If God is not Sovereign, God is not a Father

By: Thomas F. Booher

R.C. Sproul would say something like, "If God is not sovereign, God is not God." That's true. But more critically for today it must be brought out clearly, "If God is not sovereign, God is not a Father, and if God is not a Father, God is not God."

Sovereignty, Authority, Fore-ordination, having a grand purpose/plan, etc., especially relates to God as Father. The Son, as a man, inherits glory, power, and authority from the Father (not that the Son does not eternally have glory, power, authority, etc., He does) and came to do the Father's will. 

Therefore, the Father receives the God-Man Jesus Christ back up into glory, the Son is given the gift of the Spirit to pour out, and Jesus can say, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth." Who gives Jesus this authority? None other than the Father, for that is the authority that the Father has and gives to His Son in love. 

What has many of our Evangelical and Reformed Churches done today? They have emasculated God. They have stripped Him of His sovereignty, especially in the areas of salvation/regenerating man, but even some Calvinists who believe in election, predestination, and that regeneration precedes faith, have undermined their theology by making God a merely motherly figure who agonizes and sorrows over the wickedness in the world and the unbelief of the people. Some really seem to complicate things when they say God still desires in His heart that every last person be saved, but alas, He has predestined/fore-ordained something differently. 

All of this is a frustration to God's sovereignty, authority, plan, and goodness. It actually presents God as weak, conflicted, even desperate at times. This is not how God the Father actually is, nor should it be how any earthly father presents or conducts himself (even though every human father is a sinner that is weak, conflicted, and desperate at times -- it should not characterize them and must be mortified). 

But since the Church has largely presented God in this way lately, is it any wonder we have weak, effeminate pastors, even "gay but celibate" ministers, have feminized worship, and have either directly or indirectly called men to behave in this fashion as well (after all, this is how God the Father is)? 

God is masculine. He is a He. He is the Alpha and Omega. He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He has all the glory, power, and honor in the world. He does whatever He pleases. He is not just the lord of the manor, but the lord of the Universe. He is the Creator. 

God has designed men to respond to, admire, and even pursue strong, righteous, masculine leadership. After all, God is masculine, and has become a man/male in Christ Jesus. He has also designed women to receive and submit to righteous masculine leadership. While older women are to teach younger women, and women are to respond to that feminine instruction (Titus 2), men are not designed to respond to and receive feminine leadership/authority, etc. It is against nature, and it is not healthy for the woman or the man, and it does not reflect God's order or design well, because it does not reflect God as Sovereign Father well. 

Authoritative femininity is an oxymoron. Authoritative masculinity, applied righteously, is the Father-rule of God. It is what we all need, man and woman alike. Men need strong male leaders, and women do too. Above all, we need the source of strong, righteous, sovereign masculinity, The Triune God of Scripture -- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.    

Why Pastors Shouldn't Preach In Jeans (Especially Skinny Jeans)

By: Thomas F. Booher I can't think of a better way to get labeled a legalist than to title a post like this. Hopefully by the end you will not see this as legalism and will see this as what it is- my attempt at describing what I believe is proper ecclesiology as defined by God in Scripture. So then, what is church? What does Scripture say we should be doing and not doing on Sunday mornings? That's what I want to explore. The Bible says to gather together in Christ's name; to teach, encourage, and admonish one another; to sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in our hearts to God (Heb. 10:24-25; Mat. 18:20; Col. 3:16). There are to be deacons (Acts 6:1-6) and elders (Ti. 1:5) in the church who act as overseers, and in the case of elders, are the shepherds of the flock who teach the word and rebuke with authority (Ti. 1:9). God must call one to be a pastor/elder (Eph. 4:11). As such those who are called by God to preach the word are held to a ...

The Stone Choir/Corey Mahler Invert God's Revelation

https://coreyjmahler.com/the-european-peoples-and-christianity/ *****EDIT: Some have said that they, or at least Corey Mahler perhaps believes, that the European religions were deviations from Christianity, believed by Noah and his sons. Over time, sinful man and demons twisted these European religions, which I think their argument is that it was originally Christian/derived from Noah and his offspring. Nordic paganism had the most in common with Christianity, even with Odin sacrificing himself on a tree, and therefore the Europeans were the most ripe and ready to embrace Christianity and continue to advance the cause of Christ more than other peoples/races/nations over the last 2,000 years since Christ. To that I simply say, I appreciate the context given, but even if all that were true (maybe it is, maybe it is not), it doesn't change the fundamental points of my post below. Syncretism, Odinism, etc., even if it was somehow a distorted derivation flowing from the true...

William Gouge's Domestical Duties: Quotes and Comments

I hope to begin a post here that I periodically update, of quotations from William Gouge's Of Domestical Duties. I am going to quote from this version primarily: https://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/sdg/gouge/Domestical%20Duties%20-%20William%20Gouge.pdf The book has been said to have been as popular as Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress and Matthew Henry's commentaries in its heyday. Gouge was one of the chief members of the Westminster Assembly of Divines, which gave us the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms. In short, the substance of what Gouge wrote was held by most all the Westminster Divines/Puritans on home and family life, regarding marriage, children, duties of husband to wife, wife to husband, children to parents, parents to children, and also servants and masters to one another. Here is an extended quotation of Gouge that I will start with, and add to later. Enjoy. "The third reason taken from an husband's resemblance unto Christ herein, ...

The Tulip Driven Life

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