Corrie

“In fact, the word helper is used in the Old Testament of God himself who helps his people. But the point is that whenever someone “helps” someone else, whether in the Hebrew Old Testament or in our modern use of the word help, in the specific task in view the person who is helping is occupying a subordinate or inferior position with regard to the person being helped. (Page 461-462, Systematic Theology, ch. 22: Man as Male and Female).”

Wow, Paula. Excuse me while I try and pick my jaw up off of the floor.

When God helps his people He is occupying a subordinate or inferior position with regard to the person being helped? This sounds blasphemous to my ears. It seems that desperation is driving some of these statements. Maybe they think that to give an each, that all you egalitarians will take a mile or something? 😉 This sort of thing seems fear-driven since it it totally irrational.

So, that means that God is my subordinate and/or inferior on a daily basis? After all, isn’t He my ever present HELP in times of trouble? Isn’t God, the Holy Spirit, our Helper who *leads* us into all wisdom? And, Jesus, the Son of God, came to serve and not to be served.

This is really a dangerous thing to say about God. He is our subordinate and inferior when He helps us? That, imho, is desperation. The meaning of ezer must be preserved at all costs and if that means making God subordinate to man, then, by golly, that is what needs to be done. Ezer must mean subordinate and/or inferior so whenever it is used, even of God, it means subordinate and inferior. Talk about presuppositional! They have their minds made up about ezer, for sure, if they would pervert a puny human’s relationship with God in this way.

I am not sure I have read a feminist or egalitarian saying anything even close to this at all. Maybe heresy is too strong of a word but that is the word that comes to mind.

What is that old saying? “God made man in His image and man has been returning the favor ever since.”

Wasn’t Satan banished from heaven for doing the same thing? He wanted to ascend higher than God? Well, can’t get much higher than God to refer to Him as a subordinate or inferior.

When I help my children, I am not their subordinate or inferior, am I? Would Wayne Grudem also say, in order to be consistent, that when a man helps his wife he is then her subordinate and inferior? Or when a father helps his child, he is that child’s subordinate and inferior?

I guess defining ezer as being a help from a source of strength is too scary of a concept. So, since God is above all others and is frequently referred to as an “ezer” then God must necessarily be put into a subordinate position in order that the inferiority of women be maintained lest someone get the crazy idea that ezer has nothing to do with rank or position and more to do with strength. We must keep God down in order that we can keep woman in her rightful place.

Interesting and dangerous.