Articles
Gene Edwards is a beloved storyteller and has blazed new trails
on the topic of the deeper Christian life. He is a prolific author of
twenty-five books including The Chronicles of Heaven, A Tale of Three
Kings, The Divine Romance, The First-Century Diaries and The
Secret of the Christian Life. He holds a B.A. in English literature
and history from East Texas State University and an M.Div from
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. For many years, Gene was a
pastor and evangelist; and he continues to travel widely, teaching
seminars on the deeper Christian life. He is also a part of the house
church movement. Gene lives in Florida with his wife Helen.
The following is Chapter 1 of The Christian Woman. . . Set Free.
In the "Author's Confession" at the beginning of the book, Dr. Edwards
states that as a leader in the house church movement, he "realized
rather slowly that women could also lead just as well as men."
Chapter 1 includes a section of quotations beginning with Greek
philosophers, proceeding through the church fathers, and continuing to
the present day. Few people are aware that the influence of Greek
philosophy on Christian theology is profound. GWTW highly recommends The
Christian Woman Set Free as an introduction to biblical equality.
The Christian Woman... Set Free can be purchased at
www.seedsowers.com
From Part One of The Christian Woman Set Free by Gene Edwards
Who Started the Mistreatment of Women
Praise be to God that he has not created me a Gentile, a woman, or a
hog.
—Hebrew Prayer
The courage of a man is shown in his ability to command. The
courage of a woman is found in obeying.
—Aristotle
By all means get married. If you get a good wife, you will be
happy. If you get a bad wife, you will become a philosopher.
—Socrates
Women are those who fell prey to their irrational, emotional side, and
are therefore incapable of reason and making rational choices . .
. moreover as irrational beings, women may not always know what
they really want, and so it is the man’s domain to decide for them.
—Plato
We have courtesans for our sex and pleasure. We have young slave
prostitutes for our physical use and we have wives to bring up
legitimate children.
—Demosthenes
Do not admire your wife’s beauty . . . from the time
women are fourteen years old they think of nothing and aim at nothing
except going to bed with men.
—Epictetus
Even the most virtuous of women is a witch.
—Oral Jewish Law
Woman is a temple built over a sewer. It is contrary to the order
of nature and of the law for women to speak in a gathering.
—Saint Jerome
Because of you we are punished by death . . . because
of you, women, the Son of God had to die.
—Tertullian
Men should not listen to a woman even if she says admirable things or if
she says saintly things. They are of little consequence since they
come from the mouth of a woman.
—Origen
A man may marry again if he has divorced his sinful wife because he is
not restricted in his right as is the woman, because he is her head.
—Ambrose
By herself woman is not of the image of God. The man, on the other
hand, alone, is the image of God.
—Augustine
For a man to go to a woman for advice is like going to the lowest kind
of animal to seek advice.
—Chrysostom
Woman is defective and misbegotten.
—Aquinas
The wickedness of women is greater than all other wickedness. A
dragon is more curable than the familiarity of a woman. Avoid them
like poisonous animals.
—Pope Innocence III
There is no gown or garment that worse becomes a woman than when she
would be wise.
—Martin Luther
All women are born that they may acknowledge themselves as inferior to
the male.
—Calvin
To make women learned and to make a fox tame work out to the same end.
Educating a woman or a fox simply makes them more cunning.
—King James
The quotes which you have just read may cause a reaction in you;
nevertheless, these words did not move me to write this book. But
the quote on the next page did! In fact, having heard the next
statement, I went home and started this book!
—Gene Edwards
You would not let an eleven-year-old child stand up in a meeting and
talk. Then why should you allow a woman to speak in a meeting?
—A statement made in a Christian conference in the twenty-first century
The Christian Woman...Set Free
CHAPTER ONE
A Time Past Due
This is not so much a book as it is a declaration of war.
You are about to be introduced to over two thousand years of abuse of
womanhood throughout the Western world. You are also about to see
seventeen hundred years of the subjugation of Christian womanhood
throughout church history. This book you hold in your hand exists
for the purpose of lifting women from that second-class citizenship.
Some of the historical facts in this book will shock you. By the
time you read the last chapter, I trust you will be free from perceiving
any sense of second-class citizenship as coming from the Scriptures or
from the early church.
If you happen to be a fellow male, it is my prayer that you will rise to
take your place in seeing an end to this stigma which places women in a
position inferior to men.
Jesus Christ does not discriminate against women. In all the
annals of human history, He was the greatest of all women liberators,
even breathtakingly so.
Then there is Paul.
To some, he is a male chauvinist and maybe even a woman hater. But
you will discover that Paul, like his Lord, was also a liberator of
women.
If this be true, and it is, then there must be some serious
mistranslation of I Corinthians Eleven and Fourteen, as well as
Ephesians Five, and I Timothy Two. Stand in horror that these
mistranslations have been carried from century to century, beginning in
A. D. 405, until this very day.
A final word about this book.
There are men who tell women they must wear doilies on their heads and
never speak in the church. Sirs, when you finish this book you
will either renounce these views or stand in embarrassment to discover
you are keeping company with some of the worst voices of men who ever
spoke ill of women throughout all the annals of Western civilization.
Now, take my hand. We will travel to the land where man's very low
view of women began.
Come with me to a grove of trees in Athens , Greece .
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