Feminists and libertarians: this is my Father's world...

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...for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes. (Matthew 7:29)

Because nature never stops telling the glory of God, authority is everywhere. Keep your eye on the ball.

First, authority is the issue—not sex. Men and women deny the authority of the male of the species not because they prefer authority to be equally shared by men and women, but because they hate all authority. Especially God the Father Almighty in Whom all authority originates and from Whom it is delegated.

Feminists lash out at men because fatherhood is intrinsic to manhood and authority is intrinsic to fatherhood. Patriarchy is not hated because the pater is always a man. Patriarchy is hated because of the arche (rule).

As for rebellion, abdication and rebellion are the same sin even though God demonstrated in his dealings with Adam and Eve that the abdicator always suffers the greater judgment.

Second, although abdicators and rebels think they're making progress when they take the word "obey" out of the bride's wedding vows and preach their wedding homily on "mutual submission," it's a fool's errand. Abdicators and rebels never have removed a single bit of authority anywhere in God's creation because God is the Father Almighty and all nature sings and round us rings the wonders of His sovereign rule. This is my Father's world.

Rebel against authority all you want, but the high point of your success will be the...

transfer of authority to someone else. There will not be the slightest diminishment of the authority you sought to destroy. As Daltry sang in "Won't Get Fooled Again," the end of the "new revolution" and "new constitution" is "meet the new boss, same as the old boss."

So when the feminist husband refuses to "command his family to keep the way of the Lord" (Gen 18:9) because he hates the command authority God delegated to him, watch what happens. First, righteousness and justice leave his home; and second, the church and civil authorities come into his home and rule. If the family is part of a church, it starts with the older (Titus 2) women and pastors and elders: they have to adjudicate the conflict in the home as best they can. And if the church fails and crimes are committed, the authority shifts over to Child Protective Services, Family Court, lawyers and judges, policemen/women, prosecutors, prison guards, and coroners.

And what of the current crop of Millennial libertarian/anarchists? They will fare no better than the feminists, and maybe much worse. If the civil authority is the final father called by God to pick up the pieces when house fathers and church fathers fail, what happens when the civil authority fails, also?

Judges. You've read the book, right? A guy throws his wife/concubine out to the sodomites neighing on the doorstep, lusting after him. He tells the perverts, "do what you want with her." When he wakes up the next morning, he finds her body, takes her home, cuts her into twelve pieces, and sends the pieces out across Israel, demanding all Israel gather against the tribe of Benjamin and do something.

Israel gathered and wiped out the tribe of Benjamin, and that was that. You can read the whole story in the Old Testament book of Judges, chapters 19-21. The record of this mob rule begins with the statement, "in those days, there was no king over Israel (19:1), and it ends with this explanation of the sexual perversion and bloodshed that prevails throughout the book of Judges: "In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes" (Judges 21:25).

Neither rebellious wives, nor their abdicating husbands; neither rebellious sons and daughters, nor their abdicating fathers; neither the Calamity Janes attacking pastors and elders on their websites, nor the pastors and elders who live in fear of such attacks and abandon their sheep to the wolves; neither Reformed libertarian Millennials, nor the ecclesiastical and civil magistrates who wink at them; no matter what authority delegated by God is under attack by a rebel and what abdicator is complicit in that rebellion; authority is never removed, nor even diminished. Authority comes from God and is delegated by God with the command that those under that authority submit to that authority. Or else.

Else what?

Well, speaking only of here on earth, the best-case scenario is the new boss will be the same as the old boss. Much more common is that the new boss is much worse than the old boss so that selfishness, inconsistency, stupidity, and ineptitude are replaced by corruption, theft, tyranny, perversion, and massive bloodshed. 

What rebels never learn is that they cannot rid themselves of authority. They only succeed in moving authority from one level to another, and that's never a good thing. Authority is most benevolent when exercised by those most intimate with those they rule. In other words, God ordained natural sovereigns, and the certain consequence of rebelling against them is their replacement by unnatural sovereigns.

You don't want your husband telling you what to do? Fine, God will give you over to being ruled by your lesbian dyke partner who most certainly will tell you what to do. And unlike your husband, she'll beat you.

You don't want your elders telling you what to do? Fine, you'll have internet shrews and Tim Keller telling you what to do. And unlike your elders, when the wolves come for you and your children, aw-shucks and let-me-suggest pastors won't defend you. They'll leave you to be slaughtered and move on to other fat sheep they can flatter, milk, and fleece for a while. Celebrity pastors don't see church office as a life-and-death trust. To them it's a sinecure.

You don't want your mayor, governor, senators, and president telling you what to do? Fine, one day soon you'll wake up to find a calf, thigh, or forearm on your doorstep, and a few minutes later you'll be frothing at the mouth and on your way to slaughter your brother Benjaminites.

This upon the occasion of the announcement that the first minor child has now been euthanized in Belgium.

Tim Bayly

Tim serves Clearnote Church, Bloomington, Indiana. He and Mary Lee have five children and big lots of grandchildren.

Want to get in touch? Send Tim an email!