I am a Bible-literalist, and therefore I am a strong believer in male authority in the family, the church and in human society. Men and women are equal in value but different in function, and although women are fully capable of filling in when necessary, as Deborah did, civilization works best when God’s designed order is acknowledged and followed. It is no accident that today’s “radical feminism” was invented by early Soviet Marxists to undermine Christianity in Russia and then transported here in the 1920s. I’ve written extensively on this topic in recent years.
In God’s order, male/female roles are not adversarial but complementary – always intended to reflect the essential truths embodied in the husband/wife one-flesh paradigm He established as the foundation of civilization. Never Master and Servant, or Parent and Child, but always King and Queen, President and Vice President, always partners in a common venture where men are given the final say in matters of disagreement, bound by the duty to act selflessly in the exercise of that authority. That is a clear biblical mandate for the family, the church and even the “secular” realm (to the extent Christians have stewardship of it), regardless of how feminist-era believers feel about it.
However, one function in the church that is fully interchangeable is prophecy, a truth showcased in Acts 2:
“When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place [when] a sound like a mighty rushing wind came from heaven … and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. … Then Peter stood up with the Eleven [and said] … this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: … ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out My Spirit on all people, Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on My menservants and maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.'” (Acts 2:1-21)
All of the above is a preface to introducing a particular prophecy by the singer Misty Edwards. I know nothing about her except for the song she wrote, “People Get Ready, Jesus is Coming,” and the testimony she gave about it. Frankly, the music is just music, but from the instant I heard the lyrics “he’s not a baby in a manger anymore, He’s not a broken man on a cross,” I knew that message was from the Lord to the church.
It was a Holy Spirit wake-up call in which I suddenly realized that my perspective of Jesus, shaped by the rear-view mirror of history (the baby in the manger and the humble shepherd who walked the earth), was blinding me to the looming reality of His soon return as the Conquering King who comes “to judge and make war” (Revelation 19:11-21). For me, Misty’s vision was like a present-day equivalent to John the Baptist heralding Jesus’ earthly ministry by quoting Isaiah (“make straight the way of the Lord”) under the mantle of Elijah, as prophesied in Malachi 4:1-5.
“‘For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, when all the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble; the day is coming when I will set them ablaze,’ says the LORD of Hosts. ‘Not a root or branch will be left to them. But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, and you will go out and leap like calves from the stall. Then you will trample the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day I am preparing,’ says the LORD of Hosts. …” This is the same “great and glorious Day of the Lord” referenced by Peter in Acts 2:20, quoting Joel.
The Jesus of the Second Advent is nothing like the Jesus of the First! He is not meek and passive. He is not gentle and long-suffering. He is not in His role as the Lamb of God. He is the Lion of Judah! “He has eyes like blazing fire, and many royal crowns on His head. … He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and … The armies of heaven, dressed in fine linen, white and pure, follow Him on white horses. And from His mouth proceeds a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and He will rule them with an iron scepter. He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.” (Revelation 19:12-15)
The word Christian means “Christ-like.” We’ve always assumed that meant being suffering servants and passivists. But as the Second Advent nears, many Scriptures related to our personal conduct and to our teaching about Christ to the world should be reconsidered in light of Christ the Lord of Hosts. These include Jesus’ command to “Occupy until I come,” and Paul’s advice in 2 Corinthians 10:3-6 regarding “pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God … being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is complete.” And, of course, Paul’s assurance in 2 Timothy 3:16 that “All Scripture is God-breathed and useful for instruction,” which brings all of the Old Testament guidance on interactions with the world within the scope of Christianity.
The Jesus we now await will come as a very forceful and masculine warrior who will personally slaughter millions upon millions of wicked men who refused to repent despite many warnings and opportunities. This shocking and sobering truth is so foreign to our corrupted sense of “Christ-likeness” that many will turn away and embrace Humanism – the Satanic religion of Marxism with all of its pseudo-moral piety – rather than adjust their own theology to accept the true Christ of the Bible.
Perhaps this is why God in his wisdom gave ruling authority to men and not women – because he wanted us to avoid the very emasculation of His Son that is represented in the “nicer-than-Jesus” Jesus of feminist-era Christians, who, with breathtaking arrogance, presume to judge Almighty God (and prior generations of believers who followed His patriarchal system) as morally inferior to themselves.
And why, in His wisdom, he brought this reminder about the true Jesus through the prophetic vision of a godly woman.
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