It was once a rising trend. It’s now a model for ministry for significant numbers of churches and pastors. It simultaneously offers itself as an example of deep partnership between husbands and wives, and dismisses biblical instruction. What am I talking about? The widespread approach to pastoral ministry where a husband and a wife “co-pastor” a local church.
Co-pastoring in this case refers to churches where the male pastor and his wife are listed as equal pastors of the flock. Since that article above was written sixteen years ago, co-ed co-pastors are touted as something acceptable – desirable even. Recently, then-retiring pastor Rick Warren chose a duo replace him, sparking a brouhaha and subsequently splitting the Southern Baptist Convention meeting over this contentious issue.
These two are not married but are in a co-ed, egalitarian pastorate.
Not just co-pastor, but co-SENIOR pastor.
V. Osteen: co-pastoring, which dilutes her motherly duties, is not a good trade.
I remember the Presidential election of 1992. Bill Clinton was running. His wife is Hillary Clinton. Clinton used to brag that “America was getting two for the price of one.”
It was during the 1992 presidential campaign that Arkansas governor Bill Clinton — the nation’s first baby-boomer presidential candidate, running against President George H. W. Bush — used the phrase “two for the price of one.” This twofer concept was Clinton’s quaint way of bragging (to the delight of feminists) that his wife, Hillary, an accomplished corporate lawyer and fellow Yale Law School graduate, was going to play a major role in his administration well beyond that of a traditional First Lady. (National Review) emphasis mine
How did that work out for them? Hillary led a Health Care Reform that crashed spectacularly and she was publicly humiliated. Then Whitewater Scandal happened and things got worse.
From the moment she dazzled Capitol Hill last autumn (‘In future the President will be known as your husband,’ Dan Rostenkowski, who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, gushed at one appearance) Hillary has been her plan’s most potent weapon. No longer. In Washington more than anywhere, vulnerability equals weakness. Today Hillary Clinton is vulnerable; so, therefore, is Bill Clinton. ‘Two for the price of one’ has turned from blessing into curse. (The Independent UK, 1994
America was not impressed with the twofer Presidency. Even less so, are biblically obedient to the Bible Christians impressed with a twofer pastorate.
Simply put, the Bible forbids women preaching. Church teaching is meant for the men to execute. The leading is to be done by the men.
I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. (1 Timothy 2:12).
Elders/overseers/pastors are to be “above reproach”, and “a man”. (Titus 1:5-8).
Installing a “twofer” pastorate, whether both are paid or not, formal or informal, defacto or explicit, is unbiblical.
At a Grace Community Church Q&A a man asked John MacArthur,
I’m so glad I have a Savior who is eternal. Because He is eternal, He is independent, self-sustaining, and forever self-sufficient. He is outside of time and matter, therefore He is the I AM, as seen in these statements-
I AM the Bread of Life (John 6:35, 41, 48, 51); I AM the Light of the World (John 8:12); I AM the Door of the Sheep (John 10:7, 9); I AM the Good Shepherd (John 10:11,14); I AM the Resurrection and the Life (John 11:25); I AM the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6); I AM the True Vine (John 15:1, 5).
And these absolute statements:
Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” (John 8:58)
God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ” (Exodus 3:14).
Praise Him today for one of His attributes. Or all of them!
I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes. ~Job
To possess dignity is to be worthy of respect. Worthy of high esteem. Absorb this: you are worthy of respect. ~Beth Moore
“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” ~Isaiah
Be kind to yourself. Be compassionate to yourself. Be loving to yourself. Be patient with yourself. Have the courage to be yourself. ~Christine Caine
But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” ~ Simon Peter
Who you are is more important than what you are called to do. ~Priscilla Shirer
Man was created to glorify God. (Isaiah 43:7). Our inherited sin nature makes it impossible to do that without His redemptive work in our heart. It’s important to see ourselves as we are (were). Ladies, yes, it’s good to have “self-esteem” to the extent that we know who we are: We’re sinners, saved by grace alone.
Women’s Ministries these days over-emphasize that we are women of valor, courage, of worth, esteem, and bravery. We’re princesses, running around sunlit meadows in wedding dresses dripping pearls.
Or we are as Isaiah, Job, and Peter saw themselves when they saw God: as worms in the dust, sinning with the pigs and needing to rely totally on the Father for any scrap of righteousness we might possess.
Praise the Lord He came, died for sin, was buried and resurrected. He glorified the Father and His reward will be…us. The Father will give Him a Bride, redeemed and washed. It is all about the Trinity and His work. It is not about us, our worth, our esteem, dignity, or “who we are.”
O Lord, depart from me, I am a sinful woman. Yet He lifted me from the muck and mire and gave me His righteousness, robes, Spirit, and future. From that moment, when I search inside myself to see my worth, esteem, or dignity, what I see is His.
You know the story of Esther and her Uncle Mordecai. She was a Jewess in Persia who was chosen via contest by King Ahasuerus to be his wife. Except that Ahasuerus didn’t know she was Jewish and when evil Second-in-Command Haman whispered to Ahasuerus to make a decree killing all the Jews, she was then in a real bind. It all had started when Uncle Mordecai, who had by then been promoted to an inside the court job in the King’s administrative palace, refused to bow to Haman. Though apparently Mordecai had lived a fairly secular life, and perhaps for a while had traded wealth, influence, and power for Yahweh, when pressed, his faith rose up and he came through. It was his defining moment. Who will he bow to? Not Ahasuerus. God only. Mordecai chose. Haman reacted.
“All the royal officials at the king’s gate knelt down and paid honor to Haman, for the king had commanded this concerning him. But Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor. Then the royal officials at the king’s gate asked Mordecai, “Why do you disobey the king’s command?” Day after day they spoke to him but he refused to comply. Therefore they told Haman about it to see whether Mordecai’s behavior would be tolerated, for he had told them he was a Jew.” (Esther 3:2-4)
Soon after, Esther was faced with her defining moment. She could lay low, hiding her religion, but Mordecai told her,
“Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:13-14)
So then, her other option was to tell the truth, approach the king, and plead for her people, even at peril for her own life. It was a defining moment for Esther.
In the 1960s and 1970s Firestone had a jingle in which the last line included the now-familiar phrase “Where the rubber meets the road.” The phrase has come to mean not just good tires, lol, but a defining moment of truth, the most important point. It is like an Olympic Athlete who has trained for years, but everything only really counts at the moment of the race. Will he put all his training into a glorious and successful effort? Or will he stumble?
Is America approaching an Esther moment for her Christians living inside her borders? Is there a gathering storm? Will that moment reveal which kind of soil resides in our hearts? I think so. It may not happen today or tomorrow, but soon each Christian in America will have to choose his or her path in the public sphere. We have great privilege here in the US where we can gather on any Sunday, or any day, freely to worship our sovereign. We can claim Him as sovereign and proclaim Him as sovereign, without another competing sovereign quelling our exultation. We can share the Gospel in the public sphere and set up monuments, signs, statues, crosses or whatever we want in certain places, with or without permits in certain circumstances. We can pray in public and we can speak of Him to friend and stranger.
Don’t take these privileges for granted. Freedom to worship is being chipped away at and redefined every day. Be prepared for a chilling effect or even a forced cessation of them. We saw the attempts and even the successful thwarting of the church’s ability to gather in the so-called pandemic era of 2020-2021.
Individually, we have many defining moments day by day or week by week. There are little decisions we make that are either honoring to Jesus or are conscience violations due to compromise. These little decisions accumulate.
Eventually, though, we individually may be faced with a bid, more public decision to honor Jesus but suffer for it. Pastor James Coates did in Canada, and so did Pastor Tim Stephens, as well as the Elders of Grace Community Church in California when they defied the tyrannical government to remain open and worshiping during the so-called pandemic. Coates and Stephens counted the cost, and it was heavy. They were forcibly removed from their families and jailed. The GCC men were threatened with jail and hefty fines, though the court system eventually resolved that situation to the church’s good.
Less publicly, people lose their jobs every day these days for their stance for Christ. They are denied promotions. They are marginalized socially, even have crimes done against them, all for being a Christian.
Your time to make such a decision that has a heavy cost attached to it may come soon. Are you ready?
No matter what though, our King’s throne is secure and His Kingdom is permanent. His church will thrive no matter the man-made pressure brought to bear against it. His people will be brought home to freely worship Him forever.
For at that time I will change the speech of the peoples to a pure speech, that all of them may call upon the name of the LORD and serve him with one accord. (Zephaniah 3:9).
You do not have, because you do not ask. (James 4:2b)
So if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him! (Luke 11:13)
The second scripture above from Luke is a story Jesus delivered just after teaching the disciples ‘The Lord’s Prayer’, in the section on how to pray.
We know of the more familiar examples of Bible people asking things boldly. David, Jeremiah Habakkuk, Job, Hannah…they all asked for things of the Lord and did so honestly, with raw intensity. There is no doubt that they were sincere believers who felt awe and reverence for God. They feared Him. Yet when it came time to pour out their heart in naked emotion or bold prayer requests, they did.
Here is a less well known example of someone in the Bible asking for something of her (earthly) father, boldly. Achsah. Here she is in scripture, Judges 1:12-15,
EPrata photo
And Caleb said, “He who attacks Kiriath-sepher and captures it, I will give him Achsah my daughter for a wife.” 13And Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, captured it. And he gave him Achsah his daughter for a wife. 14When she came to him, she urged him to ask her father for a field. And she dismounted from her donkey, and Caleb said to her, “What do you want?” 15She said to him, “Give me a blessing. Since you have set me in the land of the Negeb, give me also springs of water.” And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.
Was Achsah too bold? Was she greedy? Was she rebellious in her asking when she should have remained meek and submissive? The Jamieson Fausset Commentary explains it this way
that is, when about to remove from her father’s to her husband’s house. She suddenly alighted from her travelling equipage—a mark of respect to her father, and a sign of making some request. She had urged Othniel to broach the matter, but he not wishing to do what appeared like evincing a grasping disposition, she resolved herself to speak out. Taking advantage of the parting scene when a parent’s heart was likely to be tender, she begged (as her marriage portion consisted of a field which, having a southern exposure, was comparatively an arid and barren waste) he would add the adjoining one, which abounded in excellent springs. The request being reasonable, it was granted; and the story conveys this important lesson in religion, that if earthly parents are ready to bestow on their children that which is good, much more will our heavenly Father give every necessary blessing to them who ask Him.
The last sentence of the commentary explanation harks back tot he verse from Luke above. And here is another short explanation of this small incident from Judges about Achsah, it is Matthew Henry from his Complete Commentary. The tenth commandment was “Do Not Covet.”
From this story we learn,
1. That it is no breach of the tenth commandment moderately to desire those comforts and conveniences of this life which we see attainable in a fair and regular way.
2. That husbands and wives should mutually advise, and jointly agree, about that which is for the common good of their family; and much more should they concur in asking of their heavenly Father the best blessings, those of the upper springs.
3. That parents must never think that lost which is bestowed upon their children for their real advantage, but must be free in giving them portions as well as maintenance, especially when they are dutiful. Caleb had sons (1 Chr. 4:15), and yet gave thus liberally to his daughter.
Ye have not because ye ask not! Now, just because we ask, doesn’t mean we will get what we ask. God is not a magic genie, bestowing upon us all that we desire. There are conditions to asking boldly of our Father in prayer. First, the rest of the James verse explains that sometimes we do not receive because we ask wrongly. If we are asking in order to indulge our passions, it will not be granted. If we regard iniquity in our heart, prayer will not be heard. (Psalm 66:18). There are other conditions, too, which if in place mean the prayer will not be heard, no matter how bold it is. (source with scriptures here,please look at the list).
Conclusion:
Prayer: Nothing is too great and nothing is too small to commit into the hands of the Lord!
— A. W. Pink
Our Father who is holy, will give good gifts. Be bold in prayer, be diligent in asking, be sure of the result.
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Further resources:
Sermon “Pray Boldly“, here John MacArthur explains the weird scene from Luke 11
jmac sermon “don’t be afraid to ask’
A number of you have said on Facebook or have emailed me that the times are certainly troubling you, and your spirits have wilted in discouragement. I always respond that there are two sure-fire ways to stay encouraged. No, three!
2. Stay in the word. Open your Bible and taste. Taste and see that the LORD is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him! (Psalm 34:8)
Those two disciplines keep your eyes on the Lord, which is both being obedient to Him and keeps us in His peace.
3. Listen to great sermons from credible Bible expositors. Hearing the word explained and participating in a joyful exposition is a wonderful way to stay encouraged. I recommend:
I know there are many other preachers and teaches who edify you and me, for example, Alistair Begg, Charles Spurgeon (audio reading of his sermons is available) and of course my/your own pastor, among many others.
I am adding a 4th mechanism to the list. I have been reading missionary biographies and I personally find them extremely encouraging! I hope you do too! For example, John G. Paton’s “Thirty Years Among the South Sea Cannibals” is a tremendous story that shows the difficulty of the spread of the Gospel (only 1 soil in four accepts it), the tribulations of missionaries, their total reliance on Jesus and how their faith increased because of it, their constant heavenward perspective, the beauty and celebration when a soul converts, and much more. Missionary stories humble me, make me grateful, and help me picture heaven
It is the Christ of the Bible which John G. Paton took with him to the New Hebrides Islands in 1858, to witness to the natives among the island group now known as Vanuatu. The book depicts Paton’s mission, a Scottish born man and called to minister to the cannibals of Tanna Island. Landing with his pregnant wife in 1858 he recounts the labors among “painted savages who were enveloped in the superstitions and cruelties of heathenism at its worst.” There’s joy when one native converted, weeping when there is betrayal by tomahawk or war club. Paton’s wife and child died, Paton himself was ill to near death many times from fevers and ague, and most other missionaries were killed outright. His life was threatened daily and the physical work of just staying alive was very trying. Yet Paton persisted lovingly in sharing Jesus’ Gospel with the natives, and also dispensed medicines and education.
Four years later, the natives loving Paton but hating “The Worship and his Jehovah,” caused Island-wide war to break out. He and two remaining missionaries were evacuated off the island. Paton spent some years in Australia and Scotland fundraising for the mission. He returned on the missionary ship Dayspring 4 years later.
There is much more. His personal story does have a happy conclusion. When he and his new wife returned, they re-settled on a different island, and over the course of many years successfully shared the Gospel and the natives were converted.
Here are a few sweet excerpts. Paton’s relationship with his father is beautiful.
that blessed custom of Family Prayer, morning and evening, which my father practised probably with out one single avoidable omission till he lay on his death bed, seventy -seven years of age; when, ever to the last day of his life, a portion of Scripture was read, and his voice was heard softly joining in the Psalm, and his lips breathed the morning and evening Prayer, falling in sweet benediction on the heads of all his children, far away many of them over all the earth, but all meeting him there at the Throne of Grace.
The first of many war scenes, early in the book:
Party after party of armed men going and coming in a state of great excitement, we were informed that war was on foot; but our Aneityumese Teachers were told to assure us that the Harbor people would only act on the defensive, and that no one would molest us at our work. One day two hostile tribes met near our Station ; high words arose, and old feuds were revived. The Inland people withdrew; but the Harbor people, false to their promises, flew to arms and rushed past us in pursuit of their enemies. The discharge of muskets in the adjoining bush, and the horrid yells of the savages, soon informed us that they were engaged in deadly fights. Excitement and terror were on every countenance ; armed men rushed about in every direction, with feathers in their twisted hair, with faces painted red, black, and white, and some, one cheek black, the other red, others, the brow white, the chin blue in fact, any color and on any part, the more grotesque and savage-looking, the higher the art! Some of the women ran with their children to places of safety; but even then we saw other girls and women, on the shore close by, chewing sugar-cane and chaffering and laughing, as if their fathers and brothers had been, engaged in a country dance, instead of a bloody conflict.
The beginning of the end, war breaks out and Paton fled, spending the night high in a tree above marauding cannibals.
Being entirely at the mercy of such doubtful and vacillating friends, I, though perplexed, felt it best to obey. I climbed into the tree, and was left there alone in the bush. The hours I spent there live all before me as if it were but of yesterday. I heard the frequent discharging of muskets, and the yells of the savages. Yet I sat there among the branches, as safe in the arms of Jesus. Never, in all my sorrows, did my Lord draw nearer to me, and speak more soothingly in my soul, than when the moonlight flickered among these chestnut leaves, and the night air played on my throbbing brow, as I told all my heart to Jesus. Alone, yet not alone! If it be to glorify my God, I will not grudge to spend many nights alone in such a tree, to feel again my Saviour’s spiritual presence, to enjoy His consoling fellowship. If thus thrown back upon your own soul, alone, all, all alone, in the mid night, in the bush, in the very embrace of death itself, have you a Friend that will not fail you then?
With no mission board to support or guide her, and less than ten dollars in her pocket, Gladys Aylward left her home in England to answer God’s call to take the message of the gospel to China. With the Sino-Japanese War waging around her, she struggled to bring the basics of life and the fullness of God to orphaned children. Time after time, God triumphed over impossible situations, and drew people to Himself. The Little Woman tells the story of one woman’s determination to serve God at any cost. With God all things are possible! Gladys lived from (1902-1970).
Through Gates of Splendor is the true story of five young missionaries who were savagely killed while trying to establish communication with the Auca Indians of Ecuador. The story is told through the eyes of Elisabeth Elliot, the wife of one of the young men who was killed.
Find some other missionary stories, there are many lists out there of “10 Missionaries every Christian ought to know” and so on. Many missionaries have gone forth. The more modern stories can be heard or read from Dispatches from the Front: Stories of Gospel Advance in the World’s Difficult Places. I am sure that their stories will inspire you and encourage you. We all need some encouragement in these days. I can’t wait to meet Paton, Nate Saint, Gladys Aylward, and all the rest in heaven!!
This week I saw a stunning photo from the Ark Encounter twitter stream. Then yesterday I found two books about Genesis, one was a scientific and devotional commentary on Genesis by Henry Morris of the Institute for Creation Research, and other other was by the same author of the science behind the creation flood. I love Genesis, especially the first 11 chapters, so it was on my mind.
Then I remembered I wrote this blog 6 years ago. It’s true today as it was then. Even more so, because an increasing number of theologians reject Young Earth and preach Old Earth or Gap Theory. I saw a Twitter poll the other day too, asking ‘if your pastor started preaching old earth, would you leave?’ I thought about it a long time. So these issues have been on my mind.
Years and years of Sunday School, VBS, and Children’s lessons about Noah’s ark like this…
…have led thousands and thousands of people to believe Noah’s ark was a cute little tub happily bounding along the sunny seas, and not the serious event that it was. I personally rate it as the third most serious event in the humankind’s history, after the Fall and the Crucifixion.
Ken Ham and the Creation Museum folks have built an Ark to biblical size. Guess what? In the face of this world’s current love affair with massive buildings, its penchant for tremendous construction projects, and its historical stunning size (it was twice as long as Caligula’s ships at Nemi) the fact is, at 510 feet long and 7 storeys high the Ark is the biggest timber frame structure in the world today. Imagine how stupendously awesome the structure would have been to the ancients. The pyramids were not built yet.
The above picture (the cover of a children’s biblical storybook) displays the unfortunate reduction in majesty and scope of the entire Noah/Flood/Judgment event. Below is the reality.
Credit: Ark Encounter photo
The post from Ark Encounter explains the photo above:
“@ArkEncounter: Our strategically placed viewing area in front of the lake allows guests to take in a spectacular view of the Ark and its reflection. This site is one of the most popular locations for family and large group photographs.”
Picture storybook illustrations are just as much a part of the recounting as the words. Be mindful of the diminishing of the seriousness of the event with the illustrations you share.
It seems that every day we awaken to a new tragedy. Maui fires, extreme heat, store shooting, hurricane…
How can this happen, people wonder. Why does this keep happening, people wonder. It happens because of sin. Man is born a sinner, and it is only God’s common grace that retrains every man from murdering every day. However, God’s restraining grace is lifted as He abandons a nation.
So, man turns to false religion to help him restrain the evil in him. But this does not work, either. The harder man tries, the more he fails.
“False religion cannot restrain sin in the heart, although it can mask it with self-righteousness.” Principles of God’s Judgment
When an individual or a nation resists the Law, the conscience, and common grace in creation long enough, God gives them over to the lusts of their heart.
“God will abandon sinners to their own choices and the consequences of those choices. And just what is this abandoning act on God’s part, it is the removal of restraining grace. It is when God lets go and turns a society over to its own sinful freedoms and the results of those freedoms. No Scripture more directly confronts this abandonment and its consequences than Romans 1 does.” When God Abandons a Nation
Three times you have the statement, “God gave them over.” This term paradidomiin the Greek can have a judicial sense. It can be used of a judgment made on a criminal who was then handed over for punishment. Each of these phrases expresses the fact that the wrath of God has acted judicially to sentence sinners. It is God officially giving them over. It is God letting them go to the uninterrupted cause and effect their sinful choices produce. When this judgment falls, there is a depriving of restraining grace and sin runs rampant through a society. When God Abandons a Nation
And false religion includes the atheist and agnostic, the ‘no-choice’ person, because those are just religion of self. This is why we need Jesus, all people do. The sin of man is inherent in his heart and only Him from above who is without stain can resolve our sin problem. All men need the Gospel.
The Gospel is not “having purpose in your life”. It is not “accepting Jesus” or praying a prayer. The Gospel which everyone needs is good news, as Ligonier explains:
“The gospel is called the ‘good news’ because it addresses the most serious problem that you and I have as human beings, and that problem is simply this: God is holy and He is just, and I’m not. And at the end of my life, I’m going to stand before a just and holy God, and I’ll be judged. And I’ll be judged either on the basis of my own righteousness–or lack of it–or the righteousness of another. The good news of the gospel is that Jesus lived a life of perfect righteousness, of perfect obedience to God, not for His own well being but for His people. He has done for me what I couldn’t possibly do for myself. But not only has He lived that life of perfect obedience, He offered Himself as a perfect sacrifice to satisfy the justice and the righteousness of God.”
“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:15)
The sad truth is that man is not good. This is not an anomaly. The man who shot the elementary students at Sandy Hook, the man who shot the movie-goers in the theater in Colorado, the who shot the homosexual club-goers in Orlando … at Dollar General… this IS man.
“America seems ripe for judgment”… The discerners of the church body have been saying ‘judgment in America’ for a while. I know I have. In 2010 I’d written that America seemed to have passed the “point of no return. Before the Economic Crash of 2008, all had been going along like it had been in this country. America was strong and mighty and seemingly invincible. Warning that judgment was coming soon was met with strange looks and shaking of heads. No brimstone was falling, after all. Just because we don’t see brimstone falling from the sky does not mean we as a nation are not experiencing judgment.
Many people think of judgment as the kind that occurred at Sodom and Gomorrah: brimstone from the sky and obliteration of the entire city. (Genesis 19:24). And that IS one kind of judgment.
Bible Fact: There are 13 mentions of brimstone (sulfur) in the Bible. Six mentions are in the Old Testament. Seven mentions are in the New Testament. Of the 7 mentions of brimstone in the NT, six are in Revelation.
The wrath of God is not one-dimensional. There are in fact many different kinds of wrath that God displays. Hosea 5:12 says “He is as a moth to Ephraim or or dry rot to Judah”, working silently and invisibly. In his 2012 sermon “When God Abandons a Nation“, John MacArthur outlined five distinct kinds of wrath the Lord has displayed throughout the Bible.
1. Eternal wrath: that is the punishing eternal, judgment God brings upon sinners in their death. 2. Eschatalogical wrath: God’s stored-up anger unleashed at the end of this present age upon the world, promised by Old Testament saints, outlined at length in Jesus’ Olivet Discourse, and seen unfolding through Revelation. 3. Cataclysmic wrath: These are tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes, etc., the result of sin and the curse upon the world. 4. Consequential wrath: this is a person receiving the just due for their actions while on earth, the sowing and reaping. 5. Abandonment: This is the wrath seen in Romans 1:18-32. MacArthur preached, “God will abandon sinners to their own choices and the consequences of those choices. And just what is this abandoning act on God’s part, it is the removal of restraining grace. It is when God lets go and turns a society over to its own sinful freedoms and the results of those freedoms. No Scripture more directly confronts this abandonment and its consequences than Romans 1 does.”
A Hillary Clinton presidency would be a Jezebel judgment in my opinion. A Kamala Harris Vice-Presidency is also indicative of judgment, as Isaiah 3:12 seems to indicate.
MacArthur said in that 2012 sermon that “It’s pretty convincing that God has abandoned our nation.” God has done so in the past to other nations, many times. In Hosea 4:17 it is recorded that God said, “Ephraim is joined unto idols, let him alone.” America isn’t special that we should not expect the same treatment as other rebellious nations when we abandon Him.
In Acts 14:16, the Apostle Paul said, “In the generations gone by, He…God…permitted all the nations to go their own way.” This is the story of history. All the nations of history go their own way. So like the nations of old, like the nations past, we follow the same cycle of having the truth, rejecting the truth and being abandoned by God. ~MacArthur
Can you think of a worse wrath than for God to leave you alone? Whether He is abandoning you as an individual or as a nation, it is a deeply disturbing thought. In Romans 1:18-32,
Three times you have the statement, “God gave them over.” This term paradidomiinthe Greek can have a judicial sense. It can be used of a judgment made on a criminal who was then handed over for punishment. Each of these phrases expresses the fact that the wrath of God has acted judicially to sentence sinners. It is God officially giving them over. It is God letting them go to the uninterrupted cause and effect their sinful choices produce. When this judgment falls, there is a depriving of restraining grace and sin runs rampant through a society. (Source)
Do the people of a nation under the wrath of abandonment know it is happening when it is happening? Non-believers don’t of course, and even most believers don’t. But the Prophets certainly did, and it was a deep lament to them.
Cut off your hair and throw it away; take up a lament on the barren heights, for the LORD has rejected and abandoned this generation that is under his wrath. (Jeremiah 7:29)
And so, we are under His wrath. That brings the question…is there any hope? … [T]here is a word of hope in Psalm 81…This is a plaintive cry from God who says, “Oh that My people would listen to Me, that Israel would walk in My ways.” The key, listen to Me. Walk in My ways. The only hope for this or any other society is to hear the Word of the Lord and obey it, to hear the Word of the Lord and obey it. And I would suggest that this is not a good time for weak men preaching weak messages in weak churches. This is a time for bold and powerful strong biblical ministry that calls people to hear the Word of the Lord and respond. This is the only hope for any people for any individual.
The day is sobering and the times are troubling. We all strive to display the joy of Christ in our daily life, to persevere in and aura of hope and peace. We know to be gentle and humble, and to love our friend, neighbor and enemy. But there is no doubt that the times demand of us a careful attention to the Bible and its paths, more than ever in fact.
We don’t like to be downers but we also don’t ignore the fact that we are living in difficult times that are on the precipice of being massively more difficult soon. We know that God created each person on earth specifically and for a specific purpose in their era. If I am here now, for just such a time as this, what can I do to both advance the kingdom like I’m supposed to, and also prepare for the times ahead? We must do our diligence to lift Jesus’ name to the highest with all our strength, soul, mind, and heart.
the-end-time.org 