A Thought Experiment For The Misandrous Church

Yes -- Minds are changed by argumentation and prayer for illumination.

Romans 10:14-17 "How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!' But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, 'Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?' So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ."

The question is asked, "how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?" The answer, "faith comes from hearing" -- argumentation -- but, and this is most important, whence comes hearing?, "hearing [comes] through the word of Christ" -- prayer for illumination -- for, as you see, I take the phrase "word of Christ" as Christ's decree that the one being preached to be able to hear and so have faith in what is preached. I say that from the context: continue to chapter eleven and you will find "God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day", and, as you know, John 12:40 quotes "He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them."

No one, Christian or otherwise, can hear truth unless it be decreed that they be able to hear -- no one can believe what they cannot hear. Truly, "faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ". And so, it is a both-and situation; illuminated argumentation produces saving transformation -- in all the senses of the term 'save'.

But that is not at all what I want to converse about. Speaking-to and praying-for the listener are both things that the speaker is obligated to do. I want to discuss what the obligations of the listener are. But I note with interest that many cannot seem to leave the true and necessary obligations of the speaker out of the discussion. It is a modern magnet of immense power this idea of detailing in fine minutia the very intricate obligations of the speaker, so much so that I think we can safely say that we have spent sufficient time boxing in the motives, methods, and means of the speaker to the point of boxing the ears off of them so that they shut up -- which seems to me to be the whole point of the exercise. Iron sharpening iron involves things getting banged off in loud, hot, and flashy collisions; too masculine for the misandrous church.

The Bible commands us to prefer being offended to not being sharpened. We are instructed to bear just indignation that is leveled against us. We should speak of the ones that have whipped us to the point of producing life long scars as loving friends.

"[I]f one asks him, 'What are these wounds on your back?' [received for false prophesying] he will say, 'The wounds I received in the house of my friends.'" ( Zechariah 13:6).

Also, "Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend [...]" (Proverbs 27:5-6a).

Would a Christian beat someone up (literally) over thinking so wrongly that sin results? Nehemiah did; and then asked God to remember him well for it:

"I confronted them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair. [...] And one of the grandsons the high priest was himself [in sin] and was by me, therefore I chased him from me. Remember me, O my God, for the good I have done."

Ah, but would Jesus beat someone up (literally)?:

"The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, 'Take these things away; do not make my Father's house a house of trade.'"

Here's a thought experiment: If someone were in sin and a brother beat them up, cursed at them, pulled their hair -- or whipped them and chased them and kicked over their desk at work what would you say to that brother?