The Effects of Femininity on Our Culture, Part V: Our Evangelism

One of the best quotes I have ever heard is this phrase concerning evangelism: "What you save them with is what you save them to." 

One of the easiest ways to see how our postmodern culture of femininity has effected our speech is in the area of evangelism. Because truth is something so subjective and cannot be objectively and authoritatively known by us, what really matters is uplifting the individual when we want to convince them of something. This means that we attempt to manipulate them through their emotions through various means. 

The first might be flattery. This means we seek to stroke the ego by affirming it. The second might be sentiment. This means that we might try and form some sort of connection with the individual toward which he is already inclined to be emotionally favorable. Common hobbies, experiences, relationships, etc. The third, as we have talked about so much already, is appealing to their own judgment so that they might judge Christ and the gospel favorably. In all of these, the ego is kept intact. 

I use the word "manipulate" here, not to say that all manipulation is evil. There are good uses of manipulation we see in Scripture, but they are always those who are subordinate to authorities that are higher than they are. Whether appeals made by Abigail to David, Esther to Xerxes, or Ruth to Boaz, appeals evidence a submissive relationship to the one in authority who must judge what is being presented to him.

This means that manipulation is the tool of the submissive, and although men need to be in submission in some of the relationships they have in their lives, when they are functioning in the role of ambassadors for God, they are not to take upon themselves a submissive tone that allows the hearer to conclude that he can take or leave the message that God has sent to him. 

In this regard, the feminization of our culture has turned many men into women. Men who should lead now follow. Men who should stand now sit. And men who should speak with authoritative commands now speak with appeal and manipulation. 

This is why the gospel is presented in ways that seem to be offering Jesus as the best product out there rather than as the only Mediator between God and men. It is why the wrath of God in the gospel is downplayed, why sentimental music and stories have replaced the authoritative and urgent tone of the gospel of the kingdom, i.e., the necessity of being under the dominion and rule of God in a dark and Satanic world moving toward eternal exile from the good created order.

This is why people think their testimonies are the gospel. Their personal experience with how Jesus has helped their lives mentally, emotionally, physically, etc. is the selling point to an autonomous person who needs to consider whether Jesus is the right product for him. 

He does not feel threatened by this sort of presentation of the gospel other than he just may be tired of people selling him things. But he feel good about the preacher and have a good feeling toward the negotiable version of Christianity he was presented since no one demanded anything over him or told him that he wasn't the lord of his life.

The feminine manipulation to move authorities is present every time we see a "church" attempting to appeal to the "unchurched" and unbeliever with entertainment and accommodation to their felt needs, i.e., wants. 

It's why we are so worried about losing people at church if they hear something too radical or too bizarre, which means anything that is so biblically exalting of God that it would destroy their own worship of the self in that area. 

Jesus is not a product that we are selling and we are not women who need to sell to their husbands the idea that the living room walls should be blue instead of white. If people leave because God is being exalted too much in the specifics rather than in the non-threatening generics, then let them leave. If people aren't going to receive you well on the street corner or at work or on campus because they hate the God who is life himself, then let them not receive you. If they reject Christ but receive you, you should be in terror rather than consider it a badge of honor. 

As Paul argued, we are not peddlers of the gospel, and as such, we smell a particular way to people who are perishing versus those who are being saved. In essence, we stink like death to those who are dying. Hence, blessed are you when you are spoken of poorly and hated because you have spoken Christ's commands as Christ would speak them and have them spoken. They do not hate you but Christ. If the flesh cannot receive the things of God under the lordship of Jesus Christ, and unregenerate men are nothing but flesh, then not only will you be rejected by Christians who are in their flesh but you will absolutely be hated by the unregenerated who are nothing but flesh. Appealing to their flesh is futile. You will do nothing but make false Christians and then have to continue to appeal to their flesh throughout your ministry so that you do not lose them when God is finally exalted in His Lordship over their lives as He should be.

"What you save them with is what you save them to." We must stop thinking that we are saving people by transferring their flavor of self-worship of the ego from non-churchianity to churchianity. And the only way to break out of being priests of that false religion is to take off our skirts and put on our big boy pants and start speaking like men who have a message from the Almighty God who reigns over the entire universe and commands all men everywhere to repent.