Preaching the Offensive Parts of Scripture
“God has laid out His standards. They’re not negotiable. And I’ll tell you this, if the church doesn’t wake up soon and obey the Word of God, all is lost. We don’t need to fall victim to this stuff. You don’t need a Master’s Degree to figure out what it means to love your husband, love your children, and work at home. How hard is that? By the way, there are no qualifiers there, no caveats, no footnotes. It’s just what it says. Go home, submit to your husband, have children, raise them in godliness, take care of your house. And that’s what older women are to teach younger women, they’re to teach it not only with their mouth, they’re to teach it with their life” (John MacArthur).
I love preachers like John MacArthur who aren’t afraid to teach the “offensive” parts of Scripture. I love God’s Word. I love His ways. I don’t try to water down what Scripture clearly states. I know it offends many. I don’t need to know the Hebrew and the Greek and the cultural setting to believe it just as it is written. I know what it means to love and submit to my husband. Am I perfect in it? No, and I never will be on this earth but I am a whole lot better than I used to be! (Ask my husband!) Yes, I love my children and still do. I always will and now I get to love on their children. I have been a worker at home now for 33 years and I know exactly what this means. My work is at home. I keep my home. This is my God-ordained ministry. I don’t try to find all of the “career” women in the Bible in order to negate this command. I am an older woman so I teach young women these things. I try to model it to the young women around me. This is a wonderful ministry that God has given to older women.
“Why do they [feminist] care? You tell me, why does some feminist woman care whether you’re a homemaker? Why does she care? I’ll tell you why, because her agenda isn’t her agenda. It’s the agenda of the enemy; it is an anti-God agenda intended to destroy the credibility of the church because if you can get women who claim to be Christians to abandon the home, then you can pick up a Bible and stick it in their face and say, ‘You say you believe this? I don’t think so. And therefore it must not be believable because you know what it says and you’re not interested in believing it and you claim to be a Christian.’ The agenda is…they don’t care…they don’t know what they’re doing but they don’t care really whether you work, Satan cares to discredit the Bible, that’s the issue. That’s the level of the attack. See it for what it is and don’t become victimized” (John MacArthur).
The best way for us to adorn the Word of God is to obey it. Our lives should be very different than those around us. If culture is going one way, we should, most likely, be going the other way. But some women can’t be home full time. What about them? My job isn’t to control women or to figure out every women’s life situation and circumstance. My job is to teach them what God’s will is for them. All I know is that chaos has ensued since women left their homes for the workforce. There are few good things about it but mostly negative. I know that children need and want their mothers full time. I know that women can’t do it all well. We were never supposed to try to “do it all.” Do you want to discredit the Bible or do you want to take a step out in faith and trust God by obeying Him?
I love what Pastor John MacArthur preached in this sermon that I have quoted from. Not many pastors are willing to teach these things. The feminist movement has scared them. They may lose the support of the career women in the churches if they tell them to go home. I don’t worry about losing their support. I care more for the children who are being raised by strangers and being educated in the godless public schools most of their childhood. I care about the remnant of God’s people and that they be steeped in the wisdom and the knowledge of the LORD instead of in the ways of the world.
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.
2 Timothy 3:16
19 thoughts on “Preaching the Offensive Parts of Scripture”
What’s righteous and truthful is not always popular! But we must keep speaking and advocating for truth or else the degraded culture of how I feel vs. what is right will prevail!
I don’t get to comment often, but I read your blog faithfully. Amen a 1000 times over. Our family changed its path about 12 years ago-God’s ways are best. I am -a very blessed wife and mother.
Sadly, it is already prevailing and will continue since those who are truly righteous (clothed in Christ’s righteousness) are only a remnant. Yes, there are those who aren’t Christians who still value traditional values but the numbers are growing smaller as culture grows darker but it only gives us more reason to shine more brightly!
Your family is blessed to have you as the wise woman in the home who is building her home up!
“Our lives should be very different than those around us. If culture is going one way, we should, most likely, be going the other way. ”
If it looks like a duck – in the way it dresses.
If it sounds like a duck – in the way it talks.
If it acts like a duck – in what it does to others.
If it eats like a duck – in what it intakes into itself.
It doesn’t matter how much it SAYS, “I’m a swan. I’m a swan. I’m a swan!” The actions of its life prove that it is, in DEED … a duck.
If there is absolutely no part of Scripture that offends, confuses, or raises doubts for you, then:
A) Congratulations! You have been perfected!
B) You haven’t read the whole thing with any great attention. (I suspect “B” is more common than “A.”)
So yes, we should attend to those parts of the Bible that make us uneasy, and truly engage with them and seek the Spirit’s discernment for them. That goes for name lists in Nehemiah as well as for teachings on submission in the NT epistles, or sensuous poetry in the Song of Songs.
Certainly in these days it is fashionable to ignore those bits that tell women to be quiet in church, submit to their husbands, and keep the home, which is why your blog is considerably more provocative than would be a porn channel, sad to say. But we all need to identify for ourselves that part of Scripture that we’re tempted to ignore, or explain away, or water down.
You’re right about that, Heidi! Many are more offended at what I teach that they are about the evil that is going on in the world around us.
I was just reading about this in the Word this morning. A good tree will produce good fruit and a bad tree will produce bad fruit. We will be known by the fruit we produce. Thank you, Robyn!
Thank you Lori! Feminism is a cancer that destroys the homes of those who refuse to let God’s word rule their homes. Even when scripture is used to defend it, they will not hear. And I’m talking about in the church! How sad is that?
I was raised in a “Christian” home where my mother had her career, church ministries, vacations without husband or kids and the list goes on and on.
Needless to say, our family was a wreck. And my mother still doesn’t see it. She’s too busy trying to lead women’s bible studies and going to women’s conferences. We know the blind can’t lead the blind.
Anyhow, I forgive her. I spent years early in my marriage following a similar pattern. But thank God for His Word, revelation and grace! I have become transformed, and my family has been rescued.
It is frustrating and difficult trying talk to my mother, let alone convey biblical truth to her. I feel she thinks I’m some kind of freak for quitting my well paid career to stay home and take care of our 5 young children, submitting to my Godly husband and trusting God for all our needs. And he has come through, let me tell you!
Hopefully, one day she will see by the fruit of your life that God’s ways are good indeed, Alexis!
I am In absolute awe of your blogs. As a male desiring a wife, I read your content daily to learn and understand what it is I should be looking for in a future spouse. Sadly, the churches aren’t teaching this.
Please, do not stop teaching and preaching. You’re an inspiration.
(Revelation) “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the church”.
I’m listening.
Thank you, Demetrius! I do what I can to teach those young women who will listen and want to learn the ways of biblical womanhood.
If only we could find a preacher like this….
Not many pastors are willing to teach these things. The feminist movement has scared them. They may lose the support of the career women in the churches if they tell them to go home.
Exactly. Most “churches” today are non-profit corporations that depend on their “customers” to keep themselves “in business,” and of course “the customer is always right.”
This model is, by its very nature, doomed to fail as a means of teaching The Word. Also, the lack of faith these pastors show with their fear of (wo)man and the world is plain for all to see. No wonder that most of them are completely ineffective at spreading the Gospel or having any noticeable impact on the secular culture.
Churches can’t survive without women’s tithes. Plain and simple. The evangelical churches are new money and have only been able to grow as rapidly as they have because couples tithe. Two incomes have built the churches that flourish right now. They don’t have the history of the Orthodox, Catholic and Anglican churches which saw money funnell in over time through patronage and wise investment in schools and charity. Its glaringly obvious why evangelical and pentecostal churches seek people with such zeal and hold so vehmently to those they have, men and women.
I just found your blog and I am loving it.
I have one question: What would you say to a woman who has never ever wanted children, she does not want them still (neither does her husband) and it is too late anyway?
I have been traditionalist housewife for some years now (I used to be a feminist), and this is something that bothers me: Since I have never wanted to reproduce, I feel like I am a lesser woman. I am mentally barren, so to speak. Then again, I am kind of submissing to my husbands will -it just happens to be my will, too.
I feel it is sinful not to want kids, but I don’t, I couldn’t possibly have them without my husband wanting them too and as I said, it’s too late. How can I find peace with this?
I want to make clear that if a woman wants children but is unable to conceive, I definitely do not think she is a lesser woman! Her instincts are true and natural and that is what counts. But mine are not.
One of the reasons God gives for marriage is to produce godly offspring. One of the main purposes of sex is to produce children. Since you no longer can have children, it is a moot point but Christian couples should willingly want children for happy is the man who has a quiverful the Bible tells us. You just missed out in a lot of joy in your life.
How do you get saved?
By believing in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. “And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31).