Owen Strachan, a research professor of theology at Grace Bible Theology Seminary, speaks boldly about our culture when he implies, “At basically every level, men are disappearing … for every one woman who drops out of college, seven men drop out.  Men have left the workforce in almost unprecedented numbers … men have disappeared from many families … in the bleakest category there is, suicide rates, men kill themselves far more than women do, representing 80% of suicides today …”  Strachan calls this disappearing “ghosting” loved ones, the work environment and “this very world itself.” He insists that “feminism and wokeness have accomplished nothing less than the destabilization of civilization.” 

Strachan believes in such an anti-male climate few dare to speak for men.  But he challenges us to encourage and reengage men.  “The dire situation before us today requires us to fight for men, not against them, since men are disappearing and struggling.  We need to find men where they are – “in some cases, this will be a precipice.” Strachan envisions a  mission to “speak a different word than anti-male voices … No man is hopeless.  No man is too far gone for God to reach him, remake him, and put him to work.  [Many men] have lost all hope and will soon step off the ledge into the darkness, disappearing forever.”

Strachan sees four deficient categories of men who are struggling:

1) The “soft man” who yields to the strong woman and take cues from her.

2) The “exaggerated man,” similar to the  Andrew Tate-type who embraces a “cartoonish manhood.”

3) The “lost man” who leaves his family and opts out of “any meaningful involvement in society”; and 

4) The “angry man” who, as an “exercise in vengeance” perverts his God-given strength for evil uses, as in the case of a mass shooter.

What is needed are strong men – not in themselves but in Christ – to join the fight to rescue disappearing men.  Strong men who use their strength for the good of others.  “He is a man under discipline and a soldier under orders.  He lives not by his own creed, but the truth of God.” Jesus is the  model.  He was tough and tender.   “….That’s the kind of man we desperately need today.  But as long as the culture targets strong men, we’re only weakening ourselves, and putting everyone in jeopardy.  If you demonize strong men, eventually there are none left.”

I am motivated to rescue men on the edge of the precipice, gripped by discouragement and hopelessness, having caved to the relentless message that men are toxic.  Strachan warns, “We must reach them before it is too late, and the hour is indeed late in the West.”  I was reminded of this exhortation:  “And you must show mercy to those whose faith is wavering.  Rescue others by snatching them for the flames of judgment.  Show mercy to still others, but do so with great caution, hating the sins that contaminate their lives” (Jude 22).

Do a spiritual checkup:

  1.  Are you strong in the Lord? “… When I am weak, then I am strong” (II Cor 12:10).
  2.  Do you have a passion to reach other men, even if it means snatching them for the flames of judgment?  (Jude 22).
  3.  Are you preparing yourself to be misunderstood in a culture that does not accept the scriptural mandate for Adam to “work and take care of the Garden of Eden” (Genesis 2:15). 
  4.  Do you long, like Paul, for your kinsmen to know Christ? “I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart” (Romans 9:2).

Lord, give us grace and strength to be the men of faith you have created and designed us to be.