Dr. Couch, what's going on with women in the church? They seem to be buying into the feminist culture.
ANSWER: You have it right! That is exactly what they are doing. Peter and Paul's injunctions about the blessedness of women and the important roles of woman has not changed. And, Paul's orders are not simply given in a cultural context. Paul argues for the importance and the limitations of woman from a doctrinal position not from simply a cultural position that was only applicable to his day.
What is amazing to me is that many older Evangelical women in our churches have been infected by the culture and have joined their feminist sisters in trying to resist what the Bible is saying to them. What Peter and Paul have said is authoritative and is part of the Word of God. If Christian women are resisting, they are resisting the Lord's injunctions not simply the words of their husbands or of a pastor. On Jeremiah 44:19, Dr. Unger makes this statement about the sinful women of Israel: "When women lead, the day of doom is near."
How much more clear can you get with 1 Peter 3:1-7 where Peter says, "Wives, be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives" (v. 1). He calls women "the weaker vessels" which they are (v. 7), even though the cop-er-ettes and soldier-ettes think they can beat up the bad guys on the streets, or be soldiers in the trenches, which they cannot! But how dare the men who allow women and mothers in hazardous situations or combat roles just because that is what they want! My counselor wife, Dr. Lacy Couch, says the problem is that women want the authority they see men having. And, they do not like themselves as women! (Sounds something like Eve to me!)
Husbands are to be kind to their wives "and grant them honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life" (v. 7b). They are to protect their wives. They are not to mistreat their wives, or any other believer, and "not return evil for evil, or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead; for you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing" (v. 8). Paul wants women to dress modestly and "wear" before others good works, "as befits women making a claim to godliness" (1 Tim. 2:9-11) and receive "instruction with entire submissiveness" (v. 11). He bans women from teaching or exercising authority over men and, they are to remain in quietness (v. 12). The reason: Adam has the primacy and Eve was very much deceived though Adam was not, as described in the temptation account in Genesis. Adam is the greatest sinner but Eve was emotionally deceived, thus Paul does not want women to be in a leadership position! (vv. 13-14).
Period, period, period! There is nothing more to say!
Believers can be seduced by the world; they can buy into the culture, and be fooled into being politically correct. (I need to make a correction on that statement.) Women are not fooled as with blindness. Their will is captured by the culture and they know exactly what they are doing. They want what they want when they want it!
Women today are ruling in many of their churches by the yak, yak, through their elder or deacon husbands at home. And the men come to church and make decisions based on what their wives want. "Yes, dear, yes dear!"
For a woman to obey her husband as Sarah did (1 Pet. 3:6), is not slavery, it actually is protection! And it is following the instructions of the Lord not her husband! This entire subject is a spiritual issue not simply doing something because this is what the husband wants! On the flip side, men are also to be kind and loving to their wives. They are to lift them up and be honoring. A cruel or thoughtless husband brings woe upon his family! Men are to be leaders and not wimps at home, at church, and elsewhere.
Thanks for asking.
Dr. Mal Couch
ANSWER: You have it right! That is exactly what they are doing. Peter and Paul's injunctions about the blessedness of women and the important roles of woman has not changed. And, Paul's orders are not simply given in a cultural context. Paul argues for the importance and the limitations of woman from a doctrinal position not from simply a cultural position that was only applicable to his day.
What is amazing to me is that many older Evangelical women in our churches have been infected by the culture and have joined their feminist sisters in trying to resist what the Bible is saying to them. What Peter and Paul have said is authoritative and is part of the Word of God. If Christian women are resisting, they are resisting the Lord's injunctions not simply the words of their husbands or of a pastor. On Jeremiah 44:19, Dr. Unger makes this statement about the sinful women of Israel: "When women lead, the day of doom is near."
How much more clear can you get with 1 Peter 3:1-7 where Peter says, "Wives, be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives" (v. 1). He calls women "the weaker vessels" which they are (v. 7), even though the cop-er-ettes and soldier-ettes think they can beat up the bad guys on the streets, or be soldiers in the trenches, which they cannot! But how dare the men who allow women and mothers in hazardous situations or combat roles just because that is what they want! My counselor wife, Dr. Lacy Couch, says the problem is that women want the authority they see men having. And, they do not like themselves as women! (Sounds something like Eve to me!)
Husbands are to be kind to their wives "and grant them honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life" (v. 7b). They are to protect their wives. They are not to mistreat their wives, or any other believer, and "not return evil for evil, or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead; for you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing" (v. 8). Paul wants women to dress modestly and "wear" before others good works, "as befits women making a claim to godliness" (1 Tim. 2:9-11) and receive "instruction with entire submissiveness" (v. 11). He bans women from teaching or exercising authority over men and, they are to remain in quietness (v. 12). The reason: Adam has the primacy and Eve was very much deceived though Adam was not, as described in the temptation account in Genesis. Adam is the greatest sinner but Eve was emotionally deceived, thus Paul does not want women to be in a leadership position! (vv. 13-14).
Period, period, period! There is nothing more to say!
Believers can be seduced by the world; they can buy into the culture, and be fooled into being politically correct. (I need to make a correction on that statement.) Women are not fooled as with blindness. Their will is captured by the culture and they know exactly what they are doing. They want what they want when they want it!
Women today are ruling in many of their churches by the yak, yak, through their elder or deacon husbands at home. And the men come to church and make decisions based on what their wives want. "Yes, dear, yes dear!"
For a woman to obey her husband as Sarah did (1 Pet. 3:6), is not slavery, it actually is protection! And it is following the instructions of the Lord not her husband! This entire subject is a spiritual issue not simply doing something because this is what the husband wants! On the flip side, men are also to be kind and loving to their wives. They are to lift them up and be honoring. A cruel or thoughtless husband brings woe upon his family! Men are to be leaders and not wimps at home, at church, and elsewhere.
Thanks for asking.
Dr. Mal Couch
