Issues in Biblical Anthropology, Lecture
Key Topics
Transcript with YouTube timestamps
0:03the godly women of the old testament show the distinct beauty
0:09of womanhood and this beauty similar to the strength of men that we were talking about earlier
0:16this beauty is defined by god so just as manly strength is first defined in spiritual terms in
0:24theistic terms so womanly beauty there’s a subject that has drawn some attention
0:29over the centuries is first defined in scripture not by physical appearance not by other
0:35traits but by the fear of god obedience to god we see this especially lined out
0:41of course in the famous passage of proverbs 31 proverbs 31 presents us with a woman
0:47who lives her life for the lord which that is explicitly stated in proverbs 31
0:5330. she is a vivid picture of the god-centered helper as we were just discussing her
1:00husband trusts in her as he sits with the elders at the city gates proverbs 31 verses 11
1:06and 23 he therefore has the call to go out and lead the people a call that she does not
1:11have in proverbs 31 and while he is not home he knows that his wife
1:16is producing a harvest of good for his children and for his home and this
1:23godly woman’s burden very clearly in proverbs 31 is her family in her home
1:28she strengthens her home in numerous ways she engages in economic activity in verses
1:3413 16 and 24. she cooks for her household in verse 15. she clothes her loved ones in verse 21
1:42she speaks truth and wisdom in verse 25 the care and nurture of the godly
1:48woman’s family and her home occupy her attention constantly
1:54it’s honestly funny to me to to hear people say that christians
2:01believe christians like me i suppose believe that men work and women don’t because if you’re actually
2:08tracking with biblical womanhood you see that women work very hard uh in texts like
2:14proverbs 31 they do an entire range of duties and all these duties are meaningful they
2:20may not all necessarily in fact most many of them for some women all of them will in no sense draw a salary there
2:28won’t be a corner office there won’t be a title on a business card and yet godly women
2:34who honor god’s plan to build a home make a home especially and raise
2:40children and follow submit to a husband are women who are working throughout scripture seemingly
2:47perpetually their perpetual motion machines and any of you who have a godly woman or who were raised by a godly
2:53woman who are married to a godly woman will know that that picture holds true that
2:59godly womanhood is not dull and dry it certainly does not involve chaining women
3:04to the kitchen stove or something like this it in fact means unleashing a woman to do what god has
3:10made her to do to bear and nurture children as god allows and then to nurture a home and to
3:17support and help and strengthen a husband this is all work that the world does not
3:23esteem and increasingly different voices in evangelicalism like amy byrd who i was just mentioning
3:29really in many senses do not esteem but we do not pay attention frankly to the world’s definition of these things we
3:35focus on what the bible calls men and women to do and we focus not on what
3:40the culture approves of and the culture applauds we focus on what god promotes and god applauds and we
3:48recognize that a text like proverbs 31 is teaching us that homemaking and child raising
3:55and husband helping all matters tremendously it all yields tremendous
4:02blessing some of you have been in a home that is well ordered and well run by a woman and you
4:08know the peace and serenity that comes from it and you know what happens when a woman does not try to
4:14in work-life balance work a career and raise children you know that that is a
4:20recipe in so many cases for disaster and for stress and for exhaustion
4:26and for the family being frayed and at loose ends and instead there is such harmony it’s not easy let’s not say that
4:32but there is such harmony and blessing when a woman is set aside by a husband who who hears that biblical
4:40call to provide for a family and then that woman is able to raise the children in the
4:45nurture and admonition of the lord this is not a bad thing biblically this is not a harmful reality
4:52it’s not something that does violence to a woman it’s not something that subjugates her gifts again it’s intended
4:58to unleash her for the good of her loved ones and to serve up a harvest of goodness before the lord
5:07doxology to the lord the home is the nest of the family it’s a haven it’s a refuge
5:14in scripture and a godly wife and mother has the joy of making that home a happy dwelling place
5:20for the family we’re in a very gnostic age in a lot of different senses one of the senses we’re an agnostic agent
5:27is that uh so-called interactions and reputation and image matters
5:32but the lived reality of a family does not matter so a physical setting of a of a family
5:39that doesn’t really matter beauty isn’t a a consideration we should have on our mind
5:45order and cleanliness these things you can kind of just chuck to the wayside again it’s no easy
5:51to be a young father and young mother there’s all sorts of of of life just coming at
5:56you at at warp speed let that be said and there’s a tremendous need for a godly woman as for a godly man to
6:02continually go back to the well of divine grace and find their identity not in their work not in
6:08what they get done on a given day or don’t get done but only in christ nonetheless god has
6:14set things up so that in the christian family the home is a place of refuge
6:21and rest and happiness for children we believe profoundly in raising our
6:28children such that they are protected and they are loved and they are built into even as our
6:35culture does not necessarily promote these things now in saying all this and staking all this out we’re really going head-to-head
6:42with feminism and feminism has been tremendously influential of course in our society and it has also been very
6:48influential and continues to to really encroach into evangelicalism
6:54and the church early on feminism went hand in hand with what was called free love
6:59and the severing of heterosexual sex from marriage feminists of 50 60 years ago argued that
7:06womanhood should not be tied to the roles of child raising and homemaking if if homes and churches promoted such
7:13thinking then they were really enslaving women to domestic duties but all this we need to be clear
7:20contrasts as i have said with what the scripture teaches about biblical womanhood it’s not that a woman
7:27has to be a wife and a mother to be a godly woman that’s absolutely not the case
7:32in fact we need to raise our girls to know the lord well before they ever become a wife and
7:37a mother if indeed they are called to be a wife and a mother we need to know though that the woman of god
7:45is a woman of strength she is not strong in herself but she is grounded in god’s
7:53design and god’s righteous call and she exercises dominion as i was talking
7:59about briefly with proverbs 31 over her environment she does so as a woman though
8:05she has a unique form of strength it’s not the same form of strength that a man has she doesn’t have the same body as a man
8:13both men and women are human and are both image bearers they are equal in terms of that status but again
8:21they have different bodies and they have the bodies they have in order to fulfill the plan of god for
8:28the sexes for marriage and for the family only a woman can bear children only a woman can
8:35nurture children in her womb only a woman can nurture children outside of the woman
8:41outside of the womb that is give them actual physical sustenance a man cannot do these things so
8:48in talking about manly leadership for example we’re not saying that only men do important things
8:54men please hear me repeat this i’m sure you hear this at grace or at other churches that are affiliated with tms but just
9:01remember that it is it is in no sense the case that manhood counts and womanhood
9:07is this kind of lesser role that doesn’t really matter god has called the sexes to different
9:13roles and different duties and they all matter tremendously what is more important for example
9:20than raising children to know the lord those of us who have wives as i do
9:25uh who are dedicated to child raising to to making disciples of little
9:31boys and girls are engaging in supernatural work
9:36in the work of eternity that is far more important frankly than what most people do in an office
9:43setting on a daily basis or even an educational setting choose it to shape children to know the living
9:51christ is again eternal work i i can’t think i can’t think of more
9:57important work there is on planet earth than that we think of numerous examples of godly
10:03women in scripture who exercise faith and show a kind of feminine
10:10godliness and yet who do so in very difficult conditions even even demonstrating tenacious faith in
10:17certain instances we think for example of hannah in 1st samuel 1 and 2 who desired the gift of children and
10:24prayed steadfastly to god that god would overcome her condition of barrenness
10:30and her persecution at the hands of panina we think of esther who obeyed her uncle
10:36mordecai’s prompting and used her unique position in the persian kingdom
10:41and her unique beauty a gift of god that was not to be despised in order to
10:48save the jewish people god is showing us if we are paying attention
10:54throughout the bible and in this case throughout the old testament that godly womanhood matters
10:59tremendously in the purposes of god esther was not called to a position of
11:05kingly authority but in her role as favored wife really of the persian
11:11king she was uniquely positioned not only to to rescue her uncle but to save the jews
11:19so god is teaching us something if we’re paying exegetical attention to the text we think of course of debra
11:26now deborah is often misconstrued deborah actually tried to get barack
11:31in judges four and five to go to war against cicero deborah did not see that it was a
11:38glorious thing that she would lead israel into battle against sisera and the foes of god
11:44deborah wanted barack to step up be strong be a man show himself a man and lead the
11:50people of god into battle nonetheless deborah said this even as barack continued to be weak
11:57i will gladly go with you she said judges 4 9 but you will receive no honor
12:04on the road you are about to take because the lord will sell sisera to a woman
12:12so deborah got up and went with barack to kadesh that text is not
12:19giving us in actual fact the deborah that egalitarians say it is egalitarians
12:27of course argue that women and men share leadership in the home and the church unlike complementarity
12:37deborah is not standing up as this sort of warrior princess and lauding the fact
12:44that as a woman she is more powerful than the men around her hear me very clearly
12:50if you are doing justice to scripture that’s a travesty to make that argument deborah believes
12:56that it is to barack’s shame that he is not showing courage as we were talking about
13:03before the break he is not leading israel into battle he is failing as a man
13:08as a godly man in this respect and she indicts him in those terms even as godly women today
13:16should indict men who are christians who fail to lead and fail to honor god
13:22by stepping up and owning their god-given role deborah laments the weakness of this supposed
13:29leader of god’s people yael in this same section of scripture has no
13:36time for lament but she immediately takes action and she slays the wicked king she drives a tent
13:43peg into his skull so we are in no way saying those of us who are strong
13:48complementarians who believe in men stepping up and taking leadership for example we are in no way saying that
13:54godly women should just tremble in the corner in the face of wickedness no the old testament shows us godly
14:01women who do not fear the world who fear god instead and who act in courageous ways sometimes
14:07in desperate circumstances when men are not stepping up in order to honor the lord so a biblical
14:13woman is not one who fears the world a biblical woman is one who fears god and
14:20seeks to serve god in god-given roles and god-given ways a biblical woman
14:26if she is called to marriage delights to serve her husband and follow him she seeks to nurture
14:34and support his leadership she does not undermine it she doesn’t whittle it away
14:40she doesn’t question him she does offer wisdom to him
14:45and a godly husband a godly man will frequently talk things through with his wife i
14:51think and and draw out her godly wisdom he’s not threatened by her but a godly woman wants
14:59a man of god to be strong she doesn’t want him to be weak she wants him to be strong in god she
15:06wants to follow him she wants him to lead just like deborah wanted barack to lead deborah did not
15:14want to defeat sisera she wanted this man of god supposedly to lead
15:20israel into battle to lead the people of god that isn’t a battle a godly woman therefore loves god-given
15:26duties of submission procreation nurture
15:32familial care and homemaking according not simply to the old testament but
15:37to new testament texts like 1st timothy 2 9-15 titus 2 3-5 and of course godly women
15:45in the church context do not seek to displace men from eldership and leadership and do
15:52not teach the gathered body of christ but instead again seek to nurture and support men as they
15:59own the role of shepherd of god’s people of elder elders don’t only have elders meetings
16:05on the third thursday of every month or something like this elders provide comprehensive shepherding
16:10and oversight and teaching and training of the whole church and that is not a role
16:16that god has given to women that is a role based on creation order there it is that god has given only
16:24to men it is not arbitrary it is not because men are more gifted
16:30than women women in a marriage or in a church may well have more intellectual gifting or
16:36communicative ability or other gifts we could mention than men in the church than men in the home
16:42leadership in the home and the church is in no sense biblically
16:47dependent upon gifting and women are not being subjugated or wronged
16:54by not being called to the role of elder
17:00god has ordered creation in this way before the fall and as we talked about
17:06before the break of course the woman did not name the man the woman did not name the animals
17:12the woman is not called to hold fast to her husband the woman is not called to leave father
17:17and mother it is the man who is called to all of these roles and these duties before the fall and we
17:23especially see this end fleshed and and drawn out in the new testament so creation order
17:30matters tremendously and it matters even for who is called to lead god’s people in the new covenant
17:37assembly and though we have an upsurge of women who believe that they are called often
17:43in a kind of amorphous way to teach and lead the church i believe
17:48that we are acting biblically when we call men and men alone to the shepherding role of god’s
17:56people that is precisely what first timothy 2 9-15 first timothy 3 1-7 titus 1
18:045-9 and other texts made clear now if you stand up and declare these
18:10things and teach these things in different settings in the evangelical world today you should expect that
18:17you’re going to get pushback you should expect it in some instances that people will not like that
18:22people have been far more influenced by a neo pagan and a feminist culture than they even
18:29know in many cases it’s the air they’ve been breathing they have not simply feminist
18:35convictions but they have feminist instincts men and women alike and they don’t even know again in many cases that they have
18:42them so part of what we’re doing is we’re we’re bringing people into the beauty of the biblical world
18:48view and we’re going to have to help them unlearn not only some of those convictions
18:53but some of those instincts and embrace the goodness of the biblical sexual
19:00ethic there is so much more we could say about all these matters i
19:05could give you an elective just on the sexes and sexuality from
19:11scripture but now i want to transition and i want to talk about satan’s challenge to the biblical
19:18sexual ethic satan’s attack on creation order
19:26the biblical plan and god’s design of the sexes seems so basic and obvious when you work
19:33through scripture it’s it’s it’s it’s it’s just brimming from so many pages and parts of the word of god but the natural
19:41man following satan fights very hard against the clear teaching of the word
19:47and the clear design of god in the world god has made remember what abraham kuiper wrote
19:55in his classic book lectures on calvinism do not forget that the fundamental
20:00contrast has always been is still and will be
20:06until the end christianity and paganism
20:12the idols or the living god in romans 1 18 to 32
20:20we have the clearest sketch scripture gives us of what kuiper called
20:27their paganism paganism which he goes on to define as
20:33very simply the idols what i want to do is is now walk through
20:39some of romans 1 18 to 32 at rapid fire pace let’s turn there or open there and
20:46read it together afresh romans 1 18 the apostle paul
20:54under the influence of the holy spirit writes this for the wrath of god is revealed from
20:59heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth for what can be known
21:07about god is plain to them because god has shown it to them for his invisible attributes namely his
21:13eternal power and his divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things
21:20that have been made so they are without excuse for although they knew god they did not
21:26honor him as god or give thanks to him but they became futile in their thinking
21:31and their foolish hearts were darkened claiming to be wise they became fools and exchanged the glory of the
21:38immortal god for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping
21:44things all right let’s break here and we’ll come back to this passage what have we already learned
21:49we have learned first that wrath is now being revealed from god from heaven
21:57against sin now this is interesting isn’t it because we know eschatologically that
22:05wrath is going to be poured out in the end times that god is going to
22:10cataclysmically judge the wickedness of humanity and yet here the apostle
22:16paul introduces another dimension to the outpouring of wrath and teaches us that wrath is
22:21now being revealed in our time of course in his context this is the first century but
22:28this continues i think in our time wrath is is being revealed or made
22:33clear from heaven against the sin of mankind and what does mankind
22:40do well naturally paul says by our unrighteousness we suppress the truth this is important because as
22:46verse 19 makes clear you actually can know certain things about god that are plain to you and they’re not
22:54just plain abstractly you can know things about god as an unbeliever
22:59because god has shown it to them end of verse 19. god has made clear in natural terms
23:06his invisible attributes verse 20 his eternal power his divine nature these things paul says
23:13have been clearly perceived they’re not hidden they’re not veiled they’re not distorted they’re not
23:20contaminated there’s not a veil over them instead the eternal power and divine nature of god
23:27are clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made there
23:34is therefore no excuse for the unbeliever there is in other words no grounding no logical grounding for being
23:41an unbeliever it is actually intensely ungrounded to
23:46be an unbeliever no one has an excuse friends i’m sure you know this and
23:52guessing you believe this but there is no such thing as the neutral unbeliever or the justified
23:57unbeliever what can be known about god is plain
24:03the natural knowledge of god is immediate and evident
24:11that’s what romans 1 is teaching us in this passage let me repeat that make sure you get this
24:16the natural knowledge of god is immediate it is irrefutable
24:24there is no such thing as justified atheism it is a null set everyone
24:32knows that god exists every unbeliever everywhere sees the
24:39eternal power and divine nature of god in the creation
24:45in the created order in the things that have been made in this world and paul doesn’t go on to
24:51define that explicitly here is precisely where you see divine attributes but we do know from
24:58this text from romans 1 that the created order testifies to not just the possibility of
25:07god’s existence but to the sure reality of god’s existence so
25:12no one out there has excuse no one out there is neutral instead
25:20what takes place in the human heart is that we suppress the natural knowledge of god
25:27even if someone in other words doesn’t have a bible even if they don’t have a missionary sharing the gospel with them and
25:32teaching them the biblical storyline or whatever it may be they still know that god exists that god
25:38is real in fact verse 21 says they knew god now paul doesn’t mean savingly new god
25:45nonetheless that’s a strong statement from the apostolic quill isn’t it
25:50people know god exists but what’s the problem following the
25:56fall beginning with the fall of course humanity does not honor
26:01him as god or give thanks to him isn’t that interesting the fundamental
26:07sin is to not honor god and therefore to not
26:13give thanks do you see how vital it is that you honor god for who he is
26:21and then that you give thanks to him if unbelief means dishonor
26:28and ingratitude according to this text anyway belief means honor
26:35and gratitude does that mark your your daily life honoring god as god
26:42thanksgiving do you guys do you overflow with thanksgiving to god
26:49in your daily life by implication in this text you and i should as god is working in
26:56our hearts correspondingly the unbeliever who does none of these things has become
27:02futile in their thinking what an interesting description the unbeliever does not
27:08think right they cannot their capacities of reason will not lead them to god
27:15alone and the foolish heart of mankind our foolish heart is darkened and so we become fools
27:24and exchange worship of the creator verse 23 for the worship of the creation or the creature
27:31what takes place next therefore god gave them up this is the first of three
27:39iterations of god giving up because of unbelief
27:45verse 24 god gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves
27:51because they exchanged the truth about god for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed
27:57forever amen so wrath is being revealed in that
28:04god gives people up to the lusts of their hearts
28:09that is not a form of freedom as we have already been discussing in the class contra what the natural man thinks you
28:16are in no way uh being given over to freedom when you follow your lusts you are being
28:23given over to depravity in following your lust you are in other words being enslaved
28:30god is giving you over to enslavement to impurity specifically to dishonor
28:40your body because you have exchanged the truth about god for a
28:47lie and this is what sinful humanity in different forms
28:52does over and over again exchanges the truth about god that is
28:59clear through through nature through natural
29:04theology rightly defined and then this is exchanged for a lie
29:10the lie first and foremost that god is not king that god does not rule
29:16that god is not god that is the fundamental lie that is being subbed in
29:22for the truth in other words instead of creation order which we
29:29discussed earlier with god ruling all things now man is ruling all things and that is the
29:36central lie from which all other lies are built and when a people embrace this lie
29:44then you can rest assured that more lies are going to be built atop it verse 26 here’s the second giving up for
29:52this reason god gave them up to dishonorable passions their women exchanged natural relations
29:58for those that are contrary to nature and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women
30:03and were consumed with passion for one another men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due
30:09penalty for their error so this second giving up is specifically to dishonorable passions
30:15of a homosexual kind the exchanging of what paul calls natural relations for those that
30:22are not natural relations which is specifically not adult men preying on adult
30:30boy or wow that’s a bad sentence adult men preying on boys or adult women preying on girls but men
30:38having sexual relations with men and women having sexual relations of any age with women one of the ways this text is
30:45subverted or attempted to be subverted is that this is read as paul speaking against
30:51pedophilia well paul is certainly speaking against pedophilia by extension but he is speaking against what we call
30:57homosexuality uh man man sexual activity woman woman sexual
31:02activity and note again that this is an outpouring of wrath this is an overflow of wrath this is
31:09part of what it means for god to be wrathful against a people to give them up
31:16to dishonorable passions it is not simply that such behavior invites future wrath
31:23as it surely does it is that when a people are embracing this in
31:29greater and greater measure you are witnessing
31:34wrath being poured out you are seeing present judgment play out
31:42even as you will surely see much much more to come
31:49and then thirdly and finally verse 28 there is the third giving over since they did not see
31:55fit to acknowledge god god gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done
32:02they were filled with all manner of unrighteousness evil covetousness malice they’re full of envy murder
32:08strife deceit maliciousness their gossip slanders haters of god insolent haughty boastful inventors of
32:16evil disobedient to parents foolish faithless heartless ruthless
32:21though they know god’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die
32:26they not only do them but give approval to those
32:33who practice them so in this third giving up that paul defines
32:41it is not simply the lusts of the heart that are given up it is not simply giving over to dishonorable passions of a specifically
32:48homosexual kind it is thirdly a debased mind
32:53such that the entire person is shot through with pollution of every
32:59form sin note that this is not a psychological study of humanity
33:08surely there will be psychological manifestations of sin nonetheless this is god giving
33:15people over to all manner of evil that flows
33:22from a debased mind the unredeemed heart
33:30is impure it is wickedly lustful it is not just a little bit off it is
33:37impure in extremity built on a lie the unbelieving passions
33:45are dishonorable to god chasing after what is unnatural
33:52showing us by the way that there is such a thing as what is natural the greek term
33:59for nature is fusin in the greek uh there is an entire theology in this
34:05word nature used here in verse 26
34:10fusin contrary to nature this tells us that god has made humanity
34:17in such a way that there is what is natural and there is what is unnatural
34:23and that is a further manifestation therefore of what we call natural theology when
34:31when you understand that men and women have been created at least
34:38in terms of design to be married then you recognize that there is
34:44something that we call nature that testifies to divine making that is itself a sign that god is real
34:52and that there is a creator the fact that the sexes are complementary according to their bodily
34:59design for sexual union is itself a witness again to divine making
35:07into creation order these are not just incidental biological facts that
35:13sola scriptura people set to the side no the apostle paul is telling us
35:19that god offers a witness unto himself in nature in the natural ordering of the
35:27human body and a complementary fashion
35:35so when somebody is going against what is natural in other words they are going against
35:40not simply divine design but going against god himself
35:46to oppose nature as god made it is to oppose god
35:54and this is part of how we see that there can be no grounds for what we call
35:59or what some call that is gay christianity gay christianity is identified here
36:06according to what is natural and unnatural and there can be no merger of
36:11christianity with what is unnatural because what is unnatural is not simply not the way things are
36:19supposed to work what is unnatural is against god
36:25because god is the one who made nature god has given us a book yes
36:31god wrote this book but god also wrote nature you understand so there can be no merger
36:40of christianity with what is unnatural in any form and that is to merge
36:47what is of god with what is abomination and there is therefore no ground for
36:53approving so-called gay christianity of any form whether in behavior
36:58whether in desire pattern or even what is called orientation
37:05instead all forms of homosexuality whether it is at the
37:12level of thought desire speech
37:19mode of decorum behavior must be seen as unnatural
37:26ungodly an assault upon not only the design of
37:32god but upon god himself which means that further when someone has such
37:40instincts such a draw such a compulsion whether they want that or not whether
37:48that is the environment they were reared in or not the only appropriate response
37:55is repentance and faith in god the only right reaction
38:01to homosexual inclination of any kind is repentance there is no form
38:09according to this section of scripture and several others in which we can approve
38:16of any form of homosexuality whether activity desire identity
38:24orientation or any other manifestation it is all unnatural people only embrace
38:31this when god gives them up do you understand this
38:37a church a movement a blog an individual who promotes
38:45homosexuality in any form as compatible with christianity
38:52is saying that that which is the manifestation of god’s wrath
38:58upon humanity is actually compatible with christianity and that my dear
39:05friends i i suspect the point is now sufficiently clear but
39:12that is blasphemy that is blasphemy
39:18and any who make that move are not just making an unfortunate move
39:23or having a different position than what tms promotes or midwestern seminary in kansas city promotes
39:31they are inviting wrath to come upon them
39:36the terms here are very are very clear in romans 1 and the stakes are very high
39:43and so finally there is this third giving over to a debased mind debased heart debased
39:51passions or desires and then the third section that we covered a debased mind a god
39:58giving this over when you come to understand these things then you come to
40:03understand just what we are up against friends please hear me we are not simply
40:12faced with certain less than ideal manifestations of rebellion
40:18against god in romans 1. what we are up against is a
40:24system that i believe you can call neo-paganism
40:29you will get this in re-enchanting humanity you’ll see it as well in the book that gavin peacock and i
40:36wrote but suffice it to say you are not just
40:41you’re not just a non-ideal territory when you’re drawn to these things you’re being drawn to the anti-system
40:48of satan god has a righteous sexual ethic that i was trying as quickly as i
40:54could to sketch out this morning satan also has a system
41:00that approves of everything that god condemns and satan is trying as best he can to
41:08get every person he can to embrace this anti-divine
41:14design which again i believe we can call in summary form neo-paganism
41:20paganism meeting meaning idolatry
41:25satan’s own design or anti-design but of course satan doesn’t in truth
41:31have a design does he all he has is a corruption of god’s
41:36design sin is not actually something
41:41tangible sin is the corruption of what god has made
41:48that’s what sin is so neo-paganism is a
41:54major competitor to the church and young people in our youth group or
42:01our college group who are pulled to sexual evil
42:07are not simply being tempted to do stuff they shouldn’t do it’s
42:16much bigger than that and it’s much more terrifying than that frankly satan is trying
42:23to wrap an entire cloak around them and shut out the light
42:31and enfold them in an anti-system that i believe we call neo-paganism
42:42and embracing such behavior as we have been describing whether it is bending your gender which
42:49i’ll talk more about in a minute or whether it is homosexuality in any form
42:55again is tasting the first sip of wrath
43:02upon humanity john murray the great presbyterian theologian said it well
43:09god’s displeasure is expressed in his abandonment of the persons concerned
43:15to more intensified and aggravated cultivation of the lusts of their own hearts with
43:22the result that they reap for themselves a correspondingly greater toll of
43:28retributive vengeance in other words the more
43:33you let your sin off the leash the greater toll you will reap
43:41this is what happens when we follow the flesh the lusts of the flesh are nothing other
43:47than paganism at work in us and this is why it’s not just
43:54homosexuality or gender bending in view here of course there were all sorts of sins that paul
43:59identified at the end of this passage that we have covered but any time you and i are are giving
44:04ourselves over to heterosexual lust we are in the same territory we are letting our wicked desires
44:11off the leash we are following paganism we are not following christianity
44:16and we need to know that satan is trying to wrap us in a cloak and shut out the light all of
44:23this means that we are up against neo-paganism today
44:30neo-paganism to give you an even more precise definition than what i’ve already quickly given you is the anti-wisdom of
44:39the serpent it is the anti-wisdom of the serpent
44:45which deconstructs creation order it is the anti-wisdom of the serpent
44:52which deconstructs deconstructs excuse me creation order
44:59and it replaces divine order with a new order an anti-order
45:07in which it is not god who rules over all things but it is satan who rules over all
45:16things in satan’s anti-order to press into this
45:22further there is no creator
45:27there is no divine design there is no male or female
45:35there is no script for sexuality there is no god-designed family
45:42with a father mother and little boys and girls there is no
45:48need to protect and care for children at all abortion is a very
45:54very key element of paganism there is no savior there is no
46:02lord and there is no end to the cosmos there’s no telos
46:10there’s no judge of evil according to the theologian peter jones
46:15who has done the most to write about paganism everything reduces to one
46:24in this system so jones contrasts two systems in his writings
46:32jones taught for many years at westminster west there’s one ism and there’s twoism we’ve
46:38already covered this in a different form in twoism biblical faith there’s creator
46:44and there’s creature god stands above and apart from
46:51his creation there is an absolute distinction as we’ve already
46:57talked about between god and everything else everything is not god and god is not
47:04everything pantheism one oneism is essentially
47:11pantheism there’s no distinctions there’s no creator god everything is
47:18one there’s no creator and there’s no creature again there’s
47:25sameness jones says everything is made of the same stuff
47:30matter is eternal and it has a spark of divinity within it accordingly jones says this
47:39there’s no category for sin because everything is the same rocks
47:46trees good and evil man god again according to jones everything is
47:52one one ism versus biblical christianity two
48:00creator creature paganism therefore promotes one ism
48:09sameness androgyny amorphousness no distinctions
48:17everything reducing to the same substance and same essence where you see
48:24distinctions therefore according to a pagan mentality you’re seeing you’re seeing something
48:32that should be abolished is this sounding familiar at all with
48:38your experience of living in 21st century america
48:44is 21st century america in many respects friendly to distinctions no it is not
48:54a pagan person therefore distrusts morality
49:01because morality introduces what distinctions ethical distinctions
49:09downplays pagan person downplays absolute truth oh you better believe they do
49:16because there is truth in the lie well that flows from twoness doesn’t it
49:22that flows from there being god and there being everything else god is holy god is perfect god is
49:29righteous satan is not truth is objective
49:37neo-paganism says there is no such thing as absolute truth which is of course an absolute truth isn’t it
49:44nonetheless those who speak as if there is objective truth are those who offend
49:52sensibilities according to neo-paganism by extension continuing on the cosmos is
49:59self-generated there is no creator there’s not even an origin to the
50:05creation there’s no higher purpose to life
50:14in sum paganism offers humanity a de-godified theology and spirituality
50:22a de-godified theology and spirituality people around us
50:29who are influenced in one form or another by this general system i’m calling neo-paganism
50:36still believe many of them in spirituality they’re a spiritual person there’s the cosmos everything is one
50:44but they don’t believe in divine biblical theology and spirituality
50:52they believe in man-made theology and spirituality
51:00as i have said one major expression of paganism is homosexuality
51:07what’s the connection the connection is that in homosexuality the distinction
51:16that god has coded into nature man and woman complementarity equal but distinct
51:24is erased the distinction between man and woman
51:29in sexual union is gone and man now fornicates with man
51:41you understand how that fits hand in glove with a pagan mentality that denies
51:48divine design this is how we understand then
51:54that committing a homosexual act is not only against god’s will but is
52:01against god’s design and i believe that is why abomination
52:08attaches to homosexuality in different places in scripture
52:14it’s because homosexuality is not simply a sin against god’s will a sin against god’s will sends you to
52:21hell for eternity but the special ferocity
52:27of god against sodom and gomorrah generated i believe i think by the fact
52:35that it’s not only god’s will that is blasphemed by sodom and gomorrah but god’s design
52:42that is blasphemed so homosexuality when it is embraced
52:49by a people is a sure sign not simply that there’s a sub-biblical
52:57sexual ethic but in truth that any vestige
53:02of creation order has been displaced and replaced by a pagan
53:11sexual ethic
53:18i hope that you are understanding as i am trying to lay out this material
53:23just how high the stakes are therefore for the church
53:28and just how rebellious it is to bring together christianity and
53:34homosexuality but that’s not all today we have seen
53:41the rise of what is called transgenderism
53:47transgenderism represents the rejection of gender essentialism so-called
53:55gender essentialism means that there are essential differences between the sexes
54:02that the sexes are essential realities ontological realities
54:08hard and fast realities according to the lgbt movement that
54:15embraces of course homosexual uh activity and thinking transgenderism
54:26stands for the rejection of gender essentialism and this is because gender is not a
54:32fixed reality gender is fluid and formless
54:38gender is a construct in other words it is created by humanity
54:46there’s no creator who has made man and woman male and female genesis 1 27
54:53no the human race the human person is a blank slate everyone
55:01figures out their own identity everyone must look within themselves to be
55:07authentically true to themselves and then you should express who you truly are
55:13once you discern that and divine that and then correspondingly that identity
55:22should be affirmed following all of this
55:31transgenderism represents therefore the rejection of biblical manhood
55:38and womanhood transgenderism
55:49is the latest stage of what is sometimes called the sexual revolution
55:54but is more properly identified i believe as neo-paganism
56:01transgenderism is altogether the rejection of divine design because it says
56:08that the second detail of your human identity your manhood or your womanhood is
56:15actually not something that god has made it is only something that has been biologically signaled by your
56:22genitalia but your body and your identity are distinct
56:27and the term for this is your brain sex as contrasted with your
56:34biological sex make sure you understand this your brain sex versus your biological
56:40sex your biological sex again refers to your anatomy your genitalia to speak rather
56:48impolitely here your brain sex is your true gender identity
56:55and according to our neo-pagan culture those two things are often not the same you can have the
57:03body parts of a man but the brain sex of a woman
57:09you can have the body parts of a woman but the brain sex of a man
57:18christianity will in no sense allow for that distinction
57:23which is part of why you’ve already heard me say the term to use in all these conversations is not
57:29gender it is sex because sex refers to us as either a man or a woman
57:39either a man or a woman in an essentialist form we do not therefore teach in the church
57:47that the people to whom we minister have a biological sex and a brain sex
57:53we teach that god has given you a bodily identity your identity
58:00corresponds to your body there is no distinction between your
58:06body and your identity as made by god in divine design
58:11it may feel that way to some people as a result of the fall people may feel
58:17that they are indeed trapped in the wrong body so we have a category for that
58:23hear me but we don’t have a category for seeing such a distinction as
58:28valid and certainly not seeing such a distinction as
58:34righteous if a person feels that they are trapped in the wrong body
58:40i talked about this three months ago when i came out to the men’s ministry here at grace with
58:46brad claussen on transgenderism if you’d like some q a on that you can find that on
58:52the grace community church website if somebody feels that they are trapped
58:57in the wrong body we need to not aid and abet that
59:02sensation we need to not encourage that we need to treat that condition morally
59:10and theologically because in scripture there are no grounds for believing
59:17that you can separate your body from your identity if i’m trying to say
59:23this as simply as i possibly can your body is your identity you men who who are ministering in a
59:30bold and brave new age a brave new world this is part of what
59:35you need to preach and teach as the whole council of god your body
59:40is your identity you have been made a man or a woman for god’s glory
59:49you have not been given certain body parts and then later in life you choose
59:55or you try to discern if your body parts sync up with your true authentic self
1:00:03you understand your authentic self only according to the body god has given
1:00:11you so what neo-paganism separates and
1:00:17severs body from identity scripture holds together
1:00:23it is true that there are some people a very tiny fraction of the population who
1:00:28are born with both male and female genitalia sometimes this condition is called
1:00:35intersex but a better term for it is a disorder of sexual
1:00:41differentiation a disorder of sexual differentiation dsd
1:00:47if you’d like to read more about this you can see the ethicist alan branch’s
1:00:54book on transgenderism i teach with alan branch at midwestern seminary his book on
1:01:01transgenderism is very helpful and this is one of the most helpful parts of it
1:01:08you should not see having male and female genitalia alike as a
1:01:13neutral reality it’s not a neutral reality it’s an effect of the fall
1:01:18and what needs to be done is that child needs to have someone determine medical professionals of course determine
1:01:25if there is a female chromosome and if there is then that child needs to be raised as
1:01:32a woman needs to needs to recognize that in fact though there has been biological
1:01:38confusion play out at the bodily level nonetheless this child is actually a
1:01:44woman if there is no female chromosome then the child should be raised as a man and surgery should be done
1:01:51along those lines in each case but the existence of a dsd
1:01:57of this kind of disorder does not tell us that god’s design is
1:02:02for us to be in confusion a dsd is an effect of the fall
1:02:08it’s not a positive state part of how we know that god wants us to
1:02:15own our body is the explicit teaching of god in deuteronomy 22
1:02:215. please turn with me there or open it up a woman shall not wear a
1:02:28man’s garment the text reads nor shall a man put on a woman’s cloak
1:02:34for whoever does these things is an abomination to the lord your god
1:02:46biblical theologian jason deroshi also a midwestern colleague
1:02:51wrote this in his book how to understand and apply the old testament
1:02:56on this passage god chose to frame these prohibitions as durative
1:03:02in the hebrew so that we should read the not as a never a woman shall never
1:03:09wear a man’s garment nor shall a man ever put on a woman’s
1:03:16cloak in other words deuteronomy 22 5 is telling us there is never a
1:03:23righteous context for cross-dressing which tells us that the way you present
1:03:30yourself even to the clothes you wear is a matter of god’s glory
1:03:36so we don’t have the opportunity according to scripture according to old covenant law
1:03:41in deuteronomic form to cross-dress to bend our gender doing so in ancient terms is an
1:03:49abomination to god it is in other words i believe
1:03:54the contravention not only of god’s will but the contravention of god’s design
1:04:01for humanity cross dressing therefore cannot be
1:04:06understood as anything but unrighteous it is evil
1:04:11behavior therefore a society that embraces cross-dressing gender bending
1:04:18transgender identity and and etc and so on is embracing wickedness
1:04:26and it is not the case do not believe the lie that scripture fails to speak to this no scripture does
1:04:33not use the term transgender that’s a new term no scripture doesn’t use the term
1:04:39orientation but scripture clearly speaks to this practice and even the
1:04:45mentality behind this practice and it calls us un it calls it unrighteous deroshi puts the
1:04:54point precisely idolatry gives glory to someone other than yahweh
1:05:02witchcraft looks to means other than god’s word to discern his will or what will happen in the future
1:05:08speaking of the broader context of deuteronomy 22. and dishonest gain diminishes the value of god’s image and others we must
1:05:15conclude therefore daroshi writes that something about transgender
1:05:20expression and gender confusion directly counters the very nature
1:05:27of god and all this means then that you and i
1:05:35now and in days to come men are going to have to work with people
1:05:42who are being influenced and even trained by a pagan society to see a distinction between
1:05:49their body and their identity who in some cases by the way have experienced
1:05:55uh sexual sin have have been victimized and have been warped by abuse of a
1:06:02sexual kind we have to help them understand that even if they have been
1:06:08wronged and that wrong doing has led to confusion
1:06:13with regard to their identity it is unrighteous again to cross-dress gender-bend or
1:06:20embrace a transgender identity instead they must they must reject
1:06:26sin in those senses and embrace their bodily god-given identity
1:06:34now you might be thinking as i’m saying these things that no christian no theologian would
1:06:40disagree with this that this is an elective and this is rather non-controversial stuff in christian
1:06:47circles uh you may be well intentioned in thinking that but you would be wrong
1:06:54uh for example christianity today has repeatedly featured the writing of
1:07:01mark yarhouse who is a widely respected widely quoted
1:07:06counselor christian psychological professional and professor who has
1:07:13written in his material on transgenderism and these matters
1:07:18that while there is some moral component to cross-dressing and
1:07:24gender bending it is not only a moral theological reality
1:07:30and so pastors and people in ministry who are working with people
1:07:35who have these predilections can in fact uh contemplate uh
1:07:42encouraging such individuals to continue cross-dressing and even potentially to have surgery
1:07:49you can read your house’s case for yourself in his book on gender dysphoria but
1:07:55suffice it to say that a good number of people in the evangelical world believe that your house is right
1:08:02and believe that when we’re faced in pastoral ministry for example let’s say with a teenager who is
1:08:09cross-dressing uh we we should not speak to that as a moral and theological reality
1:08:16we should instead try to help them be as healthy as they can be try to be authentically true to themself
1:08:25and get the care that they need in a kind of again non-moral non-theological sense but i
1:08:32want you to understand that deuteronomy 22 and other texts in scripture directly
1:08:37counter this evangelical thinking that i have just lined out
1:08:43it’s not only only deuteronomy 22 that speaks against cross-dressing and gender bending in the new covenant in the new testament
1:08:50first corinthians 11 which we covered yesterday briefly speaks to this as well let’s pick up in
1:08:56first corinthians 11 verse 3. the apostle paul says this i want you to know that christ is the head of every man and that
1:09:03man is the head of the woman and god is the kephalei the head of christ and then moving ahead
1:09:10to verses 7 through 15 a man should not cover his head because he is the image and glory of god
1:09:16so too woman is the glory of man for man did not come from woman but woman came from man
1:09:21neither was man created for the sake of woman but woman for the sake of man this is why a woman should have a symbol
1:09:27of authority on her head because of the angels in the lord however woman is not independent of man and man is not
1:09:33independent of woman for just as woman came from man so man comes through woman and all things come through god
1:09:41judge for yourselves is it proper for a woman to pray to god with her head uncovered does not even nature itself
1:09:49teach you that if a man has long hair it is a disgrace to him but that if a woman has long hair it is
1:09:56her glory for her hair is given her as a covering there’s a lot in view here in
1:10:04this passage as i said yesterday as well i believe that verse 3 teaches that the
1:10:10father is eternally the head of christ and christ eternally submits to the father there are some in
1:10:17evangelical circles today who believe that that view is not biblical and is wrong and there’s a lively debate and discussion
1:10:23to have over precisely that point there are other texts that come into play as well but this is a passage that lines out
1:10:31authority and locates authority in the godhead some would say it’s only economic headship that the father has
1:10:38over christ and then economic of course into eternity to come nonetheless i would differ and say that
1:10:44the father you look at ephesians 1 3 to 14 is acting authoritatively to
1:10:50plan redemption to plan salvation uh for example i preached at kindred community church
1:10:56just a few months ago and gave a sermon on ephesians 1 3-14 if you want to look for that
1:11:02kindred being a a church that would be very much aligned with grace very thankful for philip decoursy’s
1:11:09ministry myself okay that’s a matter though to search out in different discussions
1:11:15this concept of authority comes into play later in first corinthians 11 11 because the woman is supposed to
1:11:23display the fact that she is under her husband’s authority and as i said to you yesterday i think
1:11:29that the way she displays this is not by having a piece of fabric on her head as you will see in some evangelical
1:11:35circles but by as she is able having long hair paul says at the end of this passage
1:11:41that nature there’s nature again there’s nature does not even nature
1:11:47itself teach you that if a man has long hair it is a disgrace to him
1:11:54so this passage in some bringing it back to bear on the discussion of
1:11:59transgenderism cross-dressing and gender bending teaches us that it is not right for men to look
1:12:06like women and women to look like men instead we are supposed to display
1:12:12creation order by the way we present ourselves we are supposed to
1:12:18have the hair length according to this passage of a man and the hair length of a woman and we in
1:12:25fact glorify god when we as a man present ourselves as a man and
1:12:31when as a woman again according to season of life if a woman can have long hair
1:12:37we present ourselves as a woman if we are in fact a woman now note where paul is writing
1:12:44this to paul is saying these things to the corinthian church you and i might
1:12:51think our context is so neo-pagan our context is so pagan
1:12:57it’s so unique it’s so unlike things today but that is absolutely not the case
1:13:04the ancient city of corinth out-did san francisco out-did la
1:13:12out-did our present context in corinth uh there was the
1:13:19uh temple of aphrodite the goddess of love one of the seven wonders of the ancient
1:13:26world and at the temple of aphrodite there were temple prostitutes and these
1:13:31temple prostitutes were in many cases cross-dressers so there would be men for
1:13:37example who would present themselves as women and so there would be homosexual prostitution taking place
1:13:44as part of pagan worship to aphrodite you think it’s tough to be a christian
1:13:49now you think we’re up against a neo-pagan order today in 21st century america
1:13:55that is quite a context to behold i would submit along these lines
1:14:04one bible resource zondervan illustrated bible dictionary says that corinth
1:14:11had no rivals as a city of vice in fact there was an ancient saying to live like a corinthian or
1:14:19to corinthianize someone this meant that you initiated someone into a life of untold
1:14:26debauchery that is the church
1:14:32that is the context that paul is addressing in first and second corinthians these
1:14:39are the people that he is writing to when he gives the instruction
1:14:44in chapter 11 for example to have men present themselves as men
1:14:50and women present themselves as women do you understand this he he is not
1:14:57writing to people who would hear this kind of instruction and think ah okay well that is
1:15:04ancient truth but that’s not true that i’m gonna directly have relevance for today
1:15:12you may have been raised in a town or a city for example
1:15:17where you heard about such pagan behavior but you weren’t intimately familiar with
1:15:24it it wasn’t a major part of where you were from please note that the corinthians
1:15:30understood these trials and these challenges for ministry
1:15:35and for biblical faith for the gospel firsthand you understand the point
1:15:42people in the church that paul is addressing almost undoubtedly had
1:15:49firsthand knowledge and experience of such neo-pagan behavior this was not
1:15:56strange to them they were former i’m guessing some of them temple prostitutes or those who
1:16:02sampled this wicked behavior some of them undoubtedly
1:16:07bent their gender and cross-dressed i i don’t think i’m on a ledge here in
1:16:13saying these things because the apostle paul is instructing this church in these
1:16:19matters he’s telling them not to do what other people in corinth
1:16:25all around them are doing men more simply the corinthians are influenced and
1:16:32pulled toward these depraved behaviors and mindsets in their context they’re in the thick of
1:16:40it and it’s to these people that the apostle paul
1:16:45says be a man be a woman present yourself out of a doxological
1:16:53desire to god as such show that androgyny is not
1:17:00real show your neighbors your unbelieving neighbors
1:17:05the beauty of biblical womanhood the beauty of biblical manhood don’t compromise it don’t think that
1:17:12it’s a small secondary tertiary matter it’s not it’s a vital importance this is a major
1:17:20way corinthian church that you are called to be a witness to your context this is not a small thing
1:17:27you you need to be such a biblically captivated christian that you go to great lengths to
1:17:34distinguish between men and women and you’re doing so because you believe in
1:17:39the beauty of god-centered manhood and god-centered womanhood men does this
1:17:46sound relevant to the 21st century i think it does
1:17:51i think this is where we are today i think that we are in a corinth-like context and people
1:17:58all around us yes need the gospel they absolutely need the gospel to be saved
1:18:03to be born again but they also need as part of our evangelistic and apologetic witness
1:18:11they need us to be god captivated men and god captivated women
1:18:19manhood and womanhood of a biblical kind of a gospel-shaped kind is going to be evangelistic today
1:18:27it’s going to have an effect it’s going to make you stand out here again we’re back at this
1:18:34apologetic discussion that i keep surfacing paul didn’t want the corinthians
1:18:40to play down their biblical manhood and womanhood in order to be evangelistically fruitful
1:18:47paul wanted the corinthians to stand apart and stand out from the pagans
1:18:54christianity is supposed to be apart from paganism it’s not supposed to be like it it’s
1:19:00supposed to be distinct from it biblical manhood and womanhood is
1:19:05beautiful the biblical sexual ethic by extension is marvelous it’s lovely it’s joy-giving
1:19:13it’s aesthetic and it will have an evangelistic and apologetic effect wherever it is
1:19:20taught wherever it is proclaimed wherever it is lived out all this
1:19:27is what the apostle paul i believe is saying to the corinthian church
1:19:33and this speaks again to us not presenting a niceified pagan
1:19:39compatible christianity to our neighbor neighbor it speaks to us
1:19:44giving people the unique beauty and glory and distinctiveness of the
1:19:51christian worldview the worldview that is powered by and created by
1:19:56the gospel of jesus christ becoming saved becoming born again
1:20:04does not mean that you leave behind meaningful manhood and womanhood it means that you embrace
1:20:10it and in the context of the christian family it means that you train your boys
1:20:16to be men and your girls to be women it means that we’re not simply saying
1:20:22these things from a pulpit but we’re we’re bringing these truths with us everywhere we go
1:20:28and so when i go on a trip to los angeles california and it’s a lengthy trip and i’m away
1:20:34from my family i take my son i have three children i have a 12 year old daughter ella
1:20:41a nine-year-old son gavin and a six-year-old daughter ainsley three kids girl boy girl 1296 and i take
1:20:48gavin aside and i say to gavin you now that daddy is gone are
1:20:55the man of the house and you need to protect the girls
1:21:00now in practical form my son is quite young he is not
1:21:06samson in terms of his bearing he’s probably not going to be
1:21:12a football linebacker at usc so uh we’re adjusting all our uh
1:21:18expectations for the future accordingly i’m probably going to have to pay for college is what this means um nonetheless
1:21:25i am trying to train my son in biblical manhood in a very practical tangible way
1:21:34and my wife and i are encouraging our daughters to cook and to bake
1:21:41uh uniquely uh it’s not i’m not saying it’s wrong for a man to do these things of course nonetheless my wife and i are trying to
1:21:48shape our daughters such that they see the beauty of being a nurturer of children and a
1:21:56homemaker and one who blesses a family through things like a delicious meal my wife is training my
1:22:03daughters to keep a house now all this sounds even saying this to to christian
1:22:11ministry workers in training all of it sounds very counter-cultural i know it sounds
1:22:18it even to us perhaps for a woman to make meals and keep a house
1:22:23what is this you know 476 bc but again if these are biblical
1:22:29priorities and biblical realities then these are things that we have no shame in proclaiming
1:22:36and celebrating and training our sons and our daughters to inhabit
1:22:41we want our sons to be leaders protectors and providers we want our
1:22:47daughters to be those who who revel in child raising homemaking and husband supporting these
1:22:55are not bad realities these are biblical callings these are beautiful aspects of what it
1:23:02means to be human to be human needs means to be made in the image of god means to be an image
1:23:08bearer that was day one of this class but it also means to be a god
1:23:13captivated man for the glory of god and a god captivated woman for the glory
1:23:20of god all this is entailed from these texts that we pull together
1:23:26and seeking to build a biblical sexual
1:23:31ethic all right i’m going to pause at this point we are nearly at the conclusion of
1:23:39my material for today we’ve covered a great deal of biblical uh texts and
1:23:47uh theology and so let me pause and see if there are any questions about anything that i have covered
1:23:52about homosexuality transgenderism neo-paganism complementarity
1:23:58egalitarianism this is your chance to shoot uh i we have some time
1:24:03probably get out early today so let me know if you have questions do the little hand raise thing
1:24:09on zoom and i will see you uh david go ahead hi a couple questions
1:24:16uh first you talked about the idea of body being identity and i think i understand
1:24:21what you’re trying to say is that there isn’t a difference between our identity and our physical expression of what we have but
1:24:29really from a biblical perspective wouldn’t it be better to say that god has assigned us identity
1:24:37that and that’s really the source of our identity and that it is expressed chromosomally and usually
1:24:43physically because if you if you go down to the level of uh body’s identity then we can conclude
1:24:50that changes in our body also change our identity since body is identity that’s not true really our identity
1:24:57comes from god’s design it doesn’t matter how you manipulate your body
1:25:02is assigned by god right yeah uh when i’m saying your body is
1:25:08your identity i don’t mean that however you change your body changes your identity
1:25:15i’m referring to god’s gift of your sex
1:25:21uh in the womb and then manifested of course when you come out of the womb so someone can try to change
1:25:28their body but they can’t change what god has made they’re always whatever god has made
1:25:35them to be so i think i’m still there there’s more dimensions to human identity than
1:25:42just your body that part of what you said i think is true so that’s why yesterday
1:25:48you got four hours on the image of god right because being made in god’s image is
1:25:54actually the first marker of human identity you have a spiritual identity right you’re made by
1:26:01god for god to know god so there’s more dimensions of human identity yes
1:26:07but your bodily your identity excuse me is never less than your body that’s what i’m after in this part of the material
1:26:14your identity as a person excuse me identity yeah but i’m even
1:26:22comfortable saying your identity is bound up in your body or if i really want to get uh base level
1:26:31honestly your identity is your body i haven’t said that your identity is only your body so i’m nuanced here at
1:26:38least i need to be but i have tied identity irrefutably
1:26:44to to the body that god has given you human identity is constituted first and
1:26:50foremost in the image of god you’re a spiritual being but then the second truth
1:26:56of your human identity is that you are either a man or a woman and that flows that’s exegetical that’s
1:27:02genesis 1 27 so i’m trying to do justice to both but i’m
1:27:09still comfortable saying look your body is so important to who you are
1:27:16that it’s telling you who you are there’s more to learn because you’re not
1:27:21only bodily right but it’s not less than your body more than your body never less
1:27:29than second question uh uh about neo-paganism
1:27:34uh you define neo-paganism very broadly as the wisdom of the serpent that
1:27:40deconstructs creation order satan’s dominion that fair yes that was the that was the
1:27:47initial definition yes okay so i’m trying to figure out uh what
1:27:52it what it is that defines neopaganism as separate from just sin or would you say that all sin is
1:27:58neo-paganism that is basically where i think neo-paganism goes i think that
1:28:06when i’m talking about satan’s anti-order i’m saying we don’t just do bad things
1:28:14we’re always following either god or following satan so yes i actually do think that
1:28:22the satanic system jesus calls those who are opposing him
1:28:30of their father the devil so there’s the true father god the father and then there’s an
1:28:36anti-father and i think this is my argument here in the class and in my book re-enchanted
1:28:42humanity i think there’s a kind of true creation order that we talked about
1:28:47first in the class and then there’s an anti-order and you heard me define that as not
1:28:53actually a separate substantive order but the corruption
1:28:58of god’s design so yes if you play it all the way through i think that sin is neo-paganism and
1:29:05neo-paganism is sin but i do think you can say more than just their sin
1:29:10i think you can identify certain facets of the system that satan foments and i think romans 1
1:29:18is the text that takes us as deep into satan’s system as we can go
1:29:25to understand especially how satan not only opposes creation order but sets
1:29:32up an anti-order a kind of alternative sexual ethic and that’s where our
1:29:39culture is today by the way our culture is not just sinning against
1:29:44god it is it’s actually following a kind of mirror sexual ethic where it’s not
1:29:52so-called heterosexuality that is righteous essentially homosexuality is righteous
1:29:58where it’s not owning your bodily identity as righteous contravening your bodily identity is
1:30:05righteous we could go on but that’s what i’m after there’s a system that we’re
1:30:10that we’re in opposition against further clarity is it possible to
1:30:19in your view is it possible to engage in sinful behavior that is not neo-pagan behavior um
1:30:25what are they synonymous i think they’re basically synonymous and that’s the point i was bringing out with peter
1:30:31jones jones’s argument is that everything is either one-ism or two-ism
1:30:37so jones’s point is that every philosophy every system ultimately traces back to
1:30:44one-ism and the reason i cited him is because i think he’s basically right
1:30:49now you’re going to have to do some technical work to substantiate that in certain claims
1:30:56but jones is very similar to van till in that van till is going to argue that
1:31:02at some level every system except christianity is going to lead to
1:31:08pantheism it’s not going to lead to trinitarian personalism one god three
1:31:16persons and therefore it’s always going to be it’s always going to collapse
1:31:22into sameness and i think that’s true thank you yeah good questions
1:31:30jared um so i have a friend and just
1:31:36uh experienced growing up in the church you know he’s a he’s a man but he has long hair and i don’t think people would
1:31:43look at him and think he looks like a woman or whatever because it’s just so common but i guess i’m curious in a church
1:31:50context like where do you i guess draw the line and okay that’s too long okay that’s not
1:31:56how do you go about figuring that out um your hair is too long so you should
1:32:02no i’m just kidding i’m being facetious let me let me let me scrutinize everyone on this call
1:32:09uh according to the precise hair lick i don’t know what the precise
1:32:14hair length would be but my burden is is not to start where i think a fair
1:32:20number of evangelicals today start which is in the gray zone which is
1:32:26in the less clear i want to start with the clear and then work to the less clear
1:32:32in all facets of my theology and i think what is clear in first corinthians 11 is that paul is
1:32:39calling men and women to look distinct and the the marker of distinction that he lays
1:32:46out is not you know dresses and pants or something like this or cloaks
1:32:51its hair length so i would say to a guy who has long hair
1:32:58that i think he should consider first corinthians 11. i don’t know precisely at what
1:33:03moment you know he’s looking like a woman and a woman is looking like a man but what i i do want to do with my
1:33:10children for example or if i’m leading young people is i want to help them understand that
1:33:16first corinthians 11 is not a jump ball um it’s not something you follow if you
1:33:23want to it’s like the rest of scripture so a man
1:33:29should honor god by looking distinct from a woman and a
1:33:35woman should honor god by looking distinct from a man and failure to do so i think is sin
1:33:44i’m willing to i’m willing to admit that there’s there are some gray areas that then
1:33:49follow right that always happens with biblical principles thank you jacob
1:33:54as we take them in i’m willing i’m willing to admit gray there are gray areas and in lots of
1:34:00areas of the christian life right but that principle is clear i think
1:34:07now people then want to go to scotland and braveheart and men and guilts and we
1:34:13that those are other we can have those conversations like i’m not responsible for raising william wallace
1:34:19uh although it’d be pretty cool if my son was like him i’m responsible for raising my son so um i’m not gonna start in the less
1:34:27clear though even there and say ah well it’s just contextual
1:34:33i’m other people may read this differently but i’m under the authority of the word of
1:34:39god i’m not bound by the old covenant but i’m under the new covenant and i’m
1:34:46responsible for obeying all the teaching of the new covenant and i’m going to and i’m going to try to
1:34:53train people to do so now i’m going to sound strange in doing so and that’s where
1:34:58you’ve heard me say this a few times but that’s where we understand just how much a gender-neutral culture
1:35:04has influenced us and has shaped us and not just us but
1:35:10churches people in churches i actually think though i may be the last last guy to declare
1:35:16this but uh i actually think this is a way we witness to the world
1:35:22we aren’t gender androgynous like so many people around us we believe that god made manhood and
1:35:29womanhood and it’s not seventh-tier theology it’s actually
1:35:34very important that’s what i would say jacob yes
1:35:44yeah i had a question about neo-paganism as well uh the order you gave from genesis 3 was
1:35:50super helpful going from creature over the woman over the man over god
1:35:55and you may have done it and i just missed it but do you see that same uh anti-order in romans 1 as well
1:36:03yes exchanging the creatures and the genders being confused then that being placed i absolutely do
1:36:12yes i i didn’t focus on that specific theme when we walked
1:36:19through uh romans one but i did surface it when i talked about
1:36:25verse 25 exchanging the truth for a lie and then i could have said more about worshiping and serving the creature
1:36:32there because that’s absolutely what is happening with the anti-order of satan
1:36:38satan one and that’s another dimension there’s so there’s so many this is the this is the danger of trying
1:36:45to talk about the fall and sexuality and these things in in a short session
1:36:51but satan doesn’t just want them to rebel against god adam and eve that
1:36:56is satan wants to be worshipped and satan here’s the here’s the really chilling reality
1:37:02in following satan they are worshiping him people think of worship as what you do
1:37:08when you raise your hands right in a darkened you know evangelical setting with smoke pouring out from a
1:37:15fog machine but worship is following worship is obeying
1:37:21what you obey you worship what you worship you obey and that’s what satan is after isn’t it
1:37:28he is after not just hey break god’s law hey worship me and that’s what we do
1:37:37we worship but but there’s two dimensions there’s an interesting um breadth in that phrase
1:37:45served the creature or worship and serve the creature because i think you you can actually worship
1:37:51different creatures can’t you you can worship humanity and you can also worship
1:37:58satan you can even worship animals well all of that ultimately is satan worship
1:38:07and all of that is the absolute inversion of creation order
1:38:14the creature is the last the the animal the serpent is the last thing that is
1:38:20supposed to be worshipped but it’s the first thing that satan wants worshipped and that’s why it’s so
1:38:26important that we affirm that satan took the form of a serpent
1:38:33you will read exegetes and theologians who don’t seem to understand this because they don’t they don’t understand that the fall is
1:38:40the subversion fundamentally of creation order and so there it’s now becoming more and
1:38:47more fashionable to question whether the serpent is satan
1:38:54there are very well respected theologians and scholars now who are
1:39:00who are distancing themselves from what happens in genesis 3 from satan of
1:39:06the new testament and there are various conversations to
1:39:12have around the identity of the serpent but one absolutely crucial reason
1:39:20why satan took the form of a serpent is to subvert the creation order in the fullest
1:39:27possible extent this is this is when baker mayfield
1:39:35took the flag of the opposing team several years ago when he was in college and he went out to to midfield
1:39:43and he threw the flag into the logo of the team the home team he had just defeated this
1:39:49is not an incidental fact a weird detail of genesis 3 satan takes the form of the
1:39:56serpent to throw the flag into the midfield logo of god
1:40:02in eden he’s he’s blaspheming god as much as he can
1:40:09because he is taking the lowest thing and and causing the man and the woman to
1:40:15worship it which is just unspeakable evil
1:40:21in god’s face so all these details matter
1:40:27and all of this is the anti-order that satan is after yeah
1:40:38so when you guys are reading in your old testament classes or whatever other classes and you may come into context contact
1:40:45with scholars who deny that the serpent is satan you think i i hope you remember
1:40:51this element because it’s actually it’s not just historically important but
1:40:57it’s theologically so significant that satan incarnates as
1:41:02a serpent which genesis 1 ah
1:41:08i need to get the precise verse what does genesis 1 30 say to every
1:41:16uh no no no every beast of the earth genesis 1 30 to
1:41:22every bird of the heavens into everything that creeps on the earth everything that has the breath of life i have given
1:41:28every green plant for food and then in verse 126 ah here it is verse 126
1:41:36let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing
1:41:44that creeps on the earth but what happens in the fall the
1:41:50creeping thing that creeps on the earth which is the lowest of those mentioned the last mentioned is
1:41:56that which takes dominion over the man subverting creation order blaspheming
1:42:04yahweh spiking the ball
1:42:12uh is grace church i don’t know where it is it just says grace church
1:42:17is there a question a little north of you a few hours cool thank you dr strand yeah uh i was
1:42:24wondering if you’d be willing to speak to sam albery’s approach to this
1:42:29the homosexual issue is that beneficial or it seems there might be some pitfalls
1:42:35to some of the things he’s doing um would you be willing to talk on that yes
1:42:41i i know sam and like sam personally and appreciate him and um
1:42:48so some of the things that he has said publicly uh i i affirm but i i can say that
1:42:55living out the organization that he has been affiliated with really has some troubling elements in it
1:43:02and in general the idea
1:43:10i i’m not recalling all the specific language in this conversation so let me broaden it a little bit from
1:43:15sam but he he is in a group of evangelicals
1:43:20who do believe that there is some form of being gay that is a a part an
1:43:28ongoing part of their identity sam would not in any way affirm
1:43:35homosexual behavior and i don’t think he would affirm same-sex
1:43:41attraction as neutral certainly not positive but i don’t recall all his statements
1:43:49right now and his precise position in the gay christian world or
1:43:54or or in that conversation but i will just say this uh we need to recognize that
1:44:03same-sex attraction is an ungodly desire james 1 13-15 indicates
1:44:11that our desires are sinful our desires are not neutral
1:44:17yes they give birth to sinful actions as in james 1 13-15
1:44:22but even even the desire to sin is itself sin so this is where i’m not
1:44:29certain that sam has it as tight as it could be the matter of whether same-sex
1:44:35attraction itself at the impulse level is sinful
1:44:41i believe that we need to preach and teach and proclaim that any instance of
1:44:47desire same-sex attraction is sinful just like any instance of
1:44:54heterosexual lust for someone not our wife is sinful that’s true whether it’s a
1:45:00second long or whether it’s 10 seconds long that’s true whether it’s premeditated or whether it’s it comes from nowhere
1:45:06seemingly so there’s more to say on that issue but that’s one of the major things we have
1:45:12to sort out in that conversation and there are a good number today
1:45:18sadly of evangelicals who do not believe that the experience of
1:45:24same-sex attraction demands repentance and that is my position
1:45:29biblically the experience of any ungodly desire a flash of anger
1:45:37not just premeditated anger not just a long simmering experience of anger a flash of
1:45:43unrighteous hatred is sin matthew 5 21-30
1:45:48a flash of ungodly lust being being sexually attracted to a woman who is not my wife
1:45:55merits repentance and confession
1:46:01so the stakes are high here when you study these issues on same-sex attraction interestingly it actually causes you to
1:46:08see that not only do we sin in that area at the level of desire but in all sorts
1:46:14of areas and so we’re not laying a burden upon people who experience
1:46:20unwanted same-sex attraction in calling them to repentance we’re calling them to the way of the cross
1:46:27and we’re calling them to victory the way out of your enslavement to temptation
1:46:35patterns is not to say well that wasn’t a really long exercise of lust of whatever kind i
1:46:42didn’t feel jealousy of my classmate for a long period so it’s okay
1:46:48oh she’s she’s hot and i desire her but i’ll bounce my eyes i’ll think about
1:46:53something different know the way for you and me to have victory over ungodly desire which we all
1:46:59have in different forms is to kill it and you kill it by repenting of it
1:47:07confessing it to god and then asking god for power to turn from it
1:47:14there is too much management of desire today and not nearly enough mortification of
1:47:19desire that’s what paul says in colossians 3 mortify your sins kill them
1:47:31that’s when we will really make gains in godliness when we experience ungodly desire
1:47:38and we don’t just stop it or we don’t just think about something
1:47:44else that’s not enough biblically we should confess it and repent of it
1:47:52and ask god for power over it and then one more step we should then figure out in our life if
1:47:57there are any triggers of this behavior and we should try to
1:48:03not do those patterns not go in those directions rewire
1:48:10our our thinking our habits so those are some initial thoughts
1:48:25uh jared did you have do you have another question it’s your hand up yep yeah um
1:48:32so i don’t know if side b the gay christian side makes this argument but
1:48:39attraction and desire maybe they put forth well attraction is different than desire in the way that
1:48:44man recognizes that a woman is beautiful that’s different than a lust for that
1:48:50woman and so maybe it’s okay for me to recognize so with that i guess they’re kind of making
1:48:57a distinction how would we respond and say no it is okay for a man to
1:49:02just recognize naturally oh that woman is beautiful but reject lust but at the same time if you recognize a
1:49:08man as you know whatever that’s wrong how do we explain that that’s a good question
1:49:14i think it’s terminological so the way you’re going to help people sort this out
1:49:20is to untangle the mess the very serious mess that is currently playing out
1:49:29sadly in gay christian circles over these issues and so what we need to make clear is
1:49:36that it is entirely appropriate as the bible does to recognize that
1:49:42different people are attractive i mean there are numerous individuals
1:49:47david esther others that we could name who are identified in some form as beautiful or
1:49:53handsome that’s not wrong that’s not wrong at all now we’re not going to spend a lot of time on that
1:49:59but but that’s not wrong objectively any time though there is that’s not
1:50:05desire though that’s not attraction we’re i’m not saying attraction other people
1:50:12may i’m not because i i’m trying to guard holiness here and say when my
1:50:19heart is pulled to that in a lustful way
1:50:25we are not in the category of objective recognition of beauty
1:50:33we are in the category very widely populated biblical category of
1:50:39lust desire passion
1:50:44there’s different terms different words used but we’re in we’re in the same
1:50:50category and when i am lusting after someone who
1:50:56is not my spouse i am sinning
1:51:03now someone may push further and say okay but how do i know where all the lines are because
1:51:08um it’s you know that sounds well and good in a theo theological classroom but when
1:51:14i’m out in the world when am i objectively recognizing and when am i
1:51:19inherently lusting here again i’m gonna i’m gonna just send this up we’re gonna have to sort
1:51:27that out with the holy spirit we are going to see attractive people
1:51:33seeing an attractive person is not sinning necessarily but we’re also recognizing
1:51:40the natural pull of our heart even as christians to desire those who are not our spouse
1:51:50so that’s how i would want to begin framing it that is going to feel really simplistic to some folks in the gay christian
1:51:57discussion on the in the in the side b community but i think that’s i think we actually need that simplicity
1:52:04and that clarity and we work from the clear to the less clear well you’re later in the day you’re like
1:52:10well was i lusting after her was i not well you know what i we may not be
1:52:15entirely certain uh in general let’s let’s uh let’s be quick to repent
1:52:25and sadly what has taken place in the gay christian community is i think
1:52:32a very dangerous connection of repentance regular repentance
1:52:39to defeatism and discouragement when
1:52:46you think of luther thesis one of the 95 theses the whole of the
1:52:51christian life is a life of repentance now it may well be the case jared that
1:52:57so-called straight christians haven’t done enough repenting okay i’m gonna grant you that in general terms that’s probably true
1:53:04for a lot of people but that doesn’t mean that repenting on a regular basis is defeatist
1:53:09or discouraging it means you and i got to take up our cross and follow christ and that’s hard
1:53:16there’s nothing about this that is supposed to be easy there’s nothing about this that that is supposed to encourage the
1:53:21natural man the natural man is our enemy we’re we’re opposing him we’re attacking
1:53:27him we’re mortifying the flesh so i i fear that some of this is people who either are not converted
1:53:35or are converted but are not sufficiently seizing on the resources of divine grace
1:53:41in their life
Standing Before God, This We Are and No More 