Knighted by the King: Authentic Masculinity

Knight & Rose Show — Wintery Knight and Desert Rose

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Knighted by the King: Authentic Masculinity

May 22, 2022

Knight & Rose ShowWintery Knight and Desert Rose

Wintery Knight and Desert Rose discuss male nature. We discuss Bible verses that describe masculine virtues and roles. We discuss how masculinity is portrayed in classical movies, classical literature, and military history. We talk about male strengths, and how men leverage their strengths to lead and equip others. We talk about which women are the most attractive to men who are on mission. We talk about whether men have to get married and have children in order to be masculine. Please subscribe, like, comment, and share. Show notes: https://winteryknight.com/2022/05/22/knight-and-rose-show-episode-6-knighted-by-the-king-authentic-masculinity

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Transcript

Welcome to the Knight and Rose Show, where we discuss practical ways of living out an authentic Christian worldview. Today's topic is Masculinity in the Christian worldview. I'm Wintery Knight.

And I'm Desert Rose. Yeah, Rose, so when I think about masculinity, I think about actions that men do like risk-taking and exercising self-control in a crisis. Being stoic when something terrible happens that makes them feel bad, they set goals, they make plans, and they achieve those goals by being disciplined about the steps that are needed to reach the goal.

They mentor others like they build other people up, they support people in their growth, they support ministries, they study apologetics or other topics so that they can defeat lies and tell people what's true and help people to make good decisions based on what's true. Men are supposed to defend the unborn and defend animals and set moral boundaries that are sometimes difficult to hear, but it helps people to not get themselves into trouble. They also are responsible for spiritual leadership.

They take responsibility when things go wrong. Those are the kinds of things that come into my mind when I think of masculinity. Can you think of anything in the Bible about that or can you add to my list? Well, as you are listing some of those actions, I think of 1 Corinthians 4, 1-4.

It says, "This is the way any person is to regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy. But to me, it is an insignificant matter that I would be examined by you or by any human court.

In fact, I do not even examine myself, for I am not aware of anything against myself. However, I am not vindicated by this. But the one who examines me is the Lord." Yeah, so I think at different times and places in the Bible, God says that the man is responsible for the outcomes of things.

So I call this the vertical relationship where the man is thinking, he's thinking through all of his decisions, plans, and goals with the idea that he has to achieve outcomes that are pleasing to his boss and his boss is God. So there's like the parable of the talents, as an example of how Christians are supposed to use their talents, they use their skills in a way that gives a return on investment to their boss. Yeah, exactly.

And here in 1 Corinthians 4, Paul's talking about these mysteries of God are things that are true, but that are hidden from some people. They're not obvious to everybody. And of course, being a steward means making decisions about managing resources.

I love this verse because Paul is not concerned about what other people think about him. If they disapprove of what he's doing, he just doesn't care. And he's solely concerned with what God thinks of him.

Like you said, the boss, God is the boss. You know, such a contrast from what we hear so often today with people going, "Don't judge me. Please don't judge me." And Paul is basically saying, "Judge all you want.

I don't care. That's nothing to me. All I care is about the Lord who examines me and what his declaration is." Yeah, so Christians have an audience of one and that's supposed to help them to be faithful to the job that they've been given.

So a steward is somebody who like works for a king and the king puts him in charge of things. And so in this case, like you said, management of resources. So I think this is important because the king doesn't micromanage what the steward is doing, but the steward instead is tasked with making good decisions that benefit the person who put him in charge.

And that's similar to another verse in the Bible where it says that we're like ambassadors for Christ and we are supposed to represent the sovereign to other people. Yes, yeah. Some of my favorite verses are the ones that talk about us being ambassadors of Christ.

Right. Another verse that I think of is from 1 Chronicles 1232. It talks about the men of Issachar, men who had understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do, 200 chiefs and all their kinsmen under their command.

These are men who saw the threats ahead of time that were coming to themselves, their family, their people, and they knew what actions to take. That's also something that I think of with masculinity, with biblical masculinity. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I agree. I think I found this verse for you in a lecture that I saw from Fadi Bakkam where he was talking about the need for discernment and understanding who his opponents were, what they were planning to do so that he could then take action. And I think this is, you know, we're going to talk about this throughout the podcast, but I think when people think of a man, what the Bible suggests is this kind of faithfulness, respect for that vertical commitment, and then understanding how to read the culture and accepting that there are enemies, and then making plans so that goals are achieved and results are obtained because you know what to do.

And I think that that's certainly what I think of when I think of someone who's good at being a man. Yeah, exactly. In fact, I heard this verse again.

You were the one, the first person to bring this verse up to me. And I just heard it again recently when Del Tackett was talking about some of the threats that face us in our time and how we might think about them biblically and what we might do to take action to prepare for what's coming down the pike and to protect our loved ones and to represent the Lord well. Right.

You know, when you read that verse, it makes me think of one of my favorite movies called The First of the Few. You might have heard that expression from Henry V about "We Few, We Happy Few, We Band of Brothers." Well, the movie is named after, like the band, the people think about the band of brothers or the few in the case of Henry V, but also in the case of World War II, where a very few British airmen had to hold off hordes and hordes of German aircraft to prevent the invasion of the UK by Germany during World War II. So, the first of the few is actually the guy who invented the Spitfire fighter aircraft, which is what enabled the British to mount their defense in the air against the German air force.

And the reason why I think of him when you talk about this verse is because he actually, in the early 30s, before the war started, a decade before the war started, he became aware of Germany's aggressive political changes and how they were invading their neighbors and rebuilding their military, rebuilding a military air force, all of which was forbidden by the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, which was the treaty that ended World War I. So, they weren't supposed to be being aggressive. They weren't supposed to be building up the military. He saw this and he decided on his own to build a military fighter aircraft that could stop Germany from attacking his home country.

So, he saw the threat and he knew what to do. Yeah, that's excellent. Great, great example.

I actually think of another movie that demonstrates masculinity and staying on mission and not allowing others to distract you from what you know is right and good and needs to be done. And that is High Noon. Oh, yes.

I love that movie. Yeah. So, yeah, I know you actually introduced me to this movie as well.

So, do you want to say something about that? Yes. So, the main character in High Noon is a sheriff by the name of Will Kane. Basically, the movie starts with him getting married and then finding out that some people that he put up for murder are being released from jail early.

And he's supposed to be retiring on the day of his wedding, you know, handing in his guns and his badge and going off with his new wife. And that's what the townspeople kind of want him to do. But he thinks about it and he says, you know, I'm still sheriff for this entire day and these people don't know how to deal with evil.

It's my job. And the conflict in the movie comes from his wife, who's a Quaker. She says, "Hey, I don't want you shooting guns anymore and fighting evil.

You're married to me now and I want us to be safe and happy." So, what happens is the movie kind of shows that it's an essential part of a man's character, his masculinity, that he says, "I don't listen to the townspeople. If my wife is telling me not to fight evil, I can't even listen to her because as a man, I have to do what I'm designed to do, which is to detect evil, name them, confront them, fight them." And the movie really makes that clear as it goes on. - Yeah, that's such a great practical example of really, I guess I would say maybe an analogy to our relationship with God and to our responsibilities in the face of pushback from those we love.

And when we have to make a choice between our commitment to God versus our desire to please those who want to look inward and focus on themselves and just be comfortable and have an easy life, and they're asking us to give up what God has called us to. That's got to be an incredibly tough situation, especially if it's your wife, because you have commitments to her as well. But our commitment to God has to come first, and the man absolutely needs to lead in that.

He needs to insist that God is going to come first, that God's priorities reign, that God is ultimately the boss of the man, of his relationships, and of his priorities, his commitments, and what he wants is what that marriage is going to be devoted to. - Right, and it's such a good movie for a Christian man to watch. Because there's going to be people in your life that are going to be like those towns people, and they're going to say confrontation isn't the answer.

Why do we have to have a culture war? Look, if the people want to enact this new system of morality where children get to decide what gender they are, we should let them. Or if women want to choose men to be sexual with and then end their pregnancy, then we should stand down and be accepting, compassionate, tolerant, inclusive. And so this movie is wonderful because it teaches that men aren't that.

They're not supposed to be that. What they're supposed to do is set out boundaries, enforce them, and protect the weak from the strong, even when the weak don't want them to do it. - Exactly.

And the culture war is happening whether or not you want to be a part of it. It's here, and we can either hide and withdraw and put our head in the sand and just look inward and focus on ourselves, or we can be people who stand up for truth and protect others. And that really is biblical masculinity to make that decision and insist on that decision.

This movie, like you said, really shows that well. - Yeah, and one of the things I like about Will is he's trained to do this. He's skilled.

He knows how to, you know, he's been marshal for a long time. He knows the law, and he knows how to get into a conflict. So I think that's what I'd like Christian men to be doing with apologetics.

Listen, I love High Noon. Do you have any more movies like this that make a point about masculinity? - Yeah, well, if we're going to talk about masculinity and movies, we have to mention Cyrano. So Cyrano de Bejorec- - My favorite movie.

- Yes, yeah. So he is such a wonderful example of being unwilling to please influential people for his own benefit. He is not willing to compromise his integrity in order to get ahead or in order to get what he wants.

He is one of the most important displays of masculinity that I talk about that men cannot afford to be people pleasers. They cannot afford to give in to others when it costs them their commitment to God, when it costs them their character, their integrity. And we're seeing all kinds of problems as a result today in our culture of people just wanting to be liked and approved of and celebrated for whatever they do.

But Cyrano did not need to be celebrated. He did not compromise and it cost him. But what an incredible example.

- Yeah, so in the movie, what happens is Cyrano is a musketeer. He's actually the captain of a company of musketeers. He's a leader of men and he basically, he has a very long nose, so he's very self-conscious about how he looks.

But he's an expert at writing plays, literature. He's an expert at nearly everything mental and he's also an expert swordsman. He feels that it's his job to challenge the aristocracy and the hypocrisy and weakness and corruption in his day.

And there's just different people who try to dissuade him from that so that he can have a better life. So at one point in the play, there's a count who works for the Cardinal, who's the evil figure in the play. This is based on a play by Edmund Rostin.

And the count says, "Hey, I'll take your play to the Cardinal and he'll have it performed for you. You'll be famous." And Cyrano says, "Wow, really?" And he goes, "Yeah, all you have to do is let him correct a few lines for you." And Cyrano says, "No, I don't allow anybody to correct my lines." And so, basically, the part of the play that I think is important is for men to understand that they have to be very careful about letting people outside of them get them off of their mission because they want to be liked. Cyrano does not want to be liked.

Cyrano actually considers it a good thing to make enemies. He says that in the play. Right, exactly.

And Cyrano is the antithesis of King Saul from the first king of the people of Israel. And Saul disobeyed God in order to win the acceptance and approval of the men under him. So, Saul had been commanded by God to destroy the Amalekites, all of them, every one of them, and their livestock.

But he refused to do so because he wanted to please his men. He wanted them to be happy with him. He was more afraid of making human enemies than of making an enemy of God.

That is really just the opposite of biblical masculinity. I know so many people who were in information technology, who were raised in Christian homes, and they were raised in Christian schools, and they went to youth group, and everything. And the minute that they hit university, they were in a new crowd where atheism and skepticism and progressivism were considered smart.

And then there are – I'm thinking of men because that's who I run into. And the minute that they found a girl who was willing to go to bed with them, all of their moral convictions, their convictions about truth just went out the window. It is a burden to have to be a Christian in an environment like the university.

You will be uncool with all your stupid rules and all your truth claims, and especially if you're not ready to defend them, you know, you're going to be seen as dumb. And so, that's why I like Serenno, is he's an excellent sword fighter. So, when people challenge him, he just says, "Let's have a duel, and you're going to lose." And he composes poems while he's dueling with people.

So, you have to be good. And Christian men have to know that if they're going to go into the university or the workplace, that they have to be ready for combat and train for it. Otherwise, the peer pressure and the desire to get ahead with the ladies is just going to finish them off.

I guess one quick thing. There's another movie that I like a lot that – I'll just say it quickly – "A Man for All Seasons." And in that movie, the protagonist takes an oath. It becomes incredibly uncomfortable for his family and all of his allies that he is keeping to this oath because the king is the one who wants him to break the oath.

He sees explaining this to his daughter. Why is he on trial, you know, for refusing to break his oath? He says, "Well, when a man takes an oath, it's like he takes water into his hands. And if he lets that go, then he shouldn't hope to think that he'll ever be able to find himself again." And so, just that picture of integrity is essential to being a man.

And you will get run over if you go into the university and the workplace without being prepared, without being more skilled. Integrity isn't about God's going to give me the power. It's – I don't think it is.

It may be, but in my case, I prefer not to – not to bank on that. I think integrity is your obligation to God. And like a steward, you're the one who's in charge of making the decisions to make sure that you don't foul this up.

Mm-hmm. One of my favorites is Mr. Knightley from the movie Emma. Written by Jane Austen.

The book is written by Jane Austen. Yes. Yes.

Yes. So, there's this one really excellent scene in the movie where Mr. Knightley confronts Emma for something that she's done that was uncalled for, really inappropriate. So, Emma had been in a group of people.

And there was this one woman there who is part of a lower class of society. She's annoying. She's not very smart.

But as soon as Emma gets the opportunity, she shames this woman in front of everybody. And she just acts like a real arrogant, spoiled brat. Mm-hmm.

So, Mr. Knightley finds Emma later privately and confronts her for her condescending talk to this other woman. And he calls her out on her bad behavior. And he says, "You're better than that.

I thought that you were someone else. I don't even know what to do with this." And he calls her to something better. He rebukes her for the bad and the evil in her.

And it's not because he just wants a fight. It's not just because he wants to pick on Emma. He loves Emma.

He actually wants to marry her. And so- Wow. He wants to marry her, but he doesn't let her have her way when she's wrong.

Exactly. Yes. And she's very beautiful.

She's very young. But he doesn't say, "Oh, you're young and you're hot. So, if you'll just go to bed with me, I'll let you continue going around being a brat." He says, "No, that's not acceptable for a woman who I would like to marry.

And so, you need to be better than that." To her credit, she responds humbly. She grows and changes as a result of that, which I just love because teachability is an attribute that I really value and strive toward. He is such a great example of biblical masculinity.

He's not going to leave her in her worst sin. He's going to make her better. Yeah.

Women get into a lot of trouble sometimes when they look to the culture or to what their peers are doing, just what's popular, what's going to make people like me. And men are supposed to be like Mr. Knightley and say to them, "Where do you want to be when you're 50? What is it that would please your boss? Because your boss is my boss. God is the boss of men and women.

They're equal in that regard." And they're equally responsible for producing results, I think. But it can be very tempting for a man to give up on that responsibility in order to get a girl to like them, especially when the culture has kind of taught women with feminism that there are no roles for men that are distinct. And so, what's left for choosing a man? Well, if he doesn't have to be a protector, provider, a moral and spiritual leader and none of those things matter because that's sexist, well then what's left is how tall is he? How good looking is he? How much fun is he? How much money does he spend on me? Right, exactly.

Which is not going to make for a happy marriage. No. And men also, as boys today, are being taught that in order to be a good boy or a good man, they need to be more like girls.

This is also coming from the disaster that is feminism. And so, men really have to go against the culture and they're likely to pay for that in various ways, certainly with not having the approval they may want from others. Right.

So, let's like summarize now and start to turn towards what we've seen in our own lives. I think we had a good biblical introduction. We had a good survey of some movies.

My goodness, I'm thinking of so many more that I want to talk about and books as well. Yes. But sum up for me like what you think, what you've learned about distinctive male characteristics and masculinity as a result of your own experience and your reading and all that.

Yeah. So, it's important for men to use their distinctively male characteristics for the furthering of God's purposes. That's absolutely key.

Men have a boss. God is the boss. And they have to be oriented toward the boss's purposes, not just their own desires.

Like we've talked about in the examples that we've given, this involves speaking truth when it'll be easier to hide or to withdraw or to approve of people who are being evil. Yeah. And I'm not suggesting that people do this in the office and the university based on Bible verses.

I'm saying read some peer-reviewed studies and be strong if you're forced to give your view, give your view in such a way that you cannot be defeated. Yeah, that's such an excellent, excellent point. Because if you go in quoting Bible verses, people who don't already trust the Bible are not going to be persuaded by the Bible.

So, there are so many studies out on really just about every topic of our day. And they are consistently demonstrating that the ways of God as revealed in the Bible are in line with reality. And therefore, we really have the results on our side.

What should men do with the women around them and just the people around them in general? I know they have their responsibility of the boss, but how do they understand the people? We already said that they have to be resistant to pressure that takes them away from that mission. What else? Yeah, so men also need to take leadership and equip and motivate the people around them so that the people in their lives, the people on their team, the people in their home, are equipped to get involved in the issues that matter and to make a difference, to have an impact in their circle of influence. This is really important.

Is it crazy to think that not only do men have to have their own knowledge of apologetics so that they can refute lies and give people good advice about what to do and they can defend difficult moral positions against the culture? But is it fair to say that men also have to tend to their educations and careers so that they have resources that help them to give to charity and mentor others? Is it crazy to think that men should be able to hand someone a book and say, "Hey, I bought you this. Put this to work," or, "I bought you this DVD," or, "I'm bringing a speaker to the university," or, "I'm enrolling you in this class." Is that part of masculinity as well? Yeah, yeah. It's definitely part of masculinity.

It's not crazy at all. It's very biblical. Men need to be equipped to give generously, to make good decisions, to take care of those under their care.

Not to make you like me, not to make people like me, but so that they will serve my boss, so that they are equipped to serve my boss and reach their full potential as equal questions. My resources are not there so that I use them to make other people think anything, think that I'm special, think that I'm rich, anything like that. It's more like, "Hey, you, what are you willing to do for God?" They go, "I would love to do this." Then the man says, "Let's make a plan and I will get you the resources you need to get these results." Yeah, I love that.

When men act that way, when they live out their biblical masculinity in that way, they really calm the fears of others around them, whether they're in war, in ministry, in marriage, in the workplace. When men know what to do, they have demonstrated achievements, they are equipped and equipping others to do what is good and right. This is really valuable for their team.

Yeah, this is essential masculinity. I read a lot of books on military history and I just finished two about American submarine captains. One of them is called Wahoo and the other one is called Clear the Bridge and they're about the two best submarine captains we had in World War II.

Those guys used to go back to Pearl Harbor for rest and refit during their patrols and they would read all the other reports of all the other submarine captains so that when they were put back into their patrol area in the Pacific, they could read any situation and they would know what to do. Because when you're out in a patrol area, there's nobody talking to you. We didn't have satellites back then.

Basically, the captain is reading the situation and making the decisions and that is so comforting to his crew when he says, "I have been reading all the other after action reports of all the other commanders. This is a situation and this is what we're going to do." When the crew sees that he says, "This is what we're going to do," and that reaches the goals that they want, they trust him and that is what we need men to do. We need them to study so that they know and then to take control and make the decisions and then the crew says at the end, "We are so happy that you were here to make these decisions and get us the results that we wanted." Yeah, and that kind of knowledge and equipping does not just come out of the sky.

It requires focus and intentionality and a time commitment to study and to learn. That reminds me of 2 Timothy 2, 3-4 that says, "Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him." So Paul is comparing the life of a Christian to the life of a soldier and saying, "Soldiers don't get entangled in civilian pursuits." So you need to be focused on the mission and that means sacrificing whatever other people have going on that is opposed to the mission or just doesn't contribute to it.

So men are not going to... Biblical men cannot be chasing fun and thrills that serve no purpose toward the kingdom. They can't be wasting kingdom resources on things that just display wealth and make them look good to others. They can't waste their time trying to fit in and be cool and get personal praise.

We are at war and we need men to be on mission. And another thing that this reminds me of is it can be incredibly distracting for a man, kind of like we saw a little bit in High Noon, when men prioritize beauty queens, girls who look great, who have some cute face and big boobs and a small waistline and that is what they're looking for. That is such a distraction and this may be appealing when you're 25 years old, but it's going to be a regret not too long into the marriage.

Certainly by the time a man is in his 30s, I could tell you several stories of men who in their 30s told me, "I should have married you." And men were really paying attention to me when I was 20, when I was a teenager in my early 20s. I didn't wear a bunch of makeup and short skirts and the latest styles and have big boobs and flirt with guys and all these things that a lot of the men were looking for. I was studying, I was becoming a Christian and learning the Bible, learning a biblical worldview, studying theology, going to seminary.

CB; Didn't you also have some sort of an athletic career where you were very accustomed to men coaching you and teaching you and getting you to perform? BT; Yeah, yeah. So, this is a great example of male leadership producing results actually, like you were talking about before. So, I actually moved away from home when I was 15 and lived at a tennis academy and I competed in professional tennis tournaments.

I ended up getting 100% scholarship to a really prestigious university. A lot of that I would attribute to the male leadership, to the amazing masculine, awesome coaches who were in my life. There were a few in particular who had no patience with disrespect or laziness or anything like that.

I mean, you were at the tennis academy to work your butt off or go home. And so, I think some of the tennis coaches faces are coming to my mind even as I think about this conversation and reminding me of Mr. Knightley and saying to me and to others, "No, you're going to treat me with respect or you're going to go home. This is a place of discipline and hard work." And so, the result of that is an immensely improved character on my part as well as no debt whatsoever from an amazing university degree.

And so, yeah, this is, I think even though some of my coaches were not Christians, actually, most of them probably were not at the time. They were still acting out the imago de in that regard and some of them have become Christians to this day, which I'm so excited about. CB; Can I ask you a question? Do you think that a man needs to become a husband and have a whole bunch of children in order to be masculine? Because some men put a lot of emphasis on that.

JS; No, I mean, yeah, you're right that I've heard people put a lot of emphasis on this as well, but I don't know where this is coming from because for one thing, Jesus was single. So, I'd say he was a bit masculine. I'd say he was a pretty decent leader, more than a leader, of course.

And then, what about the Apostle Paul? Right? He was, what a rock star for the kingdom of all people who were not deity. I mean, Paul is probably the most influential of all people for the kingdom of God. He achieved amazing goals for his boss and it was not, you know, he wasn't married when he was living out these, all these priorities, these kingdom priorities.

And in fact, he had said in 1 Corinthians 7 that it's better for a man to remain single because then he's not distracted by other needs that are not kingdom priorities. CB; So, he's putting that vertical commitment first and if women want to come around and husband him up, then they have to be willing to show perhaps what they intend to contribute to his pre-existing commitment to his boss. Which is, I think, horrifying to most women today, you know, the idea that you're going to evaluate me to see how I can serve your boss.

Like, no, you're here to be my handbag and to make my life better. Handbags don't talk, so shut it. You know, I think that's the attitude that I would get, you know, from many young feminists today.

It's a generational thing. Women didn't used to be like this, but the younger ones seem to be sometimes. CM; Yeah, I've seen that in women as well and I don't get it at all because I love joining with men who are doing great things for the kingdom who say, "Hey, I want you on my team, but you know what? We're going to need to teach you some apologetics first.

We're going to need to teach you how to talk to people without coming across like, you know, a crazy person or whatever there was that was hindering me from being effective." It is largely men who have poured into me in my character, in my biblical knowledge, in my skills, generally speaking, and there is nothing I've ever experienced that comes close to the adventure, the satisfaction, the fulfillment that comes from achieving goals for God that is just unparalleled. JS; Give me an example of someone who's living today who you think exhibits masculinity as a Christian in a Christian context. CM; Yeah, so the first person who comes to mind is actually a man named David Wood.

When he was in college, he was best friends with a guy named Nabil Qureshi, who was a Muslim. David had been an atheist, but through apologetics, he had become a Christian. David and Nabil had conversations all throughout their time at the university about Islam and Christianity, and eventually, Nabil became a Christian.

As soon as he did, he started getting death threats from Muslims. David thought about what he could do as a man to carry out the biblical command, to be willing to lay down your life for others. His best friends' life was in danger, and David knew the Lord, and David wanted to imitate Christ with his manhood.

David said, "Muslims, you want to kill my friends?" Not only that, but he found out about a lot of terrible, terrible behaviors that were going on throughout the Muslim world. Little girls are commonly raped, married away, very, very young, treated horrifically their entire lives. David is hearing about girls being raped and women being abused, like real abuse, not like he didn't give me the vacation I wanted, but real abuse.

He sees Muslims killing others and threatening to kill Nabil, and he's like, "Oh, you guys want to focus on all those behaviors?" Well, guess what? I'm going to be an even bigger threat to you and your silly religion than Nabil is for converting, or than these little girls are for doing nothing to harm you. He made himself a target. Exactly.

He made himself a target by going on YouTube and making these videos about why Islam is wrong. He's like, "Oh, and guess what? Not only is Islam wrong, but it's so pathetically ridiculous that I think I'm going to imitate Jesus in Matthew 23 here when he was mocking the Pharisees for straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel." So, he makes these videos mocking the leaders who are leading people astray and taking the focus off of other Christians who were ex-Muslims, taking the focus off of little girls who are targets. By speaking the truth, also many, many Muslims have come to know Jesus as a result of David's ministry.

And many more have come to respect Christianity because they respect boldness and strength in that culture. I know half my family is Muslim on my mom's side, so this willingness to get into conflicts, be bold, and speak up, they respect that contrary to what you hear in churches across the nation. Yeah, this whole "just be nice" nonsense that we hear in our American churches that's so widespread is just ridiculous in Muslim cultures.

They see that as weakness. They see that as us not really believing what we say. Right.

I've seen that. And so, when people stand up and say, "I'm going to be strong and I'm going to tell the truth," I think that the reduction in harm in the world that has resulted from David's masculine use of his mind to further kingdom purposes is incalculable. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay, that's an excellent example. So, we should probably sum up.

We're getting towards the end now. So, give us a summary of what we've found out about masculinity throughout the podcast. Well, I think men need to be focused first and foremost on their commitment to God.

They need to not let others get in the way of their commitment to God, even if it means the man is going to be rejected, shunned, have losses, especially if this loss is a loss of praise from others. I mean, who cares? Paul didn't care. Jesus didn't care.

And men today need to not care. They need to be focused on things like equipping themselves to know the truth and to speak the truth and equipping those around them so that they have a team of people who are fighting for truth and goodness and beauty and fighting against evil. Yeah, there's no concept of strength in Christianity that does not involve having evidence and reasons for what you believe.

That's where boldness comes from. Right, exactly. Yeah, and I think that this is really more of a challenge in a lot of ways than for previous generations because of the way our culture is and the way people are being raised and because their identity, our identity is often not found in Christ but in what people think about us.

But I think you would probably be the first to say that it's absolutely worth it to sacrifice the approval of others and the fun and the thrills that you have given up in order to follow God, in order to put His priorities, biblical commandments first. That's my ambition in life. I want that uniform that Christians wear and I want to be known by the boss.

I want to be called onto the field when a big play is needed. I think that people who understand the value of that know exactly what I'm talking about. Absolutely.

I think that's a good place for us to end. If you enjoyed the show, please like, comment, share, and subscribe. You can find the references for this episode on wintrynight.com. That's W-I-N-T-E-R-Y-K-N-I-G-H-T.com. We appreciate you taking the time to listen and we'll see you again in the next one.