The Highway Forums General Discussion Theology Discussion Forum Women's Suffrage

Is there a place for Women's Suffrage in the Church? Are women mistreated through submission? All too often today I see Women's Suffrage advancing ever further. Heaven forbid wive's should submit to their husbands to serve. Especially when we are to have a heart of service. Can a woman be in submission to Christ who is not unto her husband? The scriptures as the Word of God are either infallible or they are not infallible. Female suffrage is based on the assumption that the sexes are equal in all things, personal, social, legal, and political and that marriage does not alter or qualify that equality. If this conclusion is justified by the irresistable logic of the argument upon the question plants itself, then it can only be sustained by a denial of the headship of the husband, by an assertion that marriage is a civil contract and not an institution of God and that being a civil contract made by two persons at will who are in all aspects absolutely equal.. it can be dissolved at pleasure by these persons and that God in the beginning had nothing to do with it. This conclusion conflicts at all points with the word of God, denies its infallibility, and puts forth another law of marriage. And further, if the scriptures are not infallible, then God has no right to His awful sovreignty, and should be dethroned; the Christ was an impostor and a fraud, and man and woman should be guided by their reason alone, and are soley responsible to themselves in this life and in the life to come. The assertion of female suffrage, carried out to its logical conclusion, as a correct principle in human affairs, is simply a denial of the right of God to reign, and of the infallibility of His Word as His revealed will as to use those affairs. From the 19th chapter of Matthew I quote the following: "The Pharisees also came unto Him, tempting Him and saying unto Him; Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? And He answered and said unto them, 'Have ye not read, that He which made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said For this cause shall a man leave father and mother and shall cleave to his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh, wherefore they are no more twain but one flesh. What, therefore, God hath joined together let not man put asunder.' " From the 5th Chapter of Ephesians: "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything." In the verses from Matthew the simple law of marriage is laid down as God intended it should be, and according to which He made them, from the beginning, male and female. If foreknowledge is to be predicated to the Being of whom we call God, then all the evils which have come from looser laws, the evidence of man's short judgment on this subject were forknown by Him and suffered by Him because of the hardness of our hearts; "but from the beginning it was not so". From the verses in Ephesians the relation between the husband and the wife is stated with equal force, clearness, and simplicity. The headship of the husband is not compatible with equality in the wife. Headship cannot be divided, nor can its authorities or rights be exercised by two persons in the same family. Whether the illustrative comparison here used in these verses from Ephesians embodies an additional truth or is intended merely to give force to the truth as to man's headship under the family relation, one thing is absolutely certain, it will justify and support any argument as to the indivisibility of the power of the husband as the head of the household.<br><br><br>Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. <br> Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband. -Ephesians 5:22-33<br><br><br>It strikes me that one could say a husband and wife must wash each other's feet. Their submission and duty to eachother is unquestionable and vital. Must it boil down to authority? Is that not the basis of Women's Suffrage? But yet is it not greater to serve? It is a growing epidemic in the church today where it is believed power and authority are equated with value.

Is it possible, if you are indeed typing this out, to create paragraphs? If in fact you are taking this from an on-line article could you instead just give a link. I must tell you whenever I see this massive wall of words coming at me my first (and usually acted upon) inclination is to ignore it. Now I know that some of the regulars here are reading this through bifocals as I am but I dare say a nicely formated post is a joy to behold.<br><br>Just an idea friend.

My apologies John. I was a little apprehensive about attempting to post something of this scale and overlooked that detail. Yes it was written. In the case of articles I always try to give a link.