Status Updates From Beyond Authority and Submis...

Prove all things by the Word of God:-all ministers, all teaching, all preaching, all doctrines, all sermons, all writings, all opinions, all practices,- prove all by the Word of God….That which can abide the fire of the Bible, receive, hold, believe, and obey. That which cannot abide the fire of the Bible, reject, refuse, repudiate, and cast away. J.C. RYLE

“We know that the secular world is going to be offended and even going to hate us because of our faith, and our beliefs…We shouldn’t be afraid to offend when we are standing for the truth, bit we should be careful not to give unnecessary offense. We should be ready to give gentle answers with firm conviction about the gospel, about our hope, and about how God calls us to live.”

“Given the differences between the roles of husbands and wives, and because of the nature of childbearing, managing a household may have different emphases for men and women. But the scriptures indicate that both women and men should be “inclined toward the home.”

“The world is watching how the church treats women, how it responds to abuse, and how it protects the vulnerable-or fails them. When women are belittled, when men in authority dismiss abuse charges…the world sees this and judges. The gospel, Christianity, the universal church, Christ Himself are judged by our response to abuse. As Paul warned, the gospel is in danger of being reviled because of our actions.”

“When everything is about authority and submission, women end up being treated as children or objects, and being demeaned and devalued either way. For example, Wilson instructs husbands to give their wives work to do, to make sure they do it well, and to correct them if they don’t. This is how we treat small children who don’t have enough wisdom and experience to make wise choices.”

“The Bible doesn’t teach that women are more easily deceived than men are. It’s important that all believers, both male and female, are taught good doctrine so that none of us will be susceptible to deception. We are all encouraged to grow in maturity in the faith so that we won’t be “tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine…Eph. 4:14”

“It appears in 2 Tim 3:6, where Paul warns that deceitful men are preying on particularly vulnerable women. His point isn’t that all women are weak or easily deceived but that “a particular type of immature woman was being targeted by false teachers looking to manipulate and infect household.”

“Some Christians teach that women are more prone to deception than men are…if that’s Paul’s point in 1 Tim 2, men can’t be trusted either. After all, if the point is that Adam wasn’t deceived, then he sinned willfully. If all women are like Eve, then all men are prone to outright rebellion like Adam.”

“We’re conditioned to answer in certain ways. Women in the church? The answer must be “They can’t be pastors!” or “biblical womanhood!” Those might be the right answers to particular questions, but they aren’t actually answers to all questions about women in the church.”

“It’s hard for men and women to be acknowledged as equals before God and in Christ when men are taught that women need to be kept in their place.”

“Because we hold a high view of marriage, we need to acknowledge that some sins are so heinous that they destroy a marriage. Hard-hearted sinners who break their marriage vows shouldn’t be allowed to make a mockery of marriage through their actions. Marriage is important, but it’s not meant to be preserved at all costs.”

“God himself presented the Israelites with a certificate of divorce for their adulterous behavior. While it’s true that He forgave and preserved a remnant of His people, the individuals who sinned continuously against Him were sent away. They died and didn’t return to the land, just like the people who died in the wilderness because they refused to go to Canaan.”

“When we teach the divorce is never an option or is a very bad option, regardless of the situation, we put a burden on spouses who have been grievously sunned against. We tell them that no matter how their spouses have broken their marriage vows, no matter how they’ve been abused and sinned against..they must stay married. Doing so makes marriage more important than the people who are in it.”

“The one who hardens his heart and breaks the marriage covenant is not always the one who files for divorce. The onus of repentance is placed upon the one who broke the bond of marriage by serious sin, and not necessarily on the one who seeks a public record of the broken covenant.”

“One way that believers serve each other in marriage is by building each other up and encouraging each other to grow in grace and faith. Some people go as far to say that God gave us marriage not to make us happy but to make us holy. However, when God instituted marriage, Adam and Eve were already righteous. Before the fall, they didn’t need to be made holy.”

“As we have seen, the Bible gives us a much broader picture of what it means to be masculine and feminine than many conservative Christians do. Jacob and Essau were extremes opposites, but both were masculine. Deborah and Esther were very different, but both were feminine. Our definitions of masculinity and femininity must be biblical and must reflect the diversity of expression that is displayed in Scripture.”

“As we have seen, godly women should be submissive, gentle, quiet, and responsive. And so should godly men. Women are helpers and life-givers. And so are godly men. Godly men should be leaders, initiators, providers, protectors, should be strong, and have theological discernment. And so should godly women.”

“Because conservative Christian denominations generally ordain men as leaders in the church, some believe that men naturally have a greater interest in theology or that men should be the “resident theologians” of their homes. The Bible, however, gives us many examples of women encouraging and instructing men in spiritual matters.”

“Without denying the differences between women and men, the Bible focuses on our similarities….We are interdependent and made to serve each other. The world seeks to divide what God has brought together. And, unfortunately, the church often follows suit.”

“If Christ is the model of masculinity, then women can’t imitate him. They can pursue him as the lover of their souls. They can imitate his devotion to the Father in their relationships with their husbands. But they can’t become like him in any essential way.”

“…Like childbirth and work, a wife’s desire and husband’s headship are pre-fall realities. All men and women have been affected by the fall. Childbirth is painful, work is hard, wives desire their husbands, and husbands rule over them. It’s inconsistent to argue that, of all four statements in Genesis 3:16, only the wife’s desire is new and result of sin.”

“Unfortunately, instead of being rooted in the Bible, many conservative Christian beliefs about women and men trace back to the Greeks, Romans, and Victorians.”

First wave feminist wanted equality with men. They wanted marriage to be a partnership of companions. They believed that men and women needed each other. But vocal strand of second-wave feminists rejected the unity and interdependence of men and women. They encouraged both and independence of women from men and also a superiority of women over men.”

“The 1960’s women’s movement was hijacked largely due to tireless efforts of one man, whose greatest passion was to make abortion legal..you may think it’s odd that men would be so interested in abortion. But abortion freed men more than it ever helped women. Men led the legal push for abortion because it allowed them to have sex with fewer responsibilities.”

The feminist movement began in a response to the way that women were treated during the Victorian Era. In response to the upheaval of World War II and the peace and prosperity that followed, society’s pendulum swung back toward a belief in separate spheres for women and men.

In the rush to condemn the evils of the sexual revolution and of pro-abortion feminism, many conservative Christians have overlooked the necessary improvements that were brought about by the early feminists.

“..submission and authority are part of who we are as humans created in Gods image. By the time of the Victorians, the emphasis on submission as a Christian virtue had weaned. Submission became a feminine trait, while reason and intellect were considered masculine.”

“After the Victorian era, Ancient Greek and Roman beliefs about women and men were taught as if they were biblical.”