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Sunday, March 22, 2015

P1 - A great resource for the rationale of Biblical manhood and womanhood



Genesis 1:26-28  "Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him;male and female He created them. 28 God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Introduction:
During the past two weeks, this blogsite has dedicated two major series to the subject of biblical manhood and biblical womanhood. Such topics are necessary for our day and time, being that the issue of gender, sexuality and the roles of men and women are so skewed in out culture. Our time and challenges are nothing new in one sense. The only only difference is in the increased levels of overtness opponents of God's vision for men and women have expressed in trying to undermine and replace the Biblical framework for understand genuine maleness and femininity. 

Over 25 years ago, the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (from hereon CBMW) was formed to equip the wider evangelical world on how to address the increasing momentum of changes introduced by the then feminist movement of the mid to late 20 centuries. With the blurring of lines between genders adovcated by the feminist movement, the attack on the Biblical distinctions between men and women was clearly in motion. The below statement, framed in Danver's Massachusettes, represented the beginnings of the CBMW and the need to affirm God's vision for men and women in the Bible. The hope is that the reader will explore the website of the CBMW in gaining a richer understanding of God's vision for men and women than what has been presented in an introductory fashion in these past two weeks on this blogsite. Here is the the link to the CBMW: http://cbmw.org/ . 

The below statement is an excerpt from the Danver's statement mentioned above, with numbers added for easier reading. The reader is encouraged to read it and then check out the link I just mentioned. May all of us be equipped to better articulate God's vision for godly manhood, womanhood and marriage in this 21st century world. 

The Danver's Statement: A Summary of the need for the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. Note to reader: the entirety of this statement can be found at: http://cbmw.org/core-beliefs/

Rationale
"In December, 1987, the newly-formed Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood met in Danvers, Massachusetts, to compose the Danvers Statement on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. Prior to the listing of the actual affirmations that comprise the Danvers Statement, we have included a section detailing contemporary developments that serve as the rationale for these affirmations. We offer this statement to the evangelical world, knowing that it will stimulate healthy discussion, hoping that it will gain widespread assent.
Rationale

We have been moved in our purpose by the following contemporary developments which we observe with deep concern:


1. The widespread uncertainty and confusion in our culture regarding the complementary differences between masculinity and femininity;

2. The tragic effects of this confusion in unraveling the fabric of marriage woven by God out of the beautiful and diverse strands of manhood and womanhood;

3. The increasing promotion given to feminist egalitarianism with accompanying distortions or neglect of the glad harmony portrayed in Scripture between the loving, humble leadership of redeemed husbands and the intelligent, willing support of that leadership by redeemed wives;

4. The widespread ambivalence regarding the values of motherhood, vocational homemaking, and the many ministries historically performed by women;

5. The growing claims of legitimacy for sexual relationships which have Biblically and historically been considered illicit or perverse, and the increase in pornographic portrayal of human sexuality;

6. The upsurge of physical and emotional abuse in the family;

7. The emergence of roles for men and women in church leadership that do not conform to Biblical teaching but backfire in the crippling of Biblically faithful witness;

8. The increasing prevalence and acceptance of hermeneutical oddities devised to reinterpret apparently plain meanings of Biblical texts;

9. The consequent threat to Biblical authority as the clarity of Scripture is jeopardized and the accessibility of its meaning to ordinary people is withdrawn into the restricted realm of technical ingenuity;

10. And behind all this the apparent accommodation of some within the church to the spirit of the age at the expense of winsome, radical Biblical authenticity which in the power of the Holy Spirit may reform rather than reflect our ailing culture."