Are You a Man?

My final installment on a series of old posts from a previous blog I authored that has been shut down.

I could wait no longer.  Earlier this week I was directed to view a video on YouTube that I found to be both hilarious and sad all rolled into one.  This video is been quickly spreading around the Grace College campus, and so I decided to post some of my thoughts on the video and the beliefs behind it.

The exegesis committed by this pastor is horrendous.  He shows no regard for context and has no interest in how language functions.  He is a King James Only advocate which creates a whole other host of issues, but his arguments from his church's website are poor at best and very anti-intellectual.  I was raised in a KJO church, and at that church the arguments were at least academic in nature, so while I do not agree with the position, I at least respect their attempt at making their argument.  But those who make an argument based on strict opinion and even anti-intellectual beliefs, they earn zero respect.

What saddens me most about this is the fact that this man is standing behind a pulpit, proclaiming what he believes to be the Word of God, and thus leading a church down a treacherous path.  He also, by publishing his sermon videos on YouTube, is potentially creating a negative witness to the Gospel message and what true followers of Christ are about.  It seems he is more concerned about the judgment of God than he is the love of God.  True, even I believe the judgment of God is poorly understood and downplayed far more than it should be, but if it is not preached alongside the love of God, then the Gospel is not preached.  And the purpose of preaching is to proclaim the good news.  (side note, the word translated Gospel in the Greek literally means 'good news' and the verb is 'to proclaim good news').

So here is the video.

Ok, now some critique on it.

 
First - the issue of context.  The pastor is seeking to proclaim that only men who urinate while standing are true men, and this is whom God is seeking.  Therefore, we should also only urinate while standing if we want to be men that God seeks.  But notice that in the context God is seeking these men for one purpose: to destroy them.  The passages he is referring to are I Sam 25:22, 34; I Kings 14:10; 16:11; 21:21; and II Kings 9:8.  In each one of these the phrase is used in the context of those whom God is going to destroy.  Is this message reflected in the pastor's exposition?

Second - the understanding of language.  He attacks the NKJV and NIV translators for not correctly translating the phrase, but instead translates it only as "men."  This is true, and there is nothing wrong with it.  The phrase in Hebrew is simply idiomatic. There may be some emphasis being made by using the idiom, but this does not automatically display inferiority in the newer translations. His other attacks have issues as well, but are outside the scope of this post.  And we don't even have time to get into the issues of textual criticism!

Lastly - poor understanding of canonical development.  He alludes to numerology, particularly pointing out verse referencing.  The problem with this is that the verse numbering system was not in place until well after the cannon was established.  But he uses the verse numbering system to make a theological point.  The verse and chapter divisions are in no way inspired, so on what basis can he make this argument.

There are more, but I can only spend so much time blogging.  I do have a life outside of the internet, and it is a busy one.

Just please, pay attention to II Timothy 2:15!