Monogamy – Is it Natural or Impossible?

For this section we will address two perspectives held by people in the world and in the church with regards to monogamy. The first perspective is that monogamy is unnatural because men want to spread their genetics with as many women as possible. The second perspective is that men are wired for monogamy, but have perverted their own minds through lust and driven themselves to want multiple women. Consider both and decide for yourself if you believe that monogamy is natural, unnatural or a combination of both

“But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.”

1 Corinthians 7:2

“Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach”.

1 Timothy 3:2

Defining Terms: Before we begin we must define terms. We will take an extreme, scorched earth definition of what it means to desire other women. In this section whenever you read a statement about a man “desiring another woman”, it means that he wants her physically. That is all. If a man is physically attracted to a woman and wants to ahve sex with her, that is desire.

Perspective I: Monogamy to one woman is to be strived for, even though it is unnatural.

A Man does not want to commit. By “want” I mean that his biology does not desire commitment. Men want limitless women. Do not be deceived by what you have heard growing up in the church, a man is one part flesh and one part soul. More accurately, man is a soul clothed in the weakness of flesh (1 Corinthians 15:44-49). 

Man’s biology pushes him towards multiple sexual partners over his life, and anyone who denies this denies reality.

There is no shortage of men in the church who want to tell you that you should “desire” monogamy or that you are wired for it. Such men are weak and have the testosterone levels of 90 year old men. It is easy for these men to desire only one woman when the hormone responsible for sexual desire is non-existent in them. 

Though we as men have a physical nature that desires multiple women, we must limit ourselves  to one woman through discipline and virtue. Very few men are convinced that this sexual limitation is as rewarding as religious men claim, which explains why so few men wait for marriage. 

Because what married man would confess that marriage is not as satisfying as advertised and risk having his supply of sex cut off? Not a soul. What man alive would say that the majority of the marital benefits go to the woman while the primary object of value a man receives is sex? No man alive would dare say such things in fear that the sex he prizes so highly would be taken away. 

This is man’s predicament.

The wife has the most valuable and powerful bargaining chip available and the man must remain submissive in order to receive it. That may not be how your marriage is, but that is certainly how most young Christian men perceive marriage. And they have testosterone deficient men in the religious world to thank for that attitude. 

And also, the above situation is the worst-case scenario. I am well aware that not every marriage is like that and that men do receive more of value than sex out of the marriage relationship. But you must also realize that the way young men perceive marriage and the way many women behave causes men to think negatively about marriage as previously mentioned.

50% of men would not have gotten married if they knew their marriage would be sexless”.

Maureen, Mcgrath –

TEDx. (2016, July 6). No Sex Marriage. Maureen McGrath [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVgzOyHVcj4&feature=emb_title

If you honor your wife properly and are masculine then your fears of a sexless marriage will not come to pass, or so you are told. Most women want to please. If a man is in a marriage where he is not getting any sex then it is his fault. Because he is either not treating her in a way that makes her feel loved and comfortable, he is not masculine and submits to her or he married a selfish and contentious woman, making the decision to get married with his penis and not with his rational mind. He will complain about monogamy and be the source of the marriage jokes you hear in the church. Do not emulate this man who makes jokes about marriage, he embodies inadequacy. Young men are regularly leaving the church because of this weak man’s influence

Why marry a Christian woman and get no sex when there is all the free ‘love’ I could ever want out in the world?”. How is the church supposed to compete with that logic? The marriage jokes men make are doing no favors for the church. 

Monogamy is possible, but it is not natural. Very few of God’s requirements for us are natural. They go against what our flesh naturally wants, requiring us to reject the weakness of the flesh for the purpose of attaining higher spiritual goals. You can commit to one woman. It is not natural, but it is possible. 

If you have grown up in the church and been properly conditioned on how marriage “should be”, this section may anger you. This argument goes against everything you have ever heard about marriage and the sexual relationship “in the context of marriage”. Women are supposed to desire good men and want to be with them according to the religious man. 

Let’s be clear, whether Christian or secular, no woman will have an organic sexual desire for an effeminate man.

Yet the majority of men in the religious world today are effeminate and are trained to be so by individuals twisting the Scriptures to their own destruction (2 Peter 3:14-18). We have vilified success and made poverty a virtue (see “Success”). The religious word glorifies cowardice and labeled courage as “pride”. Religious individuals degrade mastery of skill while suggesting that the Bible is the only thing a Christian should master (these are the same people who read their bibles twice a year). Almost all sexual problems in Christian marriages could be solved if men would find and use their testicles and be men. You do not have to be married to understand this fact.

Perspective II: Men are wired for monogamy, but many have polluted their minds so that they desire multiple women.

This is another possible explanation for why men are unfaithful to their wives or are desiring multiple partners. 

A man’s sex drive is like a fire that grows larger when more fuel is added to it. If you are ‘checking out’ every woman that walks by and thinking about what it would be like to get her in bed, you are adding fuel to a massive fire. It then becomes incredibly easy to let that fire rage out of control.

Be honest with yourself. If you are checking out every woman, you are thinking about getting in bed with them. If you think about bedding them, you have mentally walked through detailed fantasies about what that sexual encounter would be like. Remember that when you imagine something extremely vividly, your brain thinks it is real. So now your brain thinks you are just having sex with every single woman you see. 

Men, if your brain cannot tell whether you are actually having sex or not, then it is going to be far easier to actually have sex with a woman if you are put into that situation.

Because you’ve already “had sex” hundred of times before. What’s another woman to you? You have had hundreds of partners. As a results it becomes an irrelevant matter whether or not you should have sex with another woman who is not your wife. You built this massive sex drive by polluting your own mind. 

God never intended for your sex drive to be out of control. But with every billboard and advertising attacking you from all sides, your fire grows no matter what you do. The sexual urge was meant for more than just sex. Any man who has read Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich remembers the chapter on sexual transmutation. This chapter outlines how men can convert their sexual urge to creative energy in order to generate wealth. You can call it “woo-woo” if you want, but men have been using their masculine energy to build, create and go to war since the dawn of creation. 

Before you try to say that monogamy is unnatural for men, first consider whether or not you have taken your naturally monogamous mind and rewired into a polygamous mind by having mental sex with hundreds of women.

The brain rewires itself based on your habits, this is known as neuroplasticity. If you are having sex with multiple partners multiple times per day, your brain will wire itself to think that is normal behavior and to seek that out. If you want to be monogamous, you have to fix your polygamous mind at the root. We will go over this in the application section.

Mantra

Forever Faithful.

monogamy

Application I

If you think monogamy is unnatural, then you subject yourself to your own desires. You will always be at war with your flesh and that is fine. The following list is a set of non-negotiable rules you must employ if you want to maintain sexual discipline.

I. Never under any circumstances be alone with a woman who is not your wife. If you are the only ones in the house, you need to excuse yourself and leave. 

Some women make this rule difficult to follow because if the man leaves, the woman will think “Oh wow, this guy has such a problem with wanting sex that he can’t even be in the same room as me”. This though is the result of the religious world being dishonest with women about exactly what it is to be a man with regards to sex. If a woman knew what was going on in a man’s head, she would never question modesty or these rules again. 

Because of the woman’s attitude, the man cannot win in this situation. He either sits and endures temptation or he gets called a dog. Be a man, get called a dog and leave the house. Any woman who calls you a dog for tactically retreating away from sexual immorality is not worth marrying or being associated with.

II. You cannot “just be friends” with a woman.

This rule may spark a lot of controversy and even get you some heat, but you must apply it. One of my most basic principles of life is the following:

A woman can “just be friends” with a man, but a man cannot “just” be friends with a woman.

This principle is set in stone. 

In other words, there is always a sexual component to every single relationship a man is involved in (excluding family) even if that component is very small. When a girl says she wants to “just be friends”, what a man hears is that if he is good and on his best behavior then eventually he may qualify to be “more than just friends”. 

A man will not remain friends with a woman unless he thinks there is a chance of sexual intimacy at some point in time.

If only he can be a good boy and earn the affections of his lady friend, then he will get the intimacy he wants. When in fact this is precisely the beta-male attitude that lands men in sexless marriages to begin with. Be a highly masculine man, not an effeminate man who has to qualify for women’s attention.. 

So again, even though a woman can usually maintain a platonic relationship with a man, it is not possible for that friendship to flow in the other direction. A man will not even talk to a woman unless he is sexually attracted to her. It is not possible for a man to have a platonic relationship with a woman unless he is a eunuch. This is not chauvinistic, it is simply human nature. 

III. When you go out in public, you must suddenly take great interest in the ground, the sky and buildings.

This is an extreme principle, but if you think monogamy is unnatural, then you need to work on not looking at women for a time so your rabbit brain can settle itself down. In your current state, if you look at a woman, you will very soon be lusting after that woman. You are in that habit so you need to give your brain time to rewire itself. 

When you walk around in public just look around at non-people objects. You will be hard pressed to find a self-respecting woman who wears more than dental floss and bandaids walking around the public square. Treat every area like a warzone of temptation. Secular women have become sexually emboldened in the past decades, so you have to constantly be on the lookout. As soon as you notice one of these women, take great interest in the architecture of the nearest building. 

IV. Short-circuit patterns of sexual thought. 

You will inevitably have sexual thoughts. What you need to do is short-circuit them by injecting some completely unrelated thought once you notice yourself going down the mental sex-path. This only works if you have enough self-awareness to notice that you are mentally having sex with women. So make sure you are building awareness through the exercises in this book. 

Once you notice what you are thinking about, turn your thoughts to something different. It needs to be something highly stimulating because it is hard to take your mind from thinking about sex to thinking about poetry. Instead, turn your focus to food, drop and do some pushups even if you are in public (the embarrassment alone may help you make a huge leap of progress), listen to fast or aggressive music or start doing some strange viking chant. It does not matter what you do in these moments as long as you are converting your mind to better thoughts. 

V. When you get married, you are done interacting with women for the rest of your life.

Interaction is a breeding ground for sexual relationships. I know that statement sounds extreme, but no sexual encounter happens before relationships have been established by talking. Unless you are assembling with the saints, I would encourage you away from interacting with women. Again, this principle mainly applies to individuals who take the position that monogamy is not natural. 

Application II

If you think monogamy is natural and men have polluted their minds with lust, then let us look at how this can be undone.

Recall that the brain rewires itself through neuroplasticity. So no matter how entrenched in the habit of mentally undressing the women you see, it can be undone. Read the principles above and apply them at least in the beginning stages of rewiring your mind. While you may not take an extreme position on interacting with women, those rules can kick start your new habit of mental discipline.

Always begin your change with awareness. There are many instances where awareness alone is curative. Some men are able to stop mentally undressing women just because they become constantly aware of their own minds. When you have self-awareness, you have self-control. 

Conclusion

Commit to one woman for life and be faithful. You must avoid all instances in which you would be tempted to stray from your woman. Even though you tell your wife that other women are “no factor” and that they do not tempt you, we all know that is a lie. Unless you are effeminate, then eventually they will tempt you, and you will have to strain to be faithful. 

In most cases it is better to stay away from other women completely (as mentioned above). They have nothing to offer you besides destruction. They will not advance your career or grant you power, they will only break down your power base and leave you with nothing (Proverbs 6:26). Therefore, avoid women who are not your wife except in public gatherings such as the assembly. 

Be faithful to one woman. 

Do not stray.

Build your own relationship. 

Conduct yourselves like men. 

Honesty – Delivering the Truth

Honesty is missing in the church because the truth is painful for both the man who speaks it and the man who hears it. A man is always looking to avoid or reduce his pain, so he sacrifices virtue for the sake of comfort. He throws away righteousness for the sake of safety. We cannot behave this way. There is no character growth in the comfort zone. No one ever improved himself through pleasure. Character is not developed in ease of life. Your character is developed when you make decisions with real world consequences.  

“Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who act faithfully are his delight”

Proverbs 12:22

“Better is a poor person who walks in his integrity than one who is crooked in speech and is a fool.”

Proverbs 19:1

“Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices”

Colossians 3:9

Back to the principles of honesty, one reason we must be honest is because the adversary is dishonest. The devil is a liar and the sons of the devil are liars (John 8:44). 

Lying is the verbal manifestation of cowardice. 

The liar is a worm of a man and he is the living embodiment of all that is despised by masculinity. There is no excuse for lying. Neither are there excuses for “white lies”. No evil can be justified in a way in which the evil is removed. Even if evil is done for a “good reason”, it is still evil. Even if we are lying to “protect others”, we are still lying, and in truth, we are likely only protecting ourselves from pain. Therefore, we must be completely honest at all times.  

This is not to say we should embrace brute honesty, for that profits very little unless used on specific personality types that respond well to the blunt truth.

We should be merciful and gentle when we administer the truth to an individual, just as a doctor is gentle when he administers an injection to a patient. The doctor does not ram the needle into the patient’s arm as hard as he can, there would be no profit in that. We ourselves must be strategic in the way we verbally package the truth: never diluting or sugar coating it, but never soaking it in vinegar either. 

Christ was always honest with others, always prioritizing the truth over the emotions of the person who is hearing the truth. He knew that a person offended by truth simply has too much ego to accept what He had to say, at least in the moment in which He said it. We should evaluate the person we are speaking to. How big is his ego? How well can he accept the truth of a statement? The answers to these questions then give us an idea of how to package the truth. And it varies from circumstance to circumstance.

Perhaps this person needs to have his ego brought down a few notches, and so you decide to give him the full, blunt truth as Christ did with the Pharisees on occasion (Matthew 12:34, 23:27). Perhaps the individual is hypersensitive to words and will completely shut down if he is given the truth in a blunt way, so you cloak the truth he needs with words of encouragement or complimentary statements to soften the hit. Whatever you decide to do, you must be strategic. But above all, you must be honest.

Be completely Honest in all that you do” ~ Marine Boot Camp: Introductory Speech

The honest man also does not avoid situations in which he must confess to what he has done. He does not hide the truth or attempt to justify what he did, he merely confesses, accepts punishments and improves himself as a result. This is painful. Remember that pain almost always equals growth. Do not hide or cover up the truth because that is for the weak. 

Mantra

Be completely honest in all that you do.

honesty

Application

To use honesty strategically is the primary idea of this section. This section was similar to “Truth” so you can refer there to get a different perspective on the same concept.

Strategic honesty involves assessing the person you are speaking to and gauging how you should deliver honest statements to him.

You must always be honest no matter what. How direct, confrontational or “offensive” you are will vary from person to person. Some people need to be punched in the face with truth before they will ever make a change. These are the same people who never change an unhealthy lifestyle until they are diagnosed with a disease. 

Other people will never change if they are hit with a painful truth. There is a difference between sugar coating the truth and delivering a hard truth in a soft manner. You must use your knowledge of people to determine how you will act. No matter what, you must be honest. 

If you are caught in a fault, confess it. Never be dishonest or you will damage your reputation and character. Those are invaluable pieces of your individuality so do not lessen their worth. 

Never hide what you have done wrong.

Never lie. 

And never deceive. 

Be the bearer of truth and a beacon of honesty in a weak, effeminate and dishonest world. 

Conduct yourselves like men.

Homosexuality – No More Pandering

Unlike the common statements made in the secular and religious world, the Bible has much to say about homosexuality. Never let it be said that “But the Bible doesn’t talk about homosexuality” because it most certainly does.

“You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.”

Leviticus 18:22

“If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.”

Leviticus 20:13

“Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

1 Corinthians 6:9-11

“For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.”

Romans 1:26-27

“Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.”

Jude 1:7

“Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine”

1 Timothy 1:8-10

Homosexuality is not new, but stupid people in the religious world treat it as if it were some brand new evil concocted by liberals and hippies.

Let us go back in time and take a look at some of the early recorded instances of homosexuality in the Bible. 

Perhaps the first recorded instance is with Sodom and Gomorrah. There is also the strong possibility that the people of the world during the time of Noah were deeply embedded in homosexuality. The ancient, evil city of Sodom is where we get our word “sodomy”. That city was destroyed by God for its evil. 

Later on in the Bible we find out that cult prostitutes were in the land of Israel, and they were a blight to the Israelites.

Whenever Israel left God, it was because pagan worship included sex. The reason we keep mentioning this fact is because sex itself is the prime reason that Israel forsook God again and again. If you ever hear some perplexed soul asking the popular question, “I don’t know why Israel kept associating with the pagans especially after they had seen God do miracles. What was wrong with those people? Did they ever learn anything?” Sex, friend, it is because if they left God they were rewarded with sex. That fact is one of the few useful bits of information I acquired during my college years. But not only were there female prostitutes, there were also male ones for the effeminate Israelites. 

People choose homosexuality today for more reasons than simple “orientation”. I argue that one of the reasons men practice homosexuality is because it is the only way they can get any attention from the world.

In the modern world a homosexual is deified and praised for “coming out”. They are lavished with attention and commended for their “bravery”. This type of response propels more people to come out as deviants. They may not even have strong homosexual desires, but they are strongly attracted to all the attention they would acquire if they practice homosexuality. Because these people were getting zero attention in their daily lives, they think they will be the center of the universe if they are homosexuals. 

A man can be a complete nobody who is worthless to the world and who feels no sense of belonging to anyone. But the instant he says he is attracted to other men, the world worships and praises him.

Homosexuals have their own support and celebration groups and the new man gets more attention than he has ever received in his life. Being homosexual guarantees attention for men who were otherwise too worthless to gain that attention themselves. This is addictive and is the business model of social media. 

Before we continue to make notes about homosexuality, let us observe a very important point: The religious world makes the mistake of separating homosexuality from other forms of sexual deviance. Homosexuality is not worse than fornication (sex outside of marriage) or adultery (sex where one partner is married to someone else), it is simply less common. All forms of sexual immorality are evil. 

There are whores in the religious world, and this is just as much of a problem as homosexuality. 
There are adulterous men and women in the church, and this is just as much of a disease as homosexuality. 

Look around you the next time you are in the church. You are almost guaranteed to see someone who is dealing with homosexual urges. Do you cast him or her out or do you help them live righteously? There are people who have same-sex urges just as most men deal with temptation from women other than their wives. We should not treat these temptations as different entities. Sexual temptation is sexual temptation – all sexual immorality is wrong and all of it should be destroyed. Adultery, fornication and homosexuality are forms of sexual deviance and are sin. 

Now that we have examined the Biblical position on homosexuality, let us understand why it is not masculine to be homosexual.

To help clarify this, I will extensively quote an author who explains this perfectly. This is Jack Donovan from The Way of Men whom we have referenced before. 

“The Tactical problems presented by the appearance of weakness as a group explain, to an extent, the visceral response many men have to displays of flamboyant effeminacy. The word effeminacy is a bit misleading here, because it really isn’t about women.The dislike of what is commonly called effeminacy is about male status anxiety and practical concerns about tactical vulnerabilities, and it is more accurate to discuss dishonor in terms of deficient masculinity and flamboyant dishonor.”

Donovan continues,

“Flamboyant dishonor is an openly expressed lack of concern for strength, courage and mastery within the context of an honor group composed primarily of other men.” 

“I’ve observed this in the few brief introductions I’ve had to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, in gyms where everyone rolls with everyone. Men find out quickly who is good, and who isn’t…The only way to improve your status within the group is to try harder and get better. Flamboyant Dishonor is a little bit like walking into that room full of men who are trying to get better at jiu-jitsu and insisting that they stop what they are doing and pay attention to your fantastic new tap-dancing routine. The Flamboyantly dishonorable man seeks attention for something the male group doesn’t value, or which isn’t appropriate at a given time. At the primal level, flamboyant dishonor presents tactical problems for the group. By outwardly and theatrically rejecting the core masculine values, particularly strength and courage, the flamboyantly dishonorable male advertises weakness and propensity for submission to outside watchers. Any student of human (and in many cases, primate) body language will be forced to recognize that the postures, gestures and intonations of males generally regarded as effeminate are in fact postures, gestures and intonations that communicate submissiveness.”

Interesting.

The man who rejects the Honor codes of the group can obviously not be trusted to ‘snap to’ in a state of emergency. Dishonor is disloyalty. A man who not only refuses to be as strong, courageous and competent as he can, but who flaunts these codes theatrically for all to see is a weak link. He makes his peers seem more vulnerable for tolerating vulnerability, and more cowardly for tolerating cowardice. He brings shame on the group, and with shame comes danger, because public displays of weakness and cowardice invite attack”

“This tactical reasoning goes a long way towards explaining why men who function successfully within male honor groups make a big show of rejecting and distancing themselves from males who are flamboyantly dishonorable. By expelling effeminate males from the group or by gaming them and pushing them to the fringes of that particular group, the group projects strength and unity. The group demonstrates that ‘we do not tolerate unmanly men here’”

“When men reject effeminate men they are rejecting weakness, casting it out, and cleansing themselves of its corrosive stigma”

I have nothing to add to this assessment of homosexuality presented by Jack Donovan.

Mantra

I am not my urges.

homosexuality

Application

Stop treating homosexuality differently than other forms of sexual immorality. Men will struggle more than women with homosexual desires because of the taboo nature of homosexuality. It is almost popular to be lesbian while it is shameful to be a male homosexual. 

The religious world must cultivate relationships that help others bring themselves to repent and live righteous lives. You cannot force people to repent. We tend to forget this fact. Relationships are the key vessels for evangelism and for inspiring others to come to repentance. If you want to reach someone, you must build a relationship with them. We cannot take God and sell Him door to door like a vacuum cleaner. People do not care what you have to sell them, even if it is salvation, unless they have a relationship with you. 

Many men become homosexual for the attention and relationships.

The church should work to provide the attention and friendships they are looking for without the sinful behavior. But the church can only do this if the members stop treating homosexuality like it is the only sexual sin in the world. If you want to wage war on homosexuality, you must also wage war against extramarital heterosexual sex and lust. All these enemies are allied and you must destroy every single one of them. 

Men cannot continue to pander to sexual sin. Whether homosexual or heterosexual, sexual immorality must be absolutely annihilated from our lives and the church.

We have a bad habit of not addressing sexual sin regularly, and as a result, people think it’s “not that big of a deal”. When people think something is not a big deal, their behavior devolves at a rapid rate. It doesn’t take long before they are snorting lines of cocaine off a hookers chest. Perhaps that is a slight exaggeration (but I do not think it is that much of a stretch considering the state that most youth groups are in).

If you struggle with homosexual urges, get some help froma  trustworthy and supportive source. You might be able to win this battle alone, but you may also need a counselor. See a professional, not one of those nonsense “certified” counselors in the church. Those men spent exactly one weekend doing some online training and printed out their certification on construction paper to make it look fancy. They have no practical experience or training and cannot help you. See a real counselor.

You must be intrinsically motivated to change.

It is not enough to want to change for family and the church, you yourself have to believe that there is a better life available to the man who rejects sexual sin and lives with sexual discipline. 

With a professional you might be able to find out what started you on this path and discover what the root of your struggle is. The same principle applies for heterosexual sin. Understanding why you have a problem is one of the most valuable tools you can have in your war. 

Secondly, see someone in your church or in nearby churches who has dealt with the same temptations. This may be difficult as men are usually not willing to admit they want to have sex with other men, but there will most likely be someone who wants to help you through your struggle. Having a friend or helper in your struggle will be a massive aid to you if you are too weak to win on your own. Just be vigilant and do not let that friendship turn into a homosexual escapade. If you fear that this could happen, avoid getting help and fight the war as a soldier on your own. This is a nasty battle, but you can win. 

Conduct Yourselves Like Men.

Existentialism

What is the reason men exist?

“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man’s all.”

Ecclesiastes 9:13

The weak in the Church think that faith is never questioned. In reality we are always wondering about and questioning our faith. The only people arrogant enough to think they have everything figured out are the atheists. Questions about the faith will inevitably lead many to ask questions about the purpose of life. Here is an oversimplified definition of existentialism: Asking questions to try to discover why it is that we exist. It is not immoral or irreverent to ask such questions. 

Hard Truth: Even if we think the answers about life are given in the Bible, that still does not mean the answers are satisfying. 

God did not tell us to be happy about His commands, many of them are difficult and restrictive. Reject the idea that Christianity is some fun thing you get to do. No. It is difficult. Part of Christianity is the constant psychological warfare between you and your doubts.

We will be forced to think about our faith and our life in ways we never anticipated. We will have to ask the dark, deep seated questions of our mind to attempt to try to find some justification for the evil we experience. Even the extremely righteous man Job was forced to question his life, and he regretted being born (Job 3). Given his situation, who wouldn’t?

Solomon diligently sought life’s purpose, which is the point of the book of Ecclesiastes. Solomon pursues everything he thinks might give him meaning in life. He chased sex, wealth and alcohol like most men. He chased food and enjoyment. Then e eventually comes to the conclusion that the only reason we are on earth is to fear God and keep His commandments. Again, that may not satisfy your longing inside, but it doesn’t have to. Chasing any kind of satisfaction on earth is moronic. 

Men question why we exist and the meaning of life. I provide a new question: Why does life need a meaning? 

Man always wants there to be “something more”, something to give meaning to the abyss of life. Because we think surely there must be something beyond this pit of pain known as life? That is the hope, but it cannot be objectively proven. This is why it is “hope and faith” rather than “reason and fact”. 

The question of the meaning of life is one that will last a lifetime, whether you have faith or not. It is not a weakness of faith to wonder why we exist even if the Bible tells us we exist for God (Proverbs 16:4). That answer will not satisfy every mind. But satisfaction of the mind does not matter. The answer to the question of why we exist does not matter. All that matters is that we do what is right. 

Mantra

Action matters more than purpose.

existentialism

Application

This is a very difficult section. No one wants to hear that there may not be a  purpose to life. But what is purpose other than another emotion? It is a feeling of traveling towards something that is worthwhile. You can feel purpose while chasing an oasis in the desert only to find that it was a mirage. 

Do not deify the idea of purpose, because even though you may feel purposed at times, it will not always be there. Most days you will have to keep working without any of the emotional backing of purpose.

This is what you must do as a man. 

Sure, you can acquire purpose in a wife and family, or you can train your mind to find purpose in faith. But like any other emotions, purpose will not continue indefinitely. This is why it is of the utmost importance to train yourself to not require those emotional boosts in every single discipline you take up for yourself. Action will always be more important than anything else. What you do matters infinitely more than how you feel. So pick yourself up. Focus your mind. Grind out the days. Be a Man.

Conduct Yourselves Like Men.

Angels – Walking among Men?

“For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.”

Psalm 91:11

“The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them”

Psalm 34:7

“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”

Hebrews 13:2

“Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?”

Hebrews 1:14

“Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Luke 15:10

People’s beliefs about angels are primarily speculative.

Though we do have a few places in scripture that suggest angels could be at work in the present moment, we do not literally see them. Even though we cannot prove that at this very moment, angels have active roles in our lives or in spiritual warfare, let us assume for this moment that there are angels and they are at work. How do they help us as men?

The Hebrew writer speaks about angels a great deal, using the beginning of the book to show the distinction between God the Son and the created angelic beings.

The end of chapter 1 states that angels minister to those who are going to inherit salvation. Based on this passage it seems that angels are active in some way in the lives of men. What exactly they do is something men should discuss.

An angel ministered to Christ when he was in the garden before His crucifixion. In that instance, it seems that the angel acted as a being of comfort for Christ. Therefore, one possibility for what angels do for man is to comfort them at various times.

This does not have to be active comfort but instead could be passive instead. In theory, an angel could be the cause of that sense of calm that comes over you in the middle of a moment of fear. We cannot prove this, we can only speculate. 

We know that based on scripture the angels rejoice in heaven when one sinner repents from his sin.

This was made clear by Jesus during His parable about the lost sheep (Luke 15:1-10). At the very least we can think that angels are cheering for us and are rooting for us to win the spiritual war while we are still alive. 

Theoretically, angels could be walking on Earth disguised as humans. I find this unlikely in the present day, but we know this happened in biblical times. The last chapter of Hebrews shows that in past times people have entertained strangers not knowing that they were really entertaining angels (Hebrew 13:2).

This is most likely an event of the past, but it is still interesting to think that perhaps we have interacted with an angel. They could simply be regular people. This, again, is mere speculation – just a thought experiment.

The Psalmist writes about angels and the Angel of the Lord many different times. Angels are comforters and aids. What they do in the modern day is still up for debate.

However, it may be comforting to you to think that you are not alone and that someone or something else is there to help. Again, this is not a very scientific belief, and there is not a great deal of evidence to build upon. For most Christians, belief in angels tends to be personal and speculative.

Mantra

None

angels


Application

None. Conduct yourselves like men.

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