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Three Primary Instruments for Male Role Return
By three primary instruments will the male role return. It starts with individual, believing men out of personal conviction wanting the male role back for themselves. Second, parents, especially fathers, will train their sons in the belief and practice of the biblical male role. They will teach it and then support it all through their lives. This must include though parents also teaching daughters a female role. Third, churches will preach and obey the male role in the church. Each of these — believing men, parents, and churches — must know the male role well enough that they can propagate it, weaving into everyday life.
These three means of change — individuals, families, and churches — will not stand for the two roles, male and female, as designed by God in creation and through scripture without conversion. These institutions will proceed from the working of the Lord in their lives. Their fleshly and worldly instinct is to go with the strong current of the world under the influence of Satan. It starts with believing in the distinct roles, living them, teaching them, and then propagating them. Most individuals, families, and churches will not do that.
Each of the ordained means of God’s working in the world must see and acknowledge that something has gone terribly wrong in all the forms of perversion or rebellion against God created and ordained world. The believing individuals, families, and churches at least need to acknowledge and submit to the truth of God about the roles He made for mankind. This is a root relationship issue or doctrine within the context of and fundamental to the second table of God’s law. It’s a non-negotiable.
The Problem of Incrementalism
Incrementalism Expressed
Indicative of the opposition and controversy around return to original God-created roles of men and women is the talk around the strategy to do so, mainly between the biblical position of Patriarchy or some form of incrementalism. The question of whether to use an incremental (“soft”) or direct (“hard”) approach is a matter of debate within professing conservative Christian circles. Incrementalism is generally considered the more prudent tactical approach to avoid backlash. In a culture heavily influenced by egalitarianism, abrupt shifts, many say, might damage relationships and hinder the witness of the church.
The incrementalist faction argues that the focus should be on general Christlikeness first, allowing people to grow into these roles as part of their sanctification rather than demanding instant adherence to strict, immediate change. I contend that everyone must reset now and always to the clear scriptural roles, much like what Jesus did in Matthew 19 in returning His audience to the beginning of Genesis and God’s original design. This is what Paul did in 1 Timothy 2 and 1 Corinthians 7, 11, and 14 too. They didn’t believe and practice incrementalism.
Incrementalism Debunked
The trend toward biblical minimalism softens the right position and stance by breaking down the teaching of God’s Word, essentially asking for something short of obedience to the Lord. Given rapid cultural shifts, clear, firm, and immediate teaching is necessary to prevent the further erosion of biblical understanding. Incrementalism continues to blur and confuse something that isn’t blurry and confusing. It is a kind of test-case, I believe, as to the authority of scripture. Will God be God to us?
Incrementalism in fact distorts what God said. It’s kicking the can down the road. This is not only not what we need, but it’s wrong. The incrementalism is a stall. It isn’t running to the tomb like the disciples, but more of a Jonah action, going the wrong direction. Instead of focusing on what God said, it starts with capitulation and distraction. A very common incrementalism strategy is the assertion that roles do not imply inferiority and superiority, which in the end hands over the roles by producing a passive, weak leadership and usurpation of authority. One might witness this in the well-established servant leadership movement.
Seriousness of Lost Roles or Role Reversal
God created the roles according to the pattern within the Trinity. Created order, proceeding from God and His nature, provides the basis for the two roles and how they function. The rebellion against them is fundamental. With the model in the Godhead, the embrace of stopping short of biblical change is some iteration of idolatry. It isn’t as simple as “the wrong way won’t work.” Destroying the roles strikes at the image of God in man, a form of hanging God in effigy. This is why it’s called “abomination” in the Old Testament, because of the personal offense to God.
In other words, the role issue is not just about loving your neighbor, the second table of the law, but it corresponds to the first table and loving God. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 16 that whoever doesn’t love Jesus Christ is anathema. I’m expressing all this to you as part of the instruction that buttresses what believing individuals, families, and churches should believe and propagate. Whatever happens in the rest of the world with the latest, hottest issue, it might just distract from the vital importance of what role rebellion and change means.
Not About Keeping Domination
Enemies of God and His way might treat something like I’ve been writing here on this doctrine as an attempt of a man to keep his domination. He’s losing it and so now he’s desperate to get back to the horrors of a former age. The criticism against this is the evolution and progress in society with egalitarianism. The latter apparently unshackles women and men like myself, who want to put them back in chains. So then I and others like me just want to keep ourselves at the top of the food chain so we can control everyone for our own benefit. Like Satan operates as usual, the actual opposite of these enemies is what is true.
The Individual Believing Man
I wouldn’t recommend that individual, believing men blow a fuse on the loss of role. Acknowledge it. Learn what the Bible says about it and weave scripture into a conversation. Apply the Bible. Tell the truth with a calm demeanor. Explain what people need to know. You’ve got to be firm on it yourself to do that.
Earlier in this series, I said more than once that this will start with understanding what scripture says about it. It would be good to know the enemy and its arguments for the false belief and against the true one. Answer the false view patiently with scripture. This is not against the gospel. It will give opportunities to preach the gospel. The gospel and biblical roles do not contradict each other. They complement one another (which isn’t complementarianism as it relates to roles, but it is complementarianism).
Patriarchy is not the conspiracy. Egalitarianism is the conspiracy. Everything started with Patriarchy and Satan and his minions enter to sow seeds of opposition against God’s way. Since Satan did this immediately in the garden, he thinks this is vitally important to destroy you and God’s plan for your life.
More to Come