The Scourge Of Racism
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In this New Year 2016 I want to salute those Christian individuals, churches and ministries moved by God’s love for sinners to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ and teach His Word to the incarcerated. Talk about unsung heroes! These servants of God do not routinely get appreciated by Christendom unless they reach the celebrity status of the now departed and former Watergate conspirator, Chuck Colson, because what they do is literally behind barred and locked doors as well as among a people group most (keeping it real) consider unworthy. Nevertheless, they serve because the living God desires to reach the incarcerated with His grace in the Gospel too!
While I am not writing to gain recognition, I know what I have written in the foregoing is true because I am one of those servants of God to the incarcerated as the Director of our ten year old Strong Man Ministries, a unit of Open Door Communication Ministries, Inc. the Lord led me to found in 1985. The preaching of the Gospel through our Strong Man Of God Rally and teaching of the Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study by way of our Strong Man Institute in Northwest prisons are works of infancy compared to all that have gone before. However, our Ministry has in common with all others truly raised up by Him, God’s care for the incarcerated (Psalm 69:29-33).
The work in our nation is great! There are more than 2.4 million incarcerated men and women in the United States; a number that has quadrupled from 1980. We have the largest incarcerated population and highest rate of incarceration in the world! 90% of those incarcerated are men.1 It is estimated that black Americans make up nearly one million of those incarcerated and our men outnumber white men six times over. Blacks and Hispanics were 58% of all prisoners in 2008 though their combined total population is around 25%. Black juveniles comprise 26% of all arrests and 58% of those sent to state prisons.2 These statistics indicate a vast mission field among incarcerated men!
Even with all of our ongoing activity, we consider ourselves only partially engaged. Up till now, we have been waiting for more Christians, pastors and the churches they serve to joyfully come on aboard to help. Hoping against hope this has not happened for any number of reasons including a lack of Kingdom vision (John 3:1-8; Romans 12:1-2) and consequent lack of a mission and ministry focus typical of those practicing human invented religion (Matthew 6:31-33; Luke 9:57-10:16). Spiritually blind, carnal and deceived, the religionist believes that what he has made-up to do for God is enough to please Him.
However, even in the world parents and employers never reward for tasks carried out in complete disregard for what their instructions were! With God and sinful men obedience and diligent zeal to carry out assigned tasks are praised and rewarded as is plainly taught by the Lord Jesus in His parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30). This leads to what I am convinced of the Lord is the primary reason many professing Christians in general do not get excited to support or serve in the work of ministering to those that are incarcerated. It is that they have no love for the sinner and have selfishly forgotten that they are redeemed sinners saved by God’s love and grace!
Indeed, God reminds us through the apostle Paul that it was not while we were yet righteous that He displayed His love and permitted Christ to die for us, but sinners and His enemies (Romans 5:6-11). God saves mankind from all stations and circumstances of this life out of His overflowing love for us (John 3:16). With His love and continuing gratitude in our hearts, we as redeemed sinners have been granted the wonderful privilege to take up Christ’s Kingdom cause of preaching and witnessing Him to sinners so they may hear (and sometimes, such as on lockdown, really hear) the Gospel. And as the Lord commands, all new disciples are to be taught His Word (Matthew 28:19-20).
In the course of discipling men as newborn sons it is imperative not only that they be taught the basic knowledge of salvation, gifts and ministry as servants of God, but also His express will for them as man the creature in this present age and eternity. It is downright sickening to repeatedly hear incarcerated men who have read my book or been a part of the group study exclaim while being taught the elementary principles of biblical manhood embodied in the strong man of God: “I never knew that!” Many of these men are middle aged and older professing Christians with their names on the membership rolls of churches from any number of denominations; and no wonder, many churchmen on the outside are without knowledge too of what God intends a man to be and do!
Whether it is lack of love, Kingdom vision, mission and ministry focus or any other sin in not caring for the salvation of sinners, the Lord would call all professing Christians to confess and repent from it. For not lately, but from the declaration of His Messianic mission and its initial fulfillment He has incorporated care for the prisoner (Isaiah 61:1-2; Luke 4:16-21, 23:32-43). Being a prisoner in His cause, the apostle Paul missed no opportunities to witness and teach Christ among his fellow inmates (Acts 16:23-28; Philemon)!
Laying aside then every cynical excuse including how the men got to prison, their motives for interest in the faith or their prospects for success upon release, I urge you to get busy with the Lord’s commanded work to reach men with the Gospel among our nation’s large incarcerated population. You can also partner with us (or any of our fellow reputable Christian prison ministries) financially and/or as a volunteer as we go into the prisons. Not only do we need support for our ongoing activity, but this Ministry is set to conduct a Crowdfunding Campaign to fund our national Books To USA Prisons Project that will send two copies of my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics to select prisons throughout the United States. Locally, we will be enlarging our transitional ministry to newly released Christian men we have served while incarcerated or directed to us by pastors.
1 Michael Snyder, Mass Incarceration: 21 Amazing Facts About America’s Obsession With Prison, July 27, 2014, www.EndoftheAmericandream.com/archives/mass-incarceration.
2 Criminal Justice Fact Sheet, www.Naacp.org/pages/criminal-justice-fact-sheet.
It has been very hard serving incarcerated Christian men here in the Northwest and not being able to spiritually father the sons I make among them beyond prison walls. Also, a frustration and regret is not being able to offer or direct releasing Christian inmates to much in the way of Christian run transitional housing and resources. As it concerns spiritually fathering the many men as sons I have served on lockdown, up until the present moment the Lord has commanded me to direct those that release to the churches and pastors they find (supposedly led by Him) to pick up where I left off as I have written is their responsibility1 in an attempt to build cooperation and avoid any conflict.2
Cooperating with willing churches when it is possible is important to this Ministry because the men are able to see a unity of Kingdom purpose and experience a consistency of biblical teaching they need to help them stay on track after prison. So sadly, there are not many churches I can enthusiastically recommend and of course, keeping it real, some released Christian men do not wish to continue growing in them. Nevertheless, for the incarcerated Christian men that would benefit from Bible teaching, Kingdom focused churches when they release, I wrote this edited 2013 Commentary to challenge these churches to step up to do more for them by way of intentional transitional ministry.
Originally Published July 2013
Concern for the eternal souls of men initially took our Ministry into the prisons to preach the uncompromised Gospel of Jesus Christ and bring strong man of God instruction that many might be saved and taught especially from among the black American community.3 Over the years, however, we have painfully discovered that there is a shameful lack of transitional help from the Christian community and churches many of our incarcerated brethren from all hues must cope with upon release. While there are a number of excellent ministries laboring to turn this around, relatively few churches are interested in this admittedly at times messy and risky business.
I write to remind us all that our Lord’s messianic mandate which every real Christian also shares is not only “to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound,” but also to minister to Him by ministering to “the least of these” He calls “My brethren,” (Isaiah 61:1; Matthew 25:31-40, NKJV). Now, I know that some of the incarcerated brethren of Jesus are guilty of some serious and even repulsive crimes. They were guilty before God and man. In the case of our God, they have received forgiveness upon their heartfelt confession and repentance (Psalm 51:1-17; 1 John 1:9-2:2) and endure His punishment through man by way of prison.
Nevertheless, if God--who is the ultimate Judge--sees fit to release men who have served their punishment back into society (Psalm 146:7c), it becomes necessary particularly for the Body of Christ to do all that we can to help our brothers (and sisters) make a smooth transition. This does not mean that the churches replace the important role family and the larger community has in doing their respective parts. However, we in Christ have a unique role as spiritual family that embraces our brother in love and helps meet his basic spiritual and tangible needs until he is able to get on his feet to support himself. Churches are equipped by God for such a ministry as this (Acts 2:38-47).
Now, all of the reasons most churches do not want to get involved with jail, prison and transitional ministry readymade for them by the Lord, only He knows. Apparently, though, He is not accepting those reasons since many others in the work besides this Ministry continues here in the Northwest and nationally to appeal to churches on behalf of incarcerated Christians. Our Ministry still envisions one day bringing willing Portland, Oregon area churches together to raise up an ongoing transitional work that includes a residence for temporary housing after release, services, continuing basic Christian instruction, mentoring and accountability groups.4
We have the collective means to make transitional help available to our Christian brothers that are incarcerated. The issue is will our pastors led by God concerned for the incarcerated give visionary leadership to their congregations to get behind His will? When the Lord in His Word repeatedly stresses His heart for those in prison, Holy Spirit led believers cannot just ignore this. We cannot ignore or escape the fact either that before meeting Christ we were all imprisoned by sin until He set us free! How can we so easily forget or do we actually believe the lie that we are somehow better than those incarcerated?
I tell you the truth from history, present reality and God’s prophetic Word; American Christians are just a relatively short time from experiencing mass incarcerations for the faith! Arrest and imprisonment for the faith as persecution is prominent in the New Testament and to this hour around the earth! It continues until the Lord returns (Mark 13:9-13, 14:43-46; Acts 5:12-18, 16:16-24; Revelation 2:8-11, 13:1-10).5 Shouldn’t we begin to show a little more empathy for the incarcerated and especially those that are Christians now, since many of our number will one day be among them (Hebrews 13:3)? The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, "Who is on the Lord's side?"
1 Read the March 3, 2019 post, The Need For Spiritual Fathering, under the category, The Cause.
2 While a man may have many godly men instruct and speak wisdom into his life, after his own father or seasoned Christian man that led him to Christ, a local church
pastor or his equipped and trusted designee ought to be among the very few authoritative spiritual fathers he has in Christ (1 Corinthians 4:14-17).
3 This Ministry has been conducting its evangelistic outreach, Strong Man Of God Rally since 2009 and through its Strong Man Institute, what became the published
2014 Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study since 2008 in Northwest prisons. Also, the Ministry is carrying out its Books To USA Prisons Project to place copies
of The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics in federal and state prison libraries chaplains maintain for inmates in all fifty states.
4 Visit the About Us Page on our Web Site.
5 I write about the reality of Christian suffering for the faith and the need to gear up for it as aspiring strong men and great women of God in the image of Jesus Christ
in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics. It is available at all major internet booksellers, by order at your favorite brick and mortar bookstore or in the
Strong Man Store. Additionally, I h ave written many blogs discussing this prophetic reality; most recently, Standing In The Evil Day, posted on November 25, 2018,
under the category, Encouragement.
I am pleased to share this week that the special Crowdfunding Campaign for our Books To USA Prisons Project I spoke of in my January 24, 2016 blog entitled, God Cares For The Incarcerated under the category, The Cause, will launch tomorrow, February 1st at 10AM PST on the Christian run, We Raise Web Site. Our campaign goal is to raise $9,000 in 45 days to send 2 copies of my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics to over 800 select State and Federal prisons across the United States. Our board of directors as well as every part of Open Door Communication Ministries, Inc. is involved with Strong Man Ministries leading out.
We need as many Christians as possible to help us who remember what it was like to be a lost sinner and all of the many ways God used (including books) to tug at your heart and present the Gospel to you. We are especially appealing to those that have read The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics to step up and help us since you know firsthand not only that the Gospel is plainly and purely presented, but also God’s design and program for biblical manhood throughout eternity! Just this past week I received a letter from an inmate quoted from previous correspondence he sent and presented on the We Raise Web Site. In his new letter Troy Bayless writes: “I truly believe the message of the book is foundational and needed for all men.”
Troy is an example of an inmate we have corresponded with after his initial contact letting us know he had read the book. We have also sent him with others our printed Strong Man Of God Monthly Newsletter as a form of continuing ministry into his life. Here is what he had to say about that:
I want to thank you for continuing to send me the Strong Man Of God Monthly
Newsletters. They have been a source of strength and understanding of who
God calls me/men to be, incarcerated or not.
Having read about the Books To USA Prisons Project in the newsletter, Troy also offers his sincere commitment to pray for and when he is able financially, to support it as he has previously done in making a small, unsolicited donation to help underwrite the cost of mailing out the newsletter to him. Troy and many other inmates who have come to or rededicated themselves to Christ as a result of what He is doing through Strong Man Ministries and my book, are the fruitful reasons I am boldly asking for your help not only to raise the funds we need to carry out the Books To USA Prisons Project, but also all of our continuing God ordained work as a faithful partner or friend of the Ministry! Learn how to do that on the Give Page.
This project is definitely not about my ego as the book’s author, but another way to reach the many incarcerated men like Troy with the Gospel and the Lord’s foundational instruction on biblical manhood as I wrote in the already referenced blog! Willing men in prison can be saved and their lives turned around by the Lord! If you doubt that, I have to wonder how it is you believe you were saved since as a sinner in the sight of a holy God, you stood no more worthy of salvation than the worst incarcerated offenders (Romans 3:9-20, 23)? Indeed, the Lord Jesus came to earth to call lost sinners to repentance and salvation, not the righteous (Luke 5:27-32, 19:1-10)!
Because they fully know they are sinners, amazingly, I have witnessed more hearts among the incarcerated ready to receive God’s grace in the sweet Gospel than in most of the churches I have been in over my lifetime! Therefore, in remembering where God has brought you from as a “redeemed sinner,” I appeal to you in His love and all care for the lost everywhere including the prisons largely neglected by professing Christianity, stand with us to pledge your support in funding our Books To USA Prisons Project beginning tomorrow. While you can make a pledge as low as $5, I want to challenge you to pledge the largest possible amount not thinking that many others will also be making pledges.
Your pledge can only be made by credit card because no charges are processed until our fundraising goal is met. In fact, if we do not reach our fundraising goal, we will not receive anything and your credit card pledge is cancelled. At first glance, this policy by We Raise might seem to be unfair. However, they believe and I do too that we are raising funds for a project in which we have already counted the cost. If our fundraising comes up short of what the project requires, then it cannot be done. Because they have strict accountability, investigated us and required that we submit a budget, you can be assured your support is going to go fully to support the Books To USA Prisons Project.
You can investigate We Raise and their operating organization, Wheat Ridge Ministries out of Itasca, IL as we did to learn more about them and how they securely handle your credit card as a donor on their We Raise Web Site. After you have done what you need to do including sought the Lord in prayer, make your pledge as early as possible since the sooner we reach our fundraising goal the better--the end of the 45 day fundraising period on March 18th will be here before you know it! Thank you in advance for any consideration you give or pledge made to help us with our Books To USA Prisons Project.1
1 As of the close of the Crowdfunding Campaign March 18th, we did not reach our goal. However, a Designated Gift Campaign on this Web Site is underway until we reach our goal. For More Information Go to the Books To USA Prisons Project Page.
Lest anyone should believe my chief motive in obeying God to preach the Gospel, teach His Word and conduct our Books To USA Prisons Project1 among incarcerated men is of some misguided human sentimentality, I write to declare such ones are greatly mistaken. I am completely aware there are men on lockdown that have committed some of the most heinous crimes in the world, not the least of which is mass murder expressly forbidden by God in His Ten Commandments. Oh, by the way, forbidden also is dishonoring God, parents, adultery, stealing from, lying on and coveting what belongs to a neighbor (Exodus 20:1-17; Mark 12:28-34)!
In God’s eyes, having violated one of His commandments, a man becomes just as guilty as if he had violated them all (Galatians 3:10; James 2:10). In their Jewish context, the Ten Commandments were to be enforced by the community in accord with the judgments, statutes and ordinances God also gave through Moses to guide them. However, the Lord left Himself a role in dispensing justice and judgment and gave that warning through Moses as well (see as one example, Exodus 22:22-24). Even a casual reading of the Old Testament makes it clear God was not soft on crime back then nor is He today if one interprets the New Testament accurately.
Indeed, for while the grace of God has come to the whole world through Jesus Christ, it did not come without a demand for repentance from sin and righteous living, a onetime cost or a continuation of divine hostility toward sin (Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 2:1-4, 3:7-19). Sinners experience the grace of God leading to forgiveness and salvation from the divine wrath to come only through repentance from sin and faith in the once and for all atoning sacrifice of Christ on the cross, His burial and resurrection from the dead (Hebrews 9:22-10:18)! Without repentance and faith in Christ and His sacrifice there is no other remedy for sin guilt (John 3:16-21, 36, 8:21-24, 14:6; Acts 4:8-12).
In graciously offering salvation to sinners, God is not looking the other way on our sins, but only at the finished atoning work of Christ on Calvary (1 John 2:1-2). In Christ, all sins save one knowingly committed by the hardest of hearts (many that never see the inside of an earthly prison) are forgivable (Matthew 12:31-32; 1 John 5:14-17). Thus, as the preaching of the Gospel has gone out to all of the nations attended by the leadership and power of the Holy Spirit, both the grace of God leading to salvation for the repentant who trust in Christ has been displayed and also the severity of God toward active sinners even in the community of faith (Acts 5:1-11; 1 Corinthians 5:1-8, 11:27-34).
So, while the Lord has duly ordained and holds human governments accountable to mete out punishment in keeping order (Romans 13:1-7), He remains such an active participant in human affairs the Psalmist calls the incarcerated, “His prisoners,” (Psalm 69:33, NKJV). This should put great fear into the hearts of every man contemplating doing a crime, practicing criminality and now on lockdown especially if you claim to be of God’s household through faith in Christ. Think about it; God is not only the source and cause of every criminal’s eventual capture, but He is also the sentencing Judge and ultimate Warden of every earthly prison (Psalm 7:11-16)! But that is not all.
God also has another prison under the earth (Numbers 16:28-35; Luke 16:19-31) where He is the exclusive Warden and from which there is absolutely no release now apart from His will until Judgment Day when judged by works, mankind outside of Christ will experience final sentencing to the lake of fire (Revelation 20:7-15)! So, even if a criminal is not brought to justice in this life, he will not elude capture and confinement in Hades or eternal punishment in Hell by God! In case you were wondering, Jesus Christ led out the one and only human release from Hades to freedom through pardon upon His death, resurrection and ascension (Psalm 16:8-11, 24:7-10, 68:17-20; Matthew 27:50-53; Acts 2:22-35; Ephesians 4:7-10; Hebrews 12:18-24).
We do not naively look past the crimes the men we minister to have committed! But those of us sent into the prisons plead with men there as we do with all on the outside to repent and believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ that regardless of how long they justly remain in the custody of mortal authorities, they may experience the forgiveness, eternal life and freedom of God through His Son (John 8:31-36)!
The incarcerated are seen as those caught in God’s net of grace (Psalm 103:10) and given the extraordinary opportunity to get it right like all of the rest of us that have violated God’s Law (Romans 13:8-10) before finally and for some suddenly, the opportunity closes forever with their eyes in death (Proverbs 29:1; Romans 6:23). Soon, it will be plain to all only God’s gracious longsuffering has held back the full display of His wrath upon unrepentant, sinful men (2 Peter 3:1-9; Revelation 6:12-17)!
1 Please make a pledge to help fund the Books To USA Prisons Project at https://www.thestrongmanofgod.org/web/Donate/tabid/1239/Default.aspx.
While men may continue to debate the purpose of earthly prisons to punish or restore, in my blog, God Soft On Crime?, February 7, 2016 under the category, The Cause, the Lord led me to clearly assert from His perspective it is both. It is the perfect will of God that sin driven crimes be justly dealt with in ordered, human societies. While there is room for mercy, crime in major part must be deterred by appropriate punishment to include incarceration. That said, men commit crimes (some repeatedly) because bound by the same spiritual, mental and emotional ties as other sinners, they breach their conscience and natural self-control. God wills to liberate and restore such men too!
For the record, because men are fallen sinners that in natural pride craft laws and sentencing guidelines, they can and do err with bias and being overly harsh in sending citizens to prison for crimes committed. However, keeping it real, those not breaking the law do not typically face prison sentences (Romans 13:2-3). So, while it happens that those who have not committed a crime are wrongly accused, tried and sent to prison (though consider is anyone truly innocent outside of Christ in the eyes of the ultimate Judge and Warden?--Romans 3:9-20), it is primarily those guilty of breaking the law that have this experience.
Christians are not normally supposed to be among those found guilty of crimes and sent to prison since we are being regenerated as the people of God and honor His higher Law as well as the just laws of men through the inner working of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22-25; Titus 3:1-8; 1 Peter 2:13-17). Yet, professed Christians prior to incarceration are also well represented in American prisons. Those I minister to, I remind the punishment they endure is Poppa’s woodshed and He wants them to get their lesson (Hebrews 12:5-11)! The Lord wants all incarcerated men to get their lesson because in Christ, His heart is to restore, not crush men’s lives (Lamentations 3:27-42).
Not inferior in the least bit to mortals in mercy, God gives sinners many chances to repent from their sinful deeds before bringing judgment as I am a witness. The Lord’s penalty for sin is death which He has every right as Creator-Judge to carry out on the spot! However, since Eden this has not been done by Him except on occasion as a sober warning and deterrent to all who would consider His typical mercy filled delay to judge, unwilling weakness (Leviticus 10:1-3). When we sin, though others may not see it right away, we can be sure our sin will find us out; God’s judgment overtakes the guilty (Numbers 32:20-23; Psalm 90:8; Galatians 6:7; 1 Timothy 5:24-25).
By the time a man ends up in prison even if it occurs as a result of his first crime, the Lord gracious and merciful has already given him as a sinner many chances to repent and be set free from ties that bind. These ties are common to all mankind and encompass every pathos of the soul and sinful work of the flesh including not looking to or trusting in God (Job 3, 10:1; Psalm 42:1-6a, 77:1-9; 142; Romans 14:23b; 1 Corinthians 10:13; Galatians 5:19-21). In our day, the tendency is to separate sin and evil crime; sinners and evil criminals. But in God’s eyes, what starts in the heart of the sinner as sin is evil whether it leads to crimes defined by human law or not (Mark 7:20-23).
Thus, the man that seeks to medicate himself through drunkenness and/or drug abuse (sorcery) to dull the misery of his life, for example, is bound up by the pathos of his soul, his evil conduct in response (having rejected the more excellent way of faith in Christ) and the consequences of violating any human laws as a result in the process. Upon arrest on whatever charges, the man is now bound with physical ties of various types (among them shackles) and incarcerated. In God’s permissive will another bound up prospective strong man of God in the image of Christ is put on lockdown; taken away from freedom, family and his other life goods now to be plundered by the evil one stronger than he who first began to bind him up (Matthew 12:29).
Whatever the mix of ties that Satan has used to bind up those that end up being incarcerated--including in extreme cases, demon possession wrongly labeled by skeptics as just mental illness, they too can come to enjoy the difference between them and us who are faithful Christians (Luke 8:26-39). For we are living by faith in Christ as freedmen, daily put the flesh to death, walk in the Spirit, armor up resisting the devil with perseverance and confess our sins to God as they occur or are revealed in all repentance (Habakkuk 2:4; Romans 6:15-22, 8:12-13; Galatians 5:16; Ephesians 6:10-18; James 4:7-10, 5:7-11; 1 John 1:8-9).1
Otherwise, the only difference between the incarcerated and those bound up on the outside is that those on the outside have not yet breached their conscience and natural self-control to the point of criminal acts or been caught. They will with all, still have to face the Judge (2 Corinthians 5:10)! Even so, let faithful Christians be warned that with sinful men what is legal today will be a crime tomorrow (Daniel 6:1-17; Luke 22:47-54; John 15:18-20; Revelation 2:8-11).
1 For this reason, I appeal to you to support our Books To USA Prisons Project to provide another resource through my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics God can use to show unsaved men on lockdown how to become faithful Christians and aspiring strong men of God in the image of Christ! To learn about the project and to give go to https://thestrongmanofgod.org/Give.
I have been thanking God for and will make the release of Pastor Andrew Brunson and our sister, Asia Bibi, from imprisonment for the faith this fall an important part of my Thanksgiving celebration. Brunson, an American Pastor, had spent two years incarcerated in Turkey after living with his family and shepherding a church there 23 years. He was freed after President Trump threatened sanctions. Bibi, a Pakistan native, was arrested and held on death row 8 years as a Christian for the charge of blasphemy against Islam. Prayerfully remember fellow believers suffering all over the world for the faith and give thanks for those God graciously delivers remembering next time, it could be you (1 Thessalonians 5:18; Hebrews 13:3, 23).1 Have a blessed Thanksgiving!
1 Read this article about the arrest of an American Christian anti-abortion activist and why.
It is one thing for unsaved women to balk at and reject God’s design of females and rank in His established order of mankind during this present age; it is quite another thing when the females that profess to be saved Christians knowingly reject God’s design for themselves in rebellion against their Lord also. An all out rebellion against God’s design of females, their roles, responsibilities and rank in His order of mankind is a recent phenomenon of history that is worsening in its negative outcomes and now, at its peak in these latter days, nearing its end as I have written in other posts.1
Among the blasphemous planks rebel female and male feminists have in their platform of all out rebellion against God, His Word and Christ is that females are wrongly and unfairly assigned an inferior second class status in His order of mankind (Psalm 2:1-3). So seductively persuasive is this deceit and false accusation of Satan on par with his masterstroke with Eve in the garden (Genesis 3:1-5), many professed Christian females, males and pastors across social ideologies have bought into it over the past century and intensely so since the mid-1960s.2 On the surface apart from a faith enabled, intimate knowledge of God in a biblical worldview, it would seem the rebels have something.
However, those who by faith continuously fellowship with God and know His Word realize His perfect character and purposes for man would never allow Him to treat the creature of His love with such contempt (Genesis 1:26; Deuteronomy 31:30-32:4; Psalm 8:3-8). For man the creature made in God’s image is both male and female from the beginning as Christ affirms (Genesis 1:27, 5:1-2; Matthew 19:1-6; Mark 10:1-9). Though the female was created second after, out of and for the male, God did this to indisputably establish His order of mankind, accountability and purpose of procreation (Genesis 1:28, 2:7, 15-25, 3:6-24, 5:3-5; 1 Corinthians 11:2-12, 14:34-40; 1 Timothy 2:11-15).
Now, let me pause here to ensure that though in love He cares for your salvation, I am not writing these things yet again as the Lord leads to convince the unsaved hardened in rebellion. I write to the daughters of this age who profess faith in Him and are faithful because He cares that you be encouraged in the truth; that those who vacillate in or have already capitulated to rebel feminism might come to their spiritual senses and repent (2 Timothy 2:24-26)! Females are not second class to God because you do not have the same roles, responsibilities and rank in His order as males! Those professed Christian women thinking this way diminish their own value as God designed you.3
You are also proving yourselves influenced by or fully captive to the thinking of the world culture under Satan’s dominion no matter how much you attempt to falsely justify the thinking by re-interpreting the Bible to read feminism into it or onto the godly females presented therein. Since feminism as rebellion against God and His order of mankind originates from the instigation of demons that do not die, there are a few feminists in Bible history beginning with Eve in her ignorance and followed by Jezebel, Athaliah and Vashti as examples who all suffered the consequences (Genesis 3:12-13, 16a; 1 Kings 16:29-33, 18:1-4, 19:1-3, 21:1-26; 2 Kings 9:30-37, 11:1-16; Esther 1).
In contrast to the many more godly women in the Bible (including Deborah who did not lead out Israel’s army to battle or usurp God’s chosen male commander, but accompanied him at his insistence as a comforting “mother”--Judges 4:4-10, 5:7, NKJV), the foregoing named feminist rebels starting with Eve all acted in independent self-will to lead out in their actions and defiance of God’s order and/or Word (Genesis 3:17a).4 Jezebel and Athaliah typify the aggressive feminism of our day in their ambitious grab for and use of authority. Knowing the divine order of mankind and all of the cultural expectations of her as queen, wife of her husband the king, Vashti knowingly disrespected him before the whole kingdom in her defiance of his marital and royal headship (James 4:17).
Godly and humble Esther on the other hand, who had not ambitiously sought to be queen and replaced Vashti, showed her husband, the king, great respect and earned his trusting favor (Esther 2:1-18).5 Not by usurping the king, wicked scheming or the manipulative wielding of authority behind the scenes did the Jewish queen Esther prevail to save her people from genocide, but through faith in God, fasting, prayer and courage to do as the Lord providentially led her (Esther 4:1-16, 5:1-8, 7-8)! Please note that while in God’s order of mankind the man, Mordecai, who served as Esther’s father outranked her, after giving her wise and challenging counsel he submitted to her conferred authority as queen in this unique context to do as she “commanded him,” (Esther 4:17, NKJV).
1 See for example the April 8, 2018 post, The Second Adam Rules And Judges, under the categories, Bible Prophecy and Call To Repent as well as the post that followed
on April 15th, Woman As God Designed Her, under the category, God’s Creatures.
2 Read the two-part post beginning May 27, 2018, Feminism’s Entry Into The Churches, under the categories, Call To Repent and God’s Creatures.
3 This does not mean many sinful men in ignorance throughout history have not thought of and treated females as second class. Thinking of and treating females as in-
ferior is one of the many tragic consequential works of sin in mankind that only God can righteously and finally correct beginning with salvation! Carefully read the series
of four posts that begin April 22, 2018 where the Lord leads me to write about the value of women from a biblical worldview all under the category, God’s Creatures.
4 Genesis 3:17a does not mean there is never a time a man should give heed to the counsel of his wife. However, if that counsel is to disobey or defy God or the laws of
man, then, a husband must do what is right in the sight of God! All the more reason for a Christian man to marry an authentic Christian woman (and you, sister, be one)
so, he might receive godly counsel from his wife as did David from Abigail before he married her (1 Samuel 25:14-39).
5 Esther is one of twelve women that exemplify a character trait of the great woman of God in the image of Christ I write about in two chapters of my book, The Strong
Man Of God: Back To Basics and The Great Woman Of God Women’s Group Study drawn from it released in October 2020. The book and group study are available
for purchase in the Strong Man Store or by order through your favorite book seller.
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