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Questions
On The Bible Compared To Modern Ideas
Question 1. Are women to be the servants
of man or were they created to be a partner to man, a help mate? Did Eve's sin of taking
the apple make women lesser than man?
Answer As to the
equality of men and women, both are equally created in the image of god and both are
spiritually equal, as far as receiving the blessings of forgiveness of sins and hope of
eternal life, if they respond to Jesus by obedient faith.
GEN 1:26 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and
let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle
and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
GEN 1:27 And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male
and female He created them.
GAL 3:26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
GAL 3:27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
GAL 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is
neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
GAL 3:29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to
promise.
However, just as there is a difference between the roles of the Father and Jesus, so there
is between men and women. These differences in roles involve submission of one to the
other and a dividing of responsibilities among the two.
Some passages which show this follow. The point simply is, God intended for men and women
to have distinct and equally important roles in society. However, it would be to the man
to take a leading role in providing for the family, protecting his wife and family and
having the final and ultimate responsibility in the home.
On the other hand, it would be to the woman to provide loving nurturing toward children
and loving service toward her husband, thus stabilizing the home and making it a pleasant
environment for all.
All of these things depend on submission to God, rather than following one's own will.
Also, as far as public teaching in the church, it would be men to act in that capacity
rather than women? Why? Simply put, God chose that in His wisdom. It should not however
warrant our concluding that women are in any way inferior to men.
Before noticing the following passages, we must recognize that men and women were created
to complement or complete each other. Neither one is capable of reaching his or her great
potential without the help of the other. In this way, we learn love, kindness, submission
and many other needed lessons.
1CO 11:3 But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is
the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ.
EPH 5:22 ¶ Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
EPH 5:23 For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the
church, He Himself being the Savior of the body.
EPH 5:24 But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their
husbands in everything.
EPH 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself
up for her;
EPH 5:26 that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the
word,
EPH 5:27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or
wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and blameless.
1CO 14:34 ¶ Let the women keep silent in the churches; for they are not permitted to
speak, but let them subject themselves, just as the Law also says.
1CO 14:35 And if they desire to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home;
for it is improper for a woman to speak in church.
Is a woman's submissive role a part of the punishment that God enacted against Eve after
she ate of the forbidden fruit (not told what kind of fruit it was)?
To this question, we must emphatically answer, NO! From the beginning, God had always
intended that men and women, although created equal in His image, would have different
function in this life. For men, they would provide loving leadership and protection and
for the woman, she would provide loving submission and the nurturing of children. In this
way, both could accomplish the purpose God had for them from the beginning. Man, alone,
could not accomplish this purpose, unless he had the woman as his suitable helper.
GEN 1:28 And God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and
fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the
sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."
GEN 1:29 Then God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is
on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be
food for you;
GEN 1:30 and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing
that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food ";and
it was so.
GEN 2:18 ¶ Then the Lord God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone; I will
make him a helper suitable for him."
GEN 2:19 And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird
of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the
man called a living creature, that was its name.
GEN 2:20 And the man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to
every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him.
GEN 2:21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He
took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh at that place.
GEN 2:22 And the Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man,
and brought her to the man.
GEN 2:23 And the man said, "This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She
shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man."
GEN 2:24 For this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to
his wife; and they shall become one flesh.
GEN 2:25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
Originally, man was created first and then the woman. Based on the order of creation, man
would be in a position of leadership over the woman.
1TI 2:11 Let a woman quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness.
1TI 2:12 But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to
remain quiet.
1TI 2:13 For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve.
Then, it was woman created from the man and for the man. This emphasizes man's need for a
helper and the woman's ability to be that helper.
1CO 11:7 For a man ought not to have his head covered, since he is the image and glory of
God; but the woman is the glory of man.
1CO 11:8 For man does not originate from woman, but woman from man;
1CO 11:9 for indeed man was not created for the woman's sake, but woman for the man's
sake.
1CO 11:10 Therefore the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of
the angels.
Finally, when Eve ate of the fruit and gave to her husband to eat, she was guilty of
taking a position of authority that God had not intended for her. Submission to man is not
the result of sin, but it became a part of the very first sin.
1TI 2:14 And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being quite deceived, fell
into transgression.
1TI 2:15 But women shall be preserved through the bearing of children if they continue in
faith and love and sanctity with self-restraint.
GEN 3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had
made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any
tree of the garden'?"
GEN 3:2 And the woman said to the serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden
we may eat;
GEN 3:3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has
said,' You shall not eat from it or touch it, lest you die.' "
GEN 3:4 And the serpent said to the woman, "You surely shall not die!
GEN 3:5 "For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and
you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
GEN 3:6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to
the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and
ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.
GEN 3:13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?"And
the woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."
GEN 3:14 And the Lord God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, Cursed
are you more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly shall
you go, And dust shall you eat All the days of your life;
GEN 3:15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her
seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel. "
GEN 3:16 To the woman He said, "I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In
pain you shall bring forth children; Yet your desire shall be for your husband, And he
shall rule over you."
Many of our problems would disappear if we would all, both men and women, submit ourselves
willingly to the Will of God. All of our problems, both men and women's, come from our
desire to rebel against the will of God. Contact
Gary
Question 2. If God created
everything in 6 days and man was created on the 6th day, how can we explain how old the
earth is? Scientists say the earth is millions of years old but from what I understand it
cannot be that old. Can you explain?
Answer Nobody knows the age of the earth.
When I took geology in college, we were taught that the earth was between 1-2 billion
years old. Now they say that life began about 3-4 billion years ago (so the earth is 4-6
billion years old). The earth has aged billions of years over the last few decades! The
point is, science is very inexact. Today’s "facts and truths" are
tomorrow’s myths.
In an attempt to reconcile scientific theory with Genesis 1, there are
several ideas circulating. Among these is the idea that there was a race of beings prior
to Adam. This is supported by tradition and by the possibility that the verb used in the
sentence "…and the earth was without form…" can be translated
"…and the earth became without form…" meaning that in the beginning
God created the heavens and the earth (with its life and inhabitants before Adam) then the
earth, for whatever reason, became waste and void, then God said "let there be
light" and started all over again. This idea permits greater flexibility in allowing
more time in the overall age of the earth, while accepting the literal creation
time-sequence beginning with the first day after the earth "became void" that
is, from the day of the creation as we know it, so that life as we know it began about
6,000 years ago, but other life forms could have existed long before Adam. Such an idea is
possible of course, but the problem with this theory is that it is largely speculative.
The Scriptures give no real support for a pre-Adamic creation.
But regarding science and its theories, it should be clearly understood
that the entire theory of evolution depends upon the accuracy of the dating system. The
earth MUST be hundreds of millions of years old if the theory of evolution is to
"have a chance." And in this matter, the dating system itself is subject to
speculation. The process of dating assumes that the elements used in the dating have
always decayed at the same rate as they can be observed today and that nothing has
happened to interfere with that decay,such as a comet ripping open the atmosphere and
exposing the earth to extensive radiation. Dating methods rely upon the current knowledge
of the "half-lives" of elements. Let’s say for example, that we can
determine that a certain radioactive isotope looses "half its strength" over a
period of say, one million years. Now we find a rock out in the field and when we measure
the presence of that isotope in a the rock we find that it measures 25%. Assuming the
starting point of 100% and knowing that the element "breaks down" by one-half
every million years or so, we conclude that our sample rock would be about 2 million years
old (100% to 50%=one million years; 50% to 25%=1 million years). But how do we know the
original starting point? It must be assumed based upon observations of the present.
There are many other inconsistencies and assumptions which plague current
scientific theory. If these things are "fact" as we are often led to believe,
then why are the "facts" continually changing? Do not be quick to accept what is
based upon assumption. I believe the Genesis account because the Bible has ample evidence
to prove its source of origin, and its accuracy in other things. The scope of that
evidence and the weight of evidence against evolution is far beyond a question/answer page
such as this, although in our articles things such as this are addressed from time to
time. There are some links that you may wish to explore. The Creation Research Society can
be found at: http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/crs/crs-home.html
Bob West has some good links also at: http://www.BiblePage.org/links.html
In addition, keep checking back on Gary’s site also, as we may be offering
bibliographies and other information from time to time regarding these things. Contact Doug
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