Strong Man Of God Blog

            Mid-twentieth century launched feminism made its way into churches through compromising male pastors as have all other strongholds of deceit over the centuries.  The way was actually paved first for its entry by those affiliated with turn of the twentieth century Pentecostalism and its daughter Charismatic Movement that followed which gave unbiblical license to its female members to preach to, teach and take authority over men in their services and programming.  Following their Pentecostal brethren, pastors of other denominations did so thinking of themselves as being socially conscious, fair-minded and progressive; forward thinking visionaries bringing their churches into modern times.

            Scripture is clear that where it concerns the limitations of human invented rules, traditions and practices, God’s people should be on guard against becoming rigid and stagnant.  For it is not for the shackles of manmade religion that we have been saved, but freedom in dynamic relationship with our Savior (John 5:38-42, 8:31-36; Romans 14:1-13; Colossians 2:16-23)!  Besides, religionists always inevitably exalt their invented rules, traditions and practices over and wickedly cancel out God’s enduring commandments as seen in Scripture and Christian history to this hour or what, for example, is the need of a church covenant in addition to God’s New Covenant (Mark 7:1-13, 14:22-26)?

            However, as it concerns God’s house, Jesus is Lord--period (Matthew 16:13-18; John 13:13; Ephesians 1:22-23; Colossians 1:18)!  Whatever He while on earth or later through His apostles and New Testament writers commanded or taught are the continuing marching orders of His Church.  No Christian ecclesiastical figure has been granted the authority or right to change, cast aside, circumvent or ignore the commandments and instructions of Christ in the Word of God as no one has from Moses.  Anyone that has or willfully does so does it having been moved deceitfully by Satan with consequence (Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 12:32; Proverbs 30:6; Revelation 22:18-19)!

            From the beginning, Satan the deceiver has been actively engaged in his cause to deceive mankind to the end of destroying as many as possible (Genesis 3:1-5; John 10:10; 2 Thessalonians 2:7-12; Revelation 12:9).  Successful tempting of pastors at their points of sin weakness in pride, conceit and selfish ambitions for success, wealth, power and accolades has led many to their willful disobedience to, corruption, compromise and abandonment of God’s Word along with corresponding sound doctrine (James 1:12-18).  Such doctrine includes the character and order of God’s house which many have now set aside enacting “doctrines of demons” as foretold (1 Timothy 4:1-2, NKJV).

            Many professed Christian pastors and those they shepherd live ambivalent about or willfully ignorant of Satan’s ongoing warfare against them.  As a result, they do not take God’s Word to heart to daily armor up, fight or even “test the spirits” deceitfully bombarding their thoughts; not appreciating the spiritual enemy of their souls is purposely employing every means at his divinely permitted disposal including his chief scheme, deception, to destroy those not loving the truth of God’s Word or living out of a biblical worldview (Ephesians 6:10-18; 1 Peter 5:8-9; 1 John 4:1-6, NKJV).  The Holy Spirit will never lead us away from or into disobedience to God’s Word!¹

            Pastoral willingness to set aside the order of God’s house for whatever motives meshed with the wider social rebellion and chaos of the sixties also stirred up by demons.  This turbulent context gave rise to feminism--most assuredly a doctrine of demons with its accompanying blasphemy, arrogance and evil rebellion--which specifically challenged the fairness of God’s program to women at all levels of society beginning in the home with marriage and family.  As with the males of that generation of emerging pop psychology, women were urged to break out of traditional molds to find themselves, significance and fulfillment in all “self-actualization” and press to stand equal with men.

            Even then, making up the predominant numbers in the churches, pastors had already been pandering to women as their major worker base and allowing them to improperly fill roles that went beyond being mere helpers.  But with the coming of feminism, ambitious and assertive women under its deceitful ideological sway were easily allowed to breakthrough what was carnally considered the church’s version of a “glass ceiling” of male only authority by compromising pastors.  Add to this the reality some women were being authentically gifted by the Holy Spirit to prophesy, preach and teach which are bound up in leadership gifting and the perfect storm for transgression ensued; continuing to this hour with feminism as one of many strongholds of deceit entrenched in the churches.²

1 Read the July 2009 Journal, Days Of Deception followed in August by Seeing To Believe in the Journal Archives of the FSTVEP Web Site to be challenged about your

   need  to love the truth of God’s Word to avoid being deceived by the continually intensifying demonic deceit of these latter days.  For if you are falling now for the clear

   deceit of feminism, what will you fall for going forward and leading up to the Antichrist?

2 Arising from the boiling caldron of rebellion in the sixties with feminism was also the demand to legitimize same sex relationships which made its way into many osten-

   sible  Christian churches to not only be approved, but indulged in by ecclesiastical authorities.  Read the three-part 2008 Journal the Lord gave me concerning this de-

   velopment entitled, Is God Doing A New Thing?

            Let it be absolutely clear as of first importance that the value of women to God is exactly the same for the Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God and Man!  As the Head of every man immediately under Him in God’s order of mankind and Creator, the Lord Jesus also gives full support to the divinely designed value of women to men and families (Matthew 5:27-32; Mark 10:1-16; 1 Corinthians 11:3).  Truly, in condescending to become a Man conceived in His mother’s womb, birthed, nourished and nurtured by her, He has firsthand knowledge and appreciation of the experience of His creatures as well.  He was raised as any other Male by Joseph and Mary in a Jewish family (Luke 2:21-24, 39-52).

            During His ministry years, women were equally with men the beneficiaries of the messianic preaching, teaching and miracles of the Lord Jesus.  Indeed, He modeled for all men the disposition God expects of us toward women as a leader, teacher, provider and protector (Luke 4:31-44, 7:1-17, 36-50).  Women were well represented among the throngs that flocked to the Lord; becoming devoted disciples and helpers as major supporters (Luke 8:1-3, 10:38-42; John 12:1-8).  However, in accord with His Father’s will in the divine order of mankind, the Lord did not appoint any women to become apostles as I explain in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics (Luke 6:12-16).¹

            The intense love and devotion women are historically known for showed toward Jesus even after His crucifixion resulting in them being the first recorded mortals to hear the news and see Him alive from the dead (Luke 23:50-24:10; John 20:11-18).  There is no such thing as coincidence for the God I serve with my whole heart!  Thus, to make this last post discussing the value of women to Jesus Christ on Pentecost is completely a God thing since I did not plan it this way.  On this day nearly 2,000 years ago female followers of the now, ascended Christ, were also assembled with the apostles who by divine will had just picked the male replacement for Judas Iscariot (Acts 1:12-26).

            Surely, Mary, the mother of the Lord or other faithful women who had followed Him from the beginning of His ministry would seem to have been prime candidates as well to replace Judas as an apostle.  But the Lord did not give any sign whatsoever of a change in men alone being appointed apostles as was given to Peter at a later date concerning him as a Jew interacting with Gentiles (Acts 10:1-29).  Nevertheless, when the Holy Spirit arrived as promised by Christ, He came upon all of the firstfruits assembly without discrimination; all spoke in ecstatic praise of the ‘“wonderful works of God’” not having learned, but using the known languages of the Roman Empire (Acts 2:1-13, NKJV)!

            Of great significance about the crowd that had gathered to this miraculous occurrence, was the fact it was largely composed of men.  This is because the “Feast Of Harvest” or “Weeks” also known as Pentecost was of the three solemn gatherings in the seven holy feast calendar God had expressly commanded that all the men of Israel were to be present (Exodus 23:14-17, 34:22-26; Deuteronomy 16:9-12, 16-17; Acts 2:5, NKJV).  When it came time to explain what was going on and preach the Gospel to begin God’s full harvest of souls among the assembly of mostly male prospects, it was Peter that did so, though again, Spirit-filled women were present and could have too (Acts 2:14-41).

            Clearly, God was continuing to be consistent with implementing His order of mankind from Adam!  Men are His chosen leaders and He did not change this at the onset of the New Testament era.^{2 3}  As a result, from this beginning point at Pentecost with the Lord’s apostles (Acts 2:42) forward in the rest of the New Testament, formally appointed leaders, elders and pastors in the churches were all men.  The ministry of deacons as formal helpers to leadership was made up of men in any oversight of church run operational or ministry activities, while in no shocker, women in their role as helpers served with their husbands to help them.  Married or single, some women engaged in personal service and help ministries to church members and leaders (Acts 9:36-43; Romans 16:1-2).

            The Holy Spirit was not confused nor should we be walking in Him!  For when He fell on that first assembly at Pentecost without discrimination to give new birth to each disciple of Christ and power to praise God, He also distributed their spiritual gifts knowing the Lord’s will for each and honoring the divine order (1 Corinthians 12-14; Ephesians 4:7-16).  Therefore, just as the Lord used women to prophesy in the Old Testament, none of them including Deborah ever stood before the whole congregation of Israel to do so as Moses or Jeremiah (Exodus 15:20-21; Judges 4:1-14; 2 Kings 22:14-20; Jeremiah 7:1-2; Luke 2:36-38).  Neither were women priests or worship leaders.  All of this carried over into this New Testament era as the Spirit imparted spiritual gifts to women (Acts 21:8-9)!

            The Lord gives women the ability to prophesy, preach, teach or exercise sign gifts according to His will that is always consistent with His eternal Word and standing order of mankind.  Prophesy is addressed to individuals He may send the prophetess to or that might seek her out.  It might also be combined with the leadership gifts of preaching for proclaiming the Gospel and God’s message or teaching for biblically instructing women and/or children in gatherings small or large.  Service gifts supernaturally enhance a woman’s natural abilities to help their husbands and/or the churches serve the Lord’s Kingdom causes.  To go beyond the Lord’s will is sin (1 Corinthians 14:33-40)!⁴  The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, "Who is on the Lord's side?"

1 The  Strong  Man  Of  God:  Back  To  Basics  is  available  through  all  major  internet  booksellers, by order from your favorite brick and mortar bookstore and in the
   Strong Man Store.  I also discuss and elaborate on this issue as the Lord leads in the January 27-February 10, 2017 three-part blog series, Jesus, Son Of Man and in
   a June 2017 series, The Value of Men To God and Jesus Christ respectively, all under the category, The Cause.

2 As  the  Lord leads me to contend in an Appendix of my book, all of the deceitful arguments that are presented within the churches to allow women to preach to, teach
   and take authority over men within them in these latter days are all predicated on God having made a change of some kind in His attitude toward or implementation of 
   the  divine  order of mankind.  This is preposterous not only because the divine order is perfect and beneficial to mankind in this present age, but also because among
   other  very  important  reasons  it  now includes Christ as the Second Adam and the Head of man!  Read my April 8, 2018 post, The Second Adam Rules And Judges,

   under  the  categories  Call  To  Repent  and  Bible  Prophecy  to  consider  this point further.  You can read my November and December 2007 two-part Commentary,
   When Did God Change? to walk through the major arguments of deceit that have enabled rebellion against the divine order in God’s house.

3 Unless one is willing to call God “sexist” or “unfair” (which some feminists do, though, most are careful to attempt to cloak this blasphemy by directing their accusations
   to those like me that would have the audacity to hold to God’s Word as it is written), there is no other option but to accept New Testament instruction and example as it

   is.  Doing so, of course, means feminism that opposes God’s order must be rejected because both approaches to human organization cannot be right at the same time

   and  are  in  fact, mutually exclusive.  For more on calling God “sexist” or “unfair” read my May 8, 2016 post, God A Sexist?, followed the next week, May 15^th with God
   Unfair?, both under the category, God’s Creatures.

4 Since so much confusion swirls around the Word of God in these latter days due in major part to poor interpretation, our Ministry as a Christian service continues to of-
  fer the free resource, Seven Principles Of Bible Interpretation the Lord led me to prepare to help those that honestly want to know how to interpret God’s Word.  Distilled

  from the excellent book, Knowing Scripture by Dr. R. C. Sproul that I urge you to get, our free resource is available in the Strong Man Store.