Yesterday, I talked about how it’s hard to let men be our leaders in society, especially if they are not Christians. If this patriarchy thing grabbed hold of our country and women lost their rights, would we have any hope? History and other societies have shown us that men fail women, over and over again, we get hurt, we get mistreated and we get made into a lower class.
But where there is God there is always hope. Our hope should always be in God only and our God is a God of order not chaos. He designs and creates and He has complete authority over His creation at all times. God ordains (orders) all that comes to pass according to His desires, His own plans. It’s God who orders all that is and all that isn’t. He orders life. So let’s take a closer look at how God has chosen to order life.
He sets up order in particular spheres of life. In the family there is order between the husband and the wife. The husband is to lead and the wife is to submit. The children are to submit and to obey both of their parents.
In society, there are people who lead us, who have authority over us and God tells us we are to submit to their authority.
In the church, God ordains (orders) and He sets apart various people with various roles to play, they have authority amidst the church community and we submit to this authority.
In the Old Testament, God set apart priests, prophets and kings. They were to be shepherds – to lead, to guide and to protect the people of God. We know that they failed. They knew that Jesus was coming and that He would be the good shepherd, the priest, the prophet, and the king who would not fail.
In the new covenant, this notion of order exists. Paul calls himself an apostle, as one who’s been appointed to be a teacher. His ordination set him apart to be used in the church, for the church. Paul ordains elders in the church, their role is to shepherd, to oversee. Timothy was ordained to be a pastor.
And as we’re looking at God’s order, we see He made men into the leaders and women were to have different jobs such as taking care of the family, teachers, or to be evangelists. Over and over again, He chose men to be the kings, He chose to make Christ a man, He chose Peter and Paul to be our apostles. We can trust God and it looks to me like God chooses men to be leaders. So I’d have to say patriarchy is definitely worthwhile and worth pursuing because that is how God orders life.
This is a bit of a different topic, but related. If our society became anti-Christian, God has given us a powerful tool to fight with that won’t go away ever. God has given us the church and He’s equipped the church with gifts to help it. He’s given the church a strong foundation of the bible and the word of God, He’s given the church the Holy Spirit and prayer, He gives the church evangelists so that our numbers grow stronger. He gives the church pastors and teachers so we can grow into the fullness of Christ. He’s given the church elders who are to shepherd and lead us in our decisions. We are not left alone if society decides to go against Christ.
Related articles
- Is Patriarchy Worthwhile in a Non-Christian Society? (passionatechristianmarriage.wordpress.com)
Tagged: Christ, Christianity, feminism, God, order, Patriarchy, the church, women leaders
Dear Sis,
You wrote, ” If this patriarchy thing grabbed hold of our country and women lost their rights, would we have any hope? History and other societies have shown us that men fail women, over and over again, we get hurt, we get mistreated and we get made into a lower class.”
I find this a bit puzzling. Do you think women in the U.S. were oppressed and a “lower class” prior to 1920? 1969? 1973?
If only men could vote, would your economic situation be better or worse? If only men could vote would the national defenses upon which you rely for safety be stronger or weaker?
If no fault divorce were done away with, would your marriage be weaker or stronger? If no fault divorce did not exist, would your position as a wife and mother be more or less secure? If marriages in the U.S. were legally binding, would women such as yourself face the same sexual marketplace competition you now do for your own husbands?
If abortion were illegal, would you and your children live in a safer or more dangerous culture? If affirmative action for women did not exist, would your husband be more or less able to provide for you? If pornography were still illegal, would you be more or less valued as a wife and mother by the society we live in today?
With the exception of voting rights, all of these changes have occurred in my own lifetime. All of these changes have been advanced by the “feminist” movement as an admitted attack on patriarchy. I am just curios to know which of these rights you fear to lose, and why you believe you would be made into a “lower class.” But perhaps you were just speaking tongue in cheek and I missed the joke.
Cordially,
Okrahead
Hi Okrahead,
No, I am not joking.
I think women being able to own property was one of the first big steps America took towards equal rights for women and that occurred in 1848. Gradually women have gained more rights. Being able to own property enabled them to live by themselves without dependence on a man.
Oppression: to keep down by severe and unjust use of authority…..
No, I don’t consider women of America in the 1800′s oppressed
Lower class: the social group that has the lesser importance or status, …
In terms of rights, yes they were lower because women were dependent upon men
I don’t consider abortion or divorce to be feminist/patriarchal issues, I consider them to be moral issues.
I am not afraid, I plan on trusting in God instead of in my fears but I empathize with women because our fears are less based on rights and more based on lack of protection. The reason feminists want rights is to better their position in society and to protect themselves….from men.
Without Christ men are cruel and mistreat women. Patriarchy and feminism aren’t what betters a women’s situation in life, Christianity is the reason women are treated kindly today in our country.
The Proverbs 31 woman owned her own land…she was loved and valued. She was also submissive to her own husband…I agree that a nation who loves Christ (Christian Nation) treats women better…that is obvious in our world. I pray that America wakes up, we need revival, we need to repent, we need Jesus. I stand with you on not being afraid, I’m going to trust God and rely totally on Him.
The proverbs 31 woman is a good example of not only what women should strive to be but of what rights they should have in a society; I’ve never looked at it from that persoective before and I’m glad yiu mentioned her.
I don’t think American women have ever known oppression because we have always been a Christian nation, but we can no longer consider ourselves a Christian nation.
Dear Sis,
If I understand it correctly then, it is not a Christian patriarchy that you fear, but rather a patriarchy without Christianity as its foundation. If I am mistaken, please let me know.
In this regard you are correct. A non-Christian patriarchy will be oppressive (just view Saudi Arabia). The only problem is that you do not go far enough…. ANY non-Christian system will be oppressive (well, I suppose we might exempt Judaism, but that is another discussion entirely). Whether you have a patriarchal, matriarchal, or whatever system, if its under-girding principles are pagan, it will be oppressive.
A government based on the principles of Christianity offers the only hope for women OR men to live without oppression. Likewise, a social order based on Christian, or Judeo-Christian, principles will be patriarchal. This is the reason for the feminists’ overt hostility towards the religious traditions of the Western world.
What I am getting at here is that if you do not live under a society governed by Christian principles, you will eventually slide into tyranny. Christian principles for a social order demand a patriarchal system. Hence it is not truly a choice between patriarchy and oppression, it is a choice between Christianity and oppression.
Cordially,
Okrahead
that’s exactly what I’m saying, except for us it is a choice, we are always making choices and I choose patriarchy regardless of oppression because it is how God designed us when He made choices about order.
Respectfully,
Sis
Sis, you write that God chose to make Christ a man. I am not sure this is good theology. I think God the Son has been co-eternal with the father, so was always male. In the same way, Man was created in the image of God, as a male. Woman was created in the image of man and for man. For these reasons, Christ had to be a man.
Good point, i’m not real sure about these posts, i kept waiting for someone to come give a good reason why it was all wrong…i think it’s right, just maybe too extreme.
Thank you. I hope I was not just being pedantic.
People seem to want to address these issues as if we have a lot of freedom to design what we like. But God has written realities into the hearts of men and women that cannot be changed. They can only be Christianised. Also, I doubt that many of the features of Western liberal sociery are sustainable in the long run.
Pointing towards truth is never a bad thing.
I am not sure what you mean by “extreme”. Once I would have said that patriarchy is the default human condition in a human society, and there is some scholarly support for that (e.g. Professor Steven Goldberg). But I am not so sure now. America seems to be careering along a path to practical matriarchy. Still more Sweden, for example. I suppose it depends on defintions and what one focusses on.
I notice that Obama is planning to make more white male appointments (Steve Sailer often writes that Obama is in real terms not much of a feminist). But Manosphere guys will just respond that that is Apex Fallacy, as would be my noting the preponderance of male CEOs in the US and even in Sweden.
In any case, there are many nuances about America I must miss, being an outsider. Moreover, as Alte used to note, the Manosphere guys are self-selected. It is a bit like interviewing men leaving a casino who have lost big. They will have nothing good to say about the casino …