With the recent appointment examination of Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense, the main theme of his examination (besides being pummeled for past sexual and alcoholic sins) regarded his views of women in the military. Incensed lawmakers pushed Hegseth to promise he would not remove women from the military, but Hegseth eloquently navigated their (less-than-clever) traps and explained he plans to bring the military back to a high but fair standard of physical fitness. He will not have separate testing for men and women. He will be overjoyed to see women in any and all military roles—but they will have to pass the same tests as the men.
Anyone who has not been hoodwinked by woke lies over the past couple of decades understands this will bar almost all women from serving in combat roles. Women are not capable of the same physical strength testing as men. God did not build women for combat. God did not make women equal to men in this area.
This removes the rose-colored glasses from the extreme feminists who believe women can do everything a man can do—only better. If this is the case, if women cannot compete with men in this area, then it is blindingly obvious men and women are created differently and designed for different purposes. We are not the same, and that is good, because that was the Creator’s choice.
We find joy in learning to submit to the Creator’s design. Those who quit trying to be what they are not will find themselves more content and stable in life because they live according to what is objectively true. There is a way we are supposed to live.
To slightly switch gears, there has been a wave of so-called women pastors and women Christian teachers that has swept over our nation and I’m sure other progressive countries.
Josh Buice wrote an article in 2018 in which he mentions some interesting statistics:
In 2017 Barna Research Group pointed out that there was a rise in the number of women pastors. According to their study, “One of every 11 Protestant pastors is a woman—triple as many as 25 years ago.” In a new statistical analysis, “State of Clergywomen in the U.S.: A Statistical Update” the numbers indicate that within “most Mainline denominations, the percentage of clergywomen has doubled or tripled since 1994.”
Does it surprise us that a country ruled by feminist and woke doctrines for the past century has become comfortable with women leading in church? Does it upset anyone to sit at the feet of a woman preacher these days? Women do everything men do and more, we are told. Today, it’s seen as a wicked patriarchal power play for men to affirm that women shouldn’t do something. A church which bars women from preaching and teaching over men is so 1700s.
We who follow Jesus Christ must listen to what He says about us and follow His lead in every possible way. Notably, Jesus viewed all of Scripture as the Word of God, and He used the Hebrew Scriptures as an absolute authority. We do the same.
When it came to marriage, Jesus didn’t ask what the current cultural norm was, He didn’t ask about the prevailing spirit of the age, nor did He ask what anyone thought about it. He pointed back to the first two chapters of the Bible, to creation, where God made man, woman, and marriage. He said, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female [from Genesis 1.27], and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’ [from Genesis 2.24]? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate” (Matthew 19.4–6).
What else does Scripture teach about male and female? Quite a lot!
God created woman to be a helper to her husband (Genesis 2.18), and He established the husband to rule over his wife (Genesis 3.16).
Regarding roles and societal norms, Moses wrote, “A woman shall not wear a man’s garment, nor shall a man put on a woman’s cloak, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD your God” (Deuteronomy 22.5). Some have made a strong case that this regards putting on the soldier’s uniform—that God specifically prohibited women from dressing for war like men. Likewise, it prohibits men from dressing like women. It pains me to see men do this, even in jest or for theatrical reasons.
In the New Covenant Scriptures, Paul commanded, “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands” (Ephesians 5.22–24; Colossians 3.18).
Regarding women in the assemblies of the saints (when the church gathers), Paul wrote, “As in all the churches of the saints, the women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says. If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church” (1 Corinthians 14.33–35).
In a more general statement, Paul wrote to Timothy, “Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor” (1 Timothy 2.11–14).
Women are to “love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled” (Titus 2.4–5).
Peter wrote, “Wives, be subject to your own husbands… For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord” (1 Peter 3.1, 5–6a).
A woman’s role is mainly to her household as homemaker. That is a high and honorable work God gave the woman—to support her husband, family, and household. When she loses sight of her purpose and design, she loses herself trying to become something she cannot and should not be. It’s foolhardy to fight against reality.
Most of America today would call what is written above as misogynistic and patriarchal, and they would have poison in their tone. But what have I done above? I have quoted from the same Scriptures Jesus trusted, and from Peter and Paul, two of His leading apostles who He said he would send the Holy Spirit to guide them into all truth. As a disciple of Christ, this is where I must go. It’s not negotiable. I cannot overlook the direct commands and teachings of my Lord, Jesus Christ. This puts me at odds with the current culture in many ways, but I am content that I am on the ultimate winning side!
Whether in the military or the church or the home, women and men have different places given by God. Both are beautiful and necessary. We should rejoice in the role we have been given and love and respect the role of the other sex, for we were given to work together for the good of the Kingdom of Christ.