You might
have noticed if you have been reading me for some time now that I often speak
to the evils of feminism. Whether you follow me on my blog or
on my Substack
you will have seen I am not shy about calling out how feminism has caused rot
to set into the home, the church and wider society. It is a pernicious evil.
Feminists don’t even really have
a true definition of what a woman is, and this is starting to have an impact
on conservatives, who are often just pushing the views of yesterday’s liberals.
My four part
(so far) series on Satanic
Feminism also might come across to some as just the kind of thing that a
conservative Baptist pastor might say about feminism. And to be fair you would
in large part be right. But the title was actually inspired by a book published
by the Oxford Academic Press by Per Faxneld called, “Satanic Feminism:
Lucifer as the Liberator of Woman in Nineteenth-Century Culture.”[1] This book
was based on Faxneld’s award winning PhD thesis, which shows that the modern
world, and particularly Socialism and Feminism have deep connections to
explicitly Luciferian ideas and inspirations. The abstract on Oxford’s website says,
“Abstract
According
to the Bible, Eve was the first to heed Satan’s advice to eat of the forbidden
fruit. The notion of woman as the Devil’s accomplice is prominent throughout
the history of Christianity and has been used to legitimate the subordination
of wives and daughters. During the nineteenth century, rebellious females
performed counter-readings of this misogynist tradition. Hereby, Lucifer was
reconceptualized as a feminist liberator of womankind, and Eve became a
heroine. In these reimaginings, Satan is an ally in the struggle against a
patriarchy supported by God the Father and his male priests. The book
delineates how such Satanic feminism is expressed in a number of
nineteenth-century esoteric works, literary texts, autobiographies, pamphlets
and journals, newspaper articles, paintings, sculptures, and even artefacts of
consumer culture such as jewellery. The analysis focuses on interfaces between
esotericism, literature, art, and the political realm. New light is thus shed
on neglected aspects of the intellectual history of feminism, Satanism, and
revisionary mythmaking. The scope of the study makes it valuable not only for
historians of religion but also for those with a general interest in cultural
history (or specific aspects of it like gender history, romanticism, or
decadent-symbolist art and literature).”[2]
It looks like
the rhetoric of those conservative Baptist preachers was more correct than you
could have ever imagined. And this should not surprise us, feminism calls into
question everything the Bible says about men, women and their relationship to
each other. The catch cry of evangelical feminists is “did God really say?”,
which is precisely the most deceptive question in the Bible, especially when it
is followed by the disregarding of the biblical text.
Feminists
were not shy in noting their inspiration came form the very kind of subversive Luciferians
that Faxneld identifies. As they write in their own auto-biographical history, The
Complete History of the Suffragette Movement:
“Freedom
for the peasants was found alone at night. Known as the Birds of the Night,
Foxes and Birds of Prey, it was only at these night assemblages they enjoyed
the least happiness or security. Here, with wives and daughters, they met
together to talk, of their gross outrages. Out of these foul wrongs grew the
sacrifice of the "Black Mass," with woman as officiating priestess,
in which the rites of the Church were travestied in solemn mockery, and
defiance cast at that heaven which seemed to permit the priest and lord alike
to trample upon all the sacred rights of womanhood in the names of religion and
law. During this mocking service a true sacrifice of wheat was offered to the
Spirit of the Earth who made wheat to grow, and loosened birds bore aloft to the
God of Freedom the sighs and prayers of the serfs asking that their descendants
might be free. We can not do otherwise than regard this sacrifice as the most
acceptable offering made in that day of moral degradation, a sacrifice and
prayer more holy than all the ceremonials of the Church.”[3]
So, they
directly linked themselves to the worship of the god of nature, otherwise known
as Baal, Pan or the devil, among many other names. They even show their
complete disregard for the Bible,
“While
woman's subordination is taught as a Scriptural doctrine, the most devout and
learned biblical scholars of the present day admit that the Bible has suffered
many interpolations in the course of the centuries. Some of these have
doubtless occurred through efforts to render certain passages clearer, while
others have been forged with direct intention to deceive. Disraeli says that
the early English editions contain 6,000 errors, which were constantly
introduced, and passages interpolated for sectarian purposes, or to sustain new
creeds. Sometimes, indeed, they were added for the purpose of destroying all
Scriptural authority by the suppression of texts. The Church Union says of the
present translation, that there are more than 7,000 variations from the
received Hebrew text, and more than 150,000 from the received Greek text…
…Amid
this vast discrepancy in regard to the truth of the Scriptures themselves; with
no Hebrew manuscript older than the twelfth century; with no Greek one older
than the fourth; with the acknowledgment by scholars of 7,000 errors in the Old
Testament, and 150,000 in the New; with assurance that these interpolations and
changes have been made by men in the interest of creeds, we may well believe
that the portions of the Bible quoted against woman's equality are but
interpolations of an unscrupulous priesthood, for the purpose of holding her in
subjection to man.”[4]
So, don’t
take my word for it that feminism is Satanic. Don’t even take the academic Per
Faxneld’s well research and sourced word for it. Listen to the Suffragette’s
themselves. They saw themselves as the ideological fulfillment in their day of
the witches of the medieval and early modern era, and they had exactly as much
respect for the word of God as the devil. They even confirm an argument you
have seen me make, as have others, that the
Bible does not teach equality between the genders, “we may well believe
that the portions of the Bible quoted against woman's equality are but
interpolations of an unscrupulous priesthood, for the purpose of holding her in
subjection to man.” Did you see that? They recognize the import of what these
passages say about the differences between the roles of men and women, and so
they seek to simply remove them from the equation, because they don’t like what
the Bible says. This is literally Satanic. If we had no other evidence for their
source of inspiration, this would be enough to confirm the case for most
reasonable Christians.
But people
are more emotional thinkers than dialectic thinkers. This is simply because we
default to how things make us feel, rather than making a rigorous examination
of most issues. This is especially true with women pastors. Many modern
Christians just think it is mean to say women cannot be pastors, and on top of
that, many of the same Christians will note that they have been blessed by a
female pastor at some point. How can this be evil, if they have been blessed by
it? This is a reasonable question. A very good question in fact, and I think
there are some really good ways to answer it. But I want just want to focus on
one in this piece.
Solomon.
Specifically Solomon and high places.
This insight
comes from one of the most famous passages in the Bible. As with all famous
passages we need to read it carefully, because it is easy to miss things in
passages we think we know very well. Look at this,
“1
Solomon made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt. He took Pharaoh's
daughter and brought her into the city of David until he had finished building
his own house and the house of the Lord and the wall around Jerusalem. 2 The
people were sacrificing at the high places, however, because no house had yet
been built for the name of the Lord.
3
Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David his father, only he
sacrificed and made offerings at the high places. 4 And the king went to Gibeon
to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place. Solomon used to offer a
thousand burnt offerings on that altar. 5 At Gibeon the Lord appeared to
Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, “Ask what I shall give you” (1 Kings
3:1-5).
Verse 3 is
key here, “Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of his father, only
he sacrificed and made offerings at the high places.” This was a problem, a
serious problem. These high places were a never-ending snare to the people of
Israel, even to a king like Solomon.
The high places
were places of idolatry. They were meant to be destroyed, Numbers 33:52, “then
you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you and destroy
all their figured stones and destroy all their metal images and demolish all
their high places.” God even predicted that they would cause the fall of
Israel, Leviticus 26:30, “And I will destroy your high places and cut down your
incense altars and cast your dead bodies upon the dead bodies of your idols,
and my soul will abhor you…” In this passage God is looking forwards in time to
the coming judgement of Israel for their abandonment of their covenant with God.
The high places would be a key part of the problem.
This process
is explained in the books of 1 and 2 Kings. When Jeroboam took control of
Israel he intensified this idolatry,
“28
So the king took counsel and made two calves of gold. And he said to the
people, “You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Behold your gods, O Israel,
who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” 29 And he set one in Bethel, and
the other he put in Dan. 30 Then this thing became a sin, for the people went
as far as Dan to be before one. 31 He also made temples on high places and
appointed priests from among all the people, who were not of the Levites” (1
Kings 12).
Again and
again in the Old Testament you will hear reference to what a snare these high
places were to the people of Israel. The bad kings promoted these places, but
even many good kings allowed this snare to flourish, “He walked in all the way
of Asa his father. He did not turn aside from it, doing what was right in the
sight of the Lord. Yet the high places were not taken away, and the people
still sacrificed and made offerings on the high places” (1 Kings 22:43). Even many
kings who sought to bring faithfulness back to Israel did not remove the high places.
The Bible
does not mince words about the sin that these high places represented, “For
they provoked him to anger with their high places; they moved him to jealousy
with their idols;…” (Ps. 78:58). These high places were clearly snares. Their
very existence was a blight on the worship practices of the people of God. Yet
Solomon encountered God at one of these high places,
“3
Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David his father, only he
sacrificed and made offerings at the high places. 4 And the king went to Gibeon
to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place. Solomon used to offer a
thousand burnt offerings on that altar. 5 At Gibeon the Lord appeared to
Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, “Ask what I shall give you” (1 Kings
3:3-5).
Solomon loved
God but tolerated the high places. In fact, he “used to offer a thousand burnt
offerings on that altar…” at Gibeon.
How could God
speak to Solomon when Solomon was doing something he should not be doing?
Because such is the grace of God. I cannot help but see a good comparison here
to the practice of female pastors in the church today.
Today, many
women are pastors. This is forbidden in the Bible, but a lot of the church just
tolerates this, no, they actually endorse it, promote it and look down on
churches that do not do it. Just like the high places of biblical law this are forbidden by both the Old and New Testament, however, it is tolerated. Even
good kings tolerated the high places, remember. Even men in the church we would
consider good have been known to make the case for female preachers. Men who are
otherwise orthodox in all other aspects of their practice and theology.
These high
places show us two things about this situation. One, yes God can work through forbidden
means. To be hung on a tree was a curse in the Jewish law (Deut. 21:22-23), yet
God saved the world through a man who was hung on a tree, or on the wood from
one at least. Paul says he became a curse for us (Gal. 3:13). God can work
through forbidden means, he can even work through the hands of sinners to bring
great deliverance. This is true for female pastors. People can be blessed by
insights that some of these women share from the word of God, because God’s
word is powerful in and of itself. God’s word spoken by anyone can bring
blessing, even if they did not originally intend it, such is the grace of God.
But just
because God can work through these fallen means does not mean we should
encourage it. Solomon met God at a high place, a high place he frequented, even
though he should not have. But we should not see God working through the high place
as vindicating that practice, or blessing its continued use. Because this practice
brought down the whole nation of Israel. This was a snare that was both
predicted to bring down the people of God, and which we saw actually happened.
We have seen
the many ways the Bible forbids women being pastors in previous articles. But we have also seen how
many women
are turning back from the role, because of the effects it has on their
lives. Women should not take on this role, and many are finding out the hard
way parts of the reasons why God gave this command in the Bible. The wider
effect this is having on the church is also observed to be negative, the modern
western church has been massively feminised. But it goes beyond just the local
church, the wider effect it also has on society is a problem.
A society where
women take on more and more of the roles of men, is a society that will end up
having to replace itself with immigration, simply because it stops having
enough children to replace itself. We are seeing this negative effect in our
country and all across the West today. Rather than confront this issue and tear
down this “high place”, many leaders in the church and society fail to confront
it, and our whole society and church lumbers towards disaster.
Just because
something is used in scripture to bring about good, does not mean we should
follow that practice. Just because you may have been blessed by the ministry of
a woman from time to time, does not mean we should encourage such a practice. Solomon’s
example is a perfect comparison to help us understand why doing so is a
disaster. He may have been blessed at a high place, but the high places ending
up destroying his kingdom. The longitudinal effects of disobeying God’s word
matter more than momentary blessings.
List of
References
[3] Stanton, Elizabeth Cady (et. al.) 2017, The Complete History of the Suffragette
Movement - All 6 Books in One Edition) The Battle for the Equal Rights:
1848-1922, Musaicum Books. Kindle Edition. Chapter 15.
