(Providing daily encouragement for the body of Christ by the Spirit of God to help the church in the end times.)
Thursday, August 18, 2016
Are all created "equal" according to Bible?
Joan Boney ... apostle/prophet
I was born again August 5, 1975. I had a friend who had been Catholic and was born again a few months earlier. Bill was about 10 years younger than I. We were both babies in scripture, desiring to know what it says in Bible.
One day we were searching for the scripture which says, "All men are created equal."
We couldn't find that scripture so we went to a preacher and asked, "Where is that in the Bible?"
He said, "It's not in the Bible."
We were so shocked!
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2016, Apple computers manufacturer announced they will begin using emojies showing women dressed in clothing of construction workers and male dominated roles ... thinking to promote women?
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What does the Bible show us? Always, in all subjects, this must be our consideration.
Genesis 1 ... God created heaven and earth by "speaking the Word". The heavens and the earth were not created by pre-existing materials ... God just spoke and it appeared.
6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. 7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament:and it was so. 8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear:and it was so. 10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas:and God saw that it was good.
Now the pattern changes and God produces something from the earth which God has just created.
11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth:and it was so.
When God creates man, we read:
Genesis 2 ...7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
People often try to make all scripture equal to men and women. But there are specific scriptures that are spoken concerning men only ... The above scripture is one of those. God did not make woman from the dust of the ground, only man was made from the dust of the ground.
The woman was made from the rib of the man.
Genesis 2 ... 21 And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept:and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; 22 And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. 23 And Adam 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. 24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife:and they shall be one flesh.
The woman was created "for the man". The man was not created for the woman.
The woman was going to be an "help meet" for the man.
Genesis 2 ... 18 And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. 19 And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them:and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. 20 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.
This is when God created "an help meet" for the man by causing a deep sleep to come upon Adam and by taking a rib from Adam's body and creating the woman from that rib from Adam's body.
Adam then named her "woman" for Adam 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.
Then God said ...
24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife:and they shall be one flesh.
This was all set up by God.
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2016 ... Man decided to make men and women "equal", doing the same work ... approved in the same work ...
But God said the following in the Bible ...
Genesis 3 ... 1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day:and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.
9 And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
10 And he (Adam) said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
11 And he (God) said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
13 And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done?
And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
14 And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
16 Unto the woman HE said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
17 And unto Adam HE said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it:cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; 18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; 19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken:for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
20 And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living. 21 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them.
22 And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil:and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:23 Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. 24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
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This is the way God created men and women. God created them to be different from each other both in body and in assigned roles on this present earth.
Here is an example of an assignment to men but a woman could never be assigned this role in the church.
Elder/Bishop
Titus 1 ... 5 For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee:6 If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly. 7 For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre; 8 But a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate; 9 Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.
Notice in this scripture Paul speaks of elder then he calls it bishop. That is because these two "titles" apply to same thing. Bishop is not a higher rank than elder. They are the same thing in the church. Some churches call elders, bishops. Some churches call bishops, elders.
We see by this scripture which cites the qualifications of elder/bishop, that only a man can be elder/bishop in the church. He cannot be a divorced man. And his children (more than one child) must be under control.
Does all this really matter? It does to God who inspired all scripture.
If you attend a church that has women elder/bishops or divorced men who are elder/bishops or men who have no children as elder/bishops, then you need to take this scripture to pastor and if that church will not change, just walk away, leave that church group.
II Tim. 3:5 ...Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof:from such turn away.
When a church group denies the word of God in the Bible, that group denies the power of God to rule over them. Paul says, "From such turn away."
Concerning marriage and the congregation:
Paul explained to the church that not all marry. There are some men who do not marry. There are some women who do not marry.
I Cor. 7 ... 17 But as God hath distributed to every man, as the Lord hath called every one, so let him walk.
Most will marry ...
But even in the subject of marriage we have different rules in the Bible for men and for women.
For men ... Mt. 5:32 ... Jesus says (to the men) ... 32 But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery:and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.
To the natural mind, the mind controlled by the flesh of man and by the desires of the flesh, the above scripture would apply to both men and women ... But the above instruction is for men, not for women.
If a man had an unfaithful wife, he could divorce her and remarry.
But concerning the rule for the woman, Paul says the following instruction is for the woman by the commandment of the Lord ... not an option ...
For women ... I Cor. 7 ... 10 And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband:11 But and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband:and let not the husband put away his wife.
Some churches today teach Mt. 5:32 applies to both men and women equally. But this is not true. I Cor. 7 shows the woman cannot divorce and remarry. This shows Mt. 5:32 applied to men only.
According to Mt. 5:32 ...
- If the man divorces "a faithful wife" and that faithful wife remarries, she will commit adultery and the man who divorced the faithful wife will be the cause of her adultery.
- The man who marries any divorced woman (faithful or unfaithful) commits adultery.
There are different rules in the Bible for men and for women.
The man can remarry if his wife has been unfaithful. (This is the only scriptural reason for divorce in NT church.)
The man who marries the divorced woman commits adultery.
The divorced woman will commit adultery if she remarries.
This is what the Bible teaches ... The churches today, for the most part, have departed from these Bible teachings. This is the apostasy of the end times in the church and it is happening today. This is the "falling away", the churches falling away from Bible and setting up other rules for the church to please people. This is the end-time apostasy that must occur before Jesus returns. II Thess. 2
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When I see a woman who leaves her little children to join the army and she appears on TV saying how much she misses her little children, I shudder! (knowing what God says in Bible ... Gen. 2)
When I see a man proudly declaring himself to be homosexual, I shudder. (knowing what God says in Bible ... Romans 1)
When I see a man marrying a divorced woman, I know they both commit adultery. (knowing what God says in Bible ... Mt. 5:32 & I Cor. 7:10-11)
When I see a man divorcing a faithful wife, I know he will be the cause of her adultery if she remarries. (knowing what God says in Bible ... Mt. 5:32)
Rules such as these in the Bible, are for our protection! These rules set by God are not bondages. They keep us from disasters on this earth.
The men and women who follow Biblical rules spare themselves from their own flesh which would lead them to destruction on the earth.
Men and women who abide by scripture bless themselves as they live on this present earth and end up being spared many troubles of this present world.
There are different rules for men and women in Bible in certain areas.
I Cor. 11 speaks of hair length for men and hair length for women. There are different rules concerning men and women in I Cor. 11 ...
1 Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.
2 Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you. 3 But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.
4 Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoureth his head. 5 But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head:for that is even all one as if she were shaven.
6 For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn:but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered.
7 For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God:but the woman is the glory of the man. 8 For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man. 9 Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man. 10 For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels. 11 Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord. 12 For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman; but all things of God.
13 Judge in yourselves:is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered? 14 Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?
15 But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her:for her hair is given her for a covering. 16 But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God.
(NASB ... I Cor. 11:15 ... 16 But if one is inclined to be contentious, we have no other practice, nor have the churches of God.)
(NIV ... I Cor. 11:15 ... 16 If anyone wants to be contentious about this, we have no other practice—nor do the churches of God.)