Mark Chanski - Manly Dominion

CALVARY PRESS PUBLISHING

MERRICK, NEW YORK

www.calvarypress.com

CP Calvary Press Publishing
2005 Merrick Road, #341
Merrick, New York 11566

Copyright 2004, Calvary Press Publishing
All rights reserved,
including the right of reproduction
in whole or in part in any form.

ISBN 1-879737-55-8

1. Christianity 2. Christian Men 3. Christian Parenting
4. Christian Marriage 5. Applied Theology

Cover and Book Design: Anthony Rotolo

Manufactured in the USA
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 06 07 08

To my Dianne,
My intelligent, beautiful, and servant-hearted Abigail who does good to me all the days of her life.

The Lord has been so gracious to give many wise counselors and helpers who have directly assisted me in the writing of this book. I can only mention a few:

Geoff Thomas whose early reading and encouragement brightened my eyes; Dr. Joel Beeke whose advice and help Ive cherished; Dr. Jay Adams and Sam Waldron whose later reading and recommending paved a way; Craig Sietsema and Dave Chanski whose surgically sought opinions have been as apples of gold in settings of silver; Dianne Chanski whose mind became my most frequently consulted source; Marcie Filcik, whose stylistic recommendations have been greatly appreciated; Joseph M. Bianchi, who accepted for publication and painstakingly improved my manuscript.

On September 11, 2001, terrorism struck America. Passenger-filled, fuel-swollen commercial airliners hijacked by jihad driven fanatics impaled both World Trade Center towers. The twin giants billowed smoke and fire, then collapsed before our eyes. Another plane slammed into the Pentagon in a ball of fire. A third hijacked aircraft, apparently heading toward the U. S. Capitol Building or The White House in Washington D.C., crashed into a Pennsylvania farm field. A heroic band of passenger patriots had stormed the terrorist controlled cockpit, foiling their monument-destroying bid.

When the terrorist smoke had cleared, over three thousand of our countrymen had been slain. In a single day, the centuries-old belief that the oceans invincibly protected us from our enemies had dried up. Our previously peaceful nation was reeling with its newfound vulnerability. The terrorists and their supporters danced in the streets, and boasted in their newfound superiority. They wouldnt hesitate to do it again.

Whats a Commander-in-Chief to do?

Whats a head of a household to do when a rattlesnake in the family basement bites one of his children? Hes heard the report that a whole nest of rattlers now roams the downstairs. Should he cordon off the basement, making it off limits to his family, hoping that during the following days, months or years the snakes will choose not to slither up the stairs and make more strikes? Or should he gird himself with suitable armor and weapons, descend the stairs, and take out the nest of threatening devils? The former would be the strategy of a passive and timid coward, the latter the tactic of a bold and subduing man.

Note the valor attached to one of King Davids renowned Mighty Men:

2 Samuel 23:20 Then Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man of Kabzeel, who had done mighty deeds, killed the two sons of Ariel of Moab. He also went down and killed a lion in the middle of a pit on a snowy day.

President George W. Bush played the man. In the face of calls for restraint, peace protests, and threats of terrorist retaliation, he stepped up and did what had to be done. Before a hushed and listening world, he thundered the Bush Doctrine, declaring that all nations that harbor and enable terrorists will be held as accountable as the terrorists. He diplomatically mustered together a coalition of allies, and then quickly unleashed the American military machine on the Taliban-ruled outlaw nation of Afghanistan. Within a matter of weeks, the nest was taken out. The heads of the snakes were crushed.

In this historical drama, we have a striking case study of Manly Dominion. Instead of passively sitting back and hoping for the best, Mr. Bush aggressively stepped up and executed a bold plan of action. His behavior is worthy of our imitation.

Since the days of The Greatest Generation (Depression and WWII), western culture has been bathed in the putrid, lukewarm waters of relativism, liberalism, feminism, and excuse-ism. Bold convictions on issues have been demonized as bigoted. Bold actions by leaders have been maligned as macho. Bold endeavors by individuals have been suffocated by self-doubt. True, biblical, image-bearing manhood has gone into hiding.

This book is a modest attempt to rinse off and retrain us (men and women alike) to live in accordance with the scriptural commission spoken by our Almighty Maker in the beginning:

Genesis 1:27-28 And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. And God blessed them; and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

May the Spirit of God bring a revival of true Manly Dominion.

Permit me to escort you into the home of a friend of mine. Watch your step as you follow me downstairs. Were now descending a stairway into his basement, where we open a door and enter into a handsomely furnished billiard room.

I direct your attention to two items. First, notice that solid purple four-ball resting on the green tabletop. Its a billiard ball by trade. Its chief trait is passivity . By passivity , I mean that its propensity and vocation is to be acted upon and pushed around. That is, pushed around by triangular racks, pushed around by cue sticks, pushed around by fellow balls, and pushed around by bumper cushions. The purple four-ball is a passive object.

The second item I want you to notice is my friend, Nick. Nick is a skillful billiard player. His chief trait is domination . While circling the table, Nick premeditatedly designs in his head schemes for directing specific balls to destinations he has deemed desirable. Then, with the forceful thrusts of his cue stick, he aggressively imposes his plans onto the balls and tabletop. Nick is not passive, but aggressive .

On the tabletop of life, many of us act more like purple four-balls than like skillful billiard players. Instead of aggressively dominating and pushing around our environment and circumstances, we passively permit ourselves to be dominated and pushed around.

This Passive-Purple Four-Ballism is observed in family life where men often act like couch potatoes failing to husband, father, and lead. Its seen in vocational life where men often act like drones, failing to plan ahead, work hard, and drive to excellence. Its seen in church life where men are too often AWOL failing to lead, direct, and labor. Its seen in personal life where men act like weaklings failing to buck up, exercise self control, and manage priorities.

Who of us cant relate to the strong inclination to hide behind the newspaper or computer screen instead of getting up and facing head on a pressing duty such as the need to correct a teenage son talking disrespectfully to his mother, or the need to get started on drawing up a long awaited family financial budget?

Just last week, a 2:00 am rainstorm awakened me. The downpour on the roof reminded me of the downspout we had detached two days earlier in order to mow the grass near the house. I had forgotten to reattach it. I lay passively there for ten minutes trying to convince myself that the rain would stop soon, and that therefore, I didnt need to be concerned about rushing water near the foundation seeping into the basement. It wasnt until I leapt out of bed, grabbed an umbrella, sloshed barefoot through the cold rain, and reattached the downspout, that I was able to sleep again. Finally, I acted like a man!