7-16-23 Willisburg Bulletin
Have you noticed that men are being ostracized? It has become a world full of wanting to vamp up the LGBTQ+ communities, women, and so many more different groups of people. Especially in the American culture we are seeing this idea that men are bad, and masculinity is nothing but abusive and over powerful. There’s so much against our husbands, our sons, and our men that it’s essential we look to God’s word to combat this raging movement. We’re seeing how the homes are collapsing right in front of us. Thus is not the only reason, but it does influence how the family setting is being changed.
Feminism Upheld
With the “war” that’s essentially happening on men and being masculine, these groups want to down the thoughts of what the Bible says. They twist and turn it to make God and Christians out to be sexists. It’s as if they want to show hostility towards the men. “You know, if women ruled, then this world would be a better place”, they claim, and even the Washinton Post has an article called, why can’t we hate men. They are wanting to make the world out to be a feminine ruled world, because they view men as nothing but trouble, abuse, and having too much power. However, this is not what we see in scripture.
Masculinity Deformed
Helpmate and weaker vessel are often the two words the world takes to support their view. The world takes the word help to mean servants and that the men do the important work and the women just mean nothing, the men are superior. However, in Hebrew, help is ezer, which is used in the OT most often when describing God, “our ever present help in trouble” (Ps 46:1). In 1 Peter the weaker vessel is brought up, but not in a worldly sense of weaker in character or intelligence, rather less influence. God, in the OT, tells them to take care of the widows, orphans, etc, the ones without power (economic, political, social power). Paul also uses it in 1 Cor 1:27-28 in the same way to represent those who weren’t high status, educated, wealthy. The Bible is realistic about men having the role to lead & have the power to do so, but it doesn’t degrade women in this way, rather it sets the roles and shows that men are to use that power to care, to protect, & to love their wives.
origin
Back in the colonial days, men were in the seat with authority, but they used it in a way to uphold the common good of church, community, and marriage. It wasn’t a do whatever you want type of standard. But when the Industrial Revolution came around, men were forced to take their work outside the home into factories and working for themselves. Men’s character started changing into a self-seeking, selfish ambition type of standard because they viewed monetary success as an idol. They lost a sense of morality in the working world. As men were exposed to the secular world (factories, offices, universities, banking), the public realm became value free, meaning they weren’t to bring personal values and beliefs into the public world, which we still see today. Biblical masculinity was on the losing edge and it has only gotten worse.