From Futility to Liberty

Romans 8:19-23 For the creation is eagerly awaiting the revelation of God's children, (20) because the creation has become subject to futility, though not by anything it did. The one who subjected it did so in the certainty (21) that the creation itself would also be set free from corrupting bondage in order to share the glorious freedom [KJV ~ liberty] of God's children. (22) For we know that all the rest of creation has been groaning with the pains of childbirth up to the present time. (23) However, not only the creation, but we who have the first fruits of the Spirit also groan inwardly as we eagerly await our adoption, the redemption of our bodies.

We have been subjected to futility (corruption, vanity, inutility, even emptiness) for God’s purposes: that He would and has sent His Son to redeem us from vanity to fullness of life, even abundance of life. And even more!

 

Ephesians 3:8-12 To me, the very least of all the saints [Paul the apostle], this grace was given so that I might proclaim to the gentiles the immeasurable wealth of the Messiah (9) and help everyone* see how this secret that has been at work was hidden for ages by God, who created all things. (10) He did this so that now, through the church, the wisdom of God in all its variety might be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realm (11) in keeping with the eternal purpose that God carried out through the Messiah Jesus our Lord, (12) in whom we have boldness and confident access through his faithfulness.

 

*everyone: this may mean all sentient life, all the angels good and fallen, and all humankind.

 

Bob Mumford in his book Human As God Intended lists fives “arches” from which we must be set free. Why? Because they are corrupted. Our freedom is in the Messiah only, as individuals and very importantly as the BODY of the Messiah, the church, His Bride and wife to be! In order to bring God’s freedom in the Messiah to those bound to corruption we must be free of it! The five arches Mumford notes are:

 

1. Natural Family

2. Culture/Tradition

3. Economics?Money

4. Politics/Tribal Loyalty

5. Religion/Cultic Loyalty

 

I have noticed something lately on talk radio. Talk radio is very “conservative for the most part. Until the recent election cycle began mention of our Judeo/Christian heritage was made with some frequency. Now that we are smack in the middle of the campaigns for nominations there seems an absence of reference to our Judeo/Christian heritage. We seem to be focused entirely on persons and personalities. Not even policy comes to the fore, let alone our Judeo/Christian heritage or Jesus or the Bible or the church. As one Christian commentator pointed out, “evangelical” has become more a political appellation than a biblical term. Politics and Tribal (party and personal) Loyalty have pushed our Judeo/Christian heritage backstage. We as Christians need to bring not only our HERITAGE on stage, but our Heir as well. Note not only our position in the Messiah (the Christ) in verse 17 below, but that these verses (Romans 8:14-19) precede those which open this article (Romans 8:19-23).

    

Romans 8:14-19 For all who are led by God's Spirit are God's children. (15) For you have not received a spirit of slavery that leads you into fear again. Instead, you have received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba! Father!" (16) The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. (17) Now if we are children, we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with the Messiah—if, in fact, we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. (18) For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed to us. (19) For the creation is eagerly awaiting the revelation of God's children,

 

There is a great need to abandon the five arches as options for life. This will put us in apparent opposition to those who cling and “thrive” to them for what they perceive as life. Nothing in and of the five arches is something you can take with you! Death which is universal will separate you forever from this world and the things of this world. The five arches are the world, and their goals and attainments are the grist and reward of the world. You cannot take them beyond the grave.

 

Mumford points out that we in Christ by bringing persons to Christ are His instruments through which He is setting creation free. He notes that we will be unable to do this if we ourselves are in bondage to the world (the arches). We are hindered by them as they are corrupt, they are stained by sin and in this day they are VERY stained.

 

2Timothy 3:1-5 But know this, that in the last days grievous times shall come. (2) For men shall be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, haughty, railers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, (3) without natural affection, implacable, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, no lovers of good, (4) traitors, headstrong, puffed up, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; (5) holding a form of godliness, but having denied the power thereof: from these also turn away.

 

These are SERIOUS defects. The church in our day must seek God’s entire counsel which includes two realities that the natural man murmurs against: OBEDIENCE and HOLINESS. How we love grace, favor and mercy. Some today love justice too, not understanding that God calls us to BE just, not to GET justice. Jesus has through faith by His grace saved us into love unto obedience resulting in holiness. Holiness or sanctification is what separates us from corruption, and from the worlds corruptions. Those corruptions are the idolatries of their day. We are to flee idols.

 

1John 2:15-17 Stop loving the world and the things that are in the world. If anyone persists in loving the world, the Father's love is not in him. (16) For everything that is in the world—the desire for fleshly gratification, the desire for possessions, and worldly arrogance—is not from the Father but is from the world. (17) And the world and its desires are fading away, but the person who does God's will remains forever.

 

I overheard a very cogent remark made aside by lady one Sunday: “but do we even know what the things of the world are…”

 

Do we? We do NOT want to become legalistic religious prudes, but somethings just need to be placed out of bounds. I think that should include most of televisions late night talk shows and not a few of the daytime talk shows. A strong case can be made that 90% of all television be out of bounds. I believe that Romans Ch. 14 should guide us in much of our material intake; those who can watch (eat) must make peace with those who cannot, those who cannot watch must find peace with those who can.

   

Romans 14:22-23 As for the faith you do have, have it as your own conviction before God. How blessed is the person who has no reason to condemn himself because of what he approves! But the person who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not act in faith; and anything that is not done in faith is sin.

 

Nevertheless they Apostle writes: “LOVE NOT the world or the things of the world.” THEREFORE it is incumbent on we who confess to know the Messiah to identify those things and refrain from their use. And I am at the point of wondering at the wisdom(?) of Anabaptist doctrine which abandons all involvement with the civil governance of the world. The current carnality and “reality show” overtones dominating the political campaigns make interest in them unpleasant in what they expose to ones conscience.

 

Revival is what many are longing for. The word revival implies that something has died or is near death (see Revelation 3:1-6) Those who study past revivals note that prayer and repentance are the keys to revival. Why? Because those who would be revived will be ones set free from corruption into the liberty of the gospel! Is the church dying? Is it dead? If so is it not the wages of sin that produce death? And is sin not the partaking of the world and its sinful things? Is the church now deep in the idolatrous worship of the Natural Family, Culture with Tradition, Economics and Money, Politics and Tribal Loyalties, and Religion and Cultic Loyalty?

 

Simply to believe the Messiah Jesus, His our Father and the Holy Spirit is to connect to the power of God which translates us : from the realm of satanic domain and darkness in which the world EXISTS into the Kingdom of God in the Messiah and the liberty of the gospel!

 

We need to believe there is a difference, and it is a profound difference between these: the Kingdom of God and the domain of the adversary. The evidence of this difference? It is the love of God shed abroad into our hearts. We must receive God’s love and then love God and the things of God. And if you ask me, the first things of God we must love are our fellow Christians, our neighbors and our enemies! We must love them as the Messiah loves them and loves us, not in that order, but just as we meet them in our daily life in but not of this world.

Romans 8:22-25 International Standard Version (ISV)
²² For we know that all the rest of creation has been groaning with the pains of childbirth up to the present time. ²³ However, not only the creation, but we who have the first fruits of the Spirit also groan inwardly as we eagerly await our adoption, the redemption of our bodies. ²⁴ For we were saved with this hope in mind. Now a hope that can be observed is not really hope, for who hopes for what can be seen? ²⁵ But if we hope for what we do not yet observe, we eagerly wait for it with patience.

Call me Old Fashioned.

The Lord wants to form Himself in us and demonstrate His character in us. Male and female He made us. It is not about what I want, it is about what works. Faith works by love. Galatians 5:6 Some cite women in ministry. And women did minister to Jesus. And He loved them. But He did not call any to follow Him as the twelve were called. He did not make any woman an apostle. Why not? I think it is a question we ought not need to ask, for if it were His Father's will to do that, He would have done it. 

There is a word that sticks in the craw of every man and woman ever born: Obedience. Paul wrote to the Romans: Ch. 1:5 Through him we received grace and a commission as an apostle to bring about faithful obedience among all the gentiles for the sake of his name.  Ch. 16:25 Now to the one who is able to strengthen you with my gospel and the message that I preach about Jesus, the Messiah, by revealing the secret that was kept hidden from long ago 26 but now has been made known through the prophets to all the gentiles, in keeping with the decree of the eternal God to bring them to the obedience that springs from faith— 27 to the only wise God, through Jesus the Messiah, be glory forever! Amen. These like book ends from first and the last chapters of Romans, a most important text!!!

If faith works by love, than the work must be obeying God! John's 1st letter says it emphatically: 1 John 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

Are these scriptures commandments of the Lord? Paul says they are! (1 Corinthians 14:36-38) It is a part of the pattern of divine order and obedience that I see in these matters, a pattern set for our salvation and our safety in this life. 

God made men and women differently. First one and then the other.

1 Corinthians 11:3 Now I want you to realize that the Messiah is the head of every man, and man is the head of the woman, and God is the head of the Messiah.

Jehovah God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Jehovah God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof: and the rib, which Jehovah God had taken from the man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

Everything else He spoke into existence! (every time I read and study Genesis 1-3 I get a blessing!)

1 Corinthians 11:3 Now I want you to realize that the Messiah is the head of every man, and man is the head of the woman, and God is the head of the Messiah.

The whole of creation has been subjected to vanity (futility, corruption). Romans 8:20-21 seems crucial to understanding almost anything else in scripture. Why was satan even allowed into Eden? As a part of God’s plan! Ephesians 3:9-12 !!! 

Romans 8:20 For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. 23 And not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. 24 For in hope were we saved: but hope that is seen is not hope: for who hopeth for that which he seeth? 25 But if we hope for that which we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

Ephesians 3:9 and to make all men see what is the dispensation of the mystery which for ages hath been hid in God who created all things; 10 to the intent that now unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God, 11 according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord: 12 in whom we have boldness and access in confidence through our faith in him.

We ARE His workmanship. But satan would have us think we can be self-made people. I truly do not know what it was like when everything Adam and Eve knew was good. But when satan came on the scene they saw evil and after they ate the fruit they KNEW evil. 
 

After they ate the forbidden fruit everything changed. Adam and Eve were given divine sentences.  The divine mandate to be fruitful and multiply was changed: “I will greatly multiply thy pain and thy conception; in pain thou shalt bring forth children;” Their relationship changed: “thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.” And their mandate to have the earth as their dominion was very much altered: “and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth” became “cursed is the ground for thy sake; in toil shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”

Today these changes are not undone. Even though we have marvelous technical prowess, much of the world still sows and harvests by hand and plow. Women still have painful child births and, though I know no one who believes it, I think women conceive children much more often that they would have in the garden.

“thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.”  Is this change then a curse? Were Adam and Eve cursed? Some have called the whole matter the Adamic curse. But only satan and the ground were directly cursed. Adam knew he would die. And I have been taught that that word die means separated from God, from life. (Later on death is tied to cursing. Deuteronomy 30:19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before thee life and death, the blessing and the curse: therefore choose life, that thou mayest live, thou and thy seed;) I guess they were cursed, but it was part of the plan! 

A lot happened since then, and Jesus has wrought our salvation. Why then do we still live in dying bodies? Ephesians 3:10 seems to require it! We are alive to God forever, but our bodies are still subject to vanity (futility, corruption). 

We simply do not know what the male female relationship was like before the fall. It seems logical that there was no male ruling female. But was there also no female desiring husband? Was this desire a curse? Part of the plan. 

What is becoming clear to me about the scriptures I cite (Genesis Ch. 3; Ephesians 5:22-33; 1 Cor. 14:33-40; 1 Timothy 2:8-15; Titus 2:3-5; 1Peter 3:1-6) is that they are GOD”S word on the matter, not man’s and not given to man or woman except to teach and guide. 

It is true that misogyny and misandry have been a result of our being subjected (UNWILLINGLY) to vanity. But the resentments of Adam for Eve and Eve for Adam cannot alter the scriptures. Cultures everywhere and at all times have suffered from men hating women and women hating men. Thin of the implications of Islamic Sharia law! 

The real question is have men and women essentially changed? They are still born in need of salvation. They still sin even after they are saved! Were women treated any better or worse in Paul’s day? Solomon’s day? Moses’ day? Noah’s day? Were women sinners then? Did women treat men with 100% righteousness then? Could women’s relationships with men be subjected to vanity too? Or was it all Adam’s fault and Eve was acquitted?

Men and women are different, and God is different than men and women. They are both made in His image and likeness! But after the fall from grace the image and likeness suffers corruption. It is we who being separated from God by our sins need to be rejoined to God according to His plan. Are we now so much more mature after 2000 years of Christendom that the scriptures don’t apply, that we do not need divine guidance? 

One of satan’s main war plans is to vilely corrupt men and women sexually. We see the results today overflowing in our modern world culture! There is this thing called feminism which has really corrupted women. The whole basis of the feminist movement is that men are not in any way given authority over women. The scripture does not support that at all. 

Ephesians 5  ²² Wives, be in subjection unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.

²³ For the husband is the head of the wife, and Christ also is the head of the church, being himself the saviour of the body.

²⁴ But as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives also be to their husbands in everything.

²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself up for it;

²⁶ that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word,

²⁷ that he might present the church to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

²⁸ Even so ought husbands also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his own wife loveth himself:

²⁹ for no man ever hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as Christ also the church;

³⁰ because we are members of his body.

³¹ For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh.

³² This mystery is great: but I speak in regard of Christ and of the church.

³³ Nevertheless do ye also severally love each one his own wife even as himself; and let the wife see that she fear her husband.

It may be a greater problem that men do not know how to submit to those men who rule over them in the Lord (or in the world!)

Matthew 28:18 And Jesus came to them and spake unto them, saying, All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth.

Not some, all! And we have to see the scriptures as speaking from the heart of God’s Spirit … yes?

Paul wrote:

1 Corinthians 14: 36 What? was it from you that the word of God went forth? or came it unto you alone? 37 If any man thinketh himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him take knowledge of the things which I write unto you, that they are the commandment of the Lord.

The question I ask is this: Can the requirements of 1 Corinthians 14 (and the rest of the related scriptures) be so onerous to women as to be seen as some sort of violation of their person? their womanhood? It may be offensive to women who desire to speak with and to men, to teach men and even to usurp authority from men. Or to have their heads uncovered. But is it offensive to women who don't have those desires?

“thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.”

1Corinthians 11:1-16… I know men who would be offended if they were asked to cut their hair short, or remove their hats in church services. And some would just almost faint if asked to teach a lesson. But God has a role for man: to lead. When man does not… well Jael got the glory! And Deborah warned Barak that she would!

Judges 4:8 “If you’ll go with me, I’ll go,” Barak replied. “But if you won’t go with me, then I’m not going.” 9 She [Deborah] responded, “I will surely go with you, but the road that you’re about to take will not lead to honor for you.

Did it lead to dishonor? 
“thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.”

This will not be an issue when Christ returns. Yet I’m inclined to think that these commandments will be kept all through the Millennial Kingdom! Why? Because they are part of the PLAN! 9 … to make all men see what is the dispensation of the mystery which for ages hath been hid in God who created all things; 10 to the intent that now unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God, 11 according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord: 12 in whom we have boldness and access in confidence through our faith in him.

Ephesians 5:23 For the husband is the head of the wife, and Christ also is the head of the church, being himself the saviour of the body. 24 But as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives also be to their husbands in everything.

1 Corinthians 11:3 Now I want you to realize that the Messiah is the head of every man, and man is the head of the woman, and God is the head of the Messiah. 4 Every man who prays or prophesies with something on his head dishonors his head, 5 and every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, which is the same as having her head shaved. 6 So if a woman does not cover her head, she should cut off her hair. If it is a disgrace for a woman to cut off her hair or shave her head, let her cover her own head.Are these things so onerous to women and to men that to do them is objectionable? 1 Corinthians 14:36-38  is really hard to deal with. ESPECIALLY 38 in the ESV, ISV, CBJ and The Message versions of the Bible. 

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Corinthians%2014%3A38&version=MSG;ISV;CJB;ESV 

Paul God's apostle for the gentiles wrote:

 Now I want you to realize that the Messiah is the head of every man, and man is the head of the woman, and God is the head of the Messiah.

EVEN JESUS HAS A HEAD, an authority greater than He! 

The scriptures are not written to offend but to bless. Nor, I trust, is what I write. Nevertheless some are offended, and not simply by these scriptures. Matthew 11:5 The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. 6 And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.

I simply see the church suffering much disharmony and dysfunction and believe that God has given the Body, the whole Body some rules which will be a blessing to keep, and not a curse. Frighteningly men and women can still be tyrants, and Ahabs and Jezebels even where those rules are obeyed. But the humility God seeks to impart to us is I think more easily received if we obey these divine commands.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+11%3A1-19&version=ASV

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+14%3A33-40&version=ASV

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians+5%3A22-33&version=ASV

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+3%3A16-20&version=ASV

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Tim+2%3A8-15&version=ASV

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Titus+2%3A3-5&version=ASV
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+peter+3.1-6&version=ASV

What Liberalism May Have Wrought.

I have wondered if the burka is the devil’s mockery of Christian ignorance.

 

Isaiah 3:12  As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths.

 

Hebrews 5:8-14 CJB  Even though he was the Son, he learned obedience through his sufferings.  (9)  And after he had been brought to the goal, he became the source of eternal deliverance to all who obey him,  (10)  since he had been proclaimed by God as a cohen gadol to be compared with Malki-Tzedek.  (11)  We have much to say about this subject, but it is hard to explain, because you have become sluggish in understanding.  (12)  For although by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the very first principles of God's Word all over again! You need milk, not solid food!  (13)  Anyone who has to drink milk is still a baby, without experience in applying the Word about righteousness.  (14)  But solid food is for the mature, for those whose faculties have been trained by continuous exercise to distinguish good from evil.

 

Could it be that the teachings pertaining to women’s roles in the church are part of the “first principles of God's Word” that we need to relearn?

 

Some women have great wisdom, as great as many mature men. But it is a changing of the apostle’s doctrine and the command of the Lord to grant even such a woman the place to teach in the assembly. An important question then will be “What is the assembly?” If it requires a pulpit and “sanctuary” it would be easier to keep the Lord’s rule that women not teach or dispute in the assembly. What of the assembly of two or three gathered in His Name? But in the assembly of a man’s home women are commanded to learn from their husbands. So it may be seen that the greater issue is a man’s spiritual fitness in his own home.

 

I once heard of a woman who sought counsel regarding her UNSAVED husband. She was advised to ask her husband what the scriptures meant. He undertook the matter and was saved as the scriptures taught Him!

 

It seems that God has set the pattern that a man should teach his wife. This pattern is wonderfully reflected by Paul in Ephesians 5:

Ephesians 5:25-28  Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;  (26)  That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,  (27)  That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.  (28)  So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.

 

Jesus is the brideGROOM. Why does a women betrothed, a bride, need a groom? I think God has by Genesis Ch. 3 and Romans 8:20-21 placed men and women in roles in which they will learn of Him! Matthew 11:28-30.

 

The ages old tensions between men and women, particularly between husbands and wives so often concern the matter of who leads and who follows. Any woman who might be reading this might ask herself, “If my husband decided to leave his job, sell the house and move to another place, would I follow him?” How committed are we to the command that the husband lead the family? If this example seems extreme, consider Sarah who followed Abraham in his journey, and Rebekah, Rachel, Leah and others. God spoke to their husbands and they moved out together. It could be that many who should be saved would respond very favorably to examples of this pattern were it seen in the churches today. But I fear that for many men in the churches, that asking such obedience from their wives could cause such contention as to destroy the marriage altogether. So I don’t suggest any trial balloons be sent aloft. Prayer on the other hand is always recommended.

 

Man’s inclination (“need”) to be received as sent and ordained of God in the eyes of other men, even many men (large congregations, mega churches, big revivals), leads him to relax the rules. Perhaps this writer’s flaw is that he wants to be seen as someone who exerts by the rules excessively? God knows how things work and we need to find out His desire. Do we to not want to reach and teach men and women with God’s ways? We don’t want to use rules as a bar in ways that hinder, or a control device. Rules are boundaries to protect. Some rules however do hinder, and are purposed to hinder certain behaviors.

 

1Pe 4:11  If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

 

God is immutable and so is His word! Man’s inclination to get along with his wife in some cases ends with a wife leading. Women should not take advantage of their weak and reluctant (shy) husbands. On the contrary they should pray their husbands be humble and courageous and that they learn from God and from men who lead well. No man should have a wife who acts as his mother, for then the pattern of male leadership will be absent. I wonder how much unruliness in children is due to the wife’s lack of submissive character and/or the husband’s lack of the exercise of godly authority?

 

We live in an age where the very deceits of satan are ruling in many houses of “worship.” Women are received as and promoted to be bishops, pastors and teacher, and evangelists and apostles. If they are not to rule or teach their own husbands how can they be allowed to teach and rule other women’s husbands? There is no 1^st century example of women as any except as prophets. And why? The prophet speaks by 100% inspiration. Authority is not an issue, only accuracy.

 

Frankly I really am wondering if the day of the prophet and the apostle is really over. Could it possibly be that there just aren’t any true apostles and prophets, even if there ought to be some? It is truly confusing to hear all the many voices on that subject extant in the churches. But as to women teaching or functioning as gifts who must teach, apostle, evangelist, pastor, and teacher we have God’s WORD of COMMANDMENT! Perhaps the allowance of women in roles reserved for men is what diminishes the reception of real apostles, prophets and teachers in some “camps.”

(Titus 2:3-5) The aged women likewise, that they be in behavior as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.

 

If a single woman is a Pastor and then marries, is she her husbands Pastor? Is a woman to have authority over any husband? If a woman is a Pastor is she in authority over the husbands in her congregation? Do wives want women to be in authority over their husbands? I think we have lost the concept of leadership coming from God the Father and the Son to the disciples who were all men. If God had wanted women apostles, why would He wait 2000 years to reveal it to us? Where is the example, the pattern? It is there and it is that leadership is male. Is the Bible sufficient and complete or not?

 

(1Corinthians 14:33-40 ESV)

37  If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I [Paul] am writing to you are a command of the Lord.

38  If anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized.

(1Co 14:33-40 The Message)

37  If any one of you thinks God has something for you to say or has inspired you to do something, pay close attention to what I [Paul] have written. This is the way the Master wants it.

38  If you won’t play by these rules, God can’t use you. Sorry.

 

Perhaps if we would recognize the commands of the Lord we might have prophets and apostles again whom God would validate.

 

2Corinthians 12:11-12  I am become a fool in glorying; ye have compelled me: for I ought to have been commended of you: for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing.  (12)  Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds.

 

 

 

 

G1321

διδάσκω

didaskō

did-as'-ko

A prolonged (causative) form of a primary verb δάω daō (to learn); to teach (in the same broad application): - teach.

 

Teaching comes to us by word and by example. The pattern is seen in life, by example, and then communicated to our minds by words that are by and in KNOWN language. James shows that those who are perfect in word are able to control all their actions, as he warns the people not to be (become) many teachers. Teachers ARE judged by the Lord more critically. I believe they are likely to be chastened more severely for their words as their words guide the minds and actions of others. So when the APOSTLE Paul says “If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord” will we be taught, instructed and guided to act according to his writings? Or has another teacher improved upon the commandments of the Lord?

 

A personal observation, teaching is called also instruction, and I see that as the construction of the inward man or woman. Teachers influence people in a way others do not. They have authority to teach, they are to declare to others how to behave. This is a gift directed I believe to those in need of teaching, in need of instruction and maturity.

 

2Timothy 3:16-17  All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:  (17)  That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

The word of reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness to men is not well suited in the mouths of women. If it were the apostle would never have written forbidding women teachers, and disputers. 


Teachers communicate to the youngest and the oldest pupils (disciples) words that should be transformative, transforming the minds from the thoughts of the satan inspired world into the thought of the mind of Christ. A lot of what tweens and teens need to be taught is best taught in all male and all female settings. And the authority, ranks of submission and roles should not be broken down before their eyes.

 

 

Genesis 3:17-19 

To Adam he said, "Because you listened to what your wife said and ate  from the tree about which I gave you the order, 'You are not to eat from it,' the ground cursed on your account; you will work hard to eat from it as long as you live.  (18)  It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat field plants.  (19)  You will eat bread by the sweat of your forehead till you return to the ground — for you were taken out of it: you are dust, and you will return to dust."

 

(Genesis 16 The Message) 

1 ¶  Sarai, Abram’s wife, hadn’t yet produced a child. She had an Egyptian maid named Hagar.

2  Sarai said to Abram, "GOD has not seen fit to let me have a child. Sleep with my maid. Maybe I can get a family from her." Abram agreed to do what Sarai said.
(ESV) 2  And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.

3  So Sarai, Abram’s wife, took her Egyptian maid Hagar and gave her to her husband Abram as a wife. Abram had been living ten years in Canaan when this took place.

4 ¶  He slept with Hagar and she got pregnant. When she learned she was pregnant, she looked down on her mistress.

5  Sarai told Abram, "It’s all your fault that I’m suffering this abuse. I put my maid in bed with you and the minute she knows she’s pregnant, she treats me like I’m nothing. May GOD decide which of us is right."

(ESV) 5  And Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my servant to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the LORD judge between you and me!”

 

(1Corinthians 14:33-40)

For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints. Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church. What? came the word of God out from you? or came it unto you only? If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord. But if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant. Wherefore, brethren, covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues. Let all things be done decently and in order.

 

(1Corinthians 14:33-40 CBJ)

for God is not a God of unruliness but of shalom. As in all the congregations of God's people, let the wives remain silent when the congregation meets; they are certainly not permitted to speak out. Rather, let them remain subordinate, as also the Torah says; and if there is something they want to know, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for a woman to speak out in a congregational meeting. Did the word of God originate with you? Or are you the only people it has reached? If anyone thinks he is a prophet or is endowed with the Spirit, let him acknowledge that what I am writing you is a command of the Lord. But if someone doesn't recognize this, then let him remain unrecognized. So, my brothers, eagerly seek to prophesy; and do not forbid speaking in tongues; but let all things be done in a proper and orderly way.

 

(1 Corinthians 14:33-40 ESV)

37  If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord.

38  If anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized.

 

(1 Corinthians 14:33-40 The Message)

37  If any one of you thinks God has something for you to say or has inspired you to do something, pay close attention to what I have written. This is the way the Master wants it.

38  If you won’t play by these rules, God can’t use you. Sorry.

 

(1Timothy 2:8-15)

I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting. In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with braided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array. But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works. Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.

 

(1Timothy 5:9-10)

9  Let not a widow be taken into the number under threescore years old, having been the wife of one man, {taken…: or, chosen}

10  Well reported of for good works; if she have brought up children, if she have lodged strangers, if she have washed the saints’ feet, if she have relieved the afflicted, if she have diligently followed every good work.

 

(1Peter 3:1-6)

Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives; While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear. Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands: Even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement.

 

(Ephesians 5:22-24)

Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the savior of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.

 

1Timothy 3:11  Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things.

 

(Titus 2:3-5)

The aged women likewise, that they be in behavior as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.

 

(Titus 2:3-5 ESV)

3  Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good,

4  and so train the young women to love their husbands and children,

5  to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

 

(Titus 2:3-5 The Message)

3  Guide older women into lives of reverence so they end up as neither gossips nor drunks, but models of goodness.

4  By looking at them, the younger women will know how to love their husbands and children,

5  be virtuous and pure, keep a good house, be good wives. We don’t want anyone looking down on God’s Message because of their behavior.

 


1 Corinthians 11 The Message
1 ¶  It pleases me that you continue to remember and honor me by keeping up the traditions of the faith I taught you. All actual authority stems from Christ.

2, 3  In a marriage relationship, there is authority from Christ to husband, and from husband to wife. The authority of Christ is the authority of God.

4  Any man who speaks with God or about God in a way that shows a lack of respect for the authority of Christ, dishonors Christ.

5  In the same way, a wife who speaks with God in a way that shows a lack of respect for the authority of her husband, dishonors her husband.

6  Worse, she dishonors herself—an ugly sight, like a woman with her head shaved. This is basically the origin of these customs we have of women wearing head coverings in worship, while men take their hats off. By these symbolic acts,

7  men and women, who far too often butt heads with each other, submit their "heads" to the Head: God.

8 ,9 , 10  Don’t, by the way, read too much into the differences here between men and women.

11  Neither man nor woman can go it alone or claim priority. Man was created first, as a beautiful shining reflection of God—that is true. But the head on a woman’s body clearly outshines in beauty the head of her "head," her husband.

12  The first woman came from man, true—but ever since then, every man comes from a woman! And since virtually everything comes from God anyway, let’s quit going through these "who’s first" routines.

13  Don’t you agree there is something naturally powerful in the symbolism—a woman, her beautiful hair reminiscent of angels, praying in adoration; a man, his head bared in reverence, praying in submission?

14, 15, 16  I hope you’re not going to be argumentative about this. All God’s churches see it this way; I don’t want you standing out as an exception.

 

(1 Corinthians 11:3-16)

But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God. Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoreth his head. But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoreth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven. For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man. For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man. For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels. Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord. For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman; but all things of God. Judge in yourselves: is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered? Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering. But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God.

 

 

(1 Corinthians 11:3-16 ~ J.B. Phillips)

1 ¶  COPY me, my brothers, as I copy Christ himself.

2  I must give you credit for remembering what I taught you and adhering to the traditions I passed on to you.

3  But I want you to know that Christ is the head of every individual man, just as a man is the "head" of the woman and God is the head of Christ.

4  If a man prays or preaches with his head covered, he is dishonouring his own head.

5  But in the case of a woman, if she prays or preaches with her head uncovered it is just as much a disgrace as if she had had it closely shaved.

6  For if a woman does not cover her head she might just as well have her hair cropped. And if to be cropped or closely shaven is a sign of disgrace to woman, then that is all the more reason for her to cover her head.

7  A man ought not to cover his head, for he represents the very person and glory of God, while the woman reflects the glory of the man.

8  For man does not exist because woman exists, but vice versa.

9  Man was not created originally for the sake of woman, but woman was created for the sake of man.

10  For this reason a woman ought to bear on her head an outward sign of men’s authority for all the angels to see.

11  Of course, in the sight of the Lord neither "man" nor "woman" has any separate existence.

12  For if woman was made originally from man, no man is now born except by a woman, and both man and woman, like everything else, owe their existence to God.

13  But use your own judgment: do you think it right and proper for a woman to pray to God bare–headed?

14  Isn’t there a natural principle here, that makes us feel that long hair is disgraceful to a man,

15  but of glorious beauty to a woman? We feel this because the long hair is the cover provided by nature for the woman’s head.

16  But if anyone wants to be argumentative about it, I can only say that we and the churches of God generally hold this ruling on the matter.

 

Women are not destroyed by being ruled by men of God. They are not destroyed by submitting to them. They are not destroyed by covering their heads when praying, nor by limiting their teaching to younger women. But what may happen by ignoring or refusing God’s commands? Confusion. It may be that the acceptance of women in the roles of teacher, then pastor, and then apostle has actually led the whole world into feminism and emasculation. I have wondered if the burka is the devil’s mockery of Christian ignorance.