The Gospel Coalition Says – in Sex Won’t Save You Essay – that (Married) Sex is a “Salvation Icon” that Supposedly “Points People to God” – TGC Making Christianity Irrelevant to Single, Celibate Adults

The Gospel Coalition Says – in Sex Won’t Save You Essay – that (Married) Sex is a “Salvation Icon” that Supposedly “Points People to God” -TGC Making Christianity Irrelevant to Single, Celibate Adults

I first began composing this on or around March 1 (or 2?), I have it set to be auto-published on March 4, and as of today, March 3, there’s been a lot more commentary on Twitter about this awful TGC marital sex article, to the point, TGC removed the original tweet linking to it, and I learned that one guy I quote-tweeted about it, a Brent McCracken, deleted his tweet that I quote tweeted (but I have a screen capture of it), and I was informed McCracken is head editor of TGC.

NOTE: I will edit this post after publication to add any more links or new content pertinent, so you may want to periodically re-visit this page and scroll down and skim over to find new links / videos, etc

I may be writing a follow up to this post later – a part two, if you will.

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Un-freaking-believable. I’ve been blogging here for over ten years, and during that time, have I not been pointing out that not only do most Christians now, even the conservatives, attack sexual purity, sexual abstinence, virginity-until-marriage, but they have also turned sex (and marriage, parenthood, the nuclear family) into idols that they worship, to the point they act distressed when they hear that fornication among singles has declined? (I have a few examples under “Related Posts” towards the bottom of this page.)

There’s more of this nonsense, courtesy of The Gospel Coalition.

It starts off well enough by recognizing that many in secular society have turned sex and relationships into idols, and seek to find love and purpose in romance and sex, but then it goes on to make the very distasteful point that sex can, or does, point people to God.

Also… if such a book begins by acknowledging that singleness is fine in a page or two (or paragraph or two) but then never-the-less 99% of the book remains focused on a Jesus-marriage-sex analogy, it’s undercutting any “it’s okay to be single” or “you don’t have to be married and having sex to have a relationship with God” message.

This is no different from the idiot pastors who make every other sermon in church about “how to have smokin’ hot sex with your spouse” but who thinks it’s okay to overly focus on marriage constantly, if they merely toss in the token, “Hey, you may be single, but this marital sermon can be applicable to you too.”

I’m sorry, but evangelical Protestants or Baptists making the majority of the non-stop deluge of comments, sermons, or books about marriage and married sex, while only offering passing lip service, to adult singleness and celibacy, is still elevating marriage (and sex) to an unhealthy, bizarre, un-Biblical degree that still marginalizes singleness.

Screen Cap of Gospel Coalition Tweet

While it is true for a long time that many in American culture have turned sex and romantic relationships into idols, or seek to find identity or purpose in such, it’s also true that for the past several years, many news headlines and studies have been published showing that a larger number of adults are declining to have sex, date, and/or marry.

If you’re trying to titillate a secular public into giving Jesus a try by using sex-God analogies or metaphors, in a society where having sex, dating, or marrying are no longer the norm and not very popular, it’s not going to work.

I mean, while Butler is writing his book comparing knowing the Trinity to marital sexual intercourse and pro-creation, other conservative outlets have been in pearl-clutching, severe worry mode, that marriage is on the decline, and they’re shaming women for not choosing motherhood, and some conservatives are even upset that single adults are not having as much sex prior to marriage as they used to.

(Link): Sex Won’t Save You (But It Points to the One Who Will)

Excerpts (citing free use):

by Josh Butler
March 1, 2023

…Our culture looks to sex for salvation too. We want romance to free us from solitary confinement, to deliver us into a welcome embrace. But idolizing sex results in slavery.

Sex wasn’t designed to be your salvation but to point you to the One who is.

Union with Christ
Sex is an icon of Christ and the church.  …

[The author then goes on to refer to a Bible verses which seem to refer to marriage, such as a man leaving his family and cleaving to his wife, etc]

… A husband and wife’s life of faithful love is designed to point to greater things, but so is their sexual union! This is a gospel bombshell: sex is an icon of salvation.

Oakland ‘Church’ Gives Out Mushrooms and Pot to Help People ‘Experience God’

Oakland ‘Church’ Gives Out Mushrooms and Pot to Help People ‘Experience God’

This is insipid and wrong. A person doesn’t have to abuse drugs to “experience God.” If you’re looking to “experience God,” you can try prayer, reading the Bible, or taking a walk outside and observing nature, or maybe try helping someone in need.

(Link): Oakland ‘church’ gives out mushrooms and pot to help people ‘experience god’

by John Sexton
August 17, 2022

This is one of those only in the Bay Area stories. An organization that calls itself the Zide Door Church of Entheogenic Plants opened its doors in 2019. The leader of the group says he gave weekly sermons until the pandemic made that impossible. But he continues to give out drugs to those who pay a monthly membership fee plus donations.

Church founder Dave Hodges said when the church opened, he conducted weekly sermons at the Oakland building but basically stopped during the pandemic.

During the sermons, he dressed in robes adorned with pictures of cannabis plants and talked about “the insights” he experienced when going into “these deep realms” after taking mushrooms.

Prior to COVID, Hodges would pass out joints to his members before giving his sermon. The church does not allow people to take mushrooms on-site due to safety issues and instead encourages people to take psychedelics in a place where they won’t have to drive for at least 8 hours.

Christian Patriarchalists and Gender Complementarians Sexualizing the Trinity and Insisting Sexual Activity and Marriage Are Necessary to Fully Know God (via Under Much Grace blog)

Christian Patriarchalists and Gender Complementarians Sexualizing the Trinity and Insisting Sexual Activity is Necessary to Fully Know God (via Under Much Grace blog)

There was actually a book by some Christian authors some time ago who quoted works by other Christian authors who suggest that to truly and completely know God, a person has to be married and having sex with a spouse. Of course, if you are a virgin into your 30s and older, this is a problematic view – as well as being bizarre, unbiblical, and ridiculous.

At Under Much Grace blog, Cynthia Kunsman wrote a series of blog posts about that issue as well, and related ones, such as the Christian gender complementarian tendency to sexualize the Trinity – yes, God Himself.

I will only copy a portion or two from Under Much Grace blog; please click the link below to visit Mrs. Kunsman’s blog to read the entire thing.

On the blog page I am linking you to here, there are links to five more pages on her blog. She has broken up her writing on this topic into a series of posts.

(Link):  Tim Keller, Sex, and Eternal Submission Doctrine: Summing up the Sexualization of the Trinity with Shirley Taylor (the introductory post), by Cynthia Kunsman

Excerpts:

… Ideas have consequences, and I find two most troubling consequences that result from these [Christian gender complementarian / Patriarchal] teachings claiming that marital sex concerns and mirrors the life of the Three Divine Persons in the Trinity.

Some engage in this debate because these ideas hinder women from participating in ministry which is troubling enough, but these same ideas are used to dehumanize women which can also result in abuse.  In terms of theology, I’m deeply disturbed by the theological implications.  In effect, they result in a sub-Christian understanding of God’s identity which robs Christ of His full deity

…An Index to Posts on the Sex and Trinity Connection

The posts that address these issues concerning sex and the way that the developed are explored in the following posts in Five Parts.  They center around Tim Keller’s statements, and most include commentary from Shirley Taylor — both from her books and from some of our private exchanges:

I:Tim Keller on the Meaning of the Sex Act in MarriageII:  Sex, Tim Keller, and the Replacement of Salvation by Faith

III:  The Genesis of Eternal Subordinationism

IV:  Is the Trinity a Sex Orgy?

V:  The Connection between Marriage and Holiness  (The meaning of Ephesians 5:22-29)

 Further down that (Link): main page, Mrs. Kunsman has a handy-dandy chart you might want to check out, and she introduces it by saying,

Here’s a chart of the development of these doctrines which are further explored in the posts in this series

Here is are just a handful of excerpts from a few of the other pages in the series:

Shirley Taylor responds to this statement in her book Dethroning Male Headship in the discussion of the “Sexualization of the Trinity”:

Salvation by faith has been replaced

They have made the marriage bed into God’s grand design and demoted salvation by faith into a secondary design. But salvation for the Church Body was God’s grand design, not the marriage bed. Procreation was part of God’s grand design in marriage, and the Bible does not shy away from sex. However, God’s command to be fruitful and multiply does not indicate that the sex act reflects God Himself. Sex is procreational and recreational, but it is not symbolic of the relationship of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

(Source for above)

As we established in (Link): previous posts, Tim Keller’s writings (along with those of his like-minded ideologues) claim that marital relationships as well as sex itself gives us the best insight into the social nature of the Trinity and the personalities within it.  Along with thinking about our spouse as we are in the throes of passion, we are are told that we Christians should be thinking about the relationship between the Father and the Son.

….Keller says in Chapter 8 of his book that marriage is a “commitment apparatus” after explaining that sex is not dirty and it is more than a physical act.  But then, he goes on to say that we need the “spousal love of Jesus” in our lives.  I find this to be a profane (unholy) statement and nauseating.  I need God’s sacrificial love, and I need the love of my husband, along with the love of family and friends, too.

… He [Tim Keller] then says that we all need the “cosmic need for closure that our souls find in romance.”  WHAT???  That means that if you are single, you can’t know God which is why Keller claims that if single, you must have a very large peer group community of singles who are all seeking marriage.