Purpose




Thoughts of a messed up Christian saved by God's grace





Saturday, September 3, 2016

God, the founder of complementarianism

I was recently labeled a word I had no clue about. A while back, a blogger referred to my and others' views as complementarianism. Don't feel bad if you don't know what that means...I had to look it up...... and spell check keeps flagging it as a misspelled word.

It means:
Complementarianism is a theological view held by some in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, that men and women have different but complementary roles and responsibilities in marriage, family life, religious leadership, and elsewhere. The word "complementary" and its cognates are currently used to denote this view.

  I read that, and thought, "uh, so this is me.....and what is the problem with being that?"

  To the feminist movement, this is a dirty word. This feminist ideology is creeping into the church. There are men and women in the church who don't believe men and women should have different roles in the home, church, or in life in general. They slam the "patriarchism" of the Bible,(hmm, spell check doesn't think that is a word either.....maybe it isn't..) and they seem to resent the fact that God made man the head of the household and gave men and women differing roles and gifts.

  One of their "favorite" verses is in Ephesians 5 22-24 where women are told to submit themselves to their husbands....and yet, as some have pointed out, the man is given the more difficult thing to do in verse 25:
For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her 26 to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God's word.




  Which is asking more, to ask wives to submit, or asking men to love their wives as Christ loved the church? Obviously the latter, but you'd think this verse ordered the death of all women the way they react to this verse. And the truth of the matter is, if husbands obey the command in this verse, their wives are going to be treated very well and will have no worries about their husbands being overbearing.

 Here are some inconvenient facts for people who hate complementarianism:

God created man first.

God created woman as a help meet for man, not the other way around.

God uses the masculine pronoun all throughout the Bible.

Jesus, God in the flesh, came in the form of  man, not a woman.

God inspired men to write the Bible, not women.

The requirements for church leaders given in the New Testament are all aimed at men.

Men are the ones God ordered and intended to be the breadwinners in the family, not women.



    The truth of the matter is, "patriarchism" is all through the Bible. God set it up for men to be in charge, to put it bluntly. God made men and women differently. Our bodies are different, and typically men are stronger and built to handle more than the average woman...yet women have abilities and things they are good at that the average man does not possess. It doesn't bother me that women are better at a lot of stuff than men, and that there are jobs that employ women more than men.

  There are even some Biblical cases of women doing something that men could most likely not have done:

Jael: this woman is briefly mentioned in the book of Judges. The captain of the Syrian army was on the run, and this woman gave him some milk offered him a place to sleep and hide. As he slept, she drove a tent peg through his head. A man could never have gotten that close to this man to be able to kill him so easily.

Esther: It is difficult to imagine a man accomplishing what Esther did. God had her in the right place at the right time, and no man could have been able to sway the king the way she did.

 And there are other women in the Bible that God used and who had important roles: Lydia, Mary, Ruth, Hannah, and more. God even used Deborah in a way He typically used men, because the man for the job didn't want it.



  For the most part, women are better home makers, are more understanding, compassionate, better cooks, better at sewing and craft type things. They tend to be better at nurturing and are usually the more active parent in their children's lives. There are jobs they are better at than men, and roles they have that they excel at more than men.

  And yet, it seems the feminists want to be just like men, and do everything men do. They aren't content to fill their God-given roles, and do what God gave them abilities and talents to do. They want to dress like men, act like men, do every job men do, talk like men, rule over men.They  resent men for daring to be different and better at anything than them, and they seem to  hold a resentment towards God Himself for daring to set up a "patriarchal" system in the Bible.

   I'm not married, or ever will be. There's that inconvenient issue of my not being attracted to women that gets in the way of that happening... but if I were married, I'd do my best to love my wife as Christ loved the church. I'd pamper her, help her with the cooking and other household duties. I'd die before I became one of those wussy guys who stay at home while his wife was the main breadwinner.

  I am a traditional old-fashioned guy who believes there are jobs women shouldn't do, and jobs men shouldn't do. Some of what I believe may line up with Scripture, and there are those who would argue that....... and some of it may be my own ideas. I don't believe a woman pastor is Biblical, but the Bible does indicate there were women evangelists and prophets, so it seems that God does give women the gift of preaching, but not of pastoring a church.

  I have sat under many women Sunday School teachers, women evangelists, and other women speakers in my life. I am not anti-women.... I just believe the Bible clearly shows men and women are totally different, and He has given them different roles, gifts, abilities, and jobs..... and the church operates best when we fulfill the roles God has for us.

  And maybe the strongest women are those who don't resent men and fulfill the role God has for them in the home and church.

Brothers and Sisters

Verse 1
Because of you, I've had the chance to see
What it means to stand strong for the things that you believe
Because of you, I've grown in my faith
I'm learning how to love with a tender grace
Guess God always knows perfectly
Just what we need, He's made us family

Chorus:
Brothers and sisters, standing side by side

Hand in hand together through the best and worst of times
We're there for one another, whatever life holds in store
Brothers and sisters, brothers and sisters in the Lord

Verse 2
Can't count the times, you knew just what to say
To encourage my heart on the darkest days
Can't count the times I was suddenly aware
That God was on the move, and I was in your prayers
Seems He always knows perfectly
Just what we need, He's made us family

Chorus:
Brothers and sisters, standing side by side
Hand in hand together through the best and worst of times
We're there for one another, whatever life holds in store
Brothers and sisters, brothers and sisters in the Lord


1 comment:

  1. How would you feel to be compared to the weak, helpless and sinful church and your wife to the strong, saving and sinless son of God? Then on top of that be labelled as having a sinful and rebellious streak if you dared to point out just how creepy the comparison was.
    Uncomfortable or what?

    ReplyDelete