Men Have Always Been Expendable

 

A little while back I wrote an article titled, You’re Not That Original Men, you can read this article here. In the article I showed how the idea of men avoiding marriage because of the state of women in society is not an issue unique to our day, or even to our own culture. E. J. Hardy addressed this issue in his wonderful book, How to Be Happy Though Married in the late 19^th century and he even indicates that this was an issue in non-Christian societies from time to time that needed to be addressed. The goal of the article was to give some historical perspective on the challenges men have faced when looking at marriage, and showing that our modern situation has some precedent. Hopefully, this will encourage men to be less fearful of entering into marriage.

A commenter brought up some good points that I promised I would address in a future post, and so that is what I am going to do in this article. Here is his comment:

“This is a great article

But you miss a few key reasons why men refuse to marry. First, the legal system which is feminized and against men and boys. The legal marriages of today are a poor contract for men. Women are paid to commit adultery

And or divorce, with no consequences. Secondly is the religion of feminism, which defines men as the enemy. Even many married women are feminists and intern destroy their own marriages commonly. This is common even in churches. I have seen it. Churches also don’t hold women accountable for marriage problems but crucify men for them. It’s one of the larger reasons men are abandoning the church, we don’t need it, as it’s useless to us. Thirdly, 8/10 divorces are filed by women, half of which due to adultery. Again common in churches. So a bad investment for men again. For men to return to marriage the structure has to change. For many like myself, once we see foreign women, we can’t unsee them.”

These are all incredibly valid responses and well worth addressing. I won’t present this article as an attempt to comprehensively address these issues, as they could actually make the basis for writing a decent book. But I have a few things I would like to say.

First, life is risk. Nothing worth doing is without some form of risk. This is not a cliché, or simply a platitude, but rather a reality and something which we men should embrace. John says 7 times in the book of Revelation chapters two to three that God will reward the overcomers, or the victorious, or the conquerors. To be more specific it is Jesus Christ speaking directly to the church that says this. The worldview of the Bible is that living righteously in this life will not be easy, will not always work out how we want, but our job is to see overcome the world with our faith and our righteousness.  

Connected to this is the idea that we will face opposition in this life. As Marcus Aurelius says, “Begin each day by telling yourself: Today I shall be meeting with interference, ingratitude, insolence, disloyalty, ill-will, and selfishness – all of them due to the offenders’ ignorance of what is good or evil.”[1] Life is risk because life is filled with opposition. In this life we will face many trials and tribulations (Acts 14:22). It is the duty and responsibility of the Christian man to overcome these trials and tribulations. We must not let them dictate to us how we will live, but should see them as the challenges we are called to face and overcome. So, everything I write in response to these questions comes from this perspective. I don’t deny the reality of these problems, they are the reality many men face, but that just shows us the conditions with which we need to be prepared to deal with.

1.     The Legal System is Stacked Against Men

“First, the legal system which is feminized and against men and boys. The legal marriages of today are a poor contract for men. Women are paid to commit adultery. And or divorce, with no consequences.”

No doubt this is true. We live in a society which incentivizes sin in every area of life. Women are incentivized to betray their husbands and move on to another man, or monetize their divorce so they can have the provision of a marriage without the responsibility of a marriage.

In fact, our legal system is practically evil when it comes to marriage and divorce. I, along with many other Christian men and women, have long opposed no-fault divorce. It is a dys-civilisational policy. It is anti-scriptural and practically destructive. But it did not occur to me until just this last week that it is also inherently anti-justice. I realized this after reading this article here about a man challenging his state’s no fault divorce laws in an effort to stop his divorce from going forward.[2]   

One of the things this article points out is that no-fault divorce actually corrupts the justice system. Judges are meant to judge between two parties, the complainant and the defendant, or even two possible complainants. A judge is required to get to the heart of justice and to adjudicate between the two parties on what just action is required. However, in a no-fault divorce case there is no wronged party. Usually the woman, but sometimes the man, initiates the divorce without a legal complaint. And then the judge and usually the woman then commit injustice against usually the man by ending the marriage. This is inherently anti-justice. It is a pure subversion of justice and should be beneath the actions of any righteous judge. No one has been aggrieved until the decision to end the marriage by force of law is enacted. We then have an aggrieved party who was deprived of his rights by the legal system itself. This is a powerful argument, and I pray that this man is successful in his efforts to get these laws overturned in his jurisdiction.

Lex inusta lex non est lex, after all.  

In many ways the legal system is stacked against men. For sure.

But this is the challenge we men are required to face today. We don’t have no choice. You can check out of marriage and dedicate your life to single service for the Lord. Paul the Apostle did this (cf. 1 Cor. 7). However, this presents its own set of challenges, some which most men are not equipped to deal with. But if you want to have a wife and kids this is the playing field you currently face. Are you prepared to overcome this?

You can take the approach of the man suing the state to stop his divorce. You can join men’s advocacy groups. You can join a good church which presents a culture of frowning on easy divorce. You can mitigate your chances of divorce by choosing a high-quality woman. But you cannot avoid taking risks. Life is a collection of risks, especially when lived well.

But don’t think your situation as a man today is as unique as you think. I did not bring this up in my previous article, but it is relevant here. Which generation had it worse? Ours, where men face these kinds of challenges from divorce and women? Or men in the 18^th, 19^th, 20^th centuries where vast amounts of young men were drafted or press ganged into large wars and died before they ever even had a chance to lay with a woman? Have you considered that?

Men have always been expendable. Today the court system is stacked against men to redirect their resources to often low quality women who can use that system to punish men. In previous generations men had more power in the home, but less power over their lives in society in general. Your wife might have been under social pressure to maintain the home, but between brutal factory work in the early industrial period, difficult primary industries, and the large ongoing European wars and conquests, many men faced a more brutal and violent existence than we do now, and a much shorter life as well. But many of those men overcame that and left descendants and lineages. Each generation of men has faced challenges to our existence. All we can do is play the cards we are dealt.

Also, as a pastor, I can tell you that many women regret getting divorced for frivolous reasons and even for more serious reasons. They don’t face no consequences. Many people are just not aware of what they face. They make their lives much harder when they choose divorce. God will not be mocked, ignoring his standards brings problems into anyone person’s life. Even if we don’t see them as clearly as others.

2.     Women Are Not Held Accountable

“Secondly is the religion of feminism, which defines men as the enemy. Even many married women are feminists and intern destroy their own marriages commonly. This is common even in churches. I have seen it. Churches also don’t hold women accountable for marriage problems but crucify men for them. It’s one of the larger reasons men are abandoning the church, we don’t need it, as it’s useless to us.”

It is just a fact that the church is terrible at holding women accountable. I have sought to address this here and here as well as other places over the years. However, there is no doubt that many evangelical men are just deaf to this issue, and this especially applies to many pastors. Many pastors see it as their job to cater to women, and many women expect pastors to do so. Many evangelical men want to frame everything bad that women do as a man’s fault. It is either their father’s fault, their boyfriend’s fault, or their husband’s fault, and if a specific man cannot be identified then they will simply say it is men’s fault. This is an infuriating blind spot in the church, and there is no wonder that men have fled from churches that act and speak like this. I even sought to address this in a sermon recently on spousal abuse, noting that the data shows it is more equal across the genders than most people realize. So, I am not unaware of this as all, and I sympathize with the commenter here.

I have a book coming out soon about the evils of feminism. But you can search this topic on my Substack and find that I have addressed this as much as any other topic. Until the Church realizes that feminism is simply the religion of the Asherah’s just wearing a different skinsuit for a modern era, this pernicious enemy of all that is good and true will continue to infest and harm both the Church and society. Feminism is anti-woman, anti-family, anti-man, anti-authority, anti-children and anti-good hierarchy, and therefore it is a useful tool for the evil one to undermine our society. What encourages me is more and more Christians are waking up to this.  

The four primary idols, as I see it, in the church today are 1) seeking the approval of the culture, 2) feminism, 3) financial success, 4) and Israel. I would suggest finding a church that challenges these idols as best as it can. Some churches are better than others on these issues. Another option is to plant such a church. But we need to address this as much as we can.

As I said in one of those linked articles,

“Conservative men need to learn that taking responsibility as men means not just holding men responsible ultimately for the state of society, but also holding women relentlessly to account for their actions, as well. They could, ironically, learn from this old song I heard again for the first time in ages the other day,

“Boys and girls wanna hear a true story?
Saturday night I was at this real wild party
They had the liquor overflowing the cup
About 5 or 6 strippers trying to work for a buck
And I took one girl outside with me
Her name was Lonni, she went to junior high with me
I said, "Why you up in there dancing for cash?
I guess a whole a lot's changed since I seen you last."
She said

What would you do if your son was at home
Crying all alone on the bedroom floor
Cause he's hungry
And the only way to feed him is to, sleep with a man for a little bit of money
And his daddy's gone
Somewhere smoking rock now, in and out of lockdown
I ain't got a job now
So for you this is just a good time, but for me this is what I call life

Girl you ain't the only one with a baby
That's no excuse to be living all crazy
Then she looked me right square in the eye
And said every day I wake up hoping to die
She said…I know about pain cause
Me and my sister ran away so my daddy couldn't rape us
Before I was a teenager
I been through more shit that you can't even relate to…

…Hold up!
What would you do?
Get up on my feet and let go of every excuse
What would you do?
Cause I wouldn't want my baby to go through what I went through
Come on, what would you do?
Get up on my feet and stop making tired excuses
What would you do?
Girl, I know if my mother can do it, baby you can do it...”[17]

What would you do? “Get up on my feet and let go of every excuse.” What is he saying here? Woman, take responsibility for your life. And then he tells her that is exactly what his mother did. And countless women have done this. It is a bit of a trope in society that women do not like having accountability. If this is true, and many people can give anecdotal evidence that it is, then the person who struggles to do something, should not they be held to a stricter standard to help them achieve it?

The people who wrote this song knew that a large part of the answer to the problem was holding women relentlessly accountable. He does not say, “Oh dear, I am so sorry to hear that.” He instead says, “let go of every excuse.” Conservative men need to realize that to help change society around you cannot fail to call 50% of society to a much higher level of accountability. The next time you see a woman who has had an abortion don’t think, “Oh you poor girl.” Think, “That poor kid, what kind of mother does such a thing to her child?” This does not mean the woman cannot experience grace and forgiveness and that you cannot have compassion on her. It just means we should not immediately default to absolving the perpetrator of harm to that child by shifting the blame away from her. The child is the victim. Abortion is a form of abuse. We would never absolve a man who hurt his child, so why do it with a woman?

I do not believe this issue can change until conservative men in this public space fearlessly hold women to the same level of accountability that they would any adult man. Ironically, this is actually men taking responsibility and being willing to receive all the attacks for being labelled “anti-woman” etc, etc, when this could not be further from the truth. Abortion and porn do hurt women. And holding women to a higher account than we generally do, will help steer more and more women away from these things. Which is the ultimate goal, is it not?”[3]

3.     Women do the most divorces.

“Thirdly, 8/10 divorces are filed by women, half of which due to adultery. Again common in churches. So a bad investment for men again. For men to return to marriage the structure has to change. For many like myself, once we see foreign women, we can’t unsee them.”

Foreign women are not the solution that many people think. Sin is a universal issue. And often what restrains women from acting badly in those other cultures is the societal restraints on those women. Once you bring them into the West it does not take them very long to learn what they can get away with. Often western women will teach them this. The problem in other words in our society is not women, or men, it is our lack of proper boundaries around sex, marriage, divorce and many other things.

Men, you decrease the chances of a divorce by choosing a woman of higher character. As E. J. Hardy noted and was referenced in the article that inspired this one. So, choosing wisely helps increase your chances of success. But that is not all you should do.

You need to continually improve yourself. You need to physically take care of yourself. You need to work on your intellectual and practical skills. That is your ability to reason wisely and do practical things as a man to maintain a good home (not housework, but house maintenance). You should work as hard as you possibly can so that your wife can stay and work in the home. And you need to make sure that you encourage your wife to have friends who are living in a similar way. Part of doing this is being in a church where the pastor models this through his own family and encourages this.

In other words, you need to continually prove yourself to be a good catch. Earning the respect of other good men. Showing high character and discipline. Working hard on contributing to the society around you. Maintaining your physical attractiveness. And things like this decrease your chances of success.

As E. J. Hardy notes,

“It has been remarked that the first requisite to success in life is to be a good animal. Will it seem shockingly unpoetical to suggest that this is also a very important element of success in marriage? Certainly beauty has great power in retaining as well as in gaining affection, and health is a condition of beauty. A clear complexion and laughing eyes, a supple and rounded form, and a face unmarked by wrinkles of pain or peevishness, are the results of vigour of constitution. Overflowing health produces good humour, and we all know how important that is to matrimonial felicity.[4]

I don’t think the high divorce rate and the high obesity rate are a coincidence, either. It is not just that people are overweight, but people have poisoned their bodies and this poisons their minds. Again, Hardy notes,

“Surely no one needs telling that a good digestion, a bounding pulse, and high spirits, are elements of happiness which no external advantages can out-balance. Chronic bodily disorder casts a gloom over the brightest prospects; while the vivacity of strong health gilds even misfortune. Health is not merely freedom from bodily pain; it is the capability of receiving pleasure from all surrounding things, and from the employment of all our faculties.”[5]

How much of our social ills, like high divorce rates, are a product of disordered minds caused by bad health? It is not all of the issue, of course, but it has to be some of it, and probably more than we realize. Taking care of yourself as a man and making sure your family does is a good way to increase your chances of marital success.

However, there are no guarantees in life.

I appreciate the opportunity to address these questions. There are many ways men are at a disadvantage today. But many men in history have had it much worse. I think of what it was like being a 19-year-old man while Napoleon was in his prime taking record amounts of young men into his armed forces all to fulfil his own glory. Historians note how his continual efforts to draft men is part of what turned his nation against him. These men were literally so mistreated we have a term come down to us from that era that highlights this, “canon fodder.” Men have often been canon fodder of one type or another. I can think of even worse eras for men that the time of Napoleon. Compared to some eras our challenges are relatively light, though they might not feel that way when we are going through them. We can only play the cards we are dealt. But we can do what is possible to change things for future generations.

Men, be overcomers.  

List of References

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[1] Littlefield Matthew, 2025 https://goodsauce.news/aurelius-and-oppostion/

[2] Willet, Beverly, 2025, https://thefederalist.com/2025/08/18/meet-the-man-suing-to-stop-no-fault-divorce-in-texas/?fbclid=IwY2xjawMUzApleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHhVyJY9BkR0bzxSP6_tvTx_VzZzG7HllrQ-PhS60h-4F2TFUFLhIzFhFfd4j_aem_XXeI01cjJby2yAAUVnL00Q

[3] https://revmatthewlittlefield.substack.com/p/what-women-need-unrelenting-accountability

[4] E. J. Hardy. How to be Happy Though Married: Being a Handbook to Marriage (Kindle Locations 3318-3321). Kindle Edition.

[5] E. J. Hardy. How to be Happy Though Married: Being a Handbook to Marriage (Kindle Locations 3310-3313). Kindle Edition.

This is Awesome: Mothers are Returning to the Home.

 

This is awesome. Just awesome. Women are increasingly rejecting the "You can have it all" lies that older generations lapped up and taught to their daughters. Praise God. They are returning to the home in greater numbers,

How is this for an admission?

"Sweeping federal layoffs have also been a setback for women and other caregivers, who have long relied on the government for stable and flexible employment."[1]

Many of us on the right have observed that feminism was just women replacing their husbands with the government. Take away government jobs and welfare, and you would probably have marriage rates and longevity of marriages increase within a year. Of course, there is a reason women vote more often for the left, than the right. They want to reserve the right to be independent women who can ask the government to rescue them at any time they decide that this is also being an independent woman.

Many women who work rely on their husband's tax money for employment. Government is up there with the largest hirer of women. Women make up 69.33% of the Queensland government public sector. 78.55% of education is women, along with 73.75% in the health sector.[2] Without the government money taken from private sector taxes, most women would need to be married, and ironically their men would have more money, because they would need to pay less tax. In other words, without the government acting as the chief employer of women, we would have even more women raising their kids in the home, as God intended.

This is also worth noting,

"In interviews with more than a dozen women who’ve recently left the workforce, many cited a confluence of factors — from layoffs to waning work-from-home flexibility while caring for children or aging parents. Many also noted a discernible shift in workplace attitudes, including return-to-office mandates and discarded diversity policies, that made it feel like they were less valued at work. Several said they struggled to find new work after losing their jobs and decided to go back to school instead, or stay home with their children. Almost all of the women said the decision to stop working felt uncharacteristic for them, and wasn’t something they would’ve considered a year ago."[3]

Did you see that? Removing diversity quotas encourages women to stay at home and look after their children. As many of us have said all along diversity quotas are harmful in a number of ways, including to the family unit. It is fascinating to see these old school values rising because of a time of crisis. As the economy gets worse this is going to increase. Many women working now would rather be at home, but cannot afford to, but layoffs and the need for businesses to be more efficient will drive this change anyway.

Of course, the mainstream feminist perspective in this article is that we should lament these things, “The drop has been enough to wipe out many of the gains made by working mothers after the pandemic, when remote work arrangements and flexible schedules lured many back to the labor force.”[4] But I say what is really happening is that we have squandered our prosperity for far too long and God is starting to bring hardship on the West so we can learn what we should prioritize again.

To be fair, the article allows this perspective to shine through as well,

“Santoni says leaving the workforce has been a refreshing change. She’s spending a lot more time with her children, and is also going to more workout classes and happy hours with friends. Although it took a few months to find her rhythm, she’s now encouraging other women in her circle to consider stepping back from the labor force.

…“My decision to leave my corporate role had nothing to do with politics or a movement telling women to stay home. It had everything to do with what success looks like for me right now,” Santoni said. “I’ve worked relentlessly since I was young, and now I choose to give my best energy to my kids while they’re little. For moms choosing to leave the workforce for this same reason, it’s not weakness or submission — it’s power.”[5]

More power to women who make this decision, I say.

The West has long been heading towards a crisis. Delayed marriage, chasing careers, burning through sexual partners, and more issues like this absolutely decimated western demographics. But don’t listen to the blackpillers God can turn things around.

Image: That flag is the Albanian flag.

Of course, this uptick in women staying home is American data. But recent data shows home schooling has increased in NSW and QLD. So it looks like the future is getting brighter for more and more places in the West.

Let the wins keep coming. 

 

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[1] https://www.msn.com/en-us/careers/job-search/mothers-are-leaving-the-workforce-erasing-pandemic-gains/ar-AA1Kinaj?ocid=BingNewsSerp&fbclid=IwY2xjawMTkqlleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFaaFJGSGdsdHZhVzJWa0dKAR5z0Q8BIlmnWiH7q-rDqfW_I6LpUVSCexO3tQ3UFRiBYgQZ7CrdAyQo8WXjXw_aem_TP9D0gZAlpsMTD18fzlviA

[2] https://psc.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/2563/Queensland-public-sector-Gender-pay-equity-report-2024.pdf#:~:text=Women%20comprise%2069.33%25%20of%20the%20workforce%20but%20are,of%2078.55%25%20in%20Education%20and%2073.75%25%20in%20Health.

[3] https://www.msn.com/en-us/careers/job-search/mothers-are-leaving-the-workforce-erasing-pandemic-gains/ar-AA1Kinaj?ocid=BingNewsSerp&fbclid=IwY2xjawMTkqlleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFaaFJGSGdsdHZhVzJWa0dKAR5z0Q8BIlmnWiH7q-rDqfW_I6LpUVSCexO3tQ3UFRiBYgQZ7CrdAyQo8WXjXw_aem_TP9D0gZAlpsMTD18fzlviA

[4] Ibd.

[5] Ibid.

The Importance of Rest

 

I just had some time off and I have been meaning to write something on this issue of rest for some time now. I also intend to preach about this at some point, and I think this is incredibly needed. We live in a very busy society. Busyness is how people identify themselves. We all do it. I catch myself doing it too much. “How are you going?” We ask, and the answer is often, “Busy, very busy.” I think it is genuine to say that busyness is an idol for many modern people.

I especially see this in online circles. Many commentators, bloggers and writers, have a compulsion to always be online, always posting, always making sure their platform is growing. How often do you see one of the youtubers you watch go on vacation and they are recording some video from their hotel room, or they have a friend running their channel and uploading videos for them. Some people feel compelled to post, upload and connect online continually. Not just socially either, but to grow their platform.

I did an experiment a couple of years ago. I decided for one year I was going to post every day on my blog. I think I missed one or two days because I was away from any internet services. But overall I did it, and my platform did grow somewhat. What was good about it was that it forced me to write better, write more often, and also to broaden the range of things I wrote about. By the end of the year my writing ability had actually grown markedly.

What was not good about it is that I felt compelled to post and compelled to write daily, and this actually felt like slavery. Self-imposed slavery. After the year was up I considered for a while continuing to post every day, and then I decided, nope this is not right. It is not just not good for me, I don’t think it is biblical. So I settled on doing 4 or 5 blog posts a week, and one or two Substacks, which are usually just selected from my blogs.

The advantage of having done this is that I massively increased my output, and showed myself that I could write faster, more regularly and on more topics. But I don’t ever plan to go back to writing every day because rest is important. Here are some biblical principles of rest.   

Rest Is Rooted in Creation (Genesis 2:1–3)

God Himself rested on the seventh day after finishing His work of creation. This sets the pattern that rest is not merely for recovery but for delight in God’s completed work. Rest, therefore, is part of God’s good design for human flourishing.

If God needed to rest, or at least chose to rest, then how much more important is it that we choose to rest from our labours. Writing is not my fulltime profession, I am a vocational minister, that is my fulltime profession. I consider writing part of my public witness and an extension of my work, but I have other duties. I need to balance my time, my energy, and my efforts, so as to maximize my ministry, and not harm it. And therefore rest is important. It is especially important to follow God’s example of setting aside at least a day a week to wind down.

Rest Is Grounded in God’s Covenant (Exodus 20:8–11; Deuteronomy 5:12–15)

That God’s day of rest is an example to all of us is made explicit by the fact that Moses looks back to the six days of work and the sabbath rest of God to structure the work week of Israel. The Sabbath command teaches Israel to rest as an act of obedience and trust. In Exodus, it points back to God’s rest in creation; in Deuteronomy, it recalls redemption from slavery. Rest is both imitation of God and celebration of His saving work.

This linking of rest to trust is so important. Some people work all the time precisely because they are anxious about something. Anxious about clicks, views, sales, anxious about being replaced by someone else. There are many reasons that people do not trust God enough to rest, and therefore reminding ourselves that we need to trust God and rest is vitally important.

Someone might ask, Matt, if God worked 6 days a week and rested on the 7^th, why don’t you write 6 days a week? Well, because writing is only an extension of my labour, my work week. I have other duties as well.

It is very obvious though that Moses wanted his people to understand that provision is not entirely upon our shoulders. If you feel compelled to work on days you should be resting, because you are afraid of what you may lose, you simply do not have a biblical enough view of God. He is our provider. We are in covenant with him. Do you not trust him?

True Rest Comes from Trusting God (Psalm 62:1; Isaiah 30:15)

The Psalms and the prophets build on this. Israel was bad at rest. Very bad at it. Our culture of continual busyness is not new. The Psalms and Prophets remind us that rest is more than a day off—it is soul rest that flows from depending on God rather than striving in our own strength. “In returning and rest you shall be saved” (Isa. 30:15). Rest means reliance.

Why do you think that a Simeonite or Ephraimite was gathering wood on the Sabbath day, even though he knew it was forbidden? He had become disconnected from God and finding his rest in his God. The person who truly trusts God understands the need to reconnect with God, be fed by his word, forget the anxieties of this world for a moment, a day, a few days, and give all of their worry and anxiety unto God.

How many people do you know who can’t sit down and are constantly doing stuff around their home, both men and women? This is often a product of anxiety. Keeping busy is quieting their mind, quieting the anguish in their soul. What they really need is some time with God, and with good strong Christian friends, so that they can let go of what is driving them stir crazy. Our culture has forgotten this, and it is why psychology is such a big business.

Much of the money psychologists make is because people have very few friends, refuse to make time for friends, or because they have not spent enough time in prayer, contemplation, bible reading, and meditating on the works of great Christian thinkers. These things could bring many people the rest and peace they desire, but they have forgotten to pursue this.

Jesus Fulfills and Offers Rest (Matthew 11:28–30; Hebrews 4:1–11)

Our ultimate rest is in Jesus. Hebrews 4 tells us that Joshua could not ultimately achieve rest for the Hebrews, because he was not the ultimate messiah. Remember Jesus is just a transliteration of Yeshua, or ‘Isous, which in English is Joshua. Jesus is the ultimate bringer of rest. Salvation in Jesus is the true promised land, and in him we have access to the heaven, the ultimate fulfilment of rest.

Jesus calls the weary to Himself, promising rest for their souls. Cast your burdens on Jesus, for he cares for you, as the old song goes, and as Matthew 11 states. He is the true Sabbath, fulfilling what the Old Testament Sabbath foreshadowed. Hebrews 4 explains that believers enter God’s rest not by works but by faith in Christ’s finished work on the cross.

It is no wonder that so many people are ill at ease in this world. They have rejected Jesus and have been given over to the lack of rest that results from this. If your soul is created to find rest in Jesus Christ, how can you live in peace if you do not have this. You will continually be seeking it everywhere else. Which is what many people are doing. Trust in Jesus.

If you are created to find rest in Jesus, then taking time to hear from his word, praying with him, and following his example of resting and withdrawing is vital. We all need to do this. Jesus did this, and therefore we need it even more.

Eternal Rest Awaits God’s People (Revelation 14:13; 21:3–4)

The story of rest culminates in eternity, where those who die in the Lord “rest from their labors.” In the new creation, God wipes away every tear, and His people enjoy perfect, unbroken fellowship with Him forever. Rest here is complete restoration. We are restored to full fellowship with God in the full presence of God and we will live completely in the light of his glory. When we take time out from the busyness of life on occasion we actually are giving ourselves a small glimpse of heaven.

Obviously, people can take this idea of rest too far and be lazy. But the Bible says there is no peace for the wicked for a reason (Isa. 48:22), because laziness and never resting are both products of wickedness.

To rest is to trust in God, to recognize that not everything is on you, and to allow yourself to be recharged for a new season of productivity. Rest is vital, don’t neglect it.

One of my favourite Psalms, already mentioned above, touches on this. Here is the Psalm in full. I encourage you to meditate on it when you have time.

1 For God alone my soul waits in silence;
    from him comes my salvation.
2 He alone is my rock and my salvation,
    my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.

3 How long will all of you attack a man
    to batter him,
    like a leaning wall, a tottering fence?
4 They only plan to thrust him down from his high position.
    They take pleasure in falsehood.
They bless with their mouths,
    but inwardly they curse. Selah

5 For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence,
    for my hope is from him.
6 He only is my rock and my salvation,
    my fortress; I shall not be shaken.
7 On God rests my salvation and my glory;
    my mighty rock, my refuge is God.

8 Trust in him at all times, O people;
    pour out your heart before him;
    God is a refuge for us. Selah

9 Those of low estate are but a breath;
    those of high estate are a delusion;
in the balances they go up;
    they are together lighter than a breath.
10 Put no trust in extortion;
    set no vain hopes on robbery;
    if riches increase, set not your heart on them.

11 Once God has spoken;
    twice have I heard this:
that power belongs to God,
12     and that to you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love.
For you will render to a man
    according to his work.

 

 

Episode 17: Revelation Chapter 11 – Men of Power Confront Evil

 

Watch the video of this study here at 8pm to 9pm AEST. 

Tonight, we are going to look at one of the more difficult chapters in the book of Revelation. Again, as with many aspects of the book of Revelation, the what in this chapter is relatively clear. However, the when and the how are not. We will discuss the when and the how at times tonight, but as usual we will focus on the what.

I think a few things will become clear as we go through this passage tonight:

1.     The book of Revelation is not a series of linear passages about events happening in a 7 year tribulation period. Some of them may apply to such a time, but this is not necessarily how they should be read.

 

2.     We Christians are up against it in this world, and aspects of this chapter make that clear, as will the next few chapters.

 

3.     Many Christians do not factor in how the Bible itself talks about God’s apostate people very accurately.

 

4.     And if you do not have a good grasp on the Old Testament this book comes across as even more of a mystery than it already is.

 

I personally think this passage works best as we see it as having been fulfilled in the first century. However, I can also see an argument for it having a future fulfilment, so we will look at that tonight. I think there is a lot in Revelation 11 that can bless us all. Here are some Old Testament passages to read as background for understanding this passage:

To understand the measuring rod references:

1. The Temple Measurement (v1-2):
• OT Source (Ezekiel 40-43): The command to measure recalls Ezekiel's vision of the future temple, symbolizing God's ownership, protection, and preservation of His true people (the inner court worshippers) amidst judgment. Measurement signifies divine evaluation and setting apart.
• OT Source (Zechariah 2:1-5): The man with a measuring line foreshadowing the future security and expansion of Jerusalem.
• NT Echo (1 Corinthians 3:16-17, 6:19; 2 Corinthians 6:16; Ephesians 2:21-22): The Church as the spiritual temple of God, indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
• Duration - 42 Months / 1260 Days (v2-3): Directly from Daniel 7:25, 9:27, 12:7 (also Rev 12:6, 14; 13:5). Represents a period of intense persecution, oppression, and apparent triumph of evil, limited by God's sovereignty. Equal to "a time, times, and half a time" (3.5 years).

To understand the two witnesses:

The Two Witnesses (v3-14):

• Identity & Symbolism: They could possibly represent the prophetic witness of the Church throughout the age of persecution. They could also embody the combined testimony of the Law and the Prophets (Moses & Elijah), pointing to Christ.
• OT Imagery - Power & Ministry:
• Elijah (1 Kings 17:1; 2 Kings 1:10): Power to shut the sky (no rain - v6a) and call down fire (v5).
• Moses (Exodus 7-12): Power to turn water to blood and strike the earth with plagues (v6b - "as often as they desire").
• Zechariah's Olive Trees & Lampstands (Zechariah 4:2-3, 11-14): Explicitly referenced (v4). Joshua (High Priest) and Zerubbabel (Governor) were anointed leaders, symbols of God's Spirit empowering His servants for rebuilding. Here, the witnesses are God's empowered instruments for testimony during tribulation.
• Jeremiah (Jeremiah 5:14): "Fire from their mouth" consuming enemies evokes prophetic judgment pronouncements.

To understand death and defilement:

• OT Imagery - Death & Defilement:
• "The Great City" (v8): Called "Sodom" (moral depravity - Genesis 18-19) and "Egypt" (place of oppression and slavery - Exodus 1-14), but spiritually identified as Jerusalem ("where also their Lord was crucified"). This fuses the historical location of Jesus' death with the archetypal symbols of rebellion and oppression. It could represent the entire world system in opposition to God, or it could represent God’s judgement on Jerusalem.
• Unburied Bodies (v8-9): A profound insult and sign of utter defeat and divine curse in the ancient world (Deuteronomy 21:22-23; Psalm 79:2-3; Isaiah 14:19-20; Jeremiah 8:1-2). The global celebration (v10) mirrors the rejoicing of Israel's enemies (Psalm 83:4).

Understanding this imagery will not mean that your interpretation is perfect, but it will help you draw more out of this passage.

Let’s now do the study

1. Why is John asked to measure the temple? (compare to Ezekiel 40-43, Zech. 2:1-5, Habakkuk 3:6).

 

2. What does the 1260 days or 42 months refer to (the Jewish wars against Rome lasted about 7 years, AD 66-73, the Jews were terrorized by Antiochus Epiphanes in 168-165 BC, about 3 and ½ years). (cf. Daniel 7:25, 9:27, 12:7).

 

3. Vv.3-6 Who are the two witnesses? Are they two literal people? Or are they something else? Are they representative of something? What is happening here?  (Zechariah 4 helps us here). Could they be the law and the prophets, or could they be two actual people?

3.1  Elijah had power to shut the sky (cf. 1:Kings 17:10).

3.2  Moses could turn water to blood and strike with plagues (Exodus 7-12).

3.3  Zechariah is apparently explicitly references here (Zech 4:2-3, 11-14).

3.4  Cf Jeremiah 5:14).

 

4. What is the great city that is symbolically called Sodom and Egypt?

 

5. What does the celebration of the peoples of the earth tell you about this passage, and about the world we witness in? What does their refusal to let the bodies be buried signify? Is their a sense of irony in this?

 

6. Who is the beast who wages war against the witnesses?

 

7. Where is Israel compared to Egypt in Scripture? (cf. Isaiah 30:1-5, 31:1-3). What else could this be referring to? What was Egypt to the Israelites? If this city is being compared to Egypt and Sodom, what does this say about that city?  

 

8. Some people, preterists, believe this is talking about St Peter and St James witnessing before the destruction of Jerusalem, is this possible? If so, why haven’t we heard of this tradition about their lives?

 

9. How can the kingdom come in 11:15, when we still have more of the history of the end of the earth to come?

 

10. What is different between 11:17 and Revelation 1:8?

 

11. Why do we get a glimpse of the ark of the covenant? What does this tell us about Indiana Jones?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Christianity Did Not Come From Judaism

 

“For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it.”

Galatians 1:13

Christianity did not come from Judaism.

Wait? What are you saying Matt? Are you denying that Christianity is connected to the faith of Moses, Elijah, David, Jeremiah and Malachi? Are you saying it is not descended from the faith of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? Are you saying that Christianity only came about of its own accord in the 1^st century? No, I am not. Let me explain.

The term Judaism, in biblical time frames, is a relatively recent term, as Encyclopedia Brittanica notes, “Judaism, as the Jewish religion came to be known in the 1st century CE, was based on ancient Israelite religion, shorn of many of its Canaanite characteristics but with the addition of important features from Babylonia and Persia.”[1] Notice what Brittanica states, “as the Jewish religion came to be known in the 1^st century CE…” Judaism is what the faith of the Jewish people came to be called in the first century. But it was not the faith of Moses, but “was based on ancient Israelite religion.” What else happened in the first century?

Christianity came out of faith of the Old Testament.

More biblical terms for the true faith of the Israelite people might be “the faith of Abraham”, “the faith of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob”, “the faith of Moses”, or something along these lines. Jesus himself refers to the “Book of Moses” and simply calling the Israelite faith “the law” or “the Torah” would probably be the most biblical term for the religion of Israel. This is what Jesus himself says, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished” (Matt. 5:17-18). Jesus referred to the biblical faith of Israel as “The Law”, or “the Law and the Prophets”. “The Law” meant their way of life, God’s way. 

In fact, the term “the law” is used 265 times in the Bible, and the majority of those times, 142, are in the New Testament. Here are a few examples,

Matthew 22:36, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”

Luke 16:16, “The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it.”

John 1:17, “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”

Romans 2:12, “For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.”

Romans 7:4, “Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.”

Galatians 3:17, “This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void.”

Many other examples can be given. Romes (45) and Galatians (24) both have the most uses of the term “the law” in the New Testament, and in fact the whole Bible both these books use the term more than even any of the first five books of the Bible, the Torah, or Law. You could say that “the Law and the Prophets” is another valid title for the true faith of Israel. But “The Law” is no doubt simpler and used as shorthand for the faith of Israel, or Judah.

You might be wondering here if I am just splitting hairs. But I am not. As I have written elsewhere,

“The Rabbinical Judaism of Jesus’ day was not the faith of the Old Testament, it was a faith that nullified the Old Testament in favour of man-made traditions. This is the clear position of Jesus and the position of the Church. But I understand if you do not accept my accounting on this, even if I quote clear scriptures like Mark 7:1-13. So how about a prominent Jewish scholar, Peter Schafer?

Schafer writes in his work, Jesus in the Talmud,  

“This book is about the perception of Jesus of Nazareth, the founder of Christianity, in the Talmud, the foundation document of rabbinc Judaism in Late Antiquity. What do these two – Jesus and the Talmud - have in common? The obvious answer is not much. There is, on the one hand, the collection of writings called the New Testament, undisputedly our major source for Jesus’ life, teaching, and death, most of it written in the second half of the first century C.E. And there is “the” Talmud, on the other, the most influential literary product of rabbinic Judaism, developed over centuries in its two versions in Palestine and in Babylon (the first, the Palestinian or Jerusalem Talmud, was edited in fifth century Palestine, and the second, the Babylonian Talmud, reached its final form in the early seventeenth century in Babylonia). Both documents, the New Testament and the Talmud, could not be more different in form and content: the one, written in Greek, is concerned about the mission of this Jesus of Nazareth, who, regarded as the Messiah and the Son of God, was rejected in this claim by most of his fellow Jews, put to death by the Roman governor Pontius Pilate, and resurrected on the third day after his crucifixion and taken up into heaven; the other, written mostly in Aramaic, is a huge collection of mainly legal discussions that deal with the intricacies of a daily life conducted according to the rabbinic interpretation of Jewish law.”[12] (emphasis mine).

Shafer argues very clearly here that the Talmud, not the Mosaic law, but again let me emphasize the Talmud is the “foundation document of rabbinic Judaism in Late Antiquity.” It bears no similarities with the teachings of Jesus or the New Testament. The Talmud consists “of mainly legal discussions that deal with the intricacies of a daily life conducted according to the rabbinic interpretation of Jewish law.” Schafer also notes that these two Talmuds, the Jerusalem and the Babylonian versions, developed over centuries. We see Jesus reflecting on an earlier stage of these teachings in Mark 7, and possible Matthew 5 as well.[13]”[2]

Judaism as a faith traces its lineage to the faith of the Pharisees who were opponents of Jesus and whom Jesus said were opponents of the “The Law”. For instance in Mark 7 we read this,

“7 Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, 2 they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. 3 (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders, 4 and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.) 5 And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” 6 And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,

“‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me, 7 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ 8 You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”

9 And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ 11 But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God)[d]— 12 then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, 13 thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

Jesus explicitly says here and elsewhere that the Pharisees rejected the commandments of God and Moses’ teaching. Hence Judaism is the nullifying of the law whereas Christianity is the fulfilment of the law. Judaism is to the Old Testament faith, what Mormonism or Christian Science is to Christianity, it is a departure, a new religion. 

The New Testament does use the term “Judaism” to refer to he faith of the Jewish people in the New Testament era, but note how it uses it. In Galatians 1:13-14 Paul says, “For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.” Paul refers to Judaism as the former belief system that he repented of. Peter is likely referring to this same Pharisaical teaching when he says in 1 Peter, “18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold,…” (1 Peter 1:18). One other time in the ESV is the term Judaism used, “43 And after the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who, as they spoke with them, urged them to continue in the grace of God” (Acts 13:43). And in this instance again it is the framed as something which people turned away from to follow the gospel. Saying Christianity came out of Judaism is simply not correct. Many Christians repented of Judaism to become Christians, but that is not the same thing.

Historically speaking, and theologically speaking, it is more correct to say that Judaism and Christianity both find their roots in the Old Testament faith. But Judaism is a religion based on the traditions of the elders which nullifies that faith. Whereas, Christianity is a religion based on the belief that Jesus is the fulfilment of the Old Testament promise for the Messiah. Hence, to say that Christianity came out of Judaism is incorrect.

This is an easy mistake to make. We often think anachronistically. What Jewish people believe we have called Judaism for nearly two millennia now, so it is natural to confuse this with the faith of the Old Testament. However, this is not what the New Testament teaches. Yes, Jesus is a Jewish man of the tribe of Judah, a Judean of Judeans, descended through David according to the flesh and born of Mary, the God Man who sits enthroned in heaven, having defeated sin, death and the devil, and having fulfilled the law, the Son of God, God the Son.There can be no doubt that Christianity is connected to the ancient faith of Israel, and anyone who denies this is just wrong. Christianity is the fulfilment of the hope of Israel. But Judaism finds its origin in a rejection of the authority of the law of Moses. So to say Christianity came out of Judaism is simply incorrect.

We should train ourselves to think on these issues like the Bible does. When we do so this also helps clear up confusion about who the people of God are. As Jesus himself said,

“46 While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him. 48 But he replied to the man who told him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” 49 And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother” (Matt. 12:46-50).

Only those who do the will of the Father in heaven are God’s people, or God’s family. And the heavenly Father’s will is that we should listen to and believe in Jesus, ““This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him” (Matt. 17:5). The Pharisees - generally speaking some repented of this - were the first and most prominent group to oppose Jesus. We are not in their tradition. And we should make sure that people understand that. Christianity is the fulfilment of the law, because Christ is the fulfilment of the law.

List of References.

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[1] https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jesus/The-Jewish-religion-in-the-1st-century

[2] https://younggospelminister.blogspot.com/search?q=schafer