New Covenant Patriarchy
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Man and Woman in Biblical Law
The Institute for Christian Patriarchy is happy to announce the availability of:
|
| Man and Woman in Biblical Law
by Tom Shipley Second Edition Complete Scripture and Topical Indices $28.50 - Paper Back Edition
|
|
This book is a doctrinal manifesto. Its aim and purpose is to produce what many modern writers are fond of referring to as a paradigm shift. The goal is to lay the foundation for the establishment of a truly biblical social order, especially within the community of Bible-believing, Christ-honoring families. The subject matter is patriarchy and the biblical exposition contained herein is devoted to establishing the proposition that it is patriarchy which is and was mandated by God ever since the original creation of man and woman. This work is vulnerable to being misperceived as a work primarily about polygamy since the bulk of the exposition centers around that subject. But read carefully. Note the flow of the argumentation. The biblical exposition on polygamy here serves a supporting role to the fundamental proposition of God-ordained and mandated patriarchy. In terms of this thesis, it is a secondary and subsidiary point - which is not to say that it is not important as a subject in its own right. There are a multitude within the ranks of the Evangelical churches who are rightly and justifiably dismayed at the encroachment of feminist ideology as a subversive factor within Christendom and who are formally in favor of the biblical mandate of male headship within the Family and the Church. Sadly, almost all of the responses and reactions to this encroachment are fundamentally compromised with feminism in one way or another. This present work rejects all such compromise. A complete Scripture Index and a Topical Index are included. |
Preface
Introduction
Article 1: How Feminism Denies the Gospel
Article 2: Patriarchy Before the Fall, Part 1
Article 3: Patriarchy Before the Fall, Part 2
Article 4: Patriarchy Before the Fall, Part 3
Article 5: Patriarchy Before the Fall, Part 4
Article 6: Patriarchy Before the Fall, Part 5
Article 7: Patriarchy Before the Fall, Part 6
Article 8: In Defense of Patriarchy and Polygamy
Article 9: "Contradictions" Between Genesis and the Law of Moses, Part 1
Article 10: "Contradictions" Between Genesis and the Law of Moses, Part 2
Article 11: The Laws of God, Part 1
Article 12: The Laws of God, Part 2
Article 13: The Laws of God, Part 3
Article 14: The Laws of God, Part 4
Article 15: All the Polygamists of the Bible, #1: Lamech
Article 16: All the Polygamists of the Bible, #2: Abraham
Article 17: All the Polygamists of the Bible, #3: Jacob
Article 18: All the Polygamists of the Bible, #4: Esau
Article 19: All the Polygamists of the Bible, #5: Moses
Article 20: All the Polygamists of the Bible, #6: Gideon
Article 21: All the Polygamists of the Bible, #7: Jair
Article 22: All the Polygamists of the Bible, #8: Ibzan
Article 23: All the Polygamists of the Bible, #9: Abdon
Article 24: All the Polygamists of the Bible, #10: Elkanah
Article 25: All the Polygamists of the Bible, #11: Saul
Article 26: All the Polygamists of the Bible, #12: David, Part 1
Article 27: All the Polygamists of the Bible, #12: David, Part 2
Article 28: All the Polygamists of the Bible, #12: David, Part 3
Article 29: All the Polygamists of the Bible, #13: Solomon
Article 30: All the Polygamists of the Bible, #14: Caleb
Article 31: All the Polygamists of the Bible, #15: Caleb #2
Article 32: All the Polygamists of the Bible, #16: Rehoboam
Article 33: All the Polygamists of the Bible, #17: Joash
Article 34: All the Polygamists of the Bible, #18: Xerxes
Article 35: All the Polygamists of the Bible, #17: Belshazzar
Article 36: All the Polygamists of the Bible, #20-21: Abijah and Jerahmeel
Article 37: All the Polygamists of the Bible, #22 YAHWEH
Article 38: All the Polygamists of the Bible, #23-40
Article 39: Polygamy: Miscellaneous Passages and Comments
Article 40: Patriarchy and Polygamy in the New Covenant
Article 41: The New Covenant and Polygamy,
Article 42: Martin Luther and Polygamy: The "Strange" Case of Philip of Hesse
Article 43: The Commentators, #1: Rushdoony
Article 44: The Commentators, #2: Archer
Article 45: The Commentators, #3: Hodge
Article 46: The Commentators, #4: Murray
Article 47: The Commentators, #5: Kaiser
Article 48: The Commentators, #6: Wenham
Article 49: The Commentators, #7: Jordan
Article 50: The Commentators, #8: North
Article 51: The Commentators, #9: Smith
Article 52: The Commentators, #10: Adams
Article 53: The Commentators, #11: Lockyer
Article 54: The Commentators, #12: Tucker
Article 55: The Commentators, #13: Foh
Article 56: God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ
Article 57: Patriarchy in the Church: I Corinthians 11:2-15; 14:34-37
Article 58: Feminist Hermeneutics: Making the Straight Places Crooked
Epilogue: The Biblical Reformation of Marriage
Victims of Monogamania
Scripture Index
Topical Index
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
From the Back Cover
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
Now with a Bible Index and a Topical Index.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
New Covenant Patriarchy Pledge
This pledge is for those who wish to take their patriarchal characters to a whole other level. Those who take the pledge may refer to themselves as New Covenant Patriarchs.
1. I do hereby pledge myself to make a covenant with my eyes, like Job in Job 30:1, to not look upon a maid.
2. I do hereby pledge to never pursue or ask more than one woman to marry me and to only consider additional wives if they beg me to marry them as per Isaiah 4:1.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Where are the women with a positive take on Biblical Patriarchy?
Here is a letter Tom received and his answer.
Tom Shipley,I read your book, Man and Woman in Biblical Law, and enjoyed it. The biblical case for polygamy seems to be unassailable and I cannot argue with it. However, I do wonder about one thing. The mainstream views polygamy as extremely dehumanizing and barbaric, and the most perfect logical reasoning in the world will not get this notion out of people's heads, especially women's. You can find many books written by women who have lived in polygamy, hated it, and are now telling the world about how awful it is. I know that when you examine these cases closely (almost all Mormon), their misery is actually due to factors other than polygamy itself. But polygamy gets the blame. If polygamy is so great, why can I never find any books or articles, written by women, which speak favorably of it. With a lot of people, especially women, this sort of "emotional" reasoning would go a lot farther than rational biblical arguments to remove anti-polygamy prejudice. Maybe this ought not be the case with Christians who hold the Bible as the word of God, but it is in fact the case.
So if you can point me to any books or articles written by women who speak favorably of polygamy, please do this. I would love to here from you. Until I see this, I will continue to view polygamy as, if not sinful, at least inferior to monogamy.
Thanks,
Mike
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Is Tom Promoting Polyandry?
Objection: The following verse speaks metaphorically of Jerusalem. Jerusalem is rejoiced over by God as His bride and His bride is married to men. According to Tom’s logic, this supports a wife getting husbands! In other words, it overturns the law against adultery. In addition, those husbands are the woman’s own sons! In other words it overturns the law that is also found in Leviticus 18 of a man marrying his mother. Tom’s logic supports incestuous polyandrous marriage by a man’s own wife!
Isaiah 62:5 For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee: and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee. - Critic
Answer: I remain open to all serious criticism of my writings, and will not hesitate to change my position on Leviticus 18:18 based on sound exposition. Leviticus 18:18 is not integral to my thesis, which is one of the reasons it is treated as a miscellaneous item.
The problem here with Critic's criticism is that he mangles the metaphor/allegory from Isaiah 62:5. He confuses and mixes the metaphor/allegory with the literal reality it represents. His logic here is quite flawed. This is very much unsound exposition. My logic in no way supports a wife getting husbands nor incestuous polyandry in that passage. Critic is clearly wrong in this accusation. This is unbridled emotion at work and not sound exposition of God's holy Word.
Moreover, Critic has given no rejoinder to the actual and specific exposition I made in my book, M&WIBL. To wit, why does the text of Leviticus 18:18 say to not take the second sister to vex "her" instead of "them?" Or, to ask the question from the other direction, why does not the text of Leviticus 18:18 ban taking the second sister so as not to vex them instead of to vex "her"? I ask, as I asked in the book, why does the situation addressed vex only the one sister and not both? If we take every word of God seriously, then must demonstrate a conclusive answer to this question, or he has not established his point. I contend that the situation addressed only vexes the one sister, as the text clearly states, because 1) the second sister is, indeed, not "vexed" by the marriage and 2) the REASON the second sister is not vexed by the marriage is because she is not contemplated as barren and childless. If, in fact, there were an inherent vexing of this sisterly relationship based upon the act of marrying two sisters constituting sin, then BOTH sisters would be vexed by the situation.
Again, I assert, the situation remedied by the ban is the potential spoiling of the sisterly relationship by taking a second sister to bear children in the presence of a barren and childless sister. In other words, this is a qualified prohibition. As I pointed out in my book, it is the only ban in Leviticus 18 which is qualified in any way. All of the other prohibitions are stated without qualification of any kind. Why? Critic, apparently, has no answer to this question. I believe I have a very sound answer to the question.
One strength of this proposition is that it has precedent by way of examples given to us by the Holy Spirit in the Word of God regarding 1) Hagar's vexing of Sara regarding her childlessness in Genesis 16, 2) the vexing of Rachel by her sister Leah because of Rachel's childlessness in Genesis 30 and 3) the vexing of Hannah by Penninah because of Hannah's childlessness in I Samuel 1. This is a very strong and repeated theme in Scripture, that is, of a childless wife being vexed by the presence of a second wife who has children. Providing an heir to a husband was a central concern of the Israelite family. It is, in fact, the overarching raison d'etre for the Hebrew family in Scripture.
Secondly, attempts to empty the metaphors/allegories of Ezekiel and Jeremiah of their significance. Is God confused or inconsistent with Himself? should re-read both my and Jay E. Adams' arguments in regard to this issue. On 's premise, the Biblical metaphors picture God as committing iniquity. Is this really rational? Is this biblical?
Accusations are one thing. Backing them up with valid exposition of the Word of God is quite another. I would submit to you that Critic has been weighed in the balances in this regard and found wanting.
God bless you.
Tom
"Polygamy is not a sin but monogamy is the ideal"
Another similar objection I have encountered is the claim that, “Though the Bible permits polygamy, monogamy is the ideal.” This argument is not so much an “objection” against polygamy since it concedes the essential point, as it is a subversion of the biblical concept of morality. Morality is that which is permitted by Divine Law; immorality is that which is forbidden by Divine Law (see 1 John 3:4). The gradations of “good,” “better,” and “ideal” are contingencies of individual circumstances. Morally speaking, monogamy and polygamy are both ideal and perfect since both are consistent with Divine Law. To smuggle a practical, utilitarian concern for good, better and ideal into the question of Biblical ethics is to undermine the categories of sin and righteousness. Page 25 - MWBLMonday, November 30, 2009
New Book: They Shall Be One Flesh
Dear readers:
Just a note to let everyone understand that “They Sall Be One Flesh” is a book IN PROGRESS and is not the finished version. This book is being written essentially in public before your eyes. Feedback of any kind is welcome, including proofreading observations.
Thanks.
Tom Shipley
The simple fact of the matter is, the Church to this day has NEVER developed a systematic and biblically faithful doctrine of sex and marriage. Readers may find it incredulous that a subject of such import should have suffered such neglect.
Yes, I know, the bookshelves of modern Christian bookstores are replete with "practical" treatments of husband/wife relations and "how-to" manuals from a Christian perspective. Marriage seminars abound. Christian radio and television and internet websites go on for 24 hours a day on the subject. Josh McDowell fills stadiums full of men who come home with a zeal to do it God's way. Yet, for all this, there is, and always has been, a curious dearth of solid doctrinal treatments of the subject. To my way of thinking, this is a positive scandal.
... Have we allowed unbiblical, non-biblical and anti-biblical systems of thought to corrupt our doctrines of sex and marriage?
As I have pointed out in Volume 1 of this series, the modern Church is way off base in all its major branches concerning the doctrines of patriarchy and polygyny. As a consequence, the Church is compromised in its approach to and handling of modern feminism, as well as its understanding of the biblical definition of adultery. The legacy of ancient pagan Rome is still very much with us today. We in the West are their direct lineal descendants in more than one way. We ARE their children.
This Volume and the one that preceded it is offered to the Church as a belated treatment of the subjects at hand—I say belated because Athanasius or Augustine or Luther, good Biblicists of the past, should have provided such a work to the Church long ago. It is long past time to cast off the yoke of Rome.
They_Shall_Be_One_Flesh.pdf Free to download.
Now expanded to 112 pages (1/23/2010).
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Biblical Families Radio Interviews Tom Shipley Dec 20, 9 PM
Tom Shipley Responds • (0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Demographic Problem Requires a New Covenant Answer
Commentary • (0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink
Thursday, August 13, 2009
The War on Godly Procreation
It is time to fight back.
- 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."
- God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.
- 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.
Not only is the command to be fruitful and multiply the Prime Directive, the Dominion Mandate, given to unfallen man, the first command given to man, it is also repeated again and again to the covenant people of God. If there is anything that would hinder the obedience to this command by covenant keeping Christians it ought to be looked at with the utmost skepticism and suspicion. If there is a price to be paid for obedience to this command we ought to find a way to pay that price.
It is time to identify our enemies and remove their propaganda from our thinking. Remember, Satan is just as happy about marriages of godly women to unbelievers, and godly women remaining single and never bearing (pre-aborting?) their children, as he is about the babies aborted and sacrificed to idols. Disobedience to the Dominion Mandate begins in a corrupted/barren womb. To please God we must abort the little feminist within us before it gives birth to death and judgment. We must do this despite the corrupt doctrines we have inherited from our fathers.
We must obey for "The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed." Romans 8:19
A baptized feminist is anyone who thinks Biblical polygamy is a sin despite the evidence of Scripture. The real sin is to have Christian women take their wombs out of action until their idea of Mr. (Single) Right comes along. Do we really have to go through the devastation of Isaiah 3 before believing women forsake feminism and embrace the polygyny of Isaiah 4 and it's attendant blessings? The payoff for Satan in convincing Christians that polygyny is a sin is in squelching godly procreation.
It is true: Feminism, monogamy, and witchcraft form an unholy trinity working the destruction of Christian civilization.
The real slippery slope: anti-polygyny laws and mores, contraception, abortion, easy divorce, sodomy, judgement.
Friday, August 07, 2009
Lambs and Lions vs. Wolves and Dogs
I was all set to write on this topic and found the good fellows at: http://www.righteouswarriors.com/controversial/article8.html has already done a fine job of it. So I am referring to their article here.
Clash of Cultures
The polygynous pattern is found throughout Scripture, whether talking about the husband (head of the household) and the wives, or Messiah (the head of the assembly) and the body of Messiah (also referred to in Scripture as the bride of Messiah). Symbolically, when Messiah comes for His bride, does it mirror a monogynous (one to one) or a polygynous (one to many) relationship? In the Scriptures, you are either married or unmarried.
... The reason polygyny is so vehemently opposed by so many believers is not, I suspect, because they reject it as Biblical, but because it represents a "clash of cultures". Whatever the West is, it is NOT Hebraic, it is Greek. By gaining a better understanding of Elohim's Word, we find ourselves returning back to our Messianic or Hebraic roots. Once we accept what the Tanak and the Messianic Scriptures say on this subject, instead of what people may think about the subject, we are invariably forced to accept polygyny as a valid form of marriage.
Messiah is also referred to in Scripture as the Lion of Judah. He is also known as the Passover Lamb. But whatever term is used, you'll find a parallel to polygynous creatures. A pride of lions is formed by one male lion, several female lions and their cubs. The males will fight one another for possession of the pride, but only one of them gets the females. Lions are highly polygynous and sociable, with the females harmoniously grooming one another as part of their social activities and suckling one another's cubs. A male lamb, when mature, becomes a ram. Rams also compete for the flock. The winner gets the ewes.
In Matthew chapter 10, Yahushua said, "See, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves". Wolves are always referred to in Scripture as depicting evil, and wolves are fiercely monogynous and highly exclusive. The dominant male and female will not allow the other wolves to mate.
The reason that we in the West have such a hard time accepting what the Scriptures clearly say on this matter has to do with the nature of Roman and Greek thinking in relation to marriage. The culture of Western Civilization teaches us to live in a state of "serial monogamy", where a person, male or female, can marry, divorce and then remarry as many times as desired. The offshoot of this type of thinking is, of course, anti-marriage. Having more than one wife is simply not acceptable in Western Civilization, but fornication, divorce, adultery, promiscuity, sodomy, pre-marital sex, orgies, mistresses, cohabitation or living together - these things are acceptable, expected, and in many ways, encouraged in our culture.
A major cause of our marital and social decadence is inherent in the pagan Roman and Greek philosophy that there must be only one wife at a time and that she must be exclusive. It's that simple. There can be no other, for she has exclusive possession of her husband, and this exclusive possession of him inherently and subtly gives her the right into almost every aspect of his life.
Commentary • (0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
New Covenant Patriarchy and the Two Dougs
How Reconstruction got squelched and how it will be revived again.
Building on the work of Cornelius VanTil, the world's greatest modern philosopher, RJ Rushdoony developed Christian Reconstruction, a family oriented understanding of Biblical Law and authority. While it took him a life time to publish and explain it, it took only a few years for some of his early followers to repudiate his central thesis regarding the family and start to counter Rushdoony's growing influence. After all, how could the family be the foundation for a revived Christendom when it was so small and weak in every way. Instead, they reasoned, we must build on the church as the only institution capable of standing up to the state.
So the Reconstructionist camp split in two as epitomized by Doug Philips (www.visionforum.com; www.visionforum.com/hottopics/blogs/dwp/) continuing with Rushdoony's family orientation and Doug Wilson (www.christkirk.com; www.dougwils.com) spearheading the idea of a renewed church as our best hope. Doug Wilson requirements for membership include a statement that the member will do whatever the elders tell him to do. It is missing the clause "within the bounds of Biblical Law". So he gives the "King's X" to the elders of the church.
Despite the family orientation of the Doug Philips camp, it is compromised by a lack of courage, conviction, and strength in the face of the demonic doctrine of monogamania and thus gives succor to a septic form self-righteous personal piety and the essence of feminism, the demand for exclusivity. Submission to husbands and fathers is predicated on the man's obedience to the first commandment of feminism, "Thou shalt have no other wives before me for I am a jealous wife, visiting wrath upon anyone who dares suggest otherwise unto the third and fourth circle of his associates."
With the claim of exclusivity, a wife thereby declares her independence from her husband's authority.
The Christian Patriarchy movement (not to be mistaken with the New Covenant Patriarchy movement) has real problems with the doctrine of authority as taught by RJ Rushdoony. What they do not understand is that all authority is derived authority or it loses legitimacy. Jesus is the supreme authority (All authority in heaven and on earth is given unto me) and he delgates authority to whom he will. Governments (civil, church, familial, school, business, and most importantly, self) wield legitimate authority only insofar as they are within the bounds of Biblical Law. A husband's authority stops where injustice starts. A wife has every right to appeal to Biblical Law against all who perpetrate an injustice in her marriage. Furthermore, divorce is a gift from God that enables a spouse to separate her self from an evil marriage partner. Furthermore, men are always soley responsible for their thoughts, words, and actions in regard to women's appearance and cannot legitimately impute their guilt onto women. "Thou art the man!" as Nathan said in 2 Samuel 12:7.
When a man claims independence from YHWH's authority he declares himself to be the exclusive authority, deciding for himself what is right and wrong. Judgment is then inevitable. The Holy Spirit refuses His presence and power and the rebellious man is left to the authority of Satan and dominion is kept from him.
So the Doug's better get it straight: submit to God's definition of marriage and justice or prepare to suffer the curses of Deuteronomy 28:15ff.
Tom Shipley and New Covenant Patriarchy point the way forward with a renewed doctrine of marriage, of man and woman in Biblical law. Without this doctrine, authority in the family is turned upside down and distorted. Since the family is the foundational institution of society getting this doctrine right is essential to the reconstruction of society in terms of Biblical Law.
New Covenant Patriarchy ... • (0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink
Friday, May 29, 2009
How to Spot a New Covenant Wife
For you New Covenant Patriarchs out there looking for a New Covenant Wife to help you in fulfilling the Dominion Mandate, there is a special test you can apply that will, in most cases, ensure you are not getting fooled into being yoked to a feminist.
Sadly, there are many well-meaning single young women who look, talk, and imagine themselves to be a suitable helpmeets to a New Covenant Patriarch, when in actuality they are feminists.When Eve, the original feminist, sinned, the temptation was to be as god:
And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing (determining) good and evil.
And what is a god's first priority? The first commandment of God is: Thou shalt have no other gods before me. The feminist version of this is: Thou shalt have no other wives before me.
A feminist cannot tolerate her husband having any other wives besides herself. She must, as a god, lay claim to exclusivity in as jealous a way as God does in Scripture: "for I the LORD thy wife am a jealous wife."
Beyond this, if you can find a young woman who not only adheres to the original Ten Commandments but also these Ten Resolutions, then you have found a wife that is truly a precious and a good thing.
Find a godly woman who happily relinquishes the claim on exclusivity as a wife and you will be in line to be that man of whom our Lord in speaks of:
Note: If anyone has any idea how to safely tell the difference between the pretenders and the real thing from a safe distance please post it in the comments."And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in."
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
The Unintentionally Single Girl and Biblical Law
Bad doctrine and the culture war have combined to frustrate many godly Christian women in their desire for a husband. The bad doctrine is not just an inherited thing that is ignorantly perpetuated by well meaning leaders and theologians, it is intellectually protected by these men even when they have been shown the truth, such is the lack of character in our civilization - this a major cause of the crisis we find ourselves in. The culture war is between the culture of Scripture and the culture of baptized feminist humanism.
WORLD magazine's article Single and stuck? highlights the problem of those women who were raised as god-fearing Christians wanting marriage but stuck in singleness. They want to fulfill the normal desire of every young girl to have a husband and a family. But where are the faithful righteous men that are supposed to come calling asking father for their hand, competing to rescuing them from a life of barren singleness? Sadly, they cannot look to Scripture because, seemingly, the question is not addressed there.
Where in Scripture is the role model of the single woman who finds herself without a husband? You would think there would be at least one godly woman somewhere in Scripture who finds herself in an age of apostasy (of which there were plenty in the Israel of Bible times) with few prospects of ever finding a faithful, godly, single man? Even WORLD asks, "But what if there are more Christian women desiring to be married than there are men wanting to be married?"
It seems God has missed something here. Either that or we have.
Let's look at this logically for a moment: God commands us to be fruitful and multiply. God makes you a women in today's world. You want to obey God and reap the blessings of that obedience - a husband to obey, serve, and have as a covering protection, and children to raise for God's kingdom. But there are no godly single men to be had. We then must ask, "Is God providing, as a Provident God, a way to obey Him?"
Of course. God is a loving God who has provided a way, demonstrated in His Word, practiced by His saints, and provided for in every place and every time in history. What is unusual about our particular view of Scripture is that we have, theologically and culturally, decided that we know better than God how marriage should be defined, what constitutes right and wrong, and who our source of law should be, and what parts of His Word we will and will not take seriously. This all makes it hard for us to look to His Word when looking for answers because we have, a priori, discounted His providential order for marriage as irrelevant to us.
God is, in fact, very pro-marriage and has provided a godly husband for every godly women who wants one. Only the one He has provided for you might just not be single. The very best ones are not. They have proved themselves to be godly men by the fruit of their lives. They obey and teach others to obey God's law. They are faithful to their wives and give them loving leadership, expecting their wives to submit to them as they submit to God's LawWord. They are Christ like in their faithfulness to God and in their kindness to the needy and strangers, orphans and widows. If they know God's law and obey it they will also be willing to take more than one woman under their wing.
Yes, under God's law, any woman can have any man for a husband, so long as they are equally yoked. All men are available. All women under 60 years of age are expected to be married and serve God by serving a husband. All women who can have children are expected to be married and obey the command to be fruitful and multiply.
To the unintentionally single girls: Thus for you to find a good husband you must be able to discern which ones are obeying God law and which ones just talk a good line, telling you what you want to hear. To discern which is which you must become a student of God's LawWord. When you have spent a year or two reading and studying Biblical Law let your father know and tell him to contact the man you can then recognize as a godly man.
To the fathers of unintentionally single girls: You have a part to play in helping your daughters fulfill the command of God to be fruitful and multiply. A godly daughter will remain under your authority until you transfer that authority to a godly man. She should not have to do this alone. You are better equipped to tell a rotter from a godly man. Look around: has God provided a good man for your daughter? And do not rule out a man just because he is already married. And do not waste too much more time. And provide her with a dowry and ask for a bride price (roughly 10 ounces of gold or 600 ounces of silver). A good man will not balk at this.
To the would be suitors of unintentionally single girls: Its time to exercise your sanctification and get in good spiritual shape for the challenge of being a true believer of God in a apostate age. There is no culture of belief around you to teach you the ongoing validity of God's LawWord. But you have the Scriptures and there are able teachers available if you search for them.
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
Torahnomics
How to apply God’s LawWord to the economic crisis we face.
Christians are tempted to fall into depression and despair along with the world as we face hard economic times. But we live under a different set of rules than do those who reject the written or the walking Torah of YHWH. We live by these three rules of economics:1. Deut. 28:1-14 If we obey YHWH's directives, regulations, ordinances, rules, laws, statutes, and judgments, being thoroughly bridled to His way in every thought, word, and deed, then we will be blessed and prospered in every way imaginable. But we know we fall short, even as saved people, so what can we do? Look to Galatians 6:2. If we will bear one another's burdens, within the bounds of His LawWord, then we will have fulfilled the Law of Christ and thus become eligible for those promises. This is the law of substitution. See Charles Williams (of the Inklings) for more on this long unappreciated truth.
2. Malachi 3:10 We must tithe according to His LawWord. This includes the disposition of our tithe:
a) to the Levites (that is those who teach and labor in correct understanding of YHWH's LawWord),
b) to the poor, widows, orphans, sick, and strangers in our land and
c) for the celebration of YHWH's feast days which would require us to reform our calendar (you will know you are on the right track when you have a new moon sabbath).
When we do this we are assured, as a matter of actually testing YHWH Himself (the only time we are allowed to so test him) that he will bless us, regardless of the current economic climate, to the point of heaped up, pressed down, and overflowing riches.
3. Matthew 6:33 If we will seek His Kingdom and the rule of His Law as our first priority, He will make it His concern to add to us all the good things that ungodly people normally seek as a priority.
Greater clarification on all these does entail a study of Biblical Law. The best teacher available to us for this purpose is R.J. Rushdoony. His books and audio lessons are widely available and easily accessible.
Thanks to AJ for this article.
Commentary • (0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink