New Covenant Patriarchy

Wednesday, April 07, 2004

Man and Woman in Biblical Law

Monday, May 12, 2008

Download Book in PDF Format Now

        Tom's book is now available free of charge here as a PDF file.

Click on this link ->   Man_&_Woman_in_Biblical_Law_5.pdf

Form the front cover:

MAN AND WOMAN IN BIBLICAL LAW
A Patriarchal Manifesto 
 
Resurrecting the Biblical Family
Part 1
by Tom Shipley

From the back cover:

“For by a secret law of nature, things that stand chief love to be singular; but things that are subject are set under, not only one under one, but, if the system of nature or society allow, even several under one, not without becoming beauty. For neither hath one slave so several masters, in the way that several slaves have one master. Thus we read not that any of the holy women served two or more living husbands; but we read that many females served one husband, when the social state of the nation allowed it, and the purpose of the time persuaded it: for neither is it contrary to the nature of marriage. For several females can conceive from one man: but one female cannot from several men (such is the power of things principal) as many souls are rightly made subject to one God.”   —St. Augustine 
 
“We should not assume that our ways are normal and that God’s ways are an abnormality which needs vindication.”  —Greg Bahnsen, Theonomy in Christian Ethics 
 
“The continued obligation of the Levitical law on this subject is also recognized in the New Testament. This recognition is involved in the constant reference to the law of Moses as the law of God. If in any of its parts or specifications it is no longer obligatory, that is to be proved...If God gives a law to men, those who deny its perpetual obligation are bound to prove it. The presumption is that it continues in force until the contrary is proved. It must be hard to prove that the laws founded on the permanent social relations of men were intended to be temporary.”  —Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology

The Religion of Humanism

The impotence of Christianity is due to its being infected with the rival religion of humanism.  The pure Humanists, best represented by the ACLU in the United States, chase around Christians and whip them in every battle even though they are outnumbered by 10,000 to 1 (Deut. 32:30).

How can you fight a thing when it is part of who you are?

It is difficult to preach repentance to people who think they have arrived and are in full obedience to God. 

Listen, how could you be whipped 10,000 at a time by two of your enemy "unless their Rock had sold them, unless the Lord had given them up"?  And why has God given you up?  Because you have forsaken His law; you have reduced His law to a small corrupt thing and exalted your own self-righteousness.

Deut. 32:46

And he said unto them, Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day, which ye shall command your children to observe to do, all the words of this law.

This is the key to defeating the enemy without: get rid of the enemy within through obedience - enthusiastic, wholehearted, immediate obedience.  Men want it from their wives, parents want it from their children, and God wants it from all of us - especially fathers.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

How to Spot a New Covenant Patriarch

When the father of a girl or a woman herself is looking for a godly man, a new covenant patriarch, how can they be sure they have found one?  Now nothing is more desirable than a godly virgin woman.  Men will do almost anything to win or seduce such a prize.  So how does a godly woman tell the counterfeit godly man from the real thing?

David and the Girls

David, son of Jesse, was a godly woman’s dream. 

Why?  How was it that so many women wanted to marry this guy, even when he was a hunted man living in exile, even though he already had a wife and then even when he had multiple wives, they wanted him?

Some how they had decided that a piece of David was worth more than all of a lesser man, and certainly better than an ungodly man.  In the case of Abigail, her ungodly husband became so distraught over his wife’s service of hospitality to David and her thinking so highly of him that he became stupified until God killed him.  Then she jumped at the opportunity to be David’s wife. 

Why?

Consider what should a godly woman want in a man if she could have the very best.  Now if she wants what an ungodly woman would want, like riches and good looks and so on, that is nothing noteworthy.  But what should she want in a man that would be different from what an ungodly woman would want?

A godly woman should want a godly man, a man after Yahweh's own heart, a man who says to Yahweh, "Thy will be done" and does it.  A man who empties himself of his own will and submits himself in enthusiastic conformity to Yahweh's character as revealed in His Word.  A man who loves Yahweh's LawWord and thinks, says, and does it and teaches others to do the same.

Why submit yourself to a man who is not himself submitted to Yahweh?  Do you hope to change him?  Only the Holy Spirit can change someone.  We cannot force this.  Scripture states very plainly that we are not to be unequally yoked.  You must not lower your standards and hope for the best.  Rather you are to be as true to Scripture as possible and throw yourself at a godly man, even if he is already married, and ask him if he will allow you to take his name for yourself and let you be his woman and the mother of your children (Isaiah 4:1) even if it means providing for yourself without the benefit of a dowry.  

Be like the godly women of old (1st Peter 3:5,6) who called their husband lord.  If you cannot imagine calling a certain man 'lord' or 'master' then don't marry him.  Don't initiate a marriage in disobedience!  What good can come of that?

Imagine contremplating moving to another country.  If the laws of that country are so onerous and the government so tyrannical or there is just plain lawlessness and chaos or some hellish mixture of the two why would you want to move there?  If you could move to a country where Yahweh's LawWord reigned supreme and the leader was a servant of God ruling in terms of Scripture would that not be the way to go?  Read Deuteronomy 28:1-14.  Good things come to those who obey Yahweh and no sorrow is added with it.  Trust Yahweh and obey Him; do not trust those who forbid marriage (a doctrine of demons) in the Lord.  Monogamania is, at its root, demonic.  Do not trust those who try to get you to lower your standards and destroy your hope for a godly husband.

Friday, May 02, 2008

The War on Godly Procreation

It is time to fight back.

Ge 1:28

God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth."

Ge 9:1

God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

Ge 35:11

God also said to him (Jacob):
I am God Almighty.
Be fruitful and multiply.
A nation, indeed an assembly of nations,
will come from you,
and kings will descend from you.

It is time to identify our enemies and remove their propaganda from our thinking.  Under the guise of caring about women, they want to convince us that women are better off not being mothers but should be liberated to be like men, to be something other than what Jehovah made them to be. 

It is true:  Feminism, monogamy, and witchcraft form an unholy trinity working the destruction of Christian civilization.

The slippery slope: anti-polygyny laws and mores, contraception, abortion, easy divorce, sodomy, judgement.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

New Covenant Patriarchy and 'Be Fruitful and Multiply'

Where are we in the storyline of history from the vantage point of Jehovah?  While we cannot know the timing of things future, Scripture does give us the big picture.

When man sinned in the garden he did not escape what he was put on earth to do. He just has to do it with the burden of the curse on his back. So what are we, Abraham's seed by faith, here to do? We have to have dominion over the earth, and be fruitful and multiply. Not just anybody is so commanded, but the faithful, from Adam (Gen. 1:28) to Noah (Gen. 9:1) to Abraham (Gen. 17:5) to Jacob:

And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel. 11 And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins; Genesis 35:10

Now is the time of generation for the regenerated.  We must be obedient to this mandate.  This is why we are here.

And a word for the leaders of Russia, Italy, Japan, and other countries: If your country is under the curse of demographic disaster, conform your laws to Scripture and encourage godly patriarchy.

Friday, March 07, 2008

Wayne's Handy Dandy Heresy Hermeneutics

Now some of you are old hands at this but print this article out anyway and keep it handy in case you run into a new Christian or one that is getting all excited about the Bible.  After all, we all know just how bothersome and tiresome God’s Law can be.  I mean, hey, there are huge sections of Scripture that just don’t fit with our modern times and good solid evangelical culture. 

So what we are going to do is find a New Testament verse and a way of interpreting it that will justify throwing out whole, huge sections of God’s Law, so as to really put the Old in “Old Testament” (and parts of the New).  That way we can get on with our lives feeling quite good about doing what we want, with fitting in, and getting along, and not sticking out of the crowd.

Now the rules are that: a) you are not to question the interpretation of these handy-dandy verses, and b) don't take "Old Testament" verses too seriously - always remember that they are old and thus by definition irrelevant to us.

1. Now take anything the Bible has to say about food anywhere and just wrap it all in a bundle and tie it up with that vision Peter had with the blanket full of animals and throw the whole thing overboard.  (Don't keep reading on to the part where Peter gives the intepretation himself and it has nothing to do with food.)
   
   Now do you see how this works?  Lets try another.

2. There is a constant theme of patriarchy running through all of Scripture about how the man is the head of the woman, yada, yada, yada.  Take that whole idea and then find that verse about how in Christ there is neither male nor female and flush that puppy down the tubes.
   
   How handy is that huh!?

3. What about all the examples of patriarchs and godly men in Scripture as well as verses like Ex 21:10 that assume it is perfectly okay to have more than one wife?  Just take the word 'mia' in the verses in Timothy about the qualifications for elders and deacons and translate it 'one' instead of 'first' and you can completely overturn God's definition of family and adultery and restructure society along completely Greek lines of thinking and really put the nail in the patriarchy coffin.

4. To get rid of any consideration of God's Law at all there is always Matthew 19:8 where, if you squeeze your eyes together so everything gets blurry, you can imagine that Jesus is tossing out Moses on his ear and subsistuting a new and improved way of relating to our fellow man.
   
   Dandy, dandy, dandy. 
   
   Some things don't need a verse, but just a plausible sounding idea. Fool youself and pretend others buy it, all at the same time!

5. Want to turn your kids over to God's enemies to indoctrinate them into humanism and the worship of the state, while saving yourself the bother of homeschooling?  How about this line: "My kids are missionaries to the lost kids in the public schools."

This kind of thing is rampant throughout the church.  In fact it would be shocking for the people in the pew to actually hear the straight forward word of God preached without any handy-dandy "now here is why this is irrelevant" papering over of whatever was just read.  It is hard not to come to the conclusion that the institutional church has become so corrupted that its main purpose is to make sure no one actually knows what God says or does it.

But, like all problems, no matter how vexing, all of this is a nit.  Because we all have one problem and it is quite a manageable one.  It is God's requirement that we obey His commandments, that we put them into action just like Jesus did and enabled us to do.  All the other things that compete for our attention are God's problems (Deut. 28: 1-14).

Of course, if you do not like making obedience to God's LawWord your problem, He promises to give you other problems to worry about (Deut. 28:15-68).

******************

You put into words in a few paragraphs what I’ve been fumbling around for years to say.  Brilliant and thank you.

In Christ,
Perry Pierce

Friday, January 25, 2008

New Covenant Patriarchy Discussion Group

I would like to add to the declaration that biblical polygyny is biblical and holy in the sight of the Lord.

In reference to David, a man after God’s own heart was declared righteous before the Lord. If we believe that the Holy Scriptures are of God and pure (Psalms 12:6-7) then we must submit our thoughts to what the Lord declared concerning David when stating: 1 Kings 15:4-5

Nevertheless for David’s sake did the Lord his God give him a lamp in Jerusalem, to set up his son after him, and to establish Jerusalem.

Because David did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, and turned not aside from ANY thing that he commanded him ALL the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.

Now we must ask ourselves is God ignorant of David’s sin of “polygamy” or was God fully aware of David’s 18+ wives even to the point HE gave them to David for a blessing? If God declared David followed ALL His commandments except with Bathsheba and Uriah then how could David be against God’s will in having multiple wives?

Brother Eric

Monday, December 24, 2007

Monogamania: Never has so much depended on so little

Some bad theology and a lot of rebellion are all that hold up the sharade of secular humanism.

In the Bible the patriarchs - God fearing men - ruling responsibly over their families according to God LawWord are the model that God holds up as our example of righteousness. The denial of Biblical patriarchy by the church has made secular humanism the power it is today.

There are five aspects to Biblical Patriarchy:

1. arranged marriages (the father is responsible for the disposition of his sons and daughters in marriage with the consent of all),

2. the Biblical dowry (three years living wages paid by the man for a virgin),

3. patriarchal authority ( the rule and responsibility of the father of the household under God's LawWord),

4. the one-flesh nature of marriage (the disestablishment of church and state from marriage), and

5. potential polygyny (one man husbanding one or more wives).

The denial of each of these aspects of Biblical patriarchy has given secular humanism the crucial cooperation secular humanism needs in order to exercise the power it wields.  To see this clearly we must imagine what things might be like if Biblical patriarchy was once again understood to be righteous by Christians.

Secular humanism is simply the larger mirror of the reality of our family lives.  Secular humanism does not take God's LawWord into account and neither do Christians.  I spoke to a mother of a 17 year old girl yesterday and mentioned the importance of her father being involved in making sure she married the right guy and the 3 years wages a potential husband needs to bring to the table. 

"That sounds very Old Testament," she said. 

"There is no such thing as the "Old Testament"; that is an evolutionary category imposed on Scripture," I informed her, "There are the Law and the Prophets, the Gospels and Epistles: the dowry is part of God's Law order for the family." 

"But we have done away with the sacrifices," she responded, shaking her head. 

"Right, but the dowry has nothing to do with the sacrificial system or the priesthood.  It is simply God's Law which Jesus came to reconcile us to.  Like He said, 'If you love me obey my commandments'."

Frankly, the situation we find ourselves in is this: rather than look to God LawWord for our definition of right and wrong we look to our own reasoning.  This is what secular humanism does as well.  The laws of our country are made up without any deference to God's Law.  As we have denigrated the Law and the Prophets as being passé so has secular humanism denigrated the Constitution and our country's Christian heritage.

Christianity in the west is bound to be impotent as long as we view God's Law as impotent.

Monday, December 17, 2007

New Covenant Patriarchy War on Terror

There were once two cities that were terrorized by God.  Not only did their two biggest buildings fall down but every building came down in a rain of fire and lava and ash.  Everybody was wiped out.  It did not have to happen.  Just ten men could have stopped it - not just any men but a particular kind of men.

Here is the whole story:

Geneisis 18:20-33
And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; 
I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know. 
And the men turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet before the LORD. 
And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? 
Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein? 
That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? 
And the LORD said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes. 
And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes: 
Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous: wilt thou destroy all the city for lack of five? And he said, If I find there forty and five, I will not destroy it. 
And he spake unto him yet again, and said, Peradventure there shall be forty found there. And he said, I will not do it for forty's sake. 
And he said unto him, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak: Peradventure there shall thirty be found there. And he said, I will not do it, if I find thirty there. 
And he said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord: Peradventure there shall be twenty found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for twenty's sake. 
And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten's sake. 
And the LORD went his way, as soon as he had left communing with Abraham: and Abraham returned unto his place. 

Genesis 19:24-25 Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven; 
And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.

So there you have it: for the lack of 10 good men we have the complete destruction of two cities. 

The moral of the story: Make sure you have at least 10 righteous (full of rightness) men in your city or county.  It can make all the difference in the world.

But what kind of "rightness" are we talking about here?  God defines that himself in His Law summarized by the Ten Commandments.  And to make sure we understood what those meant he gave us hundreds of minimum case law applications of those 10 commands.  Minimum case law applications means that if the law holds for this minimal case it certainly holds for even greater cases.

Here is an example: You shall not steal.  A minimum case law would be: Do not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.  We can safely say this applies to greater cases such as: do not neglect to pay the pastor of your church who ministers to you.  Another is: Do not commit adultery.  A minimum case law would be

It takes a lot of understanding of God's word to know what rightness consists of and then you have to apply it in practice to actually be righteous.  And if you can't do it you had better hope there are ten men in your area that do.

Sunday, October 14, 2007

New Covenant Patriarchy and Relationships

Relationships with other people make us richer. Well, I should qualify that. Those relationships based on God’s Law make us richer. Those that are not make us poorer. All the relationships where all the parties to the relationship are in accord with God’s LawWord are win-win relationships. It is in this respect that I will use the terms lawful and lawless.

People become hermits and loners when they have been hurt too many times by lawless relationships.  Healing is needed and is available through Christ who bore the consequences of our lawlessness on Himself so we could be restored into a meaningful relationship with God.

People who are lawless find themselves quite lonely when they engage in lawlessness and thus destroy any meaningful relationships they have. The items in a garbage can are likewise meaningless in their relationship to anything else.  They no longer have a place or function in service to others.  This is hell.

The way of life and health and peace is one of meaningful service to others as ordered and regulated by the Guide to Relationships we know as the Bible.  This Guide will tell you how you are to relate to those who don't live by it as will as those who do.  It will tell you how to handle any type of relationship by giving you core principles (the Ten Commandments) as well as examples of how to implement those core principles (the case laws).

To bring home to your life just how this works you need to continually review the Guide in the light of those relationships you are involved in with your family, fellow church members, friends, and co-workers.  All of these reflect the most important relationship in your life, the one you have with God.  You have to get your relationship with God straight before anything else is going to get straightened out.

There are a huge number of aspects to our relationship with God but some are so fundamental that they deserve special consideration here:

1. Authority/Subject - I am the Lord your God Exodus 20:2a - Being under lawful authority (as opposed to being under a lawless tyrant) means being under God's authority.  You may safely discount the authority of anyone whose authority is not based on submission to God's authority.  A rapist may coerce his victim to do his bidding but that does not make him her husband.  The state may make laws and regulations that fill many new volumes each year but that does not make it God.  God is the author of creation and history.  We are his subjects.
   
   
2. Rescuer/Hostage - which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Exodus 20:2b - Our God is the one who rescues us from the criminal gangs who tyrannize us (coerce us lawlessly).
   
   
3. One/Many - Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Exodus 20:3 - God insists that He is God alone, the ultimate and singular source of authority.  Thus we live in a universe, not a multiverse.  We are many but God is one.
   
   
4. Jealous/Unconditionally Trusting - I the LORD thy God am a jealous God Exodus 20:5 - God names Himself Jealous, not that He is insecure, but that He will not share us with another.  Will a husband share his wife with another?  Neither will God tolerate any allegiance to competing authorities or competing loyalties.
   
   
5. Judge/LawBreaker - visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; Exodus 20:5 - This means households where 3 and 4 generations are affected by the evil of the fathers who hate God.
   
   
6. LawGiver Redeemer/Covenant Keeper - And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. Exodus 20:6 - The order of God makes for a blessed realm where His citizens love and obey Him and thus enjoy peace with each other.

As our relationship with Jehovah, our loving father, is healed and whole we spread healing to every relationship in our lives. 

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

The Nature of Authority and Manhood

Authority has a one-to-many structure as part of its nature.

If this natural structure is denied it, the authority withers and becomes impotent and twisted and will no longer provide its function or lend vitality to those in it.

Can you think of any authority anywhere in history that was not based on a one-to-many relationship? A sergeant has many corporals; a corporal has many privates; a captain has many officers; etc.  There may be many circumstances where an actual one-to-one relationship exists with only the potential for a one-to-many. However if this potentiality were ever denied then the authority aspect of the relationship would be made impotent.

This in fact is what we do see in monogamy only cultures.  The authority of the man in marriage is made impotent as he is denied this potential of being chief of many.

Augustine said it most eloquently: "For by a secret law of nature, things that stand chief love to be singular; but things that are subject are set under, not only one under one, but, if the system of nature or society allow, even several under one, not without becoming beauty. For neither hath one slave so several masters, in the way that several slaves have one master. Thus we read not that any of the holy women served two or more living husbands; but we read that many females served one husband, when the social state of the nation allowed it, and the purpose of the time persuaded it: for neither is it contrary to the nature of marriage. For several females can conceive from one man: but one female cannot from several men (such is the power of things principal) as many souls are rightly made subject to one God."

When authority is being stolen from the realm of the family by church and state, then we see the motive for the virulent opposition to the natural authority of the husband in his marriage.  This results in the weakening and destruction of many families causing untold societal ills, but this cost is gladly born by the usurpers in exchange for the ill-gotten authority gained.  Do not expect to see the restoration of that authority sanctioned by those who stole it.  When you understand this dynamic then you will also understand the attacks on polygynists of any kind where humanism is the reigning religion.

When those who say they believe in God's LawWord act on it, then God will restore Biblical marriage and husbands and wives will escape those who are destroying their marriages and families.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

New Covenant Patriarchy and Children

Children are the forgotten victims of the abandonment of Jehovah's Law regarding marriage.  Being made in the image of God we long for a Father.  God our Father created us this way and thus gave children an earthly father to be a picture of their heavenly Father.  A father who does not abandon them, who models self-government, honor, honesty, truthfulness, giving of himself for his family, moral and religious leadership, courage and strength.  In other words, a man who cares for his family according to Jehovah's LawWord, a fixed and unwavering, predictable standard of right and wrong, external to himself and to which he is accountable.  (A man our humanist culture is incapable of portraying.  At war with Jehovah they are also at war with His image in man.)

Women who find themselves widowed or abandoned must not deny a father to their children just because the only good ones are already married.  Neither should they let the state or church convince them of the doctrine of demons that forbids marriage.

Friday, March 02, 2007

Men Ahead of Their Time

All of history has been predetermined by God and is working out his design, like a plant that is growing from a seed into its full flower and fruit.

Thus when we read Scripture we are seeing God's vision for that design, a world ordered according to his law as proclaimed, prophesied, and exemplified by the great patriarchs and prophets and apostles of Scripture, and fully embodied in the Messiah.

We are seeing, in them, the future, where men will deal with each other according to God's Law, reflecting His character toward one another and toward others and the world around them.  We must study these men and what they wrote in order to become like them, to respond like they did in similar circumstances.

Since all history is the unfolding of such a society, where all relationships are intermediated by God's LawWord, the men of God in Scripture were in fact living out the future, our future, in their time.  We must do the same in our time.  In fact, only that part of ourselves that has been conformed to God's character, as written in Scripture and exemplified by Christ, will survive into the new heavens and new earth.

So do not cheat yourself of future glory by letting yourself be misled as to the importance of making God's Law your study all the day.  Do not give credence to the idea that faith is somehow opposed to obedience.  Moses, the Law Giver, was, as Hebrews 11 says, a man of faith.  In fact it says this over and over again.

So we, by faith, must reflect God's character through obedience to His LawWord in its every detail, and beg God's forgiveness when we fall short, always upholding the holiness of His Law regardless of how lowly we hold ourselves in comparison.