The Feminist Agenda Debunked
Pastor Matt Black
01 August 2007
Midweek Bible Study
Titus 2:3-19
Introduction: Open your Bibles to Titus 2:3-10. The title of our message is “The Feminist Agenda Debunked”.
This evening we are going to be looking at some verses that are vitally important if we are going to have a healthy church. The health of this church rests so much upon the commitment of the fathers and mothers, and tonight we are looking at young mothers specifically. I am talking about mothers who still have children in the home.
I want you to see how serious this matter is just by looking at some phrases we come to in our text. Titus 2:5 says this is a matter so important so that “the word of God be not blasphemed”. Verse 8 says young parents must live in such a way so that the lost might be put under conviction “having no evil thing to say of you”. Verse 10 says we must live in such a way that we “may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things”.
So let’s read this text on how important young families are to the life of the church.
Titus 2:3-10, “The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; 4 That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, 5 To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. 6 Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded. 7 In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, 8 Sound speech, that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you. 9 Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters, and to please them well in all things; not answering again; 10 Not purloining, but shewing all good fidelity; that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things”.
You see the point of these verses is that the life of the home affects the life of the church. Your home life is most certainly an evangelistic matter. You may be so busy that you can’t get out to go evangelizing, but this text says that lost people are looking at young Christian mothers and you fathers, and at times, it causes them to blaspheme the Word of God! We want the Word of God honored in our church; we want lost people to look on us and see blameless people, and not have any cause to blaspheme God; we want our lives to be clothed with the sound doctrine of our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ in all things. You see, if we are unhealthy internally, in our homes and in our private lives, it will always come out. If we are lax in our prayer closets our mouths and our actions will be lax in the world. Our families will not be sober-minded but worldly.
And speaking of sober-mindedness, I want you to notice something else in these verses. As Paul addresses each group of people in the church, young and old, through his various instructions, he gives one command to all of the people, and that is to be “sober-minded”.
Verse 4: The older women are to be sober minded to such a degree as to teach and exemplify this—so that they can “teach the young women to be sober”.
Verse 6, he says that “Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded.”
Do you get the picture? How you live your private life is deadly serious. You can’t take one minute of vacation with it. You must not allow one shred of hypocrisy into your life.
In this chapter the Apostle Paul gives instruction to the church as to how it is to conduct itself. He directs his instruction to older men, older women, younger women, younger men, selecting every category within the church and giving basically some direct and specific instruction to them.
I. Introduction. Radical feminism is alive and well—I want you to listen to the agenda that is working in every newspaper and in every government run school today. I give you this information to help you and educate you.
The feminist movement is a satanic philosophy that is obliterating our culture. It is one of the great destroyers of the family today. It is a very organized movement with an agenda formed by the prince of the power of the air.
Let me help you to understand some of the philosophy that is behind this movement by giving you some quotes from the recognized leaders of the Feminist Movement. Gloria Steinem, editor of Ms Magazine says: "By the year 2000 we will, I hope, raise our children to believe in human potential, not God."[1]
Radical feminist leader Sheila Cronan says this: "Since marriage constitutes slavery for women, it is clear that the women's movement must concentrate on attacking this institution. Freedom for women cannot be won without the abolition of marriage”.[2]
And Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, writing an article called "Women in the New Race" says this: "The most merciful thing a large family can do to one of its infant members is to kill it”.[3]
A. Where did the Feminism Movement come from? It is an ancient heresy that is satanic in origin.
1. It is first seen in the Garden of Eden.
Feminism was created and promoted by Satan himself in the very opening days of creation. It all started in the Garden when Eve, the original feminist, stepped out from under Adam's authority and thought she would act independently and led the whole race into sin and thus the first act in Satan's feminist agenda was successful.
Satan from the beginning has done all to totally destroy God's created order. The Apostle Paul wrote against all this in his epistles in the New Testament. He told Timothy not to “give heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils” (1 Timothy 4:1). Feminism wasn't invented by Gloria Steinam and Margaret Sanger; it was invented in the pits of hell by the father of lies. This was the stuff that was pushed on Eve, and Eve bought into it.
So we see the roots of feminism in the Garden of Eden.
2. We see it in all the goddess cults of the Old Testament.
From Asherah to Isis to Diana of the Ephesians, paganism revolved around the power of the woman to usurp the man. Again, it’s main design is always the satanic reversal of roles in creation, and the destruction of the family. The goddess cults had two huge components: the worship of the female and the worship of the earth. We see that today in all that is being promoted. The two gods of our culture are sensuality and earth worship.
Al Gore came out with a documentary film recently called “An Inconvenient Truth”. It is just a continuation of a book he wrote several years ago called Earth in the Balance, Ecology and the Human Spirit. One author, Peter Jones, writing about that book said this: "Gore's involvement in ecology is an expression of his belief in the connectedness of all things, in the great value of all religious faiths and in his hope that ancient pagan goddess worship will help bring us planetary and personal salvation."[4]
It is unbelievable that Al Gore calls himself a Baptist. No, it's not unbelievable! The pagan thinking of the goddess cults of the Old Testament times is alive and well! But we see this thinking not only from that time, we can also see it in the New Testament times and after.
3. In the New Testament, we see it in Gnosticism.
Marcion,[5] one of the most famous of the early Gnostics, was at one time a Christian, and then became a Gnostic and was excommunicated from the church in 150AD. He was the first to ordain women to be pastors, teachers, and evangelists.
Now this feminism can be seen especially in one of the earliest opponents of Christianity. It is an ancient heresy called Gnosticism. Gnosticism was one of the most vicious opponents of Christianity that the Apostles battled against in the first century, and it is alive and well today.
Gnosticism had several components:
i. Matter, represented by the male, is evil.
ii. Spirit, represented by the female, is good.
iii. Gnosticism is utterly satanic and blasphemous—it taught that what Eve did in the garden in usurping Adam’s authority was redemptive!
iv. Gnosticism taught that there was no absolute truth. Everything is subjective.
v. Gnosticism is the blasphemy of satanic distortion of God's truth.
a. The Bible says God is a good God and He is the sovereign God.
o The Gnostics denied it and blasphemed His name.
b. The Bible says Christ is the living God incarnate in flesh.
o The Gnostics blasted it, blasphemed His name.
c. The Bible says the snake was a tempter.
o The Gnostics say the snake is wisdom personified who is the instructor.
vi. Now to the very central element in this and that's the issue of feminism.
Ø In the gnostic system Eve dominates Adam
Ø The gnostic god—this is blasphemous—they said both “father and mother”.
Ø Matter, represented by the male, is evil.
Ø Spirit, represented by the female, is good.
B. Where is Feminism seen today?
1. First understand that Satan’s approach is always the same!
The family is under attack today. Satan’s approach in ever age is the total reversal of God’s perfect order. He wants to destroy God's created order, destroy the integrity of Scripture, destroy the character of God, and destroy the name of Christ.
Today’s Feminist Movement is not a new idea that came about in the twentieth century by a few women who wanted to take off their aprons and buy a briefcase. This is not something that was invented by women who wanted the freedom to abort their babies and be CEOs and have the same chance as men. This is a movement that is totally anti-Scripture, anti-God’s authority, and we must wake up to it.
2. It’s creeping into our churches.
Years ago, Methodists and Presbyterians were filled with believers. Dr. Bob Jones Sr. was a Methodist. These were the groups that Wesley and Whitefield were a part of. G. Greshem Machan was a Presbyterian. And you still have some separatist groups that are Methodists and Presbyterians that love the Lord today, but they’ve come out from the mainline denominations to be separate.
But today the mainline denominations are now not simply debating whether to ordain sodomites as pastors, but they are actually ordaining them. It started with the ordination of women, and then it is a slippery slope.
When I was taking seminary classes last Spring, I found that this kind of thinking is very popular even among professing Christians. Not the radical stuff of course, but it is all a slippery slope. They are bringing in a teaching that is called “egalitarianism”.
The role of the family is to guard the sound doctrine and to make disciples and pass down the truth from generation to generation. Remember Deuteronomy 6? That has always been the role of the family.
3. It’s now mainstream in our culture.
Listen to what George Gilder, a prominent writer who once embraced the Feminist agenda, but is now exposing it says, "The revolutionary members of the Women's Movement say that our [gender] relationships are fundamental to all our other institutions and activities. If one could profoundly change the relations between the [genders], they contend, one could radically and unrecognizably transform the society.”[6]
4. It is seen in our families all over America!
The satanic agenda is to destroy human society, to rip the family to shreds and destroy marriage so that God has no means to pass righteousness from one generation to the next.
There's no moral order maintained in society. Gilder rightly affirms that: "[Gender roles and those things meant for marital intimacy are] not simply a matter of games people play, it is one of the few matters truly of life and death to society."[7] He warns that if the Feminist agenda even its most moderate version is carried through: "Our society is doomed to years of demoralization and anarchy possibly ending in a police state,"[8] if this carries on even moderately.
What is happening in our society? I will tell you, we have taken the Creator out of our schools and out of our courtrooms and out of our families and out of our morality, and God is giving our culture over to a reprobate mind. Romans 1 happens to a society when God gives them over their own desires.
What does it say God gave them over? And what did they do? Women with women doing things that aren't even imaginable and men with men doing things that aren't imaginable.
That's what happens to a society under God's wrath. And you are observing it today. God lets them go and they're going the way of the satanic lies.
And do you know who is playing right into the hands of satanic lies? It is our own government. They are working hard, aren't they? What are they working hard? Our government, the government of the United States, state of Illinois is doing every thing they can do to eliminate all gender differences. This is not an issue of constitutional liberty; it is an issue of satanic religion.
II. What is the Role God has for Women?
A. Younger Women.
There is no doubt about what a woman's role is, there's no doubt what a man's role is. Look at our text again. What has God designed for a woman? Verse 4, " to love their husbands, to love their children, 5 To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed." That's very clear.
You can get in a lot of trouble by suggesting that kind of stuff. Try standing up in this culture and saying, "Women, you're commanded to love your husband and to love your children and to work at home and to be obedient to your husband." You'll get screamed at even at your work place if you say something like that. Not just promoting it, but just reading that verse to somebody. There is a hostility against this!!
Now there are some churches that just want to avoid a text like this. But this is the Word of God.
God has laid out His standards. They're not negotiable.
Now you don't need a Master's Degree to figure out what it means to love your husband, love your children, and work at home. How hard is that? By the way, there are no qualifiers there, no caveats, no footnotes. It is just as simple as what it says. If you are a married woman, then go home, submit to your husband, have children, raise them in godliness, take care of your home.
B. Older Women.
And that's what older women are to teach younger women, they're to teach it not only with their mouth, they're to teach it with their life.
Titus 2:3-5 “The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; 4 That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, 5 To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.”
All of this must be maintained, or the Word of God will be blasphemed.
Conclusion: Isn’t it sad that what I’ve just preached is considered radical in our culture? I mean, this is “Little House on the Prairie” stuff. This is what breeds wholesomeness and goodness and godliness. If you are mad with me, don’t be—I’ve just given you the Word of God.
Please come next week, and we are going to get into more specifically what the Lord has in store for the women of this church. We want the Word of God honored here, and our culture is dead set against us! But next week, Lord willing, I’m going to preach on God’s role for women.
Closing Hymn: 418 Trust and Obey
[1] Gloria Steinem, from Laurence J Peter, Peter's Quotations: Ideas for Our Time
[2] Sheila Cronan, 1988 Houston National Organization for Women {NOW} Conference for Women
[3] Margaret Sanger, Women and the New Race (Eugenics Publ. Co., 1920, 1923)
[4] Peter Jones, Spirit Wars: Pagan Revival in Christian America. Winepress Publishing (July 1997).
[6] George Gilder, Men and Marriage Pelican Publishing Company; Rep Sub edition (August 1992).
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.