Is F.A.R.T. Offensive? (Holiness.com Response)

Thank You XXXX,

I appreciate your feedback about the Killer F.A.R.T. article. And, I thank you for your very diplomatic way of asking if maybe "Just A Brother has gone too far" in using the acronym "F.A.R.T." I presume that your concern about the article is based on the fact that the acronym used is so similar to the offensive word "fart", which describes the gas that is expelled from the intestinal tract. Actually, I must confess that I was indeed aware that using the acronym F.A.R.T. would call to mind the offensive word "fart". My intent was to graphically depict how offensive F.A.R.T. theology is by using an acronym that spells a word which also defines intestinal gas.

If I have captured the essence of your letter, I am not sure why you would be surprised that a Christian website would use bodily excretions in a  metaphorical way to express the offensiveness of moral/spiritual incorrectness. Let me share with you just a few of the places this is done within the
Holy Bible.

Let us look at the case of Jeroboam in I Kings chapters 12, 13, and 14. God was so disgusted with Jeroboam's behavior that he said he would "… take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as a man taketh away dung,…"(I kings 14:10). Here, we have God saying through the prophet Ahijah that He (God) would treat Jeroboam's house as dung metaphorically speaking. And, what is "dung"? According to the dictionary, and context of this scripture, it is precisely the offensive excrement that comes from livestock.

Another example of the offensive metaphor is the displeasure expressed by God with the Israelites actions in Malachi 2:3 --- "Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one shall take you away with it."

One might say the metaphors mentioned above are okay because they do not refer to the excretions of humans. Well, that is true for the examples above, but take a look at Isaiah 30:22. This verse is comparing the elimination of human matter to how Israel will rightly cast away their idols [make sure to look at this verse in the Authorized King James version].

One might protest that these references are all in the Old Testament and that some things done in the Old Testament are not to be done today. Well, let me share one last verse: in the old and familiar Philippians 3:8 the Apostle Paul likens those things he could achieve by human efforts to dung as compared to the greatness of having fellowship with Christ and the righteousness through faith in Christ.

Yes, I think the term "Killer F.A.R.T." is appropriate, yet disgusting; disgusting just as the false doctrine described by the acronym F.A.R.T. The question you raise probably represents the concern on the minds of others. So, I will post an excerpt of your letter with my response.

     Just A Brother