equality – Auriesville Tubthumper

TITANIC MEN, WHERE ARE THEY? Part 3

When I left the last post, I mentioned I would bring up the term “Adolescence.” This term is largely a creation of our society. It has to do with growth from child to adult and the emotional and physical experiences to adulthood. Culture plays an important role in influencing childhood development, and what is considered “normal” varies greatly from one culture to the next. Actually, most of what develops in people comes from the parenting skills of those that are charged with training up the youth. Encyclopedia Britannica published that American psychoanalyst Erik H. Erikson described adolescence in modern Western societies as a “moratorium,” a period of freedom from responsibilities that allows young people to experiment with a number of options before settling on a lifelong career. Without clear roles, adolescents may establish their own pecking order and spend their time pursuing irresponsible or deviant activities. This has become a huge problem for us with the fatherlessness I mentioned earlier. Adolescence is usually a period when the youngster has an adult body after puberty but it still immature. It is a time when the person would be involved in much foolishness. This so-called adolescence period is accepted in our society, a time of fun for young males, a time that encourages visionless men that are only looking for the next piece of entertainment or a chance to put another notch on their belt. This adolescence thing does not exist in the Bible and it contradicts manhood.

We have all the thousands of abortions and baby killings going on around us and our men do not care. All they care about is the escape and the entertainment choices they have. Even within the modern church today some men are not living a life devoted to Christ and are living the ME-FIRST kind of life and not caring about the women and children of the church. They are not preparing themselves for leadership roles in church and not ministering in a devoted and meaningful way. It’s all about ME_FIRST!

Jesus did not go through a period of Adolescence. Growing from childhood into a young man then into manhood. That should be the model. THERE SHOULD BE NO SEASON OF FOOLISHNESS. Raise young men to be “MIGHTY MEN OF GOD.”

Today young men and boys are playing games (literally playing games on their smartphones) while Rome burns!

They just don’t care!! They just don’t care!

And speaking of adolescence, I just got a little distraction I can’t go without mentioning. Surprisingly I bumped into an article on my browser this morning that was written by one Mark Manson and was titled “What’s the problem with Masculinity.” I saw that he had a number of sources cited none of which was the Word of God. He used a bunch of pretty crass swearwords (most of the media today think that is cute to do) and early on asked the question, “Why are men such dicks?” Reading his article had me pretty much dis-believing this was a male writing. He pretty much slammed the young male species as being cruel and used an example of a boy picking on a girl. Well, I am here to tell you there are probably more cruel young girls than boys as I have seen it. The girls mature faster and usually are larger than the boys and there has been no lack of girls picking on boys. My wife tells me stories about how she used to feed her little brother actual mud pies. Oh my… I don’t know where this guy is coming from. He wants to know why us? Why men? He asks if its biology or evolution or some other cultural issue. Well Mr. Manson could follow these posts and also read the stuff on the Masculine Journey for some answers. He actually claims the answer is both biology and culture. I agree about the cultural thing which is evident in my writings but there is nothing inherently wrong with males that is biological. God made man in His own image. Plain and simple.

Mark Manson says that masculinity evolved for socially-beneficial reasons that are not applicable to today. Again, I believe he is dead wrong. He says violence has declined. I say where? He says and I quote, “Male advantages in strength and expendability are no longer necessary for a healthy society.” Again, I vehemently disagree with that statement. History has shown us that the decline of masculinity and the loss of the warrior in the males of society will lead to that society being destroyed. History is there for the benefit of knowledge for today. Lastly, he says we are more conscious of women’s rights and equality with masculine aggression presenting economic and liability damages. To that I say how could we not be more conscious of equality and women’ s rights with it being shoved down our throats daily for the last 100 years. And the women are becoming the aggression group now. Little girls are fighting in the schools not only with other girls but boys, like has never been seen in history. Maybe Mark has not been paying attention to these issues or the female’s massive male bashing in our society today either.

Another quote from him is, “The male body is becoming outdated tech” is he off his rocker or what? And he says we need to evolve our definition of masculinity and bring new worth like honesty, integrity, emotional openness etc. You are out of touch, Mark, those qualities have always been important. But along with those qualities it’s ok to be man and it is ok for us to have friends that are a man’s man. Keep your sissy’s they need not apply here.

Oh, one last thing on his article, he said this, “Men are so emotionally incompetent without women, getting married is literally the healthiest thing a man can do.” Women are the most emotional beings on earth! And guess what? It is supposed to be that way. Are you married Mr. Manson? Women are historically the most emotional side of the equation. At the risk of making the weaker vessel upset I will simply say that your comment is pure hogwash and those female emotions are probably why the Bible says its good for man to remain alone if he can.

Well although it provided some entertainment for me that is enough on Mark Manson’s article.

I need to explain the “Five Imperatives of Christian Manhood.”

Remember the key verses: “Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.Let all your things be done with charity.” (1 Cor 16: 13-14) Men this is an exhortation to you.

The five imperatives of Christian Manhood.

Be watchful and aware of the dangers in the world. Protect!
Stand fast in the faith- know what you believe and be courageous men willing to stand regardless of the cost.
Quit you like men… Or in other words, ACT LIKE A MAN. Conduct yourself like a man should.
Be strong- carry your responsibility and exercise manly strength.
All things are to be done with charity. All the above things need to be done in the spirit of love.

“And said, O man greatly beloved, fear not: peace be unto thee, be strong, yea, be strong. And when he had spoken unto me, I was strengthened, and said, Let my lord speak; for thou hast strengthened me.” (Daniel 10:19)

Men, God will provide our strength. I will say more about this in the next post. Satan’s work is all around you/us and the devil wants you to fail so call upon the Lord for your strength and the devil will flee.

“Be of good courage, and let us behave ourselves valiantly for our people, and for the cities of our God: and let the LORD do that which is good in his sight.” (1 Chronicles 19:13)

“Be of good courage, and let us play the men for our people, and for the cities of our God: and the LORD do that which seemeth him good.” (2 Samuel 10;12)

Be of good courage, and let us be strong: Courage and strength are not matters of feeling and circumstance. They are matters of choice, especially when God makes His strength available to us. We can be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might (Ephesians 6:10).

“Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give them. Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.” (Joshua 1: 6-9)

Men, God is saying, “Keep the law and don’t deviate from it for this is the way to prosperity and success. Observe it day and night and meditate upon it. As we turn to the first Psalm, we read, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law does he meditate both day and night, he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth fruit in his season, his leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper”(Psalm 1:1-3). Are you looking for prosperity, are you looking for success? God has given you the rules. Meditate in it, observe it, and thus shalt thou make thy way prosperous, for these are the rules to prosperity. These are the rules to success. So, the conditions upon which he can know the power, the presence, the victory.

Be in a partnership with God and victory will be yours!

We continue to ask what did the men on the Titanic know that men today do not.

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Please come back for the next post as we continue this quest for Titanic Men,

God bless you all,

The Tubthumper

TITANIC MEN, WHERE ARE THEY? Part 2

It’s a rainy day in April (to bring May flowers) so I’ll delve into part two of this important topic.

^“Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.”

Society surely has lost this definition for men. We have the gender distinction issues raging these days, or should we call it the gender war. Along with the effort to feminize the male gender. The well orchestrated project of making sissies out of our men.

This was written in the news just weeks ago: The Equality Act, sponsored by Representative David N. Cicilline (D-R.I.) and promoted by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), “would add sexual orientation and gender identity to characteristics protected by the 1964 Civil Rights Act.” Presumably, this would enshrine in federal law a standard dictating that a man claiming womanhood must be allowed access to the women’s arena (e.g., bathrooms, locker areas, sporting events). In reality, transgender ideology seeks to erase women and men: The whole idea is that people have “gender” (a psychological designation), that gender should take precedence over “sex” (a biological designation), and that it’s fluid. The ultimate reality, the theory goes, isn’t that you’re a “man” or “woman” but that you reside somewhere on a spectrum. (Also note that there are plenty of women claiming manhood and access to men’s private spaces.)

But look, the article goes on to say, “In fact, studies show that upwards of 80 percent of girls and 90 percent of boys who strongly “identify” as the opposite sex naturally outgrow the psychological problem.” A psychological problem and a sin problem, I say.

Here is an excerpt from a topic I wrote on long ago called the Masculine Journey. If you haven’t read that yet and you are a man you should go there later and be enlightened. So here is what defines a male from the Bible as written in that post. “This Hebrew word describes maleness in a basic and fundamental anatomical way. The Hebrew word zakar is the word for “male” in the phrase “God created man ‘adam, male zakar and female”, Genesis 1:27. If you check the Hebrew lexicons you will see they list the root of this term as “the male protrusion or male phallus”. According to Dr. Hicks, “This word reflects the phallic male in his most distinct sexual aspect”. We at our most primal level are sexual beings. The Bible is clear on this and does not pretend we are anything other than stated. To be a male means you are a phallic kind of guy and you do not have a need to apologize for being that way. You should never, ever allow it to be denigrated by women or by some crazy or crass individuals calling themselves men.”

So, there you have it. If the doc looks down and sees a penis, he says “It’s a boy.” And guess what, It’s a boy. Congratulations you are a male. And if there is a vagina he says, “It’s a girl.” Simple as that folks. And you cannot make one out of the other. All you can do is pretend. And pretend in sin they do. You can wish to be something all you want but God defined your gender when you were first conceived and before you were born.

Back to the father thing, 42% of males are born with no fathers. Many leave after the males are born so statistics are low. Boy’s don’t know what it means to be a man any longer. Fathers are not real fathers and have lost the ability to do the job. Fatherhood has declined and it continues to drop like a rock.

Fathers have been completely distracted with having too many interests, too many sports, too many hobbies, and everything seems to be getting in the way of discipleship of their children.

It is not only happening in the secular world and there seems to be no difference between Christian men, fathers and husbands from most men in the world. Sadly, most men that call themselves Christians are carnal or cultural Christians and they blend in with the worldly or pagan counterparts. There are a few strong Christian men that stand out of the crowd, but the majority are unseen. Can we re-claim the Christ honoring definition for manliness and if-so but how?

Many women survived the R.M.S Titanic sinking to tell the story of April 14, 1912. Communication back then was by newspaper predominately. It took a week for the news to get out across the land. 75% of the women were saved but 80% of the men were lost. That was because of the old law of the sea and the Bible “women and children first.”

An elderly woman was interviewed recently and said, “that was back in the day when men were gentlemen.” Today things are different, and the men would throw the women overboard. With exception, however, true Christian Men would lay down their lives to save women and children because they would follow the pattern of Christ. Christ is the Sacrificial Lamb that rules, protects, leads and guides which is the proper way for men. On the other hand, paganism uses women.

Christ defines manhood and what headship should look like. All that is needed is to look to Jesus Christ. Jesus is love, Jesus is sacrificial, and love is service to others. Jesus taught that when he gave himself on the cross for us. I find it ironic that I am writing this today which is the day before Easter and the day after Good Friday. Good Friday is our Christian Holiday commemorating the day when Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross at Calvary to save us all from sin. And tomorrow it’s Easter, the most important and oldest festival of the Christian Church, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ and held (in the Western Church) between March 21 and April 25, on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the northern spring equinox. He is risen!

Christ is the bridegroom and biblical manhood understands what love is. The bridegroom gave his life for the bride, which is His church. You and I if you call yourselves Christian. Love is sacrificial it is not sentimental, and it is service to meet the needs of others.

We should be very concerned with this generation because they don’t care about the Bride. Nor do they care about the Bridegroom. They don’t care about the Lord Jesus Christ. When we have our young males not caring bout the bride of Christ how can we expect them to care about a bride (a woman) they going to marry. The bride we are called to sacrifice for is the Church of Jesus Christ. The second bride we are to sacrifice ourselves for (if married) is our wife. A man must be sacrificial, Paul said in Chapter 5 of Ephesians that men should give themselves up just as Christ did. (Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church.)

The Bible has all our instructions and men should be following the Pattern of Christ. What is happening in our societal breakdown is that humans out there want to change things and erase the important laws and historic things provided to us. They certainly want to change or erase the Bible when it does not agree with their agenda. These people try to infect the thoughts of Christians with the idea that there is no divine pattern in the Bible, and they have the right to change things to fit our culture or whatever we deem necessary. Sadly, many of these change artists are teaching our children. Did you know that 90% of Christian parents send their children to public school to be controlled for 7 hours a day where there is no mention of God? That in itself is scary but then again in most Christian homes when the child gets back God isn’t mentioned there on a regular basis either. For these people to reject the idea that God has given us a divine pattern to follow is to reject the Scriptures themselves because they clearly teach that we are to follow God’s Word. For example, Paul told Timothy: “Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.” (2 Timothy 1:13) So you see, Paul says there is a divine pattern while the people that want to change it say there is not. The writer of Hebrews quotes what God says to Moses, “For He said, “See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.” (Hebrews 8:5) Reading this passage shows there was a divine pattern that Moses had to follow and there is a divine pattern for us to follow under the new covenant. Let us all strive to follow it.

Please allow me to spotlight the captain of the Titanic, Archibald Gracie. Mr. Gracie was groomed for greatness and he sprang into action. It was women and children first and he made no bones about it. He went down with the ship. He was able to climb on a piece of something floating, was rescued and testified about the incident but later died from his internal injuries sustained when he went down. He was a courageous man because as a young man his father modeled how to be a man. His father modeled what a Christian man is to be like, and he mentored his son into manhood. He was prepared by his father and his family and he was used by God to save many.

I’m out of space and time today folks and I’m just beginning, so please come back next time and I’ll write about our societal thing called Adolescence and the “Five Imperatives of Christian Manhood.”

If you are a male and wondering how you can possibly rise above all the attacks and be strong enough to stem the tide just stay with this and the answer will be revealed.

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God bless you all and Happy Easter,

The Tubthumper

You Must View God in 3-D, Part 3

The “I AM…I AM” assertion.

When we read the Bible in its entirety we can see there is no doubt Jesus is claiming full equality with the other members of the Godhead. Most specifically one saying speaks volumes for His deity and that saying is “I AM… I AM” which is an implication that He is the one and only God. That He is the self-existent one, identifying Himself with the Old Testament deity, “I am the Jehovah of the Old Testament”.

To be very clear it is important to point out the relationship to this particular saying and the deity of Christ. This saying is clearly showing Christ’s deity and the fact that He is the one God. Leon Morris said, “John’s use of the expression is distinctive. We get nothing like it anywhere else in the New Testament (except for a handful of passages in the synoptics); thus we must recognize that John is using the hallowed expression to bring out the truth that his Master was one with a special relationship to the Heavenly Father, a relationship in which he must be thought of as partaking in the nature of deity, and a relationship which does not compromise the truth that there is but one God.^[1]

One of the most powerful claims Jesus made during His life was “Before Abraham was I AM”. That statement relates back to the burning bush incident with Moses in Exodus 3:13, “And Moses said unto God, Behold, [when] I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, what [is] his name? What shall I say unto them?” What we see here is Moses asking God, “What is your name?” And then we see the answer in verse 14, “And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.” So He tells Moses, I AM who I AM. God wants him to tell them His name is “I AM”. When Jesus used this name He used the name of the one and only God, the true sovereign Lord. Jesus was making it very clear. He was saying, “Let me be clear, I am the one and only I AM”. So we see that Jesus is naming Himself the very name of God and the Jew’s knew it. They recognized the language. When they heard it they rejected the claim and picked up rocks and they tried to stone Him.

M.M. Ninan writes, “You see in those few words He said, “Ok folks, remember Moses out there in the wilderness? Remember the burning bush? Remember that God? Remember the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? Remember the God who brought you out of Egypt and out of slavery? Remember the God who gave you this land and destroyed all your enemies? Remember the God who said it is punishable by death to claim to be Him? Remember the God who created the entire universe as well as you? Remember the God who says He is the only God? Well, guess what? That is the God I am. That is the God I am claiming to be. No doubts, no questions, no confusion, I AM.”^[2]

Morris in his book, “Jesus is the Christ” tells us that Jesus was using language that accords with deity. He writes “I AM, mostly represents the speech of the heavenly Father or of the Son. The overtones of deity that we find in its use in the Old Testament are not lost when we move to the New.”^[3] Scripture showing this style of deity is found in John 8:18, “I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me.”

John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” This verse emphasizes the preexistence of Jesus. Philippians 2:6 shows that Jesus possessed all the attributes of God which includes preexistence.

To further affirm Christ’s deity Colossians 2:9 says, “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” So in Him the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form. John 10:30 says, “I and [my] Father are one.”

John 17:5 says, “And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.” Therefore, He had glory with the Father before the world began.

He is the great “I AM”. He is fully God in every respect. Jesus is equal with God; He is eternal with God; He is essential with God; He is God! He is everything.”^[4]

The deity of Christ is confirmed. Warren Wiersbe wrote, “Some students of John’s Gospel believe that our Lord’s words in John 4: 26 and 8:24, 28, 58, as well as 13:19 and 18:5-6 are all “theologically loaded” and affirm His deity as the great “I AM.”^[5]

He is the great “I Am…I AM”.

Continue to the next post and we will review the Holy Spirit in respect of Deity.

Have a Godly day,

“The Tubthumper”

Click here to go back to PART 1 or Here to go back to PART 2

[1] Leon Morris, Jesus Is the Christ (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing, 1989), 125.

[2] M.M. Ninan, “I AM”, Symbols Jesus Used to Explain Himself (Glendale, Wisconsin: Global Publishers, 2005), 9.

[3] Morris, Jesus Is the Christ, 109.

[4] Barry Davis, The Claims of Christ: What Jesus Had to Say about Himself (Bloomington, IN: Writers Club Press, 2001), 11.

[5] Warren Wiersbe, Jesus in the Present Tense: The I AM Statements of Christ (Colorado Springs, CO: David C Cook, 2011), 11.