The goal of the book is to show how to apply God’s lessons to families, so the book ends with a series of devotional lessons Drawing Closer to God and Drawing Closer to Each Other which husbands and wives should study together. This will draw them closer to God as they draw closer to each other.
The Old Testament tells how men and women managed their families and how priests, kings, and other leaders handled their affairs. This book focuses on what God wants us to know about the choices people made and how their decisions worked out for them, their children, and their followers.
For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. Romans 15:4
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Christians divorce at the same rate as the lost even though Mal. 2:14-16 says that God hates divorce. We show Christ by the way we live; divorce wrecks our testimony and dishonors Christ. Lost people see that we can’t handle this life any better than they can; why should they care what we say about the life to come?
Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
II Thessalonians 2:3
American society is falling further and further away from the Word of God. As marriages fell apart and casual sex became normal, churches seemed to be 20 to 25 years behind society in abandoning Holy Matrimony. In reality, the Church led the way in tearing down both sexual morality and our legal system.
For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. 3So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. Romans 7:2-3
The word “divorce” means ending a marriage bond by some person of authority. When Jesus said “let not man put asunder (Mt. 19:6, Mk. 10:9),” He meant that no man has the authority to end Holy Matrimony. Once married in the eyes of God, a person cannot have sex with a third party without being in adultery.
But and if she depart, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband: and let not the husband put away his wife. I Corinthians 7:11
Although a woman may have to initiate a divorce according to the laws of man before asking a judge for a restraining order to keep an abusive husband from harming her, God says that she can’t marry anyone else.
The church’s deliberate destruction of Bible-based marriage is described on pp 251-263 of The Confucian Cycle - China’s Sage and America’s Decline, William A. Taylor and Ken Taylor. To summarize, the Presbyterian Church started re-examining divorce in the 1930’s. The church decided to permit divorce for the “moral equivalent of adultery” and changed the Westminster Confession to permit remarriage “when sufficient penitence for sin and failure is evident, and a firm purpose of and endeavor after Christian marriage is manifested.” In other words, you can remarry if you’re sorry and promise to try harder next time.
In the 1950’s, Presbyterians Eric Mount Jr. and Johanna W. H. Bos wrote, “The primary purpose of marriage was no longer the benefit of society but the benefit of the people entering the marriage covenant.”[19]
Marriage changed from duty to delight. Holy Matrimony is based on duty. Divorce is impossible – duty lasts until death. If marriage is for delight, you can get an easy divorce any time you aren’t delighted.
For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. II Thessalonians 2:7
The word “let” meant “prevent” when the Bible was translated. John Adams observed, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” The Holy Spirit in Christians prevents some evil. Abandoning Holy Matrimony has loosed great evil in our land.
The state of California passed the first no-fault divorce law in 1970, twenty years behind the church. No-fault divorce makes it easier to get out of marriage than to get out of paying for a refrigerator. Our “hookup culture” came from teaching young men and women that marriage needn’t come before delight.
Temporary hookups hurt women. The book "Unprotected" by Psychiatrist Miriam Grossman explains biological reasons why sex outside marriage is so damaging. Having treated more than 2,000 women for depression and other psychological problems at a prestigious American university, she found that a woman can become very depressed when she realizes her boyfriend had no interest in her beyond sex.
Many women are sensible enough not to assume the burdens of pregnancy or the duties of motherhood unless a man assumes the long-term duties of fatherhood. The pill shows that many women want a man in their lives badly enough to live with a man without marriage, but they find it hard to find a committed husband if they decide they want a child. Birth rates among educated, productive women are falling while welfare family sizes are increasing – the more babies a welfare recipient has, the bigger her payment.
The future belongs to those who show up for it. Only those who are born are allowed to participate. We know for observing the welfare system for the last 50 years that that will be the less educated. This has NOTHING TO DO WITH RACE!
“Downfall of a Decent Clan”[20] shows how families fall apart when welfare pays a woman's costs:
“Karen Matthews is a striking figurehead for this generation. She has never been in regular work yet receives £400 a week benefits, having had seven children by five different men.” [emphasis added]
These men take no responsibility; her children are largely raising themselves. Here’s another example:
“Tennessee Deadbeat Dads”[21] tells of three men who fathered 81 children by 46 different welfare mothers and provide no fatherly influence or child support at all.
In addition to taking duty out of marriage, churches lobbied for the creation of the welfare system. The Bible commands that every person should help the poor. People are tempted to mooch, so it says:
For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. II Thessalonians 3:10
Fatherlessness exploded when the church changed the principles of marriage and favored turning poverty programs over to the government. This has gone on long enough that we now know that fatherlessness is an excellent predictor of poverty and a life of crime, and the church led the way back in 1950!
Marriage rests on God having created male and female. He expects men and women to enter into permanent faithful relationships to create safe spaces where they can raise their children. God also expected churches and governments to uphold sound families.
Given the church’s lead in destroying marriage, is there any wonder that Satan has been able to confuse the definitions, first of marriage to include sodomites, and then the definitions of men and women? This will not end well, and the deliberate destruction of Holy Matrimony started in the church.
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The Bible gives the church responsibility for defining the practice of justice throughout society:
For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? I Peter 4:17
The Greek word translated “judgment” applies to finding out whether wrong has been done, who did it, and finding the appropriate response. This should include repentance and might include punishment.
The Bible warns of spiritual wickedness in high places (Eph. 6:12). We have prayed for more than 50 years that God would reveal the wickedness. We’ve been shocked and amazed at how few people care about all the wickedness that’s leaking out in spite of coordinated media attempts at censorship.
American due process– innocent until proven guilty, equality before the law, rules of evidence, guilt beyond reasonable doubt, a citizen grand jury to decide if a crime has been committed, a citizen jury to determine guilt or innocence – comes from the Biblical formula for handling offenses justly:
Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. 16But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. 17And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican. Matthew 18:15-17
The decision is not made by church leaders. Authority to judge guilt or innocence is given to the entire church after every word about what was done and why it was done is heard from both sides. As Nicodemus put it, “Doth our law judge any man, before it hear him, and know what he doeth (John 7:50-51)?
Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? 3Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life? I Corinthians 6:2-3
The Bible places a very high value on truth:
Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another. Ephesians 4:25
But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. I Timothy 3:15
The church body is the pillar and ground of the truth, not the leadership. Satan’s servants lie freely:
Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. John 8:44
And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith the LORD. 4Take ye heed every one of his neighbour, and trust ye not in any brother: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbour will walk with slanders. 5And they will deceive every one his neighbour, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity. Jeremiah 9:3-5
Abandoning truth was one reason God dragged Israel into captivity. Diligent search for truth is necessary for doing justice given that false witnesses and political influence on courts are to be expected:
And the judges shall make diligent inquisition: and, behold, if the witness be a false witness, and hath testified falsely against his brother; 19Then shall ye do unto him, as he had thought to have done unto his brother: so shalt thou put the evil away from among you. Deuteronomy 19:18-19
Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour. Leviticus 19:15
The Bible states that false witnesses must be punished and that everyone should be treated equally. Over the last decade or so, there have been no consequences for government employees who lied for political purposes. The way our “justice” system treats liberals differently from conservatives – innocent until proven Democrat - shows that political power governs our judicial system instead of the rule of law.
We first realized that our society had abandoned due process in 1989 when our friends were falsely accused of child abuse. Child Protection Service workers lied in court and the judge merely “corrected the record” when they were caught because the law gave them complete immunity from any liability.
Hearsay evidence was permitted and our friends were not permitted to cross-examine their accusers. The trials were held in secret and our friends were forbidden to tell anyone what was going on. History tells us that secrecy and immunity are the traditional tools of tyranny.
This travesty of justice came from the “Mondale Act” of 1974. 40 years later, Faith and reason wrote
“it is almost impossible to fully insulate one’s family from the threat of a system that on very little pretense can simply reach into the home and take away one’s offspring. The massive incidence of false abuse/neglect allegations shows that current law and public policy on child abuse and neglect and the routine actions of the CPS are a major threat to the American family today.”[22]
There is more detail about CPS in The Confucian Cycle - China’s Sage and America’s Decline cited above.
Knowing that a fish rots from the head and having seen injustice in lower courts, we weren’t surprised to see federal injustice. The Obama administration’s “Dear colleague” letter declared that accusations of sexual misbehavior by any man were true by definition without due process. This was a logical extension of the Mondale Act’s declaration that accusations against parents were true by definition without due process.
“A Legal System Corrupted”[23] documents many recent injustices by the American government:
· The FBI’s hidden and far-too-tardy acknowledgment that the Bernie Sanders supporter who tried to murder the Republican House leadership in 2017 was a domestic terrorist.
· The continued mistreatment (overcharging and continued solitary confinement) of several of the January 6 Capitol demonstrators compounded by the officials’ lies about it and the Department of Justice’s refusal to make available to the public the government videos of that event.
· A claim by a defendant in the George Floyd case that a key witness in the Chauvin trial had been improperly coerced to change his testimony and the prosecution (the Minnesota attorney general’s office) did nothing to inform the defense of the interactions the defendant asserts were coercive.
About 25 years ago, we were thrown out of a church without following the Matthew 18:15-17 process. We were told we’d be thrown out at the next service and that we wouldn’t be allowed to speak. How can “every word be established (Mt. 18:16)” if we can’t speak? How can we “hear the church (Mt. 18:17)” if the pastor announces the verdict beforehand? The abusive pattern of ignoring the Biblical formula for truth by hearing both sides and through “diligent inquisition” in favor of pastors ruling by decree had become common enough to support a “spiritual abuse” publishing niche.
We’re slow learners. We didn’t connect the decline of justice in the church with unjust court proceedings against parents or the weaponizing of government agencies which began with President Kennedy and have intensified ever since. Societal injustice followed judicial malpractice within churches just as moral decay followed the church’s redefinition of marriage.
The Bible teaches that blame falls on every individual Christian to a greater or lesser degree. First, the Bible teaches that church members rise or fall together:
That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. 26And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. I Corinthians 12:25-26
Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body. Hebrews 13:3
Second, Daniel and Nehemiah both acknowledged the destruction that abandoning God’s laws had brought on God’s people, accepted their own responsibility for those sins, and confessed their part in them.
And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments; 5We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments: Daniel 9:4-5
Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: both I and my father's house have sinned. 7We have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou commandedst thy servant Moses. Nehemiah 1:6-7
God hasn’t changed (Mal. 3:6). God expects His people to understand our collective responsibility to influence society. God wants us to be a light to the nations (Deu. 4:6, Mt. 28:19, Phi. 2:15). When we let our light go out, evil magnifies itself. If you think it unrealistic to place responsibility for our ongoing societal collapse on the church’s failures, remember that the Bible teaches:
For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. II Thessalonians 2:7
At the time the King James Version was written, the word “let” meant “prevent,” which is why some legal documents use the phrase “without let or hindrance” meaning that one party isn’t supposed to prevent or get in the way of the other party from doing something mentioned in the contract.
The Holy Spirit which indwells Christians “letteth,” that is prevents, some evil in our society. Our presence has a positive impact on society but we must set the right example! We’re supposed to be a light to the nations (Deu. 4:6, Phi. 2:15). When we let our light go out, evil magnifies itself.
Judgment begins in the church and flows out to the rest of society by example. That is how we got the American legal system which had so many protections for people who’re falsely accused.
Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf. 17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? I Peter 4:16-17
“Spiritual abuse” based on false accusations is becoming more and more common. Our political system shows the same perversion of justice based on the same power and loss of protection for citizens who fall out of favor with the hierarchy that churches have taught. Why are we surprised that so many young people leave the church? Jesus warned us that churches are worthless without salt (Mt. 5:13, Lk. 14:34).
Leading the way as our justice system discards protections of unpopular individuals will let Satan’s forces attack churches – pastors are being arrested in Canada; martyrdom is coming unless we repent.
And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? 8I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? Luke 18:7-8
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. 11Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; II Corinthians 5:10-11a
Even with Heaven or Hell in the balance for our child’s soul, we persuade, we can’t command. Young people can’t live on our convictions; they need their own. We have from birth until they leave home to persuade them and convince them that our ways are best, or they’ll do something else when they leave.
Some churches preach the “buddy god” who loves everybody so much he’d never send anyone to Hell. A love-only message is useless because it doesn’t tell people that God hates sin (Ps. 7:11b). How can people recognize personal failure before a Holy God, admit that they can’t save themselves, repent, and seek forgiveness without knowing how God hates all sins, even theirs (Is. 64:6, Ro. 3:10)?
Others preach the “bully god” by hammering away on God’s holiness without emphasizing His love. The bully god wrote a bunch of rules in the Bible which the leadership interprets and extends. The bully god watches your every thought, word, and deed to whack you with the pastor’s help when you get out of line.
Holiness without love is repugnant because it’s too harsh. Sinners don’t want to hear about holiness alone because they don’t want to feel hopelessly bad about themselves. Love gives hope and helps sinners accept God’s holiness. Sinners can’t understand why Jesus had to die on the cross unless they’re taught to cling to His love as they learn to follow His path of holiness (Lev. 11:44-45, 1 Pe. 1:16).
Without knowing God’s love, people can’t feel confident of His care for us (1 Pe. 5:7) or of His promise never to leave us (He. 13:5). Jesus love for us keeps us following Him because we want Him to be pleased with us (2 Cor. 5:14). We follow His holiness out of love for Him. You can’t have one without the other.
The Bible sets a high standard for the balanced persuasion without which Christians cannot grow:
But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: Ephesians 4:15
Some churches hammer away at truth, particularly the parts about obeying those that have the rule over you (He. 13:7, 13:17, 13:24). Other churches preach only love. Weaving God’s truth and God’s love together is extremely difficult. Fathers are commanded to bring up children in both love and holiness:
And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Ephesians 6:4
Finding the right balance between God’s nurture and God’s admonition is the most difficult part of being a parent, pastor, or leader. Persuading children while clearing away misunderstandings about word meanings and of past events instead of commanding or punishing takes a lot of time and patience.
As we’ve stopped showing young believers God’s concern for justice by treating them unjustly, we’ve failed to persuade them. Do we take the time to persuade, explain, encourage, discuss the Bible, and spend the hours needed to thoroughly understand their side? If not, they walk away, carrying the message of our abandonment of God’s standard of justice out into society at large. We see the results everywhere.
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ADDITIONAL LEARNING/TEACHING RESOURCES
WILL BE ADDED AS WE MOVE FORWARD
A WARNING - WOLF WATCH MINISTRY
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"I THINK I POSTED THIS BEFORE: I can't remember where or can I find it right now! This is a guideline I would like to use in all of our communications moving forward. P.S. I have never seen anyone else make this offer!" Roger Fulk 10/20/22
What God Said About Marriage Introduction by Bill & Roberta Taylor
"Except when reading the Bible, remember that authors make mistakes. We've done our prayerful best to express what God wants for marriage and have quoted scripture to show God's Word as clearly as we can, but you must base your life on God's Word, using our words only to help you understand what God said.
We ask you to labor with us so that we can labor together with God (I Corinthians 3:9). We've been passing this book around for comment since 1982. The book improves as people criticize it, the more critical you are, the better it gets. As you read, please ask yourself these questions:
1) Is it clear? There's no point in publishing explanations that are hard to understand.
2) Is it true? We've done our prayerful best to base this book on the Word of God; there are more than 1,000 scripture references. Try as we may, however, it's almost certain that we've misused a verse here and there. Please play our words against what God has taught you and let us know how we measure up.
3) Is it complete? Marriage is simple at the core but difficult in the details. We've included examples and explanations inspired by conversations with many married and unmarried people; please let us know if we've omitted anything of importance.
The book is what it is because of all the help others have freely given. We’d appreciate any help you can give. MARK IT UP; we can't learn or improve without your feedback. The book lives on a hard drive. The computer prints copies as orders come in. If we upload a change, the next order gets the new version.
God gave us three sons so we don't really understand the viewpoint of parents of daughters. We particularly need help from parents of marriageable young ladies. So please, write us at 41 Ridge Rd, New Hampton NH 03256, email comments to wataylor@as-st.com, or call us at (603) 744 5160.
We’d be happy to donate copies to churches."
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The goal of the book is to show how to apply God’s lessons to families, so the book ends with a series of devotional lessons Drawing Closer to God and Drawing Closer to Each Other which husbands and wives should study together. This will draw them closer to God as they draw closer to each other.
The Old Testament tells how men and women managed their families and how priests, kings, and other leaders handled their affairs. This book focuses on what God wants us to know about the choices people made and how their decisions worked out for them, their children, and their followers.
For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. Romans 15:4
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Don't Step in the Holes: What God Gave “For Our Learning” Paperback – September 13, 2022
The Old Testament tells how men and women managed their families and how priests, kings, and other leaders handled their affairs. This book focuses on what God wants us to know about the choices people made and how their decisions worked out for them, their children, and their followers.
For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. Romans 15:4
God’s Words are quick and powerful (Heb. 4:12), not the words of men. We’re told to hide God’s Word in our hearts (Ps. 119:11) to avoid sin and so that we can learn from others’ experiences:
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Proverbs 1:7
Some people can learn by reading about what happened to other people, some by talking to others about their experiences, and some simply must grab the electric fence for themselves. Strive to learn the Fear of the Lord and the mind of God from the Word of God instead of having to repeat every mistake for yourself.
Learn from reading what God wrote instead of grabbing the electric fence! You will be judged on how well you received the Word of God so it’s important to learn as much as you can from it:
I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness. 47And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. 48He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. John 12:46-48
Bible quotes are from the KJV. Why We Use the King James Bible is explained on page 52 of this book.
Most Old Testament surveys explain how God is working out His plan of redemption. This book emphasizes how God wants to help us avoid holes and pitfalls along the path of our Christian walk. Page 75 explains how God’s ways of managing human history which are illustrated in the Old Testament show us how God’s Plan of Redemption affects many parts of human history which He didn’t write about.
The goal of the book is to show how to apply God’s lessons to families, so the book ends with a series of devotional lessons Drawing Closer to God and Drawing Closer to Each Other which husbands and wives should study together. This will draw them closer to God as they draw closer to each other.
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CHANGING MARRIAGES ONE AT A TIME...
This is a list of messages in the blog. Clicking on a title takes you to a description which has a link to the article or you can use control-f
to search within this list.
Feel free to use any of this material in any way that supports His cause!
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CHANGING MARRIAGES ONE AT A TIME...
This is a list of messages in the blog. Clicking on a title takes you to a description
which has a link to the article or you can use control-f to search within this list.
Feel free to use any of this material in any way that supports His cause!
MARRIAGE UNDER THREAT
THIS SITE CONTAINS PAPERS ABOUT HOW MARRIAGE SHOULD WORK. MARRIAGE IS SIMPLE, BUT NOT EASY. IT'S SIMPLE TO WALK ACROSS A ROOM - JUST PUT ONE FOOT IN FRONT OF THE OTHER. IT'S JUST AS SIMPLE TO WALK FROM MAINE TO CALIFORNIA - KEEP PUTTING ONE FOOT IN FRONT OF THE OTHER - BUT LESS EASY. MARRIAGE IS A LIFETIME JOURNEY, NOT A SHORT STROLL.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 30, 2021
This is a list of messages in the blog. Clicking on a title takes you to a description that has a link to the article or you can use control-f to search within this list.
Feel free to use any of this material in any way that supports His cause!
.doc files for these messages are in a public Google Drive folder:
That folder also holds audio files of some of the messages. If you have an English-teaching ministry, students can listen to the talks while reading them.
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"By the time my wife and I were married in 1971, most of our friends were already divorced. We soon realized that God had given us something precious in our marriage.
We spent the next 50 years trying to explain what God had in mind so others could enjoy the blessing God intended for every marriage. That's what these books are about.
While growing up in Japan, I watched the Japanese use Confucian virtue to build from the wreckage of WW II to an economic colossus. My parents had no car. I was hit by cars 3 times my freshman year because cars move faster than bicycles.
The automobile judges between the quick and the dead. I wasn't quick; I nearly got dead.
My brothers had a 220-day school year and got a telephone-book of homework every summer "vacation." If you asked any grade-schooler the BIG problem facing Japan, you'd hear, "Exports!"
They got soft when the crisis abated. My son taught English in Japan just as government employees abandoned their service ethic and Japan slid into the "lost decades."
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God ordained both salvation and marriage. If you try to get to Heaven your own way, you go to Hell when you die. If you try to do marriage your own way, you can make life Hell on earth.
God loves both men and women equally (Galatians 3:28). We were created carefully so that God’s Plan of Salvation can give us the Fruits of the Spirit in this life and prepare us to spend eternity with Him in the next life. God’s Plan of Marriage helps couples give the entire family a taste of the joys of Heaven, right here on earth.
If lost people see a family sharing the Fruit of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: (Galatians 5:22-23), they'll want God's grace for themselves. We can explain God’s Simple Plan to get God’s grace and forgiveness, but they must want it and ask God for it. You can’t want it for them any more than they want it for themselves.
You both must strive to share the Fruit of the Spirit in your marriage. Your spouse is the only person on earth whom you must serve without limit and must never criticize.
You must love God with perfect hearts. The command “love the Lord thy God” appears 14 times (Deu. 6:5, 11:1, 11:13, 11:22, 13:3, 19:9,30:6, 30:16, 30:20, Joshua 22:5, 23:11, Mt. 22:37, Mk. 12:30, Lk. 10:27)! 1 Kings 11:4 and 15:3 speak of David having a perfect heart with the Lord his God. David sinned, but he loved God and never turned from worshiping God toward worshiping anything else. His faithfulness and repentance made his heart perfect with God.
God expects you to keep your hearts perfect with Him and with each other. You must not let your hearts stray toward anyone else or anything else (Job 31:1, Pr. 25:38, Song of Solomon).
As David was perfectly confident in God and rested in what God gave him, you must rest contentedly in each other and in what God gives you (Ruth 1:9, Mt. 11:28, Phi. 4:11, 1 Tim. 6:6, Heb. 13:5).
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If enough people accept Christ, THEY can turn our nation around. Bill Taylor
We have to spread the word. God chose to give His people responsible for telling lost people how to be saved:
Go ye therefore, and teach all n\ations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. Matthew 28:19-20
And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. 16He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. Mark 16:15-16
This message gives some common objections lost people use to try to justify not hearing God’s message from you when you try to plant and water so He can give the increase. These hints may help you get further when you find someone whom God has drawn
If enough people accept Christ, THEY can turn our nation around.
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THIS SITE CONTAINS PAPERS ABOUT HOW MARRIAGE SHOULD WORK. MARRIAGE IS SIMPLE, BUT NOT EASY. IT'S SIMPLE TO WALK ACROSS A ROOM - JUST PUT ONE FOOT IN FRONT OF THE OTHER. IT'S JUST AS SIMPLE TO WALK FROM MAINE TO CALIFORNIA - KEEP PUTTING ONE FOOT IN FRONT OF THE OTHER - BUT LESS EASY. MARRIAGE IS A LIFETIME JOURNEY, NOT A SHORT STROLL.
"As I understand church history, revival happens when God's people remember something they have forgotten. As I see it, our society has forgotten the necessity and the conduct of marriage.
Couples aren't marrying anymore, children aren't raised as
God desires, and society suffers.
Pass the word!" Bill Taylor
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Although some people need to be persuaded of the love of God because they already know that they’ve violated His holiness and find it hard to repent without feeling loved, others need to be persuaded that God’s holiness means that God must send them to Hell if they don’t repent:
Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. 22And of some have compassion, making a difference: 23And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. Jude 1:21-23
Jesus spoke about Hell more often than He spoke about heaven. We must be ready to show others God’s love by the way we treat our families and other church members, and they need to see our love for them. Having done that, however, we must be ready to show the holiness of God and explain His utter hatred of any and all sin, that's what “hating even the garment spotted by the flesh” means. No matter how good a person may try to be, the Bible teaches that compared to God, the best we can be is no good at all.
But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags: Isaiah 64:6a
People have a hard time accepting the fact that they can’t be good enough to satisfy God, so God gave us examples. Fathers love their children, of course, but it isn’t the same as mother’s love. God uses mothers together with fathers to show His Holiness. My mom knew that charity, which is undeserved love in action,
“Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth.” I Corinthians 13:6-8a
Her love never failed - she always loved me no matter what I did and rejoiced when I did well, but she did not tolerate misbehavior or disobedience. She loved me while hating my sins.
That’s hard to do – most people find it hard to condemn sin without also condemning the soul who committed the sin. When we tell lost people about their sin, we must be careful to convince them that God loves them in spite of their sin. Mom showed me God’s desire that His people strive toward His holiness (Lev. 19:2, He. 12:14, 1 Pe. 1:15-16) by correcting me when I did wrong and explaining how I could do better while showing me God’s love every single day! Seeing her love made it easy to believe in God’s love.
My dad was much more focused on ensuring my obedience than my mother was. God warns fathers to be careful not to overdo emphasis on God’s holiness:
And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Ephesians 6:4
Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged. Colossians 3:21
Some churches preach the “buddy god” who loves everybody so much that he’d never send anyone to hell - repentance and turning from sin aren’t needed. A love-only message is meaningless because it doesn’t define sin or tell people that God hates sin (Ps. 7:11b) as my parents taught me. How can people seek forgiveness without being made aware of how much God hates their sins (Ro. 3:10)?
Others preach the “bully god” by hammering away on God’s holiness without emphasizing His love. The bully god wrote a bunch of rules in the Bible which the leadership interprets and extends. The bully god watches your every thought, word, and deed so he can whack you with the pastor’s help when you get out of line. No forgiveness for you, miserable miscreant!
Holiness without love is repugnant because it’s too harsh. Sinners don’t want to hear about holiness alone because they don’t want to feel hopelessly bad about themselves. Showing God’s love gives hope and helps sinners accept God’s holiness. Sinners can’t understand why Jesus had to die on the cross unless they’re taught to cling to His love.
Without knowing God’s love, people can’t feel confident of His care for us (1 Pe. 5:7) or of His promise never to leave us (He. 13:5). Jesus love for us keeps us following Him because we want Him to be pleased with us (2 Cor. 5:14). We follow His holiness because we love Him. You can’t have one without the other.
God insists that we love one another fervently (1 Pe. 1:22) to remind each other of His love for us – that’s how lost people know that we belong to Him (Jn. 13:35)! When we give the Gospel, nobody cares how much we know about God unless they know how much we care about them.
Getting the right balance between God’s love and God’s holiness for each child is the hardest part of being a parent or a pastor. One reason God requires pastors to have children (Titus 1:6) is to help them learn the balance. They can’t help young Christians develop without learning how young children develop.
LOVE, HOLINESS, AND MARRIAGE
Love and holiness are the keys to marriage because salvation and marriage both require that we die to our former lives. We must die to our sinful lives to be born again into union with Christ (Ro. 7:4-6). In order for two people to become one as Jesus expects (Mt. 19:4-6, Mk. 10:6-9), they must both die to their self-centered individual lives in favor of giving everything (Ro. 12:1) to the one-flesh family unit that God expects His people to form and build.
Who ordained salvation? God. Who ordained marriage? God. Jesus loved us enough to create us even though He knew He would have to die to give us a way to be cleaned from our sins so we could fellowship with God in Heaven instead of burning forever in the lake of fire. How did His love for us play into the way He ordained marriage? The Bible teaches that Christianity is a thinking faith which is based on reason:
Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: Isaiah 1:18
Let’s be logical for a moment. Men, Jesus valued us and loved us enough to create us even though He knew He would have to die to save us from our sins. When you build something, don’t you feel affection for it? Let’s draw on the emotional nature God puts in all of us along with logic. Mothers, you know how you feel about your children. Would a truly Christian mother do anything to harm her children on purpose?
Would a God that loved us enough to die for us create men and women in such a way that there was no way we could enter into joyous marriages? Did God design the powerful drives He put into men and women to draw us into marriages which will bless us if we follow His plan? Or did a God who loved us enough to die to save us from our sins on purpose design us so that men and women can’t find joy in entering into long-term commitments to create safe spaces where their children can grow? Certainly not:
If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? Matthew 7:11
Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the LORD. Proverbs 18:22
God gives good things to those that ask Him. Salvation, marriages, and wives are good things. We must ask for salvation based on the salvation instructions He put in His Word and we must ask Him how to have good marriages by reading the marriage instructions He put in His Word.
God Himself uses a mother’s love to show both His holiness and His unending love:
Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Isaiah 49:15
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. Hosea 4:6
God will never forget us or stop loving us, but we must study and follow His laws or He’ll reject us. If we try to go to Heaven our own way, we go to Hell when we die. If we try to do marriage our own way, we can make life Hell on earth. We must follow God’s one program for both salvation and for marriage!
There’s a story of a young man who disgraced his family and left town. He came to himself (Lk. 15:17) but wasn’t sure if he’d be accepted back into the fold. He wrote his mother saying he’d take a train through town. If she wanted to see him, “Tie a yellow ribbon on the old oak tree.”
As the train came near, the conductor saw him weep and heard the story. “I can’t look,” the young man said. As the train rounded the bend, the conductor told him, “Open your eyes! There’s a ribbon on every branch (Lk. 15:18-27)!” His mother loved him and wanted to see him in spite of all the wrong he’d done.
Pr. 31:1 shows that King Lemuel’s mother taught him how to care for his future wife. A mother can teach her sons how to honor wives and teach her daughters to demand respect from men (Tit. 2:3-5), but she can’t teach her children at all unless their father teaches them to honor and respect her by showing his respect for her daily and commanding their children to “call her blessed”:
Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her. 29Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all. Proverbs 31:28-29
Mrs. Lemuel expected her son to teach his children that they had the very best mother in the entire world! Children are born selfish; they won’t honor their mother unless they see their father constantly honor her as taught in the Song of Solomon and learn that he demands that they follow his example of honoring her.
Over and over, the Bible compares the relationship between husband and wife to the relationship between God and His people; God our Father welcomes us back when we return to Him. Mothers cannot fully reflect God’s love because they’re sinful human beings, but a godly mother’s love shows us the high level of love God expects husbands to give freely to wives and children.
Being honored, valued, and appreciated by husband and children nourishes wives. Seeing their father do it teaches sons how to honor their future wives and other women. Their father’s love for their mother shows his family a picture of how Christ loved the church, which is a very high standard indeed:
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; Ephesians 5:25
Although a man should be ready to die to protect his wife from any danger, God generally expects a man to give his life day by day to nourish and cherish her. I earn so much per hour. When we spend that much on our home, children, or church, I have freely given one hour of my life to walking the path of service to my wife (Mk. 9:35, 10:44) that He wants me to walk (Ro. 12:1).
Watching their father honor them and their mother teaches daughters that God requires that all men treat “The elder women as mothers; the younger as sisters, with all purity (1 Timothy 5:2).” Girls must be taught to insist that men deal with them in purity as God commands or they’re apt to fall into sexual sin.
Everyone bases what they do on what they believe about God. Atheists try to convince themselves that God doesn’t exist so they can do whatever they want without worrying about what God thinks about it (Ps. 14:1, 53:1). Christians who believe that God is good read the Bible looking for keys to happiness.
Theology, the study of God, can be complicated. Here’s a 10-word theology for marriage and for practical living:
This was my prayer at the wedding of two young people whom my wife and I knew well. It may give you some ideas.
Our father, as we gather here in Your presence to witness as this man and this woman are joined in Holy Matrimony, we thank You for Your undeserved and unmerited gift of salvation through which we glorify You and enjoy You forever in the life to come. We also thank You for Your undeserved and unmerited gift of marriage through which we glorify You and enjoy each other in this life.
We have heard their testimony. Both this man and this woman have died to their former sinful lives and been born again into a new life in Christ. They belong to You, Father, so they should be OK with Your desire to give them to belong to each other.
Father, as this couple leaves our assembly as man and wife, we pray that You will work on their hearts so that they will gladly die to their former individual selves and be no more twain, but one flesh as our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ commanded.
Draw them, Father, so that they daily serve You by serving each other and daily glorify You by glorifying and appreciating each other. May they draw closer to each other as they draw closer to You. May they lean on each other and depend on each other as they lean more and more on You.
We know, Father, that it is Your will that, as they grow as stewards of Your manifold grace, as they minister Your love, grace, and forgiveness one to another, that their light will shine before men. As those who do not know You see their selfless love and forgiveness, they will seek a portion of Your grace for themselves. We plead this in the name of Your only son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
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I was born in a house where my mother taught me the best-known Bible verse in the world:
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16
Lost people sometimes tell me God couldn’t possibly love them because of all their sins. They know the difference between right and wrong, they “shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness (Ro. 2:15).” The Bible teaches that such people need to be persuaded that God loves them enough to forgive them because they already know that their sins have violated His holiness:
Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. 22And of some have compassion, making a difference: 23And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. Jude 1:21-23
Once they understand God’s love enough to truly love Him, they’ll follow His commands because they want to please Him. As the Apostle Paul put it, “For the love of Christ constraineth us: (2 Cor. 5:14).”
Some people are saved by being told about Hell, others by being shown that God loves them. We’ll discuss God’s love first because “keeping ourselves in the love of God” is the foundation of marriage. If wife and husband both bathe themselves in God’s love, it’s easier for them to love each other and everyone else in the church. That’s how we show the world that we belong to Jesus:
By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. John 13:35
To be fair to people who doubt God’s love, it is hard to understand how a Holy, perfect God can love wretched sinners like you and me (Ps. 8:4, Heb. 2:6). God knew that, so He not only told us in His Word that He loves us, He gave us mothers to show every one of us how His unconditional love works.
I understood sin because my mother objected and punished me when I disobeyed. I learned forgiveness because my mother loved me enough to forgive me. I understood confession and repentance (2 Jn. 1:9) because life went better when I admitted my wrongs and tried not to do it again.
Mom and Dad taught me what I needed to know to accept Christ as my Savior when I was in 2nd grade. I loved Jesus because He loved me enough (Ro. 5:8) to accept the punishment for my sins – taking the punishment for my brothers’ sins was hard for me to think about.
I didn’t realize that Jesus loved me far more than “just” being willing to take on the evil of all my sins and lose His close fellowship with His Father (Ps. 22:1, Mt. 27:46, Mk. 15:34). I thought that when Adam soiled himself through sin and a perfect God could no longer associate with polluted Adam, Jesus agreed that He would become sin for us so that we could be washed clean enough to be with God in Heaven. That’s because I was a child when I accepted Christ. As the Apostle Paul put it:
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. I Corinthians 13:11
I was 14 when I saw the difference between how true Christians behave and how everybody else behaves. Once I understood the difference between the saved and the unsaved, I had to choose a side as Joshua and Elijah chose (Jos 24:15, 1 Ki. 18:21). I remember standing in the school hallway and deciding that I really did love Jesus, so I couldn’t be friends with some of the people in the school. At some point, every Christian must decide whether to follow the crowd or to stand for Christ (Eze. 22:30).
Years later, I understood that Jesus knew Adam would sin before He said “let there be light” to start creating the world. Rev. 13:8 speaks of “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” Jesus knew He would have to die before He created Adam, yet He loved all of us enough to create us anyway!
It’s hard to understand loving us enough to die for us long before we were even born so God shows us by having mothers be willing to risk death to give their children life. Before modern medicine, a woman had roughly 98.5% chance of surviving a pregnancy. That sounds like death in childbirth was unlikely, but without birth control, women had so many pregnancies that 1 woman in 8 died in childbirth.
Every girl knew someone who had died in childbirth. Every girl knew that she would walk the valley of the shadow of death for each child (Ge. 35:18, 1 Sam. 4:20), yet women wanted to marry and bear children (Ge.30:1, Lk. 1:25) anyway. Women want children badly enough to risk death; Jesus wanted so badly to create us that He chose certain death!
Jesus knew He would weep when people He loved wouldn’t accept His offer of salvation (Is. 53:3, Mt. 23:37, Lk. 13:34) and that He would have to die to save us from our sins, yet He created the world which led to my birth anyway. I was born before antibiotics could fight childbed infections. My mother gladly risked her life to give me life and did it again and again for my brothers. That’s the woman’s part of Ge. 5:1-2 “in the likeness of God made he him,” and “he [that is, God] called their name Adam” to include Eve.
I thanked my mother for teaching me about God’s love for me and for showing me her love (Is. 49:15) so that I could believe in God’s love. I thanked her for feeding me and changing my diapers to keep me alive, but she died before I matured enough to realize that I should also thank her for risking her life to give me life. Let your mother know you appreciate her wanting you in spite of the peril and pain she’d bear giving birth to you (Pr. 31:28-29). Then thank Jesus for creating you in spite of knowing that He would have to die to take the punishment for your sins (Jn. 15:3).
Death in childbirth is less common than it was, but happens. Your mother risked her life to give you life, shed her blood in painful labor to birth you, then labored to keep you alive; Jesus died to give you more abundant life (Jn. 10:10) followed by life eternal (Mt 25:46, Jn. 4:36, 12:25, 17:3). Thank them both.
What did you do to earn Jesus’ giving His life and His blood (He. 9:12, 9:22) to pay the penalty for your sins and my sins? Nothing. There is nothing we can do to earn salvation (Is. 64:6, Ro. 3:10), it is an undeserved gift of God (Eph. 2:8-9) He died to give us because He loves us (Ez. 33:11, Ro. 5:8).
If someone gave you a birthday gift, would you hand over money to pay for it? That would refuse the gift. Trying to get to heaven by being good, being religious, going to church, tithing, doing good deeds, is not only impossible (Ro. 3:11), trying to earn your way into heaven blocks you from accepting Jesus’ free offer of salvation from your sins (Gal. 5:4). You’re trying to pay for a feely-offered gift whose price is far more than anyone could ever pay.
What did you do to earn your mother’s risking her life to give you life and then pouring her life into keeping you alive and teaching you how to behave as an adult? Nothing. She risked her life before she knew anything about you. She gave her life freely based on the emotional drives God put into her and looked forward eagerly to your birth as she felt God forming you within her womb (Is. 49:5).
We know that some mothers harm their children. Is that what God wanted? Of course not, this is because of the sin which came into the world when Adam refused to confess his sin and would not ask God to forgive him. God asked Adam, “Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat (Ge. 3:11)?” We Christians know that God has promised to forgive our sins if we confess:
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9
God doesn’t change (Mal. 3:6). God would have forgiven Adam if he’d confessed. Instead of admitting his sin, Adam blamed Eve for giving him the fruit and blamed God for giving him Eve!
And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. Genesis 3:12
People forget that God told Adam to keep the garden (Gen. 2:15), which meant to protect it. Gen. 3:6 says “she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.” Note two important words “with her!” People also forget that Adam was there with her the entire time! Why did he let the serpent deceive his wife? Why didn’t he protect his wife whom God had trusted to his care?
Be realistic, men, blaming your wives when things go wrong won’t help you any more than it helped Adam, you are the leader, so it’s on you. God designed women’s minds and hearts carefully so that for the most part, a mother’s love for her children illustrates His love for us, His children. Adam’s sin brought so much sin into the world that a few mothers fail to love their children as God planned.
We’ve seen mothers reject their children when men reject the mothers after getting them pregnant outside marriage. Women blame the father even though they wanted children badly enough to stop taking birth control pills without telling anyone. Rejected mothers often reject a child who looks or acts enough like the father to remind her that the child’s father sinned against her by taking her outside marriage even though she had wanted his baby.
Even if the father stays with the woman, he may resent the child because in his mind, the mother got herself pregnant by stopping her pills without his agreement. The mother got a baby, but at what cost?
And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul. Psalm 106:15
In several cases we know, the father accepted later children when he had agreed to be a father. His resentment of his oldest and his acceptance of his younger children are evident to anyone who knows the family even years later. What could we say when relatives asked why the kids were treated differently?
God loves fathers, mothers, and children in such cases, but the parents’ violation of His holiness by breaking His rules about sex brings leanness into their souls. These situations are caused by the birth control pill. Before the pill, a man knew that if he came together with a woman, he’d be a father within a year. Couples can now “play house” and pretend that God doesn’t care that they’re breaking His laws.
If a woman’s on the pill, a man feels she expects to have sex, so why not with him? If she isn’t on the pill, she can say “No! Not unless we’re married, and I won’t marry you unless you grow up and get a job.” That’s taught in Ge. 24:67. If a man’s offer to a woman doesn’t include food, clothing, and shelter, it’s not Biblical. If he can’t pay for her, all he can do is play with her and discard her. God hates that!
A man may have some vague head knowledge about pregnancy, but deep down in his heart, where it really counts, a man doesn't believe he has anything to do with making babies. A baby clearly belongs to the mother - she had it last - but what has her baby to do with him? Remember the old saying - "The time my father got me, his mind was not on me." What was he thinking when you happened? Was he thinking at all?
God made men possessive to help give children fathers. If a man has a strong emotional, financial, logical, and psychological connection to a woman, she chooses to belong to him, and encourages and establishes his possessiveness of her as taught in the Song of Solomon before she persuades him to agree with her becoming pregnant, her children will also belong to him. If she won’t belong to him, the kids are hers, and she can look after them herself.
From the beginning, God's love and God's salvation are undeserved gifts of God. Most mothers show how His love works. We should love Him because He first loved us (Ro. 5:8). His love should drive us to serve Him as He requires of us (2 Cor. 5:14). God never bullies us into obedience; He always lets us choose (Joshua 24:25) whether to obey His commands or not. He yearns for obedience (De. 5:29, 30:10), but He never forces us. The choice is ours.
Have you thanked your mother today for risking her life to give you life and then pouring her life into you? And thanked Jesus for dying to save you?
The Apostle Paul pointed out that we do the work of spreading the Gospel because our love for Christ “constraineth us,” that is, makes us do it. We serve Him because our love for Him makes us want to please Him.
For the love of Christ constraineth us; II Corinthians 5:14a
In the same way, our love for our spouses should constrain us to do whatever we can to please him or her. If lost people see married Christians working to please each other out of love, they’ll often ask how we can handle the problems the other person causes. That gives us a chance to talk about God’s love and God’s forgiveness. God forgives us, so God expects us to forgive other people in the same way He forgave us.
This article shows how God demonstrates His holiness so that we can all see it:
Bill & Roberta Taylor:
This was my prayer at the wedding of two young people whom my wife and I knew well. It may give you some ideas.
Our father, as we gather here in Your presence to witness as this man and this woman are joined in Holy Matrimony, we thank You for Your undeserved and unmerited gift of salvation through which we glorify You and enjoy You forever in the life to come. We also thank You for Your undeserved and unmerited gift of marriage through which we glorify You and enjoy each other in this life.
We have heard their testimony. Both this man and this woman have died to their former sinful lives and been born again into a new life in Christ. They belong to You, Father, so they should be OK with Your desire to give them to belong to each other.
Father, as this couple leaves our assembly as man and wife, we pray that You will work on their hearts so that they will gladly die to their former individual selves and be no more twain, but one flesh as our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ commanded.
Draw them, Father, so that they daily serve You by serving each other and daily glorify You by glorifying and appreciating each other. May they draw closer to each other as they draw closer to You. May they lean on each other and depend on each other as they lean more and more on You.
We know, Father, that it is Your will that, as they grow as stewards of Your manifold grace, as they minister Your love, grace, and forgiveness one to another, that their light will shine before men. As those who do not know You see their selfless love and forgiveness, they will seek a portion of Your grace for themselves. We plead this in the name of Your only son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
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God never intended for us to be alone. During creation, the only thing that was not good was the man being alone (Gen. 2:18). Having created women as one of His marvelous gifts to the children of men (Ps. 107:8-31), God puts people in families and He expects people in families to take care of each other and work together (ps 133:1) using each members gifts to bless and support the family and the church of the Living God:
God setteth the solitary in families: Psalm 68:6a
By the time we were married in 1971, most of our friends were already divorced. We realized that our marriage was a precious gift from God, but when her sister got a divorce and my brother got a divorce, we had nothing to say. We were convinced that our joyful marriage was a gift that God intended for all couples to enjoy, so we’ve spent decades writing down the secrets of a joyful, fulfilling marriage.
Consider God's Simple Plan of Salvation. Although a lost person may be attracted to Christian virtues, salvation starts with humility. You have to humble yourself by admitting that no matter what you do, you can't be good enough to get into heaven (Ro. 3:10-12). You have to admit that you need God's help, you have to ask for it, and you have to accept it. Your life changes completely when you do that (2 Cor. 5:17).
Consider God's Simple Plan of Marriage. Marriage God’s way starts with a man humbling himself enough to admit that he is incomplete by himself, that he doesn’t want to be alone, and that he must let God place him in a family (Ps. 68:6). He must humble himself to accept his wife's help as God intended (Gen. 2:18). He must suffer the humiliation of bringing forth children in his own image (Gen. 5:3). Children are perfect mirrors. They reflect all our faults and all our sins back in our faces. As we try to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Eph. 6:4), we must repent from any leftover sins that they show us.
Although a woman may enjoy attention from a man, marriage God’s way starts with her humbling herself to let God give her to her husband as God's gift to him (Pr. 18:22). She must give up her independence, submit to her husband, and follow where he leads. The Bible says four times that a man humbles a woman (De. 21:14, 22:29, Eze. 22:10-11), and she must accept that.
God knew we would have trouble with His Simple Plan of Salvation. He knew we couldn’t handle two plans, so He made one plan for both salvation and for marriage. Jesus told Nicodemus, “Ye must be born again.” The Bible often compares Salvation, that is, our relationship to God, to marriage.
Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. Romans 7:4
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband. Ephesians 5:31-33
Many people don’t want to die to their former lives, they want to cling to their old ways and have Christ too. That doesn’t work. Similarly, many married people stay independent instead of weaving themselves into a unified family. That doesn’t work either. Paul expected Christians to understand marriage so he said marriage was like salvation (Eph. 5:25). How did Jesus explain marriage?
And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. Matthew 19:4-6
The only way two people can be “no more twain, [that is, two,] but one flesh” is for both of them to die to their former independent selves and give up their individual wants in favor of the family God creates for them when they marry. Your life changes when you do that. It’s not as complete a change as when you accept salvation (2 Cor. 5:17), but it’s a huge change. God now expects you to live to give to your family and to Him.
Nobody deserves salvation; nobody deserves marriage. A man is not worthy of his wife's submission or her reverence (Eph. 5:33). Those are undeserved gifts from God and from her as she serves God by serving him. A woman is not worthy of her husband's dedicating his life to taking care of her or leading her by serving her (Eph. 5:25-30), those are undeserved gifts from God and from him as he serves God by serving her.
Learning begins after we accept salvation. We work out our Salvation in fear and trembling (Phi. 2:12) for the rest of our lives. Learning how to be one begins with marriage and takes the rest of our lives. We must be humble enough to learn about God while working out Salvation, we must be humble enough to learn about each other while working out marriage.
Faulty theology causes marriage problems because beliefs about God drive pretty much everything we do. Just 10 words can give us enough knowledge of God for a happy marriage if we believe them and act on them.
The First Three Words
The first three words – “God is great” are obvious. Atheists who say the world came about by random chance from nothing speak of the marvels of creation. If God existed, they say, He would be great. The Bible begins, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth.” We see God in His works:
The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Psalm 19:1
God knew that unbelief would come and that people of “science falsely so called (1 Tim. 6:20)” would tell Christians that the Bible is full of unscientific fairy tales.
But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. 2 Timothy 3:13
To encourage us, God arranged many scientific discoveries to agree with what He wrote in the Bible. You don’t need to understand much of the science, I don’t, but you should be able to tell others that the Bible account of creation and Moses’ laws have information nobody knew until recently. That shows that the Bible came from God.
Sir Isaac Newton, who wrote down God’s laws of motion and invented calculus, said, “When I see a watch, I think of a watchmaker.” If you found a wristwatch on the ground, you wouldn’t think the watch had formed by little bits of metal, gears, springs, and whatnot coming randomly together to form the watch. You would think a watchmaker made it and someone lost it in the field. Sir Isaac knew that random creation of anything as complicated, precise, and as orderly as our solar system was ridiculous, but he thought his “watchmaker God” wound up the universe and left it alone.
Sailors could predict high and low tides; astronomers could predict eclipses and keep the calendar lined up with the seasons by following the lights God gave “for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years (Gen. 1:14).” He believed that every planet was completely predictable - once you knew how God started the solar system, you could predict where planets would go for all time to come.
Sir Isaac was wrong. Physicists later learned that if there were only three planets in the entire universe, just three, and you knew where they were and how fast they were moving, you cannot predict where they will go. We cannot solve this “three body problem.” Sir Isaac didn’t know that the universe is not predictable from his laws of gravity.
Colossians 1:17 says, “And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.” “Consist” describes an action that was completed in the past but emphasizes the ongoing results in the present. The universe wouldn’t work without Jesus’ power (Heb. 1:3). Jesus’ power created the universe, and His action continues to the present, He keeps it going “by the word of his power (He. 1:3).” God is great indeed.
It seems that the universe operates automatically. Rivers run down to the sea, water evaporates and comes back as rain (Ecc. 1:7). Stars and planets stay in their orbits. Sir Isaac’s idea of a watchmaker God who wound it up and let it go seem reasonable, but the Bible teaches that God keeps the universe going; He didn’t set it up and let it go, He stayed involved. That helps us understand prayer. If God wound the universe and stepped back, there would be no reason to pray, but that’s not what He did, He stayed involved.
I don’t understand the proof that nobody can solve the three-body problem, but physicists who do understand are convinced that we can’t use the laws of gravity to predict the motions of just three planets. Our solar system operates smoothly because God keeps it in order, not just gravity.
We don’t understand gravity. On November 9, 2016, Science Alert wrote[1]:
“Our current ideas about space, time, and gravity urgently need to be re-thought. We have long known that Einstein's theory of gravity can not work with quantum mechanics”, the author the new paper, Erik Verlinde from the University of Amsterdam, told Dutch news site NOS.
We have both gravity and quantum mechanics but we can’t fit them together. Don’t worry about the term “quantum mechanics,” very few physicists understand it, but we can see what it does just as we know what gravity does even if we don’t understand it.
We can’t predict the motion of planets and we can’t predict hydrogen atoms. Hydrogen has the simplest atoms of all. One hydrogen atom has one proton with a positive charge and one electron with a negative charge. You know about electrons. When you plug a cord into the wall, electrons flow out of the socket into your appliance. The power company works hard to keep electrons flowing so they can bill you for electricity. The electron part of hydrogen atoms powers your appliances; the proton part of hydrogen atoms powers the sun.
On Sept. 15, 2017, Forbes Magazine published “Proof of 'God Playing Dice With The Universe' Found In The Sun's Interior.”[2] Under high pressure at the center of the sun, electrons are stripped off hydrogen atoms. There’s a soup of protons and electrons in the center of the sun. Our sun’s energy comes from billions and billions of protons smashing together at high pressure and temperature to fuse into helium and release energy.
A hydrogen atom has 1 proton and 1 electron, a helium atom is 2 protons stuck together and 2 electrons. When two hydrogen atoms fuse into 1 helium atom, a tiny bit of energy is released. That powers the sun.
Yet despite these incredible energies, [Forbes says] the protons in the Sun's core would never be able to begin this chain reaction if the Universe were completely deterministic. It requires the wave nature of quantum mechanics to make it possible, proving that Einstein's famous statement, that "God does not play dice with the Universe," was false.
Einstein, like Newton, believed the universe could be predicted from Newton’s laws. He didn’t believe that God put chance into how the universe works. Our sun is powered by the energy released when two hydrogen atoms, the simplest atoms in the universe, stick together, make a helium atom, and release energy.
Protons repel each other; they don’t want to stick together. You’ve played with magnets. Magnets have a north pole and a south pole. If you try to push two north poles together, the magnets repel each other and push back; if you put a north pole and a south pole together, the magnets attract each other and stick.
Protons have positive charge. They repel each other powerfully; they do not want to come together. Pushing them together hard enough to make them stick takes huge pressures and temperatures. That is why fusion power research has failed despite billions of dollars spent – we can’t get temperature or pressure high enough to generate energy as the sun does. Forbes wrote:
So we do our calculations, we calculate how the protons in the Sun’s core have their energy distributed, and we come up with a number for these proton-proton collisions with sufficient energy to undergo nuclear fusion.
That number is exactly zero. The electric repulsion between the two positively charged particles is too great for even a single pair of protons to overcome it and fuse together with the energies in the Sun’s core.
Our sun isn’t big enough for the pressure at the center to overcome protons pushing each other apart. How, then, can the sun give off light? It’s because protons aren’t particles. This gets to “quantum mechanics” that makes my head hurt. I don’t understand the details, it’s the conclusions that matter. Forbes explains:
Each proton is a quantum particle, containing a probability function that describes its location, enabling the two wave functions of interacting particles to overlap ever so slightly, even when the repulsive electric force would otherwise keep them entirely apart.
You and I have exact locations and the GPS in your smart phone will tell you exactly where you are. A proton doesn’t have an exact location. Its location is a fuzzy ball of probability and the proton could be anywhere in the ball. It’s most likely near the center, but it could be anywhere. That’s the part of quantum mechanics that Einstein didn’t want to understand.
If protons were small particles as Einstein believed, they would repel each other too strongly to stick together in our sun because it isn’t big enough to generate enough pressure or a high enough temperature. Protons aren’t particles, they’re fuzzy probability balls which can overlap enough that sometimes, protons in our sun fuse into helium atoms. “Probability fuzzball” doesn’t sound scientific, so physicists say that protons are wave functions, not particles.
It’s the power of quantum mechanics that allows the Sun to shine. [Forbes says] In a fundamental way, if God didn’t play dice with the Universe, the nuclear flame that powers the stars would never light, and the life-giving fusion that occurs in our Sun's core would never come to be.
If hydrogen atoms in our sun were particles, they couldn’t come close enough together to fuse into helium and our solar system would be a cold, dark place where we couldn’t live. Instead of particles, however, God made protons and electrons as wave functions whose future we can’t predict.
When two wave functions overlap, the protons can fuse and create energy even if the particles repel each other. The sun is a probability system; we can’t calculate it. Probability systems aren’t stable because they don’t operate in a predictable way. They may not be likely to explode or to shut down, but over time, that’s what a probabilistic system will do. God has to stay involved to keep the sun’s output in a range to keep us alive.
God lets the sun’s output vary. Sometimes He has out sun put out more heat, this makes our climate get warmer, sometimes it puts out less heat and our climate gets colder, but God keeps it in a range so that we can live on the earth He made, just as God limits the sea:
Fear ye not me? saith the LORD: will ye not tremble at my presence, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it? Jeremiah 5:22
The more scientists study the heavens, the more they learn about the glory of God even if they won’t admit it. Our theories about gravity don’t work with quantum mechanics, but the sun couldn’t light without quantum mechanics. Scientists are trying hard to explain gravity, but so far, they can’t.
My point is, the universe could not work as it does if it were predictable. It’s not a deterministic system that God could wind up and ignore. Probabilistic systems aren’t stable, so God has to stay in control to keep the universe running smoothly and keep the planets in their orbits. Colossians 1:17 says, “And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.” Science proves that even if the scientists won’t admit it.
Christians can affirm six-day creation as taught in the Book of Genesis. On July 8, 2014, Carnegie Science reported[3] that there is a lot more light in the universe than the light generated by the stars.
“Either our accounting of the light from galaxies and quasars is very far off, or there’s some other major source of ionizing photons that we’ve never recognized,” Kollmeier said. “We are calling this missing light the photon underproduction crisis. But it’s the astronomers who are in crisis—somehow or other, the universe is getting along just fine.”
A “photon” is one little piece of light, by “underproduction,” he means that stars don’t make enough light to match the light we can see. He has one thing right – “the universe is getting along just fine,” it’s the scientists who are messed up. Rejoice! We know there has to be more light than the stars make because God made light before He made stars. On June 30, 2017, Forbes Magazine wrote “Science Uncovers The Origin Of The First Light In The Universe[4].”
After centuries of investigating the origins of the Universe, science has finally uncovered what physically happened to "let there be light" in space. …
So where did this light — the first light in the Universe — first come from? It didn’t come from stars, because it predates the stars. [emphasis added]
Forbes tells us that light came before the stars! They explain that light “quanta,” one little piece of light just as a proton is one little piece of matter, interacted with each other and produced bits of matter. This is like particles colliding in an atom smasher – collisions can create any particle at all if they have enough energy.
When little bits of light bumped into each other, little bits of matter were produced. Genesis starts with “Let there be light” on day 1; the stars weren’t created until day 4 (Genesis 1:1-15). Who told Moses to write that light came days before the stars? Who could imagine that?
The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Psalm 19:1
The more scientists study the universe, the less they understand how it works. Sir Isaac Newton thought his laws of gravity could predict how planets would move. As instruments got better, we saw that the planet Mercury moved in ways his laws did not predict. Einstein’s theory of relativity explained those differences, but Einstein’s theories of gravity won’t work with the quantum uncertainties which let the stars shine.
In high school, I was told that religious people believe in the “God of the gaps.” We said God caused whatever science couldn’t explain. They said that as we understood how things worked, the “God of the gaps” would get smaller and smaller until He disappeared. Remember the “God is dead” movement in the 1970s?
That isn’t true; gaps are getting bigger. We don’t need to understand the details, what’s important is that everything scientists learn about light and gravity confirms the creation account in the Book of Genesis, light first, then stars, just as God told Moses. They know gravity doesn’t predict the motion of the planets or stars. We know that God keeps the stars and planets in place, but they haven’t a clue.
MEDICINE AND PUBLIC HEALTH
Besides telling a bit about creation, God’s rules for public health also confirm the divine nature of the Bible.
And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee. Exodus 15:26
For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders. Mark 7:3
Is washing hands before eating mere religious ritual? My mother thought there was a practical purpose. The Bible says, “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Why do I wash my hands before eating? Because my mother trained me to do it. It wasn’t just a command to her, she knew the germ theory of disease. God always expected obedience even if His people didn’t know why they should wash their hands. Consider this:
This is the law, when a man dieth in a tent: all that come into the tent, and all that is in the tent, shall be unclean seven days. Numbers 19:14
And the clean person shall sprinkle upon the unclean on the third day, and on the seventh day: and on the seventh day he shall purify himself, and wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and shall be clean at even. Numbers 19:19
Being unclean as Numbers 19 describes meant you couldn’t touch other people and you couldn’t cook food for others. After a week, you purified yourself, washed your clothes, and took a bath to be clean. We now understand the health benefits to following these laws, but Jews obeyed by faith; nobody knew why thousands of years before we discovered germs.
In 1847, doctors’ wards at Vienna General Hospital had three times the death rate from childbed fever than midwives’ wards. Dr. Semmelweis suspected this was because doctors cut open dead bodies for autopsies and midwives didn’t. He proved that washing hands between patients reduced fever to less than 1%.
Semmelweis couldn’t explain. Doctors were angry at the idea that they carried death on their hands and didn’t want to wash. His results weren’t understood until Louis Pasteur proved the germ theory of disease years after Semmelweis died but God’s laws of washing worked. To this day, most infections in hospitals are caused when doctors and nurses don’t wash hands between patients! They see it as a rule, not as a command of God! It’s in their heads, not in their hearts!
God knows the difference between head knowledge and heart knowledge. A mother must be very careful to pay very close attention to her newborn to keep it alive. The hormones of pregnancy work on a mother’s brain to make her ears more attentive to a baby’s cry and on her emotions to get her really involved in the child[5]. God puts care for newborns into mothers’ hearts through hormones.
God also commands that new mothers be given physical rest.
Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a woman have conceived seed, and born a man child: then she shall be unclean seven days; according to the days of the separation for her infirmity shall she be unclean. And in the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. And she shall then continue in the blood of her purifying three and thirty days; she shall touch no hallowed thing, nor come into the sanctuary, until the days of her purifying be fulfilled. But if she bear a maid child, then she shall be unclean two weeks, as in her separation: and she shall continue in the blood of her purifying threescore and six days. Leviticus 12:2-5
Why should giving birth, a natural and honorable process, make a woman unclean? Why?
An unclean woman couldn’t wash dishes – they’d be unclean and nobody could eat off them. She couldn’t do laundry – clothes would be unclean and nobody could wear them. She couldn’t do housework; she got time to rest and to get to know her new baby. She stayed home instead of coming into the sanctuary. Staying home protects new babies and mothers from infections.
Nursing was the only way to keep a baby alive. I’ve been told that girl babies often have a harder time nursing than boy babies and that girls are a bit smaller at birth than boys.
It’s a big deal for a mother when her baby holds enough milk to sleep through the night. If girls have a harder time nursing and they’re smaller, it would take longer for a baby girl to sleep through the night.
If this is true, God knows all about it. What did He do? A mother got 70 days off when she gave birth to a girl and 40 days when she gave birth to a boy. That extra month made it more likely that the newborn girl would sleep through the night before the mother had to resume her normal routine.
Most American babies are born in hospitals which are expensive! Mothers are sent home after a day or two, and everybody expects her to get back to the housework. My mother got a week of help from her mother and a week from my father’s mother. That was 14 days of help, not 40 days of no housework at all.
The Jews also fasted – the Pharisee described in Luke 18:11-14 bragged that he fasted “twice in the week.” Christians have always believed that fasting gives medical benefits and some studies are beginning to show that fasting can help with certain medical conditions.
What about the feast of leaven? God said that yeast represented sin, so:
Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses: for whosoever eateth that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger, or born in the land. Exodus 12:19
To get rid of all the yeast in your house, you have to clean to white-glove inspection levels as the army does. This means you pass a white glove over everything. You fail if there’s any dirt or dust on the glove.
What happens when an entire village gets rid of all the yeast in every house for a week? That cleans out all other food – seeds, crumbs – and critters starve. Cleaning came at the time of Passover, the time of year when rats and mice breed. Villages have a lot fewer insects, rats, or mice if there’s nothing for them to eat.
Christians had the Old Testament during the Middle Ages; Jews could have talked about the “none of these diseases” benefits of obeying God’s laws. The Jews didn’t give God the glory for their better health; they did not spread the word that God’s laws meant “none of these diseases.”
In the 1340s, the Black Death spread by fleas carried by rats. Jewish customs of washing and cleaning leaven out of their houses meant that the plague affected them less in the sight of the nations just as God had promised. Gentiles thought Jews must have caused the plague because they were immune! There was persecution because Jews didn’t give God the glory!
What about circumcision the 8th day? A newborn’s blood has clotting factor which comes from the mother. Her clotting factor decays and is replaced by the baby’s, but it takes about six days for the baby’s bone marrow to build clotting factor to the normal level. The cut heals best after the baby’s clotting factor comes. The 8th day gives time for boys who’re a bit slow to get ready to clot after the operation. We now know that circumcision reduces certain kinds of infection. This confirms what the Bible teaches about public health. Studying the works of God confirms the Word of God.
Who inspired the Bible writers with this knowledge? Did they do a double-blind study of circumcising thousands of boys on different days, measure outcomes, and use statistics to determine the best day to do it? Of did they just do what God told them to do? God is not only great; He wrote some of His greatness in the Bible for our learning and for our benefit.
THE “THEORY” OF EVOLUTION
Don’t worry about the “theory of evolution.” The more scientists study genetics, the less they know about how different species “evolved.” Non-Christians have written books showing huge problems with evolutionary theory. Evolutionists stopped debating creationists years ago because the creationists had better arguments. Everything they learn about how critters are born, live, reproduce, and die shrieks of intelligent design, which is another way of saying “God.”
The works of God confirm the Word of God. God is great, and we need not yield one jot or one tittle of His Word in the face of science falsely so called! God is great, we can proclaim it! We’d better proclaim it:
Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. Mark 8:38 see also Luke 9:26
I don’t want Jesus ashamed of me when He comes back. I try to spread His Word, and I stand behind it all.
The Second Three Words
The next three words are trickier – “God is great, God is good.” Christians who have no trouble with the idea that God is great don’t seem to act as though they think that God is good. People who believe in the goodness of God read the Bible carefully, seeking keys to happiness. The Bible contains many commands to do this or not to do that. Why? Did God write His laws to keep us from having fun? Or are His laws for our benefit? Does God love us? Many writers have found God’s love for us hard to believe:
What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? Psalm 8:4
That question is repeated in Hebrews 2:6 – God’s love for vile sinners really is hard to believe. God did four things to convince us that He cares for us. First, He gave us laws telling us how societies should operate. Except for the supremacy of God, the 10 commandments are found in all religions and in many bodies of law. Don’t steal, don’t mess with someone else’s woman, don’t tell lies, don’t kill each other – these are the foundations of civilization. We can’t run a stable family, tribe, or nation without these laws.
Mahatma Gandhi tried to unite Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Christians; the rich stew of India. Many of his ideas came from the Bible. He wrote, “I like your Christ; I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ” and “If Christians would really live according to the teachings of Christ, as found in the Bible, all of India would be Christian today.” He died without Christ and went to Hell. Gandhi knew Christ’s teachings, but could not accept the human frailty that is so evident among Christians. He had the Bible which teaches, “they are without excuse.” God drew Gandhi but he let Christians reject and repel him. God’s teachings show that He loves us and wants our lives to go well.
Second, God made mothers. You’ve seen mothers care for their children even when their children disobey. A mother’s love shows us the love of God if we look. Third, God sent a Savior. John 3:16 says that God so loved the world … God created salvation because He loves us. Fourth, God created marriage. Question: God loved us enough to send His Son to die in our place.
But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8
Would our God who loved us enough to create salvation which required the death of His Son and turning His back on His Son (Mt. 27:46, Mk. 15:34) to bless us create marriage to curse us? Or did God intend marriage for our good? If a marriage is not good, who’s at fault? God or the couple?
God listed a few of His laws in His Word, but He wrote most of His laws in His works.
Suppose I jump off a building. I’ll fall. Suppose I break my leg. Can I complain, “How could a loving God let me get hurt?” Would you sympathize, or would you call me a fool for trying to break God's law of gravity?
The Bible says “by Him all things consist,” and “all things” includes gravity. You wouldn't sympathize if I got hurt trying to break God's law of gravity, but lots of people break God's laws of marriage which He wrote in the Bible and wonder why they get hurt.
Do we understand God's law of gravity? No, gravity baffles physicists. They have no idea how it works, but we had better follow the law of gravity. Do we understand God's laws of marriage? No, but we can follow them through faith. We don’t understand His laws of Salvation either, but we’d better follow the laws of marriage and of salvation if we want an abundant life.
God created salvation; we must be saved His way or we go to Hell when we die. God created marriage. We have to do marriage His way or we can make life Hell on earth. I know many marriages which don’t show the torments of Hell, but they aren’t getting nearly as much blessing as God intended when He created marriage.
People must relate to God to get His full blessing. After they left Egypt, the Israelites wouldn’t talk to God; they wanted Moses to talk to God and tell them what God said. God was disappointed. He told Moses:
O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever! Deuteronomy 5:29
God didn’t write commandments to keep us from happiness. He wants us to obey because keeping His commands blesses us. Jesus said, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly (John 10:10b).”
There’s a catch to receiving the abundant life Jesus offers – we have to follow His rules. We know the story of the man who built his house upon the rock, there’s a song about his reward for obedience, but how many of us work to do what the Bible teaches?
The keys to abundant life in marriage and to abundant life in general are found in the Bible, but how do we read the Bible? People tend to make it more complicated than it is. Does the Bible lie? Jesus prayed, “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth (John 17:17).” No, the Bible doesn’t lie. God gave us the Bible “for our learning (Romans 15:4).” If God lied to us in the Bible He wouldn’t be good and when we found out, we’d stop trying to learn from the Bible.
We know that God cares deeply about Children. Does the Bible lie to children?
There are many things in the Bible children can’t understand, and many I can’t understand, but God is not the author of confusion (I Cor. 14:33). God didn’t write passages with a simple, false meaning that must be explained through appeals to grammar, history, or writings that aren’t in the Bible. Anything in the Bible a child can understand is true in the way a child would read it. If this were not so, children would be confused, which God doesn’t do.
Consider the story of the man who built his house on the sand. We teach kids a song about it. We tell them that obeying God’s Word is a wise thing to do and that someone who doesn’t obey is a fool. Let’s look at passages which kids understand:
Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Ephesians 6:1
Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. Colossians 3:20
Can children understand those verses? Yes, but “obey” is often a bad word. How old do children have to be to understand that it is as hard for their parents to obey God as it is for them to obey their parents? God expects us to teach His Words to our children:
And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. Deuteronomy 6:7
And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Ephesians 6:4
Where does a father find the “nurture and admonition of the Lord?” In the Bible. Your most effective way of teaching the Bible is to let your children see you obey it, even when it’s hard. What you do in following the Bible speaks so loudly that your children can’t hear what you say about the Bible. Your words and your actions must say the same thing. What has this to do with marriage?
Children can understand most marriage verses; your kids see whether you’re obeying them or not. There are also marriage-related verses which children know without having to read the Bible:
Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the LORD. Proverbs 18:22
Where does a child go whenever anything goes wrong in the child’s universe? Right to Mommy. A child knows that his father’s wife is a good thing indeed. Adults should learn from this.
I’ve met men who complain about their wives instead of appreciating them. Philippians 2:14 says, “Do all things without murmurings and disputings.” Murmuring about a wife makes her unhappy; Proverbs says five times that an unhappy wife makes her family unhappy. God doesn’t like murmuring either (1 Cor. 10:10).
Parents who don’t follow these oh-so-obvious commands teach their children that the Bible is only a stick for parents to beat kids; it says nothing about adult behavior. Is it any surprise that so many walk away from the Word of God when they grow up? They’ve been taught that adults don’t follow the Bible, so why bother?
Believing that God is good has been the foundation of our marriage. From her youth up, my wife wanted to be a wife and mother. She knew she would have to find a husband who would pay her expenses. As she read the Bible, she realized that God expected her to obey her husband and to follow him.
Instead of complaining about how irrelevant the Bible was to modern customs, she knew that obeying God would bless her somehow because God was good. She realized that she would have to find a man whom she could obey. While she was in college, she met a man she expected to marry. When she asked God, however, God told her not to marry him. She pulled away from him because she was convinced that God had her best interests at heart.
When I told her I was going to date her, she said okay, but she set out terms and conditions. “God made me to be a treasure for my husband,” she said, and insisted that I agree that the purpose of dating was to decide whether she and I would marry. From my point of view, this was good - she took God seriously! I knew that if she was serious about following God, if she accepted everything the Bible tells wives to do, marrying her would be a good idea if I did my best to do what God tells husbands to do.
Indeed, it has been. We had no idea where marriage would take us, but we knew that God would get us there if we followed His rules. We trusted Him to order our lives together because we knew that God is good and had seen that He had ordered our lives while we were single.
The next three words are “God is good.” Do you believe that enough to obey the Bible because obeying God will be good for you? How can you trust God with your salvation if you don’t trust Him to order your life?
Last Four Words
Years ago, I asked a Junior Church class, “Is your home better when your mother’s happy or when she’s unhappy?” They looked at me like I had a hole in my head. They all knew that mother’s mood affected the whole house. Why would I ask such a silly question?
Then I asked, “Would it make your mother happy if you thanked her for cooking or doing dishes or laundry or anything she does?” They said “sure,” they knew that thanking mom made her happy. I said, “You can make the mood in your home better by praising your mother. You’re alive because she changed your diapers. You’d have died if she hadn’t. Have any of you thanked your mothers for changing your diapers? Would that be a good idea?” I mentioned the advantages of an “Attitude of Gratitude” often over the next few weeks.
When I checked with their mothers, not one of those kids had thanked their mothers for anything. They knew in their heads that thanking mom would make life better, but they didn’t do it because it hadn’t gotten into their hearts. “Praise ye the Lord” appears 24 times in the book of Psalms. They know the story of the foolish man who built his house upon the sand. Can kids understand, “If ye love me, keep my commandments (John 14:15)?” Why don’t kids praise the Lord? Same reason we don’t.
God knows that husbands are cement-headed when it comes to wives. Kids know that when mamma ain’t happy ain’t nobody happy, but God had to warn husbands 5 times in one book that an unhappy woman is a hardship. Kids should be taught to appreciate their mothers:
Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her. Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all. Proverbs 31:28-29
Her husband praises her, and the Song of Solomon teaches that he praises her in detail many times per day. Kids are born selfish; they don’t appreciate anyone or anything unless they’re taught. A father has to teach his children by command and by example that they have the most wonderful mother in the world; she “excelleth them all.” He has to teach them to appreciate what God has given them instead of worrying about what God has not given. He has to teach them to appreciate their mother instead of complaining.
He needs to teach them to appreciate the rain that waters the earth and gives us drink. They need to appreciate the glories of God’s creation, the birds and the beasts, in all His marvelous wonder. Kids who spend too much time talking to other kids via smart phones grow up to be self-centered and unappreciative. They need to be taught to appreciate what they have so they won’t whine about what they don’t have. They need to be taught the value of hard work to get what they want instead of complaining.
Moses warned God’s people that they would be carried into captivity unless they served God and loved God with grateful hearts and appreciated everything He had given them:
Because thou servedst not the LORD thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things; 48Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the LORD shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee. Deuteronomy 28:47-48
They didn’t love God, they didn’t appreciate the blessings He had given them, so He took everything away, “they were in want of all things.” If we aren’t grateful for what God gives, He may take it away, but we tend to take His gifts for granted. “We never miss the water ‘til the well runs dry.”
This brings us to the last 4 words. God is great; God is good, let us thank Him. The Bible speaks of the wonderful works of God 9 times. “Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!” appears 4 times in Psalm 107. God wants us to keep His commandments for our good. The Psalmist wants us to praise God for our benefit! Kids know in their heads that praising mothers will make their homes happier; fathers need to help them hide that principle in their hearts so they’ll do it. The Song of Solomon teaches married people to praise each other and how to praise each other.
Even lost people can learn God’s laws about the blessings of praise in a marriage by looking at His works:
“Expressing appreciation to your partner, noticing the things you love about them and telling them that you love those things about them,” said Ms. Joel, “just has wondrous effects. They feel appreciated, and then in turn they feel better, and just expressing the gratitude makes you feel better, and then they want to reciprocate the gratitude, so then they appreciate you more which makes you feel better.”[6]
Ms. Joel understands that “just expressing the gratitude makes you feel better.” Of course it does! If you think of all the wonderful things God has given you, you’ll be grateful for what God has given you and not worry about what God hasn’t given you. We praise God for salvation, but how many of us praise God for marriage? How many of us praise God for giving us spouses? Thanking my wife for letting God give her to me and for all the work she does makes her happier! Ya think?
Kids don't need the warnings in the Bible about an unhappy woman making people unhappy; they know without being told. Here’s another Biblical concept children know without seeing it written down:
Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the LORD. Proverbs 18:22
Kids figure this out early. When kids find that the universe is even slightly out of line, what do they do? They scream for mommy or, if they can walk, they run and find mommy. They know that mommy is a good thing and that she can right most of the wrongs they encounter.
Kids know that it’s important to them that their father sees their mother as a good thing. My youngest son was about six months old when he started clapping whenever I kissed or hugged his mother. I don’t know how he knew that my loving her was important to him, but he knew.
This is all the theology you need for a Godly marriage in 10 words: God is great, God is good, let us thank Him. God’s people didn’t appreciate the “land flowing with milk and honey,” He exiled them to Babylon and they lost the blessing of His gift. If a husband doesn’t appreciate his wife, she’ll be unhappy. If a wife isn’t grateful for her husband, he’ll be unhappy. Having an unhappy spouse makes everyone unhappy. If both are unhappy, the family is miserable. Have an attitude of gratitude if you want God’s blessing!
So husbands, can you tell your wife, “For God so loved man that He gave him woman; for God so loved me that He gave me you?” As the kids knew that appreciating their mothers would make life better, just about every man knows that saying that and meaning it would make life better, but that’s only head knowledge.
Men, it’s in your heads, but will you put it in your hearts? Look at your wife and repeat after me, “For God so loved man that He gave him woman; for God so loved me that He gave me you?”
Will you build your marriage on the rock of working to appreciate and give, or will you build on the sand of trying to get? You know the story, which will you choose? God is great, God is good, let us thank Him.
[6] “Can Scientific Relationship Advice Save Your Marriage?” New York Times, Feb. 9, 2015,
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God ordained both salvation and marriage. If you try to get to Heaven your own way, you go to Hell when you die. If you try to do marriage your own way, you can make life Hell on earth.
God loves men and women equally (Gal. 3:28). He created us carefully so that God’s Plan of Salvation can give us the fruits of the spirit in this life and prepare us to spend eternity with Him in Heaven in the next life. God’s Plan of Marriage helps married couples give the entire family a taste of the joys of Heaven, right here on earth.
By the time my wife and I were married in 1971, most of our friends were already divorced. We soon realized that God had given us something precious in our marriage but we could not explain it. We spent the next 40 years trying to explain what God had in mind so others could enjoy the blessing a loving God had always intended for marriage.
The Book of James promises wisdom from God if we ask in faith, but it doesn't say how long it will take nor how the information will arrive. We're searched the scriptures, prayed, and passed material to literally thousands of people collecting feedback. This is the result.
After reading our chapter on how to be a husband, a Grandmother asked me, "Do I have to read what you said about being a wife?" She had married grandchildren, so I told her, "No, you know what men want."
"Let me put it this way," she said. "If my husband treated me as you say, I would not only be willing to give him what he wants, I would not only be glad to give him what he wants, I would be proud and pleased to give him what he wants."
We shared drafts of the chapters on being husbands and wives with an engaged couple. When they compared notes, she said, "This is right about what women want, but what it says about men is ridiculous." He was surprised and said, "No, they're right about men, but women can't possibly be the way they say!"
Suffice it to say that God made them male and female, with radically different wants and needs, words and deeds. You can't build a sound bridge without detailed knowledge of cement and steel; you can't build a sound marriage without understanding what each party wants most.
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Introduction
Except when reading the Bible, remember that authors make mistakes. We've done our prayerful best to express what God wants for marriage and have quoted scripture to show God's Word as clearly as we can, but you must base your life on God's Word, using our words only to help you understand what God said.
We ask you to labor with us so that we can labor together with God (I Corinthians 3:9). We've been passing this book around for comment since 1982. The book improves as people criticize it, the more critical you are, the better it gets. As you read, please ask yourself these questions:
1) Is it clear? There's no point in publishing explanations that are hard to understand.
2) Is it true? We've done our prayerful best to base this book on the Word of God; there are more than 1,000 scripture references. Try as we may, however, it's almost certain that we've misused a verse here and there. Please play our words against what God has taught you and let us know how we measure up.
3) Is it complete? Marriage is simple at the core but difficult in the details. We've included examples and explanations inspired by conversations with many married and unmarried people; please let us know if we've omitted anything of importance.
The book is what it is because of all the help others have freely given. We’d appreciate any help you can give. MARK IT UP; we can't learn or improve without your feedback. The book lives on a hard drive. The computer prints copies as orders come in. If we upload a change, the next order gets the new version.
God gave us three sons so we don't really understand the viewpoint of parents of daughters. We particularly need help from parents of marriageable young ladies. So please, write us at 41 Ridge Rd, New Hampton NH 03256, email comments to wataylor@as-st.com, or call us at (603) 744 5160.
We can return your marked-up copy or we can give you a new copy with the changes. It’s listed on our author page,
https://www.amazon.com/Bill-and-Roberta-Taylor/e/B09DTMSHT8/ .
We set the price as low as Amazon would permit – 99 cents on Kindle.
We’d be happy to donate copies to churches.
The material in the book is from https://successful-marriage.blogspot.com.
Feel free to use this material in any way that serves His cause. 0305
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FAMILY - MARRIAGE UNDER THREAT - Marriage God’s Way -
Read Study Learn Teach Mentor Train for Christ
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CLICK ON THE LINKS BELOW FOR DOZENS
OF ARTICLES AND RESEARCH!
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TODAYS FEATURED ARTICLE(S) 7/13/2022 |
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April 28, 2022
David Cloud, Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061
One of the pioneers of child evangelism meetings was Edward Payson Hammond, who was known as “The Children’s Evangelist.”
An ordained Presbyterian, in the 1860s and 1870s he conducted large meetings in Rochester, Chicago, Boston, Detroit, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Baltimore, San Francisco, and elsewhere. In Oakland, California, a special tent was constructed that held 4,500 people.
He had those who came forward to his anxious benches to sign a “Covenant Card” that stated, “I, the undersigned, hope I have found Jesus to be my precious Saviour; and I promise with His help, to live as his loving child and faithful servant all my life.” The convert’s name was recorded in a book, and the statistics were published. Hammond claimed 2,000 converts in San Francisco and 1,000 in Washington, D.C.
Over half of his professions were from children.
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by Bill Taylor
This site contains papers about how marriage should work. Marriage is simple, but not easy. It's simple to walk across a room - just put one foot in front of the other. It's just as simple to walk from Maine to California - KEEP putting one foot in front of the other - but less easy. Marriage is a lifetime journey, not a short stroll.
What Drives Men to Marry?
Many women say they want to marry, but the way they behave makes it doubtful that any man will want to marry them. The New York Times published “Sex on Campus – She Can Play That Game, Too,” which argues that women are as eager to participate in casual “hookups” as men are.
At 11 on a weeknight earlier this year, her work finished, a slim, pretty junior at the University of Pennsylvania did what she often does when she has a little free time. She texted her regular hookup — the guy she is sleeping with but not dating. What was he up to? He texted back: Come over. So she did. They watched a little TV, had sex and went to sleep.
The Times called the woman “A” because she didn’t want her name used. A doesn’t particularly like this man, but he’s a handy sexual partner. She isn’t looking for a deeper relationship because she doesn’t have time: Continued Click Here...Marriage Under Threat: What Drives Men to Marry?
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The Bible Explains Marriage in One Verse
God loves us and carefully designed men and women so that we can give each other great joy if we do marriage His way. Marriage is simpler than we think. This short paper analyzes the one verse which tells us a simple way to build a marriage that gives both parties a taste of the joys of heaven, right here on earth.
We don’t expect people to know how to drive cars or balance checkbooks without being taught; why would we expect them to know how to be married without being taught?
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Psalm 68:6 explains that God loved us enough to put solitary people in families. If you don’t see how something about your spouse’s basic nature blesses you and your family, that’s your problem, not God’s. It took many years for us to figure out how some of my wife’s characteristics blessed our family, but once we made the assumption that God designed our brains differently out of love for us, things got smoother. |
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Why God Made Men and Women Think So Differently
God made males and females different to help us be fruitful and multiply. Instead of trusting that a good God knew what He was doing when He created us, many men and women complain that God made their spouses wrong. Women complain that men are too possessive, too controlling, and can’t find anything in a refrigerator. Men complain that women are too emotional and talk too much.
Very few women or men can explain their thought processes. This short paper discusses the way male and female brains work to give couples a basis for talking about how they think. Understanding draws them closer.
Psalm 68:6 explains that God loved us enough to put solitary people in families. If you don’t see how something about your spouse’s basic nature blesses you and your family, that’s your problem, not God’s. It took many years for us to figure out how some of my wife’s characteristics blessed our family, but once we made the assumption that God designed our brains differently out of love for us, things got smoother.
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Why Marriages Fail
We’ve known many couples whose marriages failed. Most failures were rooted in neither party having been taught enough about what the other person expected. This paper discusses major areas of ignorance that make marriages fail and suggests ways to help young people build solid families and solid churches.
What Drove Jesus' 11 Nobodies to Turn the World Upside-Down?
Introduction
Starting with eleven fired-up nobodies (Acts 4:13), Jesus’ gospel turned the world upside down (Acts 17:6). 300 years later, a quarter to a half the population of the Roman Empire either converted to Christianity or was sympathetic in spite of great ersecution. How did this come about?
… there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28b
Christianity respects and values women far more than other faiths – women are equal in value to men! A woman can approach God whenever she wishes. This turned society upside-down, nobody imagined ordinary people relating to God without permission, especially not women.
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ADDITIONAL LEARNING/TEACHING RESOURCES
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FAMILY 1001 06272022 Why Marriages Fail - The Bible Explains Marriage in One Verse - CHANGING MARRIAGES ONE AT A TIME... MARRIAGE UNDER THREAT -
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FAMILY - MARRIAGE UNDER THREAT - Marriage God’s Way -
Read Study Learn Teach Mentor Train for Christ
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CHANGING MARRIAGES ONE AT A TIME...
This is a list of messages in the blog. Clicking on a title takes you to a description
which has a link to the article or you can use control-f to search within this list.
Feel free to use any of this material in any way that supports His cause!
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God loves us and designed men and women so that we can give each other great joy if we do marriage His way. This short paper analyzes the one verse which tells us a simple way to build a marriage that gives both parties a taste of the joys of heaven, right here on earth. SUCCESSFUL- MARRIAGE.BLOGSPOT.COM
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SOME RECENT VERY GOOD ADVICE: |
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God loves us and designed men and women so that we can give each other great joy if we do marriage His way. This short paper analyzes the one verse which tells us a simple way to build a marriage that gives both parties a taste of the joys of heaven, right here on earth. SUCCESSFUL- MARRIAGE.BLOGSPOT.COM
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Do not marry at all.
But if you must avoid the Beauty Men, Flirts, and the Bounders, Tailor’s Dummies, and the Football Enthusiasts.
Look for a Strong, Tame Man, a Fire-lighter, Coal-getting, Window Cleaner, and Yard Swiller.
Don’t except too much, most men are lazy, selfish, thoughtless, lying, drunken, clumsy, heavy-footer, rough, unmanly brutes, and need taming.
All Bachelors are, and many are worse still.
If you want him to be happy, Feed the Brute.
The same remark applies to Dogs
You will be wiser not to chance it, it isn’t worth the risk.
A SUFFRAGETTE WIFE
Feminism was rotten from the beginning. It was a movement started on the hatred of men and superiority of women. Their goal is to destroy the institution of marriage and families. It is in rebellion to God’s will for women. It’s from Satan, the father of lies. Women, have nothing to do with it. It’s destructive in every way. Christianity is what gives women worth and value, not something that destroys what God has created women for.
The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. John 10:10
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(1) “Most Christians do not read the Bible. Many Christians who read the Bible ignore what the Bible says. Some Christians who ignore the Bible don't see that as a problem.” "Baptist Bread" July 17th, 2017 devotional by author Dr. Guy Goodell, Pastor, Bible Baptist Church, Hudson Falls, NY. with permission from Tim Green The Baptist Bread
“(2) Ignorance of Baptist heritage, which is so infectious in our pulpits and pews today, is dangerous and must be overcome with a renewed teaching of our Baptist heritage and heroes of past generations.”
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Before 1960, women couldn’t abort their babies lawfully, therefore, unborn babies were protected in their mothers’ wombs. The majority of women didn’t attend college before the sixties. Most of them were married at a young age, began having children since birth control wasn’t widely used nor available, and were full-time homemakers.
Marriage was sacred back then. Most people married, and they married for life. Divorce was rare. Children were raised in two parent homes. The husbands worked hard to provide for their families. The husband and wife depended upon each other. The wife needed the husband’s protection and provision. The husband needed the wife home to care for the children and home. Families stayed together.
Children went to schools where Marxist/Feminism wasn’t taught. They were taught reading, writing, and arithmetic. They were taught the blessings of being raised in America, even though it wasn’t perfect. They were taught to value the Constitution, and God was spoken of freely in the schools. Prayer was in the schools.
Women weren’t in the police or military force back then in any fighting capacity. These were men’s role. Men’s and women’s roles were clearly defined back then. There was no gender confusion.
There wasn’t debt like there is today. People lived within their means. They didn’t spend money they didn’t have. Women didn’t owe two-thirds of the trillions of dollars of student loan debt. People lived more simply. The government wasn’t as large and intrusive. People knew they had to work hard to make a living. They didn’t want handouts and get “free” stuff from the government. They were more social and relationships mattered to them more than a cell phone.
No, we shouldn’t long for the good-ole-days, even though it’s easy to do, but we should go back to the old paths that God has ordained for us. God put us on this earth at this time for a purpose. As we live our lives according to God’s plan, we are salt and light in a wicked world. As you love and submit to your husband, other women will take notice. As you raise your children in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord, they will go out to walk in truth and be lights.
Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.
Jeremiah 6:16
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"Three Big Needs
To read study learn everything else …."
Roger Fulk May 2, 2019,
(1) Need to read and study and believe and apply the King James Bible.
(2) Need to study true Baptist Church History.
(3) Need to learn the proper methods of Biblical Interpretation.
If we learn the truth, the lies will stick out like a sore thumb!
IF WE STUDY AND LEARN THE TRUTH … THEN THE LIES WILL STICK OUT LIKE A ‘SORE THUMB” … IF YOU ARE A BORN-AGAIN BELIEVER IN CHRIST INDWELLED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT AND HAVE DISCERNMENT! …
I Corinthians 2:14
CLICKABLE LINKS NOT FOUND IN THE
BOOK ARE ADDED
FOR YOUR FURTHER STUDY OF EACH OF THE SUBJECTS BELOW:
Accessed from www.AWarningMinistry.com
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Solutions:
We teach the entire counsel of God, based on the Authorized King James Bible, PROPER Biblical Interpretation, including prophecy and True Baptist Church History, Distinctives and Doctrine.
The Ten C’s ….. there may be more ….. Now there are Ten!
(1) ... Greatest Commandments
Matthew 22:36-40
(2) ... Great Commission Matthew 28:16-20
(3) ... Earnestly Contend for the faith Jude 3-4, 20-25
(4) ... All the Counsel of God Acts 20:26-27
(5) ... One Christ Ephesians 4:4-6
(6) ... Another Christ 2 Corinthians 11:4
(7) ... With Compassion, Christians are to have compassion (1 Pe. 3:8; 1 Jn. 3:17; Jude 22). [See Charity, Labor, Love, Mercy.]
(8) ... Pray without ceasing I Thessalonians 5:17
(9) ... Creation Genesis 1:1-2, John 1:1-5 The seven c’s of creation!
(10) ...His Commandments in Old & New Testaments Revelation 22:14C
How to stop all this confusion out there?
- Get saved so you “can” understand!
- Start reading the KJB and pray every day!
- Learn the proper methods of literal interpretation!
- Learn “true” Baptist Church History!
- Learn and practice the entire counsel of God!
- Attend a good Bible Believing Independent Church regularly!
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WOMEN TAKE OVER WHEN MEN DON’T STEP UP?
There’s a theory many women believe that if men don’t lead, women will step up to fill the void that the men have left. They always use the example of Deborah in the Bible. Are men the ones responsible for women in leadership positions?
Was Adam responsible for Eve being deceived and eating the forbidden fruit? NO! She did it in her own rebellion against God. When women step out of their God ordained roles and into men’s roles, they are in rebellion to God’s will for them.
Then the argument will come up about all of the women in leadership positions or who had *careers* in the Bible. @old_fashioned_feminity had some great things to say about this on Instagram.
This is who feminists think were feminists in the Bible: Deborah, Ruth, Esther, The Proverbs 31 Woman, The Samaritan Woman, Lydia, and Priscilla. But who were the actual feminists in the Bible? Eve, Potiphar’s Wife, Delilah, Jezebel, The Proverbs 5 Woman, The Proverbs 7 Woman, and the Isaiah 3 Women.
Then she wrote this about them: “Deborah knew Barak was supposed to lead and begged him to lead. Eve wanted to be equal with God and acted out from under her husband’s authority.
“Ruth sought to be married ASAP while working to provide for her mother-in-law ONLY until then. Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce Joseph and then screamed rape when Joseph refused her.
“Esther submitted herself to her husband’s decision. Delilah used her beauty as a weapon against Samson for money.
“The Proverbs 31 woman looked well to the ways of her household. Jezebel took the leadership position while deriding and abusing her husband who wouldn’t step up.
“The Samaritan woman was requested to bring her husband with her to Jesus. The Proverbs 5 woman seduced men with her fair looks and speech.
“Lydia believed and was baptized. The Proverbs 7 woman gave all her affection to adultery instead of to her husband.
“Priscilla was always seen alongside her husband. The Isaiah 3 women were haughty, gaudy, loud leaders in rebellion against God.
“You see, there is a big difference between godly women and feminist women. Feminism is Satanic.”
Then, we hear about Christian women running for positions of leadership because they “prayed about it” and “felt God lead them to run.” Lindsay Harold replied to this reasoning: “Why do people pray about things scripture clearly speaks on and then use some nebulous idea of ‘peace’ to rationalize their disobedience? God has already told us in His word what the proper place for wives and mothers is. They are to be keepers at home, not leaders or warriors or workers for others. People would rather follow their own ideas and feelings than simply apply scripture and live by it.”
Many Christian women cheered for the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett. I didn’t. How can I encourage women to be keepers at home and then cheer for those who are not? I can’t. NO one can take the place of a mother in their children’s lives. Their children need and want them at home. There are plenty of good men for all of the leadership positions that are available.
Is it all men’s fault, as women claim, since men didn’t step up to the leadership positions? No, if women can tear their homes down with their own hands, they can tear nations down by stepping outside of their God ordained positions and taking away men’s. There’s many good reasons that God wants the older women teaching the young women biblical womanhood, but most older women have failed and younger women are in rebellion against God’s will for them. Go back to the Old Paths that God has ordained for you and cheer on the women who are going back too; for the faithful, godly wives and mothers who are home raising godly offspring. His ways will always be perfect for us.
Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.
Jeremiah 6:16
***The Old Paths written about in this verse are the paths that are clearly written in God’s Word. His ordained roles are clearly spelled out in the Bible. In there, you will find the old, perfect paths for you. They are nowhere to be found in this world or even in the past, except for in those who love God and are obedient to His will.
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WHEN HUSBANDS AND
WIVES' ROLES ARE REVERSED
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Pearl,
First of all, praise God for Created to Be His Help Meet! A woman at my church recommended this book to me. I started reading it and it has changed my life and my marriage! I told a few other women about it and they are reading as well, and their marriages are much better. Thank You. Thank God.
Recently, I have gone back to work full-time and my husband is at home with the kids and homeschooling them. My question is how can I still be a help meet in this situation? My husband is having health issues and thought it best for us to switch. He loves to cook and has been cooking. What are your thoughts on this situation?
Thank you,
A Reader
Michael Pearl Answers:
Dear Reader, understand that I use your question as a springboard to address this issue in a broader way. Some of the things I say may not fit your situation at all. I am not attributing attitudes or actions to either you or your husband. Use my comments to gather principles that might apply to your situation.
It is never ideal for the woman to be the breadwinner and the man to be the home-keeper for the simple reason that the role reversal (a role dictated by our created natures) places each in a position contrary to their nature. A single woman may fit into the workplace as well as a man. A single man with children may function as the housekeeper, cook, homeschool teacher, etc., and do a fair job of it—all consistent with human nature. But the marriage relationship is unique. The man by nature is the savior, provider, and protector who braves the cruel world and carries the responsibility to protect and nourish his wife and family. It is in a man’s genes to take the command-and-control position. To become a dependent rather than the provider wreaks havoc on a man’s self-esteem. In our modern world, the one whose name is on the paycheck is the head of all finances, the one to be thanked and appreciated. That person is the fountain of the family, possessing the right of veto over all spending, and controlling the direction of the family where it involves finances.
The one who comes home tired from a day’s work is entitled to the recliner until dinner is served. It is the one who says, “Why aren’t my socks in the drawer?” and “This house is a mess; what have you been doing all day?” The breadwinner decides what kind of bread to eat and whether or not spending is foolish or necessary.
A bread-winning woman is not vulnerable and finds it difficult to come home and be a submissive, servant wife. To be forced to do so breeds resentment and a feeling of being used. I need not go on; you know these things and more to be true to nature and experience.
But sometimes life throws unnatural curves and turns our world upside-down. We have to make do like a one-legged man. We get around and get along in the best way we can. When a man is disabled and cannot enter the labor force, the wife may be thrown into an unnatural role of breadwinner. Sometimes the children are forced to work to provide for the family. It is not natural but it is necessary. A dependent man will have to accept a different worldview and a different role. He will have to accept not being fulfilled in the normal manner. And the bread-winning wife will need to learn humility and to try to maintain a feminine demeanor at home, giving deference to the man, allowing him to be a handicapped king in his limited domain. The dependent man will also need to learn humility and to accept his dependency with thanksgiving and grace. Like any unnatural handicap, it will not be easy, but it is entirely manageable, and each can find fulfilment in their role reversals.
However, when a couple reverses roles because the wife is able to make more money, or when the man is lazy and incompetent, or when she just likes to work and he just likes to hang out at home, you can be certain that neither is going to find fulfilment in their relationship, and their marriage is likely to end in the woman divorcing the man.
When both the man and woman are reconciled to the reality that the man is handicapped out of the work force through no choice of his own, and not having to do with incompetence, it takes the edge off of blame and the discomfort of role reversal; but when they both know it is a choice, expect the man to shrink in his self-respect and the woman to grow masculine in her demeanor—leaving the marriage to suffer.
God said to Adam, not Eve, “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground” (Genesis 3:19).
Paul declared, “But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel” (1 Timothy 5:8).
“That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed” (Titus 2:4–5).
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Having just entered the 72nd year of my journey through this life, I have much less concern about the effect of the opinions of others on my life. Because that is so, I approach this topic with bold carelessness.
INTRODUCTION
It is my conclusion, after nearly fifty years in pastoral ministry, in seven churches, in six states in the USA that the most common contribution to marital problems among Christians is, a failure of most wives to reverence their husbands. We are all probably familiar with the famous passage of Ephesians 5:22-33, that carefully spells out the responsibility of both husbands and wives. I will particularly focus on verse 33, because it is the sum of the whole passage. “Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.” It is the conclusion of my observations and investigation that most wives do NOT reverence their husbands, for one cannot be critical and reverent at the same time.
ADVISORY
Please note that I am using comparative terms such as “some”, “most”, “many”. I am not using words like “all”, “every”, or “each”. While I sincerely believe my conclusions are accurate and reflect on the great majority of Christian marriages, I certainly realize the foolishness of painting every husband or wife with the same broad paintbrush. Of course there are exceptions. Thankfully, there are men and women who recognize the truth of the Biblical description of marriage and have or are implementing these principles to the best of their ability. I am happy to have personally known some of them. Therefore, please do not assail me with how this or that exception should be considered. If I dealt with every possible exception, this article would be well beyond the reading tolerance of most readers. I may be pushing the limit as it is.
DESIGN
God designed marriage with structure that replicates His relationship with His creation. We are created in His image and likeness, Genesis 1-2. Just as the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit have unique and complimentary roles, so do husbands and wives. In His design, husbands are the head of the wife, wives are in a role of submission to his headship. These roles were not designed to function on the basis of feeling, but rather on the basis of organizational structure. Each person in their place doing their job, and fulfilling their responsibility. 1 Corinthians 11:3 “But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.” This passage clearly lays out the design structure for marriage, a structure that is repeated other places by precept and example throughout the Bible. The husband is the head of the wife, BUT Christ is the head of the man. This is the organizational structure, but we must always remember, both husbands and wives have a head. No one is a law unto themselves. A ceremony and a certificate do not constitute godly marriage. If they did, the marriage would last as long as the paper. Today there are far too many divorces and failed marriages because there is a focus on the ceremony and certificate, when really it should be about commitment. What makes a godly Christian marriage is a commitment to God, to fulfilling the designated designed roles and functioning in the spirit of God’s purpose. Quitting is not an option.
FUNCTION
God has designed marriage to function under authority, but not on the basis of law, force, or legalism. 1 John 4:8 tells us that God is love and in replication of our Lord’s relationship to His creation, marriage is to function in the environment of love. Love for God and love for spouses is to be the rule rather than the exception. Anytime we endeavor to make a marriage work out of fear or force or even grudgingly we have missed the functionality of God’s design. Wives: almost every time the role of each spouse is mentioned in the New Testament the role of the wife is mentioned first, just as it is in Ephesians 5. I believe this is done because of the importance of the wife’s role in marriage and family. Someone once said that the husband may be the head, but the wife is the neck that turns it. I would rather say that she is the neck that supports the head, giving it mobility to do it’s work. That is more in keeping with the function of a wife. In Genesis 2:18 “And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.” According to God’s Word, a wife is to be a help to her husband, one that is meet for him, that is one that is comparable to him. She is not inferior to the man or she would not be meet for him, nor would she be much of a help to him. She is also not superior to him for the same reasons. The beloved wife, bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh is meet for him, BUT her role is subject to her husband’s authority and leadership (headship), even though in her person she is his equal and his compliment. For a dear wife to subvert her husband's headship is tantamount to subverting God, for He designed the roles. Her role is one of aid, support, comfort, encouragement, companionship, and so much more great value that only a dear woman of God may supply. She is to aid him in his God given task or call, without having an alternative task of her own that may retard her aid to her husband. She is to aid him in the great work of producing children and populating the Earth. In this task, she has the most significant role and the greatest influence on the next generation.
Husbands: are called upon by God to function in His design by portraying Christ in his marriage. This is not an ego boosting position, but rather one of fear and caution, for it is the greatest responsibility that a man may endeavor to fulfill. While it may seem out of place, a husband’s first order of responsibility is not to his wife, but to his Head, Christ. Modern marriage counselors may focus on the husband/wife relationship, but they would be missing the very foundation on which marriage was established. In Genesis 2, God gave man a job, then He created his wife to help him. A wife cannot be a help if her husband does not have his job from God. So, I maintain that a husband’s first responsibility is to be about the work that God has given him to do. Along with what ever task that may be, he also has the responsibility of providing for, protecting his wife and family, and leading them in a godly lifestyle of service to the Lord. This is a large order and will require a man’s complete dedication to God and family. There is no such position as part-time husband and servant of God. A husband’s second level of commitment after God is to his wife. She is to come before children, parents, friends, employers, and personal recreational pursuits. She is to be most important to him, next to their Lord, whom they both serve. In the marital relationship the husband bears the responsibility of leadership and authority. He is the one to answer the door when trouble calls and he is the one who answers for the decisions he makes. God holds the husband responsible for his wife and family.
SPIRIT
A marriage, like a fine Swiss watch, is a wonderful thing to behold when all the parts are in place and working as designed. However, when one or both are not functioning according to God’s design the beauty is marred and peace is lost. God designed marriage to be the closest thing to Heaven on Earth, but when the function is marred by an out of kilter spirit it can be closer to Hell than Heaven. Most Christian marriages today are vacillating somewhere between the two extremes, usually bouncing around, just out of the Hell category.
Romance: has actually done more to damage Christian marriage than it has ever helped. Romance is about a man and woman’s love for each other. While love for each other is involved in Christian marriage it is not the foundation. The foundation for Christian marriage is love for God. When Christians are married and love God, they will do marriage God’s way. Unfortunately, most Christians do not know what that is. I have dealt with some of it in the design and function segments, but without the spirit of God’s design, even Christian marriages can be a hollow shell of misery and hopelessness. Romance is ooey, gooey sentimentality whereas the love that God has for the marriage relationship is based on Him and not the spouses. Love for each other results from the marriage being based on love for God, not the cause of it.
Reality: is that romance is a poor foundation for marriage. Doing the will of God is the best foundation for everything and particularly marriage. To operate within God’s design for marriage and to effectively function, it is necessary to understand the spirit which we must embrace for His purpose. The Ephesian passage listed in the introduction is most commonly used to identify marital roles. I have put the text of the passage at the end of this article. Emphasis is usually given to wives submitting to husbands and husbands loving wives as Christ loved His church and gave Himself for it. Some translations, unfortunately add the word “up” to the last phrase, saying, as Christ loved His church and gave Himself up for it. As a result many modern teachers and preachers declare that a husband is to be willing to give his life for his wife and in lieu of physically dieing, he should sacrifice anything to make her happy. I have heard many recorded speakers at Promise Keepers meetings present that precise message. Jesus did not die for churches, He died for sinners. When He gave Himself for His churches, He gave Himself to be the head of each, He took upon Himself the responsibility of a husband to a bride. Bluntly put, a dead husband is of no value to anyone. The modern concept of a husband dieing to self for his wife is the stuff of romance, not the reality of Christian marriage. Husbands, if they are to fulfill God’s design must always put God first, then function as a husband. To follow the romance format is to put the wife ahead of the will and glory of God. It effectively makes the wife an idol to be adored and worshiped.
Modern feminism has as it’s goal to radically change God’s design for marriage, to the extent that most leaders want to do away with marriage and family altogether. One of their most effect efforts is to convince men and women that women are to be exalted to such a position of power and authority that they would be adored and worshiped as the superior gender. Some radical feminist leaders have claimed that men be reduced to only 10% of the human population. Romance is very supportive of the feminist concept of female superiority. But, did you notice that such is in direct contrast to God’s design for marriage? God designed husbands to be the head and wives to be their aides. Feminism and romance has invaded Christian thought and institutions to the degree that Christian marriage is no longer taught in most churches and Christian colleges and universities. Married people are being taught that wives only need to submit to their husbands as long as they are being good husbands and doing right. Oddly, the wives are the ones who are (supposedly) entitled to decide if their husbands are worthy of their allegiance. And, if they are not, they may legitimately divorce them for a variety of reasons. Concurrently, husbands are finding it easier and easier to not love their wives because the dear ladies are crass and not lovable. Romance fails because it is based on emotion and infatuation that, at best, is unstable as water. Reality based on love for God has wives saying, I will submit to my husbands headship because that is what my Lord Jesus said to do. As well husbands will say I will love my wife because that is what my Lord Jesus said to do. In Ephesians 5 we are instructed fulfill our designed role, not based on circumstances or on the performance of the spouse, but because that is what the Lord taught us to do. We fulfill the spirit of our role regardless of whether our spouse does or not. We don’t love someone because of their qualities, but because of the spiritual quality of our own heart. We love because God has put His love in us. As our Lord loved us when we were yet sinners, so we love our spouse from our reserve not because of their qualities. Husbands love your wives, even when the may be unlovely. Do not make her perform to your specifications to deserve your love. Your love is God’s gift to her, so do it. Love her.
Wives: do not chafe at the idea of submitting to your husband. And above all to not make his performance a condition of your submission. To do so is idolatry. You will be putting yourself in the position of being his head. He will answer to Christ, not to you. Do you, dear lady, want to usurp the authority of Christ? Please, leave the romantic notion that you are to be adored. I know that it is desirable to be wanted and adored. Such is the stuff of romance and is the fanciful delight that has the world watching the royal weddings in England. But it is not of God. Submit your self unto your own husband, not to any other man, but to your husband. Do so because the Lord said so. If you do so grudgingly, you may have done your duty, but only that. You will have missed the whole spirit of God’s design. Your submission to your husband is a reflection of the role of Christ’s churches in relation to Him. You cannot stand in judgement of your husband and be in the spirit of God’s design for marriage. To do so suggests that it is legitimate for churches to stand in Judgement of Christ. Rather, enter into the spirit of serving God as your husband’s wife by treating him as churches are to treat Christ. As said in verse 33, reverence your husband. It is impossible to criticize, judge, reprimand, or resist your husband and reverence him at the same time. But what if he is wrong? Deciding that and dealing with him about it is the responsibility of his head, the one he is called to be in submission to, Christ Jesus. Do you have a legitimate problem with your husband or concern about him being or doing right? You may well have those concerns, but do not usurp the authority of Christ. One of a wife’s responsibilities and ministries is to support her husband with prayer and a godly spirit. Bathe him in prayer, incorporate the power of God in your marital concerns. A godly wife has power with God to influence her husband for God in many areas, 1 Peter 3:1.
CONCLUSION:
Most husbands love their wives to the point of adoration. They do partly because they have been trained to do so by centuries of romantic influence and partly because God has put His love in men’s hearts for the loveliest part of His creation, women. While most men may not display that love very well, it is a reality. Women thrive on being loved and even more so on words and displays of love. Love is so important to women, they think it must also be equally important to men. That would be a mistake. In the introduction, I said that most wives do not reverence their husbands and that is correct. However, wives are very involved in loving their husbands, particularly when the men are giving them words and displays of love. Wives don’t understand why that is not as important to their men as it is to them. Here’s why, men and women are different in many ways. Husbands are to replicate Christ in the family. Does Christ want us to love Him? Yes, but before we can love Him we must first reverence Him. Hebrews 11:6 says, “But without faith it is impossible to please Him…”. He wants and requires that we believe Him if we are to please Him. Husbands desire to be believed, trusted, and reverenced by their wives much more than being loved by their wives. A godly husband will bust a gut trying to live up to the reverence of his godly wife. Wives, it is wonderful that you love your husband, but if you want to enhance your marriage and increase the sense of love you receive from your husband, reverence him and gladly submit yourself to him, not because he is worthy, but because Christ is and He requires it of you. Do this and you will see your marriage blossom and your husband will become a better man because of it. Criticism and reverence are mutually exclusive, one cannot do both with the same person.
Ephesians 5:22-33Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: for we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.
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ADDITIONAL LEARNING/TEACHING RESOURCES
WILL BE ADDED AS WE MOVE FORWARD
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Matthew 7:13-14 KJV By Bill Brinkworth
Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: 14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” Matthew 7:13-14 KJV
There are many that claim to be Christian, but are not! They are heathen. Heathen are the unsaved, and those bound for Hell. Calling themselves Christians will not make them saved. Examine what the Bible says about heathen cloaked under the name “Christian”:
- Heathens are sometimes called Christians or God’s people.
- “… That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by my name, saith the LORD that doeth this.” Amos 9:11-12
- This verse is speaking of a time not yet come, but the principle applies to these latter days. Not all that claim to be children of God are children of God
- Heathens pray.
- “… But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.” Matthew 6:6-7
- It is ironic that the outline for prayer (Matthew 6:9-13) that follows these verses is what many so-called “Christian” faiths vainly (without thought or meaning, empty of feeling) pray over and over.
- Heathens have religion also!
- “… This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” Matthew 15:7-9
- There have always been those that believe themselves to be children of God, but were not. It was the religious that had killed Jesus and persecuted His followers.
- Heathens can think God is using them. (However, many times Satan, the deceiver, is blinding them, and deceiving them with false miracles from “God”.)
- “Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Not every one that saith unto me , Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” Matthew 7:20-23
- Heathens can go through religious routines and rituals.
- “Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth … and you thrust out.” Luke 13:26-28
- They went to the house of God, but that didn’t make them His.
Many are religious, but lost. People may think they are Christians, but may not be. There is only one way to be a child of God — God’s way.
“… Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:3.
Are you “born again”? Are you going to Heaven by God’s narrow way of trusting Christ’s payment for your sins with His blood? Or are you a heathen bound for Hell?
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“Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. ” Colossians 4:5 KJV
God said we are to walk in wisdom concerning the lost. Did you ever stop to think about it? That man, unsaved out there, is related to us about using our time. That is what God said, “…toward them that are without, … ” in order to reach them. Did you ever stop to think that a man out there puts a higher value on Christian living than he does about Christian doctrine? He never thinks much or wonders, “What do those people do over there at that Baptist church? But he thinks an awful lot about, “I wonder how those people at that Baptist church live?” This is uncanny about how unsaved people think of saved people.
The salvation of a man’s soul depends greatly upon what he thinks of you. You mark it down, not so much what he thinks of the Bible, or what he thinks of Jesus, or what he thinks of preaching. But the salvation of many a lost person depends on what he thinks of you and I as a Christian.
Our own estimation of your spiritual self, will determine what you do in the matter of time and witnessing to somebody else. I believe with all my heart, that a lot of people never witness or use their time to get someone saved, because of a poor estimation of their own spiritual life. God says, “Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. ”
God has made us managers of time. — T.M.
Prepared by Roger Fulk, from the “Baptist Bread” August, 25, 2021 devotional by author Dr. Tom Malone (Deceased), Pontiac, MI. With permission from Tim Green, editor Baptist Bread.
New Blog • New Series
Just Posted 8/30/21
Another Warning
Cultural Factors in the
Weakening of Churches
Wolf Watch Ministry False Teaching Exposed AKJB Based - Group! Cultural Factors in the Weakening of ChurchesSign up for our mailing list... here!
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New Blog • New Series
Just Posted 8/30/21
Another Warning
Cultural Factors in the
Weakening of Churches
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Cultural Factors in the Weakening of Churches
May 23, 2019 (first published October 19, 2017)
David Cloud, Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061
New for March 2017. See end of this report for details.
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(2) Maligning Warning and Reproof
"Another reason why I am convinced that most Independent Baptist churches will be emerging within 10-20 years is the maligning of warning and reproof.
A friend in North Carolina wrote recently to give the following observation in regard to the many independent Baptist churches he has visited over the years. The all caps are in the original." David Cloud
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(1) ONE OF THE 'AGE OLD' QUESTIONS AND A 'THEORY' THAT DOES NEED TO BE COVERED ... EARLY IN THIS NEW SERIES! |
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Wolf Watch Ministry False Teaching Exposed
Based on the Authorized KJB - Group
A Warning Ministry updated April 6, 2021
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Folks, especially new members, we ask you to limit your posts to Wolf Watch Ministry: False Teachings Exposed subjects as outlined below! This is the scope of this group - Every day we get posts that are off-topic or from unreliable or unvetted sources or contain modern bible versions or other than Authorized 1611 King James Version or commentary that is not vetted! It is not that other things are necessarily bad just out of the scope of the group. Posts about things that are not within the Description, Standards, and rules of this group will not be approved and deleted at the discretion of the Admins.
Description: The purpose of this group is to be a teaching group and learn about and expose all false teachings, both, within Christianity and outside the realms of Christianity. Brothers & Sisters this is not a debate group. There are many groups where you can go to debate. Please keep posts to the subject of this group which is A Warning Ministry. If your post is not about Wolf Watch Ministry: False Teachings Exposed, which is A Warming Ministry we will remove it.
Inside the realms of Christianity, we expose the false teachings of erroneous Historical Baptist Church History, attacks on Historic Baptist Ecclesiology, Unscriptural Non-Baptist Positions Concerning the Kingdom of God, The Bride of Christ, Baptist Baptism, Baptist History, Heritage, Distinctives, Theology and Doctrine, Women Ministers, The Feminist Movement, Soft Separatism, New Evangelicalism, Theological Liberalism, Materialism, Arminianism, Calvinism, also called The Mystical Invisible Universal 'Church', Limited Atonement, Lordship Salvation, Glossolalia Regeneration, Glossolalia Sanctification, Baptismal Regeneration, Continuationism, Pentecostalism, Charismaticism, Spirit Baptism, Non-Scriptural Teachings on End Times Theology, Sinless Perfectionism, the Prosperity Gospel, Nephilium, Serpent Seed, Easy Believism, Mother Grace, Ecumenicism, Infant Baptism, the Shepherding Movement, Unitarianism, Universalism and Modern Bible Versions, Attack on the King James Bible, and other beliefs that we discover that are not Biblical including … “Cultural Factors that are Weakening Churches” and “Ignorance About Important Issues”… which is … Another reason why a large percentage of fundamental Baptist churches will be well down the emerging path in 10-20 years is that there is widespread ignorance about important issues such as contemporary music, New Evangelicalism, the Southern Baptist Convention, Reformed theology, reconstructionism, charismaticism, Neo-orthodoxy, Darwinian evolution, intelligent design, and theistic evolution, contemplative mysticism, and the emerging church.
Outside the realm of Christianity, we expose the false teachings, including Anti-Israel/Anti-Jewish beliefs, of Roman Catholicism, WICCA, Satanism, Jehovah's Witness, Mormons, New Age, Scientology, Spiritualism, Native American Spiritism, The Way International, Christian Science, Eastern Mysticism, Kundalini, Yoga, The Unification Church, Islam, Seventh Day Adventism, The Nation of Islam, the Hebrew Roots / Messianic / Sacred Name Movement and any other groups that teach doctrine contrary to Orthodox Biblical Christian doctrine.
We do not allow any members to defend any False Teacher, teaching, or cult. Anyone who does so will be removed from this group. All posts that go off-topic will be removed.
The standards we use in this group ... We teach the entire counsel of God, based on the Authorized King James Bible, Literal Baptistic Biblical Interpretation, including prophecy and Baptist History, Heritage, Distinctives, Theology, and Doctrine.
We normally do not put up videos, music, sermons, and Scripture posts unless if they are on Baptist History, Doctrine, Distinctive or other subjects for this group scope. Again not that they are bad or we are against them it's just outside the scope of the group. Thanks for your understanding.
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When you sign up for our mailing list, you will be able to ... "Stay tuned" for news and updates delivered straight to your inbox. Here you will find many different subjects with information and resources for your learning/teaching needs! WE WANT TO WELCOME YOU TODAY!
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The purpose of this Blog is to teach about Jude 3
It has been said there is a big lack of 'WARNING MINISTRIES" in churches. This is a teaching resource to help people and churches understand more about Jude 3 and other related scriptures.
Read more
awarningministry.com
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This Blog will teach about MANY SUBJECTS!
Here is an example! Another interesting question! And ... there are many more ... Just Stay 'Tuned'.
Read more
awarningministry.com
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About The Author Roger Fulk |
This is another Blog Post and I hope you enjoy this! It's about a WOLF WATCH MINISTRY FALSE TEACHING EXPOSED!. Please stay tuned. We have plenty of excellent content! |
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This subject is not of interest to everyone, however we have found there is much confusion about it! We aim to help people learn about this subject teaching and learning purposes! Keep coming back often and enjoy learning about many different subjects like this for your edification!
Thank you,
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