I’m not a fan of feminism, but I understand where it comes from. Having had a front row seat to the toxic state of manhood today, I can understand why many women feel that today’s men are hopeless. But I don’t believe that today’s men are hopeless. In fact, I believe that God desires to raise up a generation of true men who will show the world what masculinity was meant to be.In this video, I share how we as Christian men can expose and overcome counterfeit masculinity by rising up and showcasing what real manhood looks like — through the power of Jesus.

transcript

Just before World War II, there was a serious problem with passivity. Hitler was gaining power and gaining whole countries by taking them over, and no one was doing anything about it. People were just sitting there watching it. It’s easy to look back in history and cluck our tongues. We can think, Excuse me, guys, what are you doing? But as Winston Churchill says, “They had Passchendaele and the Somme in their bones.” They had these battles from World War I in their bones. They did not want to repeat it. They did not want to go back to war. And it led to passivity and appeasement. And modern manhood — modern Christian manhood — is in a similar zone. We have a certain struggle today where we are, in a sense, wanting to appease the culture, instead of rise up and be like Christ in this culture, because to be like Christ means war.

We, too, have Passchendaele and the Somme in our bones, and we don’t want war. We don’t want to have to stand up and really be men, because that would mean a struggle. That would mean a fight — but men are built for such a fight. We have something called toxic masculinity today. You might wonder, “How do we solve it?” Well, toxic masculinity is the malevolence that creeps in when good men do nothing. When good men are no longer seen, all you see is corrupt, fleshly masculinity. That’s all that is witnessed today. Passive masculinity has left something on the table that needs to be knocked off. And it is only knocked off by men truly rising up and beginning to behave as men. Then people will say, “Oh, there’s a man!” That’s right. 

The version of masculinity we see in our culture is not real manhood. It is toxic. I don’t like it anymore than anyone else does. I don’t like feminism in and of itself, but I know where it comes from. And I know why it’s there. I actually understand why women respond the way they do to toxic masculinity, because I hate it too. What’s my response? I want to flush it down the toilet, but it needs to be displaced. It needs to be replaced by something genuine and real. A counterfeit can only be dealt with the real thing. We have a counterfeit masculinity that is masquerading around right now in our culture as if it’s the real thing. Polluted, perverted, disgusting, self-centered — and it needs to be dealt a fatal blow. There’s only one thing that can do it, and that’s the real thing.

And there’s only one thing that can make the real thing, and that’s the truth of Jesus Christ found in the Gospel. So when men finally rise up and stop allowing “Hitler” to move his way through the land and to take over all of Europe, and we get rid of the passivity and the appeasement — and we finally rise up as Winston Churchill once did and say, “Enough is enough. Never surrender, never surrender!” That’s what we need. If you’d like to take these ideas deeper, join me for an eight-week course on honorable manhood.

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• If you are stirred to become part of the solution to see the return of true manhood, join me for my 8-week Honorable Manhood Online Course. It’s a game-changer for men of all ages. Learn more and register here.