From: Benjamin D. Mabee
To: Readers
Subj: BIBLICAL MANHOOD CONTRASTED WITH THE WORLD’S MANHOOD PART ONE
1. It’s not a secret manhood is perverted in the modern world. Making this claim wouldn’t exactly be breaking news. Attacks on manhood have been with us throughout all history, but in our day the attacks seem to be more acute. Maybe that is a byproduct of our experience in time, in our moment, everything seems more real because it’s happening now, and it’s happening to us. Even so, among Americans there is a common conception of a day in the not so distant past when men were men, women were women, chivalry and good manners were virtues, and life and society seemed better, at least, when we compared it to our modern woke world. Many people are looking back now at what once was, and wondering, “how did we get here?” This has produced a large amount of public discourse in all spheres of society and does not merit a repeat here. I even believe the conversation on wokeness and its ills is becoming tired, and a malaise on the subject is setting in. People are becoming bored with it. The shock value is wearing off. The more shocking reality is our nation’s general acceptance of it, specifically the institutional acceptance, something I think no one thought would be possible 20 years ago. Yes, the country is quickly abandoning God and all the former things that made it great. In their place, Americans are embracing, and amplifying all the former negative qualities of our culture and expounding them out to their logical ends. The point is, I want to talk about the attack on manhood, but I’m not talking about men in dresses or the transgender movement. The problems with those are obvious. Even the world understands this isn’t right. Did you get that? The w-o-r-l-d understands wokeness is wrong. The people who do accept wokeness on its face are in the minority, the election of President Trump in 2020, with 74 million legal votes, the most in American History, overwhelmingly proves this. That election was a total rejection of the communist infiltration of America and their rebranded class-warfare of wokism. Now, what is wrong with manhood if we’re not talking about wokism? Well, that is what I want to talk about today, and I think we’ll find the problem that must be addressed is much closer to the 74 million who voted for President Trump, than to the woke social Marxists.
2. In case it wasn’t clear, from here on, I’m not talking about wokism. There is a manhood the world accepts, and it can be described as “tough” and “macho.” The world’s conception of a man is one who drinks whisky and beer, not wine, smokes, ideally cigars, gets tattoos, asserts itself, does not allow for public disrespect, immediately reacts to any perceived slight, listens to angry music like heavy metal, or hip-hop, drives around in muscle cars, sports cars, raised trucks, or loud motor cycles, will settle problems with their hands, will chase after as many women they can get, will spend large amounts of time in bars or clubs, his heart and eyes are full of lust, he will obsess endlessly over hobbies, sports, gadgets, or games, will use large numbers of personal pronouns when talking to people, without being asked he will talk about himself and his accomplishments, will bend any moral virtue to protect his self-image and pride, he will put down or belittle you and your accomplishments, he will criticize everything that isn’t about himself, he will act angry to make sure everyone knows how angry he is, will curse and blaspheme the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, will not listen to people perceived as lesser, will not respect those who are superior, hates authority, cannot be told what to do, if given a command he will become your enemy, will not obey or behave appropriately, will mope if corrected, will take what is not his, he will care very much about what is his, will presume himself greater than his actual position, both in his career, church, and community, he will obsess over his status, will target anyone weaker than he for sport or gain, cannot be trusted, will break all oaths, cannot be told anything, expects what he does not give out, does not care about others more than himself, and finally and worse of all, loves himself above God. This man is violent, a drunkard, a liar, a thief, a blasphemer, he dishonors his parents, covetous, is an adulterer or fornicator, is proud, arrogant, selfish, vain, unjust, unrighteous, a scoffer, a mocker, and primarily, a fool, and an idolater. This is the world’s man. This describes conservative men, this describes liberal men, this describes many, many, self-professed Christian men. It sounds bad, what is the solution? Wokism and sensitivity training? – The left was right all along! I’m kidding. Some or all of these qualities may describe you. Some of them describe me, even now. Am I part of the problem? Yes. Are you?
3. I am the father of two boys under ten. In them I am able to see myself, I can see behaviors and attitudes that I have held and perhaps the Lord is still purging out of me through His glorious grace. I watch them, in their natural state, go and practice many of the qualities I described above, albeit in a much less pronounced-childlike way. The seeds however, are there for these undesirable behaviors. I find myself never really having to get on them about their need to behave poorly, it just seems to be natural for them. I spend much more time getting on them about how to behave well. The Bible, God’s inspired and preserved Holy Word, tells us the truth concerning this reality we all know. We’re all born in sin: “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.” (Psalm 51:5). When we’re born, we’re born in Adam, and in Adam we all die: “For as in Adam all die…” (1 Corinthians 15:22). Adam is the one man who made us all sinners: “…by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:” (Romans 5:12). God cursed Adam and all his posterity with death, because of his sin: “And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life… …till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” (Genesis 3:17,19). For this cause there are no righteous men born to Adam: “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:” (Romans 3:10); there are no just men on the earth: “…there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.” (Ecclesiastes 20:7); and all have fallen short of God’s mark: “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” (Romans 3:23). This is true for me, it’s true for my two boys, and it’s true for the 74 million people who voted for President Trump. Men and women are by nature sinners. They miss God’s intended mark for His Creation. Among other things, natural sin gives us the world’s idea of manhood.
4. The world’s man is therefore like a child. He started off in sin and was not corrected, he was allowed to mature into full adulthood without ever leaving behind the youthful lusts. Maybe take a moment and read my description of the world’s man again. It sounds like a child, maybe in light of some of the more mature critiques, it pictures a teenager, who in effect, is still a child. The world’s man and his manhood is a child and a child’s idea of manliness. These ideas are like a cartoon or a Hollywood action movie. They’re children with the strength, intellect, and power of adults. What is their common theme? Fathers not teaching their children to fear God. The father is designed to lead his home: “…fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” (Ephesians 6:4). Provoke not your children to wrath. Why are men so angry today? Why do they go about acting the way they do, fighting everyone, taking what is not theirs, listening to angry music, being angry all the time, and continually scaling up their emotions against the system? The scriptures teach a special relationship between fathers and their children. Fathers are to bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and they’re not to provoke their children to wrath. How are they provoking their children to wrath? The verse answers itself, there is a connection to instructing their children about God, their Maker. Fathers who don’t or fail to teach their children of God, the Gospel, and His commandments cause their children to wrath. It’s not just a warning against unbecoming conduct of fathers towards their children, even if it could be applied that way, there is a deeper connection to the responsibility of the father to teach their Children of the Lord. Men in particular are predisposed to wrath, unless it’s curbed by the careful nurture and admonition of the Lord, something only a father can give their Children. What then of the children who grow up with mothers only? They are not much different than children who grow up with fathers who do not exercise the authority and responsibility given to them by the Lord Jesus Christ, our Great Maker, who designed them both male and female, and their roles within the order of Creation.
5. Matthew Henry puts it beautifully: “[1.] Do not provoke your children to wrath. Though God has given you power, you must not abuse that power, remembering that your children are, in a particular manner, pieces of yourselves, and therefore ought to be governed with great tenderness and love. Be not impatient with them, use no unreasonable severities and lay no rigid injunctions upon them. When you caution them, when you counsel them, when you reprove them, do it in such a manner as not to provoke them to wrath. In all such cases deal prudently and wisely with them, endeavouring to convince their judgments and to work upon their reason.” [2.] “Bring them up well, in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, in the discipline of proper and of compassionate correction, and in the knowledge of that duty which God requires of them and by which they may become better acquainted with him. Give them a good education.” It is the great duty of parents to be careful in the education of their children: “Not only bring them up, as the brutes do, taking care to provide for them; but bring them up in nurture and admonition, in such a manner as is suitable to their reasonable natures. Nay, not only bring them up as men, in nurture and admonition, but as Christians, in the admonition of the Lord. Let them have a religious education. Instruct them to fear sinning; and inform them of, and excite them to, the whole of their duty towards God.” (MHWBC, EPH 6:4).
6. Fathers bear the responsibility for their children’s education of God. The fear of the Lord is the basis for all learning and understanding about God; scripture exhorts us 14 times in the book of Proverbs to Fear the Lord: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” (Proverbs 1:7); “When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord:” (Proverbs 1:27-29); “My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee; So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.” (Proverbs 2:1-5); “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.” (Proverbs 8:13); “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.” (Proverbs 9:10); “The fear of the Lord prolongeth days: but the years of the wicked shall be shortened.” (Proverbs 10:27); “The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death.” (Proverbs 14:27); “Better is little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble therewith.” (Proverbs 15:16); “The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom; and before honour is humility.” (Proverbs 15:33); “By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil.” (Proverbs 16:6); “The fear of the Lord tendeth to life: and he that hath it shall abide satisfied; he shall not be visited with evil.” (Proverbs 19:23); “By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches, and honour, and life.” (Proverbs 22:4); “Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long.” (Proverbs 23:17).
7. According to the scriptures our understanding of God must first begin with a fear of Him: “Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men” (2 Corinthians 5:11). If there is no fear of God before our eyes, what will restrain us from doing whatever our hearts desire? The scriptures teach the heart is the source of sin: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). The Nation of Israel was judged when they “did that which was right in their own eyes” (Judges 17:6, 21:25). The world’s manhood does not fear God and does that which is right in his own eyes. It establishes its own righteousness: “…being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.” (Romans 10:3), and it blames God as unfair for judging it as Israel did in their Babylonian Captivity: “Yet saith the house of Israel, The way of the Lord is not equal. O house of Israel, are not my ways equal? are not your ways unequal? Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord God. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.” (Ezekiel 18:29-32). In other words, fear God and live, abandon your ways, follow after the Lord and His commandments, and live; or die. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” (Galatians 6:7); “…be sure your sin will find you out.” (Numbers 32:22).
8. God’s idea of manhood is like Himself. The Apostle Paul said: “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 11:1). The Apostle Peter said: “For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:” (1 Peter 2:21) The Lord Jesus Christ is the example given for us to follow. Christ loved us when we were ungodly sinners, He is longsuffering, patient and kind, he commands us to love our enemies, and do double good unto those who wrong us, He told the truth unto death, He gave all that He had to others, He boldly proclaimed the glory and truth of God to everyman, had compassion on all, He did not resist evil, He rewarded evil with good, and He died in our place so that we might live if we believe. A man has authority, he must use it lawfully, he must be what God designed Him to be, and follow the example given to Him in the Lord Jesus Christ. The world’s manhood comprehends not the light of God’s manhood. Men must stand on the truth of God’s word, leading their families by example, and from the front. They need to abandon their natural sin nature by believing the Gospel: “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” (1 Corinthians 13:11); and they need to examine themselves in the mirror of God’s word, beholding the Lord Jesus Christ, and have His reflection mirror back to them: “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” (1 Corinthians 13:12). A man who loves God will do what His word commands, his deeds will manifest themselves as the fruits of the unseen faith within him (Hebrews 11:1), or else the mirror of God’s word will show him his own corrupt face instead of the glorious face of our beloved Lord: “Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.” (James 1:21-25). As men and as Christians we all need to examine ourselves and ask ourselves if we fear God, if we love God, and if we’re keeping His commandments. More to come.