Consistent with the awful hermeneutic and pandering cultural relevancy the site has become known for, the Gospel Coalition’s Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics published an article about the similarities between sexual intercourse and the church’s union with Christ.
We wish we were making this up.
Arizona pastor Josh Butler, author of the 2016 book The Pursuing God: A Reckless, Irrational, Obsessed Love That’s Dying to Bring Us Home, told readers in his recent article that sex is designed to point us to Jesus:
Sex is an icon of Christ and the church. In Ephesians 5:31–32, a “hall of fame” marriage passage, the apostle Paul proclaims, “‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church” (NIV; I’ve translated proskollao as “cleave”).
And later:
Paul says both [leave and cleave and becoming one flesh] are about Christ and the church.
And just to put the grossest imagery out there:
…what deeper form of self-giving is there than sexual union where the husband pours out his very presence not only upon but within his wife?
Setting aside for a moment exactly what Butler means by a husband “pouring out his presence into his wife,” there is no biblical indication that the self-sacrificial, agape love that Christ has for his church and is emulated by husbands (Ephesians 5:25) is in any way analogous to the sexual union between man and wife (eros). Yet not to be deterred, Butler takes his intercourse metaphor to its disgusting and absurd end:
Christ arrives in salvation to be not only with his church but within his church. Christ gives himself to his beloved with extravagant generosity, showering his love upon us and imparting his very presence within us. Christ penetrates his church with the generative seed of his Word and the life-giving presence of his Spirit, which takes root within her and grows to bring new life into the world.
You read that right – the Keller Center for Cultural Compromise Apologetics is teaching that Jesus penetrates his bride and delivers his seed – his “generous gift within her.” This is a parody-level, overbroad interpretation of the bride of Christ metaphor – something the Babylon Bee might cook up if it wasn’t blasphemous and borderline pornographic.
At Protestia, we have a pretty strong gag reflex. But this article is one of the grossest things we’ve ever read, and we’re having a hard time not throwing up.
