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Newsletter Contents: 1. In
The Beginning by Karen K. Davidenko
A quick whisper to Br. Randy’s wife, Carol, let him know this pastor from “afar off” had come to the worship service. At the end of worship, Br. Randy called for the men of the church to come forward and pray for this visiting pastor. How refreshing it was to see the congregation respond with such enthusiasm with the waving of flags and by putting a large, gleaming silver sword in his upraised hands. The sword was heavy. After a few moments, the men came forward to also put their hands on the shaft to keep the sword aloft.
What a picture so descriptive of the church throughout the world assisting those in Muslim-dominated countries to hold steady the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God! What an encouragement this act became to this brother who pastors six churches in his home city and surrounding vicinity..
Several years ago, he translated one of the most significant books on women available at that time into his language, The Woman Question by Kenneth Hagin. Now, he has offered to do the same with the God’s Word to Women book by Katharine Bushnell and has already completed two chapters. Indri Guatauma, one of the speakers at the AWA Conference from Jakarta, Indonesia, prophesied the GWTW book would go all over the world. It’s on the way!
At the GWTW Board meeting, August 21-22, he shared about the status of women and the work in his country, bringing us a DVD showing the Body of Christ there. He told about his experiences, ministry and vision for Pakistan. We did an interview and put his responses into a podcast which you may access by clicking here.
According to the culture in Pakistan, he was one whose parents arranged his marriage. However, he did take the opportunity to pray vigorously before he knew who she would be. What is so beautiful is that Rose carries a ministry vision similar to his. Their marriage has brought forth three sons. As he shared about the status of women, our brother offered no surprises as to the way Muslims think about women. Pray for him as he undertakes this work of translating God’s Word to Women into his language. It will be the first of many GWTW translations to set women free from the “enmity” between the serpent’s seed and the woman’s seed. (Genesis 3:15). God put that enmity between the two, and He will be the one to remove it.
In 2004 we republished the book God's Word to Women by Katharine Bushnell making pages and the type larger and easier on the eyes. It was our first time to publish, and we learned a lot from the experience. We proofed the book carefully and eliminated some errors that were found in previous publications, BUT, we made a few typos ourselves. Most of them don't make any difference but there is one that is vital to the understanding of Genesis 3:16--a critical verse for women. 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. KJV In Lesson 15 of GWTW, Bushnell discusses the translation problems found in the first section of Genesis 3:16. Karen mentions this section in her article on Genesis and there is a link to this lesson. In paragraph 117 (the paragraphs in GWTW are all numbered to make it easy to navigate) Bushnell discusses vowel signs and has the following footnote:
In our edition of God's Word to Women the word HiRBah has a typo in it. What should have been a small "i" has been capitalized. We discovered the error a few weeks ago and all books now being shipped have been corrected and have a note in them explaining the correction. However, those of you who have already purchased a copy need to make the correction yourselves. The footnote is on page 55. Lessons 13 through 19 discuss Genesis 3:15-16. If you have not carefully studied these lessons, you may want consider taking the time to do so. If Bushnell is correct, and many scholars are now agreeing with her work, the whole flavor of Genesis 3:16 is changed. The entire text of the book God's Word to Women is found on our website under Online Books.
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Genesis In the beginning, there was peace and equality. The book of Genesis is the main reason I walked away from God many years ago. It then became the reason I came back to Him later as I started to read and learn about what His plan was for the human He created in His image. When I saw it in a new light, God became the magnificent, loving, and amazing Father I somehow always knew was out there. I came to realize He loved women as much as men and expected the same good things from His daughters as His sons. But, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing the first time I read Genesis. Was God cursing woman? Why would He do that? Was I really a subordinate creature compared to males? If humans were created in His image, then woman was part of the big picture. Why would He cause all women to suffer and tell us that we have to be ruled by man? It was just unbelievable.
Then, at the old age of 40, I really started reading Genesis and
found some different takes on the translations. I’m no scholar,
but there are many scholars out there. Some other non-scholars
might say, “Karen . . . these translators have been doing their
job for centuries. Are you really trying to say that they made a
mistake? It’s all there in the Kings James, for goodness’ sake!”
The Lord created a human in His own image. He never calls this
creature “Adam” as if it were a proper name. The word adam
is Hebrew for human, mankind. God made adam in His image.
He made them male and female and blessed His creation five times
over to be fruitful, to multiply, to subdue and replenish the
earth, and have dominion over all (Genesis 1:28).This
male-female creature, made in the image of God, was the ruler
over the earth and proclaimed “good” by the Lord. Then, for
reasons unknown, this creation became “not good” when only one
human walked in the Garden. God decided it was not good for one
person to be alone. When the Lord decided to take (or separate) the woman from the human, He wanted to make a “helper suitable” for the man (Genesis 2:18). Not a “help meet” or a servant, He wanted the man to have a “help” or ezer, the same word David uses to refer to God in the Psalms (Psalm 33:20, Psalm 70:5, and nine more psalms). In that realization, would we then assume the Lord is man’s servant or is in any way subordinate to us? Hardly. The word “suitable” is negdo, or kenegdo, which means, “parallel to,” “before,” or “in front of.”
Dr. Susan Hyatt
says in her book, In the Spirit We're Equal, regarding
ezer kenegdo: “In Genesis 2:18, the word ‘helpmeet’ does not
occur. The Hebrew expression ezer kenegdo appears,
meaning ‘one who is the same as the other and who surrounds,
protects, aids, helps, supports.’ There is no indication of
inferiority or of a secondary position in an hierarchical
separation of the male and female ‘spheres’ of responsibility,
authority, or social position.” (Original Artwork by Karen K. Davidenko)
Attention women:
You have the opportunity to participate in some very
exciting research that will contribute to helping other
women find fulfillment in balancing their motherhood and
career roles. We are
seeking female participants with a Christian faith
perspective who have completed a Master's, Doctoral, or
professional (e.g., medicine, law, teaching, nursing) degree
in any field of study and are currently employed with at
least one child under the age of 18 years residing in the
home. Participation would involve completing a
confidential and anonymous online questionnaire. If you fit
these criteria, we would value your input to our study.
Please send an email to
Kerris.L.Oates@biola.edu
for complete details on how you can help. Your
participation would be greatly appreciated!
In the
United States women have only had the vote since the
15th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified in
1920--less than 100 years. In our
Fall 2004 Newsletter, which was on the
suffrage movement, we stated:
"Although a strong
Christian faith motivated most of the women who
worked for suffrage, that fact is seldom noted.
Those women believed that God was calling them to
the effort and giving them a voice in order that
unjust laws could be abolished that discriminated
against women. Also, the suffragists saw a need to
legislate against social ills. Ask yourselves the
question, “Where would they stand today?”
Where do
you think they would stand? Do you really believe that
they would be too busy to take the time to vote? Would
they stay home as a protest? Think about it!
There are still many places in the world where women do
not have the right to vote. It is a long sought and
hard earned right. No matter what country you call
home, if you can vote, it is a privilege won
through years of struggle. If the Lord was the one who
motivated women to work for suffrage, what would be His
word to us? |
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