GYC 2015: Called. Chosen. Faithful.

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

Biblically Correct: How to be Male in the 21st Century

Scott Ritsema

1. Biblically Correct Masculinity & the Mark of the Beast

This message was presented at the GYC 2015 conference called Chosen Faithful in Louisville, Kentucky.

For other resources like this, visit us online at www.gycweb.org.

Father in heaven, we thank you so much for the opportunity to be here in the midst of so many of your saints, of your children who are yearning and seeking for a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ.

May this session and may this whole conference be about Jesus, be about drawing closer to you.

And Father, as we take a look at what it means to be male, what it means to be a man in the 21st century, in this time in which we live, we just ask for clarity, for insights from your throne.

We ask for wisdom, for discernment, for a balanced and biblical and accurate understanding of who we are as men and what our calling is in your kingdom in these last days.

We pray that you would speak, that you would set aside all of our preconceived ideas and that we might just hear from you.

In Revelation 14, The second angel's message, you hear the following in verse 8.

Another angel followed saying, Babylon is, do you know the next word?

Fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she has made all the nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.

Are you familiar with what this word Babylon means?

She's made the nation's drink of the wine of her fornication, drunken with confusion.

That word confusion, I think, to me, sums up more than any other word what our culture has done to the issue of gender, identity, roles, sexuality, and everything involving being male and female.

But it's a deliberate agenda of confusion.

This is not something that has come about on accident.

I want to share with you a little bit of history on how we got to where we are in 2000, we'll say 2016.

There was once a time, long before most of us were alive, but not that long ago, historically speaking, where the culture glorified and put on a pedestal, appropriately, the traditional biblical role of being a man and what it meant to be a man.

Programs like these that we probably never should have been watching to begin with, but they were a whole lot better than what's coming out today.

This is Andy Griffith, Father Knows Best.

They actually had a show called Father Knows Best, which would be just totally unacceptable today, as you know.

But these shows and these old sitcoms recognize the importance of what the Bible calls, what Spirit of Prophecy refers to as the house band, that's an English word, husband, and what the Bible calls the head of the household.

And that's almost a bygone age, a time that's so distant in the past we almost have to laugh at it.

And I look at that, I go, man, that was just a half century ago where our culture kind of got it.

They kind of understood what biblical masculinity meant.

And when I taught American history to my students in high school classes, I always would dwell upon how the transition took place from the 50s into the 60s and 70s.

Major cultural shift took place in the West.

Particularly as it involves this issue of gender identity and gender roles, the feminist movement pushed forward a theory about gender that's with us to this day.

Being male or female in a gender sense is totally, it's completely a social construct.

The only thing that exists is the different anatomy of male and female.

But what it means to be a man and what it means to be a woman is irrelevant and it's totally invented by culture and it's something we need to just sweep away into history and everybody should be identical.

Women act exactly like men, men exactly like women and there's no difference.

This was the message of the feminist movement in the 60s and 70s.

In other words, You as a male, and I'm speaking, the audience here being male, women are of course welcome to join us for this session, but men, you don't exist.

Aside from procreation procedures that God has given to males and females.

Aside from that difference, you as a male entity do not exist.

Is anybody my age, did you watch shows like this 1?

This is Home Improvement with Tim, the tool man, Taylor.

They started to take the father's knows best and the Andy Griffith, you know, leading and mentoring his son and being this good father role, and they made the fathers into what?

Buffoons, good word there, brother, I like that.

They're dumb, they're fools, they fail over and over again, they just sit around with a beer, watching sports, And then you get even into the shows today that are on the air today that wasn't just the 80s and 90s, whether it's Homer Simpson or Peter, what's his name?

So this issue of the culture's attack upon masculinity needs an answer.

And it's not just the sitcoms, by the way.

I want to share with you a montage of clips that I found on YouTube.

I've got to slide it over onto the screen here, make sure that we've got that up and going.

You'll notice in these commercials, these are all just commercials, The husband or the father is always portrayed exactly as he was in those shows, as being unintelligent, as being lazy, as being driven by his appetite, as being disrespected by his children, his wife is the authority figure in the household.

And it's not just 1 or 2, it just keeps on going.

We'll listen to this just for a couple of minutes.

He's trying to help his daughter with her homework.

Tom, I thought you were going to watch the dog.

Sweetie, I think you need a little extra fiber in your diet.

I dare you to taste 1 hint of fiber in Fiber 1.

And how can you talk to me about fiber while you are eating a candy bar?

2. A ‘Heaven-Appointed Purpose’ for Your Male Brain

Father in heaven, we thank you again for your word.

What we would do without it, I can't even imagine.

Our culture is so confused and Lord, we need clarity, not confusion.

And so we just pray for your spirit to speak, to give us wisdom and understanding.

So we ended last session with the idea that male and female are, of course, equally human, but different, reflecting God in their own unique way.

And 1 of those unique ways is this issue of headship and submission.

Because we saw that in the very Godhead, the Father is head and the Son is submissive to the Father.

We've also seen that the head of every man is Christ, the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God, meaning the Father.

And now this again does not create a hierarchy of quality or importance in any fashion.

In fact, I've read many statements in Spirit of Prophecy, and I share these when I do my parenting seminars about education and child rearing and all of that.

The mother is considered to be, she's more important than the king upon his throne, more important than the king upon his throne, more important even than an angel in her mission.

She has a higher mission that an angel could not even ask for.

The mother has more influence than any power on earth other than God himself.

So if we're elevating something, if we are going to say that 1 is more important or in whatever fashion, they are equal.

But if you were to err, I think spirit of prophecy leans toward saying that the role of the mother is the most important on earth, higher than the angels, higher than the king upon his throne, which is really, really powerful and important for us to point out.

So when we say headship, this is again not a matter of value in any sense of the word.

Also by the way, I find it interesting that God created the birds and the fish and then sort of the more intelligent mammals, and then man, Adam, and then Eve.

Now again, this is not to say that we are not equal.

But the reason I'm saying it this way is because I know that as soon as I say headship and submission, our culture would slam this as, you're degrading women, you're a misogynist bigot, you're a backwards Neanderthal, masculine, domineering, whatever, you know?

And it's like, no, that's not what I'm saying at all.

And The Bible is saying also that woman was sort of the last act of his creation.

And without woman, man is not good for him to be alone.

And also spirit of prophecy, those things I was mentioning.

But in the family, in the church, the sphere of men is different than that of women.

The sphere of men is headship, is leadership, priests of the home, pastors, elders, etc.

And there are many who take the Bible and they try to align the Bible with the ideologies of our age, specifically speaking of feminism in this issue.

And so they argue that the principles of headship were just a matter of the fall.

Now of course the domineering, that your husbands will rule over you, is a result of the fall.

See, Adam was given the responsibility to have dominion over this earth.

Dominion, this Hebrew word means a loving, caretaking, headship, leadership over the world.

And so as the king of this world, if you will, the son of God, as Luke calls him, Adam was the representative head of this planet and he was supposed to rule it in a loving way, right?

But as a result of the fall, we have all of the craziness of masculine dominance that has oppressed women legitimately in history.

Man, I gotta fly because we got a lot to go into here.

But we know this is not a result of the fall.

This is not just something the culture was putting out.

And by the way, men also do plenty of submitting.

We all submit to the laws of the land, men and women.

So submitting is not something that's bad.

It's not something that puts you in some sort of degraded position.

Remember Christ submits to the Father And all the men in this room submitted to their mothers and continue to honor their mothers, right?

So this is not some sort of better than type of thing again.

Oh, by the way, what if we end up with a female president?

Well, we submit to the laws of the land so long as they don't conflict with the Bible.

Yes, we'll submit to even a female president of the United States.

And so there is plenty of submitting that everybody does to mothers, to Merkel in Germany, for example, a female prime minister.

So this teaching of headship, I wanna be clear, is not saying all males are in headship over all females.

That is a twisting of the Bible that people have put upon the scriptures and it's not true.

So we're all doing plenty of submitting once again.

Now this is not subjugation, this is not oppression.

In fact, husbands are asked to go even lower.

If there is a low here, husbands love your wives even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it.

So the headship in the home, the headship of maleness, does not mean that you're some sort of elevated entity above.

No, where Christ had equality with God, he did not consider that something to be clung onto.

He made himself nothing, became the very nature of a servant, took on human form and submitted to death, even death on a cross.

Is that the kind of domineering stuff we see in history that men have taken on?

Biblical headship is something completely different.

The term servant leadership is an excellent 1, I think.

We're called to be in a much lower position, if you will, even than the wives and women that are in submissive roles.

We are called to be in an even lower role of dying to self, completely like Christ did.

To be first is to be last in Christ's kingdom, right?

This is from First Testimonies, Testimonies Volume 1.

And lead him to come down from that dignified, responsible position is displeasing to God.

It is the duty of the wife to yield her wishes and will to her husband.

But the Word of God gives preference to the judgment of the husband.

We're going to see neurologically why this might be the case in a moment.

And it will not detract from the dignity of the wife to yield to him whom she has chosen to be her counselor, advisor, and protector.

The husband should maintain his position in his family with all meekness, yet with decision.

Combining those 2 is something our culture doesn't get.

We either become passive man with no decision, or we become dominionists who want to rule with an iron club.

Now this is another statement that's very important.

You could just take this 1 and be like, yeah, you know, I'm the head of the household, but how about this 1?

It is no evidence of manliness in the husband for him to dwell constantly upon his position as the head of the family.

It does not increase respect for him to hear him quoting Scripture to sustain his claims to authority.

It will not make him more manly to require his wife, the mother of his children, to act upon his plans as if they were infallible." Don't you love the balance of spirit of prophecy?

So now guys in the room, you may not be a pastor, elder, father, husband.

There's more to masculinity than merely this act of leadership, headship, authority in churches and in homes.

3. Addicted to Purity in a Pornographic World, Part 1

Father in heaven, we ask now for a fresh dose of spiritual discernment that we might hear your voice, not our preferences and opinions, not our sin, but that we would hear holiness as a gift from Jesus Christ.

I pray for your spirit to speak to make clear anything that is murky that we might come closer to you, have a deeper walk with Jesus Christ and truly live His righteousness.

This book by Clifford Putney, Manhood and Sports in Protestant America, 1890-1920.

The title of the book is muscular Christianity.

You might say, well I thought that was about English imperialism.

Well in the 1880 to 1920 period it started to become popular in America, the sports phenomenon, which was the exact same time, by the way, that the Adventist movement had really come to flower and flourish and we had a growing body of spirit of prophecy insights that really hit their target right on the areas we need to hear it most.

And I ended the session last time saying that there are 3 areas where we men become diverted from the true purpose, the true victory, the true achievements that God wants to give to us in our spiritual life as missionary servants of His.

And those 3 were pornography, video gaming, and spectator sports.

Every individual has a unique brain as well, as I said last time.

I'll tell you in my personal life, it's been huge in the past in just being all-consuming.

I mean, try going to a general secular family gathering where the guys hang out after dinner or whatever.

It's just the thing that you divert to, revert to, right?

So, by the way, let me get into the quotes.

You're going to hear, not from me, don't listen to your opinion or to my opinion.

Listen to the spirit of God, who is the inspiration behind what we call the spirit of prophecy writings, inspired statements.

The tendency of most athletic sports, this was written in the 1880s at the time when sports were really starting to become a phenomenon in America.

The tendency of most athletic sports is a subject of anxious thought to those who have at heart the well-being of youth.

Games that occupy so much of his time are diverting the mind from study, so that's 1 aspect in an educational setting.

And by the way, a lot of times we will have intramural sports, we will have competitive sports, we will have organized sports.

And what they found in a study called Cognitive Genesis is that students in Adventist academies who play and participate in organized sports will actually perform lower academically.

So what we just heard there is proven now by the research.

They are not helping to prepare the youth for practical, earnest work in life.

Their influence, the influence of sports, does not tend toward refinement, generosity, or real manliness.

Number 1, you see sports aren't helping you become a real man.

But interestingly, also, I just have to point this out from a previous session, There is such a thing as real manliness.

So this whole feminist ideology that there's no difference in distinction between the genders, no, there is such a thing as real manliness, but real manliness is not brought about through the competitive sports arena.

Jesus, the carpenter, casting out of the oppressors at the temple as we talked about earlier.

Jesus taking upon the sins of the world, the ultimate act of courage, bravery and self-sacrificing love, that is real manliness.

Some of the most popular amusements, such as, did you know these were mentioned in Spirit of Prophecy, football and boxing, have become schools of brutality.

They are developing the same characteristics as did the games of ancient Rome.

The love of domination, the pride in mere brute force, the reckless disregard of life, are exerting upon the youth a power to demoralize that is appalling." Now that's a strong statement about football and I've had a conversation with somebody where they said, well no, back then they didn't have as many rules or didn't wear as many pads, so football was different back then.

Is football today any less about the love of domination and the pride in mere brute force?

In fact, I would say it's a whole lot more worse today because it's about a hundred times more all-consuming in the spectator sport of football with the biggest event in the world, the biggest media event in the world being the Super Bowl, which Madonna, by the way, called the Holy of Holies in America.

She said that this is the sermon, the halftime show is the sermon, and she came to preach the sermon.

So there's spiritualist influences in this and everything.

Almost 100% of NFL players have a brain disease called CTE when their brains are autopsied.

It's a brain disease with serious brain damage.

79% of those who have played football at any level, this is competitive, actual football, have that same brain disease.

So it's not just NFL, it's any level as well.

So at this point you're going, okay, please don't talk about other athletic games.

I'm taking this in this is hard, and I know by the way.

This is hard I've walked this walk okay, and still do as I said, but it goes on to other athletic games.

Other athletic games, though not so brutalizing, are scarcely less objectionable because of the excess to which they are carried.

Do you think that's taking place with our ESPN and ESPN2 and ESPN News and just 24-7 sports entertainment?

They stimulate the love of pleasure and excitement, thus fostering a distaste for useful labor.

So if you find everyday life boring, if you find school boring, you find labor boring, if you find reading the Bible boring, ask yourself what else am I doing in my life that is causing these other things to become boring?

They cause a disposition to shun practical duties and responsibilities.

They tend to destroy a relish for life's sober realities and its tranquil enjoyments.

Thus the door is opened to dissipation and lawlessness with their terrible results.

Counsels to parents, teachers and students.

Satan is delighted when he sees human beings using their physical and mental powers in that which does not educate, which is not useful, which does not help them to be a blessing to those who need their help.

While the youth are becoming expert in games that are of no real value to themselves or to others, Satan is playing the game of life for their souls.

Satan and his angels are working upon the minds of teachers and students to induce them to engage in exercises and amusements which become intensely absorbing and which are of a character to strengthen the lower passions." Boy, we're about to talk about lust.

Amusements are doing more to counteract the working of the Holy Spirit than anything else.

And the Lord is grieved." And it goes on, "...a view of things was presented before me in which the students were playing games of tennis and cricket." Not very brutalizing games, right?

"...then I was given instruction regarding the character of these amusements.

They were presented to me as a species of idolatry, like the idols of the nations.

There were more than visible spectators on the ground.

Satan and his angels were there, making impressions on human minds.

I cannot find an instance in the life of Christ where he devoted time to play and amusement.

I have not been able to find 1 instance where he taught the disciples to engage in amusement in order to gain physical exercise.

By the way, this should be balanced by another statement about children.

Small children find diversion and development in play.

So we don't want to just be like boot camp for our children and you're going to work until your fingers are numb, etc.

Series

Biblically Correct: How to be Male in the 21st Century

1. Biblically Correct Masculinity & the Mark of the Beast

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Plenary

Perilous Pitfalls of Compromise

2h

How We Can Be Sure Christ Will Soon Come

4. Daniel’s Keys to Scripture Interpretation

53m

Breakouts

Our Greatest Need: Testimony

1h 4m

The Sweetest Song I Know: Authentic Musical Worship Deepens Our Experience with Christ

What Heavenly Music

47m

Plenary

GYC 2015: Final Charge

2h

Reach the World Next Door

1. How to Lift the Cross for Buddhist, Post-Moderns & More

53m

Egypt, the Exodus & Moses' Quest for God's Destiny

1. The Big Question: Who are You?

1h

GYC 2012 Seminar: Stories for the End of Time - Forgotten Episodes of Adventist History

The Big Question

58m

GYC 2012 Plenary Sessions

GYC 2012 Sabbath School Panel

52m

Above and Beyond: Keys To Personal Revival And a Lifestyle of Vibrant Living in Christ!

3. Growing an Above and Beyond Devotional Life

1h

Laodicea Study

White Raiment Part 2

37m

GYC 2011 totalChurch

Total Church: Breaking Bread, Part 2

1h

Sound Doctrine