(Tim) Again, because we've removed the comment feed on our main page, it's impossible to know where active discussions are occurring here on Baylyblog. Here's one discussion I'm putting up as a post hoping it will be helpful to those souls seeking God's truth concerning sexuality. The commenters' words are in italics.
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Since when does being a feminist condemn one to Hell? ...I always thought it was belief in Christ that saved someone and allowed them to go to Heaven... ("If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." ~Romans 10:9)
Father-rule is God's decree and ordering of the world to reflect His own archetypical Fatherhood. Hence, to reject father-rule is to reject the Father from Whom all fatherhood gets its name (1Corinthians 8:6; Ephesians 3:14,15). Can one be a Christian and reject God's Fatherhood?
No. All those who belong to Christ are adopted by the Father (Romans 8:15) and, therefore, have the witness of the Holy Spirit crying out within them, "Abba, Father" (Galatians 4:6).
Can one be a Christian and reject God's ordering of all creation under His Fatherhood?
Maybe, but why would someone ask such a question? It's horribly impious...
"God, can I worship and love you and still reject the image of Your Fatherhood in my work, home, and Church; in my life?" What a godless question!
It would be similar to asking, "God, can I worship and love you and still reject the image of Your Son and His Bride, the Church, by having sex with another man instead of a woman?" Again, what a godless question!
Scripture provides no comfort to those who ask God to overlook their rebellion and yet accept their worship and love. What Scripture says is that such men do not love God because those who love God keep his commandments. Or rather, that to love God is to keep His commandments (1John 2:3,4; 2John 9).
On the surface, then, the answer to your question could be "Well certainly, one can be a feminist and be a Christian, as long as one repents. Repentance is a lifelong process of sanctification for Christians and all of us are repenting daily of many many sins that have hold on us which, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are seeking to put to death. But really, the question you're asking isn't whether we can still sin and be a Christian, but whether we can deny our sin is sin and still be a Christian? And the answer to that question can only be a call to repent and turn back to God along with a warning that such rebellion and enslavement to Satan is the fruit of unbelief and will lead the soul giving himself to this rebellion and unbelief is in danger of the fires of Hell."
In other words, failure is one thing, but rebellion and unbelief is something else entirely. Both are sin, but the second is a hardened conscience and rebellious unbelief that should make the hair stand up on the back of a man's neck and fill him with dread of God's judgment, now and eternally.
This is the reason I spoke of feminism leading souls to Hell. It is a heresy that has eternal consequences and always involves denying the glory and authority of the Father God.
I'm not wholly a feminist...but neither do I wholly believe that patriarchy is the way to go. Rather, I believe that Man should be over a woman...when it is *appropriate*. If a household has a male, and that male is old and mature enough, then that male should be the head of the household. However, that doesn't mean he should have complete and absolute authority over his mother or wife.
You misunderstand this blog, its authors, and its commenters. We do not believe in the patriarchy you condemn. Read the category "Feminism" on the left side of the home page for a Biblical exposition of the true nature and limits of father-rule. Husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for Her (Ephesians 5:25; Colossians 3:19). We are not to beat our wives and dominate them and force them to live subservient to us, nor do we hold that every man is the boss of every woman because of the simple fact of his being a man and her being a woman. Those are straw men feminists always raise because it's in their nature to argue with weak and nonexistent opponents. It's easier to oppose garish spectacles than to oppose Scriptural examples and their fruit in the lives of men and women today.
Yes, the Bible seems to generally support patriarchy, but one must also consider the time it was written.
Watch out. This is the sort of sloppy obedience and faith that will be destroyed in the evil world we live in where attacks on God's Fahterhood are everywhere and feminism is the reigning ideology of sexual relationships. Remember that Scripture is true though all men are liars (2Timothy 3:14-17; 2Peter 1:19-2:2). We don't "generally" agree with patriarchy, but embrace it with love and joy because God created us that way and has decreed, over and over again, that we are to live that way. And neither the age of Scripture nor the culture in which its authors lived as they wrote undercuts Scripture's authority allowing us room to maneuver between obedience and rebellion. Sort of obedience to sort of inspired truth from a sort of holy book that I sort of agree with us is never the wording or posture of the Christian. Rather, with David we say:
"Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, For they are ever mine. I have more insight than all my teachers, For Your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged, Because I have observed Your precepts. I have restrained my feet from every evil way, That I may keep Your word. I have not turned aside from Your ordinances, For You Yourself have taught me. How sweet are Your words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth! From Your precepts I get understanding; Therefore I hate every false way" (Psalms 119:98-104).
Thus, I believe a question we (read: Tim) should really answer before continuing further discussion is "What is immoral about feminism?". (And please don't just throw Bible verses at me; I could do the same and we'd get nowhere.)
As I warned you before, watch out! The lover of God loves God's Word and takes his commanding orders from its particular chapters and verses. So for myself, being a minister of the Word and Sacrament, I have nothing else to do for you, a confessing Christian, than to "throw Bible verses at" you; and you, listening to my teaching and preaching, have nothing else to do but to take what I say and examine it by "Bible verses." When we move elsewhere for the direction for our faith and life, we die.
