Understanding Complementarianism With Yarborough & Carson

Don Carson and Bob Yarborough were the guest speakers at the 2012 EFCA Theology Conference, and they tackled the very incendiary subject of gender.

Matt Smethurst writes on The Gospel Coalition website:

Our Lord and his inspired apostles were culturally situated, yes, but they weren’t culturally bound. Many assume that cultural rootedness automatically amounts to cultural relativity; the two, however, are simply not the same.

Followers of King Jesus must remain finally tethered “not to a political conviction or to social habit or to hermeneutical whimsy, but to divine mandate.” And for those who embrace the King’s word as their supreme authority, the divine mandate is clear. In these talks, Carson and Yarbrough have offered careful reflection on a contentious and critical issue.

The TGC site links are not working as of October 2014.  Perhaps they will be corrected at some point.

Understanding Complementarianism >>>

A secondary site to find the audio links is at the Caffeinated Thoughts blog >>>

God Created Man Male and Female

One of the most troubling crises that the church is facing in our generation is the crisis of understanding gender differences as defined by the Bible. We are losing the beauty of biblical womanhood and manhood and are reaping many problems that come from a widespread dismantling of Gods design. Many believe this issue to be unimportant, while others have little more than a caricatured comprehension of the issues. What is needed in this hour is a clear articulation of the the Bible’s position and the crises that will result from nullify them. And that is what John Piper does in this message.

God Created Man Male & Female >>>

Richard Phillips: The Masculine Mandate

Richard Phillips discusses his excellent new book The Masculine Mandate with the team at Christ the Center. Phillips was motivated to write this book after reading Wild at Heart, the horrid, yet popular book by John Eldredge.  Phillips observes that Eldredge got the primary text for men right, but took a wild interpretation that isn’t at all biblical.

Phillips identifies masculinity as being both working and keeping (nurturing), which emerge from the responsibilities he had in the garden of Eden.  It’s not common to consider man as a nurturer, but that is a major part of what it means to be a man.

Phillips also suggests that many men are consumed with “man idols” that appear to be masculine, but need to be put in their place because they hinder the true responsibilities of men.  He suggests many young men need to be admonished to grow up, put away their video games and begin to behave responsibility, and prepare themselves for marriage.

One of the most insightful comments was that the feminism movement in the church has largely been fueled by the movement of masculine abdication. Men have forgotten what it means to be a man in the church, and in the home, and women have responded with feminism.

This discussion is very invigorating, and at the end you will want to have this book ordered, as I did.

The Masculine Mandate >>>

Carson: A Crucial Call to Faithfulness on Gender Issues

Don Carson is one of the most searched for speakers on this blog, and with good reason.  Don’s messages not only provide great theology, he teaches you how to think and work through the difficulties of a passage or issue.  And he has certainly changed my mind on a few issues.  He also very wisely chooses not to provide specific applications on certain things because they must be worked out by individuals or leadership.

This is true of these two messages.  Don breathes fresh clarifying air into the issue of women in positions of authority over men.  He clearly demonstrates a Biblical hermeneutic that is so easy to follow that you will learn good interpretive practices while learning about the gender issues.

Carson admonishes preachers to stop apologizing for God’s Word in the face of an offended culture.  God’s Word is for our good and we need to stand by that over and above the issue at stake.

These messages were given at the Desiring God’s 2009 Different by Design mini conference at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis.

Session 1: The Flow of Thought in 1 Timothy 2 >>>

Session 2: Is the Culture Shaping Us or are We Shaping the Culture? >>>

Different by Design 2009 >>>

Kostenberger: God, Marriage & Family

Does your understanding of marriage point to God and the Gospel?  I’m currently preparing a marriage course for my church and in the process, I’m devouring a lot of good resources. 

Andreas Kostenberger, who authored of one of the best books I’ve found on marriage, God, Marriage & Family, also presented a discipleship class on marriage and the family at Richland Creek Community Church. 

Kostenberger is an incredibly sharp theologian, and has written a number of very good commentaries.  He was also picked by Don Carson to author two books for Carson’s New Biblical Studies in Theology series. 

Kostenberger is disarmingly unremarkable as a speaker, but once he gets warmed up his material is very helpful.   This was not a preaching situation, but rather more of a classroom type of setting.

These courses are all on wma video (a hateful format) unfortunately, so not compatible with iPod’s or iTunes. 

God, Marriage & Family course >>>

The Pursuit: Every Man’s Call to Biblical Masculinity

C. J. Mahaney is joined by other Sovereign Grace pastors, including Mark Alderton and Rick Gamache, to examine the subject of Bibilical masculinity.

C. J. takes us into Philippians 4 to examine in a clear and masterful way how both the believer and God have a part in actively working out our sanctification.

In the Pursuit of Genuine Repentance, Craig Cabaniss brings us to face how our repentance is far too often remorse for our circumstances rather than a true lamentation before an offended God.

There are a great many other messages in this series.

The Pursuit (church resource page) >>>

There are a lot of messages in this series.  You have to scroll down until you see a message with the graphic ‘The Pursuit’ next to it.  Unfortunately, these messages are not all collected on one easy to access page.

Some Sweet Blessings of Masculine Christianity

This is one of the most thoughtful, pastoral messages I’ve heard on the value of strong, theological, male leadership in the church.  John Piper argues compassionately for the church to move not only from female leadership, but also feminised flavored worship services.  One of the remarkable points John unpacks is that many women in leadership are craving for male leadership. Delivered at the Fidelis Foundation Pastor’s Luncheon. The structure of the message is 11 reasons why we should value Biblical manhood. 

Some Sweet Blessings of Masculine Christianity >>>

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