The following Spirit of prophecy statement troubled me for the greater part of a day:
In the face of the most positive commands of God, men and women will follow their own inclinations, and then dare to pray over the matter, to prevail upon God to allow them to go contrary to His expressed will. Satan comes to the side of such persons, as he did to Eve in Eden, and impresses them. They have an exercise of mind, and this they relate as a most wonderful experience which the Lord has given them. But true experience will be in harmony with natural and divine law; false experience arrays itself against the laws of life and the precepts of Jehovah. Counsels on Health, 109
It worked upon my heart because something was terribly wrong and it addressed the problem: men and the authority of God's Word. Mankind is given "most positive commands of God"... and yet "men and women will follow their own inclinations, daring to pray over the matter, to prevail upon God to allow them to go contrary to His expressed will." It brought to mind the feminization of the Seventh-day Adventist male and the turbulence left in its wake.
Is the following an exaggeration or is there truth in it as you have seen it unfold?
“Feminists are neutering the American male and the American male is letting it happen…No matter who they have been—capitalists, communists, college students, dropouts, Christians, atheists, blacks, whites, young, or old—they have had one problem in common. They have suffered to one degree or another from the touch of the feminizing forces that have taken over the land. These men have not been sure what it means to be a man...they are men who refuse to take responsibility. Their passivity and inaction ensure that…leadership in their homes belongs to their wives. Bowing to the strident sniping of radical feminists, men have allowed themselves to be transformed into a bunch of wimpy eunuchs who, rather than stand their ground, have ceded their manhood to women who want to be men.” 1
Here’s more from another cultural observer:
“God's prophet warned that one of the marks of a nation under divine judgment is when "women rule over them." (Isa. 3:12) Today, women must be appeased and catered to. They are the heads of businesses, the heads of churches, and the heads of their homes. In politics, the women's vote is usually the one that turns the election. Women serve on military ships and in military operations. They dictate their children's upbringing (which explains why most of them grow up undisciplined and spoiled, by the way) and have the final word on virtually all family decisions. Such a phenomenon is the sign of a nation in trouble.
“Men have abandoned their responsibilities of leadership, and our nation is going down the tubes because of it. In the black community, the vast majority of children are being raised without a father. The white community is not far behind. Furthermore, in those homes where fathers do exist, they are largely detached and provide no real influence. Mom is in charge, and everybody in the household knows it.
“There was a time when men took their families to church and taught their children the fundamental values of honesty and integrity. Believe it or not, there was a time in America when men took pride in being the spiritual heads of their homes. They actually knew how to balance a checkbook and how to read the Good Book. They were the kind of men that women loved and children respected.
“However, the feminization of America is so complete, so thorough, that I am not certain if old-fashioned, masculine men are even desirable anymore. You would not know it by looking at our politicians, or our preachers, that is for sure. The politicians, and everyone else, seem determined to continue to appease the feminized majority that comprises this new America.” 2
And it is that majority comprising America that is quickly spreading world-wide. But alas we can say, it had been brewing far and wide for decades.
Friends will once more indulge me for telling of my experience when rejoining God’s church. For a year I was headlong into Scripture and the Spirit of prophecy. Grandfather left me his Bible and books. I was rich with time, so I read them, re-read them and studied them to exhaustion. The Ellen G. White Estate had listed more books than Grandfather owned, so I continued reading online. It was a glorious year of discovery and recollection of the religion of my childhood. As an adult making inquiry of heaven, daily was my prayer, “What must I do to be saved?” God’s Spirit wooed me to the church doors at the end of that year. It was June 2001 when the Holy Spirit nerved me up to go to prayer meeting and finally to meet the "saints." A woman elder met me at the door in cutoffs and tee top, red lipstick and diamond rings. I literally blurted out, "Isn't this the Seventh-day Adventist Church?" The one I left in 1967 was very different than the one I stepped back into in 2001. I did not recognize it. Very little of it remained. But because a decision with eternal consequences faced me every single day, I decided it was Jesus Who had not changed His Word or His messages in the Spirit of Prophecy, but a people inside His church did this, molding it after earthly culture and fallen churches. Most were worldly, reckless, and far from holy. Anticipating I would return to a band of righteous people, a blue lagoon far from the storm I was battling, it was devastating, yet it directly resonated with His message in Revelation 3 and it was only then that a determination came over me to live among them, come-what-may. Jesus described the Laodiceans and gave a remedy of great promise if heeded. She would repent and return to her first estate and "go through" to the end victorious, bright and clean – without blemish! That hope and absolute promise remains for Jesus' sake, to say nothing of ours.
Immediately after the encounter, the agitating question on the drive home was: Why is there a woman who has the title of elder? It was intriguing, confusing and against everything I had studied up to that moment of shocking discovery. There was nothing that caused me to investigate the church prior to joining it. Why would I? Rejoining her was my heart’s desire. Church people would be my people and reconciliation with the Father would be complete while all of us abided in Him and worshipped together. But a woman was holding an office historically and Biblically reserved for men. It shocked my very foundation. What happened to His church? But more importantly, where are the men? What gave way to cause this change and, what would be God’s reaction? The Bible always recorded consequences to bad behavior, so what would He do in answer to this? I began to cry, wondering if I made a huge mistake. For weeks I wrestled with what to do. In direct answer to prayer, I left home for a year to study further. There were people with answers who faithfully led me through the chain of events that produced the woman elder and many more throughout the rank and file of our denomination. Little did I know how widespread it had become.
Would it become a deal-breaker? Almost.
Could I join a church that so flagrantly disregards Scripture and the Spirit of prophecy?
After agonizing over that one question and almost walking away, I had to join. There was no other choice. We do not turn our backs on God or His church because of bad decisions the church makes. We stay despite the error. God’s promises are true and Grandfather did not make foolish choices. I moved forward in faith with a determination to hold on and remain focused on the prize: an eternity with Jesus, the redeemed, and worlds unknown.
In the ensuing years, women elders became women pastors and one even became a conference president, all with presumed yet usurped authority over men. The heat of change intensified. Study committees were formed 3 and although the focus was in response to the question of ordination, women’s ordination continued to have the spotlight. It has reached such a fevered pitch that now there is under consideration “A Third Option” 4 for fear of disunity interrupting mission. Can you imagine compromise at this point in the great controversy? Said a prophet, “If unity could be secured only by the compromise of truth and righteousness, then let there be difference, and even war.” 5 Strong words, but that is where we are – examining women and their roles, again, as if that is the real problem. It is not the real problem. It is a symptom of a much deeper problem.
As a woman who holds Scripture as the absolute authority on all issues having to do with activities on earth and in heaven, I have a few questions. Where are the men and what has become of them? It is a serious question deserving an equally serious answer. Do the men cited at the opening of this paper have it right? Have we feminized our men because culture demands it? Women’s ordination is only part of a larger problem and it happened when the men sat down refusing to stand. The woman elder, pastor or conference president in your district holds office because a collective of ungodly men allowed this present state of disruption to occur, spreading as a cancer among us, heaping shame upon God’s name, His creation order, and the bulk of Scripture. Are they evolutionists as well? Their actions would certainly suggest it by discounting the opening chapters of Genesis. God has always held the male to a higher level of accountability because of his responsibilities within the home and the church. He is the priest and Divine lawgiver of the home 6 while the female presides as queen over her domain. 7 How are we to reconcile the Bible and the Spirit of prophecy with role reversals both in the home and the church and expect God to bless it? He cannot and He will not. How do I know? The Bible says He won’t, if He holds true to past actions against rebellion, which He will.
Why did the men cease listening to God when they could have curbed the rebellion? Why are men so willing to suddenly (in the context of 6,000 years) allow women to rule over them through an acceptance of The Second Option?8 Isaiah 3 places such a thing under Divine judgment. And to make matters worse, as a possible solution of compromise to pacify both camps for the sake of unity and mission, The Third Option coming from The Ordination Study Committee wants us to go expressly against God’s will by accepting conditions that are second best lest we fall apart? At a time in earth’s history when we have so much light as to God’s expectations for fallen humans, how can such a compromise lead us over the river and into the kingdom? To what lengths will the feminization of man go to appease an aspiring woman, relinquishing that which was his, mandated by God?
While the world and church suffer under the devastating taint of sin, it is imperative to remember those who are faithful to God. Not all are in the ranks of the men described. Let us personally remember and individually name in prayer those we know are unceasingly faithful and display the character of Christ. May God keep them. In the meantime, we can examine women and their roles ad infinitum but that will not address the core problem of men who sat down and refused to stand while a wave of silly women crept in to take their places.
_____________________________
1 David L. Goetsch, Neutering the Male of the Species: The Feminization of American Society
2 Author Unknown, The Feminization of America
3 http://www.adventistarchives.org/ordination#.VAJEz2ODu28
4 http://www.scribd.com/doc/228366133/TOSC-Final-Papers
5 Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 45
6 Ellen G. White, Adventist Home, p. 212
7 Ellen G. White, Adventist Home, p. 87
8 http://www.scribd.com/doc/228366133/TOSC-Final-Papers |
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