“…Effeminacy grows in the mainline churches. Rome has shown the way.”[1]
On the same day when the radical leftists and “equality” obsessed feminists chose to “take a stand” (clearly oblivious to the complicit service they provide to the state in its war against the family) on “International Women’s Day”, proving to the world once again just how baseless, twisted and inane their ideology is, I was reminded of another more dangerous and deplorable form of feminism—or effeminism—on the rise. This variety occurs within the professing church and is therefore more deceptive than anything the world has to offer. I am speaking of what may be deemed the sissification of Jesus and His glorious gospel.
When I saw the above statement (“Jesus died because He didn’t want to live without you”) posted outside of a local church, the first thing that popped into my head was the song “How do I live without you”, made famous by LeAnn Rimes. Is it not enough that our social justice warriors, televangelists and limp-wristed neologians make every effort to turn the Last Adam—the spotless Lamb of God—into a peace loving, tree-hugging effeminate hippie by way of every media outlet available (consider The Shack, for a recent example)? We may have become numb to the reality that even mainline denominations have feminized the very gospel itself.
Moreover, it is a glorification of wretched, sinful perverse man to suggest that it is me that Christ just cannot bear to live without. God does not need me. There is nothing inherently desirable about me that would cause the glorified resurrected Savior to long for my presence with Him in heaven (in fact, according to the doctrine of impassibility, there is nothing that “causes” God to do anything at all). The truth is, the triune God who reigns from everlasting to everlasting would have gotten along just fine without you or me. Yet this is the sort of “gospel” we are often presented with, and it is in just such a context that Jesus is made to look like a desperate young girl infatuated with man’s awesomeness.
I am not looking to nit-pick the particular church that posted this lame slogan. It is only one of many such “inoffensive” signs (it is only inoffensive to the unregenerate, having no conception of who God actually is) I have seen posted over the years. Another nearby sign simply asserts, “GOD LOVES YOU”, period, with no further explanation nor exhortation to repentance. Well, if God loves me then what’s the problem? If that’s the end of the story then, I suppose, “Christ died in vain” (Galatians 2:21).
In contrast to such man-centered sentiments, consider the biblical picture of the perfect God-Man alongside depictions of fallen-man provided in Scripture. By inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the Apostle Paul lays out a more accurate assessment of the human race, you know, the one which God just couldn’t live without. According to the Bible, man is
“…filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them” (Romans 1:29—32).
Note also that the introduction to the book of Hebrews describes One wholly unlike the limp-wristed Jesus fashioned by many in our day:
“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:1—3).
Of course, many other relevant passages could be quoted.
In his book, The Church Effeminate, John Robbins traces the history and underlying philosophy of this feminizing trend. The tendency to neutralize the Godhead and the gospel is not a new phenomenon, and is ultimately rooted in the intentional subordination of the “mind” to the “heart” (or, the subordination of the intellect to the emotions).
Robbins explains how “the masculine Christianity of the Reformers has long been displaced by the effeminate Christianity of the moderns.”[2] While there were a number of circumstances and rising ideologies leading up to this point in church history, it is of particular interest to reference Robbins on this point:
“The revivalism of the nineteenth century, particularly the work of Charles Finney, transformed theology from Calvinism into Arminianism [more accurately pelagianism or semi-pelagianism], from the sovereignty of God to the free will of man. A God who sovereignly plans and omnipotently acts is just too masculine to endure. A God who pleads and pines is much more palatable to the modern mind.
“The death of Christ…became a way for God to affect the feelings of men, rather than to satisfy the justice of an angry God. God was a God of love, not truth, justice, or holiness. His primary characteristic became mercy, not sovereignty or justice. He had no wrath to be assuaged. The doctrine of the Atonement was transformed—from propitiation to moral influence.
“Under the process of feminization, the importance of doctrine gave way to the centrality of experience.”[3]
Considering the condition of post-Fall humankind described in Romans 1, we should not be all that surprised that a generation lacking the fear of God would descend into what we see in this nation’s current state of debasement and debauchery. To reverse this trend by fighting the “culture war” is an unbiblical and misguided effort. Where we can take immediate and effective action, however, is in contending for THE faith, which was once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3), and that includes standing fast against all attempts to feminize Christianity. Some ways in which we can do this may be:
- Taking great care to address God with reverence in prayer,
- Being careful to accurately represent Him in our interaction with others, remembering that in His perfections He is in need of nothing,
- And recalling that love is not His only attribute.
Finally, may we all be reminded of Scripture’s admonition: “Do not be rash with your mouth, and let not your heart utter anything hastily before God. For God is in heaven, and you on earth; Therefore let your words be few” (Ecclesiastes 5:2).
-Nick Sabato
[1] Robbins, J.W. (ed.), The Church Effeminate and Other Essays, The Trinity Foundation, Unicoi, TN, 2001, p. 234.
[2] Robbins, ref. 1, p. 237.
[3] Robbins, ref. 1, p. 268.
