Men and Women Different But Alike

Welcome to our new hub "Men and Women Different But Alike." In this hub we will be discussing how God made us in Their images of male and female to mirror Their differences in male and female. Yes, there are differences in our physical human gender forms and in the way we think and act. Though we think alike in many ways there is most certainly a difference in how we are to communicate with one another as males and females to make our lives here on earth enjoyable and rewarding both in our physical well being and our spiritual well being.

If God had meant for us to be exactly alike in our personalities then we would have been more like robots, than creatures made in the images of the Triune God (Elohim). God made us to love and share our lives in a romantic atmosphere of peace and happiness through mutuality and harmony through the Godly gift of sex. All was very good in the beginning and we were off to a great start in Genesis 1:26-28. God had given us food to eat from herbs of the ground and the fruits from trees,Genesis 1:29-30. We had a perfect family formed in the image of God (Elohim). There was perfect harmony in our egalitarian relationships of service and love for one another through our differences that made us One in our likenesses of God in a two parent family. God said this was very good, Genesis 1:31.

We can see the difference in how Adam reacted when he saw Eve, who had been made from one of his ribs closes to his heart to be at his side as his romantic counter part to share life in abundance with him, Genesis 2:18,21-25. Adam was very happy and filled with joy at seeing his perfect soul mate. At last Adam had someone to relate to himself that was like him but different in her feminine ways. She was his perfect helper to make his life with her happy and enjoyable forever. She was no animal but made in the perfect image of Ruach HaKadosh, the female Mother member of the God family just as Adam was made in the male image of Yahuweh the Father God. You can't get much more perfect than that in our human capacity. We where off to a great start but it did not last very long when a certain critter called the Serpent entered their domain in the Garden of Eden.

God needed to test their new couple to see just how much they loved Him and each other who were made in Their perfect image to build hopefully Godly character in each of them. As we have read in chapter three of Genesis both sinned when they failed to resist the Serpents sneaky deception of Eve.

If you notice I said they, both failed to resist the Serpent's deception of Eve. Adam was there and heard the arrogant deception of his loving wife Eve by the Serpent. Why didn't he stop that whole discussion right from the beginning. Why did he remain tight lipped all through Eve's fatal choice? After all wasn't he the one who must of told her not to touch the fruit or eat it. God told Adam not to eat it in Genesis 2:16-17. This was before Eve was taken and made a human from a rib from Adam's side. It seems that God had left it up to Adam to tell Eve about the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. To not touch the fruit was a good suggestion to stay faraway from it. So why did Adam not step in and take the fruit away from Eve and rebuke the Serpent? He could have at the least taken the fruit away from Eve and waited until the Lord God showed up if he was not sure of what to say to the Serpent? We will probably learn what went on after all is said and done, when the Lord Jesus Christ Yeshua returns and brings final peace to the earth.

Had the serpent already been tempting Adam by trying to implant some kind of mind control suggestion through the power of the air the way he suggest evil thoughts into us today, Ephesians 2:2? He is known as the prince of the power of the air who can suggest sinister thoughts and ideas into our unthinking minds. Was Adam guilty of holding back because he had a certain desire to be like God and to know good and evil? Was Satan already putting doubt in his mind and a fatal desire to be like God by making the wrong choice. Why didn't he rescue his sweet loving wife from the evil Devil? Was Eve looking to Adam to come and help her? Did she forget about asking God for help when Adam failed to help her?

Is this why the Lord God told Eve she would have a problem of always looking to her husband as her leader, Genesis 3:16. It had been this way for about 4,000 years of abusive male patriarchy until Jesus Christ showed up to place the woman back in her equal place besides her man and men? Jesus promised both Satan and them both that he would come as the second Adam to save both men and women through his sacrifice on the Cross, Genesis 3:15. Now women can seek life through Jesus Christ first and not have to depend on a human man for her spiritual safety. If only Eve had remembered to do this in the begining, seeking God then. What a difference it would have made. But she did not when Adam failed to come to her aid. She secumbed to the pressure from the Serpent because of the confusion now in her mind and even forgot about asking God. We see that the Lord God put the blame on Adam for holding back from helping Eve, Romans 5:12-15,16-21, 1 Corinthians 15:45-57. Adam tried to use Eve and God as his excuse but the Lord God saw right through his lie, Genesis 3:12-13. Eve became Adam's patsy. Even in this day and age men still blame Eve , when it was ADAM WHO FAILED TO RESCUE HIS LOVING WIFE.

So here we are today both men and women are still stumbling along. This is nearly two thousand years after Jesus Christ came and died for us. There are very few humans that have listened to Jesus Christ's message of salvation. Even at the start of his New Testament Church when the Holy Spirit was sent to help and use both men and women in Christ's ministry starting at Pentecost 31 A.D.. Both men and women were given the Holy Spirit with Her gifts to preach the Gospel in all the world, Acts 2:17-18, 1 Peter 2:4-10. Yet, men have even rejected this outreach effort by Ruach HaKadosh the Holy Spirit to use us both. Instead most humans still follow the teachings of meer men in an institutional form of patriarchy, Matthew 15:7-9. And they follow a parallel second rate Hellenized pagan christianity started in 321 A.D.by Constantine the Great, Emperor of Rome. This has been carried into the Protestant Reformation by Martin Luther as a replacement theology right up into our time as if it is the truth when it is just one big fradulent deception by the same Serpent that beguiled Eve and Adam and most of their children up to this day, Ephesians 2:1-5. After all Jesus said Satan became the god of this world when he kidnapped Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, John 8:44, and made women marginalized as second class citizens in the world and churches. If this is a man's world, does this still mean that men are still sinning with their eyes wide open and women are still deceived by following patriarchal men? We are without excuse so we all need to repent of such evil and come out of this evil Babylonian system mentioned in Revelation 17:5 and Revelation 18:4.

Yes, men and women are different in their physical genders though we think very much alike and that we need air to breath, can smell with our noses, hear with our ears, see with our eyes, touch with our hands and feet, but we need our reproductive organs to make children the way God meant us to do. Men beget and women conceive as it was meant to be in their oneness relationship. We can see from reading Romans 1:18-32 , That their new god the Serpent, Satan the Devil, has perverted the wonderful gift of sex into something very evil that degrades our human relationships into a perverse mind set and not of loving relationships for humans to partake in that God gave to us in the Garden of Eden.

Jesus set the perfect example of servant leadership for us that men are to love their wives and women should love their husbands and both submit to one another in the Lord God, Ephesians 5:21 -33. This is still a great mystery to most humans even in most Christian Churches. But why? Because they follow the same bad example of Adam and reject God's mercy inspite of all the good examples of Christ's loving ways in His teachings and the teachings by the Holy Spirit which are still available today if you are seeking the truth. A good place to find a lot of the truth about our genders is at Christians for Biblical Equality. Check our link to them and find out how you can become part of God's egalitarian Church in action, now and in the coming future.

My wife and I found CBE about 15 years ago and we have never regretted finding out all the new truths that have helped us to have a better relationship with ourselves in our male and female genders. Plus we have a much better understanding about our awesome parents God the Father Yahuweh and Ruach HaKadosh our Mother God.

Also we have a better understanding of why Jesus' sacrifice is so important in our relationship with ourselves, God and other humans. What a friend we have in Jesus. Following His examples of loving His Church, as the apostle Paul expounded to us in Ephesians 5:21-33, in that we should love each other sacrificially in service to one another makes a world of difference in our different genders. Some men may take exception to our maleness and femaleness and think men are more like God then women are, but to God we are all one to them to be used in His work equally. Galatians 3:28-29 says, " There is neither Jew nor Greek (Gentile), there is neither bond (slave) nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus . And if ye be Christ, then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise, Genesis 12:1-3, 13:14-18, 17:1-13,19-22. Wow, what a promise to those that seek Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. For there is no other name under heaven by which we can be saved, Jesus Christ, Yeshua, John 3:17. Men cannot save women, nor can women save men, though we can set good examples in service to each other and other people the way Jesus Christ did. It is only through following Jesus Christ and God's amazing grace that we can be saved, Acts 4:12.

So, our differences are needed to make our lives complete in a family that communicates with God as first rate Christians in our gender contributions to each other based on God's creation of us to need each other. A good example of this can be found when men and women seek for women to live in a safer world.

In a recent CBE, Arise News Letter, December 29, 2011, there were several good examples of young men and women who seek protection for women in their nations. One Young Christian man named Riaz writes and thanks CBE for all the fine articles and the blessing of being part of CBE. He wants CBE's truths to be honored in his nation where women are still being suppressed punished, denied their rights and killed for raising a voice against such injustice.

A young Chinese lady Chai Ling did an interview on Christianity Today in which she spoke about her organization, All Girls Allowed. All Girls Allowed is a faith based organization with the mission of ending the one-child policy and sex-select abortion in China. She said, "We want to save lives right now. Our first mission is to rescue born and unborn girls. Second, to support abandoned girls. Third, to unite trafficked children with their familes.

Also this important article "Not Yet" written by Dr. Karen Shaw who is an assitant professor of cross-culture ministry at the Arab Baptist Theoogical Seminary in Mansouriieh Metn in Lebanon. Karen has had considerable first-hand experience of the exclusion of women from many aspects of church life. She says of one of her male ministers, "He personally has no problem with women being leaders in her church, but says the congregation is not ready for it yet." So he explained.

Well, that's his opinion but there are things that can be done in the church to make things ready for women to become church leaders today and not try to push this change off forever. So many men seek to dodge this issue because some of their church traditions are based on the idea that men are more like God who is male only. Yes, this is what they think. They seem to be using some kind of Arian reasoning passed down from the 4th Century A.D. A good book to read on this subject that I recently read is Alan G. Padgett's book, "As Christ Submits to the Church, " A Biblical Understanding of Leadership and Mutual Submission.

Dr. Karen Shaw has a list of things that can be done to make a church ready for women as leaders in the ministry. She says, " It may be like taking a journey of a thousand miles," but one can begin with a handful of her helpful steps. Like these:

1. Pray. Only God can change peoples heart's. Pray frequently and fervently, and listen to the voice of the Spirit as you pray.

2. Model integrity. Be honest with yourself about your own reservations. You cannot lead others in examining their fears and prejudices if you have not done so yourself.

3. Engage in careful, sound teaching of Bible interpretation. Start with the senior church leaders. Train them in general hermeneutical principles applied to unrelated texts and issues, and then gradually begin to help them to apply these principles to texts about women. Once the leadership understands the principles, they can support you as you teach the congregation.

4. Expose the congregation to ministries of gifted, godly women. There are plenty of examples in the Bible, church history, the contemporary world, and your own church to draw from.

5. Preach regularly on Bible passages about women. This conveys to the congregation that the whole church can learn from the lives and words of holy women.

6. Move women into roles from which they have been excluded for purely cultural reasons. Nothing in the Bible can be construed to prevent women from ushering, being treasures, distributing communion, or being ordained and empolyed as evangelist. (There maybe a few desperate souls that will try to prevent and object to these changes.)

7 Count the cost of not having women leaders. You might find it surprisingly high. I know many young women who won't return to church where only people on the platform are males. When wise women are muzzled and their gifts neglected due to gender discrimination, the whole church loses out. Exclusion of women from leadership in one generation leads to lack of role models for women in the next generation!

8. Create opportunities for people on both sides to discuss their concerns openly in an atmosphere of mutual respect. Small groups, informal discussions over meals, and private conversations are far more effective than a public debate. One can open the conversation easily and constructively by asking people about their experiences of women in ministry or strong women, or even about their mothers, sisters, grandmothers, aunts, etc.

9. Don't be surprised by vehement female opponents to the public ministry of women. Most Evangelical women have been taught relentlessly that their worth is in fulfilling traditional roles. Of course they have grounds for alarm. Women who are used to having influence without responsibility and who gain their status in the community through their husbands titles (such as some wives of elders and pastors) will be particularly threatened. Housewives and female children's workers need to be reassured that they will not be despised, but honored for their valuable work.

10. Remind people on both sides that they are not just dealing with a controverial issue, but with real people. Kindness is not optional.

11. Firmly, lovingly, correct commonly held misbeliefs and prejudices. Myths abound, including the idea that Eve's sin was not asking her husband about eating the fruit, that the ordination of women leads inevitably to the sanctioning same sex marriage, that men will stop coming to a church with women in leadership, or that women are too emotionally unstable to be given senior responsibility.

12. Don't fall for the "many people will leave trap." Occasionall it happens, but usually the "many people" are a small but very vocal minority.

13. Provide pastoral care and ministry alternatives for women who are hurt by the church's exclusive stance. Deal with their pain and frustration rather than ignoring it.

14. Keep reminding male leaders that their decisions will affect the whole church. If they would not want others to decide on their behalf with out consutation, they need to hear women's opinions and not assume that men know best. Women consulted should include single, divorced and widowed women, not simply wives of the male decision-makers.

15. Identify women's gifts and callings, and give them whatever training and opportunities you can for the appropriate ministries. Start small if you must, but start!

16. Prepare male leaders to work alongside women as equals. For some, this maybe an entirely new and potentially threatening prospect. Teach solid theology. Model respect, and make extra space for communication and problem solving.

17. Publically express you support for women in ministry. It is cowardly to be a fence sitter because of fear of opposition. Taking a stand demands courage and integrity. But isn't this the sort of leader you want to be?

Guess what? Dr. Karen Shaw says , "The journey that appears in advance to be a thousand miles long might just turn out to be considerably shorter than that. You never know until you start walking. However, the long an difficult the journey to full conclusion of women may be, it is worth a pilgrimage, heading as it does in the right direction." That right direction is the direction the Holy Spirit will guide us into giving a strong witness for Jesus Christ.

So what will our differences lead us to accomplish on our own? Nothing on your own! But you are not your own if you belong to the Holy Spirit, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, if you have accepted Jesus Christ, Acts 2:38, you will receive the power needed to use Her gifts, 1 Corinthians 12:4-11,12-14. There is a certain new isssue of Mutuality, Winter 2011/ Volume 18 /issue 4, that has a splendid article about "Power" written by Susan McLeod-Harrison that all should read. Why not contact our link and ask for your own copy.

Most humans cannot handle power right, they offen go astray in a way that seems right to them, Proverbs 14:12, Jeremiah 17:9. But blessed is the person, male or female who trust in God, Jeremiah 17:7-8. So, if you are committed to serving Jesus Christ, than the Holy Spirit will give you the power you need to step out in faith and accomplish your part in Christ's ministry of all believers, 1 Peter 2:4-10. Jesus Christ promises us that we will do even greater works than he did because he will be doing them through us by the Holy Spirit, John 14:12,16-26..

The inspiration for writting this Hub for you came from another CBE book titled "Orgins of Difference," The Gender Debate Revisited by Elaine Storkey. This book is just filled with details that only a inspired woman of God could write it. Women are great with details and you will find many women and men at CBE who give a great account of themselves for the advancement of the Kingdom of God. Come and join us now!

Yes, we men and women are alike but different. Long Live the Differences! God made us this way so count it all joy that they let us participate in our own spiritual creation so we can be like them forever, John 3:5-8,16-17. Jesus will be here soon so get ready. Go preach the Gospel to everyone that you can. Become egalitarians and enjoy equality, mutuality, harmony forever with God the Father, God the Mother and Jesus Christ, 1 Corinthians 3:16, 2 Corinthians 6:16-18, Revelation 22:7,12-13,17-20. Amen!