When one thinks of a Christian young male nowadays the word “hero” does not come to mind, by and large, generally speaking, now does it?
I know I didn’t think, "hero," with regard to the churchy males I interfaced with when I was an honorary member and senior leader of the local West Texas branch of The Teenage Wasteland Club.
Matter of fact, the lack of heroism in the Christian male collective I came in contact with was a great deterrent to me getting converted. I wanted Christ, you see, as a lost young squab, but I did not want to become a backward-looking hamster. Oh, no.
At that stage of the game, I did not know the Bible was replete with heroes and heroism because I never really read it. All I knew about Christianity and masculinity was from the dead fish and weak handshakes I received from the nice boys who had fish stickers on their notebooks.
When I could no longer resist God’s irresistible grace, I formally came into the fold at the ripe old age of twenty-one and found that all my fears about an effeminized flock were spot on.
What I found were weeping, hugging, and scared of the world retreatist males who were not looking to beard a false prophet, or slay a dragon but rather, they were just longing to cope with the challenge of going over molehills in the garden of Eden.
Heroic they were not. Again, generally speaking.
The few and far between heroic and manly examples at my local church were usually foreign missionaries, successful businessmen, righteous activists, street preachers, prison ministers, and college campus evangelists who’d regularly do outreaches, in the open air, with aggressive anti-theistic crowds. Now, those guys were cool. They took the scripture seriously and defended it passionately, in hostile environments, and had the best frickin’ testimonies of God crushing devils and saving souls. They weren’t afraid of playing the man amongst the sea of wilting Christian mommy-boys.
What I continue to find weird with the lack of heroism within young males is it is the main trait of the epic men and women of the scripture. Hello. They were not renowned for being nice and sweet gentle spokesmen for a fastidious religious do-gooder. They’re God’s protagonists because they usually, by His power, wiped out a massive foreign army, or nailed an evil captain’s head to the ground, or smoked a foulmouthed uncircumcised gigantic mook with just a rock and a slingshot; or like Christ, they confronted Satan on a very empty stomach, and/or they took a whole bunch of lickings for their uncompromised faith and yet… they kept on ticking. Glory!
In the Old Testament, the hero was the mainstay of both the Children of Israel and their rivals. Without huge amounts of heroes, the various tribes would be toast; doomed, ransacked, and pillaged. The hero, young squire, was the central figure to the clan’s survival, be they good or evil. Indeed, without heroes, whoever was out there trying to…you know… make it, would soon become this thing called, “dead meat” sans the necessary presence of the hardy hero.
Question. When’s the last time you’ve heard a sermon on the church’s desperate need for heroes?
Most current Christian messages are about being kind, being sweet, asking God for a new car, or a new job, or a new wife as God makes you rich and He makes everyone fawn over you via social media.
That’s pretty much what’s messaged, for the most part, in The First Church of The Sassy Saints. However, there are scant few sermons, nowadays, soliciting heroism within the formerly hallowed halls of the supposedly “called out ones.” If you don’t believe me, search “hero” in your church’s sermon archives and see how many messages pop up on that topic.
Here’s another thing they never told you at youth group: When God’s people have decisively “gone wrong” (Isa. 3:8) and have been “an affront to the Eternal (God), resisting His glorious presence.” And “they flaunt their sins like Sodom”… and “they don’t even try to hide them (Isa. 3:9)” while “they persist in wrongdoing. (Isa. 3:11 VOICE).” One of the ways God brutally disciplines His people is by removing the hero from their midst and replacing that masculine deterrent to evil with a bunch of chinless-wonder boys and lyin’ ladies. Check it out…
“See here! The Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies, will take away the supply of bread and water—the whole supply—from Jerusalem and Judah. He will take away their heroes and warriors, judges and prophets… and elders, He will take away their military officers and high-ranking officials."
– Isaiah 3:1-3 (VOICE)
Did you catch God’s removal of the “heroes” and “warriors” part of that judgment? You did? Awesome. In case you were wondering, according to the scripture, that is not a good thing when that happens. That means that God has pulled His frontline of defense from His people making them oh-so-vulnerable to their mortal enemies. Yikes, eh?
With the removal of the hero and warrior, guess who God allows to lead in the hero’s and warrior’s absence? If you guessed a bunch of flaky young males and women with horrible, ungodly ideas – you guessed right.
“And I will make mere lads their princes, And capricious children will rule over them, And the people will be oppressed, Each one by another, and each one by his neighbor; The youth will storm against the elder And the inferior against the honorable … O My people! Their oppressors are children, And women rule over them. O My people! Those who guide you lead you astray And confuse the direction of your paths."
– Isaiah 3:4-5; 12 (NASB)
Since God’s people were acting the ungodly fool, blowing off His will and His way, God removes the heroes and replaces them with zeroes and when that happens, as you just read, all hell breaks loose upon His people. Yep, God’s people get trampled by the enemy. They get completely stripped by demonic forces. That’s what happens when the heroic spirit is gone. Evil rules the roost (Isa. 3:13-26).
One of the biggest reasons why I think heroism is more lost in our churches than Britney Spears is during a Jordan Peterson lecture is because God’s not lauded as The Ultimate Butt-Kicking Hero the scripture ubiquitously hails Him to be. Pastors emphasize Jesus being a “Personal Savior” and “Gentle Jesus, meek and mild” and de-emphasize He’s a bold Dragon-Slayer and Hero, par excellence!
Listen to how Isaiah refers to God…
As a hero throws himself into battle, the Eternal will take on His enemies; with passion, shouting out a deafening roar, He will power over them.
– Isaiah 42:13 (VOICE)
The Eternal, your rescuing hero who formed you before birth, declares, Eternal One: I am the Eternal, Creator of all there is and will be. I alone stretched out the heavens and spread out the blue earth.
– Isaiah 44:24 (VOICE)
Israel: Our Savior, our hero – the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies, by name—is the Holy One of Israel!
– Isaiah 47:4 (VOICE)
I will turn your enemies’ violence back on themselves, and they will suffer their own atrocities: They will feed on their own flesh and drink their own blood like wine. Then every person on earth will know for certain that I, the Eternal, am your Savior. I am your hero, the strong One of Jacob from whom you come. I will rescue you, whatever the price.
– Isaiah 49:26 (VOICE)
My hero who sets things right is near. Who would dare to challenge me? Let’s stand and debate this head-to-head! Who would dare to accuse me? Let him come near.
– Isaiah 50:8 (VOICE)
Finally, young male, if you have the Girlie-Man Malaise, one way to cure that illness is to meditate on God’s character as a demonic butt-kicking Hero. Let that 411 roll around in your gray matter for the next several months and His indomitable Spirit will start to overcome your timid flesh. The resultant effect of that revelation will be this: when life calls you to do something heroic, you will “display strength and take action” (Dan. 11:32) instead of curling up in the fetal position and wetting your big, flighty Christian diaper. Can I get a witness?
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*The preceding blog post is from Doug’s new bestseller, Lionhearted: Making Young Christian Males Rowdy Biblical Men.
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Doug Giles is Pastor of Liberty Fellowship in Wimberley, TX, and is the founder of ClashDaily.com
Follow Doug on Instagram and Twitter @TheArtOfDoug.
