all the women independent

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Article about all the women independent:

The Independent Woman: How Covert Feminism Destroys the Christian Family. An idea can affect culture or sub-culture in two ways: the overt way where people publicly embrace an ideology and the covert way where people accept the assumptions and beliefs of an ideology without formally embracing it. The latter works like yeast through the dough and leaven through the lump.

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Many of us don’t even know the name of most of the ideas that shape (shaped us). We only find ourselves spewing rubbish like “it’s true for you, but it’s not true for me,” but we won’t call ourselves postmodern or relativists. Postmodernism shapes us without its paraphernalia. The point here is that an idea can radically shape you even when you don’t know its name or you don’t accept the overall worldview/ideology where the particular idea springs from. One of these worldviews/ideologies is feminism. While many believers will not describe themselves as feminists by a long stretch, they hold on to ideas rooted in the feminist ideology. So while feminism continues to shape us informally, we still decry it formally, like the political conservative who wants free healthcare for all but calls himself a capitalist. I believe that the covert influence of feminism is worse than the overt’s. Just as the greatest threat to biblical Christianity is not those who outrightly deny the sufficiency of scriptures but those who formally believe it while in actual practice reject it, the greatest threat to the Christian family is the Trojan horse of feminism. The problem. Over the years, I have heard many women “preachers” and marriage counselors give bad advice to women. Perhaps you have heard some of them: “Focus on making your own money so you won’t be a liability to your husband,” “real women don’t depend on their husbands,” “don’t be a parasite,” “you need to be a strong and independent woman,” “men don’t marry liabilities (which is a reference to the woman’s financial capacity, etc.” While some of these counsels are well-intentioned (trying to encourage women to be more supportive of their husbands), the effects are often baneful. Taking the risk of an ad hominem. Before I highlight my concerns, here is the place to say a word or two about women “pastors.” I am doing this because a vast majority of the advice above (which I will evaluate in a bit) are given by women “pastors.” While my primary concern is the advice themselves, it won’t hurt much to say a little bit about how we disobey God and his word by “calling” women to pastoral ministry in the first place. This is not to suppose that some men pastors don’t fall into the same error, instead, it is to point out one problem on the way to addressing another problem. The rate at which Nigeria is producing women pastors, even in conservative churches, is worrying, to say the least. The Bible is clear that men are to be the elders/pastors/bishops/shepherds of local churches. The overseer, Paul tells us, should be the “husband of but one wife” (1 Timothy 3:2). He should manage his own family well (verse 4-5). In his instructions to Titus, Paul, once again, emphasized that the elders of the church should be men- “husband of but one wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient” (Titus 1:6). Paul forbids women from teaching or having authority over a man. Instead, they should learn in quietness, full submission, and in silence (1 Timothy 2:11-14). While men and women are one in Christ through Christian baptism (Galatians 3:28), God has equipped us with different abilities and called us into different spheres of service. In his wisdom and love, he called (calls) the men to lead and pastor his church. This is not an issue of capability, so to say. You might think you can grow the GDP of Nigeria’s economy by 30% every year if you were President, but if you are not called (through election) to that office, it matters little what you think about your capabilities. The issue here is not whether some women believe they can discharge a pastor’s office, the issue is whether God permits them (through his word) to do so. Similarly, this is an issue about the sufficiency of Scriptures. Many women claim to have been called by God into pastoral ministry. But how will God call you to a position he already forbids for you in Scriptures? That only makes sense if Scriptures is not the final word on every matter. If Scriptures are not sufficient, then people can claim to have callings contrary to it, revelations that are the direct opposite of what the word says. But many of us are uncomfortable with the Bible, and we do what we like nevertheless, like the days when Israel had no king and the people did whatever was good in their eyes (Judges 17:6). But that is a matter for another day—enough of the ad hominem. In what world does 1+1=1? The Bible repeatedly teaches that marriage makes two people one. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh” (Genesis 2:15). “So they are no longer two, but one” (Mathew 19:6). “Has not the Lord made them one? In flesh and spirit they are his. And why one? Because he was seeking godly offspring” (Malachi 3:15) Paul was insistent that “in the Lord, however, woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman” (1 Corinthians 11:11). “The wife’s body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband. In the same way, the husband’s body does not belong to him alone but also to his wife” (1 Corinthians 7:4). The man who loves his wife, loves himself (Ephesians 5:28). When a man and a woman are joined in holy matrimony, they cease being two separate and independent bodies. They are united in body and spirit, their whole being is joined together. Consequently, they become one in everything. When two people become one in such a sense, one can’t be a host and the other a parasite. For a parasitic relationship to hold, there must be two independent bodies, with one feeding on the helpless other. But in marriage, everything the couple own, they own together. The man is not independent of the woman, vice versa. If the man is the breadwinner (as he should), he does not earn money for his independent self, he earns it for the family. The woman is as much the earner of the money as the one who goes out 8-4 to earn the paycheck. Just as the man has no sole claim on his body, he does not have a sole claim on his resources. In fact, the resources are as his as they are hers. The money does not belong to him or her but to them. Marriage is a type of the relationship between Christ and the church (Ephesians 5:22-33). What happens in that marriage relationship between Christ and his beloved? When Christ married us, our sins became his property, and his righteousness became ours (2 Corinthians 5:21). There was no more distinction to be made. Christ is in us, and we are in him.

All the women independent

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