The world has always been at odds with the idea of the biblical family. God ordained the family in Genesis 2:24 “For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.” God created both male and female, and no other gender, and in that created order He made woman to be a helper, not less in worth, for the man. Genesis 2:18 “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” The world hates the idea of biblical order and biblical patriarchy. They view this as slavery or some sort of imprisonment for women. I don’t deny that cultures have and still do put women in the second class citizen category, but not the Bible. 

If you have listened to the feminist movement in America over the past fifty years, you would think women are held in their homes, forced to have babies and slave over the stove day in and day out. Yet, these same groups that advocate for equality, allow and promote the murder of millions of unborn females. They also promote the gender confusion issue by allowing transgender men to have access to women’s bathrooms and locker rooms. Talk about hypocrisy at epic levels. 

The feminist movement is anti-God by all measures. For example, in the 1980s, a founder and leader of the feminist movement, Gloria Steinem, said, “By the year 2000 we will, I hope, raise our children to believe in human potential, not God.” Human potential, according to Romans 1 will not be something to brag about, “Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever, Amen” (vs. 24, 25). Furthermore, “For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error” (Romans 1:26-27). Clearly, from Scriptural truth, human potential doesn’t really turn out good. In 1971, the Declaration of Freedom from the feminist  doctrine said, “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.” 

Let me be clear about my position, the feminist movement is anti-God and anti-family. It’s not a matter of my opinion, it’s abundantly clear by their actions to destroy the biblical role of motherhood and womanhood. Let’s answer a few questions concerning the created order and role of women. I draw my text from Titus 2:1-8, which also deals with the role of men as well (I’ll address that in another article). Here’s the text for the biblical discipleship role of women, “Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, ⁴so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, ⁵to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored.” We see in vs. 3 the overall behavior of a godly woman. Reverent in behavior is indicative of a lifestyle that’s not as the world or as one who has been redeemed. Teaching what is good is a biblical form of discipleship. Christian women in the church, and in the home, are to teach their children and other young women biblical principals outlined in Scripture. With all the influences of secular colleges and schools and other forms of “education,” women often find themselves looking at the biblical woman as some sort of slave. The culture has influenced the church too much of late. I suppose it always has, as God designed this great discipleship we see in Titus. Teaching what is good is paramount to a young woman having a biblical view of marriage and family.

We find the “so that” in vs. 4 which spring boards to the “love their husbands, love their children” text. As mentioned earlier, the radical feminist movement hates marriage and submission in that order. Here the text is saying that older women are to teach the younger to love their husbands. The puppy, rocket ship love doesn’t stay long after the honeymoon. This is huge to learn. You, over time, learn to love your husbands. Why? Because not all men are lovable. What do I mean by that? Love is commitment. When the puppy love wears off, you learn to love them through difficult times. The world has a quick answer, divorce. But the Scriptures teach us to love. This also applies to the children too. Same principal applied as children, who may stray, you learn to love.

To be sensible and pure is indicative of being chaste in sexuality. The feminist movement teaches sexual freedom as your own will. No character, no holiness, and with abortion and various birth control methods the fact of having a child get in the way is greatly reduced. Sexual purity is not valued at all anymore. In fact, couples now live together, buy a house and then get married. And what is more bizarre is they seem to fit into the mainline evangelical church.

There are two points in the text that rile up feminist and even some “modern” women in the church. The words “workers at home, subject to their husbands.” Biblically, this was the judgment of God upon Eve in the beginning. However, as we look at the text, we find many have created a statement that’s not even in the text. Women are not bound to the home. They can and do work outside the home, cf. Proverbs 31. That is a decision between her and her husband. Yes, it’s necessary to have that income for the sustainability of the family. But this does not remove the command and role of the woman to be a “keeper” or “worker” at home. She has a responsibility to manage her home. Don’t read any more into the text that’s not there. It states she manages the home. Being subject to her husband is a matter of biblical authority. Feminists reject this idea with all their might. Helen Reddy, whose hit song in the 1970’s “I Am Woman” became the feminist national anthem. 

Whenever we speak about the subject of submission, when we take in some preconceived ideas from the culture, we cannot see the biblical form of the word. God said to Eve “I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children; Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you.” The word rule isn’t a form of dictatorship. It’s a biblical order for a functioning society. God established this order in the home. It’s a God honoring order. Genesis 2:18 “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make a helper suitable for him.” Truly man and woman fit together. God is a master creator. It’s the world that has distorted the roles of men and women, not the Scripture. 

In closing, until both men and women view their biblical role from a biblical view, it will be skewed. The older women should teach the younger women biblical truths from Scripture about marriage and family. Letting a cultural-hip woman tell Christian women that the Bible’s role is archaic and slave oriented is not right. Until the church affirms the biblical role of women, it will continue to drift, and families will continue to splinter spiritually.