First, you get the women, then you’ve got the children, so follow the men. ~Adolph Hitler
Adolph Hitler was not a good man or a wise man but in making this observation, he showed himself an astute man. Change, good or bad, often starts with women. If something is important, look for women to be involved, or even in the forefront, promoting the cause, pushing for change, and making things much better or far worse than they would be otherwise.
Satan knows this and has been involved in “Getting the women” from the moment he got the first woman, Eve, to do his bidding. He’s been involved in turning women from their God-designed purpose, and drawing them away from being a force for good, ever since.
As John MacArthur says in Different by Design, “Feminism began in the Garden when Eve, who we could call the first feminist, listened to Satan’s lies, stepped out from under Adam’s authority, acted independently, and led the human race into sin.”
Today, feminism is more prevalent in the church than ever, and we, as God’s women, have a choice to make. Do we follow “the old path” of staying true to God’s Word, no matter how much the world and much of the so-called church might attack it, and risk being ridiculed, or do we follow Satan to do his bidding, forge our own path, and become a further force for evil?
John Angell James: “Every woman whether rich or poor, married or single, has a circle of influence within which, according to her character, she is exerting a certain amount of power for good or harm. Every woman, by her virtue or her vice, by her folly or her wisdom, by her levity or her dignity, is adding something to our national elevation or degradation. A community is not likely to be overthrown where woman fulfills her mission, for by the power of her noble heart over the hearts of others, she will raise that community from its ruins and restore it again to prosperity and joy.”
You’ll hear people tell you that the earliest feminists were often Christian women who saw some evils in society that needed to be fixed and rose up as a force for good. Much of this is true. However, feminism, as it is today, is anything but a force for good, and it hasn’t been for a very long time.
Let’s compare what the Lord says His purpose for women is, to what the world calls women to be.
God’s design for women can be seen in these verses (ESV):
Titus 2: 3-5, Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.
Proverbs 31: 26-30, She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: “Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all.” Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
1 Peter 3: 1-6, Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, when they see your respectful and pure conduct. Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious. For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, …
The world’s design for women, and their view of God, can be seen in these quotes:
Vivian Gornick: “Being a housewife is an illegitimate profession. The choice to serve and to be protected and plan towards being a family-maker is a choice that shouldn’t be. The heart of radical feminism is to change that.”
Sheila Cronam: “Since marriage constitutes slavery for women, it is clear that the women’s movement must concentrate on attacking this institution. Freedom for women cannot be won without the abolition of marriage.”
Declaration of Feminism (1971):“The end of the institution of marriage is necessary for the liberation of women; therefore it is important for us to encourage women to leave their husbands and not live individually with men. All of history must be rewritten in terms of oppression of women. We must go back to ancient female religions like witchcraft.”
Ann Lori-Gaylor: “Let’s forget about the mythical Jesus and look for encouragement, solace and inspiration from real women. 2,000 years of patriarchal rule under the shadow of the cross ought to be enough to turn women toward the feminist salvation of the world.”
Now consider these thoughts on how a good woman, a godly woman, can make an impact on her world and those around her:
Elisabeth Elliot: “The fact that I am a woman does not make me a different kind of Christian, But the fact that I am a Christian does make me a different kind of woman.”
Carolyn Mahaney: “Our conduct has a direct influence on how people think about the gospel. The world doesn’t judge us by our theology; the world judges us by our behavior. People don’t necessarily want to know what we believe about the Bible. They want to see if what we believe makes a difference in our lives. Our actions either bring glory to God or misrepresent His truth.”
Barbara Hughes: “All the disciplines of a godly woman are about submitting your will to God’s loving rule in daily life. Reject the popular voices that entice you to put your needs first, to protect your self-interest and rights, to push at God-given boundaries.”
One only has to look around to see the damage done by women who no longer care to follow the ways God has set before them. Slutwalks, promiscuity, and out of control out-of-wedlock births (and the accompanying abortion rates) are a testimony to what happens when women push the rules and then keep on pushing. Once the source of Truth is ignored and then removed as the final arbiter, there is no logical stopping place.
Many of our churches have abandoned Truth. Biblical literacy is at an all-time low. Our church services are, in general, far more people-centered than Christ-centered. Our pastors are often men (and sometimes women, homosexuals or lesbians) who lead the church according to culture’s ways, not the Lord’s. Our sermons often come from, and center around, news stories, popular theories, and entertainment.
The failure of those who claim to follow the Lord to actually follow Him has led to a downward spiral in our society. When those who have the light refuse to shine it, there is no light for anyone to follow. In all of this, women have been at the forefront pushing limits, challenging truth, and changing mores.
It doesn’t matter what the world says, what you want, or even what you think God might be leading you to do or to become. It matters only what God has actually said. It is very easy to twist the Lord’s Word and ask, as Satan did to Eve “Did God actually say…?” (Genesis 3: 1, ESV). In His Word, He has clearly said what His design for women is. It is up to us to obey it or to reject it. Only remember this…your decision to obey God or to surrender to self, world, and Satan, will have an impact far beyond your own years.
My questions to you today are these:
Who or what are you living for? God? Yourself? Success? Popularity? Something else?
Who are you listening to? What forms your understanding of truth?
What kind of woman are you? If you are young, what kind of woman are you becoming?
What sort of legacy are you leaving?
Are you, through your words and by your example, teaching your children to love the Lord, and to obey Him, or are you teaching them to follow their heart (a heart that the Lord, in Jeremiah 17: 9, describes in this way “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”)?
Are you seeking to understand the kind of woman the Lord commands you to be? Or, are you far more influenced by the world than you might have realized?
Are you impacting your family and this and following generations for good or for evil?
We must each stand before the Lord one day and answer for the way we have lived. Our words, our actions, and our decisions must all be accounted for (Matthew 12: 36). While we are here, we have an opportunity to make a difference for the Lord, so that when we face Him in Judgement we will hear those most wonderful of words, “‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” (Matthew 25: 34 ESV)
I’ll leave you with this quote by the Presbyterian preacher and former Senate chaplain Peter Marshall:
“The world has enough women who know how to be smart. It needs women who are willing to be simple. The world has enough women who know how to be brilliant. It needs some who will be brave. The world has enough women who are popular. It needs more who are pure. We need women, and men, too, who would rather be morally right than socially correct.”
Joyful Domesticity 