Mature Manhood
Becoming Men in a Church Steeped in Effeminacy
As we prepare to launch into the topic of birth control, we felt the need to pause and address the issue of effeminacy, a root cause condition underlying this issue, as well as several others we will be covering in our series The Seven Deadly Sins of American Christianity. This newsletter is chapter VI of an upcoming eBook titled, The (Ef)feminization of the Church: How American Christianity Lost Its Way by Losing Its Manhood. Chapters I, II, III, IV, V, and VI can be found here, here, here, here, here, here.
Where have all the Christian men gone?
Recently in the American Church there’s been a string of high-profile falls from grace involving prominent ministers and parachurch leaders being outed for egregious, previously hidden, and in some cases even illegal, sexual sins. We are talking profound levels of dysfunction here, and we probably don’t even know the half of it.
Our purpose in mentioning this is not to name names or rehash the gory details. Plenty of others have already done this, and we are not interested in grabbing any stray dog’s ear (Proverbs 26:17). Our point is simply to note that God’s judgment is very much being visited upon the American Church at the moment for her many unrepentant sins. And underneath the sordid mess lies and cover-ups is a number of underlying, root-cause conditions, chief among them the scourge of effeminacy.
That the Church is thoroughly afflicted with this creeping disease is evident upon even the most cursory of examinations.
Think about it. Have you noticed how culturally non-existent the American Church seems to be of late? How so many Christian leaders appear to lack the strength and moral authority to speak up and stand against the increasingly blatant evils of our time? How women are so often the braver and bolder of the two sexes, both in the Church and in the public square?
If you answered “Yes” to any of the above questions, then you have already tasted the soft, rotten fruits of effeminate Christianity, whether you realized it or not.
In our extended examination of effeminacy we have uncovered its ultimate origin in man’s complacent compromise in the garden, studied its personal and national characteristics from scripture and recent American history, explained the role women play in enabling it, and discovered how the person and work of Christ are the only solutions to it.
There are only two questions left to answer by way of applying all this to the American Church: “Where have all the Christian men gone?” and “How do we get them back?”
In other words, where has our fire gone (2 Timothy 1:6), and is there any hope of rekindling our flickering, effeminate flames (Isaiah 42:3; Matthew 12:20; Revelation 2:5)?
In this final chapter, we will take the principles we have drawn from scripture regarding effeminacy and apply them to the moral morass that is modern American Christianity. We will focus on the major inroads of effeminacy in the Church’s leadership, as well as the lives of everyday, ordinary Christian men, providing counsel from God’s word on how to address and progress beyond them.
Perhaps it’s too late for the American Church as a whole, or even America itself, to avoid the full brunt of God’s ongoing and coming judgments.
We don’t know—God knows.
Whatever the case may be, there may still be time to turn things around in our lives as individual Christians, families, and worshipping bodies. The best policy is always to correct course while it is still “today” (Hebrews 3:7–15), for there is no other day than “today” for getting right with God: “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22, 23).
Compromised leaders
One of the main lessons to be learned from the recent spree of pastoral implosions in America is that the Church’s leadership class, like that of the state, has a slew of skeletons in its closet, personal and institutional rot that would have never seen the light of day had these leaders had their way (Matthew 23:27):
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness.”
The Pharisees looked the part and played a good game, but it was only a game. The enemy clearly has mounds of dirt on our leaders (Revelation 12:10), and he is not opposed to blackmailing.
But before claiming “the devil made us do it,” or any other such cop-out, we mustn’t let ourselves off the hook too easily. Of course, the world, the flesh, and the devil are always in cahoots at one level or another in all our failures. But what these dark revelations concerning the private lives of some of our most trusted and revered leaders show us is that the Church is not so much “under attack” from an enemy without as it is surrendering to that old three-letter enemy within: sin.
Indeed, the real blackmailers in these conspiracies of silence are the leaders themselves, men who threatened both victims and would-be whistleblowers with fire and fury if they even thought about exposing them.
At the end of the day it is our own rotting, stinking flesh—not the demonic principalities and powers, or even the popular targets of conservative media—that is primarily to blame for neutralizing so many Church leaders today (James 1:13–15). It is those inside the household of God that we must judge, not those outside (1 Corinthians 5:12, 13):
“What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. ‘Expel the wicked person from among you.’”
Even so, one has to grant our leaders at least some credit, for when it comes to giving their people a free pass on their moral failures, they certainly preach what they practice. Like the hawkers of cheap indulgences in medieval Catholic Europe, modern American preachers are all too happy to sell an indulgent gospel of “sin, rinse, repeat” in exchange for steady income. Leaders who are themselves compromised cannot stand up to the compromises of their people.
When men “fall” into sexual sin, it isn’t as if gravity is to blame. We love the fleeting pleasures of sin, and so we willingly choose to give ourselves to them, time and time again. As we do so, we gradually lose the capacity to stand against them.
Because of this, we become softer on sin than a big city Soros DA on crime. Before you know it, anything goes. Like the unsuspecting men of Shechem limping helplessly in the midst of their own slaughter (Genesis 34), our lusts make us a party to our own destruction.
What form does this destruction typically assume? In the chaos that inevitably ensues in the absence of strong male leaders, weak, unqualified men worm their way into the pulpit to fill the void, promote an even softer stance on sin, and prey upon the vulnerable (2 Timothy 3:1–9). The full embrace of depravity now firmly under way, gullible, unstable women, of the sort that fall head over heels for hardened inmates, lead the charge forward into ever more untethered expressions of “tolerance” and “compassion.” “Kindness is everything!” they shriek, as they descend into the next ring of the inferno.
How are we to put an end to, and even reverse, the tragic trajectory of effeminate leadership, especially in its more advanced stages of degeneracy?
First off, leaders in the Church who have committed gross immorality must confess their sins publicly before the Church, without hedging, sanitizing, or redacting the more unsavory parts, and immediately step down from pastoral office, never to be restored to it again.1 No more clandestine elder meetings, slaps on the wrist, sweepings under the rug, months-long furloughs, and convenient reassignments to other churches. It was wrong when the Catholic Church did this for its pedophile priests, and it would be equally wrong for our predatory pastors (Matthew 7:15). Such men have disqualified themselves from church leadership roles (1 Corinthians 9:27), and in the worst cases may even have forfeited their souls (2 Peter 2:3). That is how deadly serious these crimes are, and we must treat them as such.2
Secondly, we must recommit ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the word (Acts 6:3, 4). Prayer that God would raise up faithful shepherds to replace the wolves and strengthen the few who are still holding the line (Jeremiah 3:15; cf. Jeremiah 23:4): “Then I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.” God’s people perish in our day, as in every day, for a lack of knowledge, both of God and of His word (Hosea 4:6). The words of our Lord on this point are as urgent today as ever before (Matthew 9:37, 38):
“Then He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.’”
There is a famine in America, “not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD” Amos 8:11.
Lord, send the rain of your word and Spirit (Deuteronomy 32:2; Hosea 6:3)!
Thirdly, in the words of the Apostle Paul, we must “Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy” (1 Corinthians 14:1). What the Church needs now more than ever are resolute, Spirit-filled prophets like Moses, men that will pulverize their people’s sins and, if necessary, make them drink their bitter consequences until their bellies are full to bursting (Exodus 32:19, 20; cf. 1 Corinthians 5:4, 5).3 Instead, what we mostly have are feckless leaders like the high priest Aaron, pushovers who quickly cave to the sinful demands of the people (Exodus 32:22–24).
Enough.
It is time for us to find our backbones and stand unwaveringly against the craven capitulations of this evil day (Ephesians 6:13). To do this, we need power from on high from the Holy Spirit, who alone can transform timid souls into bold, unflinching champions for Christ (Acts 1:8). “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline” (2 Timothy 1:7).
Giving our strength to women
Effeminacy is a profound spiritual sickness that renders grown men powerless and ineffective. But it does not do so without our consent. Far from it.
As Christian men, it is fully within our power to either give away our power through sin or consolidate our power through faithful obedience to Christ (Romans 6:13, 14). If we choose the former, we have only ourselves to blame.
Perhaps the leading sexual sin behind effeminacy among American Christian men today is the viewing of pornographic materials on the internet.4 According to research conducted by the Barna Group, 68% of men who attend church, as well as a full 50% of pastors, regularly view pornographic materials on the internet.5 Think about that the next time you attend church. There is literally a coin flip’s chance that the man you see standing before you in the pulpit actively and knowingly engaged with online pornography during the week leading up to the sermon you are hearing.
This is a scandal of incomprehensible proportions and is absolutely unacceptable for men who profess the name of Christ.
And yet, as disastrous as these findings are, we should not be the least bit surprised if the true extent of this problem is actually far worse than the statistics would lead us to believe. Like the proverbial ox led to the slaughter (Proverbs 7:21, 22), millions of Christian men in America have been sapped dry of their vitality (1 Corinthians 6:18) by the deceitful wares of the digital prostitute (Proverbs 31:3): “Do not give your strength to women, your vigor to those who destroy kings.” Truly, her victims are a mighty throng (Proverbs 7:26).
The implications of the porn epidemic for spiritual well-being of the American Church are profound and far-reaching.
Effeminate men are malleable, pliable, and easily manipulated. This is why we call men who lack a strong moral resolve “squishes” who inhabit the “mushy middle.” It stands to reason, then, that someone who makes a habit of repeatedly succumbing to pornographic temptation denigrates his manhood, damages his moral agency, and devolves into a defenseless doormat for the devil. They cannot overcome their own besetting sins, so how could they possibly help their fellow Christians confront and overcome theirs (Matthew 7:3–5)?
It is a proven fact that a man who cannot rule the members of his own body cannot rule the members of his own family, church, or country. The beat down, sold-out effeminate cannot even stand tall before his mirror, much less his God.
It does not have to be this way. It is well past time for us to cut ties with the pornographic puppet masters that are pulling our strings at will.
We must repent of our adulterous leering (Matthew 5:28), seeing it for the soul-deadening poison that it is. If this requires changing our tech habits, even drastically so, then so be it. Jesus said it would be better to lose an eye or hand than to lose one’s soul for eternity over such offenses (Matthew 5:27–30). How much more, then, should we be willing to ditch even our most “indispensable” of gadgets if that’s what it takes to kick the habit?
Perhaps many of us would rather part with a limb than with a smartphone. But, then again, Christ never promised the road to eternal life would be easy (Matthew 7:14). Quite the opposite.
“Then Jesus told His disciples, ‘If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me’” (Matthew 16:24).
Hard is the way
Besides pragmatism, America’s only truly homegrown philosophy,6 the dominant philosophical approach to life in America today would have to be utilitarianism, with its mantra of “maximize pleasure and minimize pain.”7 Clearly, this maxim forms the working assumption behind many, if not most, of our everyday decisions, even among professing Christians. Aim for the greatest possible happiness here and now and, whatever you do, avoid suffering of any kind at all costs.
You know, just like Jesus did.
The Apostle Paul describes this exact mindset in his second letter to Timothy, and as you may have guessed, his assessment of it was not exactly a rosy one (2 Timothy 3:1–5, emphasis mine):
“But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.”
Here, again, we see the unmistakable connection between the effeminate addiction to pleasure and false, impotent religion.
The Church of the living God (1 Timothy 3:15), founded on the immovable rock of Christ and His holy teachings (Matthew 7:24, 16:18), should stand in stark contrast to the peoples and institutions of this passing age. Instead, we as American Christians have, for the most part, been conformed to the pattern of the ungodly world around us (Romans 12:2). Our “go along to get along” attitude has arisen from our lax and loose approach to the manly, rigorous demands of the Christian life.
Apparently, hauling a rugged cross beam around each day (Luke 9:23) is no match for the comfortable trappings of the American Dream—a dream, we might add, that is rapidly turning into a nightmare (1 John 2:16, 17).
Brothers and sisters, this is not the way we learned Christ (Ephesians 4:20). This may be the way of the Benthamite and the Epicurean,8 but it is not the way of the Christian (Matthew 7:13, 14, emphasis mine):
“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”
The hard way of Christ knows nothing of the delicate fancies of effeminacy. People that build on the soft, sinking sands of sin and self, rather than on the solid rock of Christ (Matthew 21:42; Mark 12:10, 11; Luke 20:17), become soft and sinkable themselves—and the softer they are, the harder they fall (Matthew 7:26, 27).
As we have noted before, one of the calling cards of effeminacy is throwing in the towel all too readily under temptation, trial, and testing. This sort of conditioning not only softens us to future temptations, it also hardens us to the life of God (Ephesians 4:18, 19, emphasis mine):
“They [i.e., unbelieving gentiles] are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.”
Soft men have hard hearts.
To fight back against the tidal wave of effeminacy inundating the modern American Church, we must recover an understanding of the value of God-ordained hardship and suffering. There is, after all, such a thing as “desirable difficulty,” without which life’s most valuable lessons tend to lose their gravity and staying power. Ideal circumstances and easy accomplishments tend to lull us into a self-satisfied complacency, stagnating and even reversing our spiritual progress toward perfection (Matthew 5:48; Philippians 3:12).
Adversity, on the other hand, tends to draw us to God in search of a righteousness that is not our own (Philippians 3:7–10), making us more Christlike, confident, and compelling in the process.
When God providentially brings about difficult, trying circumstances in our lives, rather than reflexively bolting for the exit, we must learn to let patience have her perfect, character-building work (James 1:4). I know, character building, like eating one’s vegetables, may be good for us, but most of us would prefer to just skip it and go straight for the good stuff. However, absent spiritual catalysts like suffering and the growing pains they induce, we tend to become developmentally stunted, baby Christians who are of no help to anyone, much less ourselves.
Rather than carefully structuring our lives to avoid hardship altogether, which is neither helpful nor realistic, we should take life’s challenges as they come, facing them like the men God has called us to be (Job 2:10): “Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” Jesus promised His followers that such troubles would come, offering us peace in the midst of them, rather than a parachute away from them (John 16:33): “I have said these things to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
In time, by overcoming life’s obstacles by faithful endurance in Christ, we will learn not to count such circumstances as strange and foreign things (1 Peter 4:12), but rather as causes for rejoicing (Matthew 5:10–12). Such trials not only strengthen our faith, they make us into the men and women God has called us to be (1 Peter 1:6, 7, 4:12, 13).
For the believer, wrestling always precedes worship (Genesis 32:22–32). Glory to God! He is treating us as sons (Hebrews 12:4–11).
Growing up
God’s desire for Christian men—and for all believers for that matter—is that they grow up to resemble the one true man, Jesus Christ (1 Timothy 2:5), the only one in whom nothing flattering or false, flaky or fickle, faltering or fallible was ever found (John 7:18; 1 Peter 2:22). In fact, God constituted the Church and its various offices for this express purpose (Ephesians 4:11–14, emphasis mine):
“And He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.”
One of the hallmarks of mature Christian manhood is a kind of self-mastery that leads to victory over temptation and a greater appreciation for the deep things of God (1 John 2:12, 13a):
“I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for His name’s sake. I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one.”
There is a progression to maturation in Christ. It starts with adoption and the forgiveness of sins in Christ, progresses to overcoming temptation and evil by the Holy Spirit, and results finally in a deep and intimate knowledge of God the Father. To achieve this final and greatest of all goals (John 17:3), one must first obtain, by faith, the first two. There are no shortcuts. We cannot remain infants forever (Hebrews 6:1–3):
“Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about cleansing rites, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And God permitting, we will do so.”
Owing to their repeated bouts with various and sundry trials, mature Christian men are battle tested, proven, and resilient (Proverbs 24:16; 1 Timothy 3:10). Their walk with God exhibits a kind of settled, gritty resolve that cannot be faked, at least not for long. Though not yet perfected (Philippians 3:12), and still very much in the fight (1 Timothy 6:12), mature men of God have learned how to exercise dominion over their fleshly passions (Genesis 4:7). In the case of such men, “The head rules the belly through the chest.”9
Conversely, the scriptures teach that men who are ruled by their baser impulses are not really acting like men at all, but rather as “brute beasts” driven by their untamed animal instincts (2 Peter 2:12; cf. Psalm 73:22, Titus 1:12, 13, Jude 1:10). Over time, such individuals are reduced to what Lewis famously dubbed “men without chests,”10 empty, hollowed-out husks of men who do not, and indeed cannot, resist the devil and submit to God (James 4:7). “Ever learning, but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 3:7), effeminate Christians remain stuck in a state of perpetual immaturity, insisting on infant’s milk over “meat for men”11 (Hebrews 5:12–14, emphasis mine):
“For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.”
Spiritual adults are wise to Satan’s ploys and have learned not to fall for them (Matthew 10:16; 2 Corinthians 2:11). They can spot temptation coming a mile away and avoid it, rather than being naïvely taken off guard by it: “Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature” (1 Corinthians 14:20). Grown men reject the immature ways of their youth (1 Corinthians 13:11; cf. Psalm 25:7),12 chief among them the inability to do the right thing when doing so proves sufficiently disagreeable.13
Spiritual children, be they four or forty-four, find it nearly impossible to say “No” to their overpowering fleshly urges. Try as they may, their infantile tendencies just keep getting the better of them. As such, they are routinely outmaneuvered by the same old “rope-a-dope” tricks from the enemy’s playbook, spending a great deal of their time exhausted, face down on the mat. Not only that, but when their sinful tendencies are pointed out to them, they tend to immediately shift blame, as our father Adam did after the fall (Genesis 3:12). Mature men own their sin, but the immature never accept responsibility.14
To whatever extent you have lingered in the shallows of extended adolescence, we implore you to humble yourself, confess your sin to a trusted, mature brother, and make today the last day you indulge, however “innocently,” in the guilty pleasures of soft and juvenile men.
Mature Christians know their marching orders: repent (James 5:16), read the Bible at length daily (Romans 10:17; Colossians 3:16), ask for the Holy Spirit (Luke 11:13; Ephesians 5:18), pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17), repent again, do the hard, but necessary thing (1 John 3:7), and so forth.
Beloved children, if these things characterize our Christian walks over the long haul, then at whatever stage of spiritual maturity we presently find ourselves, we will be well on our way to adulthood before long.
The long view
A related tell tale sign of effeminacy is the inability to forgo instant gratification for long-term benefits, especially if said benefits fall primarily or solely to posterity. It is this short-term, “prisoner of the moment” thinking among our nation’s political leaders, for example, that is condemning future generations of Americans to lifelong sentences in debtors’ prison.
Just as Esau, the ostensibly manly outdoorsman (Genesis 25:27),15 sold his lasting birthright for a temporary fix (Genesis 25:29–34), many in the Church of the firstborn (Hebrews 12:23), in love with this present world (2 Timothy 4:10), are rejecting their eternal, heavenly birthright (Ephesians 1:18) for the fleeting pleasures of sin (Hebrews 11:25).
Seasoned men of God see through the lies and distractions of this passing age (1 Corinthians 7:31) and have set their sights on a higher prize: a life well lived for “things eternal” (Matthew 25:23; Romans 2:6, 7; 2 Corinthians 4:18; Philippians 3:14). They understand that this life is a vallis lacrimarum (“vale of tears”; Psalm 84:6), a brief, often painful pitstop on the road to eternal, glorious joy (Matthew 25:21, 23; Romans 8:18; 1 Peter 5:10; etc.). They do not seek their fortunes in the here and now only, but prioritize richness toward God (Luke 12:21) and treasures in heaven (Matthew 6:19–21). Like Christ before them, they endure all things (Philippians 4:13) by taking the long view (Hebrews 12:2).
Without this mindset (Philippians 2:3–5; Colossians 3:1, 2), Christian men have little hope of resisting the effeminate siren song of comfortable, “have your cake and eat it too” religion. American life holds forth too many distracting temptations to resist without eternity “stamped on our eyeballs.”16
When Christian husbands, for example, refuse to lead their wives sacrificially, with patient strength and understanding (Ephesians 5:25; Colossians 3:19; 1 Peter 3:7), our marriages can quickly lose the plot (Ephesians 5:31-32), devolving into chaotic, self-justifying, “fight or flight” free-for-alls, with divorce and unlawful remarriage waiting eagerly in the wings.17
When Christian fathers fail to raise their children with the end goal in mind (Proverbs 22:6; Ephesians 6:4), our children eventually, to one extent or another, link arms with the godless culture, bringing shame on the names of Christ and of their parents.18
When Christian leaders allow worldly concerns and financial incentives to choke out their long-term fruitfulness in ministry (Mark 4:19), the Church, both present and future, suffers the loss (1 Corinthians 12:26).
When qualified and called Christian men retreat from public life, evil weaklings rise to political prominence in their stead. Good men disappear, the vulnerable suffer, and society groans under the tyranny of women, children, and their effeminate accomplices (Proverbs 29:2; Isaiah 3:11, 12). As the oft-repeated saying goes: “Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.”19
These are the precedent setting, generational curses of effeminacy, and we simply cannot abide them.
Men of God, we must embrace patient suffering in this life (James 5:7-12). As Jesus our captain and forerunner (Hebrews 2:10, 6:20) showed us, there is no other way (Matthew 26:39; Mark 14:36; Luke 22:42). We must be willing at times to “go without” for now so that both we and others can reap the benefits later on.20 God will take care of us. Our faith will be vindicated. Our families, churches, and nation will be blessed for as long as the Lord may tarry. And best of all, God’s power will be manifest in us, both now and forevermore (Ephesians 3:20, 21, emphasis mine):
“Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”
We must never forget that it is when we are weak that we are truly strong, for God’s power is made perfect in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9, 10):
“Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
Yes, you read that correctly. We can delight in such deprivations, knowing the good that will come of them.
Brothers, this is a masculinity that the world knows not of.
The time has come to toss aside this world’s paltry offerings once and for all, and together set our sights on loftier things, things that transcend our short earthly spans and win us immortality and heavenly commendations (Romans 2:7, 8):
“To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, He [God] will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.”
These are the stakes. This is the adventure God made us for.
“Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also; the body they may kill: God's truth abideth still; His kingdom is forever!”21
Hallelujah! Praise the LORD!
Let us march forward into eternity to make these things our own.
“Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.”
—Philippians 3:13–15
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This of course does not mean that such individuals should not be restored, upon their repentance, to general Christian fellowship as members of the Church, for this is commanded in scripture (Galatians 6:1), only that they must not be restored to offices of Church leadership.
Indeed, if actual criminal offenses have been committed, then law enforcement must be notified immediately, or we will be even more complicit in these crimes. Some sins are also violations of civil law and may merit prison time or even capital punishment (Acts 25:11; Romans 13:3, 4).
Borrowing from scriptural imagery (Proverbs 26:11), the Puritan Thomas Books said “Repentance is the vomit of the soul,” a vivid metaphor if ever there was one.
Although we plan to cover what the Bible calls porneia at length in a future series (see sin number six in our list of The Seven Deadly Sins of American Christianity), we would be remiss if we did not mention pornography here in conjunction with effeminacy, given that the former is such a major driving force behind the latter.
For more information, see “Hope in the Midst of Porn Addiction” by Landon Tucker of Lifeway Voices and “Porn in the Digital Age: New Research Reveals 10 Trends” from the Barna Group.
This school of thought was founded by Americans Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914), William James (1842–1910), and John Dewey (1859–1952).
The founder of the utilitarian school of thought was the Englishman Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832). One could also make a strong case that utilitarianism’s ancient predecessors, Hedonism and Epicureanism, dominate American life as well.
See footnote 7 above.
C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man. The full quote is as follows:
“The head rules the belly through the chest – the seat as Alanus tells us, of Magnanimity, of emotions organized by trained habit into stable sentiments. The Chest-Magnaminity-Sentiment – these are the indispensable liaison officers between cerebral man and visceral man. It may even be said that it is by this middle element that man is man: for by his intellect he is mere spirit and by his appetite mere animal.”
This phrase comes from the title of Leonard Ravenhill’s book Meat for Men.
These of course would not include the childlike trust and submission that Jesus commands believers to exhibit in receiving their Father’s kingdom (Matthew 18:3; Mark 10:15; Luke 18:17). Such attitudes and behaviors, ironically, are the marks of both childhood innocence (not sinlessness) and mature Christian faith.
As it turns out, this test is one of the most accurate, tried-and-true methods of determining whether one’s profession of faith is actually worth anything: “Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as He [Christ] is righteous” (1 John 3:7, emphasis mine). When the rubber meets the road, do we simply do the easy, expedient thing, or do we man up and do what is right, no matter how difficult? This is what separates the spiritual men from the boys, the walkers from the mere talkers.
See “The definition of immaturity” from “How Did We Get Here? The backstory and heart behind the League of Believers newsletter.”
As demonstrated in chapter two from the story of Samson, Biblical masculinity cannot be automatically equated with the external trappings of the rough and tough blue collar type, nor can effeminacy be instantly equated with the gentler, more reserved white collar type. Jacob and Esau illustrate this point nicely.
Unlike his burly brother, Jacob preferred tent-dwelling to the outdoors (Genesis 25:27), but he was certainly no sissy—he worked his tail off in the unforgiving fields of Laban (Genesis 31:36–42) and even went toe-to-toe with God in a wrestling match, and prevailed (Genesis 32:22–32).
Esau, however, in spite of his masculine persona, was indeed rather effeminate when it came to firmness of resolve and character (Genesis 25:29–34, 26:34, 35; 27:30–41; etc.).
This phrase is often attributed to the great American pastor-theologian Jonathan Edwards (from Grace Gems):
“Where will all of our worldly enjoyments be, when we are laid in the silent grave?
Resolved, to live as I shall wish I had done, when I come to die.
Resolved, to live as I shall wish I had done, ten thousand ages hence.
Lord, stamp eternity on my eyeballs!”
For a detailed explanation of the Biblical teachings on divorce and remarriage, see the League of Believers eBook Adulterating Marriage: Exposing the Church’s Fatal Compromise on Divorce and Remarriage.
Gone, for instance, is the ubiquitous refrain of mothers from a generation ago: “Wait till your father gets home.” Forget the Bible and millennia of human tradition: when Dr. Spock the parenting “expert” came around, suddenly everyone knew better. Effeminate approaches to child rearing, including the so-called “gentle parenting” movement of more recent years, are resulting in generations of spoiled, disobedient children who cannot take “No” for an answer (Proverbs 13:24): “Whoever spares the rod hates their children, but the one who loves their children is careful to discipline them.”
G. Michael Hopf, Those Who Remain.
We honor, for example, America’s Founding Fathers for their selfless courage and foresight in putting their own immediate interests aside for the sake of future generations, concluding the Declaration of Independence (1776) with these moving words: “with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.” If these men would do such a noble thing for the blessing of their country and their posterity (see, for example, the Preamble to the United States Constitution), how much more should Christians sacrifice for the citizens of God’s eternal kingdom?
From the hymn “A mighty fortress is our God” (1529), by Martin Luther, translation by Frederic Henry Hedge (1852).