What if from the garden until today, deception from the evil one has been the driving force of conflict between men and women?
His first tactic of deception worked with Eve, what if now a different kind of deception is working on Adam? And, what if that deception has been the primary tactic of the enemy in his fight against the impact of the Kingdom?
The revealing of this deception of Adam and how it is still in play today is our discussion in this book. It is what has caused, and continues to cause, a huge rift between men and women in the church to the benefit only of the evil one. He is the puppet master pulling the strings behind the discord.
Here we will unveil the evil one's influence to create the fight between men and women and, therefore, keep the church struggling. Then, I will show you what we can do to stop it.
Rather than add to the conflict regarding roles for men and women in the church, we are going to turn our attention to the cause of the conflict. Until we recognize that it is the enemy of God causing the rifts between men and women, we will continue to fight one another rather than love God and one another. Once we see the evil one's tactics and unite against them, then and only then can we have a real discussion about how men and women are to serve the Lord.
We will dive deeply into the origins of Adam and Eve and then see how satan has used the fall against us all. Your eyes will be opened and God will bring healing to the rifts you have felt.
The feedback that I receive is that the first three chapters are life changing. Going back to the garden for a second look at the devil's influence is absolutely eye opening. From there, everything since makes perfect sense.
I wish I could remember her name. We spoke one Sunday and she told me a story of serving the Lord that sounded like an account from the book of Acts. I'm going to call her Ann for our purposes here.
Ann had never married for she had devoted her life to spreading the gospel.
As a missionary, she had reached people groups never before contacted. She had translated the Word into their language. She had taught the Word, raised up leaders, and started churches.
She spoke with memories of the joy of working with the Spirit as He reached the lost through her. She had lived a life with no amenities, in humble means and loved all of it. Serving the Lord had been the focus and passion of her life and she regretted nothing.
Many came to salvation because of her. Whole villages now knew the Lord and His marvelous Word and received eternal salvation. Then, with a life fully lived for the Lord, she retired and returned to the States.
She was thanked by her home church and told that she was now eligible to serve either in the nursery or the kitchen. As a woman, there was no other place allowed for her to serve the Lord and His world.
Something is seriously wrong
How can it be that this obviously gifted woman and servant of God was allowed to work, teach, and have authority to establish churches and raise up elders in another country but now those activities were forbidden and even seen as heretical and sinful in the United States?
Why is it that a woman, by virtue of her gender, had been deemed disqualified to serve her Savior? I know, 1 Timothy, we will get there. For now, let's think a bit deeper about this.
Did God get it wrong in using her to reach the lost? Was her desire to give her life to bringing the gospel to those who had never heard somehow a desire to usurp authority and step out of her assigned role?
We are going to attempt to answer these questions and more in this book because…
Today, more than half the body of Christ has been disabled and disqualified from serving God fully.
According to the 2001 U.S. Congregational Life Survey, an average American congregation is roughly 61% female and 39% male.
That means that the majority of active Christ-followers are women. Yet, this vast majority that loves and wants to serve God is mostly excluded from doing so. There is the kitchen and the nursery available, though.
My question is, could it be that the evil one has intentionally lessened the impact of the greater number of the body of Christ by deceiving us to believe that women are not as important and needed to fulfill the Great Commission and, therefore, not to be allowed to join in leading the lost to Christ?
Again, we are not talking about roles here. We are asking whether the evil one's design is to lessen the impact of the church by putting restraints on the greater portion of the body. In this way, the church is weakened and the evil one succeeds in hamstringing the body.