Truthscript Tuesday: Bathsheba Raped?, R.E. Lee Meltdown, & Exercise is Good!

Welcome to TruthScript Tuesday. I think it's going to be a shorter TruthScript Tuesday. It, of course, is Wednesday, and the reason for that is my other podcast, Conversations That Matter. I felt like I needed to do an episode yesterday on some developments in the Southern Baptist Convention, and so I don't tend to want to put out two podcasts in one day.

Anyway, that's why we're doing it on Wednesday, but it is TruthScript Tuesday, and we have here some articles, some really good ones this week, and I hope everyone noticed if they went to the TruthScript website that there is a redesign.

Joel is our website guy, and he does a fantastic job making everything look smooth. We're going to have conferences here soon, by the way. It says coming soon, but we have two that we're going to announce very shortly.

We have the videos, and just everything is here. If you want to contribute to TruthScript, you can scroll to the bottom. There's a donate tab. You can click on that and donate. If you would like to publish with TruthScript, that's one way.

I mean, if you want to have your views even shared on this podcast, that is a good way to get them out there, publish on TruthScript, and it'll take you to a page with some guidelines and tell you how to do it.

Bathsheba Was Not Raped and the Problem with Modern Evangelical Readings

Well, let's get into some of the articles. We have three of them. We have one from Pastor John Carpenter, Bathsheba Wasn't Raped and Why It Matters. And this is something—I know I did a podcast on this a few years ago when I think it was Rachel Denhollander was—not for TruthScript, this was on Conversations That Matter, the other podcast I do—and Rachel Denhollander was talking about how Bathsheba was actually a victim of rape, and that people who disregard that essentially are, you know, they're not telling you the truth, and you need to see it that way.

And John Carpenter says,. Perhaps the most bizarre litmus test of modern evangelicalism is whether one believes David raped Bathsheba. It's the new signal of having overcome the toxic patriarchy and an addiction to power.

To dare question whether it could be otherwise is to some a sign of barbarity. Every civilized country in the world considers what David did to be rape, writes Paul Carter at the Gospel Coalition. Carter does no exegesis, only noting that David's guilt as a rapist is not denied in the narrative.

So he talks about how this is kind of like a way that evangelicals have tried to get in on the MeToo stuff, and they don't have really evidence for it, but they think that this is a path for them to be involved somehow.

It's an odd impulse, he says. Now, the first thing he says—and this is really good—she came to him. So David's latter-day prosecutors would claim it's simply what the text says, as in Carter's glib reference to it as a fact, but it's not.

2 Samuel 11, 4, while saying that David sent messengers who took her, also says she came to him. This two-word sentence consists of an active verb with a vav prefix attached to it, simply translated as and.

And in this prefix, commonly is, a vav attached to a verb is usually a vav consecutive, indicating the next action in the narrative. After the messengers, she came to him. The verb is active, meaning that the subject is acting rather than simply being acted upon.

So he quotes some experts who vindicate this view, and says that there's some who disagree. Richard Davidson negates she came to him as essentially irrelevant, claiming she had no choice but an obedient response to explicit commands of her sovereign lord.

There are several problems here, though. First, we're not told the messengers conveyed an explicit command. Davidson must assume that. Second, she was able to resist even the king of Israel, as we'll see below.

Third, this notion empties she came to him of any meaning. Why is it in the text if she had no choice? Why state she came to him? All right, so terminology of rape. 2 Samuel 11 account has no terminology that lends to rape.

This is where David, you know, had relations with Bathsheba. But if you go two chapters to 2 Samuel 13, it talks about David's son being stronger than Tamar. Amnon violated her and lay with her. Now, there's a different word used there, actually, but it says notice the difference between the two descriptions.

You don't even need to know Hebrew to know this. 2 Samuel 11 4 has no mention of David being stronger or by sheer force of intimidation violating her. The Bible is not ambiguous when it describes rape.

So in the same book, two chapters later, you have a rape description. It's not the same as the description you find David in Bathsheba. So Davidson claims that David's actions towards Bathsheba are understood in biblical law and so presented to be a case of rape.

But Davidson provides no exegesis of the law's severe condemnations of rape to support his claim. In fact, in the laws on rape in Deuteronomy 22, a woman in a town has a duty to cry out. While doing so in Bathsheba's case, if she was being raped, even if it would have been futile, she still had the obligation to do that, to resist.

Twitter prosecutors routinely claim that an ancient Near Eastern monarchy's resistance to a king's invitation was impossible. That's true of Israel's neighbors, but not necessarily Israel. In Israel, law was king.

Israel was to be a constitutional monarchy with the Torah serving as the Constitution, so this was the ideal. So Saul was repeatedly rebuked by Samuel. Naboth refused to sell his vineyard to Ahab. Jezebel from Tyre did not comprehend how a king could be resisted when Jezebel brought her pagan ways of absolute monarchy to Israel and confiscated Naboth's vineyard anyway.

Elijah condemned Ahab for it. So this was something that developed in Israel, but at David's time it wasn't necessarily the case. The law still applied to David. You see this when you're reading the book of Esther, right?

The king's decrees are—that's their Bible, essentially, but not so in Israel. You had a Bible already. You had the law of God. He talks about the parable and how the parable that Nathan gives also supports the idea that this is not a rape.

David's guilt was of adultery and murdering, the one precious thing Uriah had. Finally, there's no evidence from David and Bathsheba's later relationship that she felt herself to have been raped. So there's a lot of good stuff in this article.

The prosecutor's community. Why are the prosecutors so intent on painting David as a rapist? Well, Carmen Joy Imes, a professor of Old Testament at Prairie College in Alberta, claims she's all for attending to its details, but she didn't at all mention that she, Bathsheba, came to him.

Ironically, Imes is correct that we all miss things because we're all embedded in communities that have shaped what we notice and what we don't. Of course, this is the—what some call cultural Marxism, he says.

This is this whole standpoint epistemology stuff that, oh, you know, because of your level of power and influence, that's what determines your view. It's all contrived by economics and power dynamics.

But, you know, of course, that assumes that there would be different readings of Scripture based upon your socioeconomic level and that kind of thing, or your racial makeup. So that's kind of ridiculous.

And, of course, the Bible nowhere gives us that indication. So, anyways, he concludes and says, Embedded in the heart of much of social justice cause are assumptions about authority. Authorities are always suspect, but this is profoundly unbiblical and anti-Christian, and Scripture parents and, by extension, other authorities are honored.

In the kingdom of God, he reigns supreme and delegates authority in the state, family, and church. In the Bible, authority is good. And I do recognize that Dame John Carpenter, I think a few years ago, this might have been three or four years ago, I think we crossed swords on Twitter back in my old Twitter account.

And I thought it was over social justice. Maybe my memory's failing me. But this article's good, I have to say. So I'm thankful to Pastor John Carpenter for writing this for TrueScript, and it lays out the case, I think, very well.

The Robert E. Lee Meltdown and the Attack on Historical Memory

And so I'm also thankful to my brother for writing an article on the Robert E. Lee meltdown. This, I've already read this myself, I'm just going to summarize a little bit. You can go to the website and read it yourself if you want, but it actually talks about myself in a way, because the way my brother grew up, obviously, same way I grew up, and talks about Civil War Sunday on TNT and how we would watch that.

It usually was during the Super Bowl. We wouldn't be watching the Super Bowl, we'd be watching Civil War Sunday. So Gettysburg and the Hunley and Gone with the Wind and things like that. And General Lee became a hero because not just of the depictions in film, but also, my parents were always interested in history, and my dad loved Lee, and would talk about him during the commercial breaks, and reinforce, I suppose, what we were seeing on the screen.

And we went to see Gods and Generals when it came out in 2003. And then it's just unconscionable, because Lee was a respected figure by so many. John MacArthur says positive things about Robert E. Lee.

R .C. Sproul has his picture right when you walk into his house. And these are just Christian figures, but Bill Bright says positive things about Robert E. Lee. Tim LaHaye says positive things about Robert E. Lee.

I mean, he was kind of universally this Christian gentleman who was well-respected. I remember Warren Weirsbee preaching a sermon about—and I don't know about Robert E. Lee, but it was Stonewall Jackson and then his character.

These are the kinds of things that were just taken for granted, even by people who didn't think the South was necessarily justified in seceding. They still respected Robert E. Lee. He was respected not just by Christians, though.

He was respected by Dwight Eisenhower and George Patton and Winston Churchill. I think Winston Churchill was the one who said he was the greatest military mind the English-speaking people's ever produced.

So universally recognized as this really man of upstanding character, cared for his troops, very gentle even with the enemy, brilliant mind militarily speaking, opposed slavery in his own life. I mean, he inherited slaves from his wife, but his intention was to progressively—similar to Lincoln's, although I think Lincoln's was worse—to progressively emancipate slaves.

People who don't understand the economic conditions or how that all worked are willing to judge in hindsight. I found the ignorance on social media about that whole conflict is just stunning. I mean, it's a complicated issue—issues—that whole conflict, and people want to reduce it to a cartoon.

And so this podcast isn't for getting into the conflict of the Civil War, but it is to just show that we're not allowed now to defend or honor in the mainstream—and mainstream meaning the elites of this country—people who might have had any attachment to the Confederacy.

I mean, it doesn't matter. Lee was also the hero of the Mexican or rather, yeah, Mexican-American War. It doesn't matter that he, you know, got no demerits at West Point. West Point's going to still change the name of Lee Street to Grant Street.

They just did that, like, a few weeks ago. They're still going to take down his portrait. I still remember going to West Point because it's not far from me, and his portrait was there, and I mean, they were proud of him.

Yeah, I would do service repairs. I used to be a repairman in people's homes there. Robert E. Lee's picture would be on the wall, and that was not that long ago. So anyway, he talks about how this all changed, and he links it to—he quotes Robert E. Lee and Lee's views on Christianity, which, I mean, he saw himself as a Christian in need of salvation, and that's really all he was.

But he links this to that this is a violation of James 411. Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks evil against the law and judges the law.

And, you know, he says this applies to people in history, too. It's not just that it applies to people just alive currently. I mean, slandering people from the past is also evil, and that's certainly what's been going on.

And not only have Christians, elite Christian institutions, been unwilling to say anything about this, but they've joined in wanting to rip this stuff down. I mean, Russell Moore—there's a link in this to Russell Moore's article for Christianity Today, where he says, you know, basically good riddance to Robert E. Lee.

And this was something that in 20—I don't even know—15, when people weren't really listening to my stuff—I mean, I was writing little blogs here and there—but 2015 to 2020 especially, I was really pushing against this anti-monument craze.

And, I mean, that's one of the things the left, like, didn't like me for. It's actually kind of one of the things that propelled me onto the scene of this whole social justice controversy. It's not the only thing I cared about at all, but I thought this—I predicted that when this happens—I remember 2015, I said, when we start taking down these symbols and statues, it doesn't end with these people.

It will go far beyond it. And I hate being right about that, but I have been right about that. It has infected our history, it has impacted other statues of Lincoln and Jefferson and Washington, and it's not about the statues, it's about the memory.

It's about the memory and honoring people that are worthy of honor for not their sin, but the things they did that were honorable. And so this is linked to an attack, a greater attack, on Christianity itself, on people who exemplify Christian behavior and Christian morals, and trying to smear them as terrible people plays into the hand of the pagans.

And so that's a bit about that story. And then, of course, the last one is Exercise to the Glory of God by Nate Hoover. And Nate Hoover, I don't know if he's written to it for us before, he runs the web teaching ministry Jesus People San Francisco, which encompasses a YouTube channel, a publishing ministry under the banner Apocalypse Press, and a newsletter.

Exercise, Bodily Stewardship, and Godliness

And he wrote this article because he recently came across an article from a popular evangelical website attempting to defend exercise as a faithful activity for the people of God. I'm actually wondering what... that was G3, okay.

The article loosely follows the argument Paul uses in 1 Timothy 4, for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

Oftentimes in evangelical circles, when teaching this passage, the emphasis is to highlight and reiterate Paul's dismissive tone towards bodily training, while the article I'm referring to does not take this stance.

I'm not sure the author completely grasps the real practical gain of bodily discipline in holiness. I'm actually kind of curious. I haven't read this article, but I am curious who wrote this article and what he's talking about.

Scott O 'Neill. Scott O 'Neill. Okay. How valuable is bodily training? This is probably related to a few weeks ago, there was a Twitter fight over whether Christian men are required to be in shape with their bodies.

So anyway, Paul uses use of dismissive language about exercising the body is only for the sake of comparing bodily training with the exceeding value of training in godliness. The positive effects on godliness are in the argument, good for now and forever, while exercise is only for now.

While it must be acknowledged that bodily training is for the benefit of the physical nature, which lasts only for a brief moment in eternal history, most professing are falling off the complete other side of the horse.

For every Christ follower who is too keen on their muscles and gym life, there are a dozen more with a bulging gut, heart issue, and decreasing overall health from the neglect of physical form. So I want to be utterly practical when I outline all the benefits of exercise and watching physical health for one's discipline and godliness, which Paul in the text seeks to commend.

First, the common, the Christian's body, according to the New Testament, is as holy to God as the temple of Solomon. The neglect of Christians for their physical form is telling of how they feel about the meeting place of God and man in the new covenant.

This doesn't mean every Christian needs a gym membership to keep the temple looking good. It does mean that maintaining physical fitness and health should be a top priority. The Christian's body, after all, is not just a temple, but not theirs.

The Christian's body, like everything else in the Christian life, does not belong to them, is merely a stewardship. So it's like money. It's like your intellect. You are responsible for what God gave you, and you should treat it well.

Don't trash it, right? An unwell body hinders godliness. Studies show that exercises, along with a healthy diet and sufficient sleep, are among the key components to avoiding serious illness. Timothy was told by Paul to add a little wine to his diet to avoid frequent stomach illness.

Chris Austin noted the interpretation in that text about Timothy drinking wine to mean that Timothy was prone to fast often, and Paul's recommendation was to address too much poor health from spiritual disciplines on his health.

Unwell bodies, if avoidable, do not help us become and stay holy. They impair our ability to think clearly, to train in godliness due to the weakness of the frame. This is not a rebuke of illness itself, as some have deficits that make physical activity hard or impossible.

We have plenty of examples in Scripture of how to glorify God in the midst of physical difficulties, but where one may become and stay healthy and strong, one must. I actually just talked about this with Andrew Rapoport on his podcast The Rap Report yesterday, and we were saying—I was saying, look, there are people with disabilities.

Sure, you know, whatever you have, you're responsible to steward it well, and that's the effects of sin, whether it's the curse of Adam or our own personal sin, but the fact is, though, in a perfect world, the ideal is—just like there's some couples who are infertile, just like there are some people who don't get married, right ?—but the ideal, the standard is, the intention of God is that people do get married, that they do have kids, and that they do, if they're men, that they are strong.

So, you know, it's looking for these exceptions of where the curse of sin has been found, somehow, to limit that doesn't take away obligations and that kind of thing. Given the clear connections between caring for your body with a good diet, sleep, and exercise, things we should characterize as discipline of the body, the healthier body—healthier the body, the more work can be done for Jesus.

So I've often thought this, too. I can be more effective in ministry if my body is in good shape, and sometimes that means, you know, I can go to a widow's house and I can do work for them. Sometimes that means I just have the ability to stand for long periods of time, and I can go do physical things at my church, but that even applies to emotional things.

If you're physically fit, you're able to emotionally handle things better, too. Exercise has an antidepressant-like effect on our brain chemistry. How many saints were shackled by their low mood? Perhaps Spurgeon, Calper, Brainerd, and many other souls could have worked more and harder had the shackles of depression been less severe.

He's going to get in trouble for that one. It's speculation. We don't know, but hey, if—I mean, Spurgeon, he was pudgy. He smoked cigars. Does that mean that he's, oh, you're against Spurgeon. How dare you?

He's my hero. No, we all have our problems, guys. And Spurgeon probably didn't even know that cigars were probably maybe not the best thing for him. And I'm not against, by the way. I don't think it's a sin to smoke.

I just think it's just like eating cheeseburgers or anything else. If you do too much of it, and it inhibits your health, then it's going to also possibly inhibit your ministry. Exercise is a function and a help to godliness, not an obstruction of it.

It is a tacit acknowledgement that the body is the new covenant, and where we meet God and Christ, it is a—let's see, this is the last paragraph. Christian, dare not to steward your only soul as though it had nothing to do with the physical world where you live in God, moving and having your being.

You are like Christ in the sense that your spiritual nature is otherworldly enough to one day go through walls, but you will still, even eons into eternity, be able to eat fish with the disciples. Therefore, live in the body in such a way that when you receive a glorious body to come, you have no regrets about the things as trivial as food, exercise, and sleep, and their ability to help you do more for the kingdom now.

Great article by Nate Hoover, and I completely agree. You can look at me. I'm no bodybuilder. I'm not someone who's—I'm not a crazy sports guy that's always exercising, but I do try to keep myself in generally good shape so that I can do the things that I need to do.

I can rake the leaves outside. I can help my wife with things. I can help people that are in need. I can go to church, and I can set up for dinners and things by taking the chairs out. I'm not in the back, not able to help because my back hurts too much, and I have a history of back problems in my family, and so I try to steward that well so I don't have that problem.

All right, well, those are the articles for today. Like I said, if you want to contribute to TruthScript, it is 501c3. You can go to the bottom where it says Donate. You can also publish with us by going to the Publish tab, and at the very top, there's a Subscribe button.

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God bless. More coming tonight.