Women and the Faith

Welcome back, everyone. Today is Wednesday, March the 1st. I'm Ryan Hill.

I'm John Galantis. You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abbadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com. If you have a question for Dr. Shah or a suggestion for a future episode, send us a text to 252-582-5028.

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Can you give them the verse of the day today? Yeah. So they can consume it? Yeah. Here's... Consume is such a weird word when you talk about media.

I was thinking about that while you were talking. I was like... Open y'all's mouth. It's the right word, but it's just... Open your mouth. You're going to consume this media.

It's odd. Here it come. Here it come. There you go.

Now, chew it up. That's good, ain't it? Ephesians 14. I'm sorry. Ephesians 4.

14 through 15. That we should no longer be children tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine, by trickery of men in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. But speaking truth in love may grow up in all things into him who is the head, Christ. I love that this takes place in the context of Ephesians because it's talking about the body of Christ.

It's talking about being knit together and the importance of relying on one another. And when we do that, we're not going to be drifting to and fro by every flight of fancy or by every doctrine that the world cooks up. We're going to be grounded, not just because of the truth of God's word, but because we have an army of believers alongside us that keep us focused and keep us being obedient to him. And Paul doesn't shy away from the intentionality behind the attack on Christianity. He doesn't say that we're carried about by every wind of doctrine by the unfortunate false teachings. There's a misunderstanding of Christ. There's a misunderstanding of who he is.

And so, passively, that got infiltrated into the mind of the church. It's deceit. It's trickery. There are people who want to trick you. There are people who want to deceive you in this world. And look, that may sound like a conspiracy theorist, but it's in the word of God. Paul said that. There's a very intentional attempt to get you off the path of Christ. And so, I like that, what you said, Ryan. Be grounded in Christ.

He's the head of the church. You want to hit the gripe vine real quick? I do. We hit the gripe vine a while ago. This was a carpe manana thing.

Those of you who aren't familiar with our other show that we had for a while, it was carpe manana. And the gripe vine was a chance for us to just air grievances. Air grievances.

I did one last week, I think, on hiccups. That's right. Yeah. We're bringing the gripe vine back. Just slight, slight harvest from the gripe vine.

This is mine, because it happened very recently to me. You ever gotten something from the store, or... Never. No. No, go ahead.

I don't make any purchases. And it has that barcode sticker on the back. Yeah. And you peel it off. I already know what you're going to say.

But it leaves like little shreds. Yeah. Like, on earth, is this still a thing? You're telling me, in the year of our Lord, 2023, we don't have the technology to make a sticker that will peel off in one fell swoop? We put a man on the moon... In the 60s. In the 60s, and we can't peel off a barcode sticker in one go. I can't stand that.

I hate it so much. I got the Hubble telescope up there taking a picture of galaxies. We can take pictures of entire other galaxies.

We got New Horizons just cruising past Pluto, taking 8K photographs, and sending them billions of miles back. But I can't peel this little sticker off. I can't peel this sticker off the book I got at Barnes and Noble.

That is crazy. Why do they do that? It's like they just plaster them on there.

I guess it's so they won't come off in transit, but then I got to take it off. I get it. I understand that. But I don't want to leave that on there forever. Yeah. Could you give... Also, just like a little tool.

They should do it at the register for you. They should have a little tool. Like those little clothing things? Yeah. Just take them off. The anti-theft devices?

Yeah. I've found something, like a hack that works on some things, but it's not going to work if you have a book or something. If you have a dish or a cup that has that barcode sticker and you're trying to peel it off before it goes in the dishwasher, get a little bit of lemon oil.

Oh. And just kind of... Really, I think any essential oil will work, but lemon I've found works the best, at least in our house. And just kind of use that to work the adhesive off. It works pretty well. I got lemon juice in the cabinet. Like lemon juice for kids. I don't know if that would work or not.

It might. You know what's funny is like little kids stickers, because they're everywhere in my house now. I got like Anna and Elsa and Olaf all over my walls, and we just kind of leave them there now at this point.

At this point, you just let them go. But they peel off no problem. Little stickers made for kids peel off, but these professional barcode stickers leave the residue all over. I've got books from like the 90s when I was a kid, and it's still got it, because I just couldn't get them off. Still there. Still there.

Yeah. The cover's going to be tattered to shreds, but that sticker is going to remain. I think some manufacturer was like, I want to leave my mark forever in someone's home, so they'll always be frustrated when they think of me.

Someone somewhere is on a beach like, ah, my legacy lives on. Today's question actually kind of relates to that, because Franklin H. has wrote in to Dr. Shah and is asking, do you have any plans to write a book? Well, Frankie, my boy, I got good news for you, but I'm going to let Dr. Shah answer it at the end of the episode. So make sure you stick around to hear the answer to that.

That's right. We're going to grab Dr. Shah in just a minute for today's episode, but if you guys have any questions or suggestions for new episodes, new content, send us a text to 252-582-5028, or you can visit us online at cleerviewtodayshow.com. We'll be right back. Hey there, listeners. I'm Jon Galantis.

And I'm Elly Galantis. And we just want to take a quick second and talk to you about Dr. Shah's and Nicole's book, 30 Days to a New Beginning, daily devotions to help you move forward. You know, this is actually the second book in the 30 Days series. And the whole point of this devotional is to help us get unstuck from the ruts of life. You know, when it comes to running the race of life, it matters how you start, but a bad start doesn't ultimately determine how you finish the race. You can have a good finish even with a bad start. And that's where this book comes in. No matter who you are or where you are in life, you're going to get stuck.

Instead of going out and buying some gadget or some planner, like I know I've done several times. I know that's right. 30 Days encourages you to find your fresh start in God's Word. Life doesn't have a reset button, but our God is a God who does new things.

His mercies are new every day, which means every day is a new chance for you to start over. You can grab 30 Days to a New Beginning on Amazon.com. We're going to leave a link in the description box below. And if you already have the book, let us know what you think about it.

That's right. Send us a text, 252-582-5028. Share what God has done in your life through this devotional. Hey, maybe we'll even read your story on the air. Elly, you ready to get back to the show?

Let's do it. Welcome back to Clearview Today with Dr. Abbadon Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com.

If you have any questions or suggestions for future episodes, send us a text, 252-582-5028. Dr. Shah, how are you doing today? I'm doing very well. Happy Hum Day, Dr. Shah. Happy Hum Day. Yes. Of course. It's a special day, a special month coming up, so we're going to talk about that in a few moments.

Very cool. Well, if you guys are new and joining us for the first time, we want to let you know who's talking to you today. Dr. Abudan Shah is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's episode.

You can find all of his work on his website, that's abudanshah.com. That's right. We'll be back next month at the end.

Get a big breath in. Yeah. So, today is March the 1st. We are officially out of February into March, and with March 1st, we begin Women's History Month.

I don't actually know that before we started researching and planning for the show, but it is Women's History Month. And we're going to be talking about not just women who have had an impact in American history, but women who have had an impact on the global scale of history. And we want to dive into this discussion, and of course, everything here on the show we want to frame with the Bible. And one of the things that is so striking about the Bible and so striking about Christianity is that everywhere women are mentioned kind of as the heroes or as central characters in the stories in the Bible, women are elevated. A lot of times you'll hear that rhetoric that the Bible is, you know, is masculine-driven and it tears women down, and it's meant to keep women subjugated.

But that's actually the opposite of what we find in Scripture. That's right. Now, let's just talk about Women's History Month. And this sort of began back in 1978.

If I'm not wrong, I'm trying to make sure my stats are correct. But somewhere about that time period that this was, you know, declared like Women's History Week and then went on to become Women's History Month is 1987, I believe it is. So anyways, it's just a month to sort of highlight women's accomplishments and their role in history. So we don't want to ignore that, but we want to talk about it from a different perspective, which is, I would say, a biblical perspective. And contrary to what people often claim, and I believe, can I just say it, ignorant people claim, people who haven't done their homework claim, is that, you know, Christianity is so patriarchal and how it tries to, you know, push women aside or take women's accomplishment and claim them as if a bunch of men did everything, you know, contrary to all that garbage, Christianity actually elevates the status of women. And I would be more particular to say that Judeo-Christian worldview, the Bible, the Old and New Testament, actually elevates the status of women and not the other way around. Where does this, I guess, position or belief come from that the Bible or Christianity puts women down? Where did that originate?

Where do we find that? It's found in the Western culture, the culture that has been heavily influenced and impacted for the better by Christianity and Judeo-Christian values and the Bible. This is the nature of human beings, the very thing that's giving you life, the very branch that you're sitting on, you want to chop because it's easy to reach. I was just going to say, we've just been talking about how, you know, Christianity has served to be a benefit to the Western world.

I mean, through talking about things like religious influence in politics and how Christians should be involved in the political sphere. And it seems like people who have the biggest problem with Christianity and the Bible are the ones who live in the places that have benefited the most from Christianity and the Bible. Exactly. And that's what bothers me is because when people do that, they are taking the very thing that is giving you the voice, the ability, the strength, the courage to say those things is the very thing you're attacking. It's like kids, you know, parents do everything for them, but then turn around and say, my parents are the worst thing that happened to me.

Like, okay. The fact that you can even say that, the fact that you are educated, the fact that you have a right mind, the fact that you have clothes on, you know, is because of your parents. But now all of a sudden, the very people who give you everything are the bane of your existence. So that's pretty much what's happening even here. Well, that's typically the rhetoric you hear is like, if Jesus had never come on the scene, if Christianity had never come on the scene, the status of women would be so much higher than it is now. And yet I look across the ocean to countries that have not been exposed to Christ, like the Middle East, like I'm not sure what the status of women are in India, but are those women living their best life? There's not really a lot of Jesus influence there, and yet I don't see women prospering there.

Right. Now, again, I want to stay away from stereotyping. So yes, there are some amazing women out there who've done some amazing things. Like the Prime Minister of India back in the 80s was Indira Gandhi, right, a woman, right, did some amazing things. Then, of course, you find women doctors, and even engineers, business women, I was about to say businessmen, but business leaders doing great things even in other parts of the world, but not on such a wide scale as you have in the West, in Europe, and in North America. It's not on that level. I'll also be the first to tell you, yes, there are still many prejudices against women, right, when it comes to pay scale, they don't get as much money as a man would get. Now, some businesses are pretty good at that, but some places they don't. There is bias against women like, ah, they can't do this. They're not good enough for this and that. And I think that's wrong.

That's not right. But to say that Christianity is the cause of that, you got your information from the garbage. Yeah, especially when it seems that when you actually read scripture, the polar opposite is true. When Paul tells men to love their wives like Christ loved the church, give yourself up for her.

You know, I don't see where the disrespect is in the keeping women low is coming in. Kind of like you said, Dr. Shah, like we're not denying that it exists, that it happens. We're denying that Christianity is the cause for that.

Right, right. Well, if you begin with the Bible, so again, I emphasize Judeo-Christian because we're standing on that tradition. We're standing on the whole Bible, not just New Testament. That's why I emphasize Judeo-Christian. But if you start in the book of Genesis, okay, so this is go there for a few minutes. For a brief moment, the book of Genesis, chapter one, chapter two, really. And verse 15, the Lord God took the man, put him in the Garden of Eden to tend it, to keep it.

And the Lord commanded him of every tree of the garden, you may eat freely, but the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat of it, for in the day you eat of it, you shall surely die. Okay, so it seems like, okay, life is going well for this guy, right? He's got everything he needs. But then it says in the very next verse, Genesis 2 18, and the Lord God said, it is not good that man should be alone. I will make him a helper comparable to him. So helper, what does that mean? Helper means God had given man, Adam, this vision of life, vision to do things, but he knew that he could not do it on his own.

He needed a companion, somebody equal to him and yet different. And so then as you know, as the story goes, the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam and he slept and he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in his place. And then the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, he made into a woman and he brought her to the man. What is his response? Adam's response, right?

He is so exuberant, he's so excited. He just cries out, this is not bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh. She shall be called a woman because she was taken out of man. Means like this woman, this person is connected to me.

She's part of who I am and I am part of now her and we are one. So all that to say, you know, it's not just that God just brought woman to go, go take care of his needs. You know, he said, I'm going to bring you a helper comparable to you, like you and yet different. And so, I mean, how can you say that devalues women?

The way you said that just kind of struck something in me, because we've been going through the I Am series, you've been preaching, we're going to go through that here on the show next week, but I'm trying to get this before it leaves my mind. You know, you're saying it's not just about serving and fetching things and making life easy for you. When we were talking about Mary and Martha, Martha was doing those traditionally female roles, like, you know, going and doing the cleaning and preparing for Jesus and staying out of the way and being seen and not heard. And yet Mary was sitting at Jesus's feet, listening, doing, I guess, what the male disciples were doing.

And the Bible clearly, Jesus himself praises Mary over Martha. Of course, because they were always part of God's plan, but even with Abraham and Sarah, what was the problem there? The problem was, Abraham kept thinking that Sarah, his wife, half-sister, right? She was a little bit of both, was not part of God's plan in being a light unto the Gentiles. He thought I could get any woman and that's fine.

As long as me is okay, me is still there, any woman would do. And God is like, no, it's Sarah, your wife. And when the name change happened, it was not just Abraham became Abraham, but Sarah became Sarah, right?

So they were also part of God's plan. Now, something very interesting here, and let me go and get this verse out of the way too, because I think this is also something that people need to hear before we go into the kind of a little bit of shift here. Galatians 3, 28, it says, there is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is neither male nor female for you all are one in Christ Jesus. So no longer are there distinctions, right?

Never were, but human beings brought these distinctions, but it is what it is. Now, having said that, God in his divine wisdom has chosen to make women, make men leaders, right? Not that women don't have a say or don't have a choice. No, of course not.

Yes, they do. Yes. Men, you're dumb if you don't listen to your wife's discernment. She has a spirit of discernment, so listen to her, right? So men are called to lead and women are called to assist, especially with regards to spiritual life. Okay. You say, why is that important?

Because women are naturally geared towards spiritual things. Do we see that happening in the Garden of Eden? Yes.

Yes. That's why she wanted that fruit. Well, that's why the serpent knew who to go to. I mean, he knew who to tempt with what. It wasn't like, hey, Adam, do you want to be like God? I was like, no, I'm good.

I'm fine. You can know even deeper truth. You can be closer to God than even he wants you to be. You can be so close to God that, you know, he promised her what she wanted.

Right. Because she was geared that way, she's built that way to be more sensitive to the things of God. And so God has said, all right, woman, you have a greater spiritual thermostat or, you know, receptor, but, and you're also the leader. What would you do with a man?

He'd be like a gorilla out there and he's just grunting at each other, throwing sticks. Yeah. Like I just live, exist. God says, here's what I'm going to do. I want to make the woman more spiritually minded, but then I'm going to have the man lead in that relationship.

That brought balance. Now we're doing, you know, all kinds of things now in churches and we have for some time, you know, it's like, oh, women can be pastors and can they not be professors and teachers? And I get all those arguments and understand, yes, they can come up with some great theological truths and I read commentaries written by women, you know, nothing wrong with that.

They're amazingly brilliant academics, no problem. But when it comes to leadership in the home and in the church, because the church is a reflection of the home, right? A home is a reflection of the church.

You need to be able to demonstrate how the man is still leading and home in the church. Can a woman be a boss at a secular workplace? Absolutely.

Yeah. Because she was a principal and she had male teachers who worked under her. Does that mean that we're contradicting the Bible? No, because it's not in a Christian setting.

It's not in a home setting. So it's a very different thing and you have to understand that. So you know, God built women to be spiritually minded and recently, and when I say recently, I'm going back to 2016, okay? The Pew Research Center did this survey and in the service they found this. They found that in the United States, women are more likely than men to say religion is very important in their lives, 60% to 47%. Generally more religious than men, particularly among Christians.

More religious. Globally, and I'm kind of going down the Pew Research Center's site, globally, women are somewhat more likely to affiliate with religious faith. Women are more likely to be religiously affiliated than men in many countries.

So you know, there's a lot of information there, but then there's something very important. Women are more likely than men to pray daily in many countries. In most countries, religion is equal to equal or more important to women than to men. So you can see the spiritual sensitivity of women towards faith.

Then here's a little exception to that rule. Among Christians, women are more religious than men in many countries, but among Muslims, women are rarely more religious than men. Interesting, isn't it? Because it's a very male dominated religion.

I was thinking about that. So if you want to fight anybody for devaluing women, maybe look at Islam a little more. I was thinking where the men actually do hold power.

Everything that they say is happening in America, in the lands where that actually does happen, and I can see why there's so many. Most of the religious figures are men, because of course, why wouldn't you be? That's where you benefit. From this mentality of, like, you told me I can't do something. If we say that it's God's design that men are the leaders, then that's spun and twisted in such a way. Like, oh, this is saying that women aren't allowed to do this, therefore this is keeping them down. This is keeping them oppressed.

This is boxing the men. I wanted to kind of speak to that passage because you used very intentional language that I think a lot of people will not misinterpret, but I think the hangup is, you said that God has called men to lead. Not to be the king or be the boss. And I think people attribute value to leadership.

And I used to think that way, too. And I remember years ago, you explained it to me this way, and it's helped me ever since to think of leadership. You said, you know, if you think of the leader, don't think of your leader as your king over you. He's the driver. Like, if we're in a car together, the leader is the one driving. The driver's life is not any more valuable than the passenger's life. If you're driving with your kids in the car and your wife in the car, the driver's life isn't more valuable, but he's the one directing you where to go. And so when you think about that, it's like, because men are called to lead, that doesn't make them more valuable than women. It doesn't mean that God puts more value on that man than on a woman. In fact, men have to give an account one day for not leading when they've been called to lead.

Right? So more spiritually minded, absolutely women. Called to lead, men.

And we're talking about in the home church environment, because in secular places, yes, it is fine. It's whatever, you know, whoever does a better job. Right? Now, when it comes to armed forces and all that, yeah, of course, women are in the armed forces, but you can see how still there are a lot of people who struggle with that because, you know, when you're in a combat situation, it is difficult. It is difficult.

And how do you answer that? I don't know what to say other than I hope our leaders have enough time-tested wisdom to know what to do. Because it is a difficult thing. So keep that in mind. Here's something else we need to understand. The Bible, if you go through the rest of the Old Testament, I mean, Esther, Ruth, these are women. Right? People know that.

Right? These are women that are named after women and what God did in their lives and how this served God. Proverbs 31 is about that industrious woman who does so much to help her family and grow her family. I mean, that's in the Bible. Okay, guys, getting to the New Testament, it's not just that Joseph was getting all kinds of visions about the coming of Jesus. No, the angel went to Mary and she had that song.

We call it the Magnificat. And of course, Elizabeth, her cousin as well. These are women mentioned by name who were very prominent, not just in the Old Testament, but also in the New Testament. And then you hear about women whom Jesus helped, you know, of course, Mary Magdalene from whom he cast out those seven demons, of course, the women caught on adultery. I know there's an issue about the text behind there, but still just think about it.

I mean, that's a big deal that he talks to that woman and he lifts her up from her predicament. Come to the resurrection. Guess who the first ones are at the tomb? The women. The men were asleep. I don't know what they were doing. Sleep, hiding, scared, something. So many times I feel like in the New Testament, like, where are the disciples? Oh, they're asleep. Where are the... Oh, they're asleep. The disciples, they're asleep. They're very tired guys.

They're just worn out. Yeah. So it's the women who come to the tomb and there they are waiting and doing what's right. And the first ones to hear the announcement of the resurrection of Jesus. And then when you get into the New Testament, again, women are part of those ministries as well. You know, of course, you hear about Aquila and Priscilla, you know, taking time to talk to Apollos and explain to him the word of God and what it all means. So that's just in the Bible.

Go throughout history, you know, where do we start? I mean, just think about in our Southern Baptist tradition, you have Lottie Moon, you have Annie Armstrong, and these are missionaries. These are ladies who went out there and forged a way for the gospel. If you guys enjoyed today's discussion, if you have questions for future episodes, send us a text to 252-582-5028, or you can visit us online at clearviewtodayshow.com and you can partner with us financially on that same website.

Every gift that you give goes not only to building up this radio show, but countless other ministries for the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's right. I got a question coming in from James B. This is kind of a weird one.

But I'm going to read it anyway. Do you put on both socks before you put on your shoes, or do you alternate? Like I guess he's saying like... Oh, like socks, shoes, socks, shoes? Yeah, so you got socks, shoe, and then a barefoot?

For me, it is both socks and then shoes. I think that's the way you got to do it. That's the way I do it. I can't even conceive of doing it another way.

Well, there's some maniacs out there. No, maybe. They may be like, you know, I want to finish a task before I go to the next one.

Maybe. I want to finish this all the way before I start another thing. But I would say your socks are a task.

Yeah, I guess that's just how you... Yeah, put my socks on as a task, and then put my shoes on as a task. Now I'm curious. Now I want to go try my first... Should we try it right now? Should we try it?

Or do you want to wait till after? Nah, we'll try it off the air. Try it after. All right. I'm curious now. I will let you know how it goes. I'm going to try it, and maybe I'll like it. Maybe I'll just hate myself for it.

We'll do a video and put it on the Instagram. Yeah. How about that woman who washed Jesus's feet?

Oh, yeah. I wonder what she did. I wonder if she washed one foot and then dried it with her hair, then moved on to the next one. Hey, that's my question.

Wash, wash, dry, dry. Yeah. I also wonder, how long did she wait before going and washing her hair?

I don't know, man. Is it an insult if she went right afterwards, or is it like, I'm going to let it be for a little bit, then... I think the compliment Jesus gave her is this, everywhere the gospel is presented, this woman's story will be mentioned. That's right. Hey, he elevated her status. She came from a real genuine repentant heart, and she found her name mentioned in the word of God. Amen. That's right. We love you guys. We'll see you in the next one.