Participants: Laurel Damsteegt
Series Code: WOHII
Program Code: WOHII000002A
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00:14 Good morning. I would like to share with you some things
00:18 I've learned over the years. The impact of spiritualism 00:22 on feminism and gender issues today. Let us pray. 00:29 Oh Father we come to you as empty vessels, willing and 00:37 wanting to be filled and more than filled we want to be used 00:41 so this morning as we discuss your great controversy we ask 00:45 that all the Holy Angels crowd in here and beat back the evil 00:50 angels and we ask that You will please be with us. In Jesus name 00:55 Amen. By way of introduction I was born and reared in Bangkok 01:00 Thailand. My parents are doctors and they were missionaries in 01:06 Bangkok, Thailand and so that's where I was born and that was 01:09 where I was reared. I had so much fun as a child growing up 01:14 I found out that I loved doing God's work. I loved being 01:19 a missionary and as a child we would go out to all these 01:22 various places and doing all these wonderful things and I 01:25 just loved that. And I deter- mined very early on that I 01:29 really wanted to share God's Word and to be a missionary. 01:35 That meant that I loved God and His Word and every Christmas 01:39 or any birthday people would ask me what do you want for your 01:44 birthday and I would say 'Oh, I want Messages to Young People' 01:48 or I want first volume in Selected Messages, or I'd want 01:51 whatever book of the Spirit of Prophecy collection I was up to 01:56 because I loved to study, even as a kid and so it was natural 02:02 for me to go on and get a BA in theology at AUC and M.Div 02:06 at Andrews and then MSPh at Loma Linda because I believed in the 02:10 health work too. And so we just really enjoyed sharing through 02:17 the years. Now my husband, I did marry my husband after my 02:21 Andrews years. He was ordained but at my husband's ordination 02:29 I declined ordination even as a local elder and that is because 02:36 of some of the things I learned at the seminary. I wished to 02:41 serve the Lord but there were three papers that I did at the 02:44 seminary that have shaped my ministry and my whole philosophy 02:48 and I am going to be sharing one of them with you this morning 02:52 1 Testimonies 421 has a very interesting statement but it 02:59 greatly puzzled me. It goes like this: 03:19 That was very strong because it linked, No.1 Women's Rights 03:25 with severing connection with the Third Angel's Message 03:32 And I thought what in the world in the women's rights movement 03:37 was so objectionable. The spirit which attends the one cannot 03:42 be in harmony with the other. The Scriptures are plain 03:46 notice that, plain upon the relations and rights of men 03:49 and women. OK, notice that the Spirit is plain and it's not 03:56 something that should be difficult for us. 04:17 So here we have women's rights being connected to spiritualism. 04:23 And I thought, what is this all about? And so in my study 04:28 I remember this was before CDroms, before internet, before 04:32 all those things because I'm an old lady. We had to find out 04:37 what was going on in the Spirit of Prophecy when she was talking 04:41 about Women's Rights and Spirit- ualism being connected. 04:46 What was happening? And so, day after day I would sit down 04:51 in the White Estate there and I'd go through all the Review & 04:55 Heralds. I'd look down every column, I'd find every article 04:58 having to do with women and I'd write them all down on these 05:02 yellow sheets. I didn't even use a typewriter. We didn't have 05:06 computers back then. It was all handwriting right there and then 05:10 I'd go and I'd study and I'd study and this is what I came up 05:16 with. No.1, Scriptures are plain on revelations and rights 05:20 of men and women and that's what the rest of this seminar is 05:23 talking about is how the Scrip- tures are plain on these things. 05:27 No.2 Women's Rights and the Third Angel's Message are incompatible 05:35 But somehow there's a connection between Women's Rights and 05:38 spiritualism. But how? So Women's Rights and Spiritualism 05:43 How was Women's Rights a fore- runner of Feminism related to 05:49 spiritualism? I want to go back and I want to study a little bit 05:55 about spiritualism. I have cate- gorized spiritualism as Type 1 06:02 and Type 2. And I'm going to explain exactly what I mean 06:06 by Type 1 Spiritualism and Type 2 Spiritualism. 06:09 Spiritualism all started in the Garden right here on earth. 06:15 And Eve ventured away from her husband and ended up at the tree 06:20 that she was forbidden to be at and right then in Genesis 3:4 06:27 we have Satan's first lie. And that is, ye shall not surely die 06:33 First, first lie of Satan. What this means is if the dead are 06:40 not dead the devil can directly communicate with people here 06:45 on earth, thru rappings, thru séances, thru appearances 06:50 thru levitations, thru all kinds of manners. 06:53 But in Deut.18:9-14 we find that God very specifically calls it 07:00 an abomination. All these kinds of things are an abomination 07:06 and we should not have anything to do with them as God's people 07:10 But there is a Part 2 Spirit- ualism. Type 2 Spiritualism. 07:17 And that has to do with Satan's second lie. Genesis 3:5. 07:22 Satan said 'ye shall be as gods' Now what does this really imply? 07:31 Tree of knowledge of good and evil was forbidden wisdom 07:34 it was woman versus God, her judgment against God's judgment 07:40 God said No. Woman overrides God's judgment and goes ahead 07:46 and does it anyway. So she believes the serpent over God 07:52 she becomes the norm and she ultimately becomes god. 07:58 Do you see that? That is what I call Type 2 Spiritualism. 08:05 Great Controversy talks about both these kinds of spiritualism 08:10 And Great Controversy on pg 554 says, and this is talking about 08:16 philosophical spiritualism now. We are all gods. Let me unpack 08:22 that just a little bit. It's Type2 spiritualism here 08:26 Spiritualism teaches that man is a creature of progression. 08:29 That it is his destiny from his birth to progress even 08:33 to eternity toward the Godhead. That's in Great Controversy 554 08:38 My fellowmen are all unfallen demi gods and another declares 08:43 any just and perfect being is Christ. Now that's blasphemous. 08:48 Alright, another aspect of philosophical spiritualism is 08:54 that anything is ok. He declares through the spirits that true 09:02 knowledge places man above all law. That whatever is, is right 09:07 that God does not condemn and that all sins that are committed 09:11 are innocent. This is what the old book meant when it was 09:16 saying, I'm ok you're ok. You do anything you want but it's ok 09:23 no problem. You maybe all messed up but never mind, it's ok. 09:28 You believe the way you want and I'll believe the way I want 09:31 and everybody is fine and this is a great problem because 09:37 this is philosophical spirit- ualism. Whatever is, is right. 09:42 Type2 Spiritualism. Love makes immoral acts between consenting 09:48 adults ok. Alright, there's another aspect here 09:52 of philosophical spiritualism Type2. It voids 09:55 Scriptural authority. EG White again in Great Controversy 557 10:27 OK. So Type2 Philosophical Spiritualism voids Scriptural 10:34 authority. It is made of no effect. Alright, there's another 10:40 aspect of philosophical spirit- ualism and that is that it 10:44 fosters the seeds of rebellion. Type2-I'll be like the Most High 10:50 Isaiah 14:14 was Satan's war cry against God's authority. 10:55 Satan's pride and his own glory and jealousy of Christ nourished 10:59 his desire for supremacy. He spread his spirit of discontent, 11:03 dissatisfaction against God's form of loving, giving, 11:06 unselfish government. The result was unsubmissive disobedience. 11:14 Satan's government is controlling it's oppressive, it's cruel 11:19 versus God's loving, transparent service with no need for 11:24 recognition. Before sin nobody even knew there was a law. 11:30 That's how transparent God's love and His government is. 11:34 Everybody did what they wanted to do because they desired 11:37 to do it from the inside out. And it made a huge difference. 11:42 After sin came because then the cruelty and oppression came in. 11:47 God's way is a law of love. It goes low in service. 11:53 And we only take to give. Some times we think of service 12:01 being very negative but in fact service is beautiful. 12:06 We want to give. Luke 17 talks about the servant who goes out 12:12 and works all day long, works and works and he comes home 12:16 and instead of the master looking at him and saying, just go home 12:21 you've had a hard day. No, he says feed me first then you can 12:26 do whatever you want. And what was the response of the servant? 12:31 He didn't say absolutely not, I've had a hard day, it's time 12:36 for me to go home. He said I'm a servant happy to do anything. 12:42 And only God can give us that unending, serving attitude. 12:48 Because in ourselves we resist it, we hate it, we will have 12:53 nothing to do with it in our- selves. But God gives, and He 12:58 gives and He gives so that we can give and give and give and 13:04 we can be a fountain of service to others because of that facet 13:09 that God keeps pouring down into us. So let's talk about 13:14 spiritualism and the beginning of the Women's Movement. 13:16 How does this all pull together? How can we understand what is 13:21 really happening here. Did Adventists recognize this 13:25 connection between spiritualism way back then? Yes, in fact 13:30 that's how I even knew about it. It's because people like 13:34 Uriah Smith and JH Waggoner had articles about spiritualism in 13:38 the Review and I just happened to read them. I'm sure the Lord 13:42 led me to them. Because the Lord is full of providences you know 13:46 things that somehow catch your eye, you look at and Oh it opens 13:50 a whole other area you need to go study, it's exciting 13:54 Spiritualism as JH Waggoner defined denied all laws of God 13:59 and allowed instead personal intuition and inclination, ok 14:03 that's self, inside. It denied the existence of sin. Human 14:09 beings are not accountable, it's done away with all systems 14:13 of morality and that's from his book Nature and Tendency of 14:16 Modern Spiritualism, pg 66. Type2 Spiritualism. So, our 14:23 pioneers knew all about what was going on. Today, the authors 14:29 freely acknowledge the connect- ion between spiritualism 14:32 and women's rights. Ann Brodie Radical Spirits - Spiritualism 14:38 and Women's Rights in the 19th C a book that's been out for a 14:42 while now and another more recent book by Barbara Goldsmith 14:47 called Other Powers, talking about spiritualism and women's 14:51 rights, leaders of that time. Notice what Ann Brodie said 14:56 in her book on page 2. 15:20 And so here we have Type1 in the rebellion against death 15:25 and Type2 in the rebellion against authority. 15:29 Both seen in early spiritualism. So let's talk about classical 15:35 spiritualism first. The dead give guidance. Well, of course 15:39 you've heard of the Fox sisters in 1849. This was really the 15:44 beginning of American modern spiritualism. And they had 15:49 necromancy. And it became a show. Objects moving and spirits 15:54 appearing and tables levitating all based on Type1 spiritualism 15:59 Ye shall not surely die. Did you know that spiritualists were 16:04 among the first to ordain women? Very interesting. 16:09 Another person we'll talk about is Elizabeth Cady Stanton. 16:16 Now Elizabeth Cady Stanton, was really I should say the foremost 16:22 person in women's rights of the 1860s-70s. 16:29 She had spiritualistic dabblings of Type1. She heard spirit rap 16:36 She was super antagonistic towards the Bible and 16:40 to the clergy Type2. Ok, so Type1 she heard the spirit raps 16:45 and she was antagonistic toward the Bible and clergy 16:49 and we'll unpack all of this as we go along. 16:53 There was a certain table called the McClintock Spirit Table 16:59 that played very strongly in her life because she was 17:05 instrumental in the first women's rights convention at Seneca 17:09 Falls where they put out the declaration of Rights and 17:13 Sentiments and it was signed in 1848. She was the primary 17:18 person to write this article, this declaration but it was 17:25 written on this McClintock Spirit Table. And listen 17:31 to this quote from Goldsmith page 32 17:42 So where did that declaration of rights and sentiments come from? 17:48 That is the question. Right from the devil himself! 17:51 And this table, you might say what's so big about a table 17:57 This table was actually at the head of her coffin 18:01 at her funeral. It played such an important contribution to 18:07 her life and it's in the Smith- sonian today, ok. 18:11 That's how important this is. Let's go on and discuss Stanton 18:17 a little bit more. Let's look at some of her views on marriage 18:20 and family. She was actually a forerunner of the feministic 18:24 ideas of marriage and home life repressing women. 18:28 Elizabeth Cady Stanton, she hated the Biblical roles 18:37 of male as head and female as submissive. 18:41 She categorized these as slavery and she railed against them so 18:48 strongly and she blamed these roles on the fault of organized 18:54 religion. This is why she hated the clergy, she hated the Bible 19:01 and she called for full equality in marriage, now termed 19:05 egalitarian. Now what do we mean by full equality in marriage? 19:10 Both partners should be free to come and go. No hierarchy 19:16 there's equality, fraternity, mutuality, remember that word 19:20 friendship as a basis for family government. And this is the kind 19:25 of marriage she wanted everybody to be able to enjoy. 19:29 That's Stanton and marriage. We will come back to that later on 19:33 as we discuss what is going on today. What about Stanton and 19:39 the Bible? She hated the Bible as I just said. So she decided 19:43 that she was going to make her own Bible and it would be called 19:48 The Women's Bible, but not all written by her of course. 19:52 She got solicited from all women scholars of the world 19:57 come and help me make this Bible Unfortunately she really had a 20:03 hard time because people didn't want to put their name to 20:05 this kind of cause and so she really had a hard time getting 20:09 people to come help her so eventually she published this 20:12 Women's Bible and it is a proto type of feminist theology 20:17 today. So now we're going to see how the spiritualistic 20:22 Elizabeth Cady Stanton had such an impact on feminist theology 20:28 today. So let's look at this. Stanton disliked the clergy and 20:34 the Bible because of the Pauline and other negative passages 20:40 towards women. So let's re- interpret it. Type2 spiritualism 20:47 So how did she do it? She had to use higher critical 20:51 methodology which, by the way, was in full swing during the day 20:54 And notice this quote from her bible: 21:20 Blasphemous, isn't it? But this was in her bible. 21:26 So let's talk a little bit about what higher criticism is. 21:30 Because we don't want to be throwing around terms we don't 21:33 know what we're talking about. Higher criticism supposes that 21:36 the Bible is a man made book that records man's experiences 21:42 focusing on biases of authors and explains them by their 21:47 cultures, alright. I hope you heard 'words', you heard sounds 21:53 like cultures. Instead of the Bible being the voice of God 21:57 with universal norms that trans- cend all cultures, Bible is very 22:01 human and is authored by men with distinct biases and 22:07 orientations and is full of errors and discrepancies alright 22:11 This is what higher critical methodology does. Causes doubt 22:15 because the stories that are there they may not be true 22:19 but the person that wrote them believed them so therefore 22:22 they're important for us to understand. Ok? 22:25 And this is why people who are actual atheists can teach in 22:30 universities in the Old Test- ament or the New Testament 22:34 department because they use this kind of framework and it's just 22:38 literature and anybody can talk about literature and that's what 22:43 the Bible is cut out to be. This makes of none effect 22:47 we shudder at this if we read the plain Scripture and make 22:50 it read something completely opposite to what it really does 22:54 because of interpretation, tradition or cultural background 22:58 or for whatever reason we had made of none effect 23:01 the Word of God. Very, very tough. So making the Word of God 23:07 of none effect through your tradition which you have 23:10 delivered is what Jesus said in Mark 7:13. Please, let's none 23:14 of us make of none effect God's Word, that is tragic. 23:19 It is Type2 Spiritualism. Ok let's move on. Let's talk about 23:24 Stanton and women's clothing. The bloomers were a start 23:28 Stanton early realized that the ridiculous clothing of the day 23:33 hampered women from accomplish- ing everything a man could do 23:38 May I put a parenthesis in here that Ellen White thought so too. 23:42 Not because of this, but Ellen White was against the women's 23:45 fashions of the day because they were very full and they swept 23:49 along the streets and whatever was in the street got mopped up 23:54 by their beautiful dresses and went home with them and 23:57 spread germs that their toddlers would be crawling through 24:00 and it was a horrible mess. Stanton had other reasons 24:04 besides hygiene to talk about these dresses. This hampered 24:09 a woman from accomplishing any thing a man could do. 24:12 So she wore these bloomers to start with but the rejection was 24:17 so overwhelming it didn't last long, she gave it up very soon. 24:20 But it was the first step toward similar clothing and this is 24:25 a picture of one. So Stanton we have seen was way ahead of 24:30 her times and even though she was ahead of her times 24:35 all of her spiritualistic ideas have been embraced by modern 24:38 feminism. Marriage is open, easy divorce, lesbianism. Scripture 24:45 is re-interpreted, God is re- named and cross dressing is 24:50 more accepted. She was one of the most important persons in 24:56 the Women's Rights Movement. We want to shift gears now and talk 25:00 about Victoria C. Woodhull who was really exemplified 25:05 spiritualism blended with women's rights. Tenny C. Claflin 25:09 who was her sister and Victoria Woodhull, they were sisters 25:13 came to public notice as mediums Both had visions, transcendence 25:19 can tell fortunes, they really were gypsies to start with. 25:23 But because of their great beauty and their great 25:26 intelligence they became the first women stockbrokers 25:30 on Wall Street. They had liaisons with Cornelius vander 25:34 Bilt and he set them up on Wall Street and gave them great 25:37 success. And these beautiful women had a great influence 25:42 at that time. Women's rights, people didn't know exactly 25:46 how to treat these two women they were almost repulsive 25:52 but Victoria Woodhull actually had a chance to address the 25:58 Congressional Committee on Women's Suffrage and after that 26:01 the women's rights leaders embraced them because they 26:06 she got so far, Victoria Woodhull under the guidance of 26:12 Andrew Pearl a spiritualist again, notice this, helped her 26:17 realize her potential and her calling. He prophesied 26:22 her realizing her potential rise to power and she became the 26:27 first woman to run for President of these United States 26:30 on a women's rights and spiritualistic platform in 1872 26:36 Victoria C. Woodhull. Now let's go on to discuss her morality. 26:41 This was really the beginnings of sexual revolution. 26:46 At a speech she went out that's quoted in Smith, she said 27:16 Type2 Spiritualism. Blatant. JH Waggoner quoted this in Review 27:49 Type2. So she was a prototype of feminism today, notice these 27:56 quotes from current authors 28:25 What kind of spirit are we to catch? It's a problem. 28:29 So we have seen that Uriah Smith and JH Waggoner had articles and 28:35 notice what Uriah Smith said. He told how the career of 28:39 Mrs. Woodhull was planned and executed thus far wholly by 28:43 the spirits. Now we want to shift gears and we've talked 28:48 about the past how did early women's rights connect with 28:54 spiritualism and see are the goals of feminism still 28:57 spiritualistic today. The agenda of feminism is to change the 29:04 church and these are the areas that feminism wishes to change 29:08 the church in. 1. God-how can a woman identify with a male God 29:14 and a male Jesus. They want to change God. Language. It must be 29:21 made inclusive. So all of Scrip- ture must be made inclusive. 29:26 Bible interpretation. Since the Bible is plain about the role of 29:30 women, it must be interpreted through higher critical method 29:35 Church organization. Male pastors and elders must be 29:38 replaced with equal numbers of women on all leadership levels 29:42 Notice they never say all, they always say equal, Always gotta 29:46 be equal. And no distinctions between men and women 29:50 Anyone is ok doing anything in church. Ok to marry anyone 29:54 even across gender lines. So let's first of all look at God 30:00 in feminist. Mary Daly, a woman catholic nun she since died 30:05 her famous quip was, if God is male, then male is God and 30:10 of course a feminist can't have that. Notice what else she said 30:27 So feminists are uncomfortable with the maleness of Jesus 30:31 as our Savior, so they often rename Jesus as Christa, or 30:37 child of Sophia, wisdom's child. Notice this picture here 30:42 of Edwina Sandy's Christa mounted at New York's cathedral 30:46 of St. John the Divine. A nude woman on a cross. 30:50 That is how they like to think of Jesus. So talk about 30:56 the language now. How do they transform the language? Putting 30:59 February 13, 1989, a while back but notice what it says 31:35 We're going to change it. So let's take a look at feminism 31:40 and the Bible these days. We find that Mrs. Stanton's 31:45 views were very tame by comparison. First before I look 31:49 there I want to look a little bit about how we think about 31:53 Scripture itself. Scripture is divine and human. All Scripture 31:58 is given by inspiration of God we're told in 2 Tim 3:16 32:02 and Ellen White in Great Contro- versy page 5 says, the Bible 32:06 points to God as its author. God is perfect so His way is 32:13 perfect and that's what the Bible says in Psalm 19:7 32:17 The Law of the Lord is perfect and Psalm 92:15 says, 32:21 To show that the Lord is upright He is my rock and there is no 32:25 unrighteousness in Him. Keep that in mind as we start to 32:30 talk about this. The Scripture's divine but how's it also human? 32:36 Even though Scripture is given by God it is written by human 32:39 beings and this is quote from Selected Messages 26 33:02 Then this quote. Write this one down it's so important 33:20 Really an important quote. Notice this quote also from 33:25 Great Controversy pg.595 34:01 We take what the Bible says. Look at Upward Look, pg.52 34:16 Check the context and often the meaning is obvious, right there 34:20 in the context. What are the theologians, feminist theologian 34:25 Here's Mary Daly again on the Bible. 34:50 Mary Daly, Church and the Second Sex, pg.185 34:56 But is the Bible biased? I just read you here only 35:01 we find the history of our race unsullied by human prejudice 35:04 or human pride. Do you believe that? Do you really believe that 35:09 That God could've guided and so it's not prejudice? amen 35:15 Famous theologian Elizabeth Schussler Fiorenza, in emerging 35:21 issues and feminist Biblical interpretations says 36:19 Feminist Biblical interpretation What about feminism and church 36:24 organization today? I would just like to state here 36:28 that ordination is really just a step, this is not the end of 36:32 the battle by the way. If you think this is the end you 36:35 are very naive. Ordination allows equality in the church 36:39 that women are after. Women must be allowed full equality 36:42 as elders or ministers. The top rungs of leadership must be 36:46 without regard to gender. An ordination is only the entryway 36:50 that makes all this possible. So you have to re-enter plain 36:54 scripture to promote equality. Culture re-interprets the word 37:01 feminism uses the culture to change meanings of literal words 37:06 of scripture and culture today inspires hermeneutic, the whole 37:11 Bible interpretation is a method that's really at risk and 37:14 in all of this question if we think it's ordination, 37:18 we've missed it. The issue is hermeneutics, how we interpret 37:22 the Scripture and this is why we have to be very attentive 37:26 to this whole issue. Determined efforts are made by Satan 37:33 and his followers to go ahead whether the churches agree or 37:36 oppose and it has split churches It is very, very sad. 37:41 We faced an Alpha of apostasy way back when Ellen White said 37:46 our only hope is simple child like interpretation of scripture 37:50 Ellen White rebuked Kellogg for spiritualizing away the plain, 37:53 simple, real word of God. This was the Alpha of apostasy 37:57 she said. The Omega's much worse still to come must also include 38:02 Bible interpretation and we need to be watching for the Omega. 38:08 And in this whole debate we missed the whole point of the 38:11 thing. All of us are to be work- ing for the Lord 38:14 enthusiastically and with gladness. there's nothing women 38:18 can't do except two things, just like that tree. God said only 38:24 one tree you can't go near and women, we can do anything 38:28 in the church except be elder and minister. What's the big 38:32 deal about that? You know for years we've been doing that 38:35 And suddenly it's like a huge hurdle we have to do. And 38:41 some people are rebellious, we will go our own way at any cost 38:46 or leave. Some have gotten so hung up on ordination that 38:50 they've been discouraged from doing anything and only one 38:55 who's really benefitted from any of this controversy 38:57 in the church is the devil. Where is the heart of unity 39:02 that Jesus wanted to see? 39:04 Some may say, oh but those are just radical feminists, we don't 39:08 believe that way. But feminists evolve. People progress in their 39:11 ideas. When I was back studying the feminists of the day 39:15 the evangelical feminists were Scanzoni, Hardesty, Mowencott 39:20 but now they've left their evangelicalism and have gone on 39:24 to join liberal religious feminism in order to embrace 39:28 both the Bible and feminism, they end up compromising 39:32 the Word of God which is very very dangerous. 39:36 So how the Bible is interpreted to do away with the plain Word 39:39 feminists, theologians, they don't even believe the Word is 39:42 from God anyway. The Word is from biased men and that's why 39:48 there's not much about women in it, so let's just discard it 39:51 and fantasize and use some of the names, that's the basic idea 39:54 of feminist theology. Evangeli- cal and Adventist theologians 39:59 do not go that way, ok. They do more this kind of thing. 40:04 They'll say the passages are ad hoc, meaning just for that 40:10 culture and for that time, for example 1 Tim chapters 2 & 3 40:15 they were limited to a local problem having little relevance 40:19 beyond the first century church of Ephesus ok. So they'll 40:24 use that kind of argumentation or they'll talk about 40:27 an interpretive center where the overall picture of God and the 40:31 major driving themes of the Bible are used to filter out 40:34 texts that do not fit and of course Gal 3:28 becomes the 40:40 privileged clear text that filters out all the other 40:43 passages. And so this is what happens today with, with it. 40:48 Now there's another whole aspect of this that I want 40:52 to get into because Victoria C. Woodhull brought this out very 40:56 strongly and that is understand- ing gender and morality. 41:00 There is a gender issue. There is a reason God is interested 41:04 in distinctions and roles and dress. He created male 'n female 41:08 But United Nations International Research and Training Institute 41:12 for the advancement of women Instraw says, notice how it 41:18 defines its definition for gender, 'persons are not 41:22 necessarily born with specific gender. Gender develops 41:27 culturally, socially, politi- cally or economically" 41:35 the goal is pan-sexuality will be accepted anywhere 41:40 Male, female, lesbian, bisexual transgender, omnisexual 41:45 it doesn't matter. We want it everywhere acceptable. 41:49 Another quote from Instraw 42:12 So young women openly enter into intimate relationships with 42:15 both genders that are more just experiments. They resist being 42:19 described as straight or gay or even bisexual which some suggest 42:23 promiscuity and one nights stand instead they want to use words 42:27 like fluid or omnisexual. The family is redefined to mean 42:33 two roommates not a man and a woman, so today's term when 42:37 you talk to somebody out in the world, they'll say this is my 42:40 partner. They don't say this is my spouse. They don't say this 42:45 is my husband, this is my wife They say this is my partner. 42:48 Partner covers everything. And it is the new term watch for it. 42:53 When I was a student I went to a Biblical meeting that was very 42:59 liberal and I went to go to a small session for women and I 43:07 thought in my naiveté that they would be talking about 43:10 how to reach women or something like that and I had no idea 43:15 what I was getting into but they started talking about 43:18 androgyny and I had no idea what androgyny meant 43:21 And they kept talking about it and I didn't dare raise my hand 43:26 and say what is androgyny? But I went home and I looked it up 43:30 The term androgyny is Greek derived from the Greek word 43:33 Aner and gune meaning woman referring to the combination 43:39 of masculine and feminine characteristics and here you see 43:42 a picture of Athena Greek Goddess of heroes who is 43:46 androgynous. It's a combination of masculine and feminine 43:50 characteristics with no distinctions, pan sexuality 43:54 and acceptance is the ultimate goal and notice this quote: 44:36 So we get all kinds of fashion people saying, 44:39 Yep we're doin it right. And we have all kinds of people today 44:44 wearing clothes today that depict both genders 44:47 and men that want to be women. But Deut 22:5 says, 45:02 So, dress has always expressed philosophy and if you're trying 45:08 to blur the distinction between male and female there is one way 45:12 of doing it. When you look for a restroom you're looking 45:14 for dress or pants and this kind of tells Stanton and 45:19 the bloomers expressed equality trousers for women were finally 45:23 accepted during WWII because of working in the factories 45:28 1960s the pantsuits came in with hippies and the new age 45:33 and today jeans are everywhere and they are androgynous. 45:37 Today we have girl power. Victoria Woodhull used it. 45:43 Women now are encouraged to use it. Girls rule, boys drool. 45:49 Third wave feminism is using sexuality to get power. 45:56 So women are released from their homes. Stanton and Woodhull's 45:59 dream that women be released from home and child care has 46:02 finally come to pass. Today, the beautiful role of mothering 46:07 is disdained. Women's careers are the all important thing 46:12 some willing to dispose of unborn children because they're 46:15 inconvenient. And that's why abortion is a feminist issue 46:19 because it is a matter of choice Notice what the second Bible 46:24 Commentary, Ellen White, page 1008, says: 46:58 Alright, the power of a mother. Great Controversy, pg.557 & 558 47:04 I'm just recapping here: 47:32 Early Writings, pgs 263 and 264 47:37 gives a very important picture of Satan 48:19 and that is exactly where we are today. 48:21 So what kind of lessons can we take away from these things 48:28 as Seventh-day Adventists? By saying all these things I'm not 48:32 implying that my dear friends who happen to be on the other 48:37 side of the fence on Women's Ordination believe all that. 48:44 I'm not saying that for one moment. But I am saying that 48:50 I believe that they may not realize all these things. 48:56 And who is behind the kinds of things that they espouse. 49:03 The radical Women's Rights leaders of the 19th C were far 49:07 beyond their time. We have seen how modern feminism has 49:13 encompassed most of their thought but has moved far beyond 49:22 The feminist movement is away from order, creation order 49:26 if you will, it's away from authority, God's authority 49:35 His Word's authority, man's authority in the home 49:41 and then the church. Authority is a big thing, 49:43 coz we like to be in charge You know we like to be on top 49:47 and it doesn't go well with each of us to have to submit 49:52 in any way. And gentlemen, there is a role for humility 49:57 and submission on your part too. You know it's not just women 50:01 that should submit. All of us need to be submissive to the 50:05 Word of God and be gracious and there is really no place 50:12 while I'm at it, let me just say there's no place for any kind of 50:16 meanness or oppression, that is strictly from the Bible. 50:22 That man is to be kind and gentle and not mean 50:31 and any of the abuse and things like that. Sometimes we are 50:35 accused of should never have any factual bearing in any 50:42 of our lives. It's a very sad thing when we see that. 50:48 Feminism is a movement into self, be what you can, the human 50:53 potential seeks the god within you. You were made for more 50:57 than just washing dishes. This is all Type2 feminism. 51:05 It is a moving into jealousy for sexism goes both ways. 51:11 It's not just one way. So we now understand Ellen White's warning 51:18 in 1 Testimonies 4, page 21 51:51 So as a young person doing this research I read these things 51:57 I had to examine my own heart really carefully. I had to 52:04 decide where I really stood on the issues, and as time has gone 52:10 on I've had a chance to study more and find out that really 52:16 the research I did way back then was very valid. 52:23 That it hasn't gone away, it has only intensified. 52:27 The Scriptures are plain upon the relations and rights of 52:31 men and women and we now have before us very important 52:39 decisions to make as a church and we as SDAs need to realize 52:47 that the spirit of the gospel, real love a giving of one's self 52:51 Adventist theology and Adventist hermeneutics of scripture 52:55 are not compatible with some of the feminist principles that we 53:00 have shared. Spiritualism does not always assume the medium 53:04 of rapping guys. Watch out for the philosophical spiritualism 53:08 embodied in feminism and its effects on culture. God help us 53:13 to keep our eyes and ears open so that the principles do not 53:18 subtly come in and suddenly surprise us by becoming a part 53:22 of what we hold dear. That's a very, very dangerous thing. 53:26 So as a young person looking at those very important things 53:31 I decided that yes, I wanted to be in ministry, yes, I wanted 53:37 to work for God. I wanted def- initely to have an impact 53:42 on those around me but I wanted to be extremely careful how I 53:49 read the scriptures and the rights of men and women 53:53 Ellen White said were very plain and I wanted to follow that with 53:57 my whole heart. So my husband and I had a very exciting 54:02 ministry together. He was pastor of the church, I worked right 54:06 alongside, I preached on Sabbath I worked with him giving Bible 54:12 studies to the women. I worked right alongside. We did both 54:17 both of us did health, I went out and did cooking classes and 54:22 other kinds of classes. So many things we can do together 54:26 when we went as missionaries I worked in the chaplain's dept. 54:30 and I worked in the health edu- cation department, also in the 54:34 church. So many things that we can do, we ought not be afraid 54:44 ordained, so therefore there's nothing to do. Jesus is coming 54:54 soon and here we are spinning our wheels on this unimportant 54:58 issue that is really, really important but in face of the 55:02 Lord coming soon to get caught up on it is very sad. So, I just 55:08 want to appeal to each one of you to rethink what's going on 55:12 in the culture around you. See if it in any way affects the way 55:15 you believe and reexamine, rethink and yes, embrace 55:23 the Bible as it reads. Let us pray. 55:28 Kind Father, you are more than good. You are kind, you are 55:36 gracious and the government that you set out is the one we only 55:41 want. We want that eternal givin spirit that Jesus had 55:46 the Kingdom that He said was not of this world. 55:53 He taught about the poor in spirit, He taught about the meek 55:57 He taught about those who need to know the Word because they're 56:04 so hungry and thirsty and indeed that is what we want. 56:08 So Lord, teach us servanthood from the depths of our spirit 56:12 Help us to eschew the spirit- ualistic aspects of Satan's 56:18 control and be willing to give our all and work for You 56:23 with all of our hands, heart and mind and our spirit, all of us 56:28 in Jesus' name. Amen. So I would like to encourage you 56:37 all to study more deeply into this issue. It's not an easy one 56:43 but the sources are out on the internet now. You do a search on 56:48 to know, believe me. The same thing for Elizabeth Cady Stanton 56:54 the same thing for any of these feminist theologians that I've 56:58 mentioned and you'll find much much more, I promise you. |
Revised 2015-08-13