General Articles

We Are Killing the Local Church :: By Sean Gooding

Published on: by RR10

Isaiah 4:1

“And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, ‘We will eat our own food and wear our own apparel; only let us be called by your name, to take away our reproach.'”

I had a conversation with my brother just a few days ago, and we chatted about the lack of dating even in the Lord’s churches. The conversation was sparked from a chat about AI and his belief that soon, many men will simply turn to AI for their needs from a woman. There is a trend happening right now where men are simply not approaching women to date them. Over and over, there are stories of women in clubs, even on dating apps, and there is simply no interest.

One of the things we discussed is how there are organized ‘mixers’ for single men and women to meet, and there will be 20+ ladies showing up, and just a few men, 4 or 5, will turn up. And even then, there is little to no interaction. He mentioned that even in his local church, where there are many single young women and men, there is so little interaction it is scary.

The family is the foundation of a society and, as such, the foundation of the local church. Over the past 5+ decades, we have told young women that a career is more important than family; it is not enough to be a wife and mother; one must have a degree, a career, and make something of one’s self before settling down.

The same people did not remind women that the chance of getting pregnant past 35 years old is very slim, and thus, the chance to be a mother is slim. They get to that 30+ mark, the normal needs to be a wife and mother begin to scream, and they want a man, but it is often too late. Right now, 21% of women between 30-49 are single, and 29% between 50-64 are single. The overall sex ratio for unmarried adults in the U.S. is about 90 men per 100 women; the 30-to-34 age group had the highest ratio at nearly 121 men to 100 women in the U.S. A study from 2023 shows that 57% of singles are not looking to date at all. In 2021, a study showed that 52% of American women were single or separated. This is astonishing.

How does this impact our churches? Well, we know that when a home is spiritually led by the dad, over 90% of them follow the Lord and stay in church. This drops significantly with women-led homes. I do not care how often you knock on doors or do revivals and crusades; no manner of outreach has a 90% success rate. The only one that works like this is the family. So, when our young people put off marriage for school and education or for simply fun and a life with no commitments, churches die, and they die very quickly. The lifeblood of a local church is the family.

We are told here in Isaiah that there will come a time when women will ask one man to marry them; 7 of them will provide their own resources and simply need to be married. God put in us the need to be married. No matter what color, creed, culture, or background, there is a need to marry, to procreate, and the sex drive is there in all people.

Sadly, even in our churches, we have an epidemic of sexless marriages. In contrast, even in our churches, we have an epidemic of pre-marital sex with those who are dating. But men, many of them, are not seeking out women. They are too afraid of losing everything they worked for: their homes, money, and wealth. They are too afraid of having to care for another man’s children, as many single women come with kids nowadays. They would be paying the bills but have no say and no authority. This happens; I see it a lot.

Here in North America, we lied to young women, and the churches drank the Kool-Aid and told our young people to do everything but start a family. Every study and every metric tells us that married women with children are the happiest in North America. But the evil system of the Devil, who knew that 90% of kids born into Christian homes would follow Jesus, sold us a bill of goods, and we paid for it with our churches dying, our young people miserable, single, selfish, and living in sin.

AI will never replace real women. Pornography will never replace real women. Careers will never replace the joy of being a loving wife and mother. Single men make less than married men in general. And when a dad leads the home, not only do churches live, thrive, and grow, but society is better: less crime, fewer prisoners, less teenage pregnancy, fewer school dropouts, and fewer suicides. It is so hard to speak the truth; one sounds like an alien trying to communicate with earthlings. But the truth has not changed: men need women, women need men, children need both parents, and men need to work hard to provide for their families and lead their families to serve the Lord.

The fastest way to grow and sustain a church is for young men and women in that church to marry and to be fruitful and multiply. This is sustained growth; this is not to diminish the need for evangelism and outreach, far from it. Rather, a youthful church has both the able bodies and the able energy to go out and reach the lost. Kids are the lifeblood of a church. We need to find a way to get our young men and women marrying young once again and then having lots of babies.

The time will come when the single women will wish they had a man. I see a lot of them lamenting online. We have money and education, we are beautiful, and yet no men seem to want us. What did we miss? We forgot that there are no such things as independent men or women. God said it is not good for us to be alone. We need marriage, and we need to be sexually active in our marriages. Our children need to see mom and dad touching, kissing, wooing, and loving. Look at how God views marriage:

Proverbs 18:22– “He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the Lord.”

Proverbs 19:14 – “Houses and wealth are inherited from parents, but a prudent wife is from the Lord.”

Hebrews 13:4 – “Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.”

There are more verses. It looks to me as if God wants us to marry, have kids, and produce more and more people for the Kingdom. But to do that, we have to stop running our churches under the lies of society and follow Biblical rules. What a novel idea!

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding

Pastor of Bethany Baptist Church

70 Victoria Street, Elora, Ontario

The Deep Deep Love of Jesus :: By Dennis Huebshman

Published on: by RR10

The one verse in the Bible about our Father’s love that is probably recognized everywhere – John 3:16; “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (ESV – all emphasis is mine)

For this statement to be complete, we need to continue to verses 17 and 18; “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

For all those who are saying there are many ways to Heaven and that Jesus is not necessary for our eternal Salvation, just those three verses contradict that.

After the Father created the heavens and the earth, and after sin was introduced into this world in Genesis 3, God knew He Himself would have to provide a victory over sin and death for all who would live according to His will. In Genesis 3:15, God told the serpent, who was actually Satan, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”

The “bruise His heel” refers to the temporary “injury and death” of our Savior on the cross at Calvary. This led to the ultimate defeat of Satan. This act put an end to regular sacrifices for sin, as Jesus provided the ultimate pure blood sacrifice once and for all.

Just to give a few verses that tell us that if we have the Son, we have the Father as well: Matthew 11:27; Luke 10:22; John 3:18; John 3:36; 1 John 5:10-12; 1 John 2:23 and John 14:6. We may not fully understand the concept of a “Triune God,” but we know that all will be made clear when we finally get Home. In the meantime, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three entities in one Godhead. By faith, all true believers accept this, especially the part about the Holy Spirit within us.

In today’s world, we are witnessing a turning away from our Savior, which is no surprise to Him. In 2 Timothy 3:1-5 we read, “But understand this, that in the last days, there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power – Avoid Such People.”

Jesus foretells what to expect at the end of this age in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And Paul, James, Peter, and John each give us warnings in their writings. In fact, prophets in the Old Testament give us signs that were provided to them through our Heavenly Father.

Knowing how this world would be all the way up to the final curtain, just imagine how much our Jesus has to love us to have given us the absolute most wonderful gift of all. In 1875, S. Trevor Francis (1834-1925) wrote a hymn, “Oh The Deep Deep Love of Jesus.” His message has a good grasp of our Savior’s love for us.

1.)  Oh the deep, deep love of Jesus – vast, unmeasured, boundless, free – Rolling as a mighty ocean in its fullness over me. Underneath me, all around me, is the current of His love – leading onward, leading homeward, to His glorious rest above.

2.)  Oh the deep, deep love of Jesus – Spread His praise from shore to shore. Praise His mercy, praise His goodness, praise His love forevermore. How He watcheth o’er His loved ones, died to call them all His own. How for them He intercedeth, watcheth o’er them from His throne.

3.)  Oh the deep, deep love of Jesus – Love of every love the best – tis an ocean vast of blessing, tis a haven sweet of rest. Oh the deep, deep love of Jesus – tis a Heaven of Heavens to me; and it lifts me up to glory, lifts me up eternally.

Jesus is a part of the Godhead. John 1:1-3 tells us of this fact. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.”

In a concept that is difficult for some to understand, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have always existed. They have no beginning, as they’ve always been there. Time was created for humans after the Father created the earth, and He is not bound by it. The only time Jesus had an earthly beginning was when He was born a human infant through a virgin – Mary. He felt human emotions, human pain, human hunger, and many other things. But through it all, He never once sinned. Those who believe He did are falling for one of Satan’s notorious lies.

Through the Holy Spirit placing Jesus in Mary’s womb, her blood never mixed with His. He was the only “human” to be born without the contaminated blood sin nature that we all have. He was the only “human” who could provide a pure, sinless blood sacrifice that the Father must have to atone for all the sins of the world once and for all. He willingly came to die a horrible death for the remission of our sins – My Sins!

Hebrews 10:3-4 tells about sacrifices before Calvary; “But in these sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins every year. for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”

Going to Hebrews 10:12, 17-18; “But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God.” Then He adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more. Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.”

Until we are free from these human bodies, we are subject to sin. Our Heavenly Father knows this, so He gave us our pathway to forgiveness. Looking at 1 John 1:7-10, “But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”

Please understand, we do not fool our Heavenly Father. He knows our every thought, word, and deed. All He asks is that when, not if, we sin, we talk to Him, confess that we did sin, and ask Him to forgive us. He promises, and God cannot lie (Titus 1:2), that He will forgive us. We may still receive discipline as a result of what took place, but as far as the Father is concerned, the blood of His Son covered us. Psalm 103:12 tells us our sins become as far as the east is from the west, which is infinite!

While we’re here, we try to do what is right and to honor the sacrifice our Savior made for us. There may be habitual sin that we need to deal with, and in this case, we ask the Father to give us the strength to get through it. Just know He’s there for us, or He never would’ve allowed Jesus to die on a cross to begin with.

The end of this age is drawing very near, and anyone who has not called on Jesus to be their Savior is gambling with their eternal soul. He will turn no one away who truly calls out to receive and accept Him as their Savior. Tomorrow could just be too late. Today would not be too early.

Hope to see you at His feet with us soon!

huebshman46@gmail.com