August 18, 2025 Show with John M. Otis on “What Constitutes Biblical Masculinity?”

Live from historic downtown Carlisle, Pennsylvania, home of founding father, James Wilson, 19th century hymn writer, George Duffield, 19th century gospel minister, George Norcross, and sports legend, Jim Thorpe.

It's Iron Sharpens Iron. This is a radio platform in which pastors and Christian scholars and theologians address the burning issues facing the church and the world today. Proverbs chapter 27 verse 17 tells us iron sharpens iron.

So one man sharpens another. Matthew Henry said that in this passage, we are cautioned to take heed with whom we converse and directed to have in view in conversation to make one another wiser and better.

It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next two hours. And we hope to hear from you, the listener, with your own questions. And now here's your host, Chris Arnzen.

Good afternoon, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida, and the rest of humanity living on the planet earth who are listening via live streaming at ironsharpensironradio .com. This is Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Monday on this 18th day of August, 2025.

And I'm absolutely thrilled to have an old friend of mine returning to the program. His name is John M. Otis, ordained Presbyterian minister, author, publisher, and campus evangelist at the University of Georgia through Triumphant Gospel Ministries.

Today, he's going to be addressing what constitutes biblical masculinity, neither milquetoast nor macho. And it's my honor and privilege to welcome you back to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, my old friend, John Otis.

It's always great to be with you, Chris, and I never did like milquetoast anyway.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Well, John, tell us something about your campus ministry, Triumphant Gospel Ministries.

Several years ago, after 40 years of pastoral ministry and writing books, I realized I had never devoted the amount of time that I wanted to to evangelism. And so several years ago, the Lord just was burdening my heart to do this, and I began to pray.

And then with the loss of my dear wife a year ago, it became more of a burden to be involved. And the Lord saved me 56 years ago on a college campus at the University of Utah of all places, nurtured me in a campus ministry at East Tennessee State University.

So I've had a real heart for college students because they're very malleable in a good way or in a bad way as well. So I wanted to devote the rest of my life to evangelistic endeavors. Beginning this past, this recent March, I began to do one-on-one evangelism, and I started something that I had never done before.

Though I'd been preaching for 40 years, I'd never done open air gospel preaching. My favorite preacher of all time is George Winthrow. And I thought, well, I need to engage in open air gospel preaching at the university.

And on April 1st of this year, I had my first ever open air gospel preaching. And I was going well for about three weeks. And right in the middle of my ministry, I had a bizarre accident on a stepladder.

The last time I'd had a fall was 38 years ago. And this was just a bizarre accident. The ladder took back. I didn't think I initially got hurt that bad, but I ended up breaking my back again after 38 years.

Wow.

Spent three weeks in the hospital, three weeks in rehab. And I can say it was one of the toughest times I've ever experienced in my life, physically, that is. But the ladder just threw me through it. It's healed me up very well.

In a couple of weeks, I will be going back to the university to begin my open air preaching and one-on-one evangelism. And also, in that regard, I'm having a very wonderful, can you hear me, Chris?

Yes, I can.

Okay, sometimes my phone goes out. So I'm having a wonderful evangelistic website created by my sister-in-law's nephew who does this for a living. Sometime this week, it's gonna go live to the world where I'll do podcasts, where I'll be doing devs.

It's just a wonderful site. So I'm really excited. I don't know if I've ever been as excited in my life for a ministry. So that's what I'm getting involved with, Chris.

Do you have the URL yet for the new website?

Yeah.

What is that?

Okay, it's triumphantgospelministriespro .com. Forward slash.

Okay.

It'd be cool to get that forward slash in there.

Oh, you do.

Yes, if you don't do that, it's not gonna go to the site.

Really? Oh, that's interesting.

Yeah, that is interesting. You need to put that forward slash. That's triumphantgospelministriespro .com forward slash. Okay.

Now, if you don't mind me asking, John, how old are you? Because what's fascinating about this is that you are defying what many evangelicals might think is the only protocol that would so-called work for an endeavor like you are involved in.

They would say, oh, you've gotta have somebody who is the same age of these young people in college. You've got to have somebody who's from relatively similar background, and whether it be income bracket or ethnicity, or you could go on and on and on.

But you are kind of shattering that myth by what you are doing. So tell us how old you are.

74, I just turned 74 back in this May.

Well, praise God.

And you know, I was talking with the pastor of the church, who's been on your program, by the way, Pastor Chris Strebel in Butteford.

Yeah.

He told me, he says, John, I think actually your age is going to be to your advantage. I said, I think so. Only in the sense that it means I've been around the block theologically a few times and had that experience.

So I've never had, the interaction I've had, no one has ever said, what are you doing, old man? Except that now they've been very receptive to what I've said.

Wow.

At least on the one and other, so.

Praise God for that. Well, you have written, I believe it's a booklet that involves what constitutes biblical manhood. What was the compelling factor in your mind that led you to say, you know, I've got to tackle this particular subject and put it in an accessible form where I believe there are 15 points that you've made.

And if you could tell us about the origins of this.

Well, you're quite aware in our culture, both masculinity and femininity have been under attack by the woke culture. And within the church, I just saw that there's a great need that our, us to have happy families, churches, and the culture for men to act like men and what the Bible has to say about it.

There's a lot of misconception of what in our, the non-Christian has, what constitutes a man. Like you said, it's either a milquetoast or it's not macho. It's not the guy who can lift a lot of weights, shoot guns well, things like that.

Nothing wrong with that. But if that's what we think is the essence of manhood, we have missed the mark terribly. Well, I thought of a need for, I've written it for the Christian church, for Christian young men to examine the scriptures of what constitutes biblical manhood.

And there's two major scriptures where David was dying and he gathered Solomon around his deathbed and he told him to stone himself a man and he related it to the word of God. And then in 1 Corinthians 16, Paul says, act like men.

And so I just saw the need for men to be the heads of their household, to be the proper leaders of their families, of their wives and their children. So that was my mindset.

Yeah, and it reminded me of, as soon as I heard your theme, it reminded me of the horrific execution of Latimer and Ridley who were burned at the stake, who were faithful to the principles of the Reformation and they died because of their refusal to recant.

These were the Oxford martyrs killed on October 16th, 1555. And that just reminded me, I've got to do a special on them with a scholar who knows about these two men. But Latimer said to Ridley, play the man, Mr. Ridley.

And that reminded me of our topic today.

Well, one of the characteristics that I left in my work is a real man is a man of biblical conviction. Biblical convictions rooted in the word of God. He's dedicated to the word of God. It is his sole authority, and he's willing to live and die on that hill.

And we got great examples, just like you mentioned. We got great examples in the scripture, and I list multiple examples of men who stood on those convictions were willing to pay the ultimate price. That is a great need in the church.

It's a great need in our culture for men to be, for themselves to be men who will stand on those convictions rooted in the word of God.

Amen. Well, I'm gonna invite our listeners, if they have questions of their own, to submit them to chrisarnson at gmail .com. Chrisarnson at gmail .com. Give us your first name at least, city and state, and country of residence.

And of course, you can remain anonymous if your question is over a personal and private matter. Perhaps there is some issue about what we are addressing today that would compel you to remain anonymous.

It has something to do with either yourself or a loved one of yours, a pastor, a son, or if it's a wife writing the question, perhaps your husband, or what have you. And I understand that you'd wanna remain anonymous about that, but if it's a general question, please, as always, give us your first name at least, city and state, and country of residence.

And that email address again is chrisarnson at gmail .com. C-H-R-I-S-A-R-N-Z-E-N at gmail .com. Well, the first item that you have for a reflection of what consists of true biblical masculinity is that it embraces a zeal for personal godliness.

And if you could tell us more about that in detail.

Yeah, well, a real man has to be someone who earnestly seeks the Lord. As the psalmist says, I earnestly seek thee. My soul thirsts for thee. My soul clings to thee as in a dry, weary land without any water.

A man of God wants to have a deep relationship with his God, and therefore, it all begins with a thirst for the scripture. Without a thirst for the scriptures, no one, no male can truly be said in the scripture a biblical man.

It begins with that zeal for God. That's where it begins.

And that reveals how a biblical man cannot be a coward, because very often, when you have a zeal for personal godliness, that can cost you. It could cost you a position where you work or a promotion where you work.

It can cost you friends, and the worst case scenario might even cost you a marriage when you are pursuing anything regarding biblical faithfulness. And with men, there are men who are willing to sacrifice being in a good standing with God out of sheer embarrassment to identify themselves with Christ publicly, which is a really, vibrant, glaring sign of cowardice.

Am I right?

You're absolutely correct. And one thing is for sure is that, as you just said, the biblical man will stand upon the word of God. It is the scripture that he loves, the God that he loves, the glad of God, the holiness of God that he cherishes.

He's willing to proclaim that and willing to pay any price. He is not a coward. The biblical man is never a coward. And so one of the things I've mentioned in my paper is that, we'll get into this, that God created the two genders.

He created the male first to be the leader. He created Eve to be his helpmate. And she was to help him exercise dominion over the earth. And one of the things that I can probably assure you, no godly young lady would ever be attracted to a coward.

Right. Yeah, that's what's, one of the things that's mystifying about our culture, producing so many effeminate men, androgynous men, is that you are, you have to wonder, are women finding this attractive?

I think that many of these so-called feminists will make a public, they'll make public statements or act as if they want their men to be something resembling that. But secretly, I can't believe that they really want that.

You know, the culture at large, they're on the road to hell, so their world view is all skewed anyway. But a godly woman, she's looking for a man to be her leader. You know, in the army, the man is to lead his family, to lead his wife into godliness, to lead his children into godliness.

And godly women want their husbands and fathers to take the initiative. One of the saddest things that I've seen over the years is in my first pastorate, there were several older women, during the lunch time in the church, their husbands would have nothing to do when I went with the church.

And it was just grievous to see that. But the godly woman is more than willing to have her husband and the father of her children give directions. After all, he was made, according to the scripture, he was made out of man, for a man.

The apostle Paul makes that very clear. The woman was made for the man, the man not for the woman. Now, that's not a denigrating statement at all. It just reveals the structure that God has given for his creation.

And so a godly woman is more than willing to desire to have her husband lead in prayer, lead in devotions, lead the way in their family.

Yes, and I think we should make it clear that when you say that a godly man cannot be a coward, that does not mean that godly men do not often get challenged by fear. There is a difference.

Yes, I make a huge point in my paper, Chris, on the promises of God, is that our godliness is rooted in our conviction based on the faithfulness of a God, a God who will not lie, a God who's made promises to us.

And one of the great truths that I found in the scripture is this, where there is faith, there is no fear. Courage flows out of our conviction and our standing upon the promises of God. And we see it in the Old Testament, when Israel was ready to take the land and God had promised that they would, and Moses appointed 12 spies to go in and spy out the land.

It was basically a military reconnaissance. But he said, I'm gonna give you the land. And we know from the scriptures, according to Numbers 13 and 14, 10 spies turned back and said, we can't do it. We can't do it, because there's giants there.

They live in fortified cities. Yes, it's good, but we're not gonna be able to take it. Well, Joshua and Caleb, they say, well, by all means, we ought to go and take it. Now, they saw the same exact circumstances as the other 10 spies.

They saw the giant. They saw that it lived in a walled city, but it didn't make any difference. See, it was a man who says, if God has made a promise, I can bank on that promise. And consequently, the 10 spies gave a bad report, called it an infection.

Everybody began to complain. They wanted to go back to Egypt. They wanted to have a new leader. And God was very angry with them. If it hadn't been for Moses interceding, God was gonna wipe them out. Then he said, I will tell you this.

Every day that they spied out the land for 40 days, I'm gonna make them wander for 40 years. And all those males over the age of 20, all of those people are gonna perish. So fear is a result of not trusting the promises of God.

And Chris, if we get that down, I read a book on affliction not long ago, and I said, if there's anything anybody can learn out of my book, is that fear is the result of not trusting in the promises of God.

And when you trust in the promises of God, it's gonna be amazing. It activates the Lord on our behalf. Cause you know, I will say this one other point. Jesus is on the boat, crossing the Tulip Galilee and the storm arises.

He's sound asleep in the back of the boat. Well, the boat's going out with water. And neither do I think you may think, well, if I was on the boat going out, knowing it's gonna sink, I'd be concerned too.

So then I rushed to the back of the boat, wake Jesus up and said, Jesus, do you not fear that we're perishing? Well, the first thing he does when he wakes up, he immediately calms the storm to their utter amazement.

And then this is what comes out of his mouth. He says, why were you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith? Now, so courage is rooted in faith in the promises of God.

Yes, and I am assuming that you would agree that even the most seasoned and courageous of Christians have done and still do at times do battle with fear. It's the difference between a courageous and faithful Christian facing fear and someone who is given into cowardice is their reaction to fear.

It's overcoming the fear through your faith. Like for instance, you could have the most seasoned battle veteran who has courage in facing death on the battlefield after the war, he's back home with his family and the doctor calls him in and he has a terminal illness and he may experience and likely would, as most people do, not everybody, but most people experience a fear and even an anxiety over that, even though Jesus has said in Philippians 4, 6, be anxious for nothing.

We still, being sinners and not being perfect, we cave into that. But if you are living in obedience to Christ, you're gonna overcome that, maybe not perfectly, but you're gonna overcome that to a large degree where it doesn't absolutely control your life.

Am I making sense?

Absolutely, what you're saying is true. We have a great enemy, as you know, the devil. And the devil is always wanting to separate us from that which will defeat him, and that is the word of God. I tell Jesus defeated Satan when he was tempted in the wilderness for 40 days and nights, and Satan will come in and here's what I do.

You know, here, I've told people, and even now God has placed me in a position where I'm having to trust him like never before. And in a weak moment, there's a little doubt that comes in. I've seen God do amazing things in my life and my family over the past year, over 40 years.

And so I know how faithful he is, but then I know I'm a sinner. And in a weak moment, I'll go, well, and Satan's whispering, John, you know, he may have taken care of you years ago, but you choose what to do at this time.

And what I have to do, I have to just stop and ask for forgiveness and say, Lord, here I am doubting. And what I do, I've memorized quite a few verses, Chris, on not being anxious and faith in his promises.

So I'll start quoting back. And here's what's amazing, Chris. When we're tempted, what we gotta do, and we see ourselves faltering, we immediately ask for forgiveness. And then we run to the Lord and we start, I'll pull out some of my index cards where I have all these promises on, and I'll start remembering what those are.

And here's what happens. All of a sudden, the anxiety is gone. It's dissipated. And it's a wondrous thing. But I mean, we always have to be aware, and it's not a wince bra victory. It's a constant fight.

We're in a great spiritual lair with the forces of darkness, we're tired and infusing sick, and we got to hold up that shield of faith by which we quench all of the fiery darts of the evil one. And so that's what we have to do when we find ourselves doubting.

And we're gonna fall, we're gonna fall, but we get back up, trusting in his promises.

Amen, and I'm sure you would also agree that there is a kind, well, actually, let me say, there's two kinds of fear that are gifts of God himself. One is the fear that most humans have that involves self-preservation, the fear of falling off a cliff that prevents you from walking too close to the edge, that kind of fear.

And also, and first and foremost, and primarily, the fear of God himself. And if you could tell us the difference between fearing God and the kind of fear you are saying should not be an element of the life of a true masculine Christian man.

Well, the feeling of God we see throughout the Scriptures, throughout the Proverbs, and oftentimes the Scripture links the fear of God with obedience to his commandment. And it is a recognition of who he is.

But then, of course, with that, there is supposed to be a fear, especially the unbeliever, they ought to be concerned about God who is a consuming fire, as Hebrew says.

Amen.

That there is a hell, whether they believe it or not, and they need to be concerned about that. So there is that healthy fire, I mean, fear there. And yes, I mean, if I'm near the edge of a cliff, there's gonna be a certain trepidation, obviously.

I don't wanna have a misstep and fall out, you know, to my death there. So that's one type of fear. But the fear of God is a fear that acknowledges his holiness, his righteousness, and what is committed to him in his commandments.

So that is the healthy kind of fear, but that's a lot different than what Jesus says. For example, he said, I don't need to go into this story years ago, where Jesus, when I first broke my back in 1987, my family, I had no means to provide for my family, whatsoever, none.

It was gone. My children were young. My wife, we didn't have grandparents near us to help us out. And so I remember lying in bed, getting ready for that first operation. And the elders came and saw me and said, John, how are we gonna pray for you?

And I said, well, I've lost all means to take care of my family financially. I'm at the mercy of God. And I remember lying in the bed, and the passage, Matthew 6, 25 and following, came up and it said, Jesus said, don't be anxious what you're gonna eat,.

What you're gonna drink,.

Or how you're gonna clothe yourselves. He said, God takes care of the birds. They don't gather or reap. He clothes the lilies of the field better than Solomon and all his array. And he says, oh, you don't know the faith.

Think first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. And Chris, I had the greatest peace come over me. And I remember thinking, I don't know how you're gonna do it.

But here's a promise. And I'm not gonna be anxious. Somehow, someway, you're gonna take care of his family. And it was absolutely amazing to see how God began to bring in, we didn't lack a thing. And so that anxiousness for our provision, that's what we have to trust God with.

He said, I'm gonna supply all your needs according to my riches and glory by Christ Jesus. I'm going to do it. I've never seen the righteous, as Solomon says, begging bread. And so that's what we have to trust.

And when I'm not trusting that God is faithful to his promises, that's when I'm trusting.

Well, we have to go to our first commercial break. And if you have a question, send it to chrisarnson at gmail .com. Give us your first name at least, city and state and country of residence. Don't go away.

We're gonna be right back with John Otis after these messages.

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Welcome back.

If you just tuned us in, our guest today is John M. Otis, the founder of Triumphant Gospel Ministries who is involved in campus ministry, campus evangelism at the University of Georgia. And he's also an author and a publisher and a very dear friend of mine.

In fact, I can remember like it was yesterday when he and his precious late wife, Christine, were the only friends that I had who are close to me, that were able to attend my graduation from Hebron Colony, which is a ministry for those battling drunkenness and addictions.

And they made the long drive to be there with me and then treated me to lunch afterwards. And I really will never forget you and Christine for that act of kindness.

It's a great pleasure to see you that day, Chris.

And one of the other things that constitutes biblical masculinity in your paper is that biblical masculinity exhibits a devotion to prayer. Now, this would be an area that separates biblical masculinity from machismo, because you will have a lot of guys who think they are manly because they act outwardly rough and tough and fearless.

And they would be embarrassed to pray in front of other people, especially men. And because they would view it as a sign of weakness, any sign of a dependency on God is viewed by many unregenerate people as weak.

And this is really just another sign of cowardice because they are intimidated about losing their reputations or something. But if you could continue on about exhibiting a devotion to prayer.

One of the things that you're going to see that I bring out in my paper of the godly kings of Judah, such as Hezekiah, Joseph, Josiah, and, for example, is that they were all great men of prayer, men who gave some of the greatest prayers ever, and who prayed in public in front of the whole nation where the whole nation saw their leader making a commitment to the covenant and publicly praying is, those are real men.

And part of that being godliness is a devotion to prayer. And one of the things that the enemy wants to do in the lives is how to keep us from praying. And if he can keep us from praying, he's already scored a major victory in our life.

And so there's nothing, in fact, we know from 1 Timothy 2 that men are to lead in prayer in public worship. Not only are they to be the ones teaching and only the ones being teaching and preaching, but they are the ones who, it specifically says, who raise up their hands in prayer.

And the word there for men is the word anair, which is specifically referring to a male. And so there's nothing unmanly about praying. And I would say, if you're not praying, you're just demonstrating you're not really a man.

Amen. And you have

At this point, they might wanna come beat me up, that's okay.

Ha ha ha ha ha. And you have also a section that involves some of what you just said. Biblical masculinity and leadership that involves male headship. The male was divinely created to be the leader. Male headship in the church.

Implications for male leadership in the home and church. And biblical masculinity takes the lead in teaching and child discipline. Now, I think we should clarify, because there is so much confusion over this, you are not advocating in any way, shape, or form, men being tyrants in their homes where they forbid their wives from making any decisions.

They don't even consult their wives when making decisions. Their wife and family, their children, may live in terror of them because they fear violence. But these are just signs that a man, again, is really a coward, aren't they?

You're exactly right.

Are you there, John?

What's that, Chris?

I thought that you dropped off.