The following are my thoughts on a recent episode of the Dominion Press podcast. It is quite enjoyable, meaty and spiritually strengthening to listen to.
While the moral and mental weakness of men in our society also shows up in the lack of physical strength in many men, there is an antithesis to this which is the hypermasculinity, some would not entirely incorrectly call it toxic masculinity, we also see today.
This latter way of approaching life exists particularly in the Christian conservative sectors of the institutional church with a mindset the males of the species have to get back to being the pundit's definition of real men in order to physically, politically and morally take back the world for Jesus. This does lead to Babel, as the hosts say, just another way to pervert Christianity into a works-based salvation like all the other religions.
We should never just passively accept the bad things that happen to us. Paul did ask God multiple times to remove his thorn in the flesh. It just so happened that, when it came to whatever issue the apostle was dealing with, God's answer to his prayers was "No. My grace is sufficient for thee."
When we go through things, whether it be physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, or circumstantial, we should always take it to the Lord in prayer, not just being doormats, letting the problem steamroll over us like a Buddhist working out his karma.
It is interesting to note that today the parts of the world where Christianity is growing the most are the poorest.
We don't have to wait for God to clean up all the mess currently in our lives before He can use us and do so mightily.
That's always been the problem for God's Israel people: we're weak, God strengthens and prospers us, we fill up with selfish pride.
Whatever strengths, talents, skills, and abilities anyone has come from the Lord, as well as whatever and however much success they bring.
Christians aren't supposed to be idiots but we need to recognize our intelligence comes from God and that we have His Holy Spirit by and only by which we are guided into all truth about Him.
All of the life of a Christian, including whateever good things we do to improve ourselves, has to be lived in the context of a close relationship with our Heavenly Father.
I was never a big fan of Alistaire Begg. When I listened to him he just came off as a clown. Begg did what the hosts of this podcast rightly speak against, namely boasting about his moral weakness.
As someone who is outside the institutional church, (though not uninvolved in local "churches" and in fact desirous to be more involved), the brothers whom I fellowship with aren't pastors withhuge followings. In fact, they aren't even pastors at all in the corrupted modern sense of that word. They are simply, like myself, fellow members of the body who are also just trying to get through life, grow closer to Christ and figure out His Word. I can respect the hosts of this podcast because they are doing the same thing as well as official pastors whom I sense are doing so.
The other thing that bothers me about Andrew Tate and all these other hypermasculine role models is they appear to lack any sensitivity or emotional intelligence. This is quite contrary to God's Biblical commandments.
I could never picture Tate or his ilk cheerfully serving others as the Bible says people are to do because the whole thinking of these types is it's all about them.
Listen to it here. For those who use screen readers, click the 3 button to play and the 2 button to pause and resume.
