The Lord is calling us to “Go up to Bethel and to build an altar there to God.” We will answer in the affirmative. Bethel is a high and holy place and a spiritual battle ground. Trusting Him, His Spirit, and His infallible Word, the Bible, we intend to move with Him when the Spirit says move.
The Lord through His Spirit and God’s written Word is helping us to keep our eyes upon Jesus and to walk straight before Him and in His order of submission. Thus we did not and do not take the leftward turn with liberal leadership of any denomination, conference district, or congregation to support or to give admiration to coercive socialistic systems conjured up by humanistic philosophies. We cannot give support to that kind of a so-called “peace witness.” Because of loyalty to the Lord Jesus we would choose to be in His service and support the outreach of His Kingdom, hoping also that our lives are and will be a blessing to the nations of which we are a part.
As Jesus accepted the Creation account, Moses and the Pentateuch, as true and historical, so do we. The Genesis record describes the creation of kinds of animals reproducing after their kind and the creation of mankind from the earth but without subhuman ancestry and in the image of God. So we accept this record as divinely inspired and do find that the facts of science fit into a creation model that is in complete harmony with the Genesis record better than they fit into any evolutionary model conjured up by the humanists of any period of time including our own. We do highly prize our Godly heritage of being created in His image and reject the deception and indignity of the idea propagated by the humanists that mankind had a subhuman animal ancestry. We are aware of the fact that most state and church-sponsored colleges and universities teach evolution as a fact, and we deplore this deception. We object to having our financial support in our local congregation going to that kind of institution of higher learning. Since human life was created in the image of God, we believe human life to have a sanctity, honor and respect above subhuman animals. Thus in reference to human life, from conception to the end of life on earth, we reject the permissiveness about sex, abortion, and euthanasia that is found in both the secular society and in the liberal elements of many denominations. Our Lord calls us to high standards.
The Lord through His Spirit and His written Word is calling us to a higher respect for the marriage relationship. Our Lord ordained it to be one man with one woman for life. Our Lord referred to the creation of mankind and said that at the beginning the Creator made them male and female, and said, “For this cause (or reason) a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one. Therefore, what God hath joined together let not man separate.” The apostle Paul’s writings support this (Rom. 7:1–6 and I Cor. 7:8–11). True relationship with the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit provides the inner springs of living water and enables the unmarried to live chaste lives as singles (Rom. 6:14, John 4:1–42 and 8:1–11).
The Lord restored the standing of women as spiritual beings to that of men as spiritual beings before the triune God. However, by His choice of the twelve apostles and the choice of those sent out to represent and extend Hi s kingdom He recognized the divine order of authority later described by the apostle Paul in I Cor. 11:2–16; Eph. 5:21–33; Col. 3:18, 19; I Tim. 2:11–15; and by Peter in I Peter 3:1.
Jesus shared the precious teachings of His mission, His kingdom, and His peace and caring love with women as well as men and both were used effectively in the church from its very beginning. The faithful church during any period of the church age has observed the principles of the kingdom, one of which is to place the leadership offices upon the shoulders of faithful men in the church. Faithful officers of the church truly are servants, however, even as servants they have grave responsibilities to hold to the true doctrine once delivered unto the saints and to give the leadership in the preaching of the Gospel to all the world.
When the feminist movement hit America, it was promoted by wicked women who were dedicated to convert America from Christianity to humanism and to a goal of making sexual promiscuity and abortion an accepted way of life in America. They were also dedicated to the task of destroying all of Christ’s kingdom principles including the stability of the family. They have promoted divorce and remarriage and condoned homosexuality and lesbianism and fought to help these alternatives to Christian marriage become accepted patterns of life in America.
Some women of many denominations have allowed themselves to be swept along with the wicked tide and have brought elements of sympathy for the wickedness and destruction described above. Church leaders who were poorly grounded in the faith have moved in sympathy with them to compromise the kingdom principle of God’s order of authority both in the home and in the church.
This is bringing deplorable devastation [sic] and painful frustration to many who are trying to be faithful to the Lord, His Word and the church which is unfaithful to them by imposing feminist leadership upon them.
Since the Lord is calling us to “go up to Bethel” we want to march to His orders and keep our eyes upon Him and let our sisters in our fellowship enjoy equality in worship and service while responsible brothers carry leadership responsibilities.
Paul E. Hooley. M. D. is the founder of Oakhill Medical Associates, West Liberty, OH.
Reprinted, with permission from the Nov.–Dec. 1984, Guidelines for Today. This is a conservative Mennonite journal published at Johnstown, PA. Its editor, Sanford G. Shelter, has commented on the fact that although our traditions differ substantially, we as Bible–believing Christians in today’s world, observe some remarkable similarities in our major church problems. Our readers may observe some of these similarities in this article.