I want to follow up on the post I made yesterday on modern women. It would be easy to say that it is a modern development in the psyche of women, and men in a way. This has been around since the beginning. Some of you (if more than two people read this, that is) will disagree with my assessment. I cannot find a better reason or cause. The feminist movement only capitalized on a sentiment that was already present inside women. I am not blaming all this on women. Men share the responsibility in this as well, because we let it happen.
I want to focus on the end of the verse quoted above, “your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” This is probably the most offensive verse for women, and later on in the New Testament when Paul and Peter expound on it further in their epistles to the church.
For a long time, I thought that verse meant the woman would only desire their husbands, in a dedicated way. Then I got older and realized that lesbians existed. When I understood this in light of how Paul expounded on it in his letters. He said to in his letters that the woman, or wife, was to be submissive to their husbands, to honor them and respect their authority as it was commanded by God. They were to submit to their husband. This did not mean being meek and not to say a word. This was means to respect and submit to his decisions, it didn’t matter if they agreed with it or not.
The curse placed upon Eve was that she would be envious of family headship of Adam, which also expanded to positions of authority outside of the home.
When the whole context of Genesis 3 is read, the reader will notice that their eyes were not opened until Adam ate of the Tree of Knowledge. Eve ate first and nothing happened. There was no understanding of what she had done or that they had violated the command of God. They did know realize they were naked. Then Adam took a bit and they both realized that they were naked. I believe this a physical realization as well as a metaphorical understanding. They understood that something had changed within, but didn’t know what, and the only way they could think to hide it was to cover their exposed genitals.
The one important point to understand is that the knowledge and understanding of their sin did not happen until Adam took a bite of the fruit, until Adam violated the commandment of God.
Where Adam failed is he let Eve take the lead in spiritual matters. There is nothing in the text to suggest that Adam was not present when the conversation between Eve and the serpent was going on. Adam partook with the full knowledge of the conversation and did not stop to consider the consequences. He submitted to Eve’s spiritual lead and changed the fundamental nature of all humans to be born into sin.
Today, women rule the household. When a man tries to assert authority, he is part of the patriarchy and a misogynist and whatever other woman-hating insult that can be used to label him. On social media, especially TikTok, thousands of videos from wives, secretly filming their husbands, with a running commentary of how much a loser her husband is, and how she does so much more than he does because all he does is go to work. Some of these videos actually show husbands doing something in the house to fix something or add something or doing yardwork, not playing video games or napping. Most men patiently suck it up and do not react, but one day they do react and the woman becomes the wounded animal, “I can’t believe you raised voice at me.” I know, I have experienced it.
The phrases that must be wiped from the vernacular is “Happy wife, happy life” and “she’s my better half”. It’s submitting to the wife as the authority in the family so that she will allow the husband to occasionally play with games and his toys. What I am not saying is that husbands should steamroll their wives and do whatever they want. The point is that a discussion should be held but the final decision should be the husbands, while taking into consideration the input from the wife.
This development also became evident to me within Evangelicalism. Churches were allowing women to be pastors, which is strictly forbidden by the Word of God. Just like the role of the husband, this was also a role coveted by women because they wanted the spiritual authority given by God to men.
In my opinion, this will only end when Christians start actually practicing what the bible teaches. When pastors stop being afraid to offend their listeners. The Truth of the Word of God will offend, it is a sharp two-edged sword that cut both ways and cuts deep. Most pastors in churches today do not rely on God for their day-to-day needs. They have been duped to preach life lessons sprinkled with bible verses, and to badger their listeners to give 10%, which seems to be the most important message. Pastors need to return to preaching sermons one verse at a time and let God manage the outcome.
Our society, and the church, will never recover unless we return to the proper roles of men and women in the spectrum of hierarchy of authority. I am not advocating to beating women for any reason. I am not advocating for women to become similar to a possession or a tool. They are to be treated as the weaker vessel, and respected and honored as the mothers and wives, but men are to assert their authority without resorting to physical intimidation.
I don’t believe we can return to the biblical order of society without some catastrophic event. But our sinful nature and our innate desire to rebel against the authority of God and His Word is our biggest enemy from within. Submitting to His authority will be the most difficult thing anyone can do. In the end, I also believe that this is why women fight against submitting to their husband’s authority, and for men to reassert their God-given authority in a humble manner.
Sinical Times Ledger 