Do Women’s Bible Studies Contribute to Divorce?
Brian Suave wrote some wise words on his social media sites:
“God gave an office in the church for the doctrinal instruction of men and women: The Pastor. This office is to be held exclusively by men. We don’t need elaborate parallel systems of doctrinal instruction for women led by women. We need competent pastors.
“Godly women are to love their husbands and children, run the affairs of the house, and quietly submit to the teaching of their husbands and pastors. By this means, she will be richly equipped in the faith. She will not be ignorant and unschooled, but trained well. Women’s small groups and Bible studies are the root of countless issues in the church.
“Just one recent example:
“I met a man whose wife abruptly divorced him some years ago, apostatized, and began to brainwash his children. Guess what else happened? Four to six women in the same small group at the same church all divorced their husbands as well. When you reject God’s order for the home, church, and commonwealth, terrible things happen. They will continue to happen as long as we are spineless on this issue.”
I attended a Bible study at a local church nearby. Almost every woman in my small group was divorced. It’s hard to teach women to not divorce their husbands. Most don’t want to do the hard work of 1 Peter 3:1-6 and try to win their husbands. There are no female preachers who are teaching this, nor do any Women’s Bible Studies. Women tend to empathize with women when they tell their side of the story in their marriage. They automatically believe the women without hearing the other side. Instead of doing all they can to encourage women to go to spiritual battle for their marriages, they often recommend divorce.
Biblically qualified men in the churches are to be the ones teaching those in the congregation as God’s Word clearly teaches. If women have a question, they are to ask their husbands at home. They are also to learn biblical womanhood from godly, older women. This is God’s will, and it’s perfect!
From my many years of attending Women’s Bible Studies, conferences, and my own observation, these seem to lead women to divorce their husbands rather than strengthening marriages because they teach women the Bible without ever teaching biblical womanhood (which is exactly what God commands older women to teach younger women in Titus 2:3-5). Therefore, women become more “spiritual” in their minds and think they’re superior to their husbands. Their husbands are falling far short of where they think they should be, so they falsely believe they have reason to pursue divorce.
“There are a number of toxic and unbiblical ideologies that circulate in women’s ‘Bible’ studies and groups. They’re rarely studying the actual Bible; it’s some other book claimed to be Christian. If we let women have a separate and parallel church without oversight by the qualified church elders, this is bound to happen. What ends up happening is that women’s groups have no accountability from the church leadership and often not even from their own husbands, and they diverge into error. This is especially true when the books and materials marketed to Christian women today are nearly all heretical and emotional nonsense. The errors get perpetuated and repeated until most women don’t even realize that the ideas they got ‘in church’ have no basis in the Bible and are not true.” (Lindsay Harold)
Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.
1 Timothy 2:11,12
3 thoughts on “Do Women’s Bible Studies Contribute to Divorce?”
My ex-wife went to a women’s Bible study. After she told them her marriage was awful, they told her to lie to me and to take our kids and leave the state. Nobody from the church ever contacted me to find out the truth. Her marriage was awful due to her awful behavior and her evil choices. She just wanted somebody to validate her evil choice to break up our children’s home, and she got that from the church.
When I later went to that church to inform them of what had transpired, they acted completely unaccountable for what had been done at their facility as part of one of their official outreach programs. Their Feminism took priority over all the rest of their religious beliefs.
When I asked who the man was in charge of the women’s Bible study, they claimed it had to be a woman in charge because it was a women’s class. So, I asked them if they’d also placed a toddler in charge of the nursery during the event. They didn’t even like me asking them questions!
I think the real reason why they wanted to end my marriage was because of their ungodly desire for women’s liberation from God’s holy order of patriarchy. They didn’t think she should be required to stay in a relationship that she had made into an unhappy one. (Proverbs 14:1)
Whilst this may be true in some cases, our Church does have a monthly ladies meeting, and it is God honouring, and a beautiful thing.
We have the Pastors Wife, an ‘older Woman’ teaching the younger Women, Bible Studies. She sticks completely to scripture from our KJV Bibles, and does not teach on doctrinal issues.
She mostly goes through studies on the lives of Godly Women in the Bible, or encourages us in the Biblical role of Women and Godly Mothers.
We meet in the Church hall, and Her Husband is never far away, he is in the Church office while we have our meeting.
Afterwards, we have a time of prayer together, then leave.
It is a very encouraging time for me, I am a first in my Family Christian, and I love getting together with other Godly Women, especially the older Ladies who have a lot of wisdom to share.
I don’t see anything wrong with a Ladies meeting when it is done according to Biblical instruction – The older Women teaching the younger Women. No gossip involved, no divorces occurring, no
Husband bashing conversation, simply, Godly Women gathering together around the Word and in prayer.
Hi Amanda! Lori here: All churches should have gatherings where the older women are instructing the younger women in the ways of biblical womanhood as commanded by God in Titus 2:3-5. Imagine how much stronger the Church would be as a whole if they were all doing this! Marriages would be strong. Children being raised right. Mothers at home raising their own children. Modest. Discreet. Quiet in the church…
While I agree that women’s groupings can -and often do- devolve into mass marital woes sessions, this in not always the case and the blanket assertion is not helpful.
Having been in two groups where the default position was 1) no husband bashing and 2) stick to the Scriptures and avoid Christian book studies (particularly of books written by modern and/or female authors, and 3) the all male elder board of our church has to approve any and all studies before they begin, it is possible for women to have study groups in which they grow in grace and exhort one another to good works.
We have to beware using non denom, big box, celebrity author/preacher, modern nonsense church practices as the justification for deeming damnable all the things they ruined and corrupted.
The nuclear family as the exclusive source of fellowship and growth for members of a family is uniquely modern invention that many well-meaning Christians have embraced, not realizing how awful and selfish, it makes the average Christian. The Bible has far too many “one anothers” in it to say that a woman (or husband or child) can only be encouraged by their pastors or the people with whom they share the same roof.
Hi Elspeth, Lori here! There are no biblical qualifications given for women to teach anything other than biblical womanhood. The pastors/elders in the churches have a long list of qualifications they must meet before teaching theology. Women are to learn from these men in the churches and if they have a question, ask their husbands at home. Women gathering to learn biblical womanhood from a wise, godly biblically qualified woman (Titus 2:3) are the boundaries God has given women to teach other women.