The Creation of Patriarchy, By Gerda Lerner, Oxford University Press, 1986. 318 pages.
Is it possible to trace the origins of the patriarchal systems that have been practiced worldwide for thousands of years? Gerda Lerner (1920–2013), a professor of Women’s History, defined patriarchy as “the manifestation and institutionalization of male dominance over women and children in the family and the extension of male dominance over women in society” and over some men (239). Lerner’s book, The Creation of Patriarchy, rejects women’s subordination as “natural” (229), and instead seeks to correct what Lerner sees as the marginalization of women in the writing of their own history, and to explain the origins of this marginalization.
From the invention of writing in Mesopotamia and the lack of female education, to the rise of hierarchical empires, to the male-oriented monotheism of the Bible, to Aristotle’s and later Freud’s assessment of women as deviant men (rendering male rule natural and necessary due to female inferiority), Lerner argues the androcentric approach to history has obfuscated the important contributions of half of humanity. Her book develops ten propositions in tracing, “by means of historical evidence, the development of the leading ideas, symbols, and metaphors by which patriarchal gender relations were incorporated into Western civilization” which has systematically subjugated women and excluded women from meaning-making (10).
Chapters 1–2 Neolithic Life
Chapters 1–2 begin with the anthropological view of modern Neolithic people groups, suggesting the exchange of women between tribes to refresh the gene pool, and to secure harmonious alliances, creates a power imbalance between men and women. Working with the analyses of Engels and Claude Lévi-Strauss, Lerner proposes that such exchanges lay the groundwork for the concept of property, realized when hunting and foraging gave way to settled agriculture.
Farming requires workers and women bore them. During a woman’s best years of strength and vitality, she would be engaged in pregnancies, births, and nursing, requiring male protection and provision so that “the exploitation of human labor and the sexual exploitation of women [became] inextricably linked” (52). Men, according to Lerner, appropriated female sexual and reproductive capacity as a commodity which eventually developed into the regulation of wives, the normalization of rape in certain circumstances, the purchase of concubines for added children, the procurement of prostitutes for sexual outlet, and the institutionalization of slavery for both.
Chapters 3–6: Bronze Age Law
Chapters 3–6 examine Mesopotamian, Middle Assyrian, and Hittite documents, the earliest extant written law in the Ancient Near East. Topics cover the uses of women taken captive in war; the responsibility of wives to be virgins upon marriage, to produce children, and to remain utterly faithful in monogamy; and the veiling of “respectable” women versus the state-sanctioned non-veiling of “public” women. Women sustained ever-decreasing freedoms and privileges as matrilineal kinship gave way to patrilineal, the patriarchal household became established with one male as head, and tribal grounds evolved into kingships with armies, then empires with covenants. In the hierarchy, the highest position held by women was for wives of elite men, the lowest for female slaves, and the middle tier taken by concubines. A woman’s status was entirely dependent upon the men in her life, or lack thereof.
Chapters 7–9 Who Creates Life?
Lerner next explores how the question “’Who creates life?’ lies at the core of religious belief systems” (180). Chapters 7–9 follow the evolution of Neolithic wonder in the mystery of new life coming forth through women, to the emergence of the mother-goddess, to the dethroning of goddesses throughout the known world as younger, more powerful and robust male gods took their ascendancy. Broadening her scope from the Ancient Near East to Greek philosophy and religion, Lerner demonstrates the progressive subordination of goddesses and priestesses to an androcentric religious hegemony.
In the case of YHWH, female participation was removed entirely, leaving only male priests and a male covenant emblem: circumcision. The final chapter, appendix, and notes complete Lerner’s book, explaining how “Men’s version of history, legitimized as the ‘universal truth,’ has presented women as marginal to civilization and as the victim of historical process.”
Patriarchy Had a Beginning … And Will Have an End
“What is the relationship of ideas, and specifically of ideas about gender, to the social and economic forces that shape history” (10)? In answering her own question, The Creation of Patriarchy became a groundbreaking work taking eight years to study the history of ancient Mesopotamia. Lerner systematically examines a massive amount of data pertaining to the Ancient Near East’s earliest written records, including origin myths, law, and the Hebrew Bible, along with later Greek literature.
Lerner’s treatise on the devaluing of the mother-goddesses, and goddesses overall, supports her point that social reality is profoundly influenced by symbols. Lerner appreciates the complexities of culture, of human relationships, of religion and the evolution of ethics, philosophy, and science (which she did not address), so avoids simplistic explanations. Yet, with her gynocentric rubric in analyzing these ancient annals, Lerner reveals a cohesive story of the erosion of early relative equality for women as a political elite developed in competition with the religious elite, giving rise to militarism and empire building.
Men developed the concept of property through the exchange of women, men learned domination through the subduing of women, and women—however unconsciously—willingly participated in systems that would eventually define them as “less than.” Lerner’s novel approach to the development of slavery discloses how the early enslavement of female and child war captives became the model for later enslavement of men and created layers of “unfreedom” for women. It is inaccurate to suggest women are in a class to themselves, for women occupy every strata of society, just never equal that with men.
Of particular interest is the watershed invention of a full system of writing, followed by scribal schools, archives, and history written from the perspective of those in command, kings and conquerors. “We should not underestimate the significance of that aspect of gender control as a force restraining women from full participation in the process of creating thought systems” (227). Written law codified custom and sought to curtail activities that undermined the state’s interests, including the control of women. In each chapter, Lerner was able to demonstrate the institutionalization of inequality and lessoning of free agency for all women, as well as for some men, beginning with the hierarchy of one-man-rule in the patriarchal household.
Ten Propositions That Explain the Rise of Patriarchy
The ten propositions outlined in The Creation of Patriarchy’s introduction build successfully upon each other through each chapter. Lerner’s mastery of historical research and analysis of Ancient Near Eastern documents is the highlight of her book. She expertly cross-references poetry and epics with law and philosophy, substantiating her thesis with level-headed logic and careful citation. Nevertheless, it bears mentioning that written law tends to address widespread behavior the state is seeking to check, or lack of behavior the state is seeking to encourage. In the case of veiling laws, increasingly harsh penalties seem to indicate a relative lack of compliance, either by men or women, in differentiating between “respectable” women (belonging to one man) and “public” women (fair game). Women may have enjoyed more freedoms than ancient law prescribed.
Biblically Weak
The chapters on the Patriarchs and the Covenants in the Hebrew Scriptures are, unfortunately, weak. Lerner exhibits a working knowledge of the scriptures and its stories, but her interpretation ironically falls prey to a patriarchal reading of the text. Her treatment of God is no different than that of the rest of the ancient pantheons as myths devised to both answer metaphysical questions but also to govern and manage people. Though Lerner’s discussion follows a timeline for historical events (giving credence to the biblical narrative) and concedes the revolutionary quality of monotheism, her assessment reduces YHWH to a human—male—construct weighted towards the interests of men. Nevertheless, Lerner’s points are worthy of note. Like their Mesopotamian sisters, Hebrew women were not as valued, judging from a patriarchal reading of the text, in relationship to God, and were treated as a different category than men, with harsher penalties and narrower limitations.
Conceptually Strong
Lerner boldly and provocatively concludes: “The system of patriarchy is a historic construct; it has a beginning; it will have an end” (228), certainly a contested summation. Yet, even forty years later, Lerner’s research makes this book an important addition to the debate about the origins and therefore legitimacy of patriarchy. The history of women can be detected in the ancient record, though it is masked as supporting details to the stories of men. Even the scriptures, written from the male perspective, relegate women to a marginal, or at least, supporting role. Yet through this book Lerner has proven that the record, however biased, can still be excavated to unearth the history of women from millennia of obfuscation.
Sister-in-Christ Jesus-Joanne
This kind of obsession that Gerda Lerner promotes proves to me that she is quite insane and deviant! We live in the fallen separated from God and Paradise world, and this issue or actually any other like it will never be resolved here on earth or by humans as to any point of perfection, because there is none here! She is dead wrong and beyond foolish, I say damned!
This world is operating on the principles that God Himself ordained and allows to serve “His plan” not mere people’s, like Gerda or Biden and the rest of the self-proclaimed know it all’s!
And yes, men have been the “stronger in the harsh primitive world” of the past, over the many millennia ago! But only now in the modern technological world have women tried to thrust an “alternate Reality” of “any human male female paradigm” upon us all like Gerda is doing! It will all backfire in her face and anyone who follows this “illogical train of thought and heart or insane mindset” when they face “God on Judgment Day!”
Jesus is God and came here to this fallen place to save our souls, but, “He” did come as a “Man” not a woman which is all I need to know and that is quite telling and final in and of itself! Men where always “the leaders” of protecting or forging new empires and fighting off the brutal merciless enemies of which there were always many and still are; but women did not save the day or protect; as it was the men who were stronger and able to overcome their adversaries, so that is reality!
Feminists are an insane lot that don’t accept reality but want to “rewrite history” and “make believe it never happened that way” or in the least they can do better now; perhaps by playing the Victim; because men keep them down throughout the ages! All of it poppycock!
I know I see reality clearly so I won’t be convinced by Gerda or any of her own ilk of “what to know and believe,” not a snowballs chance in hell can she sway me from God’s Truth!
Amen.
Brother-in-Christ Jesus-Lawrence
Where I can agree with you, brother-in-Christ Lawrence, is in how Lerner handled the biblical examples and texts she included in her book. I was disappointed in how she read those passages, and what she took away from them in her understanding. By no means is the Lord dismissive of women, or in any way holds women back, or limits women. God is as much for women as God is for men, for all human beings.
Lerner’s research into the ways in which certain elite men in various cultures throughout ancient history and prehistory managed to subjugate not only women but whole people groups through war and enslavement is invaluable. These are the very wrongs our Lord God has been speaking against for thousands of years. In God’s own Law there is a distinct graciousness that made the Hebrew people much more aware than the surrounding cultures of the value and worth of every human being.
But the restoration of freedom and dignity to all human beings did not come until the cross.
Unfortunately, there is still a strong bias against this very restoration among some.
Lerner’s book is worth the read. Even though one may not agree with everything she proposes, her research is invaluable, and exhaustive.
Grace and peace to you, from our Lord and from me, your sister in Christ, Joanne
Sister-in-Christ Jesus-Joanne. So much needs to be thrashed-out and laid bare to expose the fundamental obvious truths here, as to what is “imperative right now in our current reality,” and discard the rest as so much extraneous noise or distraction. First we are at WAR! The “biggest and baddest” ever on earth, outside of the GREAT FLOOD of Noah’s time!
“By no means is the Lord dismissive of women, or in any way holds women back, or limits women. God is as much for women as God is for men, for all human beings.”
Wrong this is not the argument to be making at all! I’m dismissive of many women as well as many men! Maybe if one is an affirmative action, leftist and rabblerousing nincompoop, in such minds that statement would be the stance to take while “this ship we’re on is going down fast; but it’s dumb!
In this “fallen world” there is a “reality that dictates specifics” that cannot be denied, and women “should not be competing with men” in many arenas, which is just plain idiocy to set men and women up to be “dueling each other” as the feminists (as well as other enemies such as communists) have done on many fronts! Riley Gaines is correct, in saying that “Trans” men (CRAZY SOBS) should not be allowed to compete in female sporting events and just the fact that this is “even being debated proves my point;” of how “stupid” human beings have become, because of “all the blending” going on and how “women want more and more control or power (getting empowered as the lingo goes) as well as recognition in “past” world history of the “ancient past,” maybe to (rewrite it) to use as a tool, so that now what we have is a very “warped and completely sick civilization” (brainwashed) far removed from “traditional agricultural based societies or standards!” So “technology” in this “fallen world” has not really been any friend, but rather is actually a “huge enemy of mankind!” AKA the “terminator story” which we are heading “full-bore” at in the current “global trajectory,” now making that sci-fi a reality! Everything is out of place and “nothing is sacred anymore” in this “absolutely insane world order” with psychopathic billionaires like Klaus Schwab, Musk, Soros along with diabolical agencies or platforms like the WEF, WHO, UN and many others, along with the dark “inner circle” of “Freemasonry” setting the human race up for the biggest fall ever! What Satan has been plotting and banking on all along, with these stupid humans, as he sees us!
To tell you the truth I would rather see absolutely more focus on older “tried tested and proven traditional lifestyle values” than all this “new age” focus of trying to “rewrite history” where women take “center stage” (which they did not and could not and will not) not only in this off the wall modern age, but when they try to juxtapose the female of the ancient world as being more than what she was or even something she was “not meant to be;” the inherent differences are extreme between men and women and “for good reason,” which could be a huge whole separate discussion! But God set things up the way they are and no women or men should be trying to talk counter to that reality, nor should they think they can “re-invent the wheel” and “redo this world along with we humans” in “our own image or for our own purposes!” All I see today is “REBELLION and STUPIDITY” because people are arrogant or asinine not humble; along with being so self-serving with egos and attitudinal issues to the nth degree! I could put it in even more simple terms and get vulgar, but you know what I mean, how people really are, and it’s “over the top and out of control” so that is not going to change anytime soon as I see things, and the ride will only get a “lot rougher and uglier” moving forward, let’s not try to kid ourselves about any of this!
“Lerner’s research into the ways in which certain elite men in various cultures throughout ancient history and prehistory managed to subjugate not only women but whole people groups through war and enslavement is invaluable.”
She was wrong because many of the men in those patriarchal groups were the same men who protected the whole of those societies from the extremely treacherous and violent warring factions that often surrounded the different tribes or early societies; it’s a very dangerous and evil world out there! The men went off into battle not the women! The women were well adapted and suited to stay close to the children and maintain the needed stability there within, while the “patriarchal men were bruising it with the rest of the entire world” even sailing to distant continents to find material goods or better horizons for those families back home; perhaps to even eventually escape the “tyranny, oppression and slavery” in those original homes like the Christian Forefathers of America did, when they left Europe and those “tyrannical patriarchal king’s dictatorships” to “provide” a better life for their “wives and children;” so let’s keep things in “proper perspective” and not “run hog-wild” as so many modern idiot “feminist women do, in today’s spoiled rotten culture!”
The “elitists’ of today” are doing this “exponentially” beyond anything in the ancient record that Lerner pointed to; and today its “men and women” both in that “elitist group” who are “evil,” pure and simple, “absolutely diabolical;” as in observing any contrast, anyone with a normally functioning brain can see what was done during the “plan-demic,” by both women and men, whereas that’s what the plan was and still is!
Lerner was a communist minded or corrupted thinking individual with a built in “agenda,” and today that same “evil atheistic ideology” is hell-bent and set on destroying anything to do with God or Jesus Christ, as well as enslaving humanity! And we know that Satan wants this above all else to mock God and make humans suffer to no end! Anyone that toys with or simply supports communism, is stupid, insane or EVIL! Make no mistake about it, this “cancer” is here in America now, like never before, because of people like Lerner who impregnated our society and culture back in the early 20th century with this “diabolical evil,” seeds of destruction from hell.
Look around to see who doesn’t have a brain in today’s “off the rails” society where they apparently don’t know how Marx, Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao and others murdered millions of their own citizens to establish communistic rule, and women as well as men were and are especially today, in on that debauchery; but in our universities and now even grade schools they teach the opposite and point fingers at Columbus, George Washington or even Lincoln and demand reparations; total insanity! But yes apparently millions of people are drawing blanks in the brain department on “this fact” even here in America; as they the actual real nefarious evil people are in our government, educational system and corporate industry structures pushing communism or so called progressive BS like never before, as the cure-all for America! “People are nuts” to even give a slight positive thought to any of it, and yet here we are, sitting smack-dab “in this slippery slope to debauchery” the likes of which makes the plan-demic a “campfire girls” outing in comparison to what “butchery and destruction” is coming at us like “bats out of hell!” It’s “really coming,” yet more stupidity abounds than ever!
“The ways in which certain elite men in various cultures throughout ancient history and prehistory managed to subjugate not only women but whole people groups through war and enslavement is invaluable.”
Tying that idea into “Faith in Jesus Christ” especially to prosecute a “sexist agenda” is wrong and uncalled for as far as I’m concerned, which is only used as cannon fodder for the “ill-conceived stories (fantasies) by the crybabies of today looking to pick fights with men for their being leaders or in charge too long; and only serves to cause more of a ruckus or disharmony in society right now when we sure don’t need it, as well as much more friction between men and women! The Devil is loving all of this blatant stupidity! “Kill each other off” he says, and so they do! Just like the commies Lenin, Marx, Khrushchev and others said from their Satan spawned ideology would be the case for America, as it implodes destroying itself from within, as they, the “Real enemies pull the puppet strings” as they’ve been doing so well for so long; accompanied by these internal enemies like Lerner, along with some far worse nefarious characters hard at work to bring down the house, like Bill Gates, George Soros and the list is quite too long now of these eugenics minded psychopaths that far exceed Hitler’s ultimate goal so long ago!
“But the restoration of freedom and dignity to all human beings did not come until the cross.”
Pointing to this as some profound revelation or God truth is like pushing “WOKE or Leftist Progressive rubbish;” just as family structure in ancient times up until the “industrial revolution” things were always more obvious and almost fell into place, but now, we have the opposite where the “disarray and fracturing” of “standard tried, tested and proven norms” is so pronounced that “civilization is coming apart at the seams” as the most “wicked elite” are laughing with the Devil while they plan their next move “to overwhelm the stupid masses of fools” who waste time with all of this nonsense and argue till they are blue in the face, like Lerner did, and millions of people are now doing in all sectors of society, as this whole mess is imploding; it’s all over but for the crying! But then it will be “too little too late” as billions will go to hell for eternity! God is not an “affirmative action idiot” that takes all the worst and gives them free passes to do as they please! The “saints” are the pure example of doing what is right in God’s eyes as far as mere humans, and we are ordered or commanded “to be as saints;” not like Lerner who was anything but! Jesus didn’t do what he did on the cross so anyone or anything is overlooked; but rather the individual must take up his or her own cross, initiative even as Dismas did dying next to Jesus on his own cross, to work hard and “transform from the inside out” of “one’s own volition to undo their own wrongs and defect” out of “absolute love for Jesus Christ;” which Lerner and many Jews obviously didn’t or had not, nor do now in many instances, as well as many gentiles didn’t and don’t now; which has led to more and more people today that do not; now living in this extremely materialistic, vain, self-serving, egotistical and poisonous modern world atmosphere of “screw the other guy before he screws you” mentality; and Scriptures explain very well how this would be the case in End Times! So that is the “Matter at Hand” not all this semantics about foolish Lerner, especially around Easter, who some might try to call a saint for her “supposedly great work” which “actually serves darkness” even now!
Romans 2:6-8 “He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.”
Jude 1:17 “But you, beloved, remember what was foretold by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ 18when they said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow after their own ungodly desires.” 19These are the ones who cause divisions, who are worldly and devoid of the Spirit.”
2 Timothy 3:4-6 “traitorous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5having a form of godliness but denying its power. Turn away from such as these! 6They are the kind who worm their way into households and captivate vulnerable women who are weighed down with sins and led astray by various passions.”
2 Timothy 4:3 “The time is coming when people won’t listen to good teaching. Instead, they will look for teachers who will please them by telling them only what they are itching to hear.”
2 Timothy 3:1-5 “But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.”
Ephesians 6:12 “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”
No this is an affront and now I said it, so no going back, I stick to my guns!! Lerner apparently didn’t Learn too much in her studies, or really care about the “most fundamental and important truth” of “what we are here for and what we had better do while we have the opportunity and time left to try!” She and millions of others did a “great disservice to humanity” and not the other way around, as you or others “may want to think and believe!” “Communism is a CANCER” that has no cure and is now “devouring all the good tissue of civilization” that it can before Jesus returns, so all this talk about how bad some “patriarchal” types were to humanity way in the past “is nonsense” when we have “exponentially worse and absolutely demanding individuals both patriarchal and matriarchal right now” destroying everything good!
Many people should be looking in their own mirrors to see that ugly defect within themselves that is consuming them as they point their fingers with so much distain!
I believe this is where we are as a civilization right now without any doubt in my mind or heart!
Matthew 7:4-6 “How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while there is still a beam in your own eye? 5You hypocrite! First take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. 6Do not give dogs what is holy; do not throw your pearls before swine. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.”
Again this is coming at us “Full-Bore!”
Time for those that want to wake up, to “Wake Up Now!”
God help us and forgive us for our sins!
Brother-in-Christ Jesus-Lawrence
This just came to my email within a podcast to tell me I’m not talking baloney!
“we are witnessing the death of truth in our culture. What are the implications for society when everything—from gender to the Hamas attacks of October 7—is a matter of opinion?” Pragar U
My mistake Prager U
I recognize your passion for righteousness, brother-in-Christ Lawrence. And certainly I find myself also, when I read the news, or watch the world around me, distressed by certain elements that I see.
Sin has always been with us, even when it seemed as though the church was the dominant cultural influence. We can’t get away from sin, from the powers of darkness at work, from the evils and harm of a broken world and we, who are broke people living here. So I have to ask the Lord, what is the right approach to what I see as sin, as wrong, as evil, as darkness encroaching? It is perfectly natural to experience fear and dread, and perhaps also righteous anger. But what do we do? What does the Lord require of us?
I can only speak for me, and what the Lord consistently communicates to me:
God’s first word to me comes through the prophet Micah: “[God] has told you, O mortal, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8 NRSVUE)? That is what I seek to do. To live rightly, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with God, for I know that I will not get everything right, I know that to my last day the Lord will be dealing with my sins, as will I. I am very hesitant to cast stones.
God’s second word to me comes through the apostle John: “Little children, you are from God and have conquered them, for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world” (1 John 4:4 NRSVUE). Those who are in need of rescue will not approach me if I am busy throwing stones at them. But they will come if I hold my hands out to them in kindness, and without fear. For I already know that what every darkness is seeking to hang on to them has no chance with the Lord God Whose Spirit is in me.
I no longer have little children in my care, I am an old woman now. I can afford to be calm, fearless, open, listening, and giving. I already know that one day this world will go up in flames. There is nothing I can do to stop that, for the Lord has written it, and so it shall be. But I can continue to do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with God, and know with quiet confidence that what God wants to do through me God will certainly do. The Lord is unstoppable, none of what the Lord intends to do can be thwarted, and God will rescue every last person swept up in the madness all around us who turns to God in faith and hope.
Finally, God has a third word for me, given to me by our Lord and Savior, Jesus, and one that I strive to fulfill every day: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20 NRSVUE). It is incumbent upon the Holy Spirit to do the convicting and convincing. Our part is to do the making of disciples.
I know the Lord has given you a word, too, and perhaps your part is to prophecy. Sometimes you remind me of a Nahum.
We most likely agree more than we do not on the issue of mutuality between men and women. But that issue is not nearly as important as the Nicene Creed issues, and it is this creed which unites all believers worldwide in the important things.
Grace and peace to you, your sister in Christ, Joanne
We have a so called president of the most powerful nation on earth, who is submerged in mortal sin and blasphemy, as he calls himself a Christian Catholic but yet just pronounced Easter as the day of “TRANSparency.” This abomination while also there is a false pope in the Vatican that “swims in lies and deception” being more of a political pawn for the global elite maniacs of the planet that are all in unison driving humanity off a cliff, into the “Cauldron of Destruction and Diabolical Evil!”
The human race is increasing in sin exponentially and not unlike the Mayans of the ancient world, this modern civilization deserves annihilation, or even like that other depraved society of Sodom and Gomorrah, and basically like any evil empire meets its end one way or another! Just as those ancient civilizations obtained their ultimate punishment; “reap what you sow!”
Does this mean give up and it’s not even worth caring? Of course not because if it was a complete loss I’m sure God’s wrath would have already been brought upon us all; but “God’s plan is coming to fruition” which it must and absolutely will. So there is hope for the remnant or truly faithful, but the journey ahead for them is going to be painful and ugly! Why is that, is it so some others will wake-up and be saved in time? Certainly that must be why it goes on and on, and in the end those who are truly worth saving will be! It’s all bigger than me and you or anyone outside of God Himself, so we know that only God can sort this all out to bring final holy closure and justice!
And then we can find the Plain Truth of God in His word to us regarding how we really should serve Him and stop with the grandstanding or using our own wills to achieve anything of any lasting value!
John 3:30 “Jesus must become more important, while I become less important.”
Mark 10:45 “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”
Philippians 2:6-8 “Who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross.”
I go back to what I had stated in the following back on February 19.
“There is a middle ground of mutuality, where men and women respect each other and work together cooperatively and complementarily, each as they are appointed, anointed, and gifted by the Holy Spirit.”
Joanne sister-in-Christ Jesus, that is all well and good, but yet, I see less and less cooperation amongst them as the centuries pass to where now it’s anyone’s guess what order could possibly come from the “fragmentary severely disheveled and defiant” society of today!
I see God’s prophesy unfolding before our eyes, but, not what He desires of us as His children; rather more of what the Devil has deceived and prodded human kind toward. Of course God and His plan will prevail, but not before things get much uglier and wrong, far beyond what we can imagine! Already in the pipeline beyond “human genome editing” is “trans-humanism” where some will consider morphing human beings into something very special as they think, some big name so called experts on the cutting edge R&D who now have brain chips ready for interfacing the human mind with the cloud; what could possibly go wrong! I speak harshly because we’re not in “a pretend or Sci-Fi movie” it’s really here and happening soon! Is all of this inspired by the Holy Spirit? NOT!
So my point is we have been in “a very long slow-mo crash disaster in the making” that really got sped up exponentially in the 20th and 21st centuries!
As far as “the dueling” between men and women doing damage which we can see the results of by just looking around; I actually see the problem as even more of “mankind dueling with itself” which is the next level.
As I do agree with many of these points you make or illustrate well; “the brokenness of humankind that God prophesied with great sorrow and grief,” and I only add that “things have grown much worse” with the passing of time and the now “more radicalized broken human views of what is broken or how to fix it!” That ditch or (pit) that humans fell into long ago of their own volition just grows deeper and continues to fill with “added putrefaction” the deeper they go, like a “Dante’s Inferno” descent through tighter circles into hell, and eventual oblivion. I mean turn on a television any time of day or look at a multitude of internet sites and see the waste of time pagan, degenerating and even immoral trash being advocated, promoted or pushed upon the society at large, which many are more than willing to accept and slurp up in the name of entertainment or even so called News!
Indeed as you have stated, “This was Israel’s big chance to fulfill the mission God had given,” but look where the human race is through the millennia, even after being given such a golden opportunity to straighten out or get right with God; as I see it worse off than if they were ignorant animals running loose, because, with so much intellect, history and capability to be much better off than the wild animals, “the evil keeps building and escalating” over the centuries to where we now see presently “some of the most sinister and demonic plans unfolding” in governments, corporations, elitist inner circles and many other smaller organizations; all with the central theme of “anti-God and totalitarianism of the masses!”
You see what gets me peeved with all of this is just how “phony and even rotten” human beings have become with their “lip service” or “fancy rhetoric” and “saying one thing and doing another” being “truly two-faced” and “backstabbing” perpetually! For example we had Obama for 8 years and look what he and his entourage did to our Nation under God while the current Biden scam continues in that vein with Congress toeing the line, and there is absolutely no reason for any of it other than the truth being, that humans are a horribly corrupt lot! And I go back to the old standby Scripture that said it plain and simple which now “comes home to roost” and worse now than back then with the ancients!
Yes I speak pessimistically like this following Scripture, but, I don’t have to look very far to see so much decadence, materialistic idol worship, paganism, violence, stupidity, gluttony and self-centeredness all of which is running or controlling this planet, and it makes me sick!
The most powerful and rich are the biggest pigs and they look it! I ask where is the improvement over thousands of years? It’s gotten exponentially worse and now evil rears its ugly head in ways never imagined throughout history! “The 2020 Summer of Love” Nationwide Riots and Destruction, was just a hint of what’s to come!
Romans 3:9-11 “What then? Are we any better? Not at all. For we have already made the charge that Jews and Greeks alike are all under sin. 10As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one. 11There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. 12All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” 13“Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The venom of vipers is on their lips.”
Those lips are giving so much lip service in all strata of society and the net result is the same; nothing but lies, deception and debauchery!
To hell in a hand-basket for sure!
We need Jesus Christ to return so badly!
Respectfully,
Brother-in-Christ Jesus,
Lawrence
And also previously there was this in another exchange.
Sister-in-Christ Jesus. One additional thought to share Joanne. You stated regarding men and women that “God’s intent is equality, and that is what the early church practiced until about the 5th century on.”
The issue I have straight out with that concept by itself is, “in what way do we speak about this equality?” Off the top they are profoundly different and meant to be! We could discuss that innate difference down to the chromosome level of which there has been deep research and conclusive discussion by the top minds in this science. Or focusing in on just the obvious facts that men for the most part have always been physically bigger and stronger, for good reason I might add, and that was God’s intention! While women have absolutely remarkable physical built-in differences being able to carry and bear another human being, which men have never been able to do nor will they ever!
I know these factors are academic to most, but yet, today we have the bizarre among us that make arguments that men can have babies or whatever they want to imagine they can do! I say because of the differences I just mentioned above, and there are many others on a psychological as well as emotional level, that the bottom-line is they are not equal, and never will be in this present form, while of course from a spiritual reference that’s another matter entirely.
Now then, equality of being both human beings male and female born with those “inalienable rights” that our forefathers spoke to, I absolutely agree that all men and all women are equally endowed and should be, as “that is God’s will!” But I do get frustrated with many people who run hog-wild with some pointless arguments about women should be totally equal to men in all regards when that is impossible, and I’ve mentioned in previous commentary that rather than attacking each other over these differences and inequalities which are obvious, that all people should “face the facts” and admit that “together men and women do complement each other,” and each brings not just physical attributes to say protect, or bear children, to the fore; but they can have a synergistic relationship where together they are each at their best, each doing the things they can do better or only can do over each other which is what God intended; making the combination of the two the best possible outcome, as individually they would never achieve such a plateau!
I just was hoping to make it clear what I really see going on with people in this regard. Far too much confusion, and to be blunt, stupidity!
Extremes are the cause of most if not all of the unrest in societies as even back then in ancient times and now today, the extremists (radicals) always throw a “monkey wrench” into the “achievable balance.” As for example the now “fake climate crisis” has created an actual “global food and energy crisis” that is going to kill off millions to perhaps billions of God’s children, all of it completely unnecessarily, but that balance or harmony I mention is being tossed aside for a minority crazy viewpoint (radicals) so the fragile real balance we as mere children of God can attain in this imperfect temporary physical state that we must live in until God makes its otherwise! Until the time, “we become like the angels with no marriage and the like,” with the “culmination of His plan for this world” when it enters the new world and is part of His heavenly kingdom again, maybe we can say the reverse of the “Big Bang.” As Scripture tells us “in the twinkling of an eye” God can and will transform all things in accordance with His divine purposes!
But I say we best use what we have to work with and the opportunities to do God’s will to the very best of our abilities, collectively and individually, “if we know what’s good for us,” because there is no man-made way to eternal life and we best “serve the Master” and put any notions of “transitions, or engineered lifestyles” aside and kick them into the dust! As I have learned through my own personalized school of hard knocks it comes down to “facing reality and the facts” before us! Too often any of us can come up with or concoct some notion or idea that we think will fly and do us more good than “staying inline” or on track with the “tried tested and proven traditional narrow path” that does work, even if not perfect or as easy and pleasant at all times that we would like, it is “the right way!”
“We know from the Bible there were a good number of women who were prophets, and who must have prophesied during worship meetings.”
Perhaps, and again I point out that just because there was a smidgen of “female dominance” during a certain period as compared to the bulk of history, lest we forget such a female without here royal entourage or army of protectors she would be nothing but chopped liver! Because these are basically aberrations in the long haul, so does not mean that we should suddenly put the majority aside or put asunder “the mainstay” for a single conclave or even cult! Which by the way is exactly what the American society and government have done over the last few decades, and especially the last few years in earnest, for which we are suffering severely the consequences of such foolish behavior and thinking. Back in “ancient times” there were many more women who practiced the “dark arts or witchcraft” than men, which has absolutely taken off exponentially in today’s whacked-out feminist driven, now extremely pagan not Christian rooted culture, which is flowing over the top of the society like a tsunami, and into all facets of society; making for a very disturbed and dangerous situation.
Just a side note; when and if the human race is transformed to “living under water” I for one will prefer that women do all the ruling, as mermaids are much nicer to have around down deep in the ocean than tough guys, and mermaids have their “alluring powers” that can conquer as well as hold just about anyone “spell bound!” Yes I try to lighten up the “harsh reality” that I tend to think about too much or at least more than most people around me these days! The Super Bowl meant nothing to me and won’t ever, but, try and tell all the guys or even many of the gals around here that I’m right if you want an argument or even a fight on your hands; here is when the mermaids or in a sense the “angels” come into play!
And thus we see how easy it is to run off the rails and into myth!
I know this is so much to provide in a comment but I hope something here will stand out in bold truth from God’s word to clarify the present difficult circumstance we humans are in right now! And so I add this additional previous commentary from back on February 26 via this link.
https://lawrencemorra.com/2022/10/15/the-world-on-the-brink-of-collapse-and-utter-annihilation/comment-page-7/#comment-8519
The human race is in big trouble and waking up before it’s too late is mandatory while also being absolutely possible!
Thank you Jesus!
Brother in-Christ Jesus-Lawrence
Finally, I also add this which I wrote recently; as a closing here which hopefully is a very proper perspective to have on our current severely troubled time!
I don’t want to read into anything the Left and Radical Cabal think or will do with themselves! I do know that for a transsexual diabolically corrupt person to run for president would be an abomination as well as a death knell for those involved and America itself, if it were to happen!
With all of the horrendous transgressions already occurring in America and around the globe I think anything is possible; but only if God allows it! I think that God is going to obviously have to draw the line in the sand in the short term before matters get much worse! With already the blasphemy of reassigning children’s gender, trans-humanism and this twisted ideology that’s now being pushed extensively, which even says a man can have a baby, all of this has now entered into the territory of a “Sodom and Gomorrah World” out of control; with “the father of all lies having a firm grip on humanity” like never before in Modern History!
The Plan-demic accentuated this point, when humans around the globe were being treated like nothing more than cords of wood for the fire, and so along with all of these other developments it’s clearly saying to me; that this world has passed the point that Hitler brought it all to, with the Third Reich, and we know that he was demonically possessed!
Humanity is almost vanquished globally, the bare indifference and self-centered materialistic living for pleasure and possessions is now over the top and ugly!
God have mercy on this terribly sick world!