Tolerance and Truth

Dr. Couch, tolerance seems to be the word for today. No one can speak the truth with strong conviction as the apostle Paul in the NT. What do you say? ANSWER:  Paul comes out swinging with strong words in his epistles against sin and its consequences. For example, in 1 Timothy 1, he makes it clear that evil is thoroughly evil and must be addressed. He says that the law was righteous but it was given for those who were unrighteous and rebellious (1:9). He adds, the law was "for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers and mothers, for murderers, and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted."    Paul is saying that the gospel, and its indictment against the sins he has just listed, is to be applied to the culture and the society, not just for the acceptance within the church. These are sins that the gospel and the Word of God speaks against. Whether the culture likes it or not, these are sins that must be spoken against first by the Bible, and then by believers who are living in this world.    We presently have congressmen and judges in high places who are homosexuals and we should be able to speak out against them with the authority of the law of Scripture, that seems to be what Paul is saying in these passages.    We have been far too silent and passive. And I believe that we are all too afraid to address head-on the sinful state of our society. We have become quiet and do not have the ability to be vocal when the time arises.    Because of this silence, we will pay the price of seeing our nation sink deeper and deeper into the abyss of evil. Thanks for asking. Dr. Mal Couch (11/10)

Worshiping Mythological Figures and Idols

Dr. Couch, what causes people to worship mythological figures and idols? What about secret organizations, do they intentionally deceive the masses, and their followers, on the lower levels? ANSWER:  Secret societies certainly can deceive but far more follow after idols and mythological characters because of the ongoing work of Satan in the culture. Believing in other gods, and idols, was one of the main sins and early responses of the world to the religious work of Satan. He loves to see people fooled and misled by idolatry.     In the NT we find many believers being fooled by idolatry. Many struggled getting out of cultish religious worship, though they were still saved. Idolatry is a sin just like all sin! And since believers can "do" all sins, they can be idol worshippers.    Paul wrote to the Corinthians: "We should not crave evil things, as they also craved (the Jews did in the wilderness). And do not be idolaters, as some of them were" (1 Cor. 10:5b-6). James said he wrote to the Gentile Christians "to abstain from things contaminated by idols ..." (Acts 15:20). John warned the Christians "Little children, guard yourselves from idols" (1 John 5:21).     Thanks for asking.    Dr. Mal Couch

Evangelical Feminists

Dr. Couch, what is driving Evangelical feminists? What are they thinking? ANSWER:  I often ask Dr. Lacy Couch the same thing, and she comes up with some pretty good insights as to what is going on.    (1) While they may deny it, they are influenced and driven by the culture, especially those who have attended secular universities. The lies have rubbed off on them! They think it is "smart" to be worldly and contemporary in their thinking.    (2) They enjoy being in the company of men; they do not like being women.    (3) They think being a woman is beneath them. They believe men have all the fun and that they are left out of what is most important.    (4) They do not like motherhood. Raising children, and pouring themselves into a child is demeaning. They have not been taught properly what the Word of God teaches about the high calling of being a wife and mother. They do not think that they are appreciated.    (5) They want to teach men, though they can already teach children and other women, this is not enough for them. They want to teach men. They think they are being deprived of something that they want to do. And, they think the apostle Paul, or other men, are keeping them from a higher calling.    (6) They think that they are highly intellectual but the reality is that they are emotional and they are like sheep. They are really followers and don't think independently as they believe about themselves!    (7) They do not believe in the inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture. They challenge Paul's opinions and think that they are simply the thoughts of man and not of the Holy Spirit.    Strong men need to challenge them and speak up to them head-on. They are far more foolish than they think!    Thanks for asking.    Dr. Mal Couch

Luther's Hatred for the Jews

Dr. Couch, how could Martin Luther be so mixed up in his mistreatment of the Jewish people? He wrote terrible things about them because they did not receive Christ as their Savior. Luther was filled with hatred and yet he prayed three or four hours a day. Also, he thought the book of James should not be in the canon of Scripture. This all seems inconsistent with someone who studied and prayed so much! ANSWER:  We can all be impacted by the culture and by the voices that we hear on a continual basis, that are contrary to truth. The people of Luther's day were haters of the Jewish people, and Luther followed what was happening in his society.    God generally does not give us revelation of things that we should find out for ourselves. That is, He does not reveal to us the laws of chemistry or physics. With such things we have to go through a process to learn about. So with the issue of God's working with the Jews. Luther was not reading his Bible carefully enough to be able to set aside his hatred of the Jews.    To put it another way, Luther could have known of the passage of Scripture: "From the standpoint of the gospel [the Jews] are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God's election [of the Jews], they are beloved [in His sight] for the sake of the [ancient Jewish] fathers" (Rom. 11:28). Luther in his hatred went against this passage found in the book of Romans.    On the matter of the book of James, Luther objected to it because he felt the book was saying that salvation comes by human effort, human works. He did not interpret James properly. James is saying that we are "justified by works" in the sight of men, though we are "justified by faith" in the sight of God! On one hand, he felt James was part of the Bible, though it had its problems, yet it should be seen in a lesser light because of what he felt was a contradiction.    Harrison says this about Luther and the book of James: "It was not included in the Muratorium canon and was generally ignored until Jerome and Augustine give it their endorsement. Its place in the canon seemed to become secure with its inclusion by the Third Council of Carthage in A.D. 397, but at the beginning of the modern period it was questioned by Erasmus and others. Luther's attitude was one of distrust and disappointment because he found it out of agreement with Paul's teaching on justification by faith. He gave it a secondary position [though still Scripture] and labeled it 'a right strawy epistle.'"    Luther did not have all the information and input that we have today historically. So we have to give him a pass in his understanding, and also in the understanding of others.      God's desire is to strengthen us by His Spirit "in the inner man" (Eph. 3:16) in the spiritual realm but He does not give us objective truth—this we have to dig for!    Thanks for asking.    Dr. Mal Couch  (Sept. 2010)

The Sin of Sodom and Gomorrah

Dr. Couch, I recently debated a woman on the internet who argued that the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was not about homosexuality but rather about the attempt of gang rape of the visitors [the angels] who had come to these cities, specifically the angels who came and spoke with Lot (Gen. 19:1-29). How do we answer?

ANSWSER: First of all, I would not argue with a woman. They are more emotional and are not to be Bible teachers according to Paul. The apostle writes in 1 Timothy 2:12-15: “I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet [that is, not to be flapping the jaw]. Because it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being quite deceived, fell into transgression.”

Women are emotionally fooled whereby men are simply sinful by the evilness of the heart. This is why we don’t want women pastors. They can so quickly mislead, thus this woman you debated with!

Today, people, even Christians, are misled by the culture. They foolishly buy into the cultural arguments and do not think for themselves. Satan is “the god of this culture” and controls even what many Christians think on doctrinal issues (John 16:11; Eph. 2:2; 2 Cor. 4:4). Satan “is the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.” He is “the god of this culture who has blinded the minds of the unbelieving.” He can pull the wool over the eyes of Christians as well as the unbelieving.

To argue that the story of Sodom and Gomorrah is not about homosexuality is not only stupid but just plain evil, and, it is quoting what the homosexuals want to say about the passage in order to justify their sins of the most evil and the most filthy of practices. This issue is not really worth answering!

Thanks for asking.
Dr. Mal Couch

What is Happening To This Generation?

Dr. Couch, what is happening in our culture that is so destructive to this generation?

The seduction of television, freedom, and affluence are taking its toll on both men and women. Young men can be just flat out evil and young women can be silly temptresses! Women want to be in the company of men so they will sell themselves short to achieve that. They want to be sailors but then end up going to bed with the crew and getting pregnant. When the navy first deployed women on a ship almost all of them were coming back pregnant.

I saw a documentary the other day interviewing a girl soldier. She said she was proud to be defending her country. With all due respect that is not her role. Her main function is to be the keeper of the morality and the nurturer of the children. The men are to defend the nation! But young women have been brainwashed to believing they must "do" rather than "be." Our culture feeds this and our military lies to us. They say they keep women out of combat but this is not so. The women are stationed on all warships except subs. Can you imagine the chaos if the ship is sinking and mothers and wives are drowning as the vessel dives to the bottom? The military is slowly putting women in combat aircraft and equipping them with weapons in Iraq. The social agenda in our country is alive and well!

And young Christian women are following the feminist agenda in this country. The care of husband, children, and home, are no longer at the top of the list. They are unbiblical in setting their priorities. And their future husbands have also bought into the lies. They think it is okay for their wives to leave their homes and be deployed on a ship for nine months without seeing their children.

Paul says the supreme task of a woman is to pour her life into her children. Recent statistics prove the Bible right. Over forty percent of women, Christians and nonChristians, say they would rather stay home and raise the children rather than be in the work place. But they are driven on by the secular propaganda of feminism!

Paul also wants the young women to love their husbands and their children, be subject to their husbands, and be exemplary home makers (Titus 2:4-5). The problem is that evil young men give off the wrong signals, and most young girls follow their illicit leads.

Unfortunately in some ways things have not changed. In an 1882 book of essays and poems, Mary Lathrop wrote a piece entitled "To Our Girls." She noted that a pastor in a prominent church told her he had officiated at forty weddings and that all the brides were running risks with their choice of a husband but one! She added that young men of evil habits often did not marry their own moral kind but reached for a pure, sweet woman, who was somewhat blinded by his claims of love. Sadly, years later, they realized they had chosen wrongly.

The difference between then and now is that immoral young men do not hide their evilness. It is displayed openly and the women join them in their sins even before they are married. The proof is in the pudding. Almost half of the young people in America of both genders have a sexual disease.

Lathrop concluded as to what she witnessed: She saw young bright girls, at the height of their womanhood, give themselves into the keeping of men who, in base associations, had learned to undervalue all that belongs of worth.

Thanks for asking.
Dr. Mal Couch

Thoughts About Our Culture Today

Dr. Couch, you have some interesting comments about our culture today. Do you have some other thoughts to share on this? 

 

Our culture has lost all sense of authority. If the Bible has been destroyed, there is no higher authority to appeal to but one’s self. Now in most courtrooms people do not take the oath on the Bible. They simply swear on themselves that they will tell the truth! They become the arbiter of what is right and wrong. Everyone is doing what is right in his own eyes! 

Biblical authority is also being lost in our Christianity. Doctrine no longer rules and governs. I have friends who teach in some of the old line Bible schools who tell me they can no longer teach doctrine with a certain sense of authority and absoluteness. They have to present ideas to this generation of Bible college students like this: “I want you to consider these verses about the rapture of the church!” “If you don’t mind, here are ten views on this doctrine. Pick and choose which ones you like.” 

Often, this is happening in churches. People think they have equal knowledge along with the pastor. They can repudiate him and reject his teaching. Unfortunately, this is good if the pastor has not paid the price to learn his exegetical craft! Yet, there still should be a respect. In my opinion, the only valid reason one should leave a church is when the leadership is no longer teaching the Word of God. 

This overall mentality of questioning of authority is of course madness! It will in time destroy our culture and our churches. 

Thanks for asking.

Dr. Mal Couch