By: Thomas F. Booher
Egalitarianism is the heresy that runs through Nation and Church alike today. As such, we don't merely have a theological issue, but a societal one. Indeed, one as basic as "what is a man?" and "what is a woman?" and "what is a family/nation/people?"
Getting this right will bring not just a "revival" in our churches, but a full-scale Reformation.
That is what so many so-called conservatives, whether political or pastoral, are actually afraid of.
This needed reformation will bring a return to hierarchy. But for the "egalitarian conservatives" (sorry for stuttering), hierarchy of any kind -- except for their own elite "credentialed" class which lords itself over the egalitarian flatline masses beneath them -- is the real heresy and demon that has to be kept out of the land.
Hierarchy, like patriarchy which presupposes hierarchical structure and order between the sexes by God's good design in creating us male and female (Gen. 1:26-27; 1 Cor. 11:3, 7-9, Eph. 5:22-24, etc.), can be structured or executed in a more or less righteous, more or less just way. But the key to awakening is realizing that egalitarianism is not justice, but injustice, indeed great wickedness and confusion that handicaps superiors for the sake of claiming the inferiors are at the same level as the superiors are. But today, as soon as you speak of "superior and inferior" you are suspected of being a hateful bigot that wants to harm or eliminate all inferiors. On the contrary, our weaknesses/inferiorities can only be helped by those who have strengths/superiorities. recovering this will actually enable everyone to rise, the weak as well as the strong.
But instead, Egalitarianism -- most crassly seen perhaps in DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) policies -- creates lowest common denominator everything, the weakest and worst "rising" (really being artificially launched up) to the top in order to give the illusion and false hope that "all are equal". The problem for them, and good news for us, is the storm of this wickedness is ruining everything. Now some are re-examining their "worldview" or "presuppositions" or "prior commitments" and realizing that they have had things wrong. Certain individuals and even people groups, institutions, etc., are better or worse, depending on a host of things via both nature and nurture. Recognize this reality isn't bigotry, but love. If someone has a particular deficiency or weakness or proclivity or shortcoming, the most loving thing we can do is note that, tell them that straightforwardly, and put them in a position to overcome that, or to be helped through that. It is also the most loving and safest thing for those who do not have those particular needs/weaknesses, etc. Yes, some abuse these natural inequalities to harm the weak, but that is an abuse. We do not deny what is true (inequalities) to prevent an abuse. A man may abuse his wife in the name of patriarchy/male authority and headship in the home. This abuse is evil and the man should be punished according to Scripture and the laws of the land, but it would be insanity and ultimately even more harmful to then lie and say that men are not by God's design and calling the heads/authorities/patriarchs in their homes, ruling over their wife and children for their good, even as Christ rules over His Church for their good.
So, not all inequality is racism or misogyny or xenophobia. Further, our loves are to be concentrated on those nearest and dearest to us, and so an inequality of loves is good and right. We are called to love all, even our enemies, but the intensity of our love and the exertion to love is not at all spread around equally. God also calls us to hate evildoers, etc. If I love my wife and children only as much as someone else's wife and children, then I actually hate my own family and/or have a perverse love for another family. Apply this to our own nation, to Evangelism, etc., and you begin to see the egalitarian error ruins everything. It destroys the rootedness of families, communities, churches, and even nations, removing the ties that bind for ineffective weakness spread far and wide. We have demonized loyalty to our own.
In place of true loyalty, we have prostituted love, where "love" is poured out everywhere into a shallow puddle that helps no one, rather than running through the streams, channels, and rivulets that pour into bigger rivers to produce mighty oceans. Of course, this means there is no thinking in terms of multiple generations, of building up an inheritance for your children's children, etc., which natural affection, common sense, and the Scriptures explicitly call us to do. Making a vow to God, spouse, country, and local church is hollowed out or discarded altogether. We are disloyal people, but we baptize it and pretend it is good because we do it in the name of "Equality".
Love and loyalty must be particular, concentrated, focused, and running in certain places that we have been called to -- our kin, our church, our community, our nation -- over and above other families and faraway communities and nations. Only when we are strong and faithful to those near us, can we then be in a position to be hospitable and truly helpful to those further away from us. The illusion of the internet and travel has helped delude us into thinking we can be anywhere at once, and the world is in the palm of our hand. We think we have become God, omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. But we are not, and the wicked results of playing God in the name of "equal love and care" have long been coming home to roost.
We should be wise in our retrieval and recovery of these truths that God has wired into nature and the fabric of reality itself. We should prove it from reason, Scripture, nature, history, and over against the madness we see all around us, with butchered babies in the womb and chopped off private parts by their parents if they somehow escape the womb, with sexual depraved parades marching down main street.
We should not be sloppy, setting up false or exaggerated hierarchies/inequalities, thereby giving an excuse for the wicked to hold back the truth of God's tiered orders and priorities. Egalitarianism must be defeated with boldness and wisdom, with precise truth so that the minds that have been deluded can so clearly and powerfully see the real truth, such that they are ready to break free of their chains and wear the label of "bigot" they will be branded with, without fear and a falsely guilty conscience. Yes, to break free of the Egalitarian delusion, you may have to risk being fired from your job, be shamed publicly, and perhaps even put under church discipline falsely. Trust the Lord, and He will provide for you, and work through you to recover these lost truths for His glory and our good.
The other battle that is already upon us is hashing out those who would disagree with egalitarianism, but also balk in some ways at hierarchy for the sake of "meritocracy". What we need is hierarchy that incorporates or has its eyes open to the "merit" in particular situations, circumstances, persons, institutions, etc. Or perhaps, a merit-based system that realizes it must be "handicapped" or already take into account the reality of hierarchy and order, superiors and inferiors, the structure and differences that is there between male and female, peoples and nations, places and callings, etc., for the benefit of everyone -- superiors, equals, and inferiors alike.
This should also greatly help sweep away a lot of bad doctrine in our Evangelical churches as well. The idea that Jesus died for everyone equally but not effectively is an egalitarian principle (notice the "equal love for all" but also the weakness of it -- you have to make Jesus' atonement effectual by your own faith/free will!) mixed with American free-will-ism and self-determination. God's sovereignty, election, predestination, a mighty and holy God lifted up on high that demands holiness from His people, yet stoops down in mercy and grace in Christ without deluding His holiness, will become all the more palatable and understandable, indeed desirable, to a given people when they grasp that Egalitarianism is a poisonous evil, and that hierarchy is good, healthy, and helpful for everyone.
This will, by God's kindness, bring reformation to home, church, government, employment, society, culture, entertainment, everything. O Lord, please hasten the day! Silence those who wish, whether intentionally or ignorantly, to hold this great glory and mercy back from us, and remove them from power if they do not repent. Give us the courage, faithfulness, and love to see to it by Your appointed means that these compromisers are removed from their positions of power and influence, so that more godly, wise, righteous, and benevolent men can step in and step up. And let us begin right away to recognize reality and the order God has designed in our own lives, households, churches, friendships, and communities, so that we indeed practice what we preach.
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