Woman's Unequal Calling

Yet she will be saved through childbearing. 1 Tim. 2:15

Woman’s Unequal Calling

Contrary to the teaching of pastors who are in the thrall of the American Interim, men and women were not created equal. After the fall, the subordination of woman to her husband became onerous to her. She would desire to possess him, but he would rule over her. But in addition to the inequality of men and women at the creation and after the fall, men and women have unequal callings.

This is indicated by the blessing God originally gave the man and the woman in the garden and repeated after the Flood, by the curses He placed on them after the fall, and by the first promise of Christ.

Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:28)

God blessed both man and woman to be fruitful and multiply, to fill and subdue the earth, and to have dominion over every creature that moves on the earth. Man and woman receive and carry out that blessing together, but each contributes in his or her own way. In being fruitful and multiplying, woman is given to carry the fruit in her womb, and to nurture it from her own body, first when the child is inside the womb, then after it is born. The woman assists in subduing the earth by bearing children, caring for the children, and helping her husband; the man by working the ground.

After the flood, God renews His blessing, but the blessing is not exactly the same. So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. ² And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand. ³ Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs.” (Gen. 9:1-3)

Now the blessing is not spoken to Noah and his wife, but Noah and his sons. Again, mankind is blessed to be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth, even though nothing is said about subduing it. But now instead of dominion, the animals fear and dread mankind, and they are given to man for food. But as in the blessing at creation, mankind is to be fruitful and fill the earth. This is a blessing, but also a mandate. Being fruitful is no more something that man may frustrate if he chooses than filling the earth is. We see a few chapters later God’s judgment on men when they try to remain together and not scatter to fill the earth at the tower of Babel.

And if fruitfulness is not a blessing mankind is permitted to refuse, woman has been set apart, primarily, from the work given to men. She has already been forbidden to exercise authority over a man and has been placed in subjection to her husband. But the blessing of fruitfulness sets her apart during her childbearing years for the work of bearing children. She is not given to the same work as men because she has been given a different calling—to bear and nurture children.

That this is the way God has ordered the sexes is also evident from the curses He pronounces on them after the fall. ¹⁷ Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. ¹⁸ Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. ¹⁹ In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.”(Gen 3:17-19)

Man is cursed in his work. God originally placed Adam in the Garden “to tend and keep it.” (Gen. 2:15) After the fall, God doesn’t change His mind about the purpose of Adam. He is still supposed to work; only now his original work will be painful.

Likewise, the woman is cursed in her service to her husband and in bearing children. The first of these we heard about above. She had been created as a helper similar to Adam. This is now painful; she will seek to control him and he will rule over her. But in addition, God says; “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception In pain you shall bring forth children.” (Gen. 3:16) Why does God not curse Eve in her work in the field? Because where nature isn’t frustrated, either by contraception or infertility, a married couple will create many children. Pregnant and nursing women are engaged in other work besides working in the field, war, and government. Only with the advent of contraception and feminist deceit were people even able to conceive of the possibility of women pursuing “careers” outside the home and not relying on her husband to provide for her. But the theological, moral, and legal revolutions that were necessary to bring us to our present social order were and are all opposed to the moral and sexual order established by God in Scripture.

God’s command was that men and women not frustrate the creation of life that He wills to bring about through their union in marriage. Where people do not prevent the conception of children, the natural order of a man’s headship in the home and in public life, whether in the state or the Church, follows as a matter of course. This is why in the twentieth century there was a concerted attack on the woman in her calling as wife and mother. The legalization of contraception, the invention of hormonal birth control, the legalization of abortion, the push for the complete equality of men and women in work and education, and the legal emancipation of women from the authority of their husbands were all attacks on the woman’s God-given vocation to be mothers and wives. Once the possibility of a woman pursuing advanced degrees and “careers” emerged, it became difficult for other women to follow God’s command. Women began to face social pressure to delay marriage and have fewer children. Households in which the wife remained at home struggled to afford the lifestyles of their neighbors where both spouses were bringing home paychecks.

It is impossible to overstate the damage this has done to civil life. That would require a whole other post. But it is also difficult for us, living after these revolutions in the relationship between the sexes, to comprehend the effect this has had on the life of the Church in the west, or the spiritual damage it has done to women. Christian women today live in ignorance that God’s will is for them to bear many children and raise them in the fear of God, except where God lays on the cross of infertility. If a husband refuses to provide for his children, most Christians readily understand that he is not merely being a bad person, but that he is disobeying God. Sadly, most young women growing up in the Church (and their future husbands) do not realize that a woman who pursues a career instead of bearing children is living contrary to God’s order. Nevertheless she will be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control. (1 Tim. 3:15)

Finally, the first promise of the Savior testifies that a woman’s calling is to bear children. ¹⁴ So the Lord God said to the serpent:

“Because you have done this,
You are cursed more than all cattle,
And more than every beast of the field;
On your belly you shall go,
And you shall eat dust
All the days of your life.
¹⁵ And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel.” (Gen. 3:14-15)

The serpent deceived the woman, and she became a transgressor. But in giving His judgment on the serpent, God proclaims salvation to the man and the woman. And the bearer of salvation would be the one who in her weakness was deceived, and in turn tempted her husband.

The temptation of Eve and her temptation of Adam is not only the story of the fall of our first parents. It continues to be the story of men and women in our time. Satan has convinced men in our time, particularly in the Church, not to bear the responsibility God has given them for leadership in their families and in the Church for fear of offending or controlling their wives. He has convinced women to throw off the rule of their husbands and the joyful duty of bearing children that God laid upon them.

Yet God ordained that the woman who was responsible for falling and tempting her husband would also be the one through whom salvation entered the world.

The woman would bear the Seed who would bruise the head of the serpent and destroy the curse of futility, pain, and death that he had brought on mankind.

In order for the woman’s Seed to tread the devil underfoot, he would have to have greater strength than Adam had, since Adam had followed his wife into transgression and death. So already Adam and Eve understood that the woman was to give birth to a man who was also the son of God.

Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. ³¹ And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. ³² He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. (Luke 1:30-32)

What a terrible transgression the devil has led men and women into in the last century! He has convinced even Christian men and women that it is degrading to women to bear many children. How could he have convinced Christian men and women of this, when it was in the womb of Mary that God became one with the human race? How could it have happened that Christians came to despise childbearing, the gift given to women, when it was through that calling that God’s Son was born?

The Church has sinned a great sin by allowing feminism to pervert its teaching. By submitting to the American Interim and agreeing that men and women are equal, we have defaced womanhood. This is not a minor error. In teaching incorrectly about the calling of women to bear children, we speak evil of the very thing that God used for our redemption. I believe in Jesus Christ, His only-begotten Son, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary…But we have said bearing children is to be despised, that it is less to be desired than a bachelor’s degree and a salary.

Of course critics will deny this. They will say a woman can fulfill her calling to be a mother and a helpmeet while at the same time limiting her fruitfulness, just as they say that a woman can fulfill her calling to be subordinate to her husband while also not obeying him. Such men and women speak just as the serpent did to Eve in the garden when he convinced her that departing from God’s Word would actually bring life and not death.

For pastors who have failed to teach correctly on the inequality of women, for women who have disregarded God’s command to be fruitful and multiply and to be in subjection to their husbands, for men who, like their father Adam, listened to the voices of their wives instead of the voice of God, the fruit of Mary’s womb was born. For these grievous sins He was crucified, shed His blood, and bore God’s wrath. Now Mary’s Son, for whom she grieved under the cross, calls us to repent.

As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. ²⁰ Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. (Revelation 3:19-20)