The Scourge Of Racism
E-Book Availability 4/12-26
Released January 5, 2024
Download Your Copy
Now In The Strong Man Store!
Once again the anniversary of the 911 terror tragedy is upon us as we remember the many lives lost and hurt to our national ego. Beyond its use by the fictional film character, James Bond, referring to how he wished his martini drink made, Collins Dictionary states, “If you say that someone has been shaken but not stirred by an experience, you mean that they have been slightly disturbed or emotionally affected by it, but not deeply enough to change their behavior or way of thinking.”1 While there was a disruption in the national comfort zone Americans enjoy from the threat of foreign invasion, within a few weeks of 911 most were back to their regular routines--shaken, but not stirred!
Since 911, numerous school, other mass, gang and police shootings killing many have again and again shaken our citizenry, but not enough to stir folks en masse into adopting any new ways of thinking or behaving that would mitigate such violence. Sure, there is always the initial emotion in the face of the tragedies that causes marches calling for gun control and government hearings. Laws are passed as they were after the recent Uvalde, Texas school shooting, but as before, things quickly settle down and Americans return to their usual patterns. Few seem to consider that as the Bible declares the problem is ultimately the evil of the human heart (Jeremiah 17:9; Mark 7:20-23).
Mankind has a medical fix for most everything these days, but has none for the resident evil in the human heart. However, the God of the Bible does have the fix through the Gospel of His Son Jesus Christ! If a man will only confess and repent from the evil in his heart through sin and believe the Gospel that Christ died for his sin, was buried and rose again on the third day God will forgive him. He will also fill him with the Holy Spirit who is able to give him a new heart! However, since everyone claims to be good contrary to God’s assessment, many will not accept His fix (Romans 3:10-12, NKJV). So, our unsaved citizens especially are left being repeatedly shaken, but not stirred.
This is the case even in the face of seeing what God in His Word also foretells about “evil men” (with Christian impostors) growing “worse and worse” in these latter days (2 Timothy 3:13, NKJV). It is at this juncture that faithful Christians and students of the Bible2 should be fully understanding of the how in our Lord Jesus Christ’s prophecy of these times when He declares: ‘“And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold,’” (Matthew 24:12, NKJV). Repeatedly being shaken by lawlessness to include violence and murder without being stirred, eventually leads to cold, dead hearts that are completely unfeeling and uncaring about it. May remembering the evil audacity of 911 today, at least stir us Christians in love to continue proclaiming the Gospel to our lost citizenry!
1 See the phrase definition on the Collins Dictionary Web Site.
2 Such ones include every aspiring strong man and great woman of God in the image of Jesus Christ I write about in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics. It is available with the companion Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study and Great Woman Of God Women’s Group Study in the Strong Man Store, at your favorite internet bookseller or brick and mortar bookstore.
Not only do faithful Christians seeking to obey Christ’s Great Commission face a steadily closing window of opportunity, hardening and cold hearts resisting the Gospel and our witness in these latter days as I have been writing about,1 but diminishing returns on the investment of time, energy and expense made in making disciples! Simplified, diminishing returns is an economic concept companies use to help them understand how costs increase and profit margins decrease over time producing their products. They can typically predict when they need to either make adjustments in their product, spending on it or consider the feasibility of abandoning it altogether.
Faithful Christians need to understand how our preaching of the Gospel and witness of Christ as a spiritual product is also subject to diminishing returns and be encouraged. In the first place, since our product is of divine origin in Word and Person, it has had and has staying power (Matthew 24:35, 28:18-20)! After nearly 2,000 years the Gospel still saves and the testimonies of the saved remain unimpeachable. So, there is nothing wrong with our product. No adjustments are necessary in the Gospel or our witness of its life changing results in Christ though, a number in these latter days have been foolishly and corruptly making them to build their own doomed made to order churches!2
Second, our Lord warned of such days as we live in where it would cost us more in time, energy and expense including blood to present the Gospel and witness Him making disciples (Matthew 24:9; Mark 13:11-13; Revelation 6:9-11). One reason for this is that the world is now, saturated with our product! There are relatively few major population centers left in the world where the Gospel has not been preached and a witness of Christ given.3 Spiritual apathy, increasing secularization and rising hostility greet bearers of the message in nations such as our own where Christianity as biblical or manmade religion with apostasy has been settled in for centuries.
Another reason is violent persecution brought upon believers in other nations as the Lord warned where once there was a toleration of Christianity, but now, due to a return to indigenous and national religions it is regarded as a threat to be destroyed. This mentality will reach its global zenith shortly under the auspices of the Antichrist (Daniel 7:15-25; Revelation 13:1-10). Consequently, nearly 2,000 years later our fishing nets are not as full as they once were as recently as the Billy Graham era just last century; diminishing increasingly until that “night” arrives and “no one can work,” (John 9:1-4, NKJV).4 Even so, all of this for us means the glorious Second Coming of our Lord with His eternal rest from and rewards for our Kingdom labor is closer still (Revelation 14:13, 22:12).5
1 Read the August 28, 2022 post, It Is Now Or The Peril Of Never, under the category, The Cause and Shaken, But Not Stirred, posted September 11, 2022, under the category, Biblical Worldview.
2 See the June 5, 2022 post, Made To Order Church?, under the category, Instruction.
3 Though these are minimal outcomes, they are important in the primary mission Christ has given His followers (Mark 16:15-16; Luke 24:44-49; John 20:19-23; Acts 1: 6-8). If after preaching the Gospel and witnessing Christ no disciples are made or churches planted in a locale (as is often the case in these latter days), we have done well since we are not accountable for the people’s response (Luke 10:1-12; Acts 2:36-47)! In the days of the Antichrist when his reign of evil globally ends the public preaching, witnessing, making, baptizing and teaching of disciples along with church planting by God's mortal saints, He will send an angel with only “the everlasting Gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth” a final time (Revelation 14:6-7, NKJV)!
4 This does not preclude spikes in the harvest of disciples made such as during the Holy Spirit sparked revival I joyfully await that ensues when He marks out the rem- nant of Israel as foretold in a second fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy (Joel 2:28-29; Revelation 7:1-8) before God’s severe trumpet warning judgments begin (Joel 2: 30-32; Revelation 8-9).
5 While as I write in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics, the first motive of every aspiring strong man and great woman of God in serving our Lord’s Kingdom purposes is love for Him, His promised rest and rewards are excellent biblically taught motivators also (2 Timothy 4:6-8; Hebrews 4:1-13, 12:1-2)! The book is available with the companion Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study and Great Woman Of God Women’s Group Study in the Strong Man Store, at your fa- vorite internet bookseller or brick and mortar bookstore.
I was struck by the innocence in Daniel’s words as if for the first time, I read what he said to the new Persian king after being delivered by God from the lions that were supposed to kill and devour him. Over the last forty years plus as an eager Bible student I have read through and studied Daniel 6 many times. Until now, however, never had Daniel’s words in verse 22 touched my soul so deeply. And why? Not only is the Word of God like that of course, filled as it is with multiple layers of application and ever deepening meaning for those of us that study it regularly, but as Daniel faced the man who had condemned him, so, in my life journey I have interacted with whites who hate me.
Now, in context, the king in vanity Daniel faced had been tricked into condemning him to the lion’s den and only after he had no way out in accord with the laws of his kingdom. The king also genuinely cared about, valued and trusted Daniel to the point he would make him the second highest ranking official in his administration. No, it was not the king, but Daniel’s words of assurance to him, “I have done no wrong before you,” (Daniel 6:22b, NKJV) that so stirred my soul because of the hate around the king that had brought about the whole evil situation. Daniel’s haters were willing to even disregard his faith in the living God and kill him rather than see him advanced by the king.1
Many whites from slavery have had this same attitude toward their black fellow Americans. So prevalent, widely dispersed and persistent throughout every segment of the society has this hatred been for generations that it is righteously portrayed as systemic. I am among countless blacks from slavery who have wondered to ourselves and out loud what is it that makes our white countrymen that are guilty--many claiming to also be Christians--hate and despise us so?2 Consistent with the irrationality of evil, many cannot even put the basis for their hatred into sensible words. This accords with what the Bible teaches is the reason humans hate each other: sin in us (Galatians 5:19-21)!
Indeed, with hatred that gives rise to racism is superiority born of arrogant pride, entitlement, selfishness, envy, jealously and resentment. The long standing attitude of superiority among guilty white Americans at the highest levels of governance and across socio-economic strata is historically well documented. For example, in its 1857 Dred Scott decision, the Supreme Court opinioned slaves were only property and not citizens with any rights ‘“the white man was bound to respect.’”3 Just a few years later in 1861, Alexander Stephens, Vice-President of the newly formed Southern Confederacy asserted, ‘“…the Negro is not equal to the white man. That slavery-subordination to the superior [white] race-is his natural and moral condition.’”4
Resentment embodied in America’s racism is like the man who has his way with a woman, then, despises her afterward (2 Samuel 13:1-18). For this cause, since the end of slavery a number of whites have advocated for blacks to return to Africa. But while a relative few did return, God perfectly just prevailed on the hearts of the majority of blacks and whites that this was not the right course since though our West African forefathers had wronged Him as sinners in their native land which He punished short of what was deserved, they had done no wrong to this nation; having been forcibly brought here firstly out of His permissive will (John 19:10-11).5 Also, no black person will be in Hell just for being black since truly, the living God our Creator made us this way (Acts 17:26-28)!
1 Daniel did no wrong in the court of Heaven to faithfully continue his habit and practice of daily spending time with God in prayer as a matter of their ongoing relationship. Such should be the case for every aspiring strong man of God in the image of Jesus Christ who also made prayer a priority in His life (Matthew 14:23; Mark 1:35; Luke 5:16, 6:12). Learn more about Him as the Strong Man of God in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics, available in the Strong Man Store, at your favorite internet bookseller or brick and mortar bookstore.
2 Do I really need to cite chapter and verse from the Bible here to demonstrate how the claim to be a Christian while hating anyone much less a fellow believer by its in- struction is totally inconsistent? Yet, I will cite some Scriptures so a guilty reader may repent from hating or mistreating any person or brother in Christ whatever his hue (Lamentations 3:34-36; John 13:34-35, 15:12; Romans 13:8-10; 1 John 3:10-23, 4:7-11, 20-21, 5:1-3). For not the mere words of faith, but also the deeds of all will be judged by God (Romans 2:1-11; 2 Corinthians 5:9-11; James 2:14-26; Revelation 20:11-15)!
3 David Barton, Setting The Record Straight: American History In Black & White, (Aledo, TX, WallBuilder Press, 2004), 23.
4 Barton, 30. Of the most tragic outcomes of continuing racism in our nation and professing Christianity is the fact that because of the arrogant pride bred superiority in- trinsic to it, there are whites (and some self-hating blacks) who will eternally perish in Hell because in racial bigotry they refused to receive the Gospel, the Lord’s instruc- tion, rebuke of their sin and heretical doctrines, call to repentance or warning from His Word coming through what is to them an inferior black man they are not duty bound to hear!
5 The sovereign God maintains control over the affairs of men on earth! Nothing; absolutely nothing happens to any people outside of God’s perfect or permissive will and foreknowledge. Thus, as the Lord instructs Pilate about how He was in his hands, so too, by way of application my West African forefathers through God’s permissive will were brought to America to be slaves (Psalm 107:10-16; Lamentations 3:37-42; Ezekiel 18:4). Consequently, we are here in His purposes with much suffering and many tears in our struggles first for freedom then, to this day sadly, to be treated as equal citizens. In this latter struggle, those of us that are biblically conservative Christians persist for righteousness sake by faith in and service to God as a witness to those who hate us while waiting for Him to bring the perfect equity of His King- dom! Read the November 29, 2015 post, When The Glory Comes, under the category, Glory To God! Also, visit The From Slavery To Victory Education Project at https://fromslaverytovictory.org to learn more about the victories of faith.
If ‘“the people of the prince who is to come’” (Daniel 9:26b, NKJV) are those of the first century Roman Empire identified in a previous post as history also affirms,1 then, how can this future prince or ruler to emerge from them be the “he” of Daniel 9:27a, NKJV since the Empire ceased to exist after their capital city, Rome, was overrun and conquered by barbarians in the fifth century A. D.? In chapter two of Daniel, God explains how this is possible through a dream He gave Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, and provided a much younger Daniel the interpretation (Daniel 2:19-23). In chapters of his book that follow, God also reveals details to Daniel about this coming prince.
As Daniel’s dream interpretation asserts and history attests, the Roman Empire was “divided” West and East in 292 A.D. by Caesar Diocletian (Daniel 2:31-42, NKJV). It was the western half that was brought down by barbarians in 476 A.D. while the eastern half continued and thrived; eventually morphing into the Byzantine Empire that fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. Meanwhile, the Catholic Church in the West took it upon itself to preserve Western Civilization embedded in the heritage of the Roman Empire and played king maker among those European lands that came under its sway. The Orthodox Church of the eastern Empire did the same reaching as far north as Russia.
Thus, with the mingled “seed of men” West and East, much of the Roman Empire’s legacy of governance, knowledge and culture garnered especially from others they assimilated such as the Greeks for example, has been kept alive (Daniel 2:43, NKJV). Important among the intermingled peoples that have tangibly kept much of the heritage of the Roman Empire alive is our own United States of America. The colonial product primarily of the British Empire once itself in large part a conquest of Rome, it can be seen in our preservation and promulgation of Western Civilization, republic form of national government, its building architecture, democracy and eagle as an emblem.
Our nation’s Roman legacy is shared in common with other nations also spawned by the imperialism of the British Empire and major players of mainland Western Europe it continues ties to that Rome previously ruled or dominated. While our nation is as strong as iron on the battlefield normally, many acknowledge our political and social fragility as well as fragmentation which with all other democratic nations possessing Rome’s legacy, perfectly fits Daniel’s brittle, two feet profile of division. The brief history of democracy as even fine tuned by our nation and turbulent current events proves Daniel is correct that the strength of iron is not mixing well with weak, fragile clay.2
Ancient unified Rome’s assimilation of other kingdoms under the Caesars did not stop with adopting and/or adapting the aforementioned items of their civilizations, but also entailed the spiritual characteristics and methods that show up in their raw ambition for dominion and territorial expansion through conquest respectively. For this cause, despite what will have been a relative few centuries of democratic governments compared to human monarchies, this present world ends with “kings” and “kingdoms” again that are broken into “pieces” and consumed by God’s Kingdom from Heaven.3 His Kingdom will not be “destroyed” or “left to other people” and is “forever,” (Daniel 2:44-45, NKJV)!4
Indeed, a later vision given to Daniel and New Testament prophecy converge and complement each other as it is revealed that after the physical fall of predecessor kingdoms Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and unified Rome, a divided Rome’s two feet with their spiritual qualities and methods move forward in final form to ten toes as “ten horns” or kings that rule the world (Daniel 7:1-7, NKJV). It is very important to understand why the spiritual qualities and methods of these kingdoms do not change over time. It is because as Daniel learned in yet another vision they are from the same source: eternally living demons (Daniel 10:10-14, 20-21; Revelation 12:3, 13:1-2)!5
This latter time Roman Empire divided among ten kings exists in de facto form when the prince to come begins his rise to prominence. He does this by negotiating a seven year ‘“covenant’” with Israel that allows the Jews to conduct animal sacrifices on the grounds of their newly built third Temple in the face of an angry world (Daniel 9:27a; Revelation 11:1-2, NKJV). This starts the final seven years of God’s prophetic timeline vision! Due to the world’s violent hostility and for more ‘“prophesy’” to it, God brings out His ‘“two witnesses’” He gives ‘“power’” to protect Israel for ‘“one thousand two hundred and sixty days;’” the first half of the seven years (Revelation 11:3-6, NKJV).
1 See the January 30, 2022 post, The Right Side Of History, under the categories Bible Prophecy and Biblical Worldview.
2 America earned its leadership of the West on the battlefields of Europe in two World War victories being as strong as iron. However, the sedition of Southern States leading to the Civil War of history and on the brink of collapse now, with angrily intensifying political and social divisions in disunity shows how fragile our nation has been and is.
3 Our democracy may be the best system of government ever invented by noble men seeking to honor God by installing His great spiritual, moral and ethical teachings of the Bible in its founding documents. However, as they themselves acknowledged, the experiment would fail unless the people were biblically moral. And we see today they were right! For this reason, perhaps, the Lord did suffer the creation of our nation as a final, failed best effort of sinful men to govern themselves. What we need and only God can provide is His Kingdom of perfect righteousness! Even so, I am grateful to God and pleased to have been born a fallen sinner and citizen of America where in freedom, I heard His Gospel, repented, believed and now, live out my days in peace with Him; serving and waiting for His Kingdom to come!
4 The nearness of God’s coming Kingdom should stir every Christian man’s heart to prepare. Bench sitting in these times will not do! Get stirred up reading the series the Lord led me to write in the summer of 2017 beginning July 30th, Restoring Men In The Two Minute Drill, under the categories Bible Prophecy and The Cause that concludes September 3rd and also serves as a great supplement to this post. Too, get my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics, available in the Strong Man Store, at your favorite internet bookseller or brick and mortar bookstore.
5 Again, the control and manipulation of mortal men and their worldly kingdoms which belong to him is a vitally strategic part of Satan’s war against God (Luke 4:5-8).
With the humble disclaimer that because of my many failures in the past before and after being saved as well as a less than stellar evaluation from my wife after checking in with her before sitting down to write this post, I am by no means the poster man for fulfilling everything I am writing about promoting females. Nevertheless, I aspire as in all things related to becoming a strong man of God in the image of my Lord, Jesus Christ, our example for which my wife gave me brownie points--less than perfect man that I am! Keeping it real ladies, imperfection is a major part of the problem many of you have with and want to fix in men while you revel in all of your own splendidly displayed!
Let’s start with whether there is a biblical mandate for males to be concerned about the welfare and promotion of females at all. Yes and it runs as a narrative thread throughout the Bible! The mandate with an affirmation of female importance is initiated by God’s actions at the creation to wit: “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…,” (Genesis 1:27-28a, Emphasis Mine, NKJV). Females are not an unnecessary appendage to males, but a functional part in the design of mortal man by God and vital partners to fulfilling His purposes of procreation in and ruling the earth (Genesis 1:28).
In His purposes, God made sure the first male saw the value of his female partner by initially showing him life without and no other corresponding creature like her (Genesis 2:18-20).1 Then God did something thoroughly unique in the way He had been bringing forth creatures. He put the first male, Adam, to sleep, opened up his body, took out “one of his ribs,” closed him back up and proceeded to construct a female from the rib He had taken out. When He was finished, He brought her to Adam after which he uttered his famous response: “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man,” (Genesis 2:21-23, NKJV).
God’s approach to creating her and that foregoing statement of the first male about his female companion plainly assert for all time the intrinsic equality, worth and dignity she has with him! In their creature being, man the male and female are made of the same inner and outer stuff and are uniquely of the same kind. There is no other creature exactly like man--male or female. These truths scream equality, but they fall on deaf ears today because now, in their sinful, fallen state females believe they have gotten the short end of the stick since though just as capable in many respects, God in sovereignty has elected males to be the lead rulers in His order of mortal mankind.
Today’s full on rebellion against God by particularly Western females and their male supporters has not improved on His order or mankind at all. It has served prosecuting females well during this time God has tolerated their acrid ascendancy, but left in its wake much individual and family ruin as well as such disorder with other social maladies like sexual immorality and systemic racism, our society is teetering on the brink of collapse. While nothing I say will sway the most rabid, hardened feminists, I appeal in the name of Jesus Christ to any professed sisters in Him to realize it is a lie from Satan that God is not concerned for your proper advancement in this life.
The key word here is “proper.” Throughout the rest of Scripture God is seen stepping in to help females whether protecting them from the treachery of sinful men (Genesis 20; Numbers 27:1-11; Malachi 2:13-16; John 8:2-12), delivering them in dire circumstances (Genesis 21:1-21; Luke 7:11-17) or highly favoring them (Micah 6:4; Luke 1:26-38). And when it suited His purposes, in one case He advanced a female to rule over men for the sake of His people (Esther 4:13-17).2 However, as the unchanging rule of His order of mankind, God has not confused the issue by being so for females that He has reversed His righteousness on display from the beginning through the male as Federal Head and leaders of mankind (Genesis 5:1-2; 1 Corinthians 11:2-12, 15:20-23, 45-49)!
Therefore, in a biblical worldview, males do not advance females by leading them into rebellion against God’s order of mankind. All men advance females generally when we treat them with dignity and protective care; “understanding” and “honor” as the valuable partners they are as wives in God’s mortal purposes for mankind (1 Peter 3:7, NKJV)! Christian husbands love our wives “just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her;”3 loving them too, as we do our “own bodies.” Linking back to Adam’s understanding of his unique relation to his wife and famous exclamation the apostle Paul adds, “he who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church,” (Ephesians 5:25, 28-29, NKJV).4
As I write in The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics, God expects females to use the natural skills He has given them to be faithful companions as wives and helpers as mothers in the home first.5 But just like the woman written about in Proverbs 31, He does not limit her to managing the home nor should any male. God blesses the enterprising woman who fears Him as she uses her natural and acquired skills (such as are obtained through a mother’s training or formal education) outside of the home for the benefit of her husband, family and the community. Putting herself last, her ambition is to honor God and her husband; bless him and her household. Personal satisfaction, contentment and joy come in accomplishing these things, not fighting God’s order (Proverbs 31:23).
1 Read the series of four posts presenting the value of women beginning April 22, 2018 with The Value Of Women To God that continue for the rest of that month into May, concluding after Mother’s Day on May 20th. All posts in the series are under the category, God’s Creatures.
2 See the three-part post beginning April 18, 2021, Daughters Of This Age, under the category, God’s Creatures. The sovereign Creator can absolutely make an exception to His own rule, not the creature! Also, please note that Esther’s promotion was not the result of her fulfilling an ambition or lust for authority over men to be a queen!
3 Does any professed Christian in his or hers right mind really believe that in Christ’s sacrifice of Himself for His Church He surrenders the Headship God assigned to Him as Lord over her as a gesture of love and equality (John 17:20-26; Ephesians 2:22-23; Colossians 1:15-18)? No way! So, why are guilty professed Christian men thinking themselves so noble toward their wives and females they surrender their divine election to lead? Those doing so are not hearing from God, but are greatly deceived by the evil one since envy remains an eternally damning sin in His eyes (Proverbs 14:30; Romans 13:8-14; Galatians 5:19-21; James 3:13-18)!
4 If all males were treating females and our wives as I write here, then, none could deceive themselves about the demonically stirred source in sin of their ambition for all things male. It would clearly stand out as the evil it is!
5 The book is available along with companion works The Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study and Great Woman Of God Women’s Group Study at your favorite internet book seller and in the Strong Man Store.
As the Lord leads, I write to encourage the hearts of His faithful saints in the aftermath of my posts from July 4, 2021. In particular, I remind you that all we temporarily now, and will suffer through to the end of our mortal lives or the return of our Lord Jesus Christ is worth it since we are richly rewarded by Him eternally (Romans 8:18)! Until then, you know that it is our privilege to suffer to whatever extent we do in His likeness and cause to His glory (1 Peter 4:12-16). Trust me; I already know this is easier said than done. Yet, this is God’s will for us in spite of the falsehood in much of American Christianity that makes personal dream fulfillment, health and material prosperity its focus.
What exactly are we suffering for at the end of the day as Christians? Is it not for the sake of Christ as His followers and the Kingdom of God He represents as King and Judge?1 Yes, and He does not deceive us about the cost of following Him until He returns to bring the Kingdom of God to earth declaring plainly to all: “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross (an instrument of suffering and death), and follow Me,” (Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23, NKJV). Moreover, He soberly urges such ones to “count the cost” which is very steep in prioritizing first love for and sacrificial service to Him in His Kingdom causes (Luke 14:25-35, NKJV).2
This is just as He also lived and served His Father during His earthly sojourn; suffering the agony and humiliation of being crucified naked on a Roman cross to bring about our salvation as foretold (Psalm 22:1-18; Isaiah 53:1-9; John 3:13-17, 19:28-30). As our example in everything, He who insists we be prepared to suffer for Him and His Kingdom causes, suffered first and far greater than any of us that follow Him ever will (Matthew 10:16-33; John 15:18-25; 1 Peter 2:18-25)!3 Thus, as those redeemed for the Kingdom we suffer for its present message in the Gospel from God calling mankind to repent of sin and believe on King Jesus for salvation (Luke 24:46-48; Acts 17:30-31)!
Too, we suffer now, as He did for the Kingdom’s transcendent eternal principles, morality and ethics well articulated in the Bible (Psalm 119:89; Luke 21:33). God has given men freewill and the right to refuse the Gospel and Kingdom. Stirred by demons and hardened in heart by sin, many who reject the Gospel and Kingdom are not simply content with rejection, but feel it necessary to persecute believers among other wicked motives to justify themselves. The uncompromising stand of the faithful our God is “the only true God,” His Gospel the only means of mankind’s salvation and His Word the sole “truth” infuriates them (Isaiah 43:10-13, 44:6-8; John 3:18-21, 17:1-3, 14-17, NKJV).
Atheists, other secular unsaved, jaded unbelieving professed Christians as weak or outright false brethren and religionists along with apostates persecute the faithful around the earth with hostile mockery, scoffing, exclusion from family and community relations as well as support, destruction of personal and church properties, incarceration, physical violence and martyrdom as foretold. As also foretold, however, God will vindicate the suffering His saints have endured and our long wait in faith since the 1st century A.D. for it beginning with the destruction of counterfeit Christianity’s mother (Revelation 17:1-19:4). This is followed by Christ’s glorious return (2 Thessalonians 1:3-12)!
On that special one of a kind day, God in Christ will show the world how much He valued the faithfulness of His saints by glorifying us for all to unavoidably see. For the dead in Christ that are raised and His mortal remnant will receive from Him their immortal bodies aglow with the brilliant eternal glory of God shining from them against the backdrop of the darkened heavens as we obey His summons to join His glorious presence in the sky (Isaiah 13:9-10; Daniel 12:2-3; Zechariah 14:5b-7; Mark 13:24-27; 1 Corinthians 15:50-57; Philippians 3:20-21; 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17)! For most of the unsaved on that day, our eternal glorification will be among the last things they see alive on earth.
Gentile survivors with the protected elect Jewish remnant will see our reign with Christ over this earth and universe follow our glorification and full outpour of divine wrath (Daniel 7:13-14, 21-22, 27; Revelation 7:1-8, 20:4-6). We will reign as kings and judges as with all things pertaining to the eternal Christian life, in the image of Christ!4 This is exceedingly greater than Noah and Lot’s after wrath experiences! So then, let the faith in our God of the faithful--even every aspiring strong man and great woman of God in the image of Christ--take to heart all He has promised us as vindicating victory and be comforted in “the whole counsel” of His Word (Acts 20:27, NKJV).5 This is as I wrote to you in a previous word of encouragement.6 Our suffering for Christ is not in vain (James 5:7-12).
1 Read the August 1, 2021 post, Jesus Christ King And Judge!, under the category, Instruction.
2 See the two-part post beginning August, 18, 2019, Lined Up Behind Jesus, under the category, Instruction.
3 See the two-part post beginning May 17, 2020, Persecution, Hatred And Betrayal and Persecution Of American Christians Intensifying on November 29, 2020, both under the category, Bible Prophecy.
4 Read the July 19, 2020 post, Ruling The Earth Under Christ, under the category, Bible Prophecy.
5 As I write in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics, aspiring strong men and great women of God in the image of Christ are the Lord’s faithful! The book and companion Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study and Great Woman Of God Women’s Group Study are available at your favorite internet book seller and in the Strong Man Store.
6 See the August 16, 2020 post, To The Word Of God!, under the category, Encouragement.
Over the past thirty years mainly, I have been on a God stirred quest to understand myself as a fallen mortal man that was created in the divine image and likeness and with assignments from Him I knew very little about. I have written about how teaching on the topic was quite limited in the churches I had attended from the time of my full surrender to the Lord in February 1979 until the early 1990s when my then, pastor, in a small Fort Worth, Texas church, began a purposeful presentation on the family. At about the same time I was introduced to Promise Keepers and a growing national movement of men on a similar quest I later found had issues that I have also written about.1
The major crippling issue of our national Christian men’s movement and in the churches that welcome the associated ministries in to teach and train their men is the hypocritical attempt to fit the square peg of the Bible’s instruction on God’s order, the roles and responsibilities of men into their round hole of practice dictated by feminist ideology. I was never comfortable with this burgeoning situation, but had included women in the incorporation and oversight of Open Door Communication Ministries for example, in an effort to be open-minded. Meanwhile, I also continued my personal quest to learn from God’s Word what a man is for my own need and to teach men as a pastor.
Illuminating instruction from the Lord through His Word brought me to the inescapable conviction that man and womanhood were not just some add on church discipleship topics, but essential doctrine that flows powerfully out of God’s purpose to save mankind both in time and for eternity! In the grip of this conviction in 2002, I felt led by the Lord to write a little booklet titled, Man, published by the Ministry’s Publishing Division. Shortly thereafter in May 2003 though, I was brought to a spiritual crisis by not being able to reconcile the biblical doctrine on men I was learning with the church practice I and other pastors were hypocritically allowing as I later wrote in a 2007 article.2
Confiding my dilemma to a pastor mentor, he confirmed the need to make a decision about what I would do since I was so deeply conflicted. I went home that day and prayed; finding myself once again in another of those true disciple, cost counting moments that test the depth of our commitment to Christ as Lord and the Word of God as the final authority of our lives. He honestly warns anyone that would be His disciple up front it requires a willingness to deny self to the point of suffering and death and urges “count the cost,” (Mark 8:34-38; Luke 14:25-33, NKJV).3 For those that are initially willing to follow the Lord no matter the cost, crisis comes when that cost gets painfully real!
Especially before me that day was His question: “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul,” (Mark 8:36, NKJV)? Too, His soul piercing charge, “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes...,” was potent in the moment (Mark 8:38, NKJV). I repented of my compromise, unwillingness to teach, contend for or implement the “whole counsel of God” in His Word as it is written concerning men (Acts 20:27, NKJV). Deciding to proclaim and teach only biblical doctrine on men led to the establishing of Strong Man Ministries on October 1, 2005.
I was also led by the Lord to write The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics first published in 2011.4 Many men to this hour have been reached with the Gospel and instruction on biblical manhood to the glory of God! However, none of this has taken place without cost. Not only have I had very few invitations to speak at or bring instruction to Christian men’s events or churches, but I have also been purposely rejected from serving as a pastor because of holding true to God’s Word as it is written. Humanly speaking it hurts, particularly as professed Christian folk as the unsaved try falsely and carnally to make it something about me when they are the ones guilty of compromise (1 Peter 4:1-5). I stand firm there is no temporal worldly profit worth being unfaithful to God’s Word for!5
Now, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ I challenge every professed Christian man, pastor, elder, church and men’s ministry leader who have corrupted yourselves through compromise of the Word of God and what it says about His order of mankind, the roles and responsibilities of men to repent! Truly, are you really willing to gamble your eternal soul on the patently false supposition that the immutable God, Christ Jesus our Lord, has changed His mind about anything written in the Bible as His words (Matthew 5:17-20, 24:35; John 1:1-5, 14; Hebrews 1:1-4, 13:8-15)? “Yeah, but look at all of these mega and other large church pastors; their success clearly says God is okay with this,” someone will say. Get in your Bible sir; success is not necessarily an indication of God’s approval!6
Indeed, in His Coronavirus judgment God has shut down the churches of even the most successfully high flying pastors. He shows no favoritism! Pastor, I know the pride and fear that wells up in you to even think of having to admit you were wrong, misled and hurt people who trusted your subjective conviction that God was okay with your disobedient compromise of His Word. But this you must do if you will please Him and do His will since you already know remaining proud, defiant and stubborn in the face of His Word and call to repent will continue to be resisted by Him with more judgment (Psalm 138:6; Proverbs 3:31-35; James 4:4-10).7 You cannot prevail against God! The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, "Who is on the Lord's side?"
1 Read part one of the three-part post, In God’s Revival Men Are Restored, under the category, The Cause that begins on January 8, 2017.
2 See the part two conclusion of the September 2007 FSTVEP Journal, If Not The Church, Then Who? 3 Read the two-part post beginning August 18, 2019, Lined Up Behind Jesus, under the category, Instruction.
4 A print copy or digital download of the book published by the Publishing Division of Open Door Communication Ministries, Inc. with fresh editing in 2019 for greater clarity
and updated web addresses in the footnotes is available at major internet booksellers such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, ChristianBooks.com and Apple (digital only).
You can also purchase a print copy in the Strong Man Store.
5 This does not mean I cannot be (and have not been) tempted to evil compromise--only God holds that distinction (James 1:13)! Satan, the tempter is wily and relentless
in his attempts to get me to sell Christ and His Word out (and you too, if you are truly in Him). The truth is, we all have been tempted by the satanic deceit of feminism
from whatever weakness or desire of the flesh to believe the lies God is no longer honoring His Word as it is written, biased males from Moses and to include Christ for
centuries have misunderstood or purposely misinterpreted the Word to subjugate females or blasphemously, God made a mistake and is wrong (Genesis 3:1-6; Isaiah
29:16, 45:9-10; Romans 9:20; 1 Timothy 4:1-2; James 1:14). And now, having ignored the Lord’s warnings not to be deceived in these latter days and without repen-
tance, many guilty are enduring the consequent fruit of their sinful compromise (James 1:15-18).
6 Large numbers and the majority can be wrong in God’s economy as was the case with Israel’s ten out of twelve spies when they assessed their prospects of taking the
Promised Land (Numbers 13-14). Also, as it concerns success as an absolute standard of divine approval, read how successful Solomon was and how God dealt with
his disobedience in the end (1 Kings 9-11). Finally, for anyone that would suggest “The compromise has existed a long time” (over half a century intensely). “Surely, God
has not waited until now, to actually do something about it?” Please read of His longsuffering shown to Israel in sin over extended periods beginning in Judges before
bringing remedial judgments. He waited in the case of king Manasseh’s sins over a century before finally bringing severe judgment upon Judah; in the meantime, send-
ing His prophets unheeded to warn and call the people to repentance (2 Kings 21:1-18, 23:26-27; 2 Chronicles 36:15-16).
7 This means that unless those sponsoring calls to prayer, repentance and revival at this time or going forward are willing to confess and repent from all God considers sin
including capitulating to feminism and the related compromise (and in many cases, serious corruption) of His Word to justify it, their efforts are in vain. Again, someone
will say, “Those who have corrupted themselves do not wish to repent from what they believe is right.” Then, the Lord from His Word has already made clear neither will
He relent from carrying out His foretold judgment (Proverbs 14:12; Jeremiah 15:1-9; Ezekiel 14:12-23)!
Join The Strong Man Of God Resources Conversation!
Get Your Copy Of The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics Today!
Your purchase supports restoring men, families and communities through Strong Man Ministries!
Purchase It Now