Masculine Christianity (by Zachary
Garris) Chapter Outlines
Introduction & Chapter 1
1. Why this
book?
a.
Recovering Biblical Manhood
and Womanhood by John Piper and Wayne Grudem is helpful but it is a large
collection of essays that lacks cohesion, etc.
b.
Further, the book deviates
from some historic Christian views, as shown in Masc. Chris.
c.
Modern commentaries are
feminist, ignore the issue, cast doubt on male headship, etc.
d.
Zach Garris will bridge the
gap between popular level works and dry academics.
e.
Conservative academics are afraid
to publish in this area, due to controversy [getting canceled], etc., and
publishing companies are unwilling to publish on such issues.
f.
Masculine Christianity is
an anti-Feminist and pro-Partriarchal book that engages the “Evangelical
Feminists” of today. “Feminism is false teaching that distorts the Bible’s
instructions for godly living” and therefore cannot be taken lightly.
g.
Garris’ key distinction in
his book that goes beyond most complementarian works of today is the teaching “that
male authority is rooted in the differing natures of men and women and that
there is a hierarchy of rank (not value) between the sexes.” (page IX).
h.
This is where the
Complementarian movement falls short, and as a result, it tends to pit church
against society, where a woman is forbidden authoritative positions in church,
but not in society. This is also fueling society’s sexual and gender confusion.
i.
Garris’ book is a critique
of narrow complementarianism and advocates for a “comprehensive and consistent
biblical view of men and women where men rule in the home, church, and society.”
j.
We must show the good for
both men and women of the Bible’s hierarchical and Patriachal teachings, for it
is in fact the cure for the world’s sexual chaos. Amen!
2. Gender,
Sex, and Masculine Christianity:
a.
“sex” is biologically
determined, “gender” is its social expression (masculine vs. feminine).
b.
But this distinction is
exploited now to say one can identify as a gender different from their sex.
This is transgenderism. Garris will emphasize “gender roles” relating to
males/females.
c.
“God has assigned different
gender roles and duties to humans based on their biological sex…they are rooted
in creation, not culture.” (xi).
d.
The book is titled Masculine
Christianity because God is referred to in masculine terms (He, Him, Father,
Son) and this is associated with strength, authority, responsibility, and
mission.
e.
Thus God places men and not
women in leadership, for God appointed men as kings, priests, and elders in the
O.T., and now calls men to lead the church, home, and society.
f.
Christ took on male human
flesh, He became a man, not a woman for all these reasons.
g.
Being feminine is virtuous
and proper for a woman, but sinful effeminacy for a man.
3. Survey of
each Chapter in Masculine Christianity:
a.
Chap. 1: The rise of
feminism and erosion of masculinity in the West.
b.
Chap. 2: Call to
repentance from sexual rebellion, including/especially feminism.
c.
Chap. 3: How
complementarianism is the church’s response to feminism, but compromised.
d.
Chap. 4: Christianity
is thoroughly Patriarchal.
e.
Chap. 5-6: Gender
roles and male rule are rooted in the creation order.
f.
Chap. 7-11:
Masculine authority and rule in the home (7), church (8-10), & society
(11).
g.
Chap. 12: Call for
men to leave a godly legacy by loving and leading their families, raising godly
children, and building for the future.
4. Chapter 1:
The Rise of Feminism and the Erosion of Masculinity:
a.
Rather than aiding men as
wives and mothers, women are competing with men in jobs, academics, etc.
Marriages are in shambles and many men have decided to forgo marriage.
b.
When men are weak, the
world is weak. Women are left vulnerable, children unloved, etc.
c.
“The decline of men has
coincided with the rise of the welfare state, as civil government seeks to
provide financial assistance” (2) filling the role of the father.
d.
This system is abused,
rewards bad behavior, and usurps church’s diaconal role.
5. Feminism’s
War on the Family:
a.
“Feminism is the belief
that men and women are fundamentally the same and thus interchangeable.” Diminishes
sex distinctions, pushes women away from home/into careers.
b.
The goal is for women to hold
equal political and economic power with men.
c.
All branches of feminism
unite in the conviction that women can only find purpose in career.
d.
F. Carolyn Graglia
(author who left lawyer career to become a homemaker): “Feminism has actively
sought the traditional family’s destruction”.
e.
Graglia: Feminism holds
that equality means sameness (men and women must do the same things) and that
most differences between men and women are imposed by culture.
f.
Garris’ challenges both
assumptions, showing “equality” should mean men and women each have “equal
value” before God and man, not equal functions, and that men and women have
different natures rooted in God’s design, not culture. (page 4).
6.
Waves of
Feminism: 1st wave (1830’s-1920’s); 2nd wave (1960’s-90’s);
3rd wave (1990’s-present):
a.
Susan B. Anthony
(1820-1906) & Elizabeth Stanton (1815-1902) led 1st wave, sought
economic, political, social equality of women with men. Political goal=women’s
right to vote.
b.
Urged equal wages, property
rights, marriage rights, social causes against slavery/alcohol.
c.
With 19th Amendment
in 1920 women were given federal right to vote. Was this good?
d.
Feminism is a revolutionary
movement, urged abolitionism rather than gradual emancipation of slaves,
stoking Civil War (1861-65), and Prohibition of alcohol, 1920-1933.
e.
This emerged primarily from
the North, e.g., 10 southern states opposed women voting.
f.
Further, only some but not
all women wanted the vote, so men thrust upon women the duty to vote. This
placed upon women duties outside the home, leading to more waves of feminism.
g.
Theologian B.B. Warfield
(1851-1921) said feminism viewed the individual rather than the family as the
basic unit of society. “To [Apostle] Paul, the human race is made up of
families… to the feminist movement the human race is made up of individuals; a
woman is just another individual by the side of the man.” (page 7). Family was
the first government and men, as heads of households, alone had the duty to
participate in the civil sphere.
h.
Garris notes that 1st
wave feminism setup the others, and is also wrong, stemming from the radical
wing of the Enlightenment, the Jacobins, which carried out the Reign of Terror
in 1793-4 of the French Revolution. The British/American view of equality meant
equal treatment under the law, but for the Jacobins it meant sameness. They were egalitarians, tearing down hierarchy
and role differences, which was applied by feminists to gender roles.
i.
Egalitarians despise authority
and thus reject hierarchy. Christianity affirms God’s authority over all
creation, and thus affirms hierarchy, with authority structures in place on
earth: Husbands in home, parents over children, elders over church, civil
officials over citizens.
j.
Jacobin equality led to
Quakers and other heretics, like Unitarians, rejecting Trinity/diversity.
k.
Stanton became an atheist
and attacked biblical gender roles, Anthony was a Quaker (first to allow women
preachers) and possibly became a Unitarian later in life.
l.
Flowing from this, the late
19th century saw women start 2 false churches/cults, Seventh Day
Adventism (Ellen Gould White) and Christian Science (Mary Baker Eddy).
m.
Stanton wrote, urging for
women in the ministry and other public affairs in the church.
n.
She was also a forerunner
of no-fault divorce, saying only “love” should hold marriage together.
o.
Stanton even published The
Woman’s Bible which dismissed whatever passages she and her committee
considered unfavorable towards women, said Bible taught evil things, etc.
p.
Anna Howard Shaw, first
ordained woman in Methodist church, said women didn’t need protection/provision
from men anymore. Women can protect themselves now. She wanted women to get to
serve in political office, serve as police officers, fight in military combat.
7. 2nd
wave Feminism and the Sexual Revolution:
a.
Fought for women’s right to
initiate divorce, no-fault divorce, right to abortion, equal wages.
b.
The invention of the birth control
pill in 1950 helped set off this 2nd wave. Now women could have sex
with many men without consequences.
c.
“When sex and children could
be disconnected, traditional roles could be discarded. Women were freed to have
sex apart from marriage and jobs apart from children. Enter the modern world”
(p. 17). 1st wave = independent from men; 2nd wave = women
can act like men.
d.
Women traded home and
raising children for careers more and more, birth rate plummeted, children were
raised by other people than their parents increasingly.
e.
Feminism was greatly aided by
the Industrial Revolution and technological advancement.
f.
Industrialization from
1780-1830 broke the bond of work and home, where the entire family worked to
support the family business and husbands were more involved with childcare.
g.
Men were driven out to work
in factories, grocery and retail stores made work for women at home much
easier/quicker. It was now possible for women to leave the home for long hours.
h.
3rd wave
feminism is more eclectic, but focuses on pushing for homosexuality and
sexuality as a means of empowerment (18), enshrined in 2015 Supreme Court
ruling legalizing same-sex marriage in all 50 states (Obergefell), and 2020
anti-discrimination laws to homosexuality and transgenderism (Bostock v.
Clayton County).
i.
R.J. Rushdoony: “Religion
is seen as a projection of the family, and the family must therefore be
destroyed in order that religion may be destroyed.” This is what Feminists have
aimed to do.
8. Feminism Ingrained in Our Laws:
a.
This leveling of our laws
between men and women has harmed men and women.
b.
For example, many states
have abolished the common law requirement for a husband to provide for his wife
and children. No fault divorce is now law in every state, and either a man or
woman can commit adultery, then initiate divorce and take 50% of the marital
property, including splitting child custody and parenting time.
c.
It is now illegal to pay women
less to do the same job a man does, even though women are often less efficient.
Women now compete with breadwinner jobs, further eroding our national birthrate
and making it harder for a man to be the sole income provider for the home.
d.
Statism/government has
displaced fathers, providing needs from cradle to grave.
e.
Laws financially incentivize
women to have sex/babies out of wedlock.
9.
Feminism Infecting the Church:
a.
Gender role debates exploded
in the 1980’s in the Church, the CBMW/complementarians opposed to the CBE,
Christians for Biblical Equality.
b.
Many Protestant Churches
are functionally Egalitarian, if not outright so in doctrine.
c.
Many church women pursue
careers (and take on debts) instead of children and homemaking. Yet they still
want to marry a man who makes more money than them.
d.
“Feminism is the twisted
idea that a woman is free when serving an employer but a slave when serving her
family” (page 24).
e.
Our churches are feminist
and as such weak and impotent, trading its masculine calling for effeminacy. It
has left God’s design and now cannot live out God’s calling to lead the world!
f.
No wonder even in the
church we have homosexuality and transgenderism rampant.
g.
“What we are dealing with
is the triumph of progressivism. The political and social left rules the West,
and its evangelists have infiltrated the Church.”
h.
Evangelicalism itself is
compromised and too weak and soft to fend off the onslaught. “The effeminacy of
the Church explains why so many Christians have embraced leftist views.”
i.
“The feminist movement as a
whole is a rebellion against historic Christian society and its
authority structures. Yet the church has embraced its very enemy. Feminism is
no longer just an enemy without, but also an enemy within.” Individual vs.
family, egalitarian vs. hierarchy.
j.
Garris argues it is women
in particular who are not following their natural role and bear much blame for
this, but men bear the ultimate responsibility for allowing this to happen.
k.
Christian men have failed
to respond biblically, and have been passive and effeminate, while women have
been misled by bad actors who have left us with an effeminate church.
l.
Christian fathers and
pastors have allowed their daughters to go the way of the world rather than
train them to seek children and domesticity. Pastors fail to address this sin
in church.
m.
We are facing a crisis of
masculinity in the church, and to recover it we must start with God the Father,
with worship, for Christianity “has a masculine message of a husband who
lad down His life for His bride” (27).
n.
Dabney predicted in 1871
that feminism “will destroy Christianity and civilization in America.”
o.
Repentance should have
happened 100 years ago, and things are very bad now. So repent!
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