At a Glance
While there is no such thing as “Toxic Masculinity,” the concept has wreaked havoc on men over the last 80 years. In the wake of second, and now third-wave feminism’s war against manhood, our understanding of what it means to be a man has faded.
Today, Dr. Owen Strachan talks about what it means to be a strong “Biblical Man,” and about his upcoming book, The War on Men. Discover why we need real men in our churches, pulpits, and communities.
What You'll Hear
- Introduction (1:18)
- Why did you write The War on Men? (4:26)
- What lies about masculinity does our society believe? (8:01)
- How does the church respond to people speaking up about biblical manhood? (19:02)
- Who’s currently defining masculinity? The church or our secular culture? (22:00)
- This has been a reaction to feminism (28:03)
- What does biblical manhood look like? (33:08)
- Men need a mission (38:22)
- Promise Keepers (40:42)
- Is the church’s emphasis on niceness helpful or a hindrance? (44:13)
- Men need a purpose (55:21)
- Practical applications (59:03)
Using the link above, you can read the transcript, listen along, and adjust the speed of the podcast while you listen.
Jesus shows us men that it is right to be both tough and tender.
Dr. Owen Strachan (34:28)
Go Deeper
- New book by Owen Strachan available for pre-order: The War on Men: Why Society Hates Them and Why We Need Them
- Owen Strachan (@ostrachan) on Twitter
- Owen Strachan (@profstrachan) on Instagram
- All books with Owen Strachan on Amazon
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The Grand Design course will surprise and delight you. Many participants find they are engaging elements of worldview and the biblical narrative in ways they never have before. Their self-understanding has improved, as they realize what it means to be transcendently and biologically male or female. This has breathed fresh life and purpose into areas that previously felt mundane and unimportant, and their family relationships have improved. It’s time that you discovered the Grand Design.
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Root-to-Fruit’s mission is based on a conviction that God’s truth has the power to transform individuals, organizations, communities and even nations. Organizations are transformed when its leaders and staff confront cultural lies, and instead embody and proclaim God’s biblical truths. Helping organizations to do this is the beating heart of our mission. Understanding a biblical worldview creates space for people to assess their own worldview in contrast to God’s truth. A biblical worldview begins with two foundational assumptions:
- Jesus is King over all, and
- His Word is truth.
When an organization disciples a culture built on a foundation of these twin truths, its leaders and staff begin to work in harmony, with a common language to flourish.
A biblically empowered worldview reconciles broken relationships with God, self, others and the environment. Out of a renewed sense of identity in God’s image, the leaders and staff improve their spiritual and physical livelihoods through individual responsibility, trust, respect and hard work. Leaders and staff together begin to define the desired transformation, own it and are accountable for the outcome.
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Have Christians underestimated the power of God’s truth to transform entire societies? In Discipling Nations, Darrow Miller builds a powerful and convincing thesis that God’s truth not only breaks the spiritual bonds of sin and death but can free whole societies from deception and poverty. Completely revised and updated for the third edition, Discipling Nations will challenge, reenergize, and equip Christians everywhere who labor to see His kingdom come, His will be done.Quotes
Owen, can you paint a picture for us of what biblical manhood looks like? (33:30)
I would say that Adam is made not as the perfect man, of course, he’s fallible in Eden, so he’s not perfect, just like Eve is not perfect, but he is made without sin. And he is called to lead, protect and provide. You see that in Genesis 2 in different ways. And so Adam really gives us a good sense of what a man is called to be and is made to be. He’s made to work and guard the garden (Genesis 2:15). He’s called into marriage. He’s the one who was supposed to hold fast to his wife (Genesis 2:24). So obviously, God has built a lot into Adam from the start.
And then of course, we know that manhood, as with humanity itself, comes to perfect expression in the man Christ Jesus. And Jesus is many things and has many virtues, and glorious abilities and traits.
But fundamentally, I would say, Jesus shows us men that it is right to be both tough and tender.
Jesus is the one who makes a whip of cords in John 2 and scourges the temple. Jesus is the one who is richly compassionate to women and children, who, for example, calls the little children to himself and indicates that they’re not bothering him as his disciples fear. He loves little children. So Jesus is not only tough, and Jesus is not only tender.
Sometimes today in our conversation about Jesus, we focus on how he was gentle and lowly in heart (Matthew 11:29). Well, that’s a glorious truth about Jesus–you just have to make sure that you don’t read that in a kind of cultural way, such that you end up with a soft Jesus in a cultural form, who is not also the Lion of Judah, who is not also the one who has come to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8).
So there’s so much we could say, all this manhood has to be powered by the gospel, you’re not truly a man in creational design until you’re born again. And when you’re born again, then you are enabled in the grace of God to glorify God in these roles of leader, protector and provider, especially. Unbelieving men can fill those roles, but again, you’re not living to the glory of God as a man until you’re regenerate–until you’re born again, you’re made new.
Now, that also doesn’t mean though, that when you’re born again, the conversation stops. All ‘being a man of God is,’ is being born again, no!–you’ve got a masculine body, you’ve got masculine duties, you need to conduct yourself in an appropriately masculine way. Anyway, these these things, a lot of them challenge all sides. It’s a huge discussion what biblical manhood is, but those are some of the core truths.
One Response
Here is a great article, just released today, from Nancy Pearcey: “How Rejecting Biblical Masculinity Turns Men From Protectors To Predators“