Psalm 19 depicts the sun as a wonderful picture of true masculinity. But for David, the sun doesn’t merely draw our minds to the bridegroom and the strong man, to the lover and the man of war. More than that, the sun draws our minds upward to the splendor and majesty of the Maker. “The heavens declare the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1). The sun both reminds us of the glory of manhood and displays the glory of God.

C.S. Lewis was fond of quoting English writer Samuel Johnson (1709–1784), who once said, “People need to be reminded more than they need to be instructed.” Both Lewis and Johnson believed that people often possess the knowledge they need; it simply needs to be brought to mind at the appropriate time.
I’ve found this to be especially true when it comes to godly masculinity. I need timely reminders to help me fulfill my calling as a husband and a father, as a friend and a brother. And thankfully, God’s word directs us to a daily and unavoidable reminder of what it means to be a godly man. We find it in Psalm 19:4–5.
In them [the heavens] he has set a tent for the sun,which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber,and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.
With these words, David invites us to sanctify our imaginations by seeing the sun with godly eyes.
Bridegroom and Warrior
The sun, as it moves across the sky, reminds David of something. He’s seen that brightness before. Then he recalls the wedding day of a close friend, and the link is made — the sun is like the bridegroom.
Those of us who attend modern weddings know that, when the wedding march begins, all eyes turn to the back of the room to see the bride, clothed in white and beautiful in her glory. But a wise attendee will also steal a glance toward the altar, where the groom waits with eager anticipation and expectant joy. The beauty of his bride is reflected in the brightness of his face. It’s that look that David remembers when he sees the sun as it rises in the morning.
But David doesn’t stop looking. David considers the sun again and is reminded of Josheb-basshebeth, one of his mighty men, running into battle with spear raised and eyes blazing because he is doing what he was built to do (2 Samuel 23:8). The warrior is intense and joyful because he is protecting his people with the strength and skill he’s developed.
So then, the sun is like the groom, and the sun is like the mighty man. Both are images of godly masculinity — the bridegroom and the warrior, the lover and the man of war. Both images direct us to a man’s calling in relation to his people. One points us inward, as a man delights in his wife (and by extension his children and the rest of his people). The other points us outward, as a man protects his people from external threats.
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Perkins held to double-predestination is well-known: it was memorably laid out in the large fold-out chart which accompanied his work, A Golden Chain (rev.1592). In that work Perkins describes individual human destiny as sovereignly determined by God, with all persons either being predestined to salvation in Christ, or damnation apart from him. The idea of a “golden chain” comes from Romans 8:29-30, expressing the idea that each of God’s elect people will be called, justified, sanctified, and then glorified, and that this sequence is unbreakably invincible.

A Seminal Reformed Theologian & Father of Puritanism: Why You Should Read William Perkins (1558-1602)
William Perkins (1558-1602) is remembered today as ‘the father of English puritanism.’ This is largely because his work managed to combine Reformed predestinarian theology with a highly practical approach to Christian living and piety. This kind of ‘practical divinity’ came to characterise the puritan movement of the seventeenth century. Yet even in his own day Perkins came to be regarded as a pre-eminent Reformed theologian, preacher and author. From his position at Cambridge – first as a university academic, and then as a local preacher – he managed to combine accessibility with theological depth in ways that appealed to academic and non-academic audiences alike. If you visited Cambridge in the 1590s you would find Perkins’s sermons and lectures eagerly attended by students and townspeople, and the output of the official university press being dominated by his books. Perkins became the best-selling English Christian author of his generation and the next, and his influence only spread after his death as his works were gradually translated for foreign audiences. On my count, no fewer than 550 editions of Perkins’s various works were printed in the early modern period, including editions in English and Latin, and translations into Dutch, German, Spanish, French, Czech, Hungarian, Irish, and Welsh. His influence can be detected in the deliberations of the Synod of Dort (1618-19), the Westminster Confession of Faith (1646), and in the theology, piety, and approach to pastoral ministry of virtually the entire puritan movement in England, New England, and beyond.
Perkins’s practical approach to predestination.
Perkins’s contributions were many. He made especially important contributions to Protestant preaching, ethics, pastoral counselling, and the role of conscience in the Christian life. But his most notable contributions were in theology, especially relating to predestination and Christian assurance.
That Perkins held to double-predestination is well-known: it was memorably laid out in the large fold-out chart which accompanied his work, A Golden Chain (rev.1592). In that work Perkins describes individual human destiny as sovereignly determined by God, with all persons either being predestined to salvation in Christ, or damnation apart from him. The idea of a ‘golden chain’ comes from Romans 8:29-30, expressing the idea that each of God’s elect people will be called, justified, sanctified, and then glorified, and that this sequence is unbreakably invincible.
The implications of this theological paradigm have bothered many, especially considering how unabashedly it is portrayed in Perkins’s chart. Many have simply inferred what they expect to be its implications from looking the chart itself, leading to accusations of fatalism and of inducing despair.
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Written by John G. West |
Wednesday, August 14, 2024
Some critics seem intent on taking down Basham’s book at all costs. Whether the book is truly inaccurate seems a secondary matter for them. They just want to stop others from reading it…It is hard to ignore the feeling that much of the brouhaha raised against Basham’s book reflects insecurity and even fear.

If you want to better understand what’s going on inside American evangelicalism’s elite, Shepherds for Sale (2024) by Megan Basham is a great place to start. And if you are a member of the evangelical elite yourself, you should read her book to understand what is going on among rank-and-file evangelicals.
A journalist with The Daily Wire, Basham has spent the past several years chronicling the growing chasm between many evangelical leaders and those they are supposed to shepherd. Her reporting has defied the standard narrative. Most journalists who cover evangelicals obsess over pastors and ministry leaders who they think have sold their souls to right-wing populism. That’s a legitimate concern and worth reporting on. However, this way of framing coverage of evangelicals provides—at best—only a partial picture of reality.
Most notably, it ignores the evangelical leaders who are being co-opted by various movements on the political and cultural left.
By turning the spotlight on evangelical elites she thinks have been comprised by progressivism, Basham has done the evangelical community a significant service. Some have criticized her for not also covering unholy alliances among some evangelicals on the right. But given the pervasiveness of the standard narrative, I think that criticism falls flat. If you are a well-read evangelical, you can’t avoid hearing (non-stop) about the corruption (or supposed corruption) on the right.
What Basham is doing is investigating the side of the story you don’t typically hear from the establishment media.
As a result, she has provoked the ire of many in the evangelical leadership class and its “old boy network.” The full-court press to silence her book even before it came out provides evidence of the anger—and perhaps the insecurities—of her detractors.
I’d like to make a plea to those in the evangelical leadership class: I know you might be tempted to denounce or dismiss or ignore Basham’s book without reading it or without fairly considering its main points. Please don’t. Basham vocalizes the concerns of a large and growing number of American evangelicals. Perhaps you think these evangelicals are stupid and self-destructive. But you aren’t going to have any hope of reaching or finding common ground with them if you ignore or demonize them. Try to read Basham’s book carefully and non-defensively. It may help you understand the views of people outside your own echo chamber.
Giving Voice to the Marginalized
Some of the most powerful parts of Basham’s book, which I didn’t expect, were her profiles of ordinary Christians and their experiences. She writes about a wife recruited by fellow church members to join a “Women’s March” for abortion, climate change, and LGTBQ rights. She tells of a husband who joined a racial reconciliation group at his church only to be “told that new white members weren’t allowed to speak for the first six months.” She recounts the experiences of a grieving mother whose son was killed by an illegal alien. She interviews a friend who was taken aback when her church’s advent devotional focused on the climate crisis rather than Jesus. She tells about the nurse who has devoted her life to helping women avoid abortion who is disheartened by the seeming disparagement of pro-life efforts by some leading evangelicals. Finally, Basham reveals her own painful journey of transformation. She tells how she was delivered from a life of substance abuse by hearing the sort of hard truths of traditional Christianity that so many leading evangelicals seem afraid to talk about.
These personal narratives counter the stereotypes of conservative evangelicals that even some evangelical leaders help perpetuate. They make Shepherds for Sale worth reading for anyone who wants to understand the views and challenges of ordinary evangelicals. For evangelical leaders disconnected from those they serve, the stories will be a helpful guide to the concerns of parishioners they may have marginalized.
Of course, the book offers much else as well. But before getting to some of those other takeaways, let me address a couple of flashpoints involving the book.
Is the Book Really about Trump?
Warren Cole Smith has published a lengthy critique of Basham’s book that bears the subtitle: “A new book about evangelicalism is really about Trump.” Smith claims: “Shepherds For Sale has many villains, but it has only one true hero: Donald J. Trump. He is mentioned more than 30 times in the book, all positively or defensively.”
Smith published his critique in the pervasively anti-Trump publication The Dispatch, which I suppose has an interest in trying to make everything about Trump. Except in this case the charge isn’t true. Basham’s book is not focused on Trump, and it spends very few of its 320 pages discussing him. The book’s chapters focus on abortion, LGTBQ issues, immigration, climate change, the me-too movement, critical race theory, and COVID-19 policies. To reduce Basham’s book to a pro-Trump polemic is both unfair and inaccurate. Having said that, Basham’s reporting does raise an important issue connected to Trump: Are certain evangelical leaders so blinded by their opposition to him that they are abandoning or at least downplaying some of their previous commitments? That’s a serious question worth exploring. Of course, I also think it’s a serious question to ask whether some evangelical leaders have compromised their beliefs in support of Trump. But that latter question gets asked a lot. Basham’s book broaches a question that you typically won’t find covered, say, in either The Dispatch or Christianity Today.
Are Evangelical Leaders Really for Sale?
Another flashpoint over the book has been its title. The title seems to suggest that there are a lot of evangelical leaders who have apostatized because they’ve received money from left-wing funders. Let me be clear: I don’t think that’s true. There are exceptions, but in my experience pastors, professors, and ministry leaders don’t change their views primarily because of funding. Instead, they take the funding because they’ve already changed their views. They are what I’ve called “Stockholm Syndrome Christians.” Held hostage by the secular elites, they end up identifying more with the cultural oppressors of Christianity than with their fellow Christians. (Full disclosure: I have a book coming out on this topic early next year.)
Despite my disclaimer about the title, the preoccupation of some critics with the title strikes me as unjust. In the book itself Basham makes abundantly clear she is not arguing that every evangelical leader is for sale. She explicitly acknowledges that “motives may be complex and sometimes unclear,” and there are “different degrees of error.” She admits that Christians can have sincere differences of opinion on many issues. So just because someone is named in her book doesn’t mean she thinks they are a “shepherd for sale.”
Even so, it is true that one of the book’s most damning indictments involves money.
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