It's Day By Day

Before you begin, I beg you to review the previous article, “Is God in control?” This will make what I am about to say come together in a meaningful way. The whole idea here is to put our minds into the proper perspective for considering humanity’s role in the subject of control.

What is that other natural law of God? It is this: Humanity’s free will, born of God’s own image He created within us. Now I can just hear the chorus of moans and groans and “Oh, brother! I thought he was going to say something important!” Better cup your ears, folks, because this is indeed extremely important, and grossly overlooked across the board of Christianity. Why so important? Because THAT ONE THING IS WHAT GOD WILL JUDGE IN EVERY SOUL, FACE TO FACE, ONE ON ONE! (Hebrews 9:27). Nobody escapes! If you’re a human, it WILL happen!

You see, that one natural law, unlike all the rest in one very important respect, is not ASSUMED in God’s creation. The others exist externally to us and impose themselves on our whole physical bodies, throughout our physical existence. But humanity’s free will first works within us and then radiates outwardly into God’s physical creation around us, governing in a limited way the laws of nature. That governing, or harnessing, Divinely meant to be constructive, can be either constructive or destructive, according to how we freely will it. The creation of that natural law of God is very explicitly described in Scripture: “…And God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness…” and, “…And God said unto [Adam and Eve]…replenish the Earth, and subdue it: and have dominion…” (Genesis 1:26, 28).

Friends, God’s own image of free will, free choice, a creaturely endowment of a portion of His Divine attributes of omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience, His express image, if you will, was the VERY ESSENCE God used to create humanity! If He had not done that, He would no more bring us into personal judgment than he would a rock or a lowly lizard.

Now here is the crux of the matter: God Himself maintains His image in our creaturely existence! Without it we would indeed be a rock or a lizard. It is who and how humanity is forever. It is who we all are, free-will creatures, with the God-given power to make our OWN decisions, APART, yes, APART from God’s choice. Otherwise, Adam’s choice to sin would have been GOD’S CHOICE, not ours. Such a thing is totally and completely foreign to God’s own revealed pristine nature. To judge us for that would be to haul HIMSELF into His own court of infinite law! The naked truth of this is simply that God is ever in control of seeing to it that our FREE wills operate in absolute freedom, no matter what we choose to choose, good or evil. That’s what He did in Eden, and that’s what He still does. God always honors His own endowed image in humanity, whoever He finds it in, just like he honors the law of gravity, whoever harnesses it for whatever purposes. Hear it, friends: God always honors our own choice whether it is good or evil, even if it shakes it’s fist and curses God to His Divine face!

You see, God’s image in us was a Divine trust from the very beginning. Sin was not part of His prestine image in us. No, God’s image of pure freedom in us exercised its own freedom of freedom and CHOSE to believe a lie instead of God’s sublime Word of warning. Adam himself was in control of WHAT he chose, not God. And once that decision was made, God backed away and respected it. It was going to be what Adam and Eve made it into, not what God was controlling it into. He as much as said, “Okay, you made your bed; now you must sleep in it. Someday I’ll bail you out of the mess you made for yourselves, but until then you can’t live in this beautiful garden I made for you. It’s certainly not what I intended for you; the making of this one is on you, not me. Meanwhile, I warn you: Things will go much easier in the future if you obey me instead of trashing my Word.”

Therein is the sordid story of all human history since then. Sadly, the main ingredient in the tragedy of human sin is the vain pride of blaming someone else for it, God included, instead of our own selfish will. Adam said it was the woman’s fault whom God had given him, thus blaming God. Eve, on the proverbial spot, probably nonplused by Adam’s accusation, simply dodged by blaming the Devil for it. Everyone but the Devil himself claimed innocense and passed the buck, and he would have himself but he had no one qualified to pass it on to. Neither Adam nor Eve simply admitted guilt, repented, and begged God’s pardon. We’re still at that guilty business.

In the third and final part of this three-part subject we will deal with the practical aspects of this “God is in control” business sweeping Christianity. One of the main Scriptures often quoted by those who promote this error is Romans 8:28. We will show that, instead, this Scripture actually plainly says the exact opposite, not only in plain English, but in the original Koine Greek language of the New Testament!

FORENOTE

Possibly the most used phrase in Christian circles today is, “God is in control.” No matter what awful thing happens, disaster, disease, war, tyranny, all such things, “God is in control” is shouted from the housetops by everyone from the least of laity to the height of scholarship.

Well, excuse me, but in the sense universally used, GOD IS NOT IN CONTROL! This article is intended to prove that fact.

Really now, is God in control? Well, depending on the usage, yes, but no. Because of that, if we’re going to say “God is in control,” then it behooves us to clarify what is meant, especially any Christians in positions of influence. Indiscriminate usage of it sends confusing signals into listening ears, saint and sinner. They rely on Christian leaders for what to think about God’s role in such inconsistencies of right and wrong.

Yes, God is most certainly and sovereignly in control of the Laws of Nature which He originally created and set to work in flawless order for all time. He ordained them that way. Only He alone can temporarily suspend those laws, and the times He has done it can be counted on your fingers without running out of fingers. What’s more, those laws are completely neutral in nature in regard to good and evil. They work just as well for despots such as Hitler, or an Abraham Lincoln. Fire will cook a pot of oatmeal, but it will also melt a whole city in a nuclear explosion. In every case, God’s laws of nature operate the same, no matter if it is used for good or evil. The hijackers of 911 skillfully employed it to bring down the Twin Towers in a slaughter of thousands of innocent people because God made certain His morally neutral law of gravity operated in absolute flawless manner. Fire heated the homes of America while Hitler incinerated over six million innocent Jewish people.

Now it doesn’t take a scientific genius or a great theologian to realize those obvious facts of nature. No, even an ignorant bum on the street corner is never heard to say, “Ho-hum, guess I’ll levitate today; I’m getting tired of sleeping on this concrete.” Why do we not see a religious order “prove” by Holy Writ that it is possible to levitate if they will only believe they can? Simple answer: There could be a large church of them making the claim, but anyone with eyes can plainly see that none of them are “floating” around in the church house. No, we all know about the laws of nature, even if we can’t even pronounce their names. We just know they have to be respected, or we pay the sad consequences. So what happens to a religious nut who leaps from a high-rise to prove his faith to levitate? Better ask him about it on the way down, because once he splatters the argument is over.

Oddly, we don’t even NEED Scripture to tell us to obey God’s laws of nature. Doesn’t matter anyhow. Even an atheist is forced to obey God’s laws of nature, or die. Just the act of living is absolute proof that these laws are ironclad for every human, belief in God or not. The factual essence of them is as much of who we are as the noses on our faces! We have to look cross-eyed to see our noses without a mirror, and one has to be a little cockeyed who examines God’s laws of nature to find out if they are real or not.

So what does this have to do with “God is in control,” you ask? EVERYTHING! You see, what we seem to overlook on purpose is yet another of God’s natural laws. Remember, God’s natural laws are set in stone to work flawlessly in neutral between good and evil. He guarantees it by His ordained providence. Like the others, this one God established from the beginning of creation, as secure and solid as gravity itself, if not more so. This one played THE major role in Hitler’s Germany, 911, Hurricane Katrina, and much more throughout history. God always maintains it in full working order, and will throughout all time. He’s not about to change it for anyone. And like the others, this one actually needs no Scripture to prove it’s existence, because it is always as real and present as light and gravity.

However, unlike the other natural laws, would you believe that large religious orders formed hundreds of years ago, and continue today, who have adopted and promote the ridiculous notion that they can suspend this law at will so it ceases to operate for them ever again? I’m not kidding! The thing is addictive, too. Multiplied millions have bought into this fictitious notion. Why? Because of the wonderful convenience it serves in not having to be bothered with it’s troublesome presence everyday of our lives.

Well, like gravity, though, God is always faithful to make absolutely certain the thing is in full operation all their lives, no matter what they choose to believe about it. It is just THERE! Yep, like gravity, light, heat, and perpetual motion, this one just goes right on being itself, forcing us to recognizing it, no matter what. Millions of folks go about claiming to “levitate” free of it, but not one among them, ever, floats away from it. Frankly, of all the examples demonstrating the lengths humanity will go to ditch having to deal with it’s grasp on us, this one takes the proverbial cake!

Think of the thousands of years humans have spent trying to figure out how to suspend the law of gravity. It is only within the last two centuries that we managed to come up with a fake of it: The balloon and the aero plane. But really, did we suspend the law of gravity? Nope. Not at all. We simply obeyed one law to temporarily override another. Trouble is, old gravity makes sure a deflated balloon crashes; an aircraft engine fails and down it comes, people and all, in a fireball. Suspend one of God’s natural laws? Come on! Let’s not be silly!

So what is that other natural law of God? So sorry; we are going to save that part for the next segment of this three-part article. If you haven’t figured it out, boy are you going to be surprised!

IMPORTANT NOTE

Christian eyes reading this will almost certainly miss the distinction between Christian and non-Christian marriages. Today’s Christian minds have watched Hollywood’s film version(s) from childhood, until they wear Hollywood glasses to evaluate all versions of it. Please, readers, take off those glasses, or don’t bother reading this article. This one is the Scriptural version, which is eternally different from Hollywood’s distorted excuse for it. Theirs will not serve genuine marital happiness; this one will in every case, if both marital partners simply obey the basic Scriptural rules.

However, this article deals with only the basic foundation on which a successful marriage must be built. A couple building a life together is extremely complex and as individual as they themselves. But these basics are where they must start to build, or else their structure will finally crumble into ruins. For this reason it is important that the men carefully read these rules for women, and the women read the previous post on rules for men in marriage.

The woman’s created design and order has been carefully detailed in the previous post, BASIC RULES FOR MEN IN MARRIAGE. We will therefore only briefly cover that aspect of marriage in this article.

Christian or not, the first thing the modern woman must deal with in this Scriptural approach to marriage is the imposition of the radical feminist mindset permeating our society. Even elderly women have been subjected to it all their lives. The first order of business in such a female mind is to reject the very notion of being subjected to the male. Much effort is immediately put into motion to worm around the plain truth of Scripture with a more convenient “Theological” interpretation of it, even to the radical extent of saying God is a “she.” But any female determined to dodge the Scriptural order in Genesis will not benefit from this article and should click out of this and go about something else. Pay day for doing that comes in two segments: Missing pieces of personal peace, and divorce. Both are deep wounds short term, ugly scars long term. We won’t even mention the devastating impact on the lives of her children.

The second conclusion jumped to by radical feminists is the foolish notion that scrapping the Genesis model is “liberating.” This is tantamount to dodging a pie in the face only to catch a cannonball. It’s like wriggling out of manacles only to be “free” in a padded cell. One never escapes their own design without Dr. Jeckel’s surgery, unless he is allowed to replace the brain to match the freak. Sadly, though, what started such radicals on their warped course is male stupidity in how he filled his own role. The only cure is in Christ and a return to original design. There simply are no substitutes for what God created humans to be. Liberation is never EVER outside the provisions of the Lord Jesus Christ. But while a woman can be devastated by her husband, she can yet find peace in the Lord in the midst of the pain imposed by his utter foolishness. Meanwhile, it should mean something to women to realize that we never see a radical feminist in a home where she and her husband deeply love the Lord first, each other second, and where the husband obeys his role in Scripture. That is the truly liberated woman. Sadly, all too often women play the fool to start with by being reckless in her choice of a husband.

It has been an amazing show through the last half a century to watch Hollywood promote their brand of love and marriage. The freakish eggs they laid hatched out into a generation of cyclops’s, other freaks, mixed up sexes, and wild-eyed radicals. None of which have a clue of what God’s truth really is. Unfortunately, most Christian households watch this circus anyhow, while Christian ministers are silent in the pulpits, mostly because they are also chuckling at the clowns. All of this without giving a thought to the reality that this is all going somewhere. (Hint: It glows red with intense heat).

A third assumption the so-called “liberated” female makes is the notion of restriction of her own personal life’s dreams and ambitions. This, by the way, is the foundational fiction on which the radicals always build their case. It is a lie. It dodges its own premise by the innate God-imposed law of human responsibility. Dreams and ambitions sit squarely astride that horse. Those coming closest to dodging are bums and bandits. As it turns out, though, they don’t dodge it either. They still have to eat to stay alive. Nobody is going to poke it down their throats; they must find it, get it, chew it, swallow it, and get away with it, unless they get it free behind bars. They’re responsible. Feminists have to exercise responsibility in order to be radicals.

So here’s the picture: They bucked the responsibility of their own natural design to start with in order to be feminists. That alone is a natural dodge of satisfactory fulfillment. Based on that cracked base, then, they launched their own cracked version of personal responsibility. They reached for the stars from atop the little mound of dirt they sweated to scrape up, instead of the Mount Everest God already had waiting for them free of charge! It all comes down to the quality of response(ability) exercised toward her original design as a female.

Ladies, think of it this way: There has never been a case study of a pregnant man. No, those who are pregnant are called WOMEN! Why? Ridiculously simple: She was designed that way, body, soul, spirit, physically, sexually, mentally, and socially. It is an impossibility for her to ever find fulfillment outside that original design. God’s blessings are channeled to her through it. It glances off a radical feminist. Please listen: Where they go wrong in their logic is to miss the Biblical fact that the woman was not designed from the ground up, but from the RIB up—Adam’s rib! Not from a monkey up; not from a tadpole up; their ancestry was not a tyrannosaurus (although she is well equipped to convince her husband of it). No, none of such foolishness! She was originally a piece of Adam’s ribcage. That makes all the difference in who the woman really is.

There is a legitimate responsibility. That one is fulfilling. The other is not. A wife’s first responsibility is to her design to be a “help meet” to her husband. He is the one with the responsibility before God to provide for his family. Have you ever watched a rooster and his hens? He will scratch a spot on the ground for them to forage as he stands and guards. When they have pecked it clean he wanders off to a new location, scratches, clucks, and his hens come running to forage. Meanwhile, those hens carry on with happy hen-chattering among themselves. None of that was their own idea to do it that way, contrary to evolution’s nonsense. No, God designed it that way. Simple as that. And those hens are happy and fulfilled with it. Modern feminists, though, would turn the whole thing on its head, attack the rooster and peck him to death!

But let’s be clear: God has loaded the females with tremendous abilities and talents, not to compete with men, but to serve God in their design. Her first purpose is to be a helper. That is God’s designed will in her. But this is where confusion arrives. You see, God’s truth, righteousness, and holiness are a prior obligation to her God, before her obligation to her husband. If her husband fails in performing his own God-given responsibility before God, he forces his wife into a very difficult situation. Let’s say, for instance, a backslidden husband decides to open a bar and employ half-nude females as an attraction. His wife’s design to be his “help meet” suddenly comes to a screeching halt on that count! But it’s confusing; she is his wife. She must still endeavor to be his “help meet” in other non-offensive areas, such as care of the children. It can become extremely complex. Lines can get blurred.

On the other hand, if she has a good husband who loves God, he will want her to have the joy of exercising her God-given abilities and talents. If she exercises good judgment before God in her first obligation to Him, then a good and loving husband will encourage and help her to pursue her full potential. Any man acting otherwise, is stepping between her and her God and must answer to Him for it. Many men put guilt trips on their wives for not getting out and bringing in extra income so they can live higher on the proverbial hog. If the wife loves to work outside the home, and if it doesn’t interfere with her obligations as the wife, then he should allow it. BUT it is his duty to see that her income is never relied upon to make ends meet, so that she could stop work at any time she pleases. He is designed to be the provider; not the PRIMARY provider, but the ONLY provider. God-given roles are reversed when the man dons the apron of housekeeping while his wife earns the living. It was never Biblical, and never will be.

Now let us consider another basic rule for women in marriage. We will look at this from a man’s point of view. It will come clear as to why. You see, by God-given nature most men when faced with a problem examines it from a position of cold analysis, emotions aside. He reasons primarily from a portion of the brain where reason is dominant, whereas the woman reasons from a portion where emotions are dominant. Now it is true that both sexes use both, and sometimes they are even reversed, but we are talking of which is dominant in most males and females. Most men, then, have a pressing need to logically understand a problem when it arises. Well, in far too many cases a husband’s unhappy wife vents her emotions on him when what he needs most is a careful explanation of exactly why she is unhappy with him. She might explode in his face as to HOW she feels, when he really NEEDS to know WHY she is angry—in detail. See the point? God has charged him with her nurture, care, and happiness, but she is heaping ire and frustration on him, although he hasn’t a clue of what he needs to do to fix it. He has a nature to troubleshoot, but she is too busy just shooting. He sees that like an auto mechanic who has an irate customer who brings him a car to repair but she refuses to tell him anything at all in detail about it. All the hateful customer yells is, “You’re the mechanic, you figure it out; I just want my car fixed!” So he has to start from scratch to even begin to figure out how it’s acting, what the trouble is, and how to fix it. Sadly, that ignorant state of mind belongs to most husbands who never read or listen to anything to find out what got him in trouble with her to start with.

Bottom line? Most men need educating on a regular basis by their wives! Not one husband wants to go out into the community and have to admit that he’s the head of an unhappy home. His very nature wants it said that he is a problem solver, not the problem itself. But a wife who is unhappy and makes little or no effort to understand why it is that she is unhappy is actually the guiltiest before God. Her husband, after all, cannot crawl through her ear and analyze her brain for her. She must do it. Then, once she knows why and arms herself with documented explanations, books, videos, and tapes of experts in the field, to show him why she is unhappy, then the monkey is on his back where it belongs. A husband who won’t listen to her, who refuses to read or view what she brings him, but goes about ruling her and trying to make her like it, must answer to God for it. Women have a unique way of squirting from under a man’s jackboot and way-laying him with a 2X4 to get his attention! If he still doesn’t listen, he will pay for it ten times over in other even more unpleasant ways. If he refuses to make the changes needed to bring happiness to his “help meet,” then it shouldn’t surprise him when she walks out on him.

One final basic: God designed the man to be the spiritual head of his family. The devil has sneaked up on the blind side of this. One particular aspect of God’s design in both sexes must be considered. You see, although God designed males and females for each other, we dare not overlook that He made both for HIMSELF first, BEFORE one another. Their separate standing before their Creator is their FIRST obligation of existence. Think carefully here: Worldly minds think SELF first, mate second, children third, and God last, if at all. But God’s Scriptural order is GOD first, children second, mate third, and SELF last. If no children arrive, it is God first, mate second, self last. The point to be made is that God comes first, not self. This priority opens the vast monolith of responsibility for our subject, the woman in marriage.

You see, a home that honors God is a balance of responsibility, each in their separate roles, pulling the load together. But depravity introduces a problem: In far too many Christian homes the father fails to assume the spiritual headship. Following Scriptural logic, then, since each partner has God as first priority, failure of the husband presents enormous implications for his wife, especially when children are involved. In the first place, the man’s role in the home requires that he have a backbone like a saw log—spiritually and physically. If he fails at that, then his wife is obligated to grow one herself—spiritually, and sometimes even physically. After all, it is in the marriage vows, “For better or for worse.” The man who drops the ball must answer to God for it; if his wife doesn’t do her best to take up the slack for her children and her home, she must also answer for it.

The woman in marriage who honors God above her husband and children may endure hardship if her husband and children fail to do the same, but she should go in the strength of knowing that she pleases God, who will return the honor in infinitely greater measure. Her children and husband will one day “Rise up and call her blessed” (Proverbs 31:28), even if they realize it after she is gone.

FOLLOWUP TO PREVIOUS POST ENTITLED, “WHY CHRISTIANS WILL LOSE IN 2008″

Paul’s shipwreck of Acts 27 is devastatingly and metaphorically applicable to another later ship, called The American Ship of State.

Paul’s ship of Alexandria (v.6) hosted a total complement of 276 souls. Many of them were prisoners bound for Roman justice, including the Apostle Paul. By his side, though not a prisoner, was his faithful friend, Luke the beloved Physician, to whom we owe this detailed log of the journey.

These 274 other souls were unwittingly, but Divinely fortunate to have aboard two of God’s choice servants, both of whom had a reputation for telling the plain truth, like it or not. They had hardly begun when Paul, the most outspoken of the two, being in touch with God, had the boldness to tell them plainly, even though everything seemed to be going just fine, “Sirs, I perceive that this voyage will be with hurt and much damage, not only of the lading of the ship, but also of our lives (v.10).

From there, the entire story of horrible loss hangs on Luke’s “nevertheless” of verse 11. The Centurian, charged with Roman authority, decided to ignore the John Hagee-like ravings of God’s prophet and listen more to the ship’s master and owner instead. It was to be a foolish error of judgment with dire consequences, too often the case when governmental authority ignores God’s prophetic warnings.

You see, in Chapter 26 we find that Paul had made a strong case for God and his own innocence (26:32) in the presence of King Agrippa and Governer Festus, to the extent that Agrippa admitted that Paul almost persuaded him to become a Christian (26:28). These two dignitaries showed respect to this man of God and no doubt passed their sentiments on to Julius, the Centurian in charge of the prisoners being shipped to Rome. But Julius paid more heed to temporal assessment than the spiritual foresight of God’s prophet.

At first it appeared all was well as the south wind blew softly (v.13), but suddenly they took a broadside by a tempest called “Euroclydon”! It went down hill from there. Try though they did to regain control (vv.15-20), they were now in the storm by a foolish misjudgment, until “all hope that we should be saved was taken away.”

So God in his mercy in the person of His man Paul, who had been ignored into silence until now, stepped forward, possibly with a boney finger pointing at their noses, said, “Sirs, ye should have harkened unto me…” (v.21). This time, in the midst of violent waters, they were finally willing to listen.

Paul had good news: God would save their lives, but that’s all. Every temporal thing they had trusted in would be completely destroyed from under them! Now they would have to swim for their lives! But even that had a catch to it: They must do what they failed to do from the start—they must listen to and obey God’s prophet! Otherwise, they would all surely perish. Simple as that.

Well, that is the metaphor. Here’s the fulfillment:

A new American ship of state has set sail. We can expect the “south wind” to blow “softly” for a while. However, before that wind ever blew, God’s mighty voice swept out to all quarters of the nation saying, “Sirs, I perceive that this voyage will be with hurt and much damage…” Why the voice? The facts were certainly no secret. As Paul said to Governor Festus regarding King Agrippa’s awareness, “For I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him; for this thing was not done in a corner” (26:26).

The platform of the Democrat party and it’s candidates, both for Congress and the Presidency, had over the decades deteriorated into what Scripture explicitely calls “evil.” Some planks in it God points at with special Divine disdain (Leviticus 18:22; Romans 1:24-32. God destroyed two whole cities for this great sin: Genesis 19:1-29). One plank is abortion, which kills the fetus, although many Scriptural references can be cited showing the sacredness of the unborn. Some have gone so far as allowing the newborn fetus to die unattended. Grave errors against God, such as racial bigotry and sexual deviations have already been shown favoritism. We could continue with a sordid list of nose-thumbing at God Himself. Quoting Luke’s “nevertheless,” we must sadly point out that multiple millions of God’s people cast their ballots freely and with vigor for this God-less platform! Our congressional body and the Oval Office are now going to occupy the governing forces that will determine the set of the sail and the angle of the rudder of our American ship of state. It should also concern us greatly that such values will be the Commander in Chief of the mightiest military forces the world has ever known.

Therefore, “Euroclydon” is inevitable. It cannot be otherwise, especially if we dare touch the Apple of God’s Eye, Israel. God has solemnly promised that the dreaded law of sowing and reaping is as certain as the law of gravity—which never fails to simply be itself. Frankly, if God were to allow this nation to get away with throwing it’s free vote in support of such evil, He will have to be fair about it and apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.

But God never reaches that stage suddenly. He is merciful and longsuffering, sending warning after warning as a government stoops lower and lower. Meanwhile, our beloved nation, like Paul’s ship, loses control and begins breaking up on the rocks of godlessness, until at last it is too late to save the vessel. No, we should look, not for sudden, but slow destruction, but disaster nonetheless. Meanwhile, we as Christians should pray for the powers that be, not for their success in their evil designs, but for their salvation, even as we pray for their removal from power in a peaceful manner.

Who will be saved in the destruction of our ship of state? I am reminded of fearful Elijah to whom God reminded that He yet had 7000 souls in Israel who had not kissed nor bowed their knee to the wickedness of Baal (I Kings 19:18). But look more carefully: Suppose the population of Israel at the time was, say, three million. This means that less than one percent of Israel had not sunk to the evil engulfing their beloved nation. That should also inspire a sobering reminder of Jesus’ solemn words, “…Straight is the gate, and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matthew 7:14).

America, let us beware and brace ourselves, for we have enthusiastically placed our national lives into unscrupulous hands when we should have sought for a safe haven for the bitter winter facing us. You see, once in a “Euroclydon,” there is no steerage, regardless of the skills of the helmsman. Meanwhile, we should:

* Beware an evil government, for without a single exception, all of them promised anything in order to come to power, but then they took it all away and reigned in terror.

* Beware of wicked intent, for deception, coverup, manipulation, scandel, and surprise leading to far worse, have always been its cardinal marks.

* Beware of evil itself, for the adage is always true, “Evil knows no bounds.”

IMPORTANT NOTE

Christian eyes reading this will almost certainly miss the distinction between Christian and non-Christian marriages. Today’s Christian minds have watched Hollywood’s film version(s) from childhood, until they wear Hollywood glasses to evaluate all versions of it. Please, readers, take off those glasses, or don’t bother reading this article. This one is the Scriptural version, which is eternally different from Hollywood’s distorted excuse for it. Theirs will not serve genuine marital happiness; this one will in every case, if both marital parteners simply obey the basic Scriptural rules.

However, this article deals with only the basic foundation on which a successful marriage must be built. A couple building a life together is extremely complex and as individual as they themselves. But these basics are where they must start to build, or else their structure will finally crumble into ruins. For this reason it is important that the women carefully read these rules for men, and the men the future article on rules for women.

God designed marriage to be between a man and a woman. Now how shallow does that sound? Well, it isn’t. It has roots in Divine purpose, limbs reaching into Divine potential, and fruit borne into Divine expansion. None of these are open to humanity’s plumbing its depth, topping its height, nor comprehending its infinite expansion. A marriage without God curses its roots, starves its branches, and rots the fruit. A homosexual fake of it does absolutley nothing but spit in God’s face, inheriting a curse.

God created Adam instantly but with forethought. His Omniscience equipped Adam for His very next creative act. Think about it: There stood new Adam, equipped with some yet useless features until His next act. He then used Adam’s body, a rib, to tailor-make him a “help meet”(KJV), perfectly designed in every respect to that end. Here then stood the perfect couple, in perfect harmony with each other and with their Creator. But let us look carefully at the compelling evidence of what God did: He declared the Divine purpose for each of their separate designs. The Genesis account that they both were to be fruitful and have dominion is nevertheless modified by two creative acts: The indelible method in which the female was created, and God’s own personal declaration that she was designed to be Adam’s “help meet” (Genesis 1:26-28; 2:18-24). In plain language, the definition of “help meet” is simply a helper, an assistant, an aide. Today the helper can be a male or female helping a male or female, but to apply that mentality to understand the Genesis account is rediculous. God’s helper was created from Adam’s rib to be equally as human as Adam himself, but created specifically in beauty, sex, mentality, soul, spirit, and purpose to complement Adam’s own design. Like Adam, however, her first allegiance was to her Creator, God Himself, not Adam.

THE SECRET SOURCE OF SUCCESS. What does this mean to marriage? Everything! It doesn’t matter how or why we leave those vital facts behind, the results are always the same. You see, the idea of male and female, how they were created, how they relate to one another, all of that, has nothing at all to do with human laws nor anyone’s religion, be it Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Athiesm, or any other. Almighty God’s fiat of Adam and Eve supercedes all else. It doesn’t rely on whether it is an elaborate church wedding or a couple shacked up together, God’s design of Adam and Eve is still US, ourselves, no matter what. We males and females are literally MADE for each other, like it or not. It is still not good for man to be alone, and females are still designed to be man’s helper. Absolutely nothing will ever change that in this life.

Therefore, the Divine fiat of male and female has to be the basic source of all secrets that make marriage work. Men, note this carefully: Any deviations, and I mean ANY deviations, from God’s perspective, vividly modeled in Adam and Eve, virtually guarantees a degree of marital storms, troubled children, unfaithfulness, separation, and worse. You will be wise to absorb that truth and build on it. From this basis for reasoning, the following basic rules demand to be recognized for marital success to happen. Because all humanity consists of God’s males and females, these basics are universal truths, Christian or not, although what a truly successful marriage has to be emmersed in is found only in Christianity.

1. RESPONSIBILITY. God assigns it to the male. Like it or not, men, the proverbial monkey is on our own backs, not that of the women. Why? Because of the creative order and purpose. Scripture calls the man the woman’s “head” (I Corinthians 11:3; Ephesians 5:23, not that she is brainless, but in a marriage the man is her marital authority. But you’re walking on eggs, men; remember, she is designed to think for herself, thank you. If you are going to be her marital authority, then you’d better make it your business to find out for certain what is right and what is wrong before you crown yourself with the director’s hat. She will know the difference very quick. In fact, many women can think circles around their man, and even have better sense. In that case, the most direct course to solving a problem might be to lean on her for your authorative directions. If instead you just run over her with egotistical pride, take warning; that is a shortcut to marriage breakup. As the “head,” God expects you to be the primary self-sacrificer, just like Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it (Ephesians 5:25).

A very subtle purpose is served in this arrangement. Remember, God created Eve FROM Adam and FOR Adam. Think of what this means. Observe carefully. Imagine the wheel of a bicycle. The hub of it has an axle which allows the wheel to revolve around it. However, unless it has those little ball bearings in the hub, it will wear out very quickly and sieze the wheel from turning. Well, the manufacturer had to DESIGN those bearings with great precision to fit that hub and axle perfectly. Otherwise, the whole bicycle is useless.

Just so, God made Eve with Divine precision to fit Adam, complementing him perfectly in every respect. Think about it: If the bicycle owner violates the factory specs when he replaces the wheel bearings; if he just throws any old bearing in there he can get away with, he is simply going to ruin what he is riding on. If he also fails to honor the design of his wife and jams her into his own notions, he is going to have a very unhappy wife on his hands. Simple as that. Why? Because God built her from the rib up to fit the mold He designed in Adam. Also simple as that. The minute he takes a hammer and pounds her into his own image instead of God’s he will have a marital disaster on his hands. Still simple as that. Men, her Divine design must be considered for marital bliss to happen. It seems, however, that all men start out in stone ignorance of what they did in taking a wife, but the greater ignorance is the ignorance that they are indeed ignorant.

I thought all I had to do was take a billyclub, conk me a woman, and drag her by the hair into my lair. After that I thought all there was left was to make children, keep her barefooted and pregnant, washing dirty dishes and clothes, and generally lording it over her, and she’d be perfectly happy with what I did for her. What happened? The week wasn’t out before she stole my billyclub, slammed me over the head, and generally worked me over. I stayed beaten to a pulp for decades before Mr. Ignorance finally stirred. First thing I did on awakening was to scramble around trying to figure out exactly what it was she was doing wrong. One day old Ignorance tapped me on the shoulder and whispered, “It’s you, buster!” I was stunned. Me? Couldn’t be me. After all, I did exactly what Clark Gable, Errol Flynn, and good old John Wayne would do. As it turned out, the guys who knew the secret had never heard of Hollywood: Peter and Paul.

Basic responsibility and accountablility are vital. Men, think very carefully on the logic of this. It isn’t at all unlike what we all know about corporate organization. Even if the business is governed by a board, yet only one person can be in charge. A fall guy is needed to take responsibility. No matter who is at fault on the corporate ladder below, it’s the person in charge that gets the ultimate blame and must fix it—or suffer a headrolling. Well, that’s how God views marriage. The man was first, the female second. God created man from dirt, then created woman out of what was already created—Adam’s rib.

So there they both stood, each made in God’s image, both endowed with free wills of their own, both responsible to God for their behavior. However, they were now a family with Adam responsible as to how his family conducted life’s business. That’s why when things go wrong on the ladder God taps the man on the shoulder and says crisply, “Adam, you fix this!” Husband Adam must then go about searching for resources (including his wife) to fix it. It had better be a good fix to please God first, then his wife. The worse thing he can do at this point is simply take hands off, turn around, and isolate himself in a corner of his own house as the proverbial walls cave in on him. God will never let him off the hook by simply shrugging and telling God, “Lord, it’s this obstinate woman you gave me” (Genesis 3:12, paraphrased).

If she is indeed at fault for the breach, men, you’d best not hook thumbs under suspenders and throw all the blame on your wife. While you’re gloating over your righteousness, God is telling you to pick up the pieces, forgive, make changes in your own behavior toward her, win back her affections, and make your business of marriage a profitable enterprise again. God will certainly judge you if you fail to make that effort. Remember the rule here: The males and females of humanity are equally and individually responsibile to God for the welfare of their souls, but once they marry, yet another institution is in place with the man as the head of the family. The proverbial buck stops with him, not his wife, so far as the family is concerned.

2. GOD’S FEMALE. Another basic rule falls quite naturally from the man’s basic responsibility. It is in regard to the unique nature God so beautifully designed into the female. Since Eve was designed for Adam, “bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh” (Genesis 2:23), He shaped not only her body for Adam, but formed her a nature to match as well. Just like God gave her a body in need of his attention, he gave her a nature that also needed Adam’s attention. It is actually who a woman is designed to be. “Approval” is the key word describing how she naturally feels toward her chosen mate. She has no control over who she was created to be. She just requires her man’s praise, his desire of her, his affections for her. To her, such treatment is God’s prescribed medicine, to be dispensed by her man. If he draws back from giving it, she grows sicker from it’s lack and resents him for it. She goes about in the home as his “Help meet,” while he goes about taking her for granted, failing to tell her both verbally and otherwise that he appreciates her, loves her, that she pleases him in beauty and in fulfilling her role as a wife and mother. A man who is mute toward his woman in word and in deed, will simply have a woman who is starving for what her man alone is able to give her. Depending on her personality, her reaction will range from bitter sobs to violent temper, from scathing words to cold silence—especially in bed. A man shallow of understanding will conclude that he surely married the wrong woman, while she is convinced that she married the wrong man, all because her husband operated in ignorance of what God expects of him. Such ignorance is marriage’s deadliest enemy because that is the Devil’s playhouse!

A husband who ignores this basic creative priority of his wife’s God-given nature is virtually guaranteed a mountain of marital troubles. Look at it this way, men: Suppose you purchased for yourself a beautiful sports car, for which you sacrificed a lot to own. But then once you have it in your carport, instead of babying it like most men do with such cars, you begin treating it like your old rattle-trap pickup! You ignore it, never wash and wax it, even use it to haul off the garbage. Dents? You could care less. Well, I’m no prophet, but I predict with amazing accuracy that you won’t own that fancy car long simply because you failed to give yourself to it’s beauty and maintenance. Simple as that. And let’s face it, men, you thought it was just what you wanted to begin with or you’d never have bought it. I dare say that all your buddies who saw that beautiful car, and then how you treated it like your old beat-up pickup, probably figured you had a cog loose yourself that needed fixing. Especially if you finally dragged it to the dump and bought another beauty to replace it. They’d say, “Wow! that guy has rocks for brains!” It always amazes me how some guys fall all over themselves for that beauty in the driveway, but seem to care less about that one in the house.

3. WORD AND DEED. Another basic rule topples out of that one: How a man is to implement his basic responsibility toward his wife. Guys, ask your woman. She will tell you without stuttering two simple words in very simple order: WORD and DEED. BOTH! Not just one. Why? Because that amounts to his giving his whole self to prove to her how much she pleases him. If he is all talk and no action, she feels cheated out of his affections. If it’s all action and no words, she feels cheated out of assurance of his sincerity. Either way, she stands there unfulfilled and somewhat suspicious. God’s created nature in her to be approved and accepted by the man she chose to marry stands there in frustration. Trust me, she’s going to let him know about it in some way he’s not going to find very pleasant.

4. THE SPIRITUAL. Finally, men, it behooves all of humanity to recognize that marriage is far more than a physical union. Now, that is one Hollywood missed by a country mile! The simplest of logic tells us that if God had created another catagory of humans besides males and females who were never meant to physically unite for reproduction, then while He was creating them He would have designed them that way. He did no such thing. We call those with mixed equipment freaks of nature whose DNA went awry. No, God did no such thing. He built a man, made a woman out of his rib, and designed them both to physically unite into a family. This obvious fact of nature renders the idea of evolution nothing short of lunatick. Therefore, because God’s own purpose went into Adam and Eve in how He designed them, together with His command to populate the Earth, the Divine spark of it makes us both physical and spiritual in our marriages.

The act, then, of ignoring or dismissing God’s part in marriage is tantamount to having the ceremony in a dynamite factory, using fireworks to celebrate! The spiritual side of Marriage must be recognized and honored, with the husband as its head, exactly as Christ is the Head of His bride, the church, who loved it and gave Himself for it (Ephesians 5:25).

That, gentlemen, is the so-called secret of marital success. You will find it in no other place than in simple obedience to God’s original design.