encouragement. A second mention follows in the October 22, 2017 part two 2013 repost, Mocking The
Rainbow, under the category, Biblical Worldview.
Once more in 2019 the Lord would have me uphold marriage as He designed it as a first priority to professed Christians who are supposed to be showing the world how it works to His glory (Matthew 5:14-16)!1 But as the world knows all too well, professing Christianity as a “pot” cannot call “the kettle black” on the issue of marriage and divorce. Attempting to obscure the naked reality of the tarnish to Christianity with smooth sounding psychological and sociological explanations that undermine biblical instruction as well as the truth of divine grace in forgiveness does not remove it. Total repentance from the sin of mocking marriage is required throughout professing Christianity!
Oh, or am I now by voicing God’s displeasure as all of His preachers are supposed to do, actually only attempting to destroy someone’s reputation that is guilty? Or is sin still sin as the Bible plainly lays it out no matter who is guilty? Or did Christ come only to die for sin in vain? Or is anyone in the Body of Christ above His Word; possessing a complete pass from guilt just because of who they are and it might make them look bad? Repent those that think so; God shows no partiality and all will reap what they sow no matter who they are (Romans 2:4-11; Galatians 6:7-8)! Let every aspiring strong man and great woman of God who reads this edited 2011 repost answer the Lord’s charge to honor and uphold marriage as He designed it.
Originally Posted November 6, 2011
Not only the strong man, but the great woman of God has a responsibility to uphold the dignity of marriage as an institution from Him. In a day when marriages are ripped apart on the slightest pretext, God’s original design even among many professed Christians is a fading landmark in the rearview mirror of our world’s ever accelerating press toward its own dark, design. Not the so-called stars of entertainment and sports as authorities on the subject, but Jesus Christ the Star of David who is God’s appointed Judge! He has affirmed that marriage is not only of divine origin, but sacred and precious to God until it shall be no more in His plan (Matthew 19:1-6; Luke 20:27-36, 21:33).
Quickie marriages and divorces therefore, are an affront to God and mock marriage as He designed it to be a lifelong relational commitment between a man and woman exclusively. Learn more about the mutual responsibility the aspiring strong man and great woman of God share to honor and treat marriage as holy in living to please the Holy One in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics.2
1 Read the March 17-31, 2019 reposts dealing with marriage under the category, The Cause and the April 7, 2019 post, The Glory Of Marital Oneness, under the category,
Glory To God!
2 The book is available in print or digital download formats at major internet booksellers such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, ChristianBooks.com and Apple (digital only).
You can also get the Hard or Soft Cover print versions of the book in the Strong Man Store.
This edited 2010 Commentary followed immediately after one I wrote as the Lord led challenging men as fathers to step up and accept the divine assigned responsibility to protect our children starting as they are unborn in the womb.1 Transparently owning my own shameful failure to do so as an unsaved teenager, I also urged fellow aspiring strong men of God in the image of Jesus Christ to stand up for and defend the right of the unborn to live.2 Continuing in that vein, this post puts the failure of men guilty of not protecting our children in its proper spiritual context as part of the ongoing rebellion against God, His design and order of the family. It also warns about the unfolding consequences that will continue to intensify and calls professed Christian men to the cause and work of restoring men.3
Originally Published February 2010
A man's responsibility to protect his children from conception to the age of majority is bound up in God's design of the human family. We do the mothers of our children no favors to remain with them--it is God's will that we do so! He holds us accountable to walk in His design and fulfill the purposes of our creation plainly spelled out in His Book of beginnings. There, it is written: "So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it…,'" (Genesis 1:27-28a, NKJV).4
Man and woman as husband and wife in the lifetime bond of marriage is God's original and enduring context for the bringing forth of children. Formal marriage of the first couple took place after God created the woman and brought her to the man (Genesis 2:18-23). He then presented His will through Moses: "Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh," (Genesis 2:24, NKJV). Any doubts about whether the first couple was truly married or not is dispelled in the next verse, "And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed," (Genesis 2:25, Emphasis mine, NKJV).
In the rebellion against God and His Anointed that has intensely gripped our world over the last generation, living together without formal marriage has become so common we have considered it normal. But man's rebellion does not alter God's original design. Therefore, every man and woman living together without the benefit of formal marriage is sinning against the Lord. Every man and woman having sex outside of marriage is also sinning against the Lord. This is so, whether they consider themselves Christians or not!5 Since God will never let sinful men mock Him, the harvest of consequences from the seeds of rebellion have long been showing themselves in our nation and world.
Never before heard of sexually transmitted diseases such as AIDS sprang up in the latter third of the 20th century in the heat of the so-called "sexual revolution." The trail of broken relationships and shattered lives through break up and abandonment circles the globe at this hour. Irresponsible men now, even brag about the number of children they have by different mothers. Meanwhile, fatherless children bear more fatherless children that are deeply bitter, hate-filled and ready to make everybody feel their pain! And this is all good? I don't think so! We are killing ourselves doing things our way and it is time to admit failure.
To reverse the present course of self-destruction we are on, mankind must turn back to God, our Creator and Judge--His will, way and Word while there is still time (Acts 17:24-31; 2 Peter 3:7-9)! This, of course, includes restoring marriage and family as He designed them. Whatever God does in the original is "very good" by His own testimony (Genesis 1:31). What we have done in one generation rebelling against God's very good way of marriage and family is not good at all. In fact, it is plain evil! Leading out in this turn back to God must be every man that calls himself a Christian and that aspires to be a strong man of God in the image of Jesus Christ (Titus 2:11-15).
Indeed, if you are like me, you had your time in the rebellion, contributed to the folly of today by fathering children out of wedlock and are filled with deep regret over the burgeoning consequences. I began to turn away from my participation in the rebellion when I became a Christian on Easter 1977 (Romans 6:21; Titus 3:3-8). Now, it's time we Christian men man up and lead the repentance charge back to God in all understanding that unless we do, our children may well be the generation that experiences the full outpouring of His foretold wrath on those in rebellion against Him (Psalm 2:1-5; Isaiah 13:11-13; Romans 1:18-32; Revelation 6:12-17). I am doing my part through this Ministry in seeking to restore men and their families as God designed. I challenge you to join me!
1 See the January 21, 2018 repost, Protecting Our Children, under the category, Biblical Worldview.
2 Learn about the strong man of God in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics. It is available at all major internet booksellers, by order at your favorite brick
and mortar bookstore or in the Strong Man Store.
3 Read the July 27, 2014 post, God Of Order and November 16, 2014, Christian Women And Restoring Men, both under the category, Instruction.
4 God’s purposeful design of male and female bodies to procreate is incontrovertible evidence of procreation being a part of mankind’s purpose shared in common with all
of the other creatures of this physical creation after their kind. See the May 1, 2016 post, Natural Bodies By Divine Design, under the category, God’s Creatures.
5 Read the two-part repost beginning February 11, 2018, Christian Singles Having Sex, under the category, Black History.
As the Lord led me to make clear in my April 8, 2018 post, "The Second Adam Rules And Judges,"1 worldly concocted feminism is not a social-political ideology that can be safely tolerated by or integrated with biblical Christianity in the churches. Its origin is demonic, strategically deceitful and destructive; viewed on High as rebellion against God! For God purposely designed and created man and woman with roles and responsibilities in an order where they cooperatively fulfill His will for them in this mortal age.2 However, the 20th century rise of feminism blatantly challenges God’s will. Along with many other associated evils, puffed up feminists have created a “battle of the sexes.”
In this now, generation long battle as enemy combatants, women have struggled against men for power and position. Under withering true and false accusations of failure, shamed men have been yielding ground in ancient places of governance such as the family. The ruinous fruit of backing men down can be everywhere seen in the breakdown of the family and gender confusion in the wider culture, for example, as well as in the churches with professed Christian women in defiance of Scripture pursuing roles of authority over men in God’s house. In this edited May 2012 Commentary, I again summarize God’s design of woman and in four posts to follow, present her value to the continuing end of pulling down feminism as a stronghold of deceit in the churches (Philippians 3:1b)!
Originally Published May 2012
One of the things you learn right away as a maturing Christian is that Satan and his kingdom do not play fair. How ironic, since one of the enemy's major allegations in these last days concerns how unfair God is in many things, but especially His design of male and female roles and responsibilities.3 So persuasive is Satan on this issue that professing Christians, churches and related entities in growing numbers are abandoning God's biblical ship to embrace his lie. With his instigation, faithful teachers of God's Word on the issue are barely tolerated any longer and considered extreme. Nevertheless, God is judging rebels on this issue of rebellion as He is all others.
The Lord leading, I have written often over the years warning professing Christians not to believe Satan’s lie that God is somehow unfair (which attacks His character) or even worse has made a mistake (which questions His perfection as deity) on the issue of male and female roles. Be reminded and warned again that the issue has only come up because Satan has been successfully using this tact of attacking God’s character and questioning His Person from Eden (Genesis 3:1-5). It worked with a perfect woman; it has worked all the more with sinful humanity since then who in our fallen state are primed to rebel against God and seek to justify it by identifying supposed flaws in Him!
Satan has once again in these last days gone to the woman as he did in the beginning to stir up women and sympathetic men over God's apparent unfairness in making the man first and the head in human families (1 Timothy 2:13-14). But even if the accusation had some basis in fact (I feel ridiculous writing this), the greater issue is the defiant act by the creature to rise up in revolt to question its Maker (Romans 9:20) and declare war on His chosen head. As it is captured in the 1946 Irvin Berlin song used in various TV commercials, "Anything you can do, I can do better." Moses' sister expressed a similar mind and was immediately, severely rebuked by God (Numbers 12).
As I write in The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics, our Creator did not set out to create a rivalry between men and women when He created them.4 In His perfect design, men and women were to work in harmony to fulfill His will for them in the earth. The man was created first because he is the eternal creature, "man" in mortal form! To satisfy His plans for man to reproduce, God reached into him and made another of equal person, but with some important differences. Woman is taken out of the man as a female counterpart to be put back together with him in marriage so she might help fulfill God’s will for them to govern and fill the earth with mankind (Genesis 1:22-28, 2:18-24).
In the eyes of Adam and every aspiring strong man of God in the image of Christ, woman is an absolute wonder to behold (Genesis 2:23)! In general, woman is smaller and softer with beauty of face, longer hair and a body that by God's purposeful design excites her husband's sexual interest leading to procreation.5 She also corresponds perfectly to him in spiritual, mental and emotional make up complementing their relationship. Clearly, she is no afterthought or cast off left over from God's creation of man. But as man is the glory of God in image, she truly is his glory (1 Corinthians 11:7) to be loved, nourished and cherished as he does his own body (Ephesians 5:28-29).
To say that woman is the glory of man is not to suggest she bears nothing of the image and glory of God. Truly, God has caused woman made from man to equally radiate the divine image and glory including the impulse to lead and rule. This is shown in Eden when the serpent brings his case to the woman and she leads out in disobeying God (Genesis 3:6). In doing so, she willfully usurps her husband's prior standing as God's chosen head and is corrected (Genesis 3:16b). Later, in judging Adam, God integrates into his sin of failing to obey Him, the fact that he temporarily abandoned his role as God's chosen head to follow his wife's leadership instead (Genesis 3:17a).
God has designed woman on purpose with unalterable purpose for this present age. Every Christian woman who will live as God designed must resist embracing Satan's lie that either God or His Word are flawed on the issue. We are flawed in sin and inability to function as God designed in His ordained order, roles and responsibilities! Therefore, aspiring great women of God that would please Him and do His will joyfully submit to His will for them as a woman.6 You are granted of the highest honors to cooperate with God in being a wife and mother; fruitfully filling the earth with humanity (1 Timothy 2:15). Otherwise, as a rebel, His judgment will find you too (Hebrews 3:15-19). The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, "Who is on the Lord's side?"
1 Find it under the categories Call To Repentance and Bible Prophecy.
2 Read the related July 3, 2016 post, Man As God Designed Him, under the category, God’s Creatures.
3 See the May 15, 2016 post, God Unfair?, under the category, God’s Creatures.
4 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.
5 Read the May 1, 2016 post, Natural Bodies By Divine Design, under the category, God’s Creatures.
6 I devote two full chapters in my book to defining and instructing on the great woman of God from the Bible. Additionally, the Strong Man Store now has available the
newest Strong Man Of God Audio Resource, Great Woman Of God Mothers, an expository message from the Lord I was blessed to proclaim. Check it out and listen
to the sample provided.
In a recent radio interview discussing my book, one of the hosts and sister in Christ shared that from her experience, most women--Christian or not--want a strong man. While this may be true, contemporary feminist ideology--which at its core seeks for a separate and independent identity from men in what is called “equality”--sabotages this aspiration more so than any failures men may have that do so. Truly, there is nothing innately wrong with men that God through the Gospel of Jesus Christ and power of the Holy Spirit cannot fix. However, willful rebellion against God’s order by women that are guilty including those professing to be Christians exacerbates the problems men in sin weakness have and provokes the wrath of God against them as rebels.
As the Lord led, I wrote about the issue of re-defining men, women, their roles and responsibilities that coincides with what is also being done with sin in the second chapter of The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics. As is plainly shown in His Word, God did not create two heads in the order of the human family. Indeed, as I have taught over the years, we instinctively understand a two headed anything is not natural or normal. God created the man first and brought forth the woman second from out of him specifically to be his companion and helper (Genesis 2:7, 18-25). She was fully equal to him in person, but God gave the couple different roles and responsibilities that are also plainly seen in their bodies.
The man was to be the head over his wife and chief leader in the family. This was not about inequality, but divine will and order for humanity; order that is everywhere apparent within the family of God, Heaven and its ranks of angelic majesties, the cosmos and every kind of display of life on planet earth. Truly, God is One (communicating absolute unity and equality of Person) and yet, within the triunity of God, the Father is the Head, Christ the Word is the Son and the third Person is the Holy Spirit ready to do the will of the Father and Son (Genesis 1:1-3; Deuteronomy 6:4; Matthew 3:13-17; 28:19; John 1:1-5, 14-18, 14:28, 15:26). Read my July 27, 2014 blog, God Of Order under the category, Instruction to learn more about the divine display of and commitment to order.
So, men are to be the heads over their wives by the express will of God in consistency with the divine order in which the woman came from the man for him, but since then, both are dependent on the other in the Lord’s continuing program of marriage and procreation (1 Corinthians 11:3, 8-12). Understanding from the Holy Spirit the surpassing greatness and blessing of God’s order of marriage framed within the Christian faith, the great apostle Paul purposely taught it to first century Christians (Ephesians 5:22-24; Colossians 3:18; Titus 2:1-5). With consistency, he also taught how God’s order of marriage in male and female roles and responsibilities were to be carried out in all of the churches largely made up of Gentiles since the Jews already knew from the mosaic law and had been obedient since Abraham’s day (Genesis 3:16b; 1 Corinthians 14:33-40; 1 Timothy 2:11-15; 1 Peter 3:1-6).
Yes, in general historically, men have blown it big time as it concerns being the kind of ruler God designed after the image and likeness of God and perfectly modeled by our Lord Jesus Christ (Genesis 1:26; Ephesians 5:25-33; Colossians 3:19; 1 Peter 3:7). I own this truth in the book and apologize to my sisters for it. However, I also say the failure of men does not warrant a full on rebellion against God by women in these latter days since the failure of men is due entirely to the fall and sin as an indwelling reality going forward. Though because of his status before God as the head, Adam’s disobedience condemned the race (Romans 5:12), nevertheless, it was Eve who led the way as the first human sinner (Genesis 3:6; 1 Timothy 2:14).
Now, today, will the women who are guilty as Eve’s daughters also lead a rebellion against God’s order and expect that their sin will set everything right? Apparently they think so since the rebellion is in progress and has been growing for a generation. At this point, as the Lord leads, I especially speak from the heart to the women of my own race and people. I know so many of you have had to step in to fill the void left by missing men since slavery and not all from the demoralization of our experience that affected those without Christ the most. Some were irresponsible as men weak in sin then, as the many are today. By default and for your children, you had to become the head of the family as Deborah also had to save Israel when the men were weak before God (Judges 4:4-22).
We who are learning the way of the strong man of God in the image of Jesus Christ understand from the foregoing that we owe you a great debt of gratitude. But if in these latter days a significant number of us will successfully rise up from the dead of sin weakness into the restoration of strength through Christ to become strong men of God in His image, those of our sisters who are guilty must repent from the pride of feminism and relinquish your grip on headship to return to honoring God’s order in the home and churches as it is written in His Word! Two independent heads of the house sounds good to the rebel heart, but in practical application engenders conflict and blocks a man from becoming strong in his role and responsibility to lead as God has hard wired into his existence and is revived in the strong man of God message and cause.
Too, as is well known, what is being done right now in rebellion is not working to facilitate intact families. The high levels of single females who feel obliged to be sexually promiscuous and enable male irresponsibility by financially supporting them to attract their interest, domestic violence, divorce, shacking and single female headed households (many with children from different absent fathers) amply demonstrates the truth. If women of the world will not return to God’s program, then, surely those professing to be Christians should though some of my strongest opposition to restoring men over the years has come from this group because they do not want to abandon their selfish ambitions for position, power and recognition in the churches inspired by the flesh and feminism not God! Let all unrepentant rebel females be warned that since God shows no partiality, they equally face His wrath with guilty males (Romans 2:1-11).
So, how can willing professed Christian women who are guilty return to God’s program and help restore men as aspiring strong men of God in the image of Christ? The first step always where sin is involved is to confess and repent from it before God. Second, accept the fact God is the Author of the roles and responsibilities of men written in His Word not mortal flesh and submit to Him. Third, if relinquishing the authority of headship is a problem for you, in your fresh submission to God ask for the heart of John the Baptist who as the Lord Jesus greater in role and responsibility came on the scene said, ‘“He must increase, but I must decrease,’” (John 3:30, NKJV). John understood and accepted his role in God’s program (John 3:22-36). So should every aspiring great woman of God in the image of Christ today as divinely appointed helpers and spiritual descendants of those from ancient times recorded in the Bible and history that God may be glorified in you!
In my book, “The Strong Man Of God, Back To Basics,” I write in some detail about the temporary roles and activity God has assigned men and women in this present mortal age. Satan, sin and self has done so much to corrupt the understanding of those roles and activity that in these latter days a “battle of the sexes” not sanctioned by God is underway creating confusion and destroying lives. This evil battle will end forever at Christ’s coming, but the eternal roles and activity God has designed for man, His creature, will continue solely with His saints. As I point out in this edited 2012 Commentary, this eternal design is exceedingly greater than that which is mortal!
Originally Published June 2012
Many professing Christian men live as though their present mortal experience is the greatest of all possible experiences in their eternal existence. While they claim to believe in "life after life," they live like "this is as good as it gets." As a result, they deny themselves nothing that they desire and are too focused on and consumed by the temporary experiences of this life including the over acquisition of material things. Teaching in many churches and Christian media are responsible in major part because prosperity is their emphasis. Even those concerned with helping men speak almost exclusively to their mortal roles as husbands and fathers. But man as God designed him is more.
That God has greater plans for man than his mortal existence is hinted at in Eden and loudly heralded by Jesus Christ (Genesis 1:26, 2:7-9, 3:17-19, 22-24; Luke 20:27-40; John 10:10, 11:25-26, 38-44, 14:1-6). Mortality was always only intended to be a temporary, stage one of human existence. The "tree of life" which in its fruit provided instantaneous immortality among the trees of Eden could have been accessed by Adam. In his mortality, however, the man was tested as to his willingness to obey his Creator, failed and was driven from the garden (Genesis 2:16-17, 3:6, 22-24). But God was not done with man for He had created him to live in a body and serve His purposes forever!
Millennia later, out of the context of unrestrained praise to God for the excellence of His name in the whole earth and glory beyond the physical universe (Psalm 8:1-3), Israel's king David marvels and asks Him the rhetorical question of creation's ages. He wants to know, "What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit (give attention to, care for) him," (Psalm 8:4, NKJV)? The question is followed by David's recognition of man's exalted role and responsibility in God's created order as ruler over all the works of His hands and a restatement of praise for the excellence of God's name in the whole earth (Psalm 8:5-9). Truly, man's eternal destiny is great!
While being a man as God designed does involve for most being husbands and fathers in this present age, these roles are temporary; partial preparation for and a foreshadowing of the ultimate rule to which God created us to serve. To that end sin and death did not alter God's purpose that man should be immortal. Bodily resurrection is now God's primary bridge to immortality. It is about rising to die no more. This is stage two of human existence leading to rule over all the works of His hands. All who ever lived and died will be raised from the dead to immortality, but not all will enjoy God’s eternal life and glory brought to light by Jesus Christ (John 5:24-30; 2 Timothy 1:8-10).
Every aspiring strong man of God should be fervently living out our mortal lives to please God while eagerly looking forward to the hope of immortal glory through Christ who has gone on before us and is soon to return (Colossians 1:9-18, 24-28; Titus 2:11-14)! Our mortal experience swallowed up in immortality will be in time by roughest comparison like a grain of sand at the universe’s center; in quality, no comparison! The apostle Paul teaches us to live now as if Christ has already raised us to immortal glory. This being the case, we are to set our minds on and value the things important to Heaven where Christ is already seated in immortal glory (Colossians 3:1-2).
This does not mean as some charge teachers like me teach that to please God we must withdraw from the world and take a vow of poverty. Conversely, it certainly does not mean that we sell our souls out to pursuing pleasure, money and things to the point Kingdom priorities in the Gospel and this life are lost to us (Luke 12:15-21; Colossians 3:3-6). I have known too many professing Christians that have allowed the pursuit of riches to ruin their otherwise promising spiritual walk as the Bible forewarns (1 Timothy 6:6-10). Nevertheless, I am a living witness of the gracious provision God extends to the man who puts Christ and His Kingdom first (1 Timothy 6:11-16).
Therefore, let every aspiring strong man of God in the image of Christ be the husband to his wife, father to his children and son to his parents God's Word requires in the power that our eternal Companion, the Holy Spirit supplies. However, know He is not just concerned for our fruitfulness in those temporary roles, but also as God designed in our eternal roles as sons, disciples and servants of God and fellow man. In all our roles the Spirit prepares us for eternal service as rulers with Christ over every creature and created thing our God has made as part of our glorious inheritance in Him (Romans 8:15-23; Revelation 22:1-5). Do not miss out seeking after yours now! The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, "Who is on the Lord's side?"
In one of the most condescending, no-brainer statements that could ever be uttered, there are professed Christians saying “men and women both need to be saved and restored in Christ.” Of course, this is true! However, I have repeatedly heard a number of local church leaders make statements like this in an attempt to diminish at best and at worst, derail my work and that of a growing number of men’s ministries that God is raising up to do the priority work of restoring men they are failing to do.1 This is not about men being better than, superior to or hatefully excluding women. It is about men being God’s appointed leaders beginning in the family as He designed it for this mortal age!
Such families cannot excel or be strong apart from men that know God and His will for them from His Word; men who are restored through salvation and aspire to be strong men of God in the image of His Son, Jesus Christ, which is biblical manhood! The evil and blasphemous attempt to craft an exclusively egalitarian Christian message beyond the Gospel is confused and a sinful human attempt to please people, not God; crafted as it is from the satanic confusion of worldly wisdom and compromised corruption of God’s Word in an effort to build and sustain churches as thriving religious enterprises of human pride, achievement and enduring legacy (1 Samuel 15:1-12; Acts 20:28-30).
Indeed, the Lord’s methods and example of intentionally reaching men in the divine purpose, their assigned leadership roles and responsibilities are completely ignored by many churches in these latter days (Genesis 1:26-28, 2:7-24; John 1:35-51). Never mind the world culture of rebellion against God’s program for men is collapsing under the weight of the many sinful, out of control men that rather than protecting children for example, are instead preying on them as I write briefly about in this edited 2011 post.2 In their quest to please people, rather than being the solution from God’s Word to His glory, too many churches are part of the problem; offering up powerless forms of Christianity that are empty of biblical substance and worthless to God and men needing His restoration.3
Originally Posted November 13, 2011
The scandal that broke this week at Penn State University over the coach accused of molesting boys who looked up to him,4 has been a powerful reminder to me that my quest from the Lord to restore men is truly needed and must entail the salvation of the soul first! Regardless of the criminality and sickness of the soul that molests children, it is the void of spiritual separation from God as a sinner and the powerlessness of slavery to sin that causes a man to yield to his base desires.
In my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics,5 a serious discussion about being the man God designed is not started until first a man is made to know from God’s Word that he is a sinner in need of the forgiveness, life change and power God alone provides to restore him. Please continue to pray for the boys that have been harmed in all of this while also praying for the salvation of the accused perpetrator. Pray too for God’s restorative remedy in the unspoken reason so many of our children are easy targets for sexual predators in sports and beyond: the absence of their fathers (Malachi 4:4-6; Luke 1:11-17).6
1 As one inmate of many I have taught over the years recently wrote and I quoted on our Salary Campaign Platform: "I'm 42 years old. (I have) been to prison 2 times
and many churches and until now, have not learned my purpose on earth as a man until meeting Rev. Kelley." Our Ministry is ready to serve with local churches to
restore men biblically, not replace them. However, authentically compelled by the Lord we cannot sit idly by as the status quo among too many churches is to mar-
ginalize men.
2 Protecting our children is one of four primary responsibilities God has assigned men as husbands and fathers. Listen to a 10 minute summary audio teaching on
these responsibilities the Lord leads me to give on the Web Site of Men In The Arena.
3 Many of these churches no longer even preach the Gospel for salvation as commanded during their assemblies (Mark 16:14-16; 1 Corinthians 15:1-4)!
4 See the FOX News story. If as I wrote in the December 1, 2019 repost, Men To Look Up To, under the category, The Cause, Tony Dungy is the Christian standard
as sports coaches go, this man was far from it.
5 The book is available in print or digital download formats at major internet booksellers such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, ChristianBooks.com and Apple (digital only).
6 Learn more about this Ministry’s quest to restore men on our Web Site, https://thestrongmanofGod.org. Also, visit our related Facebook Strong Man Ministries and
Resource Pages.
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