Praying our Worldview from the Psalms (Part One)

Jay Wegter

INTRODUCTION: The study of Biblical worldview is not merely an intellectual pursuit, it is a God-centered, worshipful, soul-rejoicing unification of Christian truth and life. Intensely practical—it emboldens our witness, and it deepens our confidence that God’s truth is total truth about all of life. In our post- Christian era, the culture war between Christianity and pagan-secular worldview represents a ‘collision’ between competing cosmologies (cosmology: the study of the origin and nature of the cosmos). These two cosmologies are antithetical; there is no middle ground between them. Both claim to explain reality. That means there is an immense ideological ‘train wreck’ occurring—a deafening collision between naturalism and supernaturalism.

The absolute truth of biblical cosmology is essential in accurately interpreting the universe.ⁱ At the heart of biblical cosmology is the Creator-creature distinction. Central to biblical cosmology is that God is Creator, Owner, Upholder, and ‘Definer’ of what He has made. As fashioner of all things, He gives existence, designations, definitions, categories, and relations of what He has made—we call these ‘creation structures’. They include male-female, husband-wife, parent-child, etc.

God’s relation to the creation is the ordering principle of the universe and of reality (Acts 17:22-31). Because God is the sustainer and definer of all that He has made, there is no such thing as a reality greater than God—or a reality of which God is but a component. Thus, biblical worldview is the sole vantage point ‘high enough’ to provide the foundation for a unified worldview and from which we see man’s place in the universe as the image of God.

Consequently, biblical cosmology, God’s ‘blueprint’ for His creation, is the foundation of the gospel—for the gospel only makes sense in a world in which our omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God is Creator, Owner, Upholder, Lawmaker, Ruler, Redeemer, and Judge. The gospel has no common ground in a world of crass materialism in which the cosmos is self-originating, self-sustaining, and self-defining. This is why in our Christian outreach there is an increasingly urgent need to define categories as God does—namely that He is Ruler, Sustainer, Owner of what He has made—and that the designations and definitions He gives concerning His creation are essential for accurately interpreting reality.

THE PROBLEM: The ‘wrecking ball’ of Darwinian naturalism has been a significant factor in shaping a post-Christian culture. Naturalism has systematically broken down the boundaries set by God. Humanistic cosmologies seek to make man into a god by destroying the distinction between God and man. Philosophic naturalism has become our national worldview. Students imbued with Darwinism find themselves ‘metaphysically lost’ in a materialistic/chance universe without a fixed point of reference. 75% of American college students are looking for the meaning of life. But meaning and rationality have no basis in a meaningless and irrational universe in which humans are but a chemical coincidence.

With the rise of modern science came a fascination with quantities—with measuring things. Accompanying Enlightenment philosophies suggested that all reality may be reduced to a kind of mathematical formula. Concreteness, empiricism, and precision became the most valued attributes of knowledge. In other words, people began to think that the scientific method was the only really valid way to understand the world around us—“real knowledge” was scientific knowledge, gained empirically. “Real knowledge” was verifiable, measurable, and quantifiable.ⁱⁱ Notes Christian sociologist, Ken Myers, church leaders, in an effort to remain relevant, and worried about losing their market share, began to reframe traditional Christian teaching in terms that fit the times. The church pushed its message through the grid of science. In essence, “[t]he belief became common that only science could make the world intelligible. . .”ⁱⁱⁱ

What was the net effect in the minds of most of replacing biblical cosmology with philosophic naturalism? Answer: God as personal, transcendent, and intimately involved with creation was demoted.ⁱᵛ God’s direct involvement in the cosmos and in the lives of His creatures was increasingly ruled out, and was no longer linked to all the details of reality. He was marginalized, retired to a private, or sub-cultural role. In contemporary culture God has been stripped of meaning, leaving popular culture with only a ‘god concept’—a figure doing nothing of real significance. For all intents and purposes, practical atheism. Though evangelicals stressed personal faith and piety, they also began to divide God’s role—they saw Him as active in redemption, but allowed science to define the creation. This is accepted as benign as long as ‘we have Jesus in our hearts’. But the fallout is deadly serious as we will see.ᵛ

When one allows the Bible to describe salvation and science to comprehensively describe the creation, it produces a tear, or rend, in our thinking. The reason why is the salvation-science (redemptioncreation) dichotomy pictures God as having two radically different faces—the side of God that dealt with creation was far less personal than the side of God that dealt with salvation. As a consequence, the Jesus of salvation became very other worldly, subjective, esoteric, and sentimental. ‘Christian’ faith was unhinged from total truth. Peter Jones observes, “Believing students on university campuses are able offer Jesus as ‘friend’ but have no clue how to proclaim Him as Lord of the cosmos.”ᵛⁱ This prevalent dualism welcomes Jesus as ‘mascot’ but cannot conceive of Him, or proclaim Him, as majestic Lord of the universe. This is the dilemma our Christian students face today; the loss of biblical cosmology forces them to live with an immense ‘disconnect’ between faith and life.

Modern culture has encouraged and deepened this dualism. The yawning chasm which has divided creation from redemption has separated the physical from the spiritual in the minds of many believers. Through popular culture our youth are bombarded with this dualism. The wonder of creation as the revelation of God’s majesty has been erased, and with it, God’s active rule and reign. Reality is merely what you make it—raw material by which one may construct the self. The media casts Christian worldview as a useless anachronism, and more commonly, a layover from the age of prejudice. Nearly every television program operates with an agenda of displacing Christian worldview.ᵛⁱⁱ The net effect is a palpable separation of our everyday life from our spiritual life.ᵛⁱⁱⁱ

How does this dualism manifest itself in evangelicalism? Redemption tends to be viewed as a private, subjective, personal preference without an objective basis. As a consequence, it is easy to think that Christ is only concerned about my soul and spirit. Redemption goes inward, and the entire theme of God’s vast plan to restore His creation gets buried. Salvation is viewed as existing in the mind and the heart—as if concrete reality is the physical universe and salvation belongs to the private, and the subjective. Evangelicalism’s accommodation to this dualistic view, has pushed redemption further into the ‘upper story.’ Christians are living in a state of détente with the open ‘gash’ of dualism. Much of Christianity has lost the cosmological foundation for redemption. The resultant attitude could be stated as follows: “Facts in the created realm shouldn’t get in the way of bringing people to Jesus.”

Christian students often live with an immense ‘disconnect’ between their professed beliefs and their life experiences. “At one Christian high school, a teacher . . . drew a heart on one side of the blackboard and a brain on the other. The two are as divided as the two sides of the blackboard, he told the class: the heart is what we use for religion, while the brain is what we use for science.”ⁱˣ This dualism leaves knowledge utterly fragmented—spirituality is partitioned off from the remainder of life. The secular/sacred dichotomy tends to restrict Christianity to the realm of religious truth (and not total truth)—this creates double minds and fragmented lives.ˣ Bad doctrine always results in bad fruit. Consequently, a huge disconnect exists between ethical life and professed belief—truth and everyday life are ripped apart. This is a deadly symptom of a worldview that separates the physical creation from redemption. A ‘divided Christ’ is Friend, but not Creator and Ruler, Lawgiver, and Judge. A pastor friend recently shared with me that in counseling a church member, it took nearly a month of counseling before the person would admit that pornography is a false ‘worldview’ about the body and sexuality. This is of course symptomatic of the bleeding disconnect between faith and life, between redemption and creation, between truth and practice.

THE ANSWER: The book of Psalms is a very powerful corrective to dualistic thinking. It overturns the two-level view of truth. There is no dualism between creation and redemption in the Psalms. Christians need not allow themselves to be intimidated by the agenda of the secularists—as if Christian truth is an inward matter severed from objective fact. We will not be able to prepare the next generation to define the faith and defend the faith if they have no response to the secularist argument that the creation is nothing more than matter and motion, and natural laws and processes. The book of Psalms overturns the irrationalism of the secularists, for it is filled with worldview “building blocks.”

The Psalms fortify our prayer lives so that they rise above our own heart issues and are able to focus upon God’s majesty. This is only possible if we are committed to knowing His wondrous works, His ways, and His will. The Psalms provide for us a myriad of portraits of our God so that we might become conversant with His majesty, splendor, wisdom, power and holiness. How we need monumental thoughts of God in order to worship aright and order our lives before Him in trust and love.

Worldview themes in the Psalms that ought to inform our prayer life:

1. The Creator-creature distinction

• In secular humanist, postmodern, and pagan circles, this foundational doctrine is under attack today. God’s ownership of us and claims upon us flow from the Creator-creature distinction and from our identity as His image and likeness. We ought to meditate on this foundational doctrine in order to understand what we ‘owe God’. We owe Him reverential fear, love, thanksgiving and worship, service and devotion, obedience to His commands, and faith in His promises. Biblical theism is anchored in the Creator-creature distinction—by this truth we understand God’s absolute right and ownership of us. “He has made us, and not we ourselves” (Ps 39; 50; 92; 100:3; 146). First graders in Sunday school understand what college students today don’t understand—the Creator/creature distinction. Sadly, the college lectern in our public universities has become a ‘pulpit’ for pantheism—erasing the distinctions the Creator has made.

2. The fiat creation of the universe

• “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made” (Ps 33:6). God spoke the universe into existence. Henry Morris states that these verses in Psalm 33 are the strongest affirmation of fiat creation in the Bible. It was not just by the Lord, but by the “word of the Lord” that the heavens were made.ˣⁱ The universe burst into existence not by scientific laws, not by the ‘big bang’ but by the infinite power of God’s Word. By His Word God has called into existence that which had no previous existence. God made all things out of nothing—God and matter are not ‘co-eternal.’ All of creation is upheld by the word of His power every moment (Heb 1:3). The laws by which the creation is sustained are not ‘natural laws’, they constitute the constant exercise of God’s powerˣⁱⁱ (Job 34:13-15; Col 1:17).

3. The conflict of the ages—between truth and error, sin and righteousness, godly and ungodly, chosen nation and heathen, God and Satan

• This present world is filled with groaning, temptations, oppression, conflict, and suffering. The righteous are ever aware that God is their only refuge and that God will assuredly bring to pass His final victory and purposes (Ps 17; 31; 150).ˣⁱⁱⁱ By contrast, the unbeliever looks at the cruelty, death, disease, suffering, and injustice in the world—and because he is a ‘truth suppressor’ he tends to gravitate to the ‘absurdity perspective’—namely that life is a cruel joke without ultimate meaning and purpose—and ideas have no consequences. The Psalms overturn the folly of this sentiment stating that “there is a reward for the righteous” (Ps 58:11).

In Jonathan Edwards’ ‘magnum opus’ sermon, “The End for which all Creation exists” he states that the activity of the kingdom of darkness will not thwart God’s plan to glorify Himself. Sin is not equivalent to a new reality. Sin is lawlessness and rebellion—and it will reap eternal retribution. Proverbs 21:30, “There is no wisdom, no understanding, no counsel against the Lord.” God shall have the last word, for even “The wrath of man shall praise thee” (Ps 76:10). When it comes to explaining the battle between good and evil, and the reason for taking a righteous stand, science is mute and clueless.

Concerning our prayer lives, numerous Psalms contain petitions for grace and strength to keep fighting sin and pressing on in personal holiness. P. B. Power titled his book on the Psalms, “The ‘I Wills’ of the Psalms.” His premise is that the Christian cannot be passive—the true response to divine promises is determination and resolve. The Psalms show us the heart devotion of the faithful believer—we receive strength from the Lord that we might act in obedience. The faith which receives enablement from the Lord is proactive—it takes action: I will trust; I will speak; I will call upon God; I will go in the strength of the Lord; I will praise the Lord. “From the end of the earth I call to Thee, when my heart is faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I” (Ps 61:2).ˣⁱᵛ That is how a prepared heart speaks.

4. The linear nature of human history

• Increasingly the philosophies of this age are embracing a philosophy of history that is cyclical, “the circle of life” as the song goes in the movie Lion King. But God’s Word is clear—all history is moving toward a predetermined end in which God will judge the world in righteousness (Ps 37; 40; 58; 98). History then will prove to be the record of the honoring and the dishonoring of God and the consequence of each in both time and eternity. Every person cannot escape the fact that he or she will be an object lesson for ever (Ps 50:16-22; 119:119; 149:4).

APPLICATION: The biblical linear view of history implanted reverential fear into the hearts of our nation’s believing founding fathers. The lives of Christians are to be controlled by the pervading awareness of the Great Assize to come—the courtroom of God, when the Judge of all the earth shall bring every deed into account (Mt 12:36). Character counts—all history is moving toward an inescapable public judgment in which the secrets of men’s hearts will be revealed (Rom 2:16). God’s righteous Kingdom will fill the earth because unrighteousness will be vanquished from God’s creation. Our prayer lives ought to be filled with the consciousness that God is working from, and for the perspective of eternity.

5. The purpose for our creation. Man made in the image of God was created for God. Man was created to be a worshipper. God is our only true home

• Man is always looking for that which is worthy of his praise—the reason why is because God created man to be an enthusiastic spectator of excellence. We cannot stop worshipping—it will either be God Almighty or idols that we worship (Ps 135:14-18). Old Testament believers frequently meditated upon the brevity of life (Ps 90:12)— upon the fact that in light of the eternal kingdom of God, the saints are pilgrims, aliens, transient, and sojourners—essentially without a true home until glory (Ps 39). Regarding God as our home, author Tom Wells notes, “A pilgrim feels strange in a foreign land . . . he finds his mind repeatedly returning to home.” Many of the Psalms emphasize the theme that God alone is our true home. “Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations” (Ps 90:1). “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God” (Ps 42:1-2)?ˣᵛ The ‘beauty of God’ is the only ultimate satisfaction there is—an eternal increasing satisfaction. We will never tire of looking upon the glory of God in the face of Christ. The psalmist alludes to this pleasure in God when he says in Psalm 27:4, “. . . [My desire is] that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord . . .” APPLICATION: What a litmus test for true Christianity— we must test ourselves by how vigorous our hope of glory really is—Romans 8:18-25. This heavenly mindedness was the ‘metric’ that the Apostle Paul set forth as the litmus test of true spirituality (Acts 24:15-16; 2 Cor 5:1-10). In our communing with the Lord, it behooves us to pray as the psalmist does: “Teach me Your way, O LORD; I will walk in Your truth; unite my heart to fear Your name. I will give thanks to You, O Lord my God, with all my heart, and will glorify Your name forever” (Ps 86:11-12). How true it is that our Lord is a jealous God—no wonder He is so interested in what we love most.

6. The nature and purpose of the universe. What is the creation? The creation is a theatre for the glory of God (Ps 19), the ‘stage’ for God’s wondrous works

• In Thy light we see light (Ps 36:9). God’s Word is our authoritative interpretive grid for all reality. God’s Word (His revelation; His ‘light’) is our authoritative interpretive lens—our ‘universal,’ our hermeneutic by which we interpret human experience. It is a deception to think that we may sit in judgment on God’s Word. Without the biblical ‘lens’ of creation, fall, redemption, and consummation it is impossible to make sense of the world, or of suffering. Creation in its present state is ‘not normal’ argued Francis Schaeffer. When sinful man sets aside God’s revelation, he is left with only autonomous reason. Thus, when fallen man observes nature red in tooth and claw, and a world ravaged by injustice, victimization, war, and disease, he tends to assume that the ‘law of the jungle’ is ultimate. But in his heart and conscience, he knows that God is his Creator, Ruler, and Judge. The struggle in nature is not self-interpreting; we need God’s revelation, the Holy Scriptures in order to understand that the fallen human condition and a cursed creation is temporary.

God’s awesome works in creation, redemption, and providence reveal the excellence of the Creator and move the redeemed to spontaneous praise (Ps 33; 95; 96; 98). Throughout the psalms the believer is depicted as preoccupied with the works of God—the redeemed individual is always extolling, studying, and praising the works of God. God’s works are diligently studied by believers because the works allow us to ‘see’ and tell of God’s perfections (Ps 66; 67; 105; 145). It is a sin to forget God’s works (Ps 106:13ff.). We study God’s works to know God, to worship God, to be wise, and to fear God (Ps 111:1-10).

The believer has a stewardship in regard to the study of God’s works; for their diligent study helps equip us to ‘pass on our faith’ to the next generation (Ps 78:6-8). God’s works in Creation, His general revelation is joined to the written Word, God’s special revelation (Ps 19). His general and special revelation constitute sermons without words, and sermons with words. How a person treats general revelation (God’s sermons without words) (19:1-6) determines how they will treat God’s special revelation (His sermons with words) (19:7-14). In our prayer lives we must be extremely attentive to God’s works in creation and providence. The more aware we are of His works, the more opportunities we will have to praise Him.

7. The fact we live in a moral universe. The Psalms reveal a perfect co-mingling of the physical created order and the moral order in the universe (Ps 19) --

The Psalms are given to us to sink our foundations deep into the truth of God’s relation to the world. These truths are meant to control our understanding of reality. God is active in our lives. He is active in nature. He is active in history. He is sovereign providential Caretaker of His creation. Throughout the Psalms we find the twin themes of creation and moral order. The creation has order to it that is maintained by God (Ps 96). God is the Ruler over what He has made. The Psalms assert that the fixity of creation is simultaneously physical and moral. The Psalms describes the whole creation as ‘the worshipping chorus of God’—praising all of His attributes—not only His power in ordering the cosmos, but also His character revealed in His holy and righteous government. The Psalms depict the whole creation praising God for His power, wisdom, goodness, and handiwork. And, the creation praises God for His justice and righteousness. The Psalms proclaim God as establisher of an unbreakable continuity between the physical world and moral order—the world is pictured as delighting in His righteousness. “. . . and the heavens declare His righteousness, for God Himself is Judge” (Ps 50:6; 72:3).ˣᵛⁱ

This is Yahweh’s world. He created it, He owns it, and He rules it by His goodness and for His own good pleasure. The world operates in a particular way because it is God’s world and He rules it and guides it. The unbeliever has created an illusory/fantasy world in his mind, but he keeps “bumping up” against reality—against God’s creation structures—beauty, conscience, hunger for love and meaning, and the fact of crime and punishment. Therefore the ridiculous advertisement that one may take a ‘moral holiday’ in Las Vegas is patently absurd. Even the “heavens declare His righteousness” (Ps 97:6).ˣᵛⁱⁱ In my evangelism experience at Western Michigan University, I asked unsaved students if there is a transcendent moral code outside of man to which all humans are accountable. Their dogmatic answers usually went as follows, “Morals are evolving, they are not fixed; they are not universal because there is no standard outside of us.” The students’ perspective reveals a worldview about the universe—the cosmos is autonomous, like mankind. This is not rationality, but is blind faith which suppresses the truth.

Regarding our moral universe which God governs: God’s precepts keep us from self-destruction. To fear and reverence God is to hate sin and turn from it. The proportion of our fear of God is revealed in our level of our hatred of sin (Ps 119:9-16; 53, 38, 45). The Psalms tell us that the Word of God is that which produces fear of God. Wise is the man who immerses himself in Holy Scripture. Because this universe is Yahweh’s creation, there is a common ethical system for all humans. The binary of moral and physical order permeates every part of the universe. God delights in the exhibition of His glory—this is the chief end for which all things exist, including knowledge. Human and angelic sin do not thwart God’s plan that all things exist for His glory. The aim of all creation is that God’s glory and excellent perfections should be known, esteemed, loved, and delighted in by His creatures (Jonathan Edwards).ˣᵛⁱⁱⁱ In our prayer lives we ought to frequently meditate upon of God’s governance of physical and moral order. God’s justice is inescapable. By faith we ‘see’ Him enthroned (Ps 89:14). This a great comfort to us, the redeemed, who live in a world fraught with tribulations. We rest upon the confidence that God will in finality reinvade human history and ‘tie up all loose ends’ (Ps 96:13).

8. The definition of wisdom. There is but one all-supreme wisdom—a life wholly dedicated to living unto God -- To live wisely in Yahweh’s world is to live according to His justice, and not by fleshly desires, and amoral pragmatism (situation ethics). A life of wisdom is a life of conformity to God’s norm of righteousness—His law. “Blessed is the man whom Thou dost chastise, O Lord, and dost teach out of Thy Law” (Ps 94:12).ˣⁱˣ Obedience is to be universal—a whole life response to Yahweh. We are to please Him in all areas of life by respecting the divine order He has constructed in the world. Without this there will be moral failure and inability to please God. “Teach me Thy way O Lord, I will walk in Thy truth. Unite my heart to fear Thy Name. I will give thanks to Thee, O Lord my God with all my heart and will glorify Thy Name forever” (Ps 86:11-12).ˣˣ

God’s Word was given to us to allow us to recall during times of temptation the boundaries God has set. To be conversant with these boundaries helps the man who fears God to do what is right and what pleases God in times of temptation—that is wisdom in action. “I will set no worthless thing before my eyes; it shall not fasten its grip on me” (Ps 25:12-15; 101:3).ˣˣⁱ When we embrace God’s blueprint and standard it is not simply an attempt to master a moral code—it is submission to God Himself, to His holy nature—to His loving purposes for us. For God’s commandments constitute His character in code. Knowledge of God’s holiness, and obedience to His precepts are bound up together. “Establish Thy Word to Thy servant as that which produces reverence for Thee” (Ps 119:18, 38, 66).

Wisdom is moral maturity. Wisdom is living life in Yahweh’s world as He intends that it be lived. Wisdom results in stability without fear of harm or misfortune (Ps 4:4-8).ˣˣⁱⁱ The highest goal of wisdom is the knowledge of God (Prov 3:32). To fear Yahweh is to receive and live by His knowledge and wisdom. God’s purpose, His design in the world is to make us like Him in holiness.ˣˣⁱⁱⁱ It is impossible to make a fool out of God. God cannot be mocked. “When the wicked sprouted up like grass, and all who did iniquity flourished; it was only that they might be destroyed forevermore” (Ps 92:6, 7-9; Gal 6:7). The sowing and reaping principle is built into the very fabric of the universe. Moral cause and effect is ineffable. The wheels of God’s justice grind slowly but they grind exceedingly small. God’s justice is more comprehensive than a sinner can possibly imagine; it extends to the thoughts, intents, and secrets of the heart (Ps 73:18-20; 91:8; Heb 4:12; Rom 2:16).

In a moral universe sin is irrational—it is lawlessness. This is Yahweh’s world, that’s why secret sin is ‘a lie lived out’—there are no compartments in our lives that are not in Yahweh’s world (Ps 26:2; 90:8;139:7-23). “He who fashions their hearts knows all their works” (Ps 33:13-15). Our secret sins are an ‘open book’ in the sight of heaven. “Our secret sins are in the light of Thy presence” (Ps 90:8). In contrast to the hypocrite who denies, hides, and justifies his sin, the Psalmist wants to be examined by God (Ps 139). Our prayers ought to demonstrate that we are never apathetic about our sin, but assiduous to be rid of it. Our diligence in repenting and showing heart contrition is the proper posture toward Him who is thrice holy.

Endnotes:

i Dave Doveton.
ii Ibid.
iii James C. Turner, Without God, Without Creed: The Origins of Unbelief in America (Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins
University Press, 1985) in Ken Myers, “The Problem of Contextualization in a Decadent Culture.”
iv Myers in Turner.
v Ibid.
vi Peter Jones, “Framing the Issues; Finding our Voices” (Escondido, CA: Christian Witness to a Pagan Planet,
think-tank, 2007).
vii Peter Jones, “Who Stole our Sacred Canopy?” Christian Witness to a Pagan Planet, (www.cwipp.org, newscwipp

42).

viii Myers.
ix Nancy Pearcey, Total Truth (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2004) 19.
x Ibid, p. 25.
xi Henry Morris, Sampling the Psalms (El Cajon, CA: Master Books, 1978) 49-50.
xii Vern S. Poythress, Redeeming Science (Wheaton IL: Crossway Books, 2006) 19-24.
xiii Morris, pp. 11-12.
xiv P. B. Powers, The ‘I wills’ of the Psalms (Banner of Truth Trust: Carlisle, PA 1985, first pub. 1858), back flyleaf.
xv Tom Wells, Come Home Forever (Darlington, England: Evangelical Press, 1992) 57.
xvi Ken Myers, “The Problem of Contextualization in a Decadent Culture,” Gheen’s Lectures, Southern
Baptist Seminary.
xvii Daniel J. Estes, Hear My Son, Teaching and Learning in Proverbs 1-9, (Eerdmans, 1997), pp. 22-26
xviii Jonathan Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, (Banner of Truth, 1974) 1:104.
xix Ibid., p. 36, 38
xx Ibid., pp. 38
xxi Steve Gallagher, At the Altar of Sexual Idolatry, (Pure Life Ministries, 1986), pp. 257, 258
xxii Ibid., pp. 69, 75, 83
xxiii Ibid., pp. 84, 98