We might add, where are the shepherds of the flock who are charged with protecting the flock from wives’ tales, wolves in sheep’s clothing and other dangers? Where are the men in the pulpits willing to come down from those pulpits and actually guide the women in their Bible studies? Do we not love the women of the church enough to shepherd them, guide them and help them grow in their faith?

It dawned on me this past week while listening to a sermon by Alistair Begg on the Second Commandment that both Sarah Young and Ann Voskamp trample on the Second Commandment in their books, Jesus Calling and One Thousand Gifts. Both books have been widely popular among women and the men of the church have been dreadfully absent in offering any correction or critique.

Tim Challies tried to make some inroads with the issue, but was contacted by Ann Voskamp in person, and he melted like a chocolate-covered cheesecake in the Texas summer heat. I agree that we should treat both women as sisters in the LORD, but both sisters in the LORD still need correcting on their writing and the women of the church need to be warned that both books have terrible theological problems.

I know that some have suggested since these women are sisters in the LORD, that we probably need to focus on people who are more enemies to the kingdom than Voskamp and Young. I suggest that as those called to stand for the truth, we stand for the truth against those inside the camp as well as outside the camp. Turning a blind eye to such books is not helping the women of the church become more discerning and theologically wise.

As for pastors, we should always seek to reject old wives’ tales according to Paul in his letter to Timothy (1 Timothy 4:6-11). Both books can fall squarely under the rubric of “old wives’ tales” because they offer up things about God not found in Scripture. We are not commanded anywhere in Scripture to make up things Jesus might say to lonely house wives, as is the case with Jesus Calling. And we are not to envision our love for Christ and God so great that we have sexual desires and experiences with God of the type that Voskamp describes in her chapter The Joy of Intimacy. 

This last one is so far outside the pale of what is acceptable concerning the Second Commandment and how it prescribes our worship of God, both corporately and privately, that I’m shocked at the people trying to defend Voskamp at all. She is telling  us in her book that she had sex with God. I don’t care how spiritual or intellectual you are, when it comes to having sex with God, as her words seem to indicate, you have gone too far in what you worship and how you worship.

Just listen to her own words:

A stranger on the road, my cold heart burns (Luke 24:32) and He is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh and I am His and He is mine and I want to touch the paint [in the painting mentioned below]. I want to run my fingertips across oils, let the colors saturate my skin, let them run into my blood. I want to be in the painting, Supper at Emmaus, the painting to be in me. I want to be in God and God to be in me, to exchange love and blessings and caresses and, like the apostle-pilgrims, my eyes open and I know it because of this burning of the heart: this moment is a divine interchange. I raise my hand slightly, FINGER imperceptibly the air before the canvas and this is INTERCOURSE DISROBED of its connotations, pure and unADULTERATED: a passing between. A connection, a communicating, an EXCHANGE, between TENDER BRIDEGROOM AND HIS BRIDE…The INTERCOURSE of soul with God is the very CLIMAX of joy.

Yes, emphasis added. Where is such language ever given in Scripture that would lead us to such erotic behavior with the thoughts of God? Yes, I know that the Song of Solomon is quite racy. But the Song of Solomon is between a man and a woman, not a woman and God. Jesus is our Savior, our King, our Redeemer, the lover of our souls and so many other things. But He is not our personal lover to have some sexual experience with on this side of glory.

Let us just ask a few simple questions: first, if I were to write a chapter with the same sensual experience with God, how would that go over? I know in the gay community, I would find all kinds of approval. But for those who are still clinging to the truths of Scripture, it would make me look like the pervert I would be for imagining such a thing.

Secondly, if what she writes is so valuable and acceptable, why don’t we read that chapter to a group of junior and senior high girls in our Sunday schools? How would that go over? If you have daughters, would you read it to them, it doesn’t matter how old they are, would you?

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