News-Record.com

Oh boy... looks like another of these "Promise Keeper" types. Trying to get "manly men" interested in the religion, and downplaying the less macho stuff that the Bible has in it.

"Men want adventure and battles"? "They're meant to be warriors"? Yeah... that's what America needs today. More Christians who see life as a battle, and themselves as warriors to do God's fighting for him.

[me rolls me eyes!]

eric,
sometimes you surprise me ( in a good way )........
"that's what America needs today. More Christians who see life as a battle, and themselves as warriors to do God's fighting for him."...................
i agree with you that life should NOT be viewed as a battle as much as viewed as a mission. and great insight on your part to recognize that God needs no man to do His bidding.

Hey Nancy, change it to "too girlie.''

Actually, guys, life is a battle - a theme used across religious and philosophical lines: remember Krishna and Kurukshetra, Mohammad's Jihad, and the plethora of biblical uses, such as "fight the good fight," "put on the full armor of God" and "Our warfare is not carnal . . ." So healthy and balanced use of the imagery is quite fitting for modern Christian men - according to Paul, et al. - minus any crude macho-ism.

It is ceratinly true that modern Christianity has succombed to a kind of feminization of its message and MO. Godly manhood is both agressive and sensitive, loving and militant (for spiritual things: the Kingdom, Gospel preaching, etc.)

Men are constructed by God to be adventurous, problem-solving and leading. Our churches need to return to male leadership as ordained by the clear teaching of the Word, loving husbands who lead by servant example -but lead! and strong, biblically infromed cultural leadership as well - politically, economically and academically.

This is NOT to say that women cannot share in some of these areas as well; just that men ARE different - but not in the distorted and crude manner seen in our culture today - much of it a response to the general put-down and alienation of men by the feminist-inspired media and acdemic pundits - hyper-testerone over-reactions.

Onward Christian Soldiers!

Yet Jesus the Christ spoke of being peacemakers and not "taking up the sword."

Remember, it was NOT he who spoke in this "battle" imagery. So, who stands more likely in being correct?

Shalom

My point was not to say that either Jesus or St. Paul were encouraging Christians to make "carnal" or physical war; but to engage in the spiritual warfare that is a mega part of life. The goal is peace, but the struggle is intense in achieving it, both inwardly and in opposing godless and antichrist forces in the world.

As spiritual warriors, men in the Church must fight with all of the spiritual weaponry God has given them, and fulfill their calling as "mighty men of valor." The limp-wristed, feminized church has ceded far too much groudn to the enemy and has become a namby pamby day camp of passivity and religionism.

It is a wrong self-image, totally inconsistent wiht the Scriptures. No one is calling for reckless, machismo and mindless aggression; but well-informed apologetics and loving service - upholding the truth and opposing evil and error everywhere at every time.

Nikos, the ending line is what I strive to do on a moment-by-moment basis; "...upholding the truth and opposing evil and error everywhere at every time." I am glad that we agree on that.

Shalom

The perennial question, of course, is what IS evil and error. Without an authoritative, objective standard (Holy Scripture) we are left to the relativistic Vanity Fair of personal opinion, conjecture and guesswork that typifies our current cultural scenario; with no assurance whatsoever that anyone is right. It is difficult enough to "rightly divide the Word of Truth" because of human sin, falibility and ineptitude: but the alterantive is the sheer chaos of human subjectivity now regnant in much of our society.

The highest goal of any man (or woman) is to be a faithful servant of the true and living God, to love Him with all his heart soul, mind and strength - and to love his neighbor as himself. Denigrating and redefining God's Word is neither loving Him nor effectively ministering to others. Men cannot be energized and inspired with religious pabulum and insipid churchianity. Mealy-mouthed, feminized liberlism bears no more attraction to spiritually hungry men than a Saturday afternoon quilting party.

So Darryl, as along as we are upholding God's truth and opposing evil as HE defines it, we are to be commended. Otherwise, we qualify for Proverbs 13: 13 - 16.

The Greeks were not using the Christian bible in the days of Plato and Aristotle, but I'd hardly call them either limp-wristed nor unable to attain authoratative truths. Without their insights sans Jesus, as interpreted into the faith and many doctrines, the Christian church would have foundered like many a mystery cult before it long ago.

St. Paul (Romans 2. 11-15 ff.) and OT commentators generaously allude to the general revelation of God to man. While mankind is not afflicted with total depravity, maintaining command of his mental and creative faculties, he is unable to either know God truly or to keep His moral Law. The Greeks, as well as all intelligent, though fallen people, desperately need the inner renewal and God-connection that the Gospel provides.

Everyone who has studied history knows full well that ALL cultures are dependent upon and indebted to other cultures: the Romans on the Greeks, the Muslims on the Greeks, and Europe on all the ancient cultures before them.

No one is impugning the manhood of the Greeks per se (although they did fall prey to perversion quite liberally), and their intellectual accomplishemnts are fully accounted for in my first paragraph.

The problem regarding the Church today is that it has been subverted by humanist philosphy and PC dogma through many decades of liberalism - and now postmodernism; whose low view of scriptural authority has provided feminism a means of moving into areas of ministry reserved in Scripture exclusively for men (ordination and headship in the home). This has tended to make churches passive and more liberal.

Biblical religion, from Genesis to Revelation, is a decidedly male-led enterprize as far as its general mood and MO: strong preaching, aggressive worldview, etc.; all of which is anathema to liberal feminism and its lapdog male consorts. This is why any movement within churches and denominations to re-assert the biblical pattern is to be commended and encouraged.