“Do impulses toward sadistic cruelty lurk in the depths of every human psyche?”- Anthony Storr
“Man with all his noble qualities still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lovely origin.”- Charles Darwin
The Creational Male is the first of the six stages of manhood. We are definitely not saints because for every heavenly thought we have there is the downward pull of our devilish and sinful flesh. We could have the most noble desires and within us is seated the unexpected savagery of man. Margaret Mead said, “We as men (and all of humankind) are noble savages“
This first stage on the masculine journey is the only stage that also includes the females 0f the world. Every other stage is totally exclusive to males. The use of the word Adam is uniquely creational and we are creational kind of guys. We were not created to be alone or to benefit ourselves and we owe something back to our creator. It is written that man does not live on bread alone. (Deuteronomy 8:3) We are the Lord’s earthly representatives. We should have a relationship with the living God and we should also have a benevolent relationship with the earth and our fellowmen. (Which includes women.) “O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.” – Jeremiah 10:23 Genesis 1:28 tell us of our duty regarding wisdom, care and stewardship of God’s creation. We have accountability. We are to include justice, kindness, and humility before God. This was given to Adam. If we men try to run away from our Creator and try to run from our responsibilities we are really running from ourselves and running from what it means to be manly. All men have the holy spirit following us around. When we realize what it is that we are rejecting and running from and know that it is the creator and the character of Christ we fall down prostrate and see the Creator that we were created for. This is called repentance, it’s in the Bible and repentance is a manly thing. If we don’t accept this we will never be the men we should be.
Turning again to the word Adam, we find that we are to have a certain relationship with women, our feminine counterparts. “ And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.” (Genesis 2:18-25) There is much more to this than the thought of opposites attract because the Lord created men and women as opposites. What a mystical and magical thing there is with this relationship. It’s as if God certainly had a sense of humor. If you are married you know exactly what I mean. And as a man, when I get out of the shower in the morning and look in the mirror at the equipment that was made on me I can tell I was created to go with another.
Please remember your worth, men. Because we are creational we have a dignity and we have a value. Our worth does not come from our performance or what we achieve but rather it comes from our being, from our birth. We have incredible value just because we are, because we were made, not because of what we accomplish. It should be encouraging to know you have value and the value is for no other reason than you are you. When we get disgraced and our dignity gets dinged which is really called pride in our society, it just tells us who we are and what we are, Creational Males.
Well, that original high esteem and dignity we were made with by God didn’t last too long. Probably if Adam had not sinned we would have been immortal. Young men always deny the sense of mortality that us older men begin to feel and realize. It’s that foreboding sense of mortality and the deterioration of the human body that God said would be limited because of the curse. We thought we would live forever and not have a heart attack, lose the ability to do things on our own, or literally lose our minds. When you pass a cemetery just know that people are just dying to get in there. I am amused when people are talking about the end while getting legal affairs in order and they say, “If anything happens to me”. Hey brother, I’m here to tell you, “something will definitely happen to you, you will die.” Every one of us will die and turn back to dust. (Numbers 16:29 and Psalm 90:3) We are dependent. Yes we are. My very breath is in my creators hands. (Ecclesiastes 12:6-7) I sleep trusting Him to keep me breathing during my sleep. The very sleep is His gift. (Psalm 127: 2)
Lastly we should address this noble savagery. “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” (Galatians 5:16) Whether male or female we humans always have the battle raging between flesh and spirit. The intent of the heart in men and women (all humans) is evil from youth. “And the Lord smelled a sweet savour; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.” (Genesis 8:21) It is very hard to explain how in “civilized countries” we have the surprising level of violence, greed, human degradation and depravity we see. Underneath our noble presence and our refined culture lurks a sea of horrific evil. We may appear to be saints but underneath is a savage. How is this? Why is this? Should we be surprised by the savagery of our souls?
We are made in God’s image, yes we are. We posses immense capability for good. 
However, because we are creational beings we also have a freedom of choice that allows us to be drawn to unholy paths and become the most evil of creatures. Until we realize the evil we are capable of it is difficult to believe the presence of Christ means so much. It’s sobering to know what it is we are saved from. For folks to think the world is made up of just good or bad people is a naive. To say we are the good guys is crazy, We need to remember what is written in Ecclesiastes: “We have vanity, we have evil, and we even have insanity in our hearts.”
In the end we die and our physical bodies go back to dust where they came from. Our soul does to either Heaven or Hell. And yes there is a Hell. See my post called Hell is Real. So I’ll end this one with the fact that decay always wins. (Psalm 49:10-12) “For he seeth that wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to others. Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names. Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish.”
Credit goes to The Masculine Journey by Robert Hicks.
Come back for stage two which is Zakar: The Phallic Male. Click here to jump to stage two.
Yours truly,
The Tubthumper
