FATHER’S DAY IS A BIG DEAL!
Ken Clark – 3/14/08
Father’s Day is coming. We have opportunity to do something good for
God. Jesus called him FATHER!
Most modern theologians say
God is neuter not masculine. This is
absolutely false. I’ll reply to this
shortly.
Our news and entertainment media
and our culture, laugh at, trivialize, and ridicule men and fathers. This dishonors God the Father! God wants us men, not wimps. We should speak
up and speak out!
Some years ago I realized, as
a Dad, I could use holidays to be God’s man in my family. On Thanksgiving, I got President Lincoln’s Thanksgiving
Day Proclamation off the Internet. I
read it at dinner -- many excellent thoughts and thanksgivings toward God. A great example for my kids, too.
Jesus said to pray, “Our Father
which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name...”
Jesus taught that God is HE! The
Apostle’s Creed, a very early, concise statement agrees, “I believe in God the
Father Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth….” So, we have the very, very strongest historical
testimony that God is actually HE.
I saw an article by feminist
Gloria Steinem. She said men should get
a “break.” Women have kids – this
signifies womanhood. But men have
nothing. If men say, men do football or
boxing, etc., then some woman in a pro game kicks a field goal and other women start
boxing leagues. Her point – women have
children, men have NOTHING. So she says
men should get a “break.” But, God says definitely
says otherwise!!!
God says otherwise, for sure! He is HE and men are HE; women are SHE, the complementary
personage and gender to God. God is
straight; God is NOT gay.
Years ago I was asked to come
into a Sunday school class and be a “male role-model.” I said, “Sure, glad to help.” But, as I thought about it at home, I realized,
I had no clue what that was. So I prayed
earnestly to God. I’m convinced he
showed me he is really, really, HE, and He’s not she, it, or, gay – so he specially
created men in his same personage and gender, and women to be complementary
ones.
So, being a man and father is
a very great privilege, honor, and purpose.
Womanhood is also, but differentially.
Most modern evangelical
theology teachers say God is neuter, that He’s a spirit, and thus not really,
truly, he.
The Bible teaches BOTH; He
IS a spirit, AND HE IS HE! These ARE
NOT contradictory. On
I overheard my teenage son in
a phone call to a young lady, calling himself “male.” I felt rather sad he could not say, “I’m a
young man.” We are created and ordained
men, in the image of God. We should
stand tall.
Our young men must be convinced
of the genuine importance, honor, and high calling of publicly, personally
representing our great God. When manhood
and fatherhood are insulted, God’s very person is insulted as well!
We men are conditioned to
“take it -- and not let is show,” especially if it comes from a woman. This is not good; we should preach the true
person of God and his redemption. We
need to boldly stand up for God.
Doctrinally, there are some
big issues here, too. If God is really
neuter, that means that God has misrepresented himself from one cover of the Bible
to the other. This is unthinkable, and
false. And if true, what else in the
Bible could one possibly believe?
Regarding Bible
interpretation let us consider, Jesus’ example in Mt. 22:42-46: “While the
Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, Saying, What think ye of
Christ? Whose son is he? They say unto him, The son of David. He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him
Lord, saying, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I
make thine enemies thy footstool? If David then call him Lord, how is he his
son? And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that
day forth ask him any more questions.”
The answer to the riddle is,
of course, that Jesus Christ IS
God in person. Jesus required that each
Bible statement be held as true by itself and not modified by some other
statement. He is, thus, forcing the
Pharisees to hold each of the statements as true, each by itself, and, putting
both of them together, to draw the plain, logical, conclusion, no matter how
seemingly impossible that conclusion may seem.
Likewise the Bible teaches, BOTH, that God is a spirit, AND, that he is truly HE! There is NO
contradiction!
Many of us are increasingly
worried as we see our nation slipping into evil, and at increasing risk in many
ways, and we fear for the future of our children and grandchildren. We must not
sit silently by as God is run down, nor as
we men, who bear his image allow ourselves to be run down. God does deal with nations who dishonor him.
The powerful, militant gay
movement is winning. We must take opportunity to insist that gender roles come
from, and are required by the very person and nature of Almighty God.
“Philip saith
unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth
us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time
with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath
seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us
the Father?” New Testament book of John 14:6-9.
For a more in-depth look see
my web page: Gender
Roles: The Image of God and the Sin of Unisex