Give Me Some Men

What is masculinity? The last three decades have seen countless magazine articles and books devoted to answering this question. What role does nature and nurture play in what it means to be a man? The president of Harvard University has found himself in the midst of frenetic media attention over a statement he made regarding the possible lack of aptitude of women in math and science. Was he suggesting that the brains of men give them an advantage in math class? The pendulum of persuasion swings back and forth regarding the differences between men and women. At the present time advancements in neurological studies are revealing some interesting things. Men excel at thinking in three dimensions (men love maps, but I think we knew that). Some psychological tests have shown that females are better at reading the emotions of people.

Another dimension to what constitutes masculinity and femininity is found in education. The claim has been made that there is a war against boys (“The War Against Boys” by Christina Hoff Sommers). The contention is that a “misguided feminism is harming our young men.” Boys are competitive, full of energy, and many have a hard time sitting still in class. Put them in a classroom where there are girls and watch some of the differences. The girls sit quietly, pay attention, and do their homework. Educators are concerned by the fact that boys are less committed to school than girls. One survey has shown that by twelfth grade, males are four times as likely as females not to do homework. Many boys have been medicated for “hyperactivity.” In some ways I am not surprised. Recess and out-of-door activities helped keep my generation of males naturally “sedated.” Today I see many young boys getting very little exercise. Computer games, electronic toys, and television have become more interesting than ball games in the yard and adventures in the woods.

But what should really concern us is the need for young men who will step forward as leaders. True masculinity is not merely physiological. Men are to be leaders, protectors, and providers by God’s design. This requires courage, informed risk- taking, strength of character, and sacrifice. If we are going to rear a generation of godly men who know the true meaning of masculinity, we need to follow the biblical paths of wisdom. Boys must grow up in homes where God-honoring masculinity is modeled by dads. Divorce and single parenting are not the pillars of society. If boys are going to learn how to be men, they must have it modeled for them. Much of the gender confusion in our day is directly attributable to broken homes and absent fathers. It has been observed that “hypermasculinity (i.e. “macho posing of aggression, violence, and predatory sex canonized in rap music”) is one indication that boys are not learning how to be men. Another attack on true masculinity is sexual promiscuity. Sex outside of marriage with either a female or a male is a repudiation of true masculinity. A promiscuous male “sexual athlete” is a corruption of God’s design for male sexuality.

Our young men need older men who have a proven record as moral leaders and faithful providers. Future fathers must grow up with men around them who are loyal to their wives and know how to take responsibility for children. Younger men need to see single men who take their celibacy seriously by seeing it as a means of serving God in extraordinary ways (1 Cor. 7:32). The husbands of tomorrow should have as their heroes husbands who cherish their wives by protecting them, providing for them, and laying down their lives for them. Do we want to see our boys grow up to be men in the truest sense? Then we must give them an example. Yes, of course, boys need their mothers. The identity of true femininity plays an integral role in male social development. But boys are forged into real men by knowing what it means to provide moral and spiritual leadership in the home, by abstaining from sexual relations before marriage, by taking financial responsibility for their wives and children, and by seeking to please God in all things.

The words of an old song serve us well. “Give me some men who are stouthearted men, who will fight for the right they adore. Start me with ten who are stouthearted men and I’ll soon give you ten thousand more.” Christ’s men are men after God’s own heart. They want what God wants and will settle for nothing less. They have a ravenous appetite for righteousness. They rise up early in the morning and meet with their God. They lead their family in worship. They are unashamed of the gospel of Christ. They will stand up for justice. They will show mercy. They will tell the truth. They will stand against evil. Give me some men who are stouthearted men for the glory of God.

Dr. Howard E. Dial
Berachah Bible Church

Poison Ivy

When my grandchildren come to visit and want to walk in the woods, the first talk we have is about poisonous plants. I show them poison ivy and explain how harmful it can be. It grows on vines twining on tree trunks and can spread out over the ground. The carbolic acid in poison ivy can create a lot of human misery. If you have ever been afflicted with a case of poison ivy, you can remember the itching, reddened skin, and the blisters. I have known some people who have gotten it in their eyes. You don’t want this to happen to your children or grandchildren. The plant easily disguises its danger. Its leaves are red in the early spring, then shiny green, and in the autumn it turns red or orange. If you are going to venture into the out-of- doors, you need to recognize poison ivy’s three leaflet design and beware.

But there are even greater dangers facing our children and grandchildren. We must prepare them to detect those ways of thinking that will do harm to soul. Like poison ivy there are poisonous systems of evil thought spread out over the landscape of life. One of the most pervasive injurious philosophies is the thought that all that exists is matter. Matter is all there is and that’s all that matters. It is presented more deceptively beautiful than that, but make no mistake about it. It is deadly. The famous astrophysicist, Carl Sagan, articulated this viewpoint rather bluntly: “The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be.” One abysmal teaching of naturalism is its view of death. There is no life after death. In the words of Bertrand Russell, “No fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve an individual life beyond the grave.” Try to let that thought bring comfort to you on your death bed. To ignore the eternal is the greatest of tragedies. This interpretation of reality can be found in theology (atheism), ethics (ethical relativism), biology (Darwinian evolution), and economics (socialism). It flourishes in state colleges and universities. There are even forms of it in Christian educational institutions. There is no safe place.

Another variety of noxious thinking is commitment to pleasure seeking. The idea is that life is to be defined in terms of personal fulfillment through the experience of pleasure and the avoidance of pain. This is not a new concept. It is as old as Satan’s appeal to Eve in the Garden of Eden; “Eat this fruit and you will be happier than you imagined possible.” The tricky thing about a philosophy of self-gratification is that few will claim to be card-carrying pleasure-seekers. They will instead be found pursuing pornography wherever it can be found, living from one movie or one great meal to the next one. Feelings drive them. They seek those things that make them feel good; methamphetamines, cocaine, marijuana, alcohol, and sexual partners outside of marriage. Hedonism is encountered wherever one turns. It is the premise of countless television commercials and movies.

A first cousin to hedonism, which is essentially a philosophy of despair, is the outlook on life that says nothing has meaning. Hopelessness feeds the pleasure seeking mentality. But it also nurtures the dark, angry persuasion that nothing is valuable. Contemporary art and music are filled with gloominess. The philosophical term for this is nihilism (the rejection of objective reality, moral, laws, etc.). Nihilism is naturalism’s (secular humanism) gift to the world. If we are as humans nothing more than a highly sophisticated form of chemical soup, then let’s just go ahead and plan our funerals. The attempt to live as if life is meaningless may be appealing to some, but it is unlivable. It is futile to deny our very nature which demands meaning.

That everyone has truth in their own way is a poisonous perspective of recent vintage. It sounds user-friendly and offers the appearance of solving the truth wars. Instead of there being only one true truth there are many truth constructs. According to this reasoning, objective truth does not exist. Abby (“Dear Abby”), a queen of newspaper advice, says “in my view, the height of arrogance is to attempt to show people the ‘errors’ in the religion of their choice.” Though Abby is not counted among the academic elite, she has expressed the judgment of what is known as postmodernism. If you have wondered how and when the values of “tolerance,” “openness,” and “inclusion” were crowned, you have to look under the rock of denial of all absolute truth claims.

These are only a few of the poisonous systems of thought that are calling for the allegiance of the next generation. We have some work to do. Our youth need to see a Christianity that is the real thing. They need answers to their questions. They need to be thoroughly grounded in the faith of historic Christianity. They need to know how to recognize the poison ivy of thinking that only increases the pain of hopelessness. “O taste and see that the Lord is good; how blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!” (Psa. 34:8).

Dr. Howard E. Dial
Berachah Bible Church

Ambulances and Hospitals

Everything seemed to be normal. I finished teaching two classes, rode the shuttle to the Charleston airport, and ate a bite of supper before the flight to Atlanta. And there is where the problem began. I have eaten hundreds of tuna fish sandwiches in my life, but this one was not going to let me forget it. The catch of the day (or was it the catch of last year?) was sitting heavy on my stomach all the way to the Jackson-Hartsfield airport. Eric, Cheryl, and my three grandsons took me with them to a restaurant on Virginia Avenue. I didn’t eat. I observed, and felt miserable. The next thing I knew an Atlanta City policeman offering explanations of what may have happened. I had passed out and broken into a cold sweat. The officer was trying to reassure me. It was kind, but it didn’t help. I passed out again. My brain needed oxygen. Thankfully, an ambulance came and picked me up. I had wondered what it would be like in the back of one of those fast rides to the hospital. During the next four hours my body was ravaged by all that a case of food poisoning can do. The next day and a half the ice storm of January 2005 was viewed from my hospital window.

Since my siege of sickness you have told me of similar stories of bouts with bad food. Apparently into many lives some food poisoning must come. I think of all the places and things I have eaten and had not experienced any trouble, certainly not like this. It presented me with a first; an ambulance ride to a hospital of someone else’s choosing. But my relatively brief crisis of physical suffering has been a useful instructor. It has given me the opportunity for some lessons in the school of affliction. How fragile our physical well-being is. It can change without much notice. This doesn’t necessarily mean that God is suddenly displeased with us. Among other things it is a jolt of reality. We are mortal. We get sick. We will not die healthy. “But we have this treasure (the gospel of Jesus Christ) in earthen vessels (our frail and fragile human bodies) (2 Cor. 4:7).

I am thankful for the emergency medical help available. If we are going to need an ambulance, we want it to be in the U.S.A. What would we do without nurses? They were there to see if I needed anything, to give counsel, and take vital signs. There is no place like home, but a good nurse can stand in the gap. Think of our missionaries and what they may have to deal with in medical emergencies. Many of us have been in some of those places and our prayers should be much better informed as a result. Loving, helpful, and caring brothers and sisters in Christ are emergency personnel in their own right. Those men who came to me in my weakest moments were God’s representatives in a special way. How does God show us mercy? It is through His servants who clean up our messes.

Thank God for a loving family. In the providence of God, Eric was with me through the early hours of my ordeal. He accompanied me to the hospital, stayed by my side, and slept in a straight backed chair and on the floor in my hospital room. He was sacrificial, thoughtful, and protective. I am blessed. Our circumstances are always under the guiding hand of God. Though Beth was unable to be there, she was eager to come home and be the mercy-giver she has been so often in the past. Her loving and kind ways are evident in Eric and Miriam.

Our church family surrounded me with concern, prayers, help, calls, cards, and visits. A gift of bananas helped me through a day when the need for some nutrition exceeded my appetite. Two men even braved the ice storm to bring me a green plant. I have cherished memories of God’s abundant care through Christ’s body. Where is God in our suffering? One place for sure is His presence in His children.

The last several months seem to have had more than their share of physical infirmities. Funerals, brain surgery, heart by-pass surgery, automobile accidents, and cancer have made their appearance. This is not the way things are supposed to be. Suffering was not a part of paradise. But when Adam and Eve rebelled against God, pain, suffering, and death descended upon creation. Non-Christian world views simply don’t have an adequate answer to the great symphony of sorrows and sighs that plague humanity and nature. There is only one way in which we may set our moral and spiritual compass in the face of evil. It is the cross of Christ and the empty tomb. Ambulances and hospitals should make us thankful for the conquest of evil in the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. We will all be sick at some time in the future and we will all die. But through it all Christ comforts us by His promises and people and is waiting to receive us into His heavenly presence.

Dr. Howard E. Dial
Berachah Bible Church