Feminism Defined and Compared With Scripture

Feminism is difficult to define because there are many different movements within the umbrella of feminist thought. For my purposes, feminism is the belief that men and women are equal, not only in their value as human beings, but also in their attributes. It is the belief that men and women are not different and that their roles in society should be identical.

This is simply not what Scripture teaches. Scriptures gives very clearly defined roles for the man and the women in every aspect of life: the Church, marriage, and society at large. The man is the leader and responsible to God for his family. The woman is his helper, or first mate.

Feminism assaults God's created order in all three of these domains. In the family, where it encourages women to claim equality with there husbands, not submitting to him as her leader and authority. In the Church, which it says is the most women-hating entity in history, where it urges women to claim authority and leadership positions for themselves. And in public life, where it tells girls that they are betraying womenkind if they do not put their own career over the pursuit of a family, denying that women's primary responsibility is the management of their own household. 

Now first I want to make it abundantly clear that a natural hierarchy is God's created design, and then I want to look at why we have seen such a dramatic departure from God's plan.

There's a quite a few verses that deal with this topic.

Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” Genesis 2:18

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands...let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband. Eph 5:22-24; 33

Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them. Col 3:18-19

...train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands. Titus 2:4-5

Likewise [referring to subjects submitting to government and slaves submitting to masters], wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, when they see your respectful and pure conduct. 1 Peter 3:1-2

Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. 1 Tim 2:11-14

But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God...For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man. For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. That is why a wife ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels. 1 Cor 11:3; 7-10

So what do we see? 4 times a wife is called to submit/be submissive/be subject to their husbands. Twice it says the man is the head of his wife. 1 Corinthians says this is so important a woman should have a symbol of a man's authority over her on her head. It also says wives should be workers at home. It says women were made for men in order to be their helpers. It says women should not teach men, because Eve was the one who was initially deceived.

And let's not forget Proverbs 31, the chapter on the "ideal woman," which describes her as hard-working, with bit of business savviness, strong, charitable, wise, and primarily occupied with the welfare of her household (making them clothes and cooking them meals). 

So Scripture then is clear. This is not an issue that is really up for debate. You either believe what Scripture teaches or not. The exegetical gymnastics that have been performed to try to make the texts mean what they clearly do not mean is hopeless and dishonest. God has commanded woman to love and submit to their husbands as an authority over them before God.

Whence then, comes feminism? What is its cause, its motive?
I am going to take a controversial stance here, even among complementarians, I believe that feminism comes from a deep seated discontent within women with being a woman, a envy of the privileges, prerogatives, or birthrights that come with being a man. It is not a result of "weak men refusing to step up" and forcing women to do take their place against their will, as so many church leaders like to say today. The blame rests squarely on woman's shoulders. It is a rebellion against God's design, against the created order, a desire to be like men. For example, The Feminine Mystique, one of the founding documents of second-wave feminism onward (basically anything after women were granted all the same legal rights as men: the right to vote, own property, etc), attacked what the author labeled as "The Feminine Mystique"—the idea that women were naturally fulfilled by devoting their lives to being housewives and mothers.  She wrote, "We can no longer ignore that voice within women that says: 'I want something more than my husband and my children and my home." She claimed that America was filled with unfulfilled housewives and that the way to their "self-actualization" and intellectual fulfillment was through doing "meaningful work." Meaningful work to her was not raising a family and taking care of their children but working a 9 to 5 job in a corporate setting. It devalued homemaking and disrespected homemakers.

This book was wildly successful because it preyed on one of woman's natural desires, the desire to usurp man's role. This sinful tendency goes all the way back to the Fall. In Genesis 3:16 God told Eve that because she had eaten the fruit of the tree, "Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.” The word there translated desire spoke of a desire to rule over, it's used again in the very next chapter in imagery of sin lying in wait at Cain's door with a desire to rule over him. (God then told Cain that he must conquer that sin, but in the very next verse Cain murders his brother, definitely demonstrating a failure to rule over sin.) So what we see is that the very first sin was one of woman doing something outside the leadership of man and then man following her leadership. In fact, that's how God starts his condemnation of Adam, "because you have listened to the voice of your wife..." The very first sin involved a reversal of God's ordained hierarchy for marriage. 

Feminism is damaging to everyone and everything. Not just to men and society in general, but to women as well. People will only truly experience their fullest joy when they are following the pattern God has set for their lives. Women get incredible fulfillment from raising children. The maternal instinct is an incredibly strong thing. But today women spend their most fertile, attractive years in college or working at a job that will not give them what they seek. Feminism causes marriages to be bad for both people involved. The man is gradually beaten down by a disrespectful, sassy, arrogant, unsubmissive woman, and the wife is unable to respect and love a man that she does not look up to as her leader. I am going to talk about this more, Lord-willing, in a future article, but suffice to say that men and women were not only commanded to fulfill certain roles, they were designed for those roles as well, which makes perfect sense.


How then are we to respond to feminism's challenge? The answer is clear: repudiate feminism and any association with it and unabashedly proclaim Scriptural Truth on this subject just like any other.

Marriage is Serious

The disciples said to [Jesus], “If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.” Matthew 19:10

Most Christian college kids are very eager for marriage, and make no mistake, that is a good thing. We have a natural, God-given desire for sex and an intimate relationship with someone. But I think  many Christians don't understand how weighty a matter marriage is and are going into it hopelessly unprepared. After Jesus finished giving some of His standards for marriage His disciples concluded that it was better not to marry in the first place. God gave detailed instructions as to how families are to order themselves in order to best reflect His design and when we marry we have a responsibility to follow them. And in order to be able to follow His commands we have to know what He has commanded. Ephesians 5 is one place that addresses how a husband and wife should treat each other:

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband. Eph 5:22-33

Men are to lead as Christ leads the Church, giving himself up for his wife. Women are to humbly submit in everything to the God-given authority of their husband, as the Church submits to Christ.

Interestingly enough, Paul specifically identifies the marriage covenant as analogous with the covenant between Christ and Church. To marry is to bear the image of Christ's relationship with His Church. This is no small privilege, but it's also a significant responsibility.

This is why God so hates divorce, because it breaks a union that is supposed to be inseparable.
Divorce is an unimaginable evil that separates what God had joined together. In marriage God makes the two, one. In divorce, that new one flesh is torn apart, mortally wounded.