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Men and Women — A Matter of Design

God’s commandments reflect a matter of design, not some foolish bias against women. As silly as this may sound, men and women are not the same. Man has been designed, for example, as a bulldozer. The woman has been designed as a pickup truck. One does not make the other less valuable. Both the bulldozer and the pickup truck have very real and different functions as do the man and the woman. In this life, design considerations must be made.

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Men and Women — A Matter of Design

Article#: 708

What was the best day of your life? Take a second in the following moment of silence to answer the question. What was the best day of your life?

I have often asked that question in one-on-one discussions. The answer is very telling. I asked the question of one fellow and he said it was the day he graduated from high school, another said it was the day his daughter was born. I knew something very quickly about these two gentlemen: They had not yet met Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

For all who have entered into the glorious born-again experience, their answer to the above question is always, "The day I repented of my sins and surrendered my life unto the Lord Jesus Christ." Click on to "Further With Jesus" for more about salvation. NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT.

GOD SAID, Genesis 2:20-23:

20 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.

21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;

22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.

GOD SAID, Titus 2:3-5:

3 The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;

4 That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,

5 To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.

GOD SAID, Ephesians 5:22-25:

22 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.

23 For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.

24 Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.

25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;

GOD SAID, Genesis 3:9-19:

9 And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?

10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.

11 And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

13 And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

14 And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;

19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

MAN SAID: How absurd! The Bible is responsible for the world's gender conflict. The Bible, written by mere men, typecasts women into a subservient position to man and too many foolish people endorse it.

Now, THE RECORD. Mankind, in his inherited disobedience, is aggressively changing God's directives for husband-wife relationships. To the feminist mindset, the idea of a male-led home and society is hideous. Male leadership and authority—and I should also say responsibility—is being soundly trounced.

Much of mankind is completely oblivious to the fact that God did not give these precise directives in some arbitrary fashion, but as a matter of facilitating basic design. In other words, we were designed by God and He knows what is needed for fulfilling, productive living. The Bible is God's owner's manual and we are His handiwork. Obey instructions and have life and life more abundantly.

God's commandments reflect a matter of design, not some foolish bias against women. As silly as this may sound, men and women are not the same. Man has been designed, for example, as a bulldozer. The woman has been designed as a pickup truck. One does not make the other less valuable. Both the bulldozer and the pickup truck have very real and different functions as do the man and the woman. In this life, design considerations must be made.

In the conversation with the gentleman who accused the Bible for the gender problems, the idea of the "glass ceiling" arose. He claimed women were restrained from rising in the corporate world because of a gender bias, which is a result of long-held Biblical beliefs. Among employers, there is an unspoken knowledge concerning women—especially young career women. They have an inherent characteristic, and it is their womanhood. In an industry where it takes four or five after-college years to train an executive, women carry this unspoken design function: They will marry, have children, and typically follow their husband's career, wherever that should lead them. In this anecdotal example, a doctor friend of mine had two female doctors working for him; one left his employ to raise her children and the other followed her husband's career to another state. This is very typical. Nothing is out of place here; it is simply a matter of design. The Bible states that the woman's desire shall be to her husband and that he shall rule over her (Genesis 3:16).

I am amazed that any could doubt such an elementary concept as design. A woman has different but interfacing reproductory organs to the man. She has a womb in which to carry a child and breasts to nourish it. She is different from man and follows a separate but fully compatible life plan. Woman was created by God to be a help meet for man. In this context the word means to be suitable, proper, qualified help. She is the glue that keeps the family cohesive and functional. She is the lover of her husband, the mother to their children; the nurturer of the family. She has the nesting instincts of the homemaker and so much more, and in many cases, she also serves as a bread winner. This seems to me to be a very honorable position and is a matter of basic nomenclature. It is a matter of design.

The concept of design, of Biblical male-female role models, and the lines of societal authority are being rejected and with deadly results.

The following paragraphs are from a feature article on this website titled "Romance In Your Marriage," which deals with the tremendous problems partly caused by the destruction of Biblical husband/wife role models:

Simple common sense would tell you that two generals can't successfully direct the same army; neither can two chefs run the same kitchen. It's apparent to the animal kingdom that leadership is critical for the group as a whole to be successful. You've, of course, heard the term "pecking order." Even chickens understand the concept of authority because one bird will invariably rise to the top and dominate the flock. Researchers examining this phenomenon compared flocks of chickens. One flock's pecking order was left alone. The researchers purposely unsettled the other flock by continuously removing the lead bird who had struggled to the top. The undisturbed flock, whose leader was allowed to remain in its position of authority, bickered less, ate more, gained weight faster, and produced more eggs. Vast numbers of women have rejected the idea of marital submission and it continues to be rejected in a very aggressive way. Consider this: from 1970 to 1994, the divorce rate rose 300%, and results of this breakdown have shown up in a myriad of places. For example, the prevalence of alcoholism in intact marriages is 8.9%, but among the divorced or separated, the number nearly doubles to 16.2%—and for those divorced more than once, the number is nearly 300% higher. Suicide among the divorced is 280% higher than from among those in married households. Depression, which is a national epidemic, attacks divorced women very hard. A woman once divorced is nearly three times more likely to be depressed than her one-time married sister.

General mental illness is nearly twice as high among the divorced verses their married or never-married counterparts. The divorced are nearly 450% more likely to suffer from loneliness, and the list goes on. Plus, the problem of divorce greatly damages the children involved, up to the 3rd and 4th generations. Just one example is children requiring professional help for emotional or behavioral problems. Households with both the biological mother and father present show 2.7% of their children needing professional care verses 8.8% of formerly married mothers and 6.6% with mothers and stepfathers. (Jesus Christ alone can break this terrible chain of events. Click on to Further with Jesus.)

Today a full 65% of marriages are doomed. When the woman "wears the pants" in the family, the whole family suffers.

Unfulfilled marital expectation between husband and wife leads to disillusionment and unfaithfulness. Today extra-marital relationships are ever so common. Wives long for loving husbands. They long for romance, yet it continues to elude them. This longing becomes apparent in the female population's strong desire for romance novels and soap operas, and their ilk. Could the "liberated" female be contributing to the destruction of the very thing she seeks?

New research now shows that leadership and success create higher levels of testosteone in men and higher levels of testosterone create more assertive behavior, which also increases male stamina and sexuality. When a man is honored by his wife as the head of the home, his testosterone levels will increase, his confidence and leadership abilities will be enhanced, and his romantic desire for his submitted wife increases. According to the Preventative Medicine Clinic of Monterey, "Testosterone may be the most important health factor in the male body. Testosterone really separates the men from the boys. When naturally abundant, testosterone is at the core of energy, stamina and sexuality. When it is deficient it is at the core of fatigue, aging and disease."

Problems caused by testosterone deficiencies are many but one in particular is male erectile dysfunction. It's estimated that 30 million American males have from mild to severe erectile dysfunction. An in-depth discussion is found on the web at www.powerpak.com/ce/pfizer-ed/lesson.htm where they had this to say:

While most patients with erectile dysfunction have some degree of an organic or physiological problem, psychogenic aspects of low self-esteem, anxiety, and poor partner communication and conflict are often important contributing factors.

Normal levels of hormones, especially testosterone, are needed for natural erectile function, and testosterone is directly affected by a wife's treatment of her husband. It is merely the element of design. Woman was created to be a help meet for her husband and to cheerfully accept his Godly leadership. Unfortunately for the family, today's woman is not of that attitude. In a survey of single women published in an August 28, 2000 issue of Time magazine this question was asked, "Which do you find a very serious fault in men's ability to relate to women?" Sixty-one percent thought men were too controlling. It is understood that "controlling" or "domineering" is not what God intended for a loving relationship; however, the man should be the "head" of his wife, even as Christ was the head of the church. The American marriage has a hard road ahead of it.

Just one other problem that many psychologists have pointed out is the problem of role reversal in the home and how it correlates with homosexuality. Remember, the male child and testosterone. He will emulate the leader in his home. If the wife is the leader, chances of homosexuality increase.

A new secular book which quickly made Amazon's Top 10 List is titled The Surrendered Wife, by Laura Doyle. She instructs the woman to stop trying to control her husband, to quit criticizing him, to learn not to interrupt, and to apologize if she becomes disrespectful. Doyle has instituted this in her own home and has listed the benefits. She has accumulated a large following of women who are beginning to see the light, which was originally illuminated in the Scriptures, by God. [End of quotes]

When Godly commandments given to facilitate design are ignored, the results are just flat bad.

The testosterone subject mentioned above was featured on WebMD Health and the following paragraphs are from that article:

Two studies on the effects of testosterone were presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology.

Study author Monika Hollander, MD, of the Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands, and colleagues, found men who had low testosterone levels had a higher risk of suffering a stroke than those with normal or high testosterone levels.

A second, smaller study presented at the meeting suggests testosterone treatment can alleviate certain symptoms of Parkinson's disease in men who have low testosterone levels. [End of quote]

When design is ignored, problems ensue. The following article quoting a new study by the American Heart Association was printed in the May 6th, 2002 edition of Human Events:

Participants in the study included 1,769 men and 1,913 women, ages 18-77, which were tracked for 10 years for incidence of coronary heart disease and death. Men who were stay-at-home dads for most of their adult years experienced an 82% higher death rate compared to their counterparts who worked outside the home. Researchers also discovered that women in job positions "characterized by high decision authority and high job demands [had] almost three times the risk of developing heart disease" than women in more conventional positions. [End of quote]

GOD SAID man and woman were designed differently; consequently, separate instructions for each were laid out. The wife was created to be a help meet for her husband. The lines of authority between man and woman were established and basic directives were profiled.