Fix Your Mind

The picture you see here is significant.  Let me explain why.  This is the view you’ll have if you sit at the foot of the table in the Honor Board Room at the United States Air Force Academy and look up.  To be clear, as a cadet you don’t ever want to experience this view.  If you do, it’s because your integrity’s being questioned.  It’s because you’re suspected of having violated the Honor Code, which says, “We will not lie, steal, or cheat, nor tolerate among us anyone who does.”  The code is a bastion of cadet life.  Its violation is the fastest way to find oneself dismissed from the Cadet Wing.  Regrettably, there’s a deep irony to this picture, which I’ll get to in a moment.

The Honor Board Room resides within USAFA’s Polaris Hall, which houses the Academy’s Center for Character and Leadership Development (CCLD).  Maybe you remember that Polaris is another name for the North Star.  Polaris Hall is oriented toward the North Star.  If you sit in the seat at the foot of the Honor Board conference table and look up, the building intentionally funnels your view toward the North Star.  The symbolism is purposeful.  If you’re here, it’s because your integrity is on trial.  What’s your moral compass in this moment?  What’s your moral north star?

Now, why is this ironic?  It’s ironic because, like much of the moral fabric of American culture today, USAFA’s Honor Code is slowly eroding, and it’s doing so with official sanction.  In today’s Air Force, you can don the uniform of a USAFA cadet, having taken the honor oath, and all the while deny your fundamental identity as a human being (see here).  You can lie about your gender – man or woman – and your lie will receive not censure, but official sanction.  A male cadet can deceitfully claim a female identity (or vice versa) and never have to answer for that lie with a view like the one here.  Cheat on your math test…you’ll face this view.  Lie about who you are as a person, and you’ll be congratulated for your authenticity.

What does this rumination tell us?  It tells us the North Star isn’t a faithful moral compass.  It’s not sturdy enough, permanent enough, or true enough.  The North Star as a symbol helps us down the road of thinking that truth is objective; that there are moral absolutes which span time, space, and cultures, and thus bind all people everywhere.  But, as USAFA so aptly demonstrates, the North Star can’t define the content of that truth, or the nature of these absolutes.  We need not the North Star, but the Morning Star.  We need the one who said, “I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star” (Revelation 22:16b, ESV).  We need, “…the prophetic word…to which [we] will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in [our] hearts” (2 Peter 1:19, ESV).  We need Jesus.  Moral relativism makes foolish liars of all its adherents.  It degrades a culture and weakens a nation.  It takes honorable (if fearsome) words like, “We will not lie, steal, or cheat, nor tolerate among us anyone who does,” and turns them vacuous.

There’s a better table than the conference table in the Polaris Hall Honor Board Room.  It’s a table of perfect integrity where redeemed liars sit clothed in truth.  It is the banqueting table of the “…marriage supper of the Lamb” (Revelation 19:9, ESV).  It is a table, not of judgment, but of grace.  This table points, not north, but toward the Morning.  Do you have a seat at this better table?

(This is the third of three recent posts.  See the first two here and here.) 

In reading Psalms recently, specifically Psalm 31, I’m reminded again that death is no final enemy for a Christian, a follower of Jesus. 

In Psalm 31, which Jesus quoted at the cross, David writes this: “How great is Your goodness, Which you have stored up for those who fear You, Which You have wrought for those who take refuge in You, Before the sons of men!  You hide them in the secret place of Your presence from the conspiracies of man; You keep them secretly in a shelter from the strife of tongues” (vs. 19-20, NASB). 

Ask yourself, where, finally, is the secret place of God’s presence for the Christian?  Is it not on the other side of death (or of Jesus’ return), in the immediate presence of Jesus Christ, unhindered by sin?  Where is the unbreachable shelter that ultimately guards God’s people from the strife of tongues?  Is it not on the other side of Bunyan’s dark river (to borrow an image from The Pilgrim’s Progress)?  In paradise (Luke 23:43), Jesus Christ covers and protects his disciples until the time arrives for his manifest kingdom on earth.  In this place of protection, the Christian fears no conspiracy; he (or she) experiences no assault of the tongue, and all the tongue brings with it.  Death is, finally, no enemy for someone saved from death by the eternal Son of God. 

Let me offer a quick case study by considering my Dad, killed by a reckless driver in May 2020.  Since that time, think of all that Dad has been spared: the strife and governmental tyranny of the COVID era after May 2020; the nastiness of rioting in the summer of 2020; January 6, 2021, and all its fallout; the many immoral statements and actions of President Biden and Governor Newsom; the moral insanity of the California legislature; Russia’s cynical invasion of Ukraine; Hamas’ wicked assault on Israel and the tragic aftermath unfolding now…need I go on?  Of course, all these things I’ve mentioned are “large scale” matters.  I haven’t even touched the more personal difficulties Dad might have encountered, even difficult wrestling with his own sin.  For more than three years now, he’s missed it all!  He’s been covered and protected in the presence of his King, Jesus Christ. 

Indeed, death is no enemy to those for whom its stinger has been plucked out (1 Corinthians 15:56)!

(This is the second of two recent posts.  See yesterday’s post here.)

One tragic consequence of the sexual revolution in which we find ourselves, a revolution largely defined by the acronym LGBTQ+, is, perhaps, the struggle for one man to say to another, “I love you.”  It’s not that the words aren’t, or can’t be, spoken, but rather that we’re less apt to say them for fear of being misunderstood (whether in our own mind or otherwise).  It’s not surprising that we might struggle in this way.  In a world marked by open and increasing homosexuality, the words, “I love you,” between male counterparts, have been sadly hijacked.

To be clear, we ought not charge all our male reticence in speaking thus to one another against the sexual revolution.  Even without this wholesale departure from God’s holiness, men are still less apt to verbally express love for another man, particularly another man of their same age and life-stage.  In one sense, this reticence is wholly appropriate.  It signifies the emotional and verbal differences between men and women, including in how we express ourselves.  It also signifies the high regard we have for concepts and spheres of love.  The way I love my wife is entirely different (though not fundamentally different) from the way I love another man.  Thus, using the same term – “love” – in both cases sometimes feels a bit odd, though it need not.

All of this, the world around me and my own internal reticence, makes me thankful for men in my life who have, and are now, teaching me, and helping me, to say, “I love you,” to other men.  I have in mind here men like my two grandfathers, or my father.  I mean men like my three brothers, and them especially since my own father’s death in May 2020.  I mean my brothers-in-law and my own son.  I mean many brothers in Christ over the years who’ve demonstrated manly love for me, even if without using the phrase, “I love you.”  These men have shepherded me, and they are shepherding me now, toward Christlike maturity in love; the sort of maturity that can come to another man and say, with holy honesty, “I love you.”

Why is this matter of love expressed to another man so important?  Why is it, in fact, essential to my life and faith?  It’s important because I desperately want to say, with all honesty, and with manly vehemence, “I love you,” to the truest man who ever lived.  I want the God-Man, Jesus Christ, to hear from my lips, “I love you,” with no awkwardness, or reticence, or dissimulation.  He saved me for this purpose.  He loved me first for this purpose!  I want the joy (perhaps the painful joy) of an exchange like this (see John 21:15-17, ESV):

Jesus: “P.J., son of Phil, do you love me more than these?”

PJ: “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.”

Jesus: “Feed my lambs.”

Jesus: “P.J., son of Phil, do you love me?”

PJ: “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.”

Jesus: “Tend my sheep.”

Jesus: “P.J., son of Phil, do you love me?”

PJ: “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.”

Jesus: “Feed my sheep.”

I’m thankful for the men who teach me to say, “I love you,” so that I can say the same to the One Man.

The total and complete sovereignty of God.  It’s a ringing theme of Scripture.  God rules over all. Nothing lies outside his control.  He ordains (he establishes, he decrees) all that is – all that has been, all that is now, and all that will be.

God is sovereign over our salvation and our sin.

God is not responsible for my sin, I am.  But he is sovereign over it.  He rules supreme over my every act of rebellion against him.

God is responsible for my salvation, I am not.  I can do nothing to save myself.  God must do it all.  Within his work to save, I act in faith, but even this faith is first his gift to me.

Those whom God saves he softens (Ezekiel 11:19; 36:26-27).  He regenerates them to new life, with a new heart; a heart not only able, but also ready, willing, and wanting, to obey the Gospel.  Those whom God judges – those whom he does not save – he hardens.  He confirms them in their sinful, culpable rebellion, not giving them new eyes to see and believe Jesus.

For the purposes of this post, I’m going to intentionally leave aside the difficult question of why God chooses some to save (some to soften) and leaves others to calcify in rebellion.  It’s a question ultimately hidden in the sovereign purpose of God himself.  I may not understand that purpose in full, but I know it’s good because I know God is good.  Instead, I want to focus for a few paragraphs on the “how” of hardening.  How does God confirm someone in their sin, ultimately to their destruction in Hell?  How does he harden someone in rebellion against him?  It’s an important question, in part because the answer helps us again see human responsibility, or human culpability, for our hard-hearted sin, even as God himself is totally sovereign over that sin.  In other words, studying how God hardens the sinner helps me, in some small measure, to understand the interface between God’s sovereignty and volitional human personhood.  Understanding how God hardens a sinner in their sin helps me see that God is not unjust or capricious in confirming someone all the way to final damnation in Hell.

In order to understand this process of divinely wrought calcification, let’s turn our attention to the Bible’s most famous case of a sinner being hardened, Pharaoh.  I mean here the pharaoh before whom Moses and Aaron appeared, demanding that he let God’s people go free from Egypt (see Exodus 5).  In case you’re interested, I think it’s highly likely that the Pharaoh in question was Amenhotep II (see Expedition Bible video here).  But, his specific identity isn’t Scripture’s concern.  What is Scripture’s concern is the way God dealt with this proud, wicked human potentate.

In Exodus 4:21 (ESV), Yahweh says this to Moses: “When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles that I have put in your power.  But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.”  Notice I’ve underlined the word “all.”  God wants to ensure that Pharaoh sees all his mighty miracles entrusted to Moses.  He can’t miss even one…not one.  Why?  Because this full-spectrum revelation will leave Pharaoh totally and completely without excuse in his hard-hearted rebellion against God.  God will harden Pharaoh’s heart by revelation, by progressively showing himself and his power to this wicked king.  As Pharaoh rejects Yahweh, time-after-time, he will progressively confirm the rejection of God for which he is culpable, responsible, guilty.  Even when the last straw falls and God kills all the firstborn of Egypt – human and “livestock” – even then Pharaoh’s acquiescence to God will only be temporary (Exodus 12:29, ESV).  Even after a decisive, unmistakable revelation of God’s power and authority, Pharaoh will still turn and say: “What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?” (Exodus 14:5, ESV).  The point is this, God does not harden Pharaoh’s heart by hiding himself from Pharaoh, but rather through clear, compelling, and powerful revelation that Pharaoh rejects.  Why does Pharaoh reject it?  Because he’s a sinner.  He loves his sin, and in his sovereign, righteous, good determination, God leaves Pharaoh to calcify in rebellion all the way to final damnation.

What happens to Pharaoh is instructive.  It teaches us.  As God worked with Pharaoh, so it is with every sinner who, in God’s sovereign purpose, does not repent.  No one will ever stand before the throne of God for judgment and justly charge God with injustice for leaving them ignorant of his glory and goodness.  Every sinner will finally be damned based on their knowledgeable rejection of God who reveals himself.  Consider Romans 1:18-21 (ESV):

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.  For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.  For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.  So they are without excuse.  For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”

God does not hide himself; he reveals himself.  The more God reveals himself for rejection by a sinner, the more confirmed that sinner is in their rebellion; the more calcified their dead, stony heart becomes – stage-by-stage, step-by-step, layer-by-layer.  It’s frightening, horrific, tragic.  Increased hardness comes with the rejection of increased, and increasingly clear, revelation.  Notice what happens in Revelation 16:9, as the clear and compelling wrath of God works itself out on earth.  Notice how people respond to the judging discipline of God: “…they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues.  They did not repent and give him glory.”  Horrific hard-heartedness!

Dear reader, where has God revealed himself to you?  How has he shown you his goodness and glory?  Don’t reject the revelation!  Receive it unto salvation, through faith in Jesus Christ as God the Son who died on a cross to save you from the power of sin, and from the wrath of God.  May your heart not be calcified but softened.

What has happened in Israel in recent days is horrific.  Hamas’ attack was, and is, a brutal display of evil.  I pray that in response the Israeli state will wield the sword of just vengeance with wisdom and discretion (Romans 13:4).  I pray that in the end Hamas will cease to exist as a coherent, functioning organization.  I pray that Israel’s future will be one marked by a better peace, for Jew and Gentile, Israeli and Palestinian, alike.  I pray this will happen as the Gospel of Israel’s Messiah gains new purchase in hearts across Israel’s society.

Here then are godly words in a prayer for war:

“Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up your hand…

Break the arm of the wicked and the evildoer,

Seek out his wickedness, until You find none.

The LORD is King forever and ever;

Nations have perished from His land.

O LORD, You have heard the desire of the humble;

You will strengthen their heart, You will incline Your ear

To vindicate the orphan and the oppressed,

So that man who is of the earth will no longer cause terror.”

(Psalm 10:12, 15-18, NASB)

Sometimes God leads his people into difficult seasons in order to test us, to try our hearts.  No, this doesn’t mean God’s at all confused about what we’re thinking and feeling.  The biblical idea of testing has more to do with revealing, with making plain what is hidden to us and to others (but otherwise crystal clear to God). According to James, in James 1, such testing is essential to the building of real faith.  We tend to dislike such times, understandably in one sense.  They’re hard.  They hurt.  They may extend for a long time.  They may even feel desperate.  But they’re important.  When tested, the heart characterized by faith cries out to God and then waits on him.  It perseveres in waiting, trusting everything to God who provides, God who answers, God who works all things for the good (and not the harm) of his people (Romans 8:28).  Of course, the opposite is possible.  The tested heart may also demonstrate faithlessness.  It may demonstrate controlling fear, panic, and anger.  This heart responds to testing by demanding of God (silly as that is) that he meet my need in my time and my way.  Otherwise, I will cynically doubt his love and perhaps even deny his presence.  Take that God!

The above spiritual ruminations flow out of Israel’s experience at a place called Rephidim (somewhere in the Sinai Peninsula) as recorded in Exodus 17:1-7.  God led his people into a hard place…a very hard place…a place with no water.  Faced with this hardship, and even with impending disaster (vs. 3), the people respond by quarreling with Moses and grumbling against him (vs. 2-3).  In doing this, they quarrel not merely with the man, Moses, but more importantly with Yahweh’s appointed servant.  In fact, they’re putting Yahweh himself to the test.  So says Moses, in verse 2 (ESV): “Why do you test the LORD?”  How presumptuous – that man would test God in this manner!  How thankless – that redeemed Israel would doubt its rescuer!  Read down to verse 7, and notice what Moses tells us there.  He says that the people, “…tested the LORD by saying, ‘Is the LORD among us or not?’”  If God doesn’t provide water in their time and their way, then he must not be with them.  He must not be the God of their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  He must not be worthy of their devotion.  The Israelites sound like a petulant child (which they often were) threatening a so-called friend: “If you don’t give me that toy that I want, then you’re not actually my friend.”  Really?  This God just parted the waters at the Sea of Reeds for you to cross over.  He goes before you, day and night, in a pillar of cloud or a pillar of fire.  His servant, Moses, performed mighty miracles in Egypt that you experienced.  And you have the gall to dictate terms to him; the gall to assert what he must do to demonstrate love and care for you?

Briefly, consider how Moses is the foil of faith against faithless Israel.  Notice verse 4: “So Moses cried out to the LORD, ‘What shall I do with this people?  They are almost ready to stone me.’”  Yahweh answers Moses (in vs. 5-6), and Moses obeys Yahweh (in vs. 6).  When tested, faith cries out to God and then obeys his word.

Painfully, I’m too often like faithless Israel.  At least I’m tempted to be.  God leads me into a time of testing, and I get cynical.  I get angry and anxious.  I want the Lord to answer me in my way and my time, no matter how many times before I’ve heard his Word, seen him provide, even experienced him powerfully addressing that which concerns me.  So often I look too much like a faithless, petulant child.  Lord, thank you for being patient with your petulant children!

(May 23rd) Note: A previous version of this post was flawed, sinfully so.  Repentance demanded the following rewrite. 

There’s a canary in the coal mine, and it’s gasping for air.  The death of this poor bird doesn’t bode well for the viability of the mine, nor for those working to make it prosper.  If the mine is the otherwise “orthodox” church in the Santa Cruz area – meaning, churches who still hold to the true Gospel according to Scripture – then the canary is our understanding of how men and women should live in marriage and in the body of Christ.  Christians who depart from Scripture in this matter weaken the body of Christ in Santa Cruz.

Why is this matter worthy of attention now?  I’m prompted in part by the prevalence where I live of something called “egalitarianism,” which stands in contradistinction to the biblical standard of “complementarianism.”  Egalitarianism, in short, is the assertion that there are no essential, God-given distinctions between men and women when it comes to their roles in life, especially as those roles pertain to life in the family and in the church.  Men and women are equal, not only in their standing and value before God, but also in matters of authority and ministry.  So says egalitarianism.  Contrary to this position, but faithful to God’s Word, is complementarianism.  To my knowledge, the term complementarianism originated in the early 1990’s with a response to what was then called evangelical feminism (see Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, edited by John Piper and Wayne Grudem). Complementarianism is simply the effort to say well what Scripture teaches; namely that men and women are equal before God, and yet different.  We have different God-given roles and responsibilities in life that complement each other, both in the church, and in the family.  Christians who depart from this standard of equal but different, equal but complementary, do a disservice to themselves, their families, and the church as a whole.

Three Critiques

Because I’m writing here as a critique, I will not take time to state the positive case for biblical complementarianism.  That case will become clear, I hope, in the critique itself.  At the end of this post, I’ll mention a few resources that might prove helpful for those who want to learn more.  I’ll also mention, right now, several sermons I’ve preached in the past that directly address aspects of this question.  The first (available here) has to do with gender roles in the body of Christ, especially as these roles pertain to the ministry of a pastor-elder-overseer (all the same New Testament office).  The others (available here, here, here, and here) have to do with gender in general, based on God’s creation of Adam and Eve as male and female.  Let me encourage you to avail yourself of these resources, even as you consider what follows.

Those who teach contrary to Scripture with respect to God-given distinctions between men and women make at least three errors.  Wanting to be charitable in my critique, I’ve couched these three errors as things such teachers “misunderstand”:

Egalitarianism misunderstands the revelation of creation order across time – The fact that men and women are radically equal, and yet beautifully distinct before God, with distinct roles and responsibilities, appears on the pages of Scripture from the very beginning of creation.  I won’t belabor the point, but for a moment hear the words of God himself: “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him” (Genesis 2:18, ESV).  The result of this resolution on God’s part is Eve.  She is not Adam’s equivalent (though she is his equal in terms of worth and value before God).  She is his helper.  Even the manner in which God creates Eve – out of Adam’s rib, versus out of the dust of the ground – makes this role beautifully clear.  Again, I refer the reader to the sermons noted above.

It is folly to suppose that sin, in Genesis 3, destroyed this “radically equal, beautiful distinct” standard for men and women.  God’s response to sin alone, at the end of Genesis 3, maintains the distinction, not to mention the rest of Scripture.  On multiple occasions, the Apostle Paul reaches back to creation when he teaches about manhood, womanhood, and their expressions in the church and family.  Consider, for example, his words in 1 Corinthians 11, when Paul deals with a matter of role and authority: “But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God…For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man.  For man was not made from woman, but woman from man.  Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man” (1 Cor. 11:3, 7-9, ESV).  Clearly Paul thinks there are important, God-given distinctions between men and women.  That these aren’t a distinction in value becomes clear in verses 11-12: “Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man nor man of woman; for as woman was made from man, so man is now born of woman.  And all things are from God.”  Paul wasn’t a misogynist.  He was a biblicist.  Egalitarianism doesn’t hold the same biblical fidelity that the Apostle Paul displays.  Thus, it concerns me deeply when a pastor-preacher-teacher in the body of Christ articulates an egalitarian understanding of Scripture.

Egalitarianism misunderstands the clear, repeated teaching of the New Testament – In making this point I’m not setting aside the Old Testament, not at all.  But, for the life of Jesus’ church, the New Testament interprets and applies what the Old Testament prepares us for.  Over-and-over again, the New Testament insists on distinct roles for men and women in the family and the church.  These roles have to do with responsibilities of headship and submission; of leadership and following; of speaking (of a certain type) and silence (of a certain type).  I won’t deal with these points and passages extensively, but consider the following:

Jesus came as a man. Why? If my answer is simply, “Well God accommodated himself to the culture of Jesus’ day,” then I’m missing the point (see Romans 5), and I’m also constraining God in a way he will not be constrained.  Again, I’ll refer you to one of those sermons referenced above.

Jesus chose men as his apostles (Matthew 10:1-4, etc). The apostles themselves chose a man to replace Judas in his office, following his betrayal and self-murder (Acts 1:15-26). Please don’t charge Jesus, nor his radical, earth-overturning disciples with merely accommodating themselves (and the church) to culture when they did so!

When the apostles and elders met in Jerusalem in Acts 17, it was a meeting of “brothers” (Acts 17:13).

Paul addresses questions of gender roles in the church and family repeatedly. Consider Scriptures like: 1 Corinthians 7:1-5, 11:1-16, 14:33b-35; Ephesians 5:22-33; Colossians 3:18-19; 1 Timothy 2:8-15; 1 Timothy 3:1-13 (5:17-20); 1 Timothy 5:3-16; Titus 1:5-9; Titus 2:1-8.

As with Paul, so with Peter, who also considers gender distinctions pertinent to his pastoral exhortation in 1 Peter 3:1-7.

Consider Hebrews 13:7, where the author of Hebrews speaks of leaders in the masculine.

Consider the Apostle John, and his noteworthy manner of address in 1 John 2:12-14.

My purpose in noting the above is not to exalt manhood.  It’s just to demonstrate the biblical distinction that egalitarianism sets aside.  It concerns me when someone isn’t willing to hear, consider, and obey the New Testament standard of “radically equal, beautifully distinct” for men and women – particularly in the church and family.

Egalitarianism misunderstands the history of the church and the horrific record of apostasy – My comments here are less well-informed than anything above, but there’s a reason I started with a canary in a coal mine.  I’m convinced that churches and denominations who compromise Scripture’s teaching on gender in the context of the home and family will eventually compromise the entire biblical idea of gender and sexuality.  In short, egalitarian churches prepare themselves to become churches that deny the very idea of gender, affirm wicked sin with respect to human sexuality, and even deny the Gospel proper.  This progression (pun intended) may not happen right away.  It may even take a generation or two (though I suspect in today’s cultural climate a generation or two is too long an estimate).  But it will come, almost inevitably, that a church who ignores Scripture via “egalitarianism” will eventually ignore Scripture in things that stand beneath the egalitarian worldview.  Indeed, we’ve already seen this pattern work itself out in the secular word.  Just ask the traditional feminists of the 60’s and 70’s.  Why would we think things will be different inside the church?

There’s a reason for this slide.  If I interpret Scripture in such a way as to authorize an egalitarian position, then I have no logical recourse for holding an orthodox standard in fundamental questions of gender and sexuality.  If I won’t understand the Bible when it clearly addresses men and women in the context of church and family, then why would I understand the Bible when it clearly addresses homosexuality, or gender as a creational reality, or sex as God’s purpose for a man and woman in lifelong marriage?  Unbiblical compromise breeds apostasy.  That’s how sinful human nature works.  That’s how the Deceiver works.

Again, while I’m not enough a student of history to prove my point here well, let me offer one piece of evidence in this regard: The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), also known as the PCUSA.  The PCUSA today is a denomination that disregards God’s Word regarding things like gender and sexuality.  One need look no further than the denomination’s official documentation to verify this characterization.  But how did the PCUSA arrive at such a point?  I’ll simply observe that well before it turned against God’s Word pertinent to transgenderism and sexuality, the PCUSA turned against God’s Word in the matter of God-given roles for men and women.  The PCUSA ordained its first woman “minister” in October 1956, and its first woman “teaching elder” in 1965 (see the article available here).  Someone may respond at this point, “Yes, but correlation is not causation.”  In other words, just because a denomination begins to allow women to serve as pastor-elder-overseers, or to teach and preach in public mixed-gender settings, doesn’t thereby mean it’s ready to swallow all the LGBTQ+ revolution.  By way of rejoinder, reread the first two paragraphs of this section.  Then consider the story of the American Episcopalian Church, or the British Anglican Church, the United Methodists, and so on.  I’m confident their history will look much the same as the PCUSA.

Dangerous Ground

For just a moment, let me enter dangerous ground.  It’s dangerous because it’s fraught with landmines of pride and self-deception.  While trying not to impugn motives, for a moment I’m going to be directly critical of pastors who teach egalitarian thinking.  I mean what follows for men who are true brothers in Christ, and yet for some reason depart from Scripture in these important matters.  Why do they do it?  Of course, I don’t know for sure.  The reasons are undoubtedly as varied as the pastor in question.  I can imagine reasons, but instead let me note words and warnings from the Apostle Paul:

Some pastors walk contrary to God’s Word because it’s popular.  Paul says in 2 Timothy 4:3 (ESV), “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” 

Some pastors set aside the Bible because they’re captured by worldly arguments that are not sound, and worldly logic that is not godly.  Paul writes in Colossians 2:8 (ESV), “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elementary spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.” 

Some pastors deny Scripture because they’ve become puffed up with conceit (which relates to the two warnings already given).  Paul exhorts Timothy, “Teach and urge these things.  If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing.” (1 Timothy 2:2b-4a, ESV).

Now, I need to be charitable to my brothers whose lives and testimonies don’t otherwise warrant words like these from Paul.  Some preach and teach an egalitarian message because they’re truly convinced it’s consistent with the Word of God.  In this they’re mistaken, but perhaps with the best of intentions.  They’re mistaken not because I say so, but because God’s Word is clear, and it’s clearly not consistent with egalitarianism.  In such cases, I hope these men might receive the sort of correction that Apollos received from Priscilla and Aquila in Acts 18 and turn in response.  I hope where my life and doctrine run contrary to Scripture, I too will receive and hear such correction.  It’s a beautiful thing when our lives are reformed and transformed by the truth of God’s revelation.  When we don’t listen, it’s sad.  The words of James are apropos to all of us: “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness” (James 3:1, ESV).

Since I’m on dangerous ground here, let me end this section with a prayer for myself from Galatians 6:1 (ESV): “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.  Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.”  Lord, help me to keep watch over myself; my life and my teaching (2 Timothy 4:16).  

Concluding Thoughts and Resources

I’ll close with seven statements, and then a list of resources.

When a husband isn’t actively loving his wife in worship of Jesus Christ, he’s not being faithful to the Bible’s complementarian truth.

When a wife isn’t actively submitting to her husband as unto the Lord, she’s not being faithful to the Bible’s complementarian truth.

When qualified and called men fail to serve the body of Christ as pastor-elder-overseers, they disregard the Bible’s complementarian vision for the church.

When gifted and called men fail to faithfully preach and teach God’s Word in the body of Christ, they disregard the Bible’s complementarian vision for the church.

When women function as pastor-elder-overseers (or anything equivalent), they disregard the Bible’s complementarian vision for the church.

When women exercise authority over men, especially in the public preaching and teaching of Scripture, they disregard the Bible’s complementarian vision for the church.

When the spiritual gifts of women and men alike aren’t fostered, appreciated, and mobilized, the local church disregards the Bible’s complementarian vision for the body of Christ.

For those compelled to consider this issue further, I’ll end with a few helpful resources you may want to consult in addition to your Bible (because they’ll help you as a hearer of God’s Word):

The website of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood.

The Danvers Statement. This statement was first published in 1988. Notice the sobering last words: “We are convinced that a denial or neglect of these principles will lead to increasingly destructive consequences in our families, our churches, and the culture at large.”  Hasn’t history since 1988 proven this statement, tragically, correct?

A book by Kevin DeYoung titled Men and Women in the Church: A Short, Biblical, Practical Introduction. I haven’t read this book personally, but I trust DeYoung. He’s biblically sound, pastorally kind, and accessible as a writer and thinker.

If you want the heftier response to egalitarianism, consider the classic work already referenced: Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: A Response to Evangelical Feminism.  Or, pick up a copy of Wayne Grudem’s Evangelical Feminism & Biblical Truth.

May God bless you as you seek to faithfully follow Jesus.

In Christ,

P.J.

Yesterday evening a group of concerned people appeared at the San Lorenzo Valley Unified School District’s (SLVUSD) Board of Trustees’ meeting.  We attended in order to register our objection over the Board’s intended decision to again fly the Rainbow Flag – the LGBTQ+ Pride Flag – over the SLVUSD’s public school campuses.  Displaying this flag, in this manner, is a gross violation of conscience for some students, teachers, and administrators of religious conviction, not to mention an otherwise inappropriate action for an elected civic body.  My last blog post will give you more of the background to this matter.  If you scroll through the posts in 2022 and 2021, you’ll find the issue addressed on several other occasions.

Regrettably, the Board’s decision last night was as expected.  They voted unanimously to repeat their prejudicial action.  That wasn’t surprising, though it was disappointing.  Once again, I, and others with me, felt as if we were shouting into the wind.  That makes me grateful to be in the boat with the One who controls the wind; a position I did not earn and do not deserve.

From my perspective, worse even than the Board’s repetition of this inappropriate action was their complete disregard of all those present to express concern.  Here some background might be helpful.  I first began addressing the Rainbow Flag with the Board in 2021.  I won’t describe all the details, but over the course of two years, through multiple letters, emails, and appearances at meetings, the Board has failed to engage me, or anyone I know, in substantive conversation over this matter.  They’ve simply ignored it.  The most substantive response I’ve received was a three-paragraph email, in April 2022, from the SLVUSD Superintendent, Chris Schiermeyer.  Needless to say, Mr. Schiermeyer’s response did not answer the objections I raised, not by a longshot.  My rejoinder to Mr. Schiermeyer specifically asked for the Board to continue the conversation and respond in writing.  All of this you can see via the linked documents in my last post.  What did I receive back?  Radio silence.  Last night that radio silence continued, and not just with respect to me.  More on that in a moment.

During the meeting yesterday evening, it became clear that the Board is indeed able to respond to those who petition it.  Even individual members of the Board can respond to matters brought to its attention.  Multiple persons appeared to express their thanks for the Board’s engagement with the district’s music program.  It seems that the Board, even individual members, actively communicated with those seeking to boost the district’s music education.  I commend their doing so.  Why then has the Board found itself unable to engage with me and others on the serious issue of flying the Rainbow Flag in violation of religious conscience? Doesn’t this issue warrant at least as much engagement as the question of instruments for music students?  Don’t the students and parents concerned in this matter warrant the same consideration and respect from the Board as those seeking to help the music program?  I would think so.  Apparently, the Board does not.

I’ll tell you why I know they don’t.  When it came time to speak yesterday, I rose and addressed the Board first.  You can read my statement (delivered essentially as written) here.  When I spoke, an entire group of individuals stood in support.  Following me, a second man also spoke in opposition to the Board’s plan to fly the Rainbow Flag.  Later, when it came time to vote on the resolution regarding the flag, the Board unanimously affirmed the measure, as it has done for the last two years running.  They did so with many of us still present, not twenty feet away, watching and listening.  In the process of voting, not one of these elected individuals even showed the courtesy of acknowledging our presence and concern.  They could have done so.  After the motion was seconded, before the vote was taken, one of them could have acknowledged us and the issue we raised.  They didn’t.  They acted as if we did not exist, and our words were never spoken.  That’s profoundly disrespectful.  Worse, it’s cowardly.

The SLVUSD Board of Trustees has tripled down on its decision to prejudicially ignore the conscience of those within its care for whom the Rainbow Flag represents an affront to their religious convictions.  If you need to understand the logic to this point, please read the document from 2022 linked here.  Mind you, I’m not saying the Board can’t express its support for persons holding an LGBTQ+ worldview.  If it discerns a need to do so, it may.  But it should not, it must not, take such action in a manner that coerces the conscience of students and staff who otherwise need to access SLVUSD campuses.

How should we whom the Board again ignored respond to yesterday’s events?  How should we respond to this multi-year saga?  There’s a definite temptation to anger, frustration, and helplessness.  I’d love in the future to see the Board manned with people who will listen to, and respectfully engage with, parents, voters, and students who year-after-year address a serious matter.  I’d love to see another viable alternative education option available in the SLV (that’s a matter for another post).  But how do we respond this morning to the disrespect and frustration of yesterday?  The Lord gave me an answer from his Word, namely Psalm 4.  Listen to the words of God, and consider them in light of what I’ve expressed here:

“Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness!  You have relieved me in my distress; Be gracious to me and hear my prayer.

O sons of men, how long will my honor become a reproach?  How long will you love what is worthless and aim at deception?

But know that the LORD has set apart the godly man for Himself; The LORD hears when I call to Him. 

Tremble, and do not sin; Meditate in your heart upon your bed, and be still.  Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, And trust in the LORD.

Many are saying, ‘Who will show us any good?’  Lift up the light of Your countenance upon us, O LORD!  You have put gladness in my heart, More than when their grain and new wine abound.  In peace I will both lie down and sleep, For You alone, O LORD, make me to dwell in safety.’” – Psalm 4 (NASB).

Praise God for words such as these!  I won’t give you my personal rumination on each verse, but perhaps you can see why they’re so apropos this morning.  I read them and I’m encouraged.  The SLVUSD Board of Trustees should read them and take warning.  As I concluded my remarks to them last night, “You will answer for your decisions one day.  Not to me, but to the one true judge.  That should give you pause.”  It should give the Board of Trustees pause to year-by-year treat people they’re charged to serve with such disregard.

I close with a prayer for myself.  “Oh Lord, give me a heart of compassion and mercy for the members to the SLVUSD Board of Trustees.  I need it!  Change their hearts and forestall their actions with regard to this flag.  Amen.”

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The San Lorenzo Valley Unified School District’s Board of Trustees is about to do it again.  They’re about to again authorize display of the “Rainbow Flag,” the LGBTQ+ pride flag (as some would call it), over all SLVUSD schools from May 8^th-12^th (see Board agenda here).

This action by the Board is highly inappropriate for several reasons, the last of which is (in my book) most important:

1. Display of this flag represents an inappropriate assertion of authority.
2. Display of this flag is a matter of official bias.
3. Display of this flag is unnecessary and divisive.
4. Display of this flag is a violation of the SLVUSD Board of Trustees’ policy.
5. Display of this flag is a violation of the religious conscience of some of the district’s students, teachers, and administrators.

You can read a fuller treatment of these objections in the document linked here.

For two years I’ve addressed this matter with the Board.  I’ve asked them to engage my concerns in a substantive way.  If you’d like to see documentation of that engagement, click here.  Thus far, the Board has effectively ignored me, with their most substantive response being a three-paragraph email sent on 18 Apr 22.  It angers me that elected public servants can respond to these concerns with such callous indifference.  Just this evening, I’ve again reached out to the Board (click here).  Perhaps this year they’ll choose to give this matter its due attention?

If you’re a parent of students attending an SLVUSD school, I encourage you to keep your students out of the classroom from May 8^th-12^th.  I know of no other way to impress upon the Board the inappropriate nature of its actions.

Respectfully,

P.J.

The U.S. Senate yesterday passed the deceitfully named “Respect for Marriage Act.”  You can hear more about it via today’s “The World and Everything in It” podcast, to mention just one.  I say, “deceitfully named,” because this law mocks marriage as God himself designed it to be.  The institution of marriage belongs to God, and we insult our maker when we presume to redefine it in our own image.  What should God’s people, what should Jesus’ people, do in such a moment?  We can give multiple answers to that question, but one we must give is this: “sigh and groan” over this latest “abomination” in our land.

Those words – “sigh,” “groan,” and “abomination” – each come from Ezekiel 9 (English Standard Version; all quotations that follow come from the ESV).  In Ezekiel 9, we find the prophet Ezekiel amidst a vision in which he interacts with a divine figure who is “the glory of the God of Israel” (vs. 3).  I understand this divine person to be none other than the Son of God himself; Jesus in his pre-incarnate glory.  While the vision is majestic, it’s also horrific.  In Ezekiel 8, the divine figure shows Ezekiel absolutely horrific idolatry underway in Jerusalem; idolatry centered on the Temple no less!  How can this be?  How can people, even the people of Israel, be so wicked as to worship idols in the middle of Yahweh’s house?  It’s unthinkable!  It’s horrendous.

All that Ezekiel sees in chapter eight explains what happens in chapter nine, as the divine figure calls forth seven men (probably best understood as angelic beings).  Their approach is ominous for Jerusalem and its wickedness.  Six of these men are executioners.  To them, the divine figure gives this command: “Pass through the city…and strike.  Your eye shall not spare, and you shall show no pity.  Kill old men outright, young men and maidens, little children and women…” (from vs. 5-6).  The worst is about to happen.  Yahweh’s divine vengeance is about to break over Jerusalem with awesome ferocity and disastrous results for those who dwell within.  But, there’s one important caveat.  The executioners must not do their work until the seventh man first accomplishes his own.  The seventh man is a scribe.  To him Yahweh says: “Pass through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it” (vs. 4).  These people the executioners must not touch.  They are preserved in the midst of judgment.  Why?  Because of their grief, their lament, over the sin done in God’s place, even in God’s Temple.  Their grief evidences their faith; it is fruit of their genuine worship of Yahweh; it is evidence of their living relationship with him.

Now, there’s a principle here in this vision of Ezekiel, a principle of spiritual life.  Grief over sin, sighing – even weary sighing – over sin, is a fruit of faith produced in a person by the indwelling Holy Spirit.  It’s evidence of a heart alive to God.  You won’t see this particular piece of fruit explicit in Paul’s Galatians 5 list, but you will see it repeatedly in the New Testament.  You’ll see it as Jesus deals with the Pharisees in Mark 8:12, or as he weeps by Lazarus’ grave in John 11, or when he clears the Temple courts in Matthew 21.  You’ll see it when Paul’s spirit is provoked over the Athenians’ idolatry in Acts 17, or when he grieves with tears in Philippians 3.  It’s a faithful thing to sigh over sin and cry out to God, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (Revelation 6:10).

To be clear, faithful sighing over sin doesn’t devolve into despair.  Despair is navel-gazing.  It’s another manifestation of idolatry in fact.  Faithful sighing, faithful groaning, rejects despair because it knows that God has an answer to the sighs.  He hears the groans.  His answer begins with Jesus crucified (praise God!) and it ends with Jesus conquering (Amen!).  The beginning is sovereign grace.  Sinners can become “sigh-ers” because Jesus died.  The end is sovereign justice.  Unrepentant sinners will become eternal “groan-ers” because Jesus will judge.  If you want to know what judgment looks like, just read Ezekiel’s vision.

Before I close, one final point.  We shouldn’t miss that the idolatry Ezekiel observes happens in the very heart of God’s place among his people.  The church of Jesus Christ is not theocratic Israel with its physical temple, but shouldn’t we, Jesus’ church, take warning here?  In Ezekiel 9 the divine figure tells his seven men to begin their work “at my sanctuary” (vs. 6).  We can’t help but remember the words of the Apostle Peter who writes of God’s judging fire (1 Peter 4:17): “For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the Gospel of God?”

It’s a good thing to sigh and groan in faith over the latest example of wicked foolishness emanating from the halls of Congress.  Do so, and then press on in joy because God has an answer to your sighs.  He hears your groans.  Wickedness will murder itself (Psalm 34:21); Jesus will judge (Revelation 21); and, if you’re a worshipper of Christ by grace through faith, you’ve been marked by God’s Spirit (Ephesians 1:13).  Amen.