A game of football, of sorts, is being played in many churches today. Most people enjoy watching a good game of football, but this particular game is rather disturbing. First, a ball is not used at all. These churches use the Bible instead. And secondly, they kick the Bible so hard it whizzes completely away leaving everyone in utter confusion.
You may wonder if this is so. Do some churches really play football with Bibles? Actually, this is something you can see for yourself. Whenever a church promotes feminism, you can watch the drop-kick.
Feminism denies that God has given to men the authority to rule in the home and in the church. Wives, say the feminists, do not have to submit to their husbands. Women are permitted to hold the church offices of minister, elder, and deacon. Churches that teach this are punting the Bible. They are punting the Bible right out of the hands of anyone who will listen to them.
Years ago when I was a college freshman I attended a Bible class on campus. We were taught by a woman with a hyphenated last name. “In the past,” she said, “the church taught that the Bible commands the husband to rule over his wife. That is because the culture in that day saw women as second-class citizens. Today, women have more freedoms because we finally understand that women have so many gifts.”
Sadly, many young women contemplating marriage are fooled here. The issue here is not about whether women have gifts, but about who has received from God the authority to rule. Scripture says that God has given the man authority over the wife, and that this reflects the headship of Christ over the church. Ephesians 5:23 teaches, “For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church…”
This headship of the husband goes back all the way to the creation of man. Adam was first formed and then Eve. She was taken from Adam’s rib to be a helper perfectly suited for him. On the seventh day our God saw this beautiful order along with all his perfect creation and said, “it was very good” (Gen. 1:31). But the feminists say that this is not good. They drop-kick the Scriptures in the name of cultural change.
“Today,” the teacher continued, “we are going to discuss an important issue in the church world: women in office. Are women allowed to become ministers, elders, and deacons? Some think not. What do you think?”
One student raised her hand and quoted 1 Timothy 2:11-14, “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.”
“Yes, that verse was true in Paul’s day and in his culture,” the teacher explained. “The culture in Bible times viewed women as incapable of teaching the Word of God. Today, we know better because culture has progressed. Churches are finally recognizing that women have many gifts.”
“So,” I thought. “When we don’t want to obey a command of God, we can simply disregard it by calling it cultural? As culture changes, the meaning of Scripture changes, too?”
This troubled me profoundly as I realized the ramifications of this. If this were true, the entire Bible would then be questionable and unreliable. After all, how then could we possibly know which commandments are merely cultural and which are God’s infallible, unchangeable Word?
What is being taught today in numerous “Christian” colleges is the same error that I was taught years ago by that Bible study teacher. There are many college professors who on the pretense of promoting freedom for women are really casting doubt upon the reliability of God’s Word. In reality, however, there is nothing liberating about having the infallible Scriptures taken away from us.
It is the height of pride and selfishness to disregard God’s Word when we do not like what it says. If we choose to live for our own glory, the Lord will not be pleased. When a woman covets the authority in the church and home that has been given to men, God will take away his Word from her and cause her to be blinded in her pride. But if, by God’s grace, a woman humbly submits to the Scriptures, her eyes will be opened to the riches of his Word.
So we must ask ourselves this question: What kind of a girl or woman do I want to be? Do I want to be a woman who is obsessed with my own glory or a woman who is obsessed with the glory of God?
In our new man, we know the answer to that question. We sincerely desire to live for God’s glory. By humbly submitting to his Word, we learn of his purpose for us.
In his wisdom, God has all his people work together as many members of one body. Every member of Christ’s body, male and female, has important gifts. I Corinthians Chapter 12 teaches that we have different functions in the body of Christ. For example, some believers function as the eye, another as the hand, yet another as the mouth.
How wrong, then, for a woman to say, “Not fair! I want to be the mouth and preach in the worship service.” Or, “I should be the head in the home because I can give better direction than my husband can!” God’s will is good. He alone has set things in good order. “But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him” (1 Cor. 12:18).
When we faithfully live in harmony with God’s Word our lives are richly blessed. Rather than having our Bibles kicked out of our hands, God graciously gives to us his Word of life. We hear it in the lively preaching of the Gospel, in our Young People’s Societies, in our personal and family devotions, and in our conversations with one another. What spiritual riches, freedom, and peace with God we girls and women have when we live faithfully according to his Word.