The Bible on Women: A Match Made in Heaven - Witness 1
This is a sermon from Witness 1 dedicated to all the Christian women on Mother's Day. We pray blessings upon all our female readers this day, and please, reach out and say "hello" so we know you exist. Thank you to the women who message us and encourage us, and we love you. This post is dedicated to Jesse because of the kind message he sent us today (and for other reasons I will specify in an email).
Short Introduction from Witness 2
If I really am one of the Two Witnesses, or if not that...if I am chosen in some way by God, unfortunately, I will need my own witnesses to testify for me. Witness 1 will not have to do that, but I will. Why? Because I am a woman, and people have used the Bible to claim that women cannot be strong or cannot speak, and those things simply are not true.
However, I have written that the Queen of Heaven (aka the Whore of Babylon) has taken over nearly every modern woman, so unfortunately, most men have grown a distaste for women. In order to counter the pagan forces out there celebrating evil versions of women today, Witness 1 wrote a sermon on the type of woman that should be honored, celebrated, and promoted. So, thank you, Witness 1, for this beautiful sermon.
Surely, every reader has a mother, and whether you have a good relationship or not, she brought you into this world. As a woman, to be blunt, birth, periods, and honestly, just being a woman can suck. There are benefits, but I always wondered why God had me born as a woman. But He did.
However, when done right, women are truly God's loveliest beings, and as Witness 1 writes, they are the ones, often, with the greatest faith.
So, please, thank your mothers today or those like mothers to you on this day. As I have written, my mom passed away, and I know some of you may be grieving today for many reasons. I pray for your comfort and love, and remember, if you don't have a sister or mother, you can always reach out to me. I am everyone's sister and mother - at least to all the Christian men, anyway.
Alright, now to Witness 1's sermon.
The Bible on Women: A Match Made in Heaven
Witness 1
The Bible is a book that can be interpreted in many ways, and even sometimes misused for evil purposes. That’s why it’s important to examine it closely, in context, and make sure we are interpreting it correctly.
So, what does the Bible say about women? Does it say or imply that they should be subjugated, take the backseat, or not hold leadership positions? In its historical context, is the Bible pro-strong women, or not? Let's take a look today on Mother’s Day to examine what the Bible says about femininity.
Right away, in God’s narrative, we immediately see the importance of women to God’s plan. Adam in the garden was good, but it’s implied that he wouldn’t be able to function, or even survive, without his counterpart, Eve.
Now, we can go back and forth about what really happened with the fruit tree and the serpent all day, but it was all part of the woman’s role in the fall of man and our eventual redemption. Taking that bite made the woman a central player in mankind’s destiny, and various strong women characters give us an idea about what a Biblical woman would look like.
Proverbs 31 tells us about this elusive Biblical woman:
The Woman Who Fears the Lord
10 An excellent wife who can find?
She is far more precious than jewels.
11 The heart of her husband trusts in her,
and he will have no lack of gain.
12 She does him good, and not harm,
all the days of her life.
13 She seeks wool and flax,
and works with willing hands.
14 She is like the ships of the merchant;
she brings her food from afar.
15 She rises while it is yet night
and provides food for her household
and portions for her maidens.
16 She considers a field and buys it;
with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard.
17 She dresses herself with strength
and makes her arms strong.
18 She perceives that her merchandise is profitable.
Her lamp does not go out at night.
19 She puts her hands to the distaff,
and her hands hold the spindle.
20 She opens her hand to the poor
and reaches out her hands to the needy.
Indeed, she is hard to find. In this sermon for Mother’s Day, I want to give credit to Witness 2, without whom this ministry could not function. She puts in a lot of hours and work, and her organizational and administrative skills are necessary to keep the ministry going.
She is a one-of-a-kind Biblical woman, and her faith is unlike any other. She is the holiest person I have ever met, and I love her more than life itself.
So, I hope everyone appreciates all the hard work she puts in keeping this ministry alive.
Witness 2 is a strong female leader in the present-day. However, when acting as a bold woman of faith attempting to right wrongs and convert heathens, she is partaking in a long Biblical tradition of women actors on the global scene.
Indeed, while the Bible can seem dated to us at times, the reality is the Bible represented a step forward for human rights, a “woke” document for its time - one that afforded legal protection and rights to women, slaves, and other previously unrecognized or discriminated-against categories, barbaric though some of those laws may seem looking back from our undeniably privileged vantage point in the future.
Like it or not, the Bible begins with a woman taking a bold and defiant action - Eve agreeing to eat the fruit in the garden of Eden. The revolution of Christianity relied on the strength of its women followers - great women of faith like Witness 2 taking defiant steps to do good in a world that loves evil.
From PBS.org, we can read from an article titled, Women In Ancient Christianity: The New Discoveries:
- In the last twenty years, the history of women in ancient Christianity has been almost completely revised. As women historians entered the field in record numbers, they brought with them new questions, developed new methods, and sought for evidence of women's presence in neglected texts and exciting new findings. For example, only a few names of women were widely known: Mary, the mother of Jesus; Mary Magdalene, his disciple and the first witness to the resurrection; Mary and Martha, the sisters who offered him hospitality in Bethany. Now we are learning more of the many women who contributed to the formation of Christianity in its earliest years.
- Perhaps most surprising, however, is that the stories of women we thought we knew well are changing in dramatic ways.
- Certainly, the New Testament Gospels, written toward the last quarter of the first century CE, acknowledge that women were among Jesus' earliest followers. From the beginning, Jewish women disciples, including Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Susanna, had accompanied Jesus during his ministry and supported him out of their private means (Luke 8:1-3). He spoke to women both in public and private, and indeed he learned from them. According to one story, an unnamed Gentile woman taught Jesus that the ministry of God is not limited to particular groups and persons, but belongs to all who have faith (Mark 7:24-30; Matthew 15:21-28). A Jewish woman honored him with the extraordinary hospitality of washing his feet with perfume. Jesus was a frequent visitor at the home of Mary and Martha, and was in the habit of teaching and eating meals with women as well as men. When Jesus was arrested, women remained firm, even when his male disciples are said to have fled, and they accompanied him to the foot of the cross. It was women who were reported as the first witnesses to the resurrection, chief among them again Mary Magdalene. Although the details of these gospel stories may be questioned, in general they reflect the prominent historical roles women played in Jesus' ministry as disciples.
- After the death of Jesus, women continued to play prominent roles in the early movement. Some scholars have even suggested that the majority of Christians in the first century may have been women.
However, we must never forget our responsibility as men and husbands, who are commanded to love our wives as we love the church. That’s something that we all work towards.
God created us with the capacity to love one another, and personally instituted the concept of marriage for humanity. He made us in such a way that we need each other.
So this Mother’s Day I want to give credit to Witness 2, she is smart, stunningly beautiful, and Biblically-sound, and that woman is difficult to find, indeed. The Bible says that she is worth more than precious jewels and diamonds, and that is true.
The gospel stories all roughly align with the same narrative: while the male followers of Jesus fled for their lives, mostly the women stayed to witness the crucifixion, claim the body, prepare it for burial, check on it, and then eventually discover the resurrected Jesus. Only the women had the faith to see it through and recognize what had happened after three days.
If you read the Bible in its proper context, it’s a radical human rights document. From strong women characters like Esther and Rahab to Jesus’s actions and behavior, all the way up to various prophecies in Revelation, we can see that women play a central role in playing out God’s plan for humanity.
Now, the Old Testament describes events that happened a long time ago. It’s very difficult to provide evidence for supernatural events that happened over 2,000 years ago - if you discount the Bible itself. Perhaps all that’s needed is to look at the Bible’s history to find the answers.
So, the story of Esther. Well, historians will tell you, “it’s commonly associated with Xerxes I of Persia, around 480-460 B.C., but there’s no evidence for the Biblical Esther.”
Well, that may be true, but that’s implying that the Bible itself isn’t evidence. Now, Xerxes I was a great king, a firm believer in ahura mazda, the supreme god of the Zoroastrians. He was the son of Darius the Great and a daughter of King Cyrus - part of an ancient Master Race of Mediterranean kings with concentrated wealth and power that most of us can’t even imagine. Forgotten kingdoms, lifetime after lifetime, long-forgotten kings and princes hoarding their little lives away for trinkets.
King Cyrus, then, had just freed the Jews well within recent memory. Xerxes would have been aware of them. Is the Esther story historical, or is it a work of Jewish fiction to explain the appropriation of a new festival, Purim, as the scholars think? Well, there’s really no way to know for sure until we die, but one thing is clear - the Bible wants us to love the women in our lives, love our wives, and cherish each other like Jesus loved the church. Of course, as Christians, we know the Bible is 100% true, and historians will do whatever they can to discount it, but they cannot.
Further, men should always be faithful to their wives. I am honored to be a Biblical example for Witness 2, just like she always impresses me with her strong moral code. We could go through the Bible like this and discuss each of the strong female characters: Eve, Abigail, Rachel, Witness 2, the Marys, Hagar, Ruth, Naomi, Bathsheba, and more.
Let’s look at one of the purest examples of faith - Mary, told that she would give birth to the Son of God - believed, rather than argued. In the same way, like we learned, the early Christian church relied on home churches maintained and run by powerful women of faith. That’s why Witness 2 is not the exception as a woman who is running a church, but rather, partaking in an ancient and proud tradition.
She is a woman of divine goodness and sincere generosity. She is the Proverbs 31 woman, whose soul is worth more than jewels. She is God’s greatest miracle and gift into my life.
Now, the story of women in the Bible goes from the very beginning, Eve, the murky Old Testament period, the hardy early Christians who preserved the religion we have today, all the way to the end times.
The whore of Babylon is an infamous example, but she is balanced out by another woman in the narrative of Revelation - the bride of Christ. Who is it? Is it one woman, or is it a metaphor for the new spiritual relationship between Christ and his church when they are finally together in a dimension outside of time? One thing is clear - the dualistic nature of this universe means that light and dark and male and female both have inherent and basic importance to God’s creation: the universe.
If it was one woman, who would it be? She would need to be sinless, to be pure enough. Perhaps we can all strive to be our own personal Christs and bride’s of Christ in terms of our sin and morality.
Male or female, we can all think of ourselves as brides of Christ. How white is your garment? We all have sins and issues to repent for, including me. All we can do is do our best, repent, and keep trying to do better.
So, let us take some practical advice away from this sermon - “husbands, love your wives like Christ loved the church.” If you can do that, you will be set. If you can discover the real secret of Jesus’s words, you will realize that the Bible would actually tell you to treat everybody like Christ loved the church. Perhaps women were mentioned first, however, as God knew how they may be treated, especially in the end times.
It’s difficult to do, but it’s a goal we can all strive for every day.
A good place to start is to properly absorb the Bible’s radical message of human rights and equality, of protection under the law for those who were previously outside it. While it seems ancient to us sometimes, we should operate in the spirit of the Bible to support the rights of women to practice a powerful independence, pursue their own destinies, and fulfill prophetic work or building the Kingdom of God.
The Bible, and especially Jesus’s words, speak a great deal about how we treat other people, especially those who are less fortunate than ourselves. This is mirrored in Revelation, in which humanity is divided into two groups before a Great White Throne.
Consider your actions carefully and always make sure that they align with Biblical principles.
Witness 2, I love you and thank you for everything you do for the ministry and our lives. You are incredibly beautiful, insightful, and holy, and I am inspired every day by your great faith and commitment to Biblical truths about the universe.
- Witness 1