A Pastor's Review of Greg Locke's Movie, "Come Out In Jesus Name"

 

Over the past year I have watched from a distance as Greg Locke has become more and more committed to the concept of deliverance ministry. When I heard that he had a movie coming out on this topic I was intrigued and made plans to watch. I began watching several hours of Locke’s series on deliverance, as well as a couple of his guest preachers who are featured in the movie so that I could have some background.  

I want to say at the onset that it is my desire to be as gracious as I can as I give an honest review from a Pastor’s perspective. Although, I have to confess that if sarcasm is a spiritual gift, then I have a double portion. Sometimes it is hard for me to control the anointing, but it’s nothing personal. 

Before I get into it I need to establish a couple of things. First, I am a Baptist (as Locke said, “with a capital B-A-P-T-I-S-T”). I am also one of those sabretoothed cessationists (as Locke said, “who are bound by the demon of religion”). Although I do ask that my non-cessationist friends not cut me off. I watched a two hour movie, please give me the time to read this blog post. 

Second, I will try to be as accurate with names and quotes as I can possibly be. I’m having to go off memory since it was too dark in the theater to take notes, and it’s a copyright infringement to record any portions of the movie (and rude). That being said, I will gladly stand corrected if I misrepresent anyone. 

The Movie Itself. This movie is a documentary style journey through Greg Locke’s transformation from a cessationist into full blown deliverance ministry. Also featured are many of Locke’s friends who have helped him along this journey. 

Overall I thought that the movie quality was very good. It seems obvious to me that a lot of money and time went into this project in order to put out a good product (in terms of production). I didn’t expect anything less from Locke in this area. 

The Movie Theater. I am a pastor in the heart of Mormon country in Northeast Utah. The area where I live is around 86% Mormon and less than 2% Christian, so I really didn’t know what the turnout would be like. I bought the tickets on Fandango a few hours before the movie and was surprised to find that there were only about a dozen seats left. Needless to say that by the time I got to the theater, it was pretty much sold out. It was a small theater, but it was full nonetheless. It was pretty apparent to me that the overwhelming majority of the people there were from the handful of pentecostal/charismatic churches in the area. Given the turnout in this part of the country, I wouldn’t be surprised if the nationwide turnout was very strong. 

The American Gospel Feud. In the weeks prior to the release of this movie, there was a lot of noise on social media about it being a direct response to the American Gospel documentary. While the two documentaries have a completely different message, I didn’t at all get the notion that Locke and his crew were calling out AG. To my knowledge, AG was never once referenced. I felt a need to point that out with everything that was said on Twitter. If Locke was trying to throw shade at AG, I didn’t see it. 

The Good. I am thankful that Greg Locke and His church actively take a stand against the evils of society, such as abortion and the LGBT agenda. There are many pastors and church members who have never gotten outside the four walls of the church in order to hit the streets and I think that’s tragic. 

I can also appreciate their denunciation of witchcraft, and the things that can lead to it (i.e. Ouija boards, tarot cards, etc.). While these things are only inanimate objects, they can be used to open a portal to another world. The textbook definition of witchcraft is the seeking of supernatural wisdom and power apart from God, which is what these things are used for.  

I am also thankful that Locke took a minute to give a gospel presentation. I wish that he would have done so during the actual movie, as opposed to the live stream that he did after the credits, but he did it nonetheless. 

The Main Course with a side of Word Salad. I really didn’t know what to expect from this movie. I wasn’t sure what the main push would be. Although many of the common charismatic talking points were mentioned (speaking in tongues, healing, etc.) the main thrust was casting out demons (hence “come out in Jesus name”). Locke made it very clear that he is sick and tired of the argument over demon “possession vs. oppression.” Locke himself will not say that Christians can be “possessed” with demons. But as I sat through the movie, I quickly realized that he was making a distinction without a difference. According to Locke and his cohorts, Christians can “have demons”, and give “occupancy” to demons. And obviously if demons have to be cast out of Christians, that assumes that demons can take up residence within Christians. 

At one point Locke gave an illustration of the Jewish Temple. He brought out the fact that when Christians are saved they have the Holy Spirit indwelling their hearts. He said that’s like the Holy of Holies in the Temple. Demons can’t get in there, but they can get inside the outer court. Um, what? 

This was the main course of the movie, served with a side of word salad. Over and over and over again it was stated that Christians need to be delivered from demons and spirits of “alcohol, religion, unforgiveness, fear, sickness, lusts, fill in the blank. Although there are a lot of problems that I have with the message in this movie, this is the main issue that I will be dealing with. If Christians can be possessed by devils it causes all kinds of problems. We will look at these now. 

The Gospel. In a movie that lasted almost 2 hours, there was almost no gospel at all. Although the gospel was referenced from time to time, I never heard a clear presentation of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ for the forgiveness and deliverance from sin, NOT ONCE. As I mentioned earlier, Locke did have a short gospel presentation after the cast during his live stream, but more than likely that segment won’t even be a part of the movie when it is released to the public. 

The whole concept of deliverance ministry completely drains the gospel of its power. This was highlighted by the fact that Locke spent the first minute of the livestream sharing the gospel, and the next 25 minutes “delivering” people from all of the things that the gospel couldn’t deliver them from. To me, the most outlandish quote from Locke was when he said that, “Salvation and redemption are for the lost, deliverance is to set the captives free.” Again, what? Following a basic deductive argument; if salvation and redemption are for the lost; and deliverance sets the captives free; then salvation and redemption don’t set the captives free. Is the reader beginning to see the problem with all of this? 

The most staggering quote of the movie though, goes to Isaiah Saldivar (I’m almost positive it was him, again I’m going from memory) when he said, “The gospel isn’t the whole presentation that God wants to give us.” He went on to say in essence that the gospel has no power without these types of manifestations. This is ludicrous but it’s a perfect encapsulation of what they actually believe. Thay have no confidence in the gospel as the power of God unto salvation. 

I don’t want to get too preachy here (pun intended) because I want to stay with the contents of the movie, but let me just say that the power of God is in the gospel and God’s word. The glorious death, burial and resurrection of the spotless lamb of God doesn’t need any help (Rom. 1:16, I Cor. 1:18, II Cor 5:17-21, I Cor. 9:16) 

I want to point out one more thing before I move on. The statement was made that casting out devils was a huge part of Christ’s ministry. I think that it was even stated that casting out devils accounted for ⅓ of Christ’s ministry. I have no idea how they came up with that figure, but here is what I do know, the overwhelming emphasis of Christ’s ministry was preaching.  There are entire chapters full of Jesus’s sermons (i.e. Matthew 5-7). We find many instances where Christ preached without healing or demonstration. In fact, there were even times when Christ refused to heal people because he wanted to go preach in another town (Mark 1:32-38).

The same is true of the Apostles. When most people think of Acts, they often focus on the signs and wonders. But what often gets overlooked is the fact that there are more sermons in the book of Acts than all of the signs and wonders combined. The word “preach” in all of its different forms is used over 35 times in the book of Acts. Like Christ, there were plenty of examples when the Apostles preached without performing miracles, and people came to Christ (imagine that). This brings me to my next point. 

On Par With NAR. Has anyone ever talked about Bill Johnson and Greg Locke in the same sentence, or considered them to be similar? If not, now is the time. While they definitely have differences in their personalities, affiliations and delivery, they are cut from the same cloth. Bill Johnson and Bethel Redding are the tip of the spear when it comes to the New Apostolic Reformation. But make no mistake about it, Locke and Global Vision are just another arm of the NAR. It may be a different flavor, but it’s still Baskin-Robbins. 

At this point I can hear the reader shouting and getting ready to throw whatever device they are reading this on. But here me out. I’m not saying that Global Vision and Bethel agree on everything, they don’t. However, one of the hallmarks of the NAR is “apostolic authority” (hence the “Apostolic” part). It’s all about a man centered authority structure. This is the Occult 101 BTW. Bill Johnson and company make themselves out to be so important through these supposed signs and wonders (For more on this read Counterfeit Kingdom by Holly Pivec and Dougless Geivett). This is exactly what I see in this deliverance movement by Greg Locke. If there was one glaring message in the movie, it’s that we need them. Without these men and women who have the power to cast out devils, heal the sick, raise the dead, etc. we’re just poor pitiful Christians who are left with nothing but the gospel and a bible. This is why their deliverance ministry was front and center in this movie and the gospel was a mere parentheses tacked on at the end of the credits. 

Now I know that Locke and company would adamantly deny this and bring up the fact that they mentioned the name of Jesus several times in the movie (and they did), but so do the Mormon missionaries who come to my door and show me their name tag. We all know where the real action is. It’s in the LDS church, namely their priesthood authority, so this is nothing new. It’s just been repackaged. 

Locke might also mention the fact that the Bible was referenced many times, even putting several verses on the screen throughout the movie. But I would just remind everyone, so does Joel Osteen at the beginning of every church service (This is my Bible 😀) right before he proceeds to butcher that very thing for the next 30 minutes. 

Strange Things are Happening…Strange Things. This deliverance crowd makes a very strong attempt to tie what they do back to the Apostles and the early church, but they do many things that are never seen in Scripture that are just, well, strange. For example, when Christ or the Apostles casted out demons, it was a simple command that was immediately obeyed. But Locke’s crew make an ordeal out of it. There are a lot of things that I could mention here, but for the sake of time I will only mention a couple. There were multiple times in the movie where it showed these deliverance ministers massaging a person from their stomach to their throat, commanding the demon to come out of their mouth. I’m not sure if they were trying to get them to vomit or what, but I did notice some buckets in the background a few times, I’m js. That’s very strange. And it seems much more Psychosomatic and manipulative than spiritual, but that’s my two cents. 

Something else that happened in the movie that would fall into the category of “that’s strange and I can’t find that in Scripture” is that the deliverance ministers called some of the demons by name (Legion told Jesus his/her/they/whatever name(s), not the other way around). I’m not just talking about the spirit of fear, suicide, alcohol, etc. (although that happened a lot). I am talking about casting out the demons known as “Incubus”, “Baphomet”, etc. But how do these guys know? This seems like pure gnosticism to me. But since we are naming demons now, I just want to say that this crowd needs to be delivered from the demon of Eisegesis (that felt good, I wonder if it will work). 

I can’t leave this topic without mentioning the live stream at the end. After the credits, Locke came on live. The first thing that he did was ask everyone to stand. It came as no surprise that everyone in the theater but yours truly and the two people with me stood up as commanded. There was a soft piano playing in the background as Locke stood on the stage from wherever he was and appealed to the cameras for the next 25 minutes or so. 

After he got his 60 second gospel presentation out of the way, he began a mass deliverance over the thousands of theaters that were watching this movie. At least some if not all of what Locke said seemed scripted. But he told everyone to repeat after him as he proceeded to command the spirit of fear, unforgiveness, bitterness, lusts, etc, etc. to come out in Jesus’ name. What was also strange is that Locke would alternate between commanding these spirits to leave and giving the audience authority to cast the devils out themselves. A self-exorcism is a concept foreign to Scripture as well. 

The more that Locke talked, the more fiery he got. In the theater where I was, the emotion in the audience continued to build like a freight train until some of the women were shaking and screaming violently at the top of their lungs, and at least three or four people around me were speaking in tongues. It turned into an absolute circus. I can only imagine how lit it got in some of the bigger theaters across the country. 

A False Diagnosis Leads to the Wrong Cure. If there is one thing that Locke and I agree on, it is that people everywhere are oppressed and hurting. The question is, what can be done about it? If we come up with the wrong diagnosis, we will seek the wrong cure. This will only add more burdens to those who are already suffering. This is why we must get this right. And I believe that this concept of deliverance gets it wrong in a few areas. 

First, it turns the Christian life and it’s daily sanctification into an easy hocus-pocus, name it claim it formula. So easy in fact, that in many cases you don’t even have to be the one to declare victory, just have your local pastor/apostle do it for you. Are you struggling with grief, temptation, lack of assurance, bad thoughts, sickness, discouragement, etc? All you have to do is cast those demons out and claim the victory. It’s that easy! 

This is in total contrast to what Christ said about taking up our cross daily (Luke 9:23), or the promise of tribulation (John 16:33). It goes against what Paul said about dying daily (I Cor. 15:31), enduring thorns in the flesh (II Cor. 12), the battle of the Spirit and the flesh (Gal. 5), the gift of suffering (Phil. 1:29) the continual need to seek God in prayer (Phil. 4), the admonition to be filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5), mortify the lusts of the flesh (Col. 3:5) and to put on the whole armor of God (Eph. 6). Sometimes the Christian life is just hard. Sometimes we go through trials that we can’t get around, but by God’s grace we just have to go through them and endure. There is no easy formula. 

The deliverance movement totally avoids these truths, and as a result they are setting people up for failure. Again, I have a hard time distinguishing Locke’s message from that of Bill Johnson, Kenneth Copeland, Creflo Dollar or Joel Osteen, at least in this area. Just declare it! Just speak it! No wonder he is drawing such large crowds. Locke even admitted in the movie that there are large numbers of people who show up to their deliverance services that would never come to a normal service. Why not? I think the answer is clear. This isn’t making disciples. 

The Devil Made Me Do It. Another danger of deliverance ministry is that when followed to its logical conclusion, it removes personal responsibility for sin. As Christians, we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, but we also live in this sinful body of flesh. When a person sins, is it because they desired in their heart to do these wicked things, or did the devil make them do it? By turning personal sins into spirits (spirit of adultery, drugs, fornication, etc.) it removes personal guilt and responsibility and places it upon another party that simply needs to be cast out. 

I could also mention that the deliverance movement turns the gospel into a nothing burger and gives the leaders cult-like authority but I have already covered that in previous sections so I will move on. 

The Morning After. As I sat there in the theater during Locke’s live stream and watched people completely overcome with their emotions, I couldn’t help but wonder what’s going to happen tomorrow (which is now today). They no doubt got up this morning with the emotions of last night completely gone. And what they found is that their problems, anxieties and temptations are still here, and now what? Do they need to get delivered again, or is it like a one and done? 

I think I actually got the answer to this question before the movie even started last night. About 5 minutes prior to the movie they put up a QR code on the screen that said something to the effect of if you want to maintain your freedom scan the code. Out of curiosity I scanned it. It took me to a page where I could sign up for a GVBC email list. It invited those who wanted to “maintain” their deliverance to sign up. Maintain their deliverance? What? If we have to maintain our freedom then who makes us free in the first place? If we get undelivered then how do we get delivered again? See, these guys are selling a product which will always create a need for the dealer. 

This is why the gospel is enough! God’s Word is enough! Christ is enough! We are made complete in Christ at the moment of salvation, never to be lost again (Col. 2., II Cor. 5:17, Eph. 1, Rom. 8). This is real deliverance. 

Some Personal Questions for Greg Locke.  So why should I care? Why would a Baptist pastor spend money to go watch this movie and then take the time to write about it? Am I really choking that hard on sour grapes? The answer is no. I am doing this for a couple of reasons. First, as a pastor, I love Christ’s sheep, therefore I am always on wolf watch. But there is a more personal interest for me. My wife went to bed with a migraine-like headache on April 14, 2019 and she has had that headache every second since. Next month will be four years. Despite prayers from thousands of Christians from all over the world, and seeing some of the best specialists in the world, she has found no relief and no real answers. We are in our 30’s and have three small children. And there is a real chance that my wife will spend the rest of her life as a prisoner of her own body. 

Here are my questions for Mr. Locke (if he ever sees this). First, is someone like my wife oppressed with a demon of sickness, or is this simply a physical problem? Either way, can you or your Apostle buddies either cast the demon out or heal her. If not, why not? If you cannot cast this problem out in Jesus name, then who’s fault will that be, your’s, my wife’s, or God’s? I think that these are reasonable questions that a continuationist should be able to answer. I can go ahead and tell you, that the Apostles in Acts wouldn’t have had any problem healing my wife. Every single time in Acts, with possibly one exception, the healing came through the faith and power of the Apostles and not the one being healed. They could heal someone by simply letting their shadow pass over them or touching them with a cloth.  If you don’t believe that men have that same kind of power today then maybe you are a partial continuationist, which also makes you a partial cessationist, which is extremely convenient. 

The truth is that if my wife and I had gone to that theater last night without knowing our Bible, we would have probably got sucked into the emotion of it all, but the problem would still be here. Then we would have been questioning why it didn’t work. Do we not have enough faith, does God not care, is he even real? I think that this is one of the greatest tragedies of deliverance ministry. 

Fortunately for us, we do know our Bible and we also know Christ, not only in salvation but in the fellowship of His suffering. Although He has chosen not to heal her, He has given us joy, grace, peace, a greater desire to share the gospel, greater compassion for others and an increased focus on eternity. But since you have something better to offer I at least wanted to give you a chance to clarify what that is, although I doubt that I will hear anything from you. 

What to Do with All of This. Someone like Greg Locke can be so intriguing. He comes along during a time when so many pastors, churches and political leaders lack any real spine or voice and speaks louder than any of them. He seems like the answer to lukewarmness, weakness and dead religion. But I am convinced that there is a style of ministry and preaching that kills sin and excites the flesh, but doesn’t honor and magnify Christ. The Muslims do this all of the time. Go to Saudi Arabia and you won’t find any stronger stance on the issues of abortion and homosexuality. They may come across as macho, but they aren’t glorifying Christ. 

We are not to turn to the right or the left. I am convinced that macho Christianity is found in the suffering servants who live for Christ daily, most of which we have never heard of. This is why Christ will say well done thou good and faithful servant, and not, well done thou Christian celebrity. 

Real and lasting deliverance comes by grace through faith in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. Anything less is a dog and pony show.

Suffering; The Thief That Gives Back

      I was born in 1984. As a child of the 80’s growing up in the USA there are some things that are simply foreign to me. I have no clue what it’s like to live in a war zone or be under the thumb of a Muslim or Communist regime. I’ve never had the experience of worrying about where my next meal is coming from, or being unable to access needed medical care. Not only that, but my generation has seen the greatest advancements in healthcare and technology in the history of the world. In fact, I grew up in the final generation to know life before the internet. 

The truth is, however, that the time and place that I have enjoyed is the historical exception and not the rule. Imagine being born in 1894 as opposed to 1984, less than a hundred years apart. Even in America the life expectancy in 1894 was around 46 years of age (As opposed to 74 in 1984). The infant mortality rate was almost 25% (as opposed to less than ½ of 1% in 1984). Antibiotics weren’t a thing so something as common as the Flu or Strep was often deadly. 

The ones who were fortunate enough to make it to adulthood were faced with an onslaught of successive tragedy. World War I raged from 1914 to 1918. Right on the heels of the war was the Spanish Flu outbreak that killed an estimated 50-100 million people world-wide. Then there was the stock market crash of 29, which decimated the financial system for over a decade until the bombing of pearl Harbor and the second World War that ensued. Due to the close proximity of WWI and WWII there were many men who fought in both (General Patton being among the most notable). They are called “The Greatest Generation” for a reason.

D-Day Invasion, June 6, 1944

Going back even further in time, think about the persecution of our Christian brothers and sisters in ancient Rome or Medieval Europe. Images of being devoured by lions in the Colosseum or burning at the stake instantly come to mind. Sometimes these horrific events seem so far away, but it may shock the reader to learn that every year for the past 100 years there has been an estimated 200,000 people martyred for the sake of Christ somewhere in the world. That’s 200,000 people, every single year, for the past 100 years. One thing is for sure, as Americans we may live in that time, but we don’t live in that world.

ISIS Murdering Egyptian Christians 

Americans have lived in a bubble for so long that it’s hard for us to imagine a life in which suffering is the rule and prosperity the exception. It is because of this blindness of our Western eyes that the very message of Christianity has been tampered with. Instead of Christ coming to save us from our sin, many preaching peddlers such as Joel Osteen have sold a message of being saved from all of our suffering in this life and given all of our hearts desires. We have been taught to believe that a “successful” Christian life is one that avoids suffering, but such a concept is foreign to the Bible and the overwhelming majority of church history. 

We might see suffering as a thief that only takes away that which we hold dear, but such a mentality has actually robbed us of much more. The truth is that suffering is a thief gives back much more than it takes. 

What the Thief Has Stolen. On April 14, 2019, my wife went to bed with a migraine like headache and it has never gone away. She has had that debilitating headache every second of every day since. As of the writing of this article, that makes 1,363 days. Every day she wakes up in pain, suffers through the day, goes to bed in pain, and on her worst nights goes to sleep and dreams about being in pain. She told me that one night she dreamed about someone beating her in the head with a baseball bat and then woke up to her pain. As of late she has developed pain all throughout her body as well.

Leah on an average day 

Instead of giving a detailed memoir of the last 3 ½ years, I will simply give a list of loss, a record of what this thief has stolen from us. Please understand that I’m not complaining. I’m just giving inventory of what’s been stolen so I can set the foundation for what we have been given. 

We have spent thousands of dollars on doctors, specialists and travel. The first 9 months after the headache began we spent four of those months out of state and away from our three children. Not one time during all that effort did Leah ever have an “ah hah” moment where she got some relief.  We ended up moving 2,000 miles away to a drier climate (as the humidity in Alabama made her condition worse). The relief she found lasted less than a year and her condition has now worsened to the worst that its ever been. 

However, in my opinion the worst theft comes in the everyday things that most people ignore. I can’t remember the last time that I was able to ask my wife, “how was your day?”, or “What did you do today?” I already know. She sat on the couch all day with an ice pack on her head and some lidocaine patches on her back. Watching a loved one suffer without being able to help them is humiliating and demoralizing. That’s the worst part, watching her suffer.

On a personal level, the added responsibilities of having a downed spouse get to me sometimes. This past Tuesday is a great microcosm of my life as of late. I spent about three hours on the phone with insurance trying to make them do what they are supposed to do and pay what they are supposed to pay. I then went to my primary doctor in order to try and get rid of this cough that I’ve had for 6 weeks. It was at this time I learned that my blood pressure is sky high and if I can’t get it down I will be put on blood pressure meds at the age of 38. I then walked outside to find out that I had locked my keys in the truck. I walked about a mile and a half to the bus station, rode home to get the spare key and rode the bus back in order to get to my truck. 

I realize that none of these things are “big” but sometimes life feels like death by a thousand needles. At no time could I have asked my wife to deal with insurance, bring me the spare key, take me to my truck, etc. She can’t do it. This is our life. We may not know what it’s like to be in a Roman prison. We have never been chased by hungry lions in the Colosseum, but this much is true, suffering in our life has been the rule rather than the exception for years now. This brings me to the crux of this article. 

What the Thief Has Given. I could certainly mention humility and that would be true. The Lord has brought me down to a mere shell of the high strung, ultra spirited man that I used to be. Trust me, this is a good thing. I needed to be sanded down in this area of my life. I often tell our church in Utah that they are getting a different man then the one that left Alabama.

On Leah's end, she has had to learn to ask for help and to understand that her inability doesn't affect our love for her. She is loved, not because of what she does but because of who she is. Her condition also doesn't determine her value. This has been extremely hard for her (as it would be for any of us).

I could also talk about priorities. When a person (and as a result, a family) is physically limited it will force them to assess the most important things in life because they simply can’t do everything. Before Leah's condition we used to run ourselves ragged in the ministry. We didn’t know how to say “no”. We have often talked about how we were doing a bunch of good things, but they weren’t “God things”. In other words, they might have been noble causes but they weren’t the things that God specifically wanted us to do. 

Believe me when I say that we are thankful for this gift that the thief has given us. If the Lord had not inserted this thorn into our lives I have no doubt that we would have looked back years later with regret at how much we had neglected our kids and each other. Our priorities are very simple now; be faithful to what God has called us to do (pastor GBC and get the gospel out to the Mormons here in Utah), don’t do anything stupid that would stain the name of Christ and raise our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. That’s it. We are laser focused because this suffering forces us to be. What a gift. 

 I could have mentioned more gifts or spent more time on the others that were mentioned, but if there is one thing that suffering has given us above all else, it is perspective. In fact, I think that a lack of suffering has robbed many American Christians of this very thing. When suffering is the rule rather than the exception it changes everything. Imagine being in a Roman prison awaiting execution as the Apostle Paul was, or being in constant suffering with no available cure. Do you think that the people in this situation are thinking about what they are going to do at work in the morning, how their favorite sports team is doing, or whether the fish are going to be biting this weekend? Absolutely not. They are thinking about home. They are thinking about Heaven. Suffering causes us to lose hope in this life. It causes us to fall out of love with this world. This is what Paul meant when he said, “to live is Christ and to die is gain.” Most Americans would say that to live is gain and to die is gain (depending on how good Heaven really is. It might actually be a lateral move or a step down in the minds of some people). 

Personally, we have lost hope that Leah will ever be cured in this life. That may sound pessimistic, but we have spent the better part of four years being let down by some of the greatest physicians in the world. We have also begged God (and will continue) to remove this thorn, but He has given a clear "No". The Lord can and does heal, but many times it’s His will to give us the grace to endure suffering as opposed to giving us the grace of healing.

Trust me when I say that we think about Heaven every single day. There is a longing within our hearts that is difficult to explain. Every day that we wake up we know that we are one day closer. And it’s more than just getting relief from the pain, we long to see the one who entered into our sin and suffering in order to give us a home in Heaven with Him. We did not choose our suffering, but He chose to suffer for us. And while we still have a lot to learn, I can say that we have learned much of Christ in the fellowship of His suffering, through our suffering. What a gift. 

This didn’t happen overnight. For a long time we were consumed with the thought of getting life “back to normal”. But at some point we had to have a funeral for our ambitions and the way that life is “supposed to be.” This would be a good time for me to say that we live in a dark world. There are a lot of evil people in powerful positions and the future of this nation unsure. It would be a good idea for everyone to take inventory of their lives; to prioritize, be humbled and have a funeral for the things that have no eternal value. 

In closing; last night as I was working on my memoirs I was reminded of something that happened to me as a teenager. It encouraged me and reminded me of this principle of perspective. I would like to share it with the reader now. 

One of my favorite things to do as a teenager was to go deer hunting with my friends. Our favorite place to hunt was on an island in Greene County, surrounded by the Alabama River. What made it even better is that one of my friends, Mike (specifically his parents), had a camp house just a few miles from the boat landing. 

When I was about the age of 17 (around 2001/2002), Mike, his uncle Rice and I decided to go hunting on the island around New Year’s. After an unsuccessful morning hunt we decided to give it another go that evening. I just remember how cold it was that whole week. It had to be near record temps for Alabama in late December. I know that temps never rose above freezing and probably didn’t make it out of the 20’s on the day of the hunt. Mike and I lost our man card when we had to get into the fetal position on the floor of the bass boat as his Uncle drove us down the river in order to get to the island. 

The Alabama River Near Forkland

Rice dropped Mike and me off at our spot before heading to where he would be hunting on the other side of the island. Before he left he said, “boys I’m planning on staying in the stand until dark so it will take me a while to pick you up this evening, but I will come back to get you.” With that he headed down the river and Mike and I went to our separate stands. 

I hadn’t seen a single deer by the time that nightfall ascended so I turned my head lamp on and made my way out of the stand. As I made my way through the swamp on the way back to the river, I somehow got off the beaten path. It’s an easy thing to do because the path wasn’t that clear to begin with and at night everything looks the same. I had a compass, so I knew that I could make my way to the river and then follow it to the pick up location. But I ran into some trouble. The cold weather had caused a thin layer of ice to form on top of the swampy ground. The ice loudly cracked up under my feet with every step. I wasn’t worried about it because it was only a few inches deep. This was no issue due to my rubber boots. However, with one step it went from a few inches to a few feet deep. I fell up to my waist, instantly filling my boots with water. The initial shock of the cold was pretty intense but I kept my head and slowly backed out the same way that I came. Coming up with a plan B, I found a long stick and made sure to test the ground in front of me until I found a path out of there. 

I eventually made my way back to the pick up point on the river bank. Mike was already waiting there. The surge of adrenaline from falling into the water and the long walk back had masked the reality of how cold I really was. But now that I was still I quickly became miserable. The temperatures were also plummeting quickly with the arrival of nightfall. It had to be in the teens at this point.

I sat down on the ground and leaned against a large oak tree, pulling my knees up to my chest. I kept thinking about what Rice had said, “it will take me a while, but I will come and get you.” I kept focusing on the latter part of that statement to keep me encouraged. However, a solid hour must have gone by with no sign of the boat. I was shivering uncontrollably. My feet went from being really cold, to hurting, to numb. I couldn’t feel them at all. To make things even scarier I realized that a layer of ice had now accumulated on my pants and the outside of my boots. Did I mention that it was cold? I was really concerned about frostbite.  

I honestly don’t know how long we waited (I’m guessing around an hour and ½), it felt like an eternity. I began to doubt if Rice was ever going to come. But out of nowhere we saw his spot-light coming around the river bend. It was one of the most beautiful things that I have ever seen. He picked us up and took us back to the truck. I sat down in the passenger seat of that Dodge diesel, took off my boots and socks and placed my feet directly under the heater vent.  

After they loaded up the boat we headed back to the camp house. After a hot shower, a change of clothes and some hot deer chili I was feeling like a million bucks. The feeling had come back to my legs and feet and all was well. It was as if the whole thing had never happened. I'll never forget the feeling of standing in front of that gas wall heater in a dry set of clothes, eating that hot chili.

I have used this story many times as a sermon illustration. Sometimes we don’t feel like we are going to make it through this cold, dark world. Often we feel that the Lord will never come. But one of these days, seemingly out of nowhere, the Lord is going to take us home whether by death or by His return. We are going to be completely clean and get a change of new clothes. And then we will warm ourselves in the Light of His glory. He will wipe the tears from our eyes and make our troubles as if they had never happened.

The thief of suffering steals from us. It hurts us and at times makes us numb. It's a scary thing when we are in the middle of it. But be encouraged Christian, suffering gives us a whole lot more than it takes if we are willing to receive it. There is no suffering that we can experience that doesn’t first pass through the fingers of God. So ultimately suffering is a gift from God and He knows how to give good gifts to His children.

Philippians 1:29 (KJV) For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake.

Is Jeffrey Dahmer in Heaven? What Does That Say About God?

 July 22, 1991, was a day when Americans were rudely awakened to the depths of human depravity. On that day, Milwaukee Police searched Jeffrey Dahmer’s apartment after one of his potential victims, Tracy Edwards, managed to escape and flag down a squad car. What they found was the stuff of nightmares. 

However, this was no nightmare. After all was said and done, police found the remains of eleven bodies in that two-bedroom apartment. Some of the remains were found in a 55-gallon drum filled with acid, and others were in the refrigerator. There were also severed heads found in the hall closet, and various body parts in jars throughout the apartment. Keeping things simple and without getting too graphic, Dahmer confessed to seventeen counts of murder. But he also admitted to the horrific details of the murders, which included cannibalism and necrophilia. It’s no surprise that Dahmer’s heinous deeds earned him the title of the “Milwaukee Monster.” Dahmer’s name will forever be remembered among America’s most notorious serial killers. 

Dahmer was murdered by another inmate in November of 1994. But recently, there has been renewed interest in the serial killer due to the new Netflix series Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. Personally, I parted ways with Netflix a long time ago. Sexualizing pre-teen girls and cramming a homosexual character into EVERY SINGLE SERIES was enough for me to cancel my subscription. Therefore, I won’t be watching Monster. 

The reason Monster's release sparked my interest is that, years ago, when I was in college, I had to write a paper on Jeffrey Dahmer. My research led me to a shocking conclusion that I can pretty much guarantee that Netflix won’t mention. My conclusion is that Jeffrey Dahmer became a born-again Christian while in prison and that He is currently in Heaven with the Lord. 

Before people from all sides of the issue get out the pitchforks and torches, let me clarify a couple of things. First, it is true that Roy Ratcliff, the man who baptized and discipled Dahmer while in prison, was a Church of Christ minister. Having grown up in the church of Christ prior to my conversion, I know all too well the heretical emphasis that they place on water baptism. While baptism is extremely important for a believer, scripture is incredibly clear that water baptism is “the answer of a good conscience toward God and not the putting away of the filth of the flesh” (I Peter 3:21). Baptism is an outward showing of an inward salvation. It is a public profession that we are with Christ. It’s like a wedding ring. A wedding ring in and of itself doesn’t make someone married, but it shows the world that the person wearing it is married. Baptism may be evidence of salvation, but it isn’t the vehicle of salvation. 

The bottom line is this: if someone is trusting anything other than Christ and His finished work on the cross to make them right with God and get them to Heaven, they are deceived. They aren’t saved, and they have placed their trust in a false gospel. This is Paul’s entire point in the book of Galatians. We are saved by grace through faith in Christ apart from works (Eph. 2:8-9). Water baptism, the Catholic Mass, the Mormon ordinances, good works, church membership, giving to charity, etc., cannot make us right with God. Good works can never erase our bad works. This is especially true in a legal setting, and our sin is a legal offense against a Holy God (I John 3:4). 

With all of that said, I do not think this was the case with Dahmer. Perhaps the best resource available to better understand Dahmer’s conversion was written by Roy Ratcliff himself in the book entitled Dark Journey, Deep Grace: The Story Behind a Serial Killer’s Journey to Faith. In this book, Ratcliff recalls his firsthand encounter with Dahmer, which includes their initial meeting, Dahmer’s baptism, and seven months of a weekly bible study before Dahmer was murdered. 

Unsurprisingly, Ratcliff includes about a two-page-long section that puts WAY too much emphasis on water baptism. However, by Ratcliff’s own admission, Dahmer came to saving faith in Christ while reading about the gospel in a creation science magazine that his father sent to him while in prison. Upon his conversion, Dahmer requested permission from the prison chaplain to be baptized. The chaplain then contacted a prison ministry that eventually referred Ratcliff to the task.

In the initial meeting between Ratcliff and Dahmer, Ratcliff said some pretty heretical things that could have easily confused a new Christian. But to his credit, he made sure Dahmer was sincere in his faith in Christ before he would baptize him. With the limited information that we have, I firmly believe that Dahmer was a saved man who wanted to be baptized in an effort to be obedient to God. Was Dahmer confused about some things, sure. Were there any red flags about him that I have seen in countless other young Christians? Absolutely. Was he perfect after his conversion? Not a chance. But I believe that he was a saved man. Remember that salvation takes place in an instant, but the work of sanctification in our hearts is a lifelong process.

Before I get to the main focus of this article, I want to lay out my case for why I think that Dahmer was a genuine, born-again Christian. I go into this fully understanding that I could get to heaven and be proven wrong, but we could say this same thing about pretty much anyone that we know. Here we go. 

First, Dahmer became an incessant student of the Bible. He took Scripture so seriously that he even found it extremely uncomfortable that Ratcliff used an NIV instead of a King James Bible (the NIV is more of a thought-for-thought translation). Please understand that this isn’t a debate about Bible versions (I have already written fairly extensively about that), I only mention it to prove that Dahmer took Scripture very seriously. He wanted to know what the Word of God said and to obey it. 

Second, Dahmer had genuine remorse and repentance over his sin. He never made excuses. He never sought leniency. According to Ratcliff, Dahmer stated that he wished Wisconsin still enforced capital punishment because he deserved death. He was also very distraught that there was nothing that he could do to repay the families of his victims for what he had done. This seems very reminiscent of Zacchaeus in Luke 19. Zacchaeus was a tax collector who offered to repay four times what he had stolen from the people when he came to faith in Christ.  

Third, he had clear moral convictions that he had given no thought to prior to his conversion. Apparently, there was a steady flow of pornography that made it into the prison where Dahmer was incarcerated. The inmates could tell the dirty magazines by the fact that they came wrapped in brown paper. According to Ratcliff, during one of their Bible studies, Dahmer was noticeably distraught. When Ratcliff asked him what was wrong, Dahmer responded by letting him know that he was deeply disturbed by the presence of pornography coming in with his other mail. He told Ratcliff that he used to look at porn as a means of getting amped up to go out and hunt down his victims, and he wanted no part of it. Upon hearing this, Ratcliff suggested that they ask the chaplain to make sure that no more pornography made it in with Jeffrey’s mail, and the problem was solved. This seems to be clear evidence of a regenerated person. 

Fourth, according to Ratcliff, there was an obvious joy about Dahmer that far exceeded what one would expect from a serial killer who was serving life in prison. He seemed like a free man inside the prison walls. Whereas prior to his arrest and conversion, he lived as a slave of sin. 

Fifth, Dahmer had a genuine desire to share the gospel with others. In fact, he risked his life for the sake of the gospel and Christian fellowship. Because of his status as the infamous serial killer, Dahmer had to be kept in solitary confinement for his own safety. One can only imagine the fame that would come to the person who killed Jeffrey Dahmer. But because he wanted to attend chapel and share the gospel with other inmates, he requested that the guards grant him greater access to the general inmate population. They granted his wish. 

Not long before he was murdered, he was assaulted towards the end of a chapel service. An inmate tried to slash his throat with a razor blade that had been taped to the end of a toothbrush. Fortunately for Dahmer, the tape didn’t hold, and the ordeal left him with only a scratch. Even this did not deter Dahmer. But in November of 1994, he and a couple of other inmates were cleaning a bathroom when one of them grabbed a barbell and hit Dahmer over the head repeatedly until he died. Is it too far-fetched to say that Dahmer was a martyr for Christ? Maybe so, maybe not. Keep in mind that Dahmer would have never been in that position if he had not requested to be with the other inmates in order to share the gospel. 

Lastly, and I'll move on (my church knows that this statement is meaningless). Dahmer was not ashamed of the gospel of Christ or biblical trut,h even on a big stage. Watch this short clip of an interview that Dahmer and his father did with Stone Phillips from prison. Ironically, this aired the day after Dahmer’s murder.  https://youtu.be/ZCuGLC3FABI

I do not expect everyone to agree with me and I’m completely fine with that. Again, I could be wrong. The thrust of this article isn’t to argue with those who say that Dahmer could be in hell. I’m here to argue with those who say that he can’t be in Heaven. The truth is that the situation with Dahmer teaches us a whole lot about the gospel. The mere possibility that such a monster could be forgiven and enter Heaven with God forces us to ask some very important questions. Can somebody like Dahmer be forgiven? What does this say about God? Is he unjust for letting off such a predator? What about his victims? Surely all of them didn’t know Christ. Is it conceivable that some of his victims went to hell and their killer ended up in Heaven? Does this make God unfair? Fortunately, the Bible has the answer to all of these questions. 

As humans, how does God see us? Does He look down from Heaven and marvel at our good works, our charitable donations, church attendance, or volunteer work? Is he impressed by our careers, education, income, or athletic accomplishments? Many may be surprised to find out that the answer is a resounding NO. In fact, He sees us all as criminals, every last one of us (we may have more in common with Dahmer than we thought). Not once in Scripture from the fall of Adam in Genesis three until the end of Revelation does he say a good thing about humankind. Romans three probably gives the Lord’s clearest diagnoses, “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they have become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes….For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:1-18, 20). 

It’s not just that people make mistakes; they do bad things on purpose because they want to. Take an honest walk through the Ten Commandments and see how you fare. If you have ever told a lie (all of us have, and not just white lies), that makes you a liar. If you have lusted in your heart after another person (we all have), you are an adulterer at heart. If you have stolen (we all have at some point in our lives), you are a thief. If you have taken God’s name in vain in any form (we all have), that makes you a blasphemer. I could continue, but I think that the reader gets the point. Our righteousness is a stench in the nostrils of God. If we stood before God and were judged strictly based on the Ten Commandments, all of us would be guilty and on our way to hell.

But wait a second, if we are all condemned sinners in the eyes of God (and we are), then does God see no difference between a Jeffrey Dahmer and, say, a Mother Theresa? For all practical purposes, the answer is no. Certainly, there are different degrees of sin, but at the end of the day, the wages of sin ultimately lead to death (Romans 6:23). Ratcliff stated that he heard repeatedly through the years that, “If Jeffrey Dahmer is in Heaven, then I don’t want to go.” My response to that is, if that’s the way you feel, then you don’t have to worry about it. 

 

This is what we absolutely have to get about the holy nature of God. That sick, disgusted, angry feeling that we get from hearing about Dahmer’s heinous crimes; God is a trillion times angrier and more disgusted about our sin than we are about Dahmer’s. Just because we aren’t disgusted by our own sin doesn’t mean that God isn’t. 

This brings us another question. If God is so Holy that He hates and must punish sin, and we’re all sinners, then how does anyone make it to Heaven? How can God pardon any of us without Himself becoming unjust? I mean, judges don’t just let criminals off Scott free, do they? No, they don’t. This is where the cross comes in. 

God is so Holy that He must punish sin, but He is so loving that He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to pay for our sin. Christ was born of the Virgin Mary. Therefore, He walked this earth as fully God and fully man. Christ lived the sinless life that we could never live. He fulfilled the just demands of God’s law. And when Jesus laid down His life on the cross, God the Father placed our sins in Jesus Christ and then poured His wrath out upon Him for that sin (Isaiah 53, I Peter 2:24). In other words, God the Father punished Jesus for the sin that we committed! At the cross, God’s justice was satisfied, and His love was magnified, so that God can forgive sinners on the basis of Christ and His finished work with Himself becoming unjust. Christ paid the penalty for our sin. Nothing was swept under the rug. He promises to save any and all who repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to cleanse them from sin (John 3:16, Romans 10:9-13). 

What Does it Say About God If Jeffrey Dahmer is in Heaven? Let’s just say for the sake of argument that Dahmer is in Heaven. What do the heavenly hosts think as they see him walking the streets of gold? Do they think, “God is such a perverse judge, how in the world could he have let the likes of him in here?” Do they think, “I worked so hard to get here, and then someone like him makes it in?” No. If Dahmer is in Heaven (and I think that he is), he is a walking, talking trophy of the grace of God. The Heavenly hosts marvel at such a Savior, the one who wore the sins of such as Dahmer! The one who died for those sins and rose victorious three days later! What a Savior, that He can save even the likes of Jeffrey Dahmer! What does it say about God if Dahmer is in Heaven? It says that He is an almighty Savior who can descend to the lowest hell and save the most depraved of sinners. No one is outside of the reach of God’s grace.

On the Day of Dahmer’s Funeral two sisters of one of Dahmer’s victims came to the service. They were so angry and bitter. They weren’t even sure why they came, maybe to bury their hate, possibly to find answers. During the service, Roy Ratcliff rehearsed Dahmer’s conversion and talked of their friendship. After the service, the two sisters came up to him and said, “We came here bitter and angry at Jeffrey, but after hearing you talk about him, we believe that God has forgiven him, and we have too.” 

“If a person doesn’t think that there is a God to be accountable to, then what’s the point of trying to modify your behavior to keep it within acceptable ranges? That’s how I thought, anyway. I always believed the theory of evolution as truth, that we all just came from the slime. When we died, you know, that was it, there is nothing, and I’ve since come to believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is truly God, and I believe that I, as well as everyone else, will be accountable to Him.”  Jeffrey Dahmer

The Multi-layered Problem of Abortion in America

    

    The year was 1953. The average cost of fuel was 28 cents per gallon, while the average cost of a house was just slightly above $18,000. The post war economy was booming and the vast majority of the men went to work to support their family, while 2/3 of the women stayed home and raised their children. Prayer and Bible reading were still allowed in public schools. School shootings were unthinkable, and the teacher's worst complaint was kids chewing gum in the classroom. 

    To be sure, we don't need to be disillusioned by thoughts of the "good ole days." The 50's definitely had issues, namely in the area of segregation and Jim Crow laws in the South. But one thing is undeniable, whether white or black, the family unit was the bedrock of society in America. More than three out of every four children grew up with both their father and mother in the home. So it comes as no surprise that no one was out passionately protesting in favor of abortion, or holding up signs saying that abortion is a human right, or "my body my choice". At best they wouldn't have been taken seriously. At worst they would have been seen as crazy. It would have been unthinkable in the mind of the American family. 

    However, 1953 was the year that everything changed. In December of that year Hugh Hefner released the first issue of Playboy magazine. The first issue featured Marilyn Monroe and quickly sold out of the 50,000 copies of the original printing. Hefner didn't even date the magazine because he wasn't sure that there would even be a second issue. He didn't know if it would sell, or if there would be a public backlash against such open lewdness. He had no idea that his magazine would become a multi-million dollar empire. 

    Now, I'm not so naïve as to believe that sexual sin wasn't taking place prior to Hugh Hefner. It was. However, it wasn't celebrated. Pre-marital sex was seen as taboo and immoral. Hefner changed all of that. His whole life was dedicated to presenting a persona of the "bachelor life." Playboy changed sex from an intimate, procreative union between a husband and wife into a pleasure act. If you get hungry, you eat. If you're in the mood, you have sex. Sacred wedlock was being challenged by a doctrine of care free, commitment free, "guilt free" sex. 

    It is no coincidence that less than a decade after the release of Playboy that the sexual revolution of the 60's blew in like a hurricane. All of this, coupled with the release of the first FDA approved birth control pill in 1960 was a perfect storm. Not only were people buying into the idea of commitment free sex, but now they could do it without the fear of unwanted pregnancy. "The pill" changed the game in that it separated sex from procreation. The idea of getting married, having children, and raising a family was becoming more archaic by the year. 

    But as we know, the pill isn't full proof. This created an avalanche of unwanted pregnancies. Babies are the enemy of the bachelor life. Babies mean responsibility, dedication, commitment, financial burden and sacrifice. That simply can't be tolerated in such a loose society. So what could be done about that? Enter Roe. 

    I keep using the word "coincidence", but I think that the reader is clearly seeing the sequence here. But it is no coincidence that immediately following the sexual revolution of the 60's that Roe vs. Wade was passed in 1973, making abortion a constitutional right. Prior to that time, such a legal opinion would have been scorned as pointless and evil. But thanks to the sexual revolution, abortion was now in high demand. There is no doubt that cultural pressure, and the new epidemic of fatherless babies played a major role in the SCOTUS' decision. 

    A few facts about Roe need to be pointed out. First, the whole case was based on a lie. The attorneys for Jane Roe (Norma McCorvey) claimed that she was pregnant due to being gang raped. Roe admitted years later that this was a flat out lie. Her attorneys played on the heart strings of the SCOTUS. How could she be expected to carry and give birth to the child of her rapist? Even is she had been raped, and even if SCOTUS concluded that Roe should not have to carry the child of her rapist, it doesn't follow that abortion on demand should become a constitutional right. (A side note; because SCOTUS took so long to pass Roe vs Wade, Roe gave birth to a daughter and gave her up for adoption. No one knows where she is or even if she is alive. No one even knows if she or the adoptive parents know that she is Roe's child.) 

    Even in this brief history of the sexual changes in the U.S., it is clear that abortion is a multi-layered problem. It is also clear that abortion is evil. There is no way to sugarcoat it. Everyone knows that it is the death of a baby in the womb, a baby with its own DNA and heartbeat. Abortion is a crime against nature itself. A mother's natural instinct is to risk her life if need be, in order to protect her children, not to kill her own flesh and blood while in the womb. 

    It is for this reason, among many others that we can rejoice that Roe vs Wade was reversed this past Friday after almost 50 years. Even apart from its sinister implications, Roe vs Wade was just a bad law. Regardless of where someone falls on the issue of abortion, we should all agree that we don't want the SCOTUS reading things into law that simply aren't there. The word "abortion" isn't found anywhere in the constitution or the Bill of Rights. Nor is it implied. And nobody would attempt to claim that our founding fathers could have envisioned such a thing. When the judicial branch begins to invent law instead of simply interpreting it, we're all in trouble. 

    The reversal of Roe vs Wade is a huge step in the right direction, but it's extremely naïve to think that the battle is now over. The question is, what do we do now? I will attempt to answer this question with another question, why is abortion so celebrated and revered? Think about it. Even if a woman had an unwanted pregnancy and she went to get an abortion, why not just do it and keep it hush hush? The reason is that in the last 70 years, the culture has bought into the idea that marriage and motherhood are forms of slavery, and abortion offers a way to break those chains. Women now believe that it is honorable to work for an employer for 40 plus hours a week, but slavery to serve her husband and children. Abortion also provides freedom for men to be promiscuous without the fear of having to step up and be a father. In this way abortion is seen as liberating and empowering. 

    This is why we can't simply trust the reversal of Roe vs Wade to end abortion in this country. The depravity of man will find a way. Abortion is a multi-layered problem that requires a multi-faceted approach. So again I ask, what is the church supposed to do now? For starters, we need to fall on our face and repent for over a century of apathy. The reason that the church is losing the culture war is because we're the only side that hasn't figured out that we're actually in a war. This war can't be won at the ballet box alone. Again, we must change the culture. 

    We must ask God to help us do the following things. First, Christian men must grow a spine and be willing to go against the flow of culture. Single men need to respect women and treat them as sisters. Commit to honoring your future wife by saving yourself for marriage. Refuse to be a slave to pornography and commit yourself to purity by God's grace. Married men need to be the prime example of faithfulness, commitment and love towards their spouse. We need to be the priest of our home and lead our families in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. We need to love and cherish our daughters so that they won't fall for the first goofball that pays them some attention. There is a famine of strong, Godly men in this country. We need to make family great again. Make marital sex great again. Make church attendance, family devotion, and public service to the Lord great again. 

    Single women need to respect themselves and be confident of their value in Christ. If a man isn't willing to commit his life to you in marriage, respect you, love you, work a job and care for your needs, and be a father to your children, don't go to bed with him. Married women need to teach their daughters that the most empowering thing that a woman can do is to raise her children. It’s unthinkable that the church has bought into the feminist idea of women keeping up with men to the point that they have come to feel ashamed about literally the only thing that women can do, that men can’t, bringing life into the world. In all of human history, there has never been a single man that has given birth to a child. What greater place of power and influence could there be? There has never been a king, president, doctor or anyone else that didn’t have a mother who brought them into this world. 

    It would have been unthinkable even a hundred years ago for a woman to hire someone to murder their children in the womb for the purposes of independence, career or anything else. So either today's feminists have it completely wrong, or they are literally the only ones in history to get it right. I’m going with the former. Only the modern feminists would celebrate a woman for working forty plus hours a week for an employer, and yet criticize that same woman for choosing to have children, and opting to raise them and serve her husband instead. 

    I will say it again. WE MUST CHANGE THE CULTURE. It won't happen over night. But we must make steps to call a spade a spade, live God's truth and defeat the lies of the enemy. Think about it. Our culture glorifies laziness, lewdness and a lack of moral courage as "empowering". We must change the narrative. How did this country come to the conclusion that commitment free sex is empowering, but committed marital love is weak and undesirable?  Why is sacrifice seen as slavery, but selfishness is seen as courageous? Why is sacrificing your own child seen as heroic, while sacrificing for your child is seen as degrading? This backwardness is highlighted well in a recent interview with Stevie Nicks. Think about the insanity of what is being said here. 

    In a recent interview with The Guardian, famous Fleetwood Mac singer and abortion rights advocate, Stevie Nicks, talked about the early days of her career when she was dating Eagles singer, Don Henley. She became pregnant in 1979 and chose to have an abortion. This is what she had to say about that event, “If I had not had that abortion, I’m pretty sure there would have been no Fleetwood Mac. There’s just no way that I could have had a child then, working as hard as we worked constantly. And there were a lot of drugs, I was doing a lot of drugs … I would have had to walk away.” Earlier in this same interview she stated that “Abortion rights were my generation’s fight” The incredible irony in these statements is that Nicks is bragging about her empowerment, based on something that she couldn’t do. She openly admits that she could not raise a child because she was a slave to drugs, and to her career. This isn’t a story of empowerment, it’s an admission of weakness. The story would have been much more powerful and praise worthy if Nicks had gotten clean and been a mother to her child. What a story of empowerment that would have been. However, instead of taking a chance of sacrificing her career, she chose to sacrifice her child on the altar of her career. 

    Forty one years later, the glory days of Fleetwood Mac are long gone. In fact, it’s been almost two decades since they released a studio album. Now at age 72, Nicks lives alone and childless in her Santa Monica mansion, when she could be enjoying a house full of grandchildren.  

    The mistake that Nicks and the feminist movement make is that they equate empowerment with the ability to make a choice, instead of the moral fortitude to make the right choice. The renowned German philosopher, G.W.F. Hegel wrote extensively about this form of “empowerment”. He said, “The common man thinks that he is free when he is allowed to act arbitrarily, but this very arbitrariness implies that he is not free.” In other words, the truly empowered person doesn’t need permission or popular support in order to make their decisions. Their choices are based on internal convictions, rather than external circumstances. This is very telling, considering that the very essence of bondage is to be controlled by external circumstances. Yet, feminists have found a way to champion this bondage as a form of empowerment. Hegel went on to say, “A person who does something perverse gives the greatest prominence to his particularity. The rationale is the high road which everyone follows and no one stands out from the rest.” Put into modern terms, if the decisions that we make are dictated by immediate gratification and the easy way out, or if our movement is backed by the media, the vast majority of academia, and society as a whole, then we’re not the resistance. To walk down the smooth path in lockstep with popular opinion regardless of its morality, and then claim the empowerment status of a martyred rebel is the epitome of arrogance and hypocrisy. This is real bondage. Again, we have to change the narrative and promote healthy, honorable goals. 

    Yes, we need vote for serious pro-life (anti-abortion) leaders. Yes, we need to hold those leaders accountable. Those things are great, but if that's all that we do, we are just cutting the head off of the weed. WE MUST CHANGE THE CULTURE. As a church we must get out of the four walls and get busy preaching the gospel. The gospel is the only thing that has the power to change hearts and change the culture. The church also needs to consider ways in which we can help women, adoption, supplies, support, etc. Let's not spike the football over the reversal of Roe vs Wade and not be willing to help. Rise up Church! Let's be the church. Abortion is a multi-layered problem, the church needs a multi-faceted approach. Be the resistance. Save yourself for marriage, have babies, raise them in church and preach the gospel. The Biblical family must make a come back or we are fighting a losing battle.