Gaining A Biblical Understanding of How God Perceives Women.

Hiya!

We’re back with the guest post series. You can catch up with the genesis of the whole series by following this link Here. Over to Margaret now, the guest on the blog.

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Question Two-How does one (Christian& Feminist woman) reconcile the way *minority women are portrayed in the Bible especially in Paul’s letters, with one’s feminist beliefs?

*Note: do you really mean marginalized instead of minority? Black women in Africa are not a minority based on numbers. I think you mean marginalized women everywhere, correct?

Greetings from Texas! I hope you are all OK. We live in a weird time with the pandemic. Also, there are many things causing lots of chaos. As all of us try to navigate the “cancel culture,” I choose to be brave and share at the risk of rejection because as a mentor I want to speak truth with evidence. Please know as I have said before that I am sharing from my Christian Worldview perspective as requested. Thank you for opening your minds, and hearts hearing my perspective on this subject.

The scripture below speaks to my heart about my perspective.

“Live wisely among those who are not believers and make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone” (Colossians 4:5-6).

In accepting the challenge of answering questions about how today’s secular concept of feminism fits into the Bible, I realize I set myself up to an impossible task.

Secular feminism is opposed to the Bible. The Bible is opposed to secular feminism. (See earlier article about the History of Feminism). The good news is God created women to be far more special, significant, stronger, and fulfilled than women today who would put their secular feminist views above God’s Word.

Feminism is linked to secular humanism, which puts humans on the throne instead of God.
As Christian women, it is our duty to align ourselves to God’s Word. The desire to align the Bible to our lives by redefining or challenging it to meet our human desires is rebellion against God. This is akin to the original sin in the Garden of Eden. “Did God really say…” (Genesis3:1)

As I thought more about the questions, I discovered I could not call myself a “Biblical feminist” because there is no such accurate label. However, I could discuss “Biblical femininity.” Our beliefs directly impact all our decisions in life, and whether God is included or left out. If you want to find out why I believe strongly in this perspective read on, if not that’s OK too.

We have discovered in the earlier article that God loves men and women equally and values them equally. The Bible is an account of real-life situations including the good that honors Him, the bad that is evil and the shockingly horrible evil. This is what makes the Bible so relevant. It doesn’t leave out the bad stuff in the world.

Yes, even today there are cultures around the world that do not treat women like Jesus does. One thing we all see that each person is unique and significant no matter what their educational level is, their family background, their race or tribe.

Also, how we are treated by men in our families may impact our filters for good or bad. Abuse is real but it is pure evil and not from God. Throughout the Old and New Testament there are examples of women who were powerful influencers, leaders, businesswomen, advisors to kings, along with evil women who were deceived, worshiped idols of pride and intellect, had no discernment, participated in child sacrifice and were part of ungodly cults.

What we should discern is who were the godly women who are great role models even though some of them were not perfect?

That is a great thing about God. He knows our weaknesses and can still use us in amazing ways.
The history and culture of different regions is discussed in several stories to provide background for us. Also, there are some strong women in the Bible who were highly esteemed.
As we set the stage for the discussion of perspectives on feminism as Christians, we first asked 5 questions about our starting point as believers in Jesus. To make sense out of complicated world-view topics, we first need to identify our beliefs.

This starting point is influenced by our history, family role models, religious beliefs, educational influences, the media, and our peers. It requires an honest evaluation of the factors that influence us because they impact all our filters when discussing a topic. Are we willing to be open minded to being challenged about our current beliefs?

Do we believe the Bible is foundational and true? If so, let us examine how it guides us. I make the choice to see things through this Biblical filter because I find it trustworthy. We have choices about what we believe and how it impacts our lives. Have our Christian beliefs traveled from our brains to our hearts? If so, our decisions are easier. If our minds and hearts are divided about our love for God, there will always be conflict.

Who is on the throne of our lives? You or God? Is your first objective to please God or please humans? The answers to these questions reveal the true condition of the heart towards God.

First, question two comes from a secular humanist perspective. Feminism is a belief system created by humans and not in the Bible. At some point in our lives we each must decide something critical to our path in life. Is the Bible true and worthy of consideration as we make choices in life? Or is it fiction and just a nice book of stories? Could God be trying to give us something more out of life? (Proverbs 3:5-6)

It is like being lost and deciding whether to use a compass or road map or just guessing your way through life with no direction or plan. The bottom line is are you in whole-heartedly or out when it comes to being a follower of Jesus and believing the Bible? If you are not all in, all the discussions in the world from believers will not make sense.

Choices are important and you can’t go in two directions at the same time. It just doesn’t work; and causes chaos, confusion, prideful attitudes and most importantly compromise to your Biblical core beliefs.

Secular humanism is a belief system created by humans not God. It has become a kind of false religion. Feminism is part of the system as well as all the labels that point to different types of victimization.

In victimization there is always a winner and a looser. God wants us to all be “more than conquerors with Jesus.” (Romans 8:37) Once, we see where this belief system is rooted as Christians, we can see the fallacies from a Biblical perspective.

So often I hear Christians talking about hypocrites, fake Christians and people who say one thing but do the opposite. It doesn’t have to be this way, but most people don’t really want to know God’s character. They want a shortcut. They want to justify their decisions, even when the decisions are sinful. They want to be on the throne of their lives and ignore God’s guidance.
To answer question two directly, it is coming from a skewed perspective.

We must understand what God intended. He created a perfect, wonderful world for Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. There was no sin at that time. Pride and the issue of “minority women” were not God’s idea. The relationship between Adam and Eve was good, respectful, there was no guilt, no divisiveness, no chaos, jealousy, envy, abuse, or lack of provision.

There were clearly defined roles and God provided everything that was needed in a world that was perfect in every way. Think about it. No illness, no pain, no death, no abuse, just complete satisfaction.

The evil we have in the world today all originates from the sin to be like God and in control. The Bible answers the question why bad things happen to good people. When we want to control and be like God, He will never force anything on us, and turns us over to ourselves. He is a just God with consequences for our decisions and is consistent. If we don’t understand His character, the world is difficult to navigate.

People ask, “if He is God, why did He allow sin into the world?” The answer is He wanted a relationship with us. He wanted us to choose to love Him not be forced to love Him like a robot. If you think about it, wouldn’t you prefer a love relationship that isn’t forced? He created us to have choices so we could be in an authentic love relationship with Him.

You may ask, “Why the curse and the consequences of sin?” Because God is just and perfect. He can’t exist in the presence of sin. There must be payment for the sin, so things are reconciled. God in His graciousness had a plan to restore us with the crucifixion of Jesus. Jesus paid for our sins and when we recognize what He did and thank God, we are born again. Our eternal life begins at that moment, and we know all the evil in the world will disappear when we are restored to God in heaven.

Do you really believe in heaven? Do you believe it will be a place like the Garden of Eden with total satisfaction?

If you do, many secular humanist questions become clear. You may say, “but what about the injustice in the fallen world today?” It is here. But there are opportunities to serve God and show mercy and make the world a better place. As humans realistically we cannot recreate the Garden of Eden. But we can work to make the lives of people better today, while obeying God’s principles.

It is a choice. God has a purpose for each person’s life and at the core is trusting Him for guidance.
I believe God is trustworthy. He reveals in the Bible the horrible state of human sin after the fall and a plan of restoration. So, we can debate until the cows come home about a secular humanist belief system and the Bible, but it is not God’s best for how we were created. It is our way of trying to justify things from a secular perspective.

I am always trying to reconcile in my mind a Biblical World View and the Secular World View. The two are different. I think at times I really am an alien, a stranger to this world because what God says is often opposite of what the world says. (Hebrews 11:13)
Relevance is important to me. I love reading an easy to understand version of the Bible like the New King James Life Application Bible. I find it provides me with historical context, detailed explanations, and many other things to gain a deeper understanding of the Bible. To discern the meaning, I try to imagine from God’s perspective, or the way Jesus treated people while He was on earth with the disciples.

How would these questions be answered? God created us in His image. Men and women were perfect before the fall (Genesis 3:1-24) when sin entered to world. (See the explanation https://bible.org/seriespage/4-fall-man-genesis-31-24 )

So, if we think about God’s original plan women were considered perfect, not minorities or less than in any way. Let’s try to look at things from Adam and Eve’s perspective in the Garden of Eden.

Adam and Eve lived in a perfect environment in the Garden of Eden. God had in place perfect order with each person having a perfect role. God created Adam first and gave him instructions for the garden. Then God created Eve from Adam. Together they had an awesome relationship with God. Was Adam or Eve unhappy, feeling guilt, or ashamed before the fall? No. Did Adam abuse Eve or any other living creature in the garden? No. What was the one thing God wanted from them? Obedience out of love and a close relationship.

What were the benefits of this obedience? God provided everything for them in a perfect environment. They did not experience anything bad like pain, loneliness, hunger, disease, anger, bitterness, jealousy, heat, cold, shame, guilt just to name a few things. Also, they were initially created spiritually and physically to live forever. Did they appreciate the blessings God had provided for them? I don’t think so.

Did they realize the consequences of disobedience to God? Definitely not.
Let’s look at Jesus. Jesus was a servant leader to all women and showed them great compassion and respect. The disciples were trained to be shepherds to protect the believers from temptation, corruption, confusion, chaos, and deception.

As we study Paul’s letters, we must dig deeper to understand the context of culture, the development of the church, the history, and practices of the time and how Paul was guided to protect the church. Sin is the reason for many guidelines we have today.

In examining the issue of “women remaining silent in church”, we need to look at the reasons for Paul saying it. In this church there was a lot of idol worship and confusion in the community. Cultural issues caused some of the women to be disrespectful to the church authority and their husbands. See 1 Corinthians 11 . Other women prayed and prophesied in a respectful way. The way they dressed indicated respect for spiritual authority and still head coverings are a sign of respect in Israel when you visit some religious sites.

Today, generally, these customs are no longer required in most mainstream churches.

Some feminists choose to pick and choose scripture to make their points without digging deeper into the given situation. If you were in leadership whether you were a man or woman, would you want the gathering you lead to be organized? This is the reason there are guidelines for elders and leaders who are to shepherd the body in a church. To understand God’s perspective about men and women, we must understand the whole Bible.

The times, the cultural differences, the individual churches, and their stages of development influences a church. Paul understands God’s order clearly and preaches it to be consistent with Him. Some women in the Bible take on a variety of speaking roles as he speaks to different groups.

However, Paul is consistent with the consequences of the fall as mentioned in Genesis. 3:16 “Yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you” (verse 16). This is due to disobedience to God in the garden and Eve sinning against God and influencing her husband to sin also. Paul’s reference to being respectful to your husband and authority in the church is consistent with God’s order.
It is a Biblical doctrine, which has its origin in the third chapter of Genesis.

To those men and women who wish to disregard God’s instruction I must say, that is precisely what Satan desires. Just as he drew Eve’s attention to the restriction of the one tree, so he wants women to ponder the restriction placed upon women today. “Throw off your shackles,” he urges, “Find self-fulfillment.” “God is keeping you from what is best,” he whispers. And it is a lie! God’s rules have reasons, whether we understand them or not.

For the men, I hasten to add that this verse (and the biblical teaching on the role of women) is no proof text for male superiority. It is against any kind of dictatorship in marriage. Men are to lead by love. Their leadership is to be at the husband’s personal sacrifice, seeking what is best for their wives. (Ephesians 5:25ff). Biblical leadership is that patterned after our Lord (cf. Philippians 2:1-8).
Other women are mentioned in churches who have been influenced by their culture to make compromises.

They confused the teachings in the New Testament because during that time women were not educated and caused confusion in the church. Just like in any situation with both women and men where education is missing, leadership must deal with the individual situations carefully so there is no chaos or confusion in the church.

By looking at the whole Bible we see evidence of women being esteemed for their roles in society. There are great women in the Bible like Esther (Esther 3-4) who was courageous and saved a whole nation. Deborah (Judges 5) was a judge, prophet, and warrior who took the lead (Judges 4:8-9). She is one of the few people in the Bible who was both a prophet and judge. We can learn from Deborah, who was obedient to God, courageous, and trusted God’s guidance.

Ruth (Book of Ruth) suffered as a widow in a foreign land, but was courageous, never lost faith, and was loyal. She is in the lineage of Jesus. Huldah was a prophetess, who unlike most women at the time could read and interpret scripture (2 Kings 22:14-20) and was trusted by the king. Other women in the Bible were not remembered for their positive traits. Delilah (Judges 13-15) loved money and manipulated Samson to learn the secret of his strength. Jezebel (1 Kings 16:29-43) was another evil woman. She murdered God’s prophets, a neighbor for a vineyard, and brought idol worship to Israel.

In the New Testament, Eudoia and Syntyche, (Philippians 4:2) were valued as evangelists. (Note: The next article goes into more information about the wealthy female leaders in the early church.) To be intellectually honest with ourselves we must weigh all the stories about the women in the Bible, not just the stories that make a point regarding our perspective.

One thing I know about God is that He created each person to be unique and significant. That means all men and all women. As we study God’s character, we learn He is always just. There are always consequences for disobedience because God is not a liar. When sin is present everything gets out of whack. We all see this today.

All around the world at the root of our problems is sin. Whether it is pride, jealously, envy, deception, depression, corruption, abuse, discrimination…I could go on and on. If we believe each person is unique and significant, we can also believe that we are different. One size does not fit all as the secular humanists want us to believe.

Some people are more discerning than others, some groups of people have little education, some people are better leaders, and some are good at stirring up trouble. This is the way life is everywhere. The key is to have discernment and realize each person’s strengths and weaknesses whether they are men or women.

The bottom line is I believe God to be just and the Bible to be true. God values His whole creation…men and women. Think about it, if the fall had not happened and sin was not in the world, we would not be having this discussion.

Margaret Noblin, The Rock Outreach-US 501c3/The Rock kingdom LTD-Uganda NGO. Email me at [email protected]