Sermon Video: Suitable helpers united as one - Genesis 2:18-24

Why would the chosen bond of a marriage covenant be stronger than the given bond of the family we have had since birth?  What is it about humanity that demonstrates our fundamental need for relationships with each other, especially that of a husband to a wife and a wife to a husband?

In this text, the book of Genesis demonstrates that it was God's design in his creation of humanity that included the idea that a husband and a wife are two halves of a better whole.  God shows this truth to Adam through a vision of Eve as his "other side," an analogy that Adam quickly grasps and one reinforced by the finale of the section, "that is why a mean leaves..."

In the end, this passage reinforces the absolute ontological equality of men and women, for God has created a union of equals, one in which we can both be our spouses' "suitable helper."

John MacArthur's denial of the existence of mental illness is shameful, harmful, and outright false

 

Beth Moore, doctor criticize John MacArthur for claiming mental illness isn’t real - by Leonardo Blair, Christianpost.com

‘There’s no such thing as PTSD, OCD, ADHD,’ John MacArthur declares - by Mark Wingfield, Baptistnewsglobal.com

I've been married to my beautiful wife Nicole for nearly 23 years.  Nicole hasn't hidden from the fact that she has suffered from clinical depression since she was a teenager.  During our years together she has had good days and bad days, good years and bad years, with respect to this disease.  At times, she hasn't needed any medication or counseling in order to live her life normally, we thank God for the blessing of those seasons of relief.  But at other times, some brief and some long, she would not be able to go about her day-to-day responsibilities without support beyond her own willpower, prayer, and a husband who tries his best to make things easier.  She can't do it alone, and her husband doesn't have the power to fill the gap.  Why not?  Because clinical depression is real, and you can't overcome it with hard work or determination.  {National Institutes of Health: Depression}.  When things have been bad, my wife has needed the health of both medication proscribed by a physician, and counseling from a trained professional.  These supports are not an admission of weakness, they are choosing a wise path.  

This is reality, and it is one that millions of families in America, and hundreds of millions of families around the world, know to be true.

Pastor John MacArthur begs to differ.

After watching John MacArthur deny the danger of Covid19 four years ago {John MacArthur jumps the shark with COVID-19 response } and then later in the year declare that true Christians must vote for one party, and one party only, in America {Beware of the Political Church: John MacArthur declares, "any real true believer" can only vote one way. }, I'm not surprised that he's continued to say things that are both untrue and dangerous to the Church.  By proclaiming that mental illness is a fabrication, and that neither medication nor psychological counseling are of any value, John MacArthur has once more tarnished his own reputation and put his considerable authority (in some circles) behind ideas that will bring real harm to Christians and non-Christians alike.

“The major noble lie is there is such a thing as mental illness."

This pronouncement from MacArthur is made without any offer of proof, any data or studies, he simply asserts it as fact, but it isn't a fact, it is a lie (or a self-delusion).

"There's no such thing as PTSD. There's no such thing as OCD. There's no such thing as ADHD. Those are noble lies to basically give the excuse to, at the end of the day, to medicate people. And Big Pharma is in charge of a lot of that,”

This is a slap in the face of every veteran, police officer, nurse, abused spouse or child, assault survivor, and on and on who has suffered in the grip of PTSD.  One would have thought that we've moved past the days when General Patton felt free to slap a soldier in the face who was suffering from, "the shakes," but in reality there still is a huge stigma attached to mental illnesses, one that contributes to the woefully high suicide rates among those who suffer from them.  John MacArthur's conspiracy theory laden words will make things worse.

Is there a conversation to be had, rationally and with evidence, about the dangers of over-medicating, especially with kids?  Absolutely, but this isn't that, not by a long shot.

“We are trying to make clear to parents that behavior is essentially the result of choices that kids make and if you parent them properly, they’ll make right choices,”

Now the circle of harm grows wider.  Parents who listen to John MacArthur and ignore sound medical advice when their child has a real mental illness by refusing to allow them to be treated will also carry with them undeserved guilt when things go awry (as they almost always will because mental illness is real) because he has told them that good parents will teach kids to make choices that lead to good outcomes.  This is dangerous with respect to parenting even without the topic of mental illness attached.  Parents lead by example, they offer wisdom and boundaries, but children are not a math formula, sometimes loving parents who do their best have kids who struggle in life; that too is a fact.

“literally turning your child not only into a potential drug addict, but maybe a potential criminal because they never learned how to negotiate and navigate life in a socially acceptable way.”

Once again, a bold statement without any evidence or proof.

In the end, MacArthur paints a picture of those who suffer from mental illness as weak people who make all of their "bad choices" in a vacuum.  Thank God that our Heavenly Father doesn't judge us in this black/white way without compassion.

How does this pronouncement from John MacArthur about mental health make me feel as a pastor, a husband, and simply as a human being that has compassion on those who suffer?  Honestly, it is a mixture of sadness at seeing a man degenerate this far into self-destruction of his reputation and ministry, and anger because I know that people who fight each day against mental illness will be harmed needlessly by this nonsense.  The cult of personality around famous pastors enables foolishness like this, the Church is worse off because of it.

As a pastor, I also want to say this: If you suffer from mental illness, please don't hold back from seeking help, every pastor I know will respond to you with compassion and understanding to help you, and we all are willing to admit that we need the help of healthcare professionals to assist in the areas in which we don't have training and expertise.  

Please seek help if you need it, don't suffer alone, don't suffer in silence.  God bless all those who, like my wife and I, and so many others, know that mental illness is all too real.

Sermon Video: In the Garden of Eden - Genesis 2:4-17

A look at the Garden of Eden from the perspective of what it would have meant to the ancient Israelites (it owes much to Professor John's Walton's, The Lost World of Adam and Eve), it isn't the same as what most of us were taught.  Adam and Eve are real people, but are they the only people that were alive at the time?  Also, why is the Garden a paradise, what makes it that way, and what does this have to do with human mortality?  The answers offered are not dogmatic, simply an attempt to understand this text as it was originally intended.

Torah Club material that equally blasts the Church and Judaism, claiming both "have concealed the knowledge of God" (because FFOZ believes that they alone have it).

 

I'll admit off the bat, this section contains one of my pet peeves, "taking the Bible literally."  In most cases, when someone talks or writes about taking the Bible literally it is a indication that he/she is about to do an awful job of interpreting the Bible.  Why?  Because the Bible's author's don't take the Bible "literally," and those who have learned to interpret the Bible according to its own ideas know that full well.  Biblical authors write with a host of analogies, metaphors, similes, parables, as well as prophetic and apocalyptic language.  What I think Lancaster is trying to say is that the people he is lambasting don't take the Bible "at face value" or "as authoritative."  But I digress, the real issue with The Beginning of Wisdom lesson 20 is that here Lancaster reveals his contempt both for the modern Church and for modern Judaism.  This is yet more evidence that FFOZ is trying to carve out their own unique (and new) niche in a space that is neither Christianity nor Judaism but some amalgam of both that is unrecognizable to either.

This is not the first time that I've demonstrated the animosity of FFOZ's leadership to both the Church and Judaism, but it is a reminder that the canard that their intention is to help followers of Jesus witness to Jews rings hollow when they choose to display this level of contempt to both Christianity and Judaism, and teach it to their followers.

Let's look at the specific claims to see if they hold any water or are in fact more straw men.

"Rather than teaching the Bible's wisdom, churches prefer to teach creeds and sacraments construed from elaborate theologies that are only loosely based on cherry-picked collections of Bible verses.  They don't know the Torah or understand it."

Now, when the Church is in error, both historically and today, it has earned honest criticism.  This isn't that, I'll give FFOZ credit for writing against things like "Christian" Nationalism (as I have done many times) and other such perversions of the scriptures, but that's not at all the focus of Lancaster's ire here.  It isn't the materialism and greed of the Prosperity Gospel or the charlatans in the New Apostolic Reformation that he's aiming at, but the ordinary churches that are going about the business of sharing the Gospel they inherited and making disciples.  FFOZ, through Lancaster's Torah Club materials, is teaching its followers that the whole Church is adrift and in error, not because of sin or a lack of the Fruit of the Spirit, but because they are not teaching obedience to the Torah.  It doesn't matter that the vast majority of the Church is solidly trinitarian, while FFOZ is not, in Lancaster's telling the thing that makes the Church hopelessly lost is a failure to place the yoke of the Law of Moses upon those who have faith in Jesus.

Perhaps that feels like too much of a conclusion based on this one lesson, and it would be if this was all we had from FFOZ on the topic, but as my seminar and writings have demonstrated, this theme runs through the entirety of their work because they've elevated Torah to an idolatrous level making it the very nature of God, and thus eternally unchangeable (even non-expandable, non-updatable), even by Jesus himself.

Should the Church be doing a better job of teaching the, "whole counsel of God"?  Absolutely.  We need to be open to God's direction and correction to overcome our blind spots and the sins we tolerate.  Is our answer to cling to the Law of Moses as if it has the answers?  Not at all.

"Liberal synagogues steer their flocks away from taking the Bible literally, preferring to offer popular social platitudes instead of the unpopular mandates of the Torah's laws.  In academic circles, men and women who make careers out of studying the Bible rarely believe the words they are studying."

I've spent my whole life within Christianity and the Church, so I won't hazard to speak about the integrity of either the liberal or orthodox branches of Judaism in the world today, but it appears that Lancaster has no such qualms about ripping into both.  As the example at the end of this post demonstrates, FFOZ's leaders have equal contempt for Messianic Judaism as well.  Who is left?  Who is it that is interpreting the Word of God aright and doing God's will in this world?  Ah, that's right, FFOZ and the HRM, and nobody else.  

As I've written about Fundamentalist Christians who think only those who believe exactly as they do are acceptable to God: If 99.9% of those who proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior are still lost in sin and heading to hell, according to your own view, how pathetic is the Gospel that you're proclaiming and how weak is the Holy Spirit that you're talking about?  We believe that Jesus Christ overcame Sin and Death, and yet your thesis is that only you know the true Gospel, that God was incapable of implanting it correctly in anyone else??  The hubris is stupefying.

Here is that hubris in action from Boaz Michael's own mouth, "Your efforts as Torah Club leaders and students is a direct, and in my opinion, fulfillment of these words of our master. The reconciliation of Israel and the restoration of the world are in God’s hands, but the mission is in yours." (Michael, Boaz, Malchut Conference 2022, session #5, "Then the End Will Come")

I have seen Torah Club supporters over and over criticize the Church for following the "teachings of men."  The irony is incredible, they're risking everything on the belief that Boaz Michael, Daniel Lancaster, and the rest are true prophets in sole possession of the key to God's Word.  That's an awful lot of faith in men.

For other examples of how they view Christianity, Messianic Judaism, and their own self-aggrandized role in God's will: 

An example of of Boaz Michael espousing an antisemitic trope (that they only care about money) at Messianic Judaism:  By espousing these premises, Messianic Judaism has maintained a convenient niche right next to the evangelical Christian church. Since they are not teaching that the Torah is the biblically prescribed way of life for all peoples and nations who call upon the name of the God of Israel, they can conveniently co-exist in cooperation with the Church’s anti-Torah theological assumptions.  They can receive financial support, utilize their buildings, speak at their conferences… – (Michael, Boaz, “Encounters with an Ephraimite: Identity through a Lost Heritage”, p. 8)

An example of Boaz Michael claiming Messianic Judaism falls short of God's will (something he believes that his organization is fulfilling in their place): The matrix of the Messianic Jewish Movement simply is not big enough for the restoration that God is doing in the Body of Messiah. The Hebrew Roots movement has outgrown Messianic Judaism. - (Michael, Boaz, “Encounters with an Ephraimite: Identity through a Lost Heritage”, p. 11)

An example of Boaz Michael claiming that his movement alone has the Truth of the Gospel, unknown before this generation: So, the responsibility of this message falls on us, a small minority of God‘s people who’ve come to an understanding of the gospel of the kingdom and whose lives are being transformed by the undiluted power of Yeshua’s message. And we’re called to take this gospel message to the kingdoms: 'Repent for the kingdom of God is it at hand.' And this prophetic movement has only become possible in our generation. It’s our responsibility. (Michael, Boaz, Malchut Conference 2022, session #5, "Then the End Will Come")

An Example of Daniel Lancaster saying that FFOZ's followers are the only true disciples of Jesus ready to face the End Times: "Until then, however, there’s a small remnant, right. It’s a pretty small remnant of the kingdom on earth. There’s a few of us. There’s a few of us clinging to the Commandments in the testimony of Yeshua as it says in the Book of Revelation." (Lancaster, Daniel, Malchut Conference 2022, session #9, "Band of Survivors")

Sermon Video: God Rest When His Work is Done - Genesis 2:1-3

What does it mean that God "rested" when his work of Creation was completed?  The idea of completion is key to understanding the idea of Sabbath.  God "rested" because the Temple of his Creation was fully formed and functioning thus setting the stage for God to sit upon the throne of heaven and begin his rule over what he had made.  It is in that vein that Jesus fulfills the Sabbath (and the whole Law of Moses) by completing God's work of redemption, after which he ascended at sat down at the right hand of the Father, thus also indicating that the final victory was forever won.

How do we "rest" by honoring God as Gentile Christians?  We let go of our own vain belief in our independence and accept that God is fully and completely in control, that his will for us is perfect, and that he will finish the work that he began in us on the other side of death.  In other words, we can rest any time of any day by fully trusting in God.