Dead Women in Combat: Does Anyone Care?

A Call for Americans to Cherish the Weaker Sex

by Wesley Strackbein, February 18, 2013

About the Author

Wesley Strackbein has served as the Coordinating Producer of a variety of films, including The Mysterious Islands. He handles media relations for VFM and is the Managing Editor of Vision Forum Ministries’ website.

Dead women — killed on the frontlines of combat — are no more a terrible sight to behold than dead men.So declared General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as he joined President Barack Obama and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta in announcing a formal policy change on January 24 which removes the last restraints for women to serve in all active combat roles in the U.S. military. As part of a much-hyped and heralded public relations move by the current administration, Dempsey stated: “I’ve gone to Bethesda to visit wounded warriors, and I’ve gone to Arlington to bury our dead. There’s no distinction [between men and women].”^[1]

As shocking as this may sound, it accurately reflects the changing attitudes of most Americans toward women in combat.

Our nation has had more than a decade to digest the horrors of our servicewomen being maimed, tortured, and killed in foreign wars, as the U.S. military has increasingly expanded the scenarios in which our female soldiers are placed in harm’s way. More than 150 female soldiers have died in Iraq and Afghanistan as a result, and servicewomen such as Jessica Lynch and Shoshana Johnson have been captured and suffered severe torture as prisoners of war.

Yet rather than respond in outrage, Americans have largely viewed the sufferings of women in combat as no different than the hard plight of “one of the boys.”

In 2004, the New York Times ran a cover story which featured a gruesome image of a wounded female soldier, blood running down her leg, with three men surrounding her, screaming. Rather callously, the Times titled the article, “A Routine Burst of Chaos Leaves a G.I. Wounded.” In writing the piece, journalist Dexter Filkins in no way keyed in on the fact that the wounded G.I. was a woman — he reported the story as if she had been any other male soldier hit by enemy fire.^[2]

While this news article might be dismissed as liberal media bias, the majority of the American public is on board with our government’s recent decision to allow women to serve at the point of the spear in battle, where the brutalities of war are normally most fierce. According to a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center on Jan 24-27, 66% of Americans support lifting the combat ban for women, while only 26% oppose it.^[3]

Retired U.S. Navy Captain Lory Manning made this startling yet astute observation on the tepid reaction Americans have shown to female soldiers being harmed in war: “Everyone expected a hue and cry when women started getting killed in combat, and it hasn’t happened. . . . The American public is ready to accept a greater number of female casualties in wartime.”^[4]

The Law of the Innocents: Women Rescued from Combat Duty

Such apathy toward women in combat was considered appalling by past generations who embraced a Christian worldview. A powerful example of this occurred in Ireland at the close of seventh century A.D., when Adomnán — a Christian statesman, abbot of Iona, and biographer of Columba — denounced the placing of women on the frontlines of combat, promulgating a law to end this travesty.^[5]

The war practice of unconverted clans in Ireland during this time was despicable. When they formed up for line of battle, husbands placed their wives directly in front of them on the field. Often carrying a baby with her in a pouch, the woman warrior was given a thirty-foot-long pole with an iron hook on the end which served as her weapon. If the woman hesitated to charge and fight in the heat of conflict, the husband flogged her back to prod her forward. When a woman soldier was killed in battle, her breasts were often severed by the enemy as a war prize.

Adomnán personally witnessed the mangled bodies of dead women warriors when he and his mother Ronnat visited a battlefield following a vicious encounter between two armies. A Medieval source records that “they saw nothing more touching and pitiful than the head of a woman in one place and the body in another, and her little babe upon the breasts of the corpse, a stream of milk upon one of its cheeks, and a stream of blood upon the other.”

Both Adomnán and his mother saw the dire need to intervene, with Ronnat giving her son this charge: “to thee henceforth it is given to free the women of the western world.” Compelled to action, Adomnán drafted “The Law of the Innocents” which was enacted at the Synod of Birr in the year 697, with ninety-one signatories from Ireland and Britain lending their support to the edict. Among other provisions, the law stipulated that if “women be employed in an assault or in a host or fight,” those in whose army they served were to be fined seven cumals (equivalent to the value of twenty-one milk cows) for each woman they compelled to take up arms in battle.

Adomnán’s legal reform was a masterstroke which led to women being protected in war, rather than exploited as the sacrificial first line of combat.

The Chivalric Code: Women Must Be Protected

As Christianity continued to transform Europe, codes of chivalry emerged which made the protection of women and the weaker members of society a chief aim. The Knights Codes of Chivalry, recorded in The Song of Roland, was adopted approximately one hundred years after Adomnán and is Europe’s first known chivalric code to be preserved. Of the seventeen tenets of this code, three require the aiding and protecting of women: (1) To protect the weak and defenceless; (2) To give succour to widows and orphans; (3) To respect the honor of women.

The codes of chivalry that followed this standard enacted during Charlemagne’s time incorporated similar provisions. The later Ordene de chevalerie, a widely popular French work which was likely composed before 1250, stipulated that knights “must honour all women and damsels and be ready to aid them to the limit of [their] power.”^[6]

In the Medieval world, men — not women — took up arms and fought wars, while women were honored and protected as the weaker vessel. Rather than being placed on the front lines of combat, they were secured behind the lines of battle to ensure their safety and well-being.

The Biblical Foundation: Men, Not Women, Go to War

The world of knights protecting fair maidens did not flow from a backwards, unenlightened romanticism, but was based squarely on the precepts and patterns found in God’s Word.

Scripture stipulates that men are to take up arms in combat, while women are to be shielded from the horrors of battle. A prime example of this is found in the Book of Joshua, when the Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh were called upon to help the other tribes conquer the land of Canaan, even as they were granted land beyond its boundaries, east of the Jordan River. Joshua’s directions to these three tribes make plain how a civilized people is to approach war:

Your wives, your little ones, and your cattle, shall remain in the land which Moses gave you on this side Jordan; but ye shall pass before your brethren armed, all the mighty men of valour, and help them. (Joshua 1:14)

A census that Moses conducted a generation earlier illustrates that able men, not women, are to go to war:

Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, after their families, by the house of their fathers, with the number of their names, every male by their polls; From twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel: thou and Aaron shall number them by their armies. (Numbers 1:2-3)

The term “men of war” is used thirty-six times in the Bible and clearly indicates that those of the male rather than the female gender are to march in battle, as when Israel circled the walls of Jericho. “And ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days” (Joshua 6:3).

The Bible also provides examples of men taking steps to protect women when hostile parties threatened, with the men hazarding their lives on their behalf. One of the most poignant illustrations of this is found in the Book of Genesis, as Jacob was preparing to meet his brother Esau. Fearing that Esau’s band would slaughter “the mother with the children” (Genesis 32:11), Jacob positioned his wives and young ones to the rear of his party, while he lead from the front (Genesis 33:1-3).

The most significant example of all time of male sacrifice for women was modeled by Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Trinity. Jesus suffered the scourge of torture, humiliation, and ultimately death to save His bride, the Church, and men in all ages are admonished to follow His lead (Ephesians 5:25).

America the Barbarous: A Call to Repentance

Our nation’s abandonment of biblical principles has led women to be devalued rather than cherished. As opposed to reacting with shame and outrage at the prospect of women facing the horrors of frontline combat, as Adomnán did 1,300 years ago, the majority of Americans are celebrating the placement of our sisters and daughters in the heat of battle as a triumph of women’s rights. Far from being “enlightened” concerning warfare, twentieth-first century America has become a nation of barbarians.

President Obama’s words — made on the day his administration announced that hundreds of thousands of combat roles would be opened for women — reflect the attitude of much of our nation’s populous: “Today, every American can be proud that our military will grow even stronger with our mothers, wives, sisters and daughters playing a greater role in protecting this country we love.”^[7]

In last week’s State of the Union address, the President took the occasion to trumpet this policy change to an estimated 33.5 million viewers, stating that “our sisters and daughters . . . are ready for combat.”^[8]

What should be sounding instead is a lament. The weeping prophet Jeremiah offers mournful words fit for the occasion: “Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people. Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission . . .” (Lamentations 3:48-49).

While all life is precious in God’s sight, we have erred in concluding that the death of G.I. Jane in combat is no more terrible than the death of G.I. Joe. Women should not be placed in harm’s way to defend our nation, and rather than celebrate what should be mourned, we should cry out to God to humble our hearts in repentance.

Only then will the scales be lifted from our eyes and our hearts be made tender to protect the weaker sex.

[1] Chris Good, Mary Bruce, and Luis Martinez, “Military Warned to Maintain Readiness as Women Move Toward Combat,” ABCNews.com, January 24, 2013.
[2] Dexter Filkins,“A Routine Burst of Chaos Leaves a G.I. Wounded,” New York Times, May 26, 2004.
[3] “Broad Support for Combat Roles for Women,” Pew Research Center, released January 29, 2013.
[4] David S. Cloud and Tony Perry, “Military to lift ban on women in combat,” Los Angeles Times, January 23, 2013.
[5] This discussion of Adomnán’s reforms is derived from original Medieval sources as recorded in: the Kuno Meyer, Editor and Translator, Medieval Sourcebook: Cain Adamnain: An Old-Irish Treatise on the Law of Adamnan (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905).
[6] Maurice Keen, Chivalry, originally published in 1984 by Yale University. Citation taken from the Folio Society’s deluxe edition (London: The Folio Society, 2010), pp. 7-10.
[7] David Jackson, “Obama backs women in combat,” USA Today, January 24, 2013.
[8] A full transcript of President Obama’s 2013 State of the Union Address can be accessedhere  .

Originally Posted at http://www.visionforumministries.org 

Jesus Is Risen - EASTER 2012 Marshill Church

Originally Posted at www.marshillchurch.og 

Touching Letter

The following is a letter written to theWay of The Master ministry by an individual who was impacted by what God is doing through that ministry. This letter was taken from the Weekly Update Newsletter on January 31st 2011

"I spent about three weeks listening to this show. Not because I liked what they were talking about but rather because it was hilarious when these over-bearing bible-bangers would just get exploded on by someone who didn't want to hear what they had to say. At some point during this I was laughing at them and I remember saying through laughter, 'God, if this garbage is real, you need to open my eyes. This seems like a scam to me.' Sometime during the third week, they found a guy that was exceedingly convicted by the walk through of the Ten Commandments. The guy never hesitated when he was asked, 'If you were to stand before God in judgment do you think you'd go to Heaven or Hell?' The guy replied, 'Hell.' He had what I remember being a very somber voice. When asked if that concerned him, he simply replied, 'Yes.' ... This day it wasn't funny. This day I sat there thinking, 'This guy is me.' As I heard Ray explain the Good News to the gentleman on the air, I fell apart. I started to cry like a baby. I could hardly see the road as I worked the semi into the wayside rest. I stopped, pulled the breaks on, went back into the sleeper, hit my knees and I've never looked back. I spent almost two hours repenting and praying for forgiveness. I spent the rest of the day listening to Christian radio and talking to God."

Originally Posted in the Living Waters Weekly Update on January 31st 2011

visit them at http://www.livingwaters.com/

Mining the Archives: Luther Gets Saved in Habakkuk

The book of Habakkuk, a small book of prophecy tucked toward the end of the Old Testament, was written in about the 7th century B.C. Six hundred years later, it was instrumental in the writings of the Apostle Paul, and some 1,500 years later, in the life of the great reformer, Martin Luther. The following is adapted from a  sermon Pastor Mark gave as part of a  sermon series series on the prophetic book in 2003.

“Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,

but the righteous shall live by his faith.”

Habakkuk 2:4

A lot of pastors are in ministry trying to pay God back rather than just trusting Jesus. Martin Luther was one of those guys: his incentive for ministry was to pay God back. He was going to study theology, and he had the mind of an attorney.

Luther tries God v. man

Luther saw God as a judge and as a prosecuting attorney. He saw himself as a defense attorney. He realized that God’s case against him was that he’s a sinful man unfit for heaven and forgiveness. So he picked up ministry, he picked up the Scriptures, he started to study, trying to find a way to defend himself against this case that God has made against humanity.

He came to the conclusion that God has an airtight case: we’re all wicked. That’s the only thing that is absolutely provable in Christianity is the evil of the human heart. That’s why we lock our doors. And that’s why we have jails. That’s why we have attorneys. That’s why we have prisons. That’s why we are reticent to even extend a hand of friendship to a stranger because we know not whether they are a friend or foe.

Luther said, “You know what? God’s case against humanity is a winner. We’re bad. And especially if God is judge, can’t lie to him. And if God is prosecuting attorney, you’re not gonna beat him. There’s no way out.” So he decided was he was going to study the Scriptures and find all the things that God wanted him to do, and then he’d do those so God would like him.

The Pursuit of Perfect Penance

And he tried really hard. Really hard. Harder than any of us. He became a priest, which meant no wife, no sex, no kids.  He actually went that far. He became a monk and a pastor and a professor of theology. He said, “Not only that, since sin requires punishment, I’ll punish myself. I’ll sleep on an uncomfortable bed or the floor. I’ll eat terrible food or starve myself so I rack my body.” And he actually did have intestinal problems for the rest of his life. “I’ll avoid all worldly pleasure. I won’t laugh. I won’t have a good time.”

And this guy was so racked because he was such a clever and clear-thinking mind. When it came to the Scriptures he realized that, in light of God’s Word, he was doomed.

What the monks would do usually is they would send the men into confession with a priest. And you would go in to the priest and you’d tell him all your sins, and then he would absolve you and proclaim forgiveness upon you, and they’d go do their work as monks. (We Christians do the same thing except for our priest’s name is Jesus. He’s our high priest. We go to him and confess our sins, and he died for them and he pardons us and grants us forgiveness.)

Confess? Yes. Hoe? No.

The problem was Martin Luther would be in there all day, every single day. He realized that even the way he confessed sin was a sin, so he would confess his sin and the way he confessed his sin. And then he realized that the motive for confessing his sin was a sin. So he would confess the motive and the mean and the sin. Right? Because it’s not just doing the right thing. It’s doing the right thing in the right way for the right reason. And the other monks thought, “He must be lazy, trying to get out of the work. He goes in there and prays all day so he doesn’t have to go out and hoe the garden.”

Finally, the priest said, “Enough already. Can’t you be in denial like everybody else and just go hoe the garden? Everybody else is in denial. Can’t you just say, ‘Well, I had a bad thought and we say blah, blah, blah, now move on?’”

Luther said, “No. I was reading the Scriptures and it says, ‘Be perfect.’ It says, ‘Do everything.’ It says, ‘Obey God.’ It says, ‘Motives count.’ It says, ‘Method counts. Everything counts.’ I’m not making it.”

And Luther became so depressed that he was almost at this place of suicide and coming apart. And then something amazing happened.

Martin Luther’s room while in exile at Wartburg Castle

The German Theologian Reads the Turkish Apostle Who Reads the Judean Prophet

He was studying the book of 
Psalms, and it brought him back to Romans 1:17, where Paul quotes Habakkuk, which led him all the way back to Habakkuk 2:4. Over 2,000 years after it was written, that same little verse that exploded for Paul, exploded for a guy named Martin Luther.

Luther writes, “There I began to understand that the righteousness of God is that by which the righteous lives by a gift of God, namely by faith. And this is the meaning: The righteousness of God is revealed by the gospel, namely the passive righteousness, which the merciful God justifies us by faith. As it is written,” he quotes Habakkuk 2:4, “he who through faith is righteous shall live. Here I felt that I was altogether born again and have entered paradise itself through open gates. Here a totally other face of the entire Scriptures showed itself to me.”

Martin Luther got saved in Habakkuk 2:4.

The Reformation Takes Form

And out of his understanding came what we call the Reformation, the cleaning up the understanding of the gospel and the recognition that “I don’t save myself. Jesus saves me. I don’t need to be good. Jesus was perfect. I don’t need to please God. Jesus did on my behalf. I don’t need to work my way to God. God has humbled himself and come down for me. I just need to trust him, and he will take away all my sin and he will love me and forgive me and adopt me into his family.”


“He will then give me a new heart. He will give me a new life. He’ll make me a new creation. And then all these Scriptures that I know are good I will begin to live in accordance with those Scriptures by grace because it’s grace that saves me and it’s grace that empowers me to honor God, through the Holy Spirit that the Son of God will send into me so that it’s no longer I who live, but it’s Christ who lives in me and through me and often times in spite of me. And then God gets all his glory and I get my redemption and I trust him, not me, and it’s about him, not me, and he’s God and I’m not.”

And 2,600 years after Habakkuk writes this little verse it’s still working because God said it. That’s how God still transforms and loves and heals and forgives and redeems people.

God says, “Know who I am. Don’t fight me. Trust me. And once you have, keep trusting me until you see me, and then your faith shall be sight.”

At this point, I call you all to response.  Last week a number of people came to Christ in this church. They stopped worshipping themselves and started worshipping Jesus.

If you’re a non-Christian, that is what you need to do: Your trust needs to be in Jesus, not yourself. His death, burial and resurrection, not your morality or spirituality or sincere or insincere attempts. You recognize your sin. You own it, you name it, and you ask Jesus to forgive you, and he will. And you trust him and belong to him and walk with him. And he will give you the grace to become the person that he intends for you to be. He’s good from beginning to end.

There is a wealth of resources in the  Mars Hill media library, including  over 500 sermons preached at the church, some dating back to 2000. Many of the sermons don’t have video, much less a  sleek intro video with scored backing track, just grainy, scratchy audio of a younger Pastor Mark. But the truth of the gospel and the relevancy of the teachings last. So, from time to time, we’ll repost bits from those archived sermons here on the blog so that they can be useful to you in your discipleship. (And because we’ve been studying the Gospel of Luke for over a year now—with another year to go—it’s good to shake things up and learn something from a different book every once in a while.)

Originally Posted at http://blog.marshillchurch.org/ On January 30th 2011

Skeptics Society—Shame on you!

Written by: Dr. Kent Hovind

At first I thought it was a joke. Someone sent me a fund-raising pamphlet from the Skeptics Society titled “Top 10 Myths about Evolution.” The cover depicts the old cartoon of Darwin’s head on an ape’s body, and the subtitle is: How We Know it Really Happened. The booklet states that if I donate $5,000 or more to the Skeptics Society, I can be a “Patron” and get a free dinner with the Executive Director Michael Shermer at a restaurant of my choice. Wow! That’s an expensive meal!


Let’s debate

Anyway, I’ve debated Michael Shermer twice (see debates “Three Views” and “How to Debate a Creationist”) and will do it again (plus 10 other evolution experts to assist him) any day of the week with 90% of my brain tied behind my back! I’ll even buy dinner AND pay him $500 to debate with me again based on a few simple conditions:

•Anyone is allowed to videotape the debate and sell copies that are not edited other than improving the quality of graphs, charts and visuals used.

•Each side (not each person) gets equal time.

•We talk about one topic at a time. (My experience has been that they will throw out 10 topics in rapid succession—as this pamphlet does—and only give you time to respond to one or two. Then they claim you couldn’t answer the others.)

So, even though Michael’s 10 “evidences” for evolution have been discredited and disproven long ago (many in my debates with him, so he should know better than to use them), I will give a brief summary—again—of why the first three are wrong (all others are covered in my seminar series and even my debates with him. The only reason he keeps using these long discredited “evidences” is because that’s all the atheists have! (See John 8:44 for why)

Skeptics Society fund-raising mailer

#1 “Myth”: Why aren’t apes evolving into humans?

Michael states that creationists say, “If humans came from apes, why aren’t apes evolving into humans?” His answer is that this is not really what evolution teaches, but rather that apes and humans have a common ancestor. This answer is a feeble attempt to draw attention away from the bigger issue: Nobody has ever seen ANY plant or animal (including apes and humans) produce ANYTHING other than their own kind. Dogs produce dogs, humans produce humans and apes produce apes WITHOUT EXCEPTION! If Michael wants to believe apes and humans have a common ancestor, that is fine; but neither he nor anyone else should claim this is SCIENCE.

Every farmer on planet earth throughout all of recorded history has counted on evolution NOT happening! When the farmers plant corn, they expect (and get) CORN—EVERY TIME!

I told Michael he is right to be skeptical of UFOs and other paranormal subjects he often criticizes, but I can’t figure out why he would not be skeptical of his own evolution religion, which teaches everything came from nothing for no reason by no Creator. Why would he not be skeptical of the wild idea that animals can change (slowly or quickly) into different kinds of animals when there is NO scientific evidence that this even CAN happen, let alone evidence that it did happen?

#2 “Myth”: Too many gaps in the fossil record

This one is amazing to me. He claims that critics of evolution say: “There are too many gaps in the fossil record for evolution to be true.” His answer is: “In fact, there are lots of intermediate fossils. Archaeopteryx, for example, is one of the earliest known fossil birds with a reptilian skeleton and feathers …”

Michael, shame on you! First, there is no such thing as a “fossil record.” There are billions of bones in the ground but no “record.” Some people put their interpretation on those bones but NONE have dates on them when they are found and none can talk. The very existence of fossils is evidence of a worldwide flood! Fossils don’t form in any quantity today even though millions of animals die every year.

Secondly, archeopteryx is NOT evidence for evolution! Only six skeletons have been found, all from the same quarry. There is plenty of evidence they are 100% bird, similar to the hoatzin flying around South America today. There are also many who think the archeopteryx fossils have been tampered with and are fraudulent. See my seminar, Part 4, for LOTS more on this and the other supposed “missing links” used as evidence for evolution.

Third, fossils are simply bones in the dirt. You cannot prove those animals had ANY offspring, let alone DIFFERENT offspring. Why should we believe the bones in the dirt can do something that NO animal on earth today can do—produce something other than their kind?

#3 “Myth”: Fossil record does not show gradual change

This one deals with the common complaint that the “fossil record” does not show gradual change. His answer is that the change was rapid “in a process called punctuated equilibrium.” The idea is that evolution happened so fast that no evidence was preserved. Try THAT in any court of law: “Your Honor, we don’t have any evidence so that proves it happened!”

It looks to me like there are only two options in Michael’s (and most evolutionist’s) mind:

•Evolution happened slowly (Darwin’s theory) or

•Evolution happened rapidly (Steven Gould and Niles Eldridge’s theory).

There is a third choice, Michael: Evolution didn’t happen AT ALL! This leaves the only logical option being Creation. That choice brings with it some serious baggage that you seem to be desperately trying to avoid—a CREATOR.

There IS a Creator

Well, accept it! There is a Creator and He WILL be the Judge of the world soon! He has a record of every word (Matthew 12:36) and every deed (Romans 2:6) and even every thought (Hebrews 4:12) of everyone on earth and will bring everything into judgment (Hebrews 9:27).

If you have ever broken even ONE of God’s laws (see the 10 Commandments, Exodus 20) one time (such as lying, stealing, using God’s name in vain, lusting after a woman who is not your wife, etc.), I suggest you get a good lawyer for your trial or repent and ask for forgiveness.

I know one who has NEVER lost a case. He is my advocate for judgment day. “And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” (I John 2:1)

How to be saved

It’s really amazingly simple.

A – Admit you have sinned and broken God’s laws. (Romans 3:23)

B – Believe that God Himself came down in the form of a man, Jesus Christ, and died on the cross to pay for those sins and rose again three days later. (Romans 6:23; 10:9)

C – Call upon Him to forgive you and save you. (Romans 10:13)

That simple act of faith will make you part of God’s family. You will be ‘born again’ (Jn. 3:1-8) and become a new creature (II Cor. 5:17) have your sins forgiven and face God judgment day “justified.” That is “just as if I’d never sinned.” (Rom. 3:24; 5:1, 9; 8:30; Gal. 2:16-17; Titus 3:7, etc.)

Since you will be dead for a lo-o-o-o-ong time, I strongly suggest you get ready for the day you face the Creator. With Christ as your advocate you are saved, forgiven, born again, a child of the Father, justified and Heaven bound. Without Him…well, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:31) since “God is angry with the wicked every day.” (Ps. 7:11) Think about it!

Originally Posted by Dr. Kent Hovind at www.drdino.com 

Nehemiah Part 14: Prayer and Repentance

Originally Posted at http://www.marshillchurch.org/ 

Real Repentance....

Real repentance is a five-fold process, and I’ve shared this before.

1. Conviction

It starts with conviction, that is a work of God. Jesus says that the Holy Spirit would come to convict us of sin. Works through the conscience, the Scriptures, works through good friends, and Bible teaching. And conviction is where you feel it, you know it, you blew it. Conviction, that comes from God.

2. Confession

Now at this point, we can grieve, quench, or resist, the Bible says, the Holy Spirit. Or we can agree with God. Here it says that they declared God just, that’s agreeing with God. That’s what they’re doing. “You’re right, I’m wrong.” That moves on to confession. Confession is declaring, talking about, owning it. “You’re right, God, I’m wrong. The Bible says something, and I am in violation of what you say.” Confession is talking to God about your sin. Confession is talking to others about your sin, and some of you haven’t repented—your family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, don’t even know, your spouse, what you’ve done, or are doing. You’ve not repented. You’re just waiting to get caught, and if you never get caught, you’re never going to talk about it. This is my exhortation and admonition to you, to confess, to talk about it. To say, “You know what? There’s some stuff I need to tell you. We need to have that conversation. Here’s who I am, here’s what I’ve done.” Confession is talking about sin with God, whom you’ve sinned against, and talking with people about sin, whom you’ve sinned against. That’s why the Bible says in 1 John 1:9, “if we confess our sin,” gotta talk about it. Conviction, confession. Confession is responding.

3. Repentance

Third is repentance. Repentance is not managing, or minimizing sin. “I used to do it every week, now I do it once a month, or once every six months, or once a year. I used to, you know, do it to this degree, and I’ve ratcheted it back a little bit. I’m trying to manage, or I’m trying to minimize, or maintain my sin.” That’s not it. Our sin is worse than we think. Our sin is so bad that God, Jesus, had to die for it. And if it’s important enough for Jesus to die for, we need to put it to death. We need to put it to death. If Jesus died for that sin, then that sin must die. Can’t just wound it, you have to kill it. Repentance is the putting to death of sin, putting it to death, not just feeling bad. Not just saying you’re sorry. Not just trying harder. Killing it, because it killed Jesus.

4. Restitution

This leads to step number four—and by the way, that was John’s whole ministry: repent, repent, repent. That’s what he’s getting at. Step number four then is restitution, and this is not penance, where you pay God back, this is just trying to make it right. If you’ve stolen, you should pay it back. If you’ve lied about someone and damaged their reputation, you need to go to those people you’ve lied to and say, “That wasn’t true. I sinned and I lied.” See, because some of you have done great, horrific damage to other people, and you can tell God, “I’m sorry.” And you can tell them, “I’m sorry,” but if you don’t try and fix it, it’s like shooting someone and driving away, rather than giving them a ride to the hospital. “Sorry, that hurts. Good luck with that, good-bye.” No, real repentance is: “And I need to try and make this right in as much as by God’s grace I’m able, ‘cause if I was part of your wounding, I need to be part of your healing, if you will let me.” Conviction, confession, repentance, restitution.

5. Reconciliation

Step number five, reconciliation. This is where God and people are reconciled, and people and people are reconciled, that Jesus takes away sin, that reconciliation may happen. Jesus makes this possible through his death, burial, resurrection. That’s the means for reconciliation. Let me say this: forgiveness takes one person. Repentance takes one person. Reconciliation takes two. If you have sinned, or when you sin, ‘cause we’re all sinning, you go to the person you’ve sinned against and you repent. “I have sinned. You may have not even known about it, but let me come clean and be honest. Let me tell you who I am, and what I’ve done, or what I’ve failed to do. And I’m repenting, I’m killing that. It’s gonna stop by the grace of God.” Takes one person to repent. What do you have to repent of? Who do you need to talk to? What needs to be made known?

It takes one person to forgive. “I forgive you for what you’ve done, or failed to do.” Some of you would say, “I cannot forgive them, because they have not repented.” You must forgive them either way, because it frees you of bitterness. It opens the door of reconciliation. You are willing to meet them at the threshold, and they must turn from sin, and walk toward you. Additionally, it leaves them to God. “God, I have forgiven them. They are now in your hands. My prayer is that they would repent, and if not, justice will come from you.” Either justice comes from the cross of Jesus, or justice comes in hell, either way, justice comes. Who do you need to forgive? What have they done? Some of you would say, “I cannot forgive.” You must. You must.

And I feel prompted by the Holy Spirit. I didn’t intend to say this, and I didn’t say this all day. I feel as if some of you right now in your mind are saying this—and if this is you, this is a gift to you from the Holy Spirit. “I cannot forgive myself.” And let me tell you that, as spiritual as that sounds, it’s blasphemy, because if the God of the Bible forgives you, and you will not forgive yourself, you are saying that you are above the God of the Bible. What you’re saying is when Jesus declared on the cross, “Father, forgive them,” you are saying, “Even if the Father forgives me, I do not forgive myself.” And so you are in effect saying, “I am a superior God than him.” You need to repent of sin. You need to forgive those who’ve sinned against you, and you need not say that you cannot forgive yourself, because it’s blasphemy. If Jesus forgives you, there is no higher God, and you and I have no right to place ourselves above Jesus, and to withhold from ourselves forgiveness that he guarantees through his death and resurrection. This is all very serious business.

And Jesus declares that John is great, because he calls people to repentance. He cut through all of the cultural clutter, and noise, and nonsense. He does not settle for religious repentance, pagan repentance, worldly sorrow, mere confession, blame shifting, minimizing, excuse making, mere conviction, or mere confession. He lays an ax at the root of the problem, and he goes after sin with a furious courage, and he calls people to repent of sin. And God would call us all to repent of sin, because he loves us. And sin leads to death, and repentance is a gift to be enjoyed. That is the greatness of John.

And again, some in this account of Luke, they receive it, and they go down to the river, and they say publicly with their actions, “I’m a sinner, and I’m repenting.” And others reject, and they become religious, and they fight, and they argue, and they defend themselves to their own shame and folly. And you and I are given this divine moment of opportunity to make that decision for ourselves. Will we declare God to be just, by ourselves declaring ourselves to be unjust, and in need of his justice through the cross of Jesus? You know why John had such strong reaction now, don’t you? He was loved and hated, but he could not be ignored. That’s John.

From the sermon notes, "John The Baptizer Part 2" by Pastor Mark Driscoll

http://www.marshillchurch.org/media/luke/john-the-baptizer-part-2

7 Counterfeits of Repentance.....

Let me explain to you what repentance is and is not. For some of you, this will be completely new, you’ve never heard this. For others of you, this will be information that you’ve got bits and pieces of throughout the course of your life. For some of you, this will be revisiting things that I’ve taught you before, but maybe you still need to do. And for the rest of you, maybe you do know and practice repentance, and this will help clarify your ability to counsel others. I want you to pay attention, this is really important stuff. If you don’t know what to do with sin, you’ll ruin your life, and destroy anyone who is connected to you. It’s that big of a deal. ~ Pastor Mark Driscoll

1. Religious Repentance

So, true repentance is not religious repentance. Religious repentance is this: “I see your sin, not my own. I confess your sin, not my own. I’m really unhappy with your sin, but I’m not really troubled by my own.” It’s because religious people tend to think that they are self-righteous, and pious, and holy, and better than everyone else. The result is that they think they are good, and everyone else is bad. And religious people like to busybody, and gossip, and neatnik, and nitpick, and just be a perennial pain in the Levi’s. That’s what religious people do. And the way this works is they’re always glad to talk about all the things you’ve done wrong, but they never say things like, “It was my fault. I’m sorry. I was wrong.” Some of you are married to that person; I apologize.

Jesus gives a story of two people going into the temple, the Old Testament equivalent of the church, and one prays with haughty eyes and head held high, full of pride. “God, thank you that I’m not like other men. Thank you that I’m better than they are. Thank you that I don’t do all these horrible things.” He’s confessing someone else’s sin.

A second man in the story goes in, and he’s not filled with pride, he’s filled with grief. And he looks to the ground. He can’t even raise his eyes, and he simply declares, “God, have mercy on me. I’m a sinner.” He’s dealing with his own sin, not anyone else’s sin. He’s filled with humility and not pride. And Jesus says, “I tell you the truth, this man, and not the other, left justified, declared righteous in the sight of God.” Religious people are notorious for overlooking their own sin, and talking about everyone else’s, sometimes couching it in the form of a prayer request, so that it looks particularly holy when it’s not.

2. Pagan Repentance

Real repentance is not pagan repentance, and I tell you these false forms because there are many counterfeits of repentance. One of the aspects that distinguishes paganism from Christianity is the Bible says that God is good, and we don’t need to make God be good. He just is.

Paganism assumes that God isn’t good, and we have to manipulate God, as if we could, to make God be good. And so paganism and pagan repentance is, “So if I tell God I’m sorry, then he has to do something for me.” Examples would be, “I know I shouldn’t be dating this person, but if I tell God I’m sorry, then he’s obligated to save them, and make it all better. I know that I’ve done a bad thing, but if I tell God I’m sorry, then he’s obligated to cover for me, and not let my sin get caught and found out. If I tell God I’m sorry, then he has to heal me. If I tell God I’m sorry, then he has to bless me. If I tell God I’m sorry, then he has to prosper me.” God is sovereign, and free, and good. God cannot be manipulated, and God is not obligated to anyone.

3. Worldly Sorrow

Additionally, true repentance is not worldly sorrow. Paul tells this to the Corinthians. He says, “I perceive that you have worldly sorrow,” or some of your translations will say, “worldly grief,” and that is because non-Christians can feel bad. I talked to a guy not long ago. He said, “I feel bad. Why is that?” Answer: you’re bad. You feel bad because you’re bad.

Now it all makes sense, doesn’t it? Don’t need to dig for some deep psychological investigation. You feel bad because you’re bad. God gave you a conscience. We’re his image bearers. It’s a moral rudder. We can grieve, quench, and resist the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit works through our conscience, as Jesus promised he would, to convict us of sin. We also know of our sin from the Bible, and Bible teaching, and godly friends.

And what happens in worldly sorrow, or grief, is we feel bad, but we don’t change. You just feel bad. And what can even happen in culture is that we set up this false religion, with false prophets, and pastors, and priests, and priestesses, and what happens then is we present a false gospel.

Not to pick on him, but to pick on him, I’ll give you an example from Tiger Woods. What happened in the Tiger Woods scenario is something that happens fairly frequently. First of all, someone doesn’t repent, and they get caught. The opposite of repenting is getting caught, and that is that you didn’t come forward and say, “I’ve said or done a bad thing, or failed to say or do a good thing, I got caught,” which means “I wasn’t gonna stop unless you made me.” You get caught. And then you have to present worldly sorrow. You have to say, “I am really sorry. I did a horrible thing. I feel really bad.” “Ideally,” your PR rep will tell you, “you should probably cry, because that will help. It shows that you’re really, really sad about what you’ve done.”

And then we get basically a cultural equivalent of pagan Catholicism. Let me unpack all of this. I grew up as a Catholic boy, went to Catholic school, and was an altar boy for some years. And the way it would work in Catholicism is you would go into the confessional with the priest. You would say, “Bless me, father, for I have sinned. It’s been so long since my last confession.” And then you would tell the priest what you did, and then the priest would say, “I declare you forgiven. I forgive you. Go say this many ‘Hail Marys,’ or ‘Acts of Contrition,’ or ‘Our Fathers’, or go do these good deeds, and then you’ll make it up to God, and everything will be okay,” something like that.

So what happens in culture is someone has worldly sorrow. They know they’ve done wrong, so they need to find someone who’s in the cultural position of a priest. And just so you know, I don’t believe in any of this. Jesus is my great high priest. A priest can’t forgive me. The psalmist says, “Against you only, Lord God, have I sinned.” So I don’t go to a priest, I go to the great high priest, Jesus.

But what happens in our culture then, we’ve gotta find someone to play that morally superior role, so we get Barbara Walters, or Larry King, or Oprah, or Dr. Phil. We go get somebody to set up their stage for their show, their set, like a confessional. And the person who has sinned walks in looking very sad, and very scared, and says, “I’m really sorry for what I’ve done.” And then the person in the position of moral, spiritual authority, the priest of culture says, “Tell us about what you’ve done, and how you feel.” And then you cry, and you say the things that your PR rep told you to say.

But your sins are not yet forgiven, because you need to go to purgatory and pay back, and so you go to rehab. Rehab is our cultural version of purgatory. Everybody has to go to rehab. If you’ve done something bad, you’ve gotta go to rehab, drug rehab, sex rehab, alcohol rehab, “My dad didn’t hug me” rehab, gambling rehab, whatever rehab it is. And you go to rehab for a while. It’s like purgatory, you go there and you pay your dues.

And then later you get out, and you go back, and you meet with the high priest or priestess. You say, “You know what? I’m really, really sad, and I did a very bad thing, but I feel like I paid it off, and I went to rehab. And now I’ve kind of been born-again. I’m a whole new person, and I’m going to give lots of money to women, children, or animals. Anything cute, I will give money to, to show that I have sorrow.”

And then all of this is told to the population, the public, the culture, and they decide whether or not you’re forgiven. They’re in the position of God. “Oh, you said you were sorry, you went to rehab, you wrote a big check for people in need. We forgive you. You can golf again. Go and sin no more.”

That’s worldly sorrow. The whole culture we live in is built on that, and people don’t change, not at the heart level. There’s no atonement, there’s no penalty paid for sin. There’s no Jesus, there’s no Savior. There’s no new life in Christ, there’s none of that, just a bunch of counterfeits—worldly sorrow. But I tell you that, not just to pick on a man, but to say that we’re all prone toward that, and our culture has this desire for something like a high priest, who forgives our sins and gives us new life. But without Jesus, we end up with a lot of impotent counterfeits.

4. Mere Confession

True repentance is also not mere confession. Mere confession is very confusing, particularly for Christians, because it is when someone sins, and you confront, or rebuke them, call them to repentance as John does. You say, “That was really wrong.” And they say, “You know what? You’re right, that was terrible.” You say, “Oh good, I’m glad you recognized that. Let me hug you, and we’re all better now.”

And then they do it again. You say, “I thought you were sorry.” “Oh, I was. I’m sorry again, and I’ll be sorry next week, and the week after that. I’m sorry a lot. And every time I do it, at least I’m not a hypocrite, I’m authentic, I’m honest, I’m real, I’m true. And I’ll just tell you how bad I am, and I’m gonna keep being bad.” Some of you are dating that person. Run, run, run, run Forrest run, run for your life. And they confuse you, because you’ll say, “Hey, you shouldn’t have said or done that.” “You’re right, that was wrong,” and they keep doing it. Mere confession is an acknowledgment of sin, without a repentance of sin.

5. Blame Shifting

Additionally, real repentance is not blame-shifting, which is, “Yeah, something bad happened, but it’s their fault.” This goes all the way back to the garden. Adam sins, says, “God, you made a woman. She’s defective. The two of you need to sort this out.” Eve says, “Oh, don’t look at me, the devil made me do it.” She was charismatic. And the truth is that they both were morally responsible for their own transgression.

We can do this. “Yes, I lost my temper, but they made me very angry.” Oh well, it’s obviously their fault. “Yes, I stole from my boss, but after all, they weren’t paying me enough.” “I did cheat on my spouse, but they weren’t meeting my needs.” Oh, you poor victim. Blame someone else.

6. Minimizing

Real repentance is also not minimizing. What happens is you sin, someone calls you to repent, and the first thing you do is you find someone who’s done something worse. “At least I didn’t kill someone.” Oh, duckie for you, we’ll put a gold star on your “No Murder” chart, another whole day. You find someone worse than you. “You’re a terrible spouse.” “Well, at least you’re not married to so and so.”

And if all else fails, hit the Hitler button, that’s what you do. Just hit the Hitler button, which is, “At least I’m not a Nazi.” Oh, that’s true. And you put yourself next to Hitler, and you’re like, “See, I look pretty good.” Yeah, compared to Hitler, everyone does. That’s not really moral high ground, but that’s what people do. It’s minimizing. “Oh, it’s not a big deal. You’re freaking out. You’re overreacting. Why do you have to get so emotional?”

7. Excuse Making

Additionally, real repentance is not excuse making. “Yeah, I did it, but I had a rough upbringing. You know, I didn’t get a good education. My dad didn’t hug me. I’m genetically predisposed. My personality type is J-E-R-K. You know, there’s just— P-E-R-V, you know, my personality type is that way.”

From the recent sermon John the Baptizer, Part 2.

Originally posted at http://www.theresurgence.com/ by Pastor Mark Driscoll