leanne

Hi, Cheryl. I just found some more stuff I want to talk about with you. Recently I heard about Dennis Rainey’s book, Building Strong Families. You can read some of it here: http://books.google.com/books/p/pub-9000451281933865?id=740FztCiGLAC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false. There are some things that bother me very much about this book, which are related to the comments you are making here.
There is a chapter by Bob Lepine called “The Husband as Prophet Priest and King.” He argues like this: Calvin says Jesus had three offices: prophet, priest and king. Eph 5 says the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. Now I will quote directly from the book. “Today, Christ is the head of His church by serving as prophet, priest, and king. If the husband is to be the head of his wife in the same way that Christ is the head of the church, then as a husband he must understand the prophetic, priestly, and kingly roles he is to fulfill.” (102) I’m sure you see the problems here right away. For starters, the author got the roles of prophet priest and king from Calvin. Then he took a description (the husband IS the head of the wife) and made it into a prescription (the husband is TO BE the head of the wife). Then based on that, he elaborates on how the husband is to fulfill the roles. He’s converted the descriptive statement in Eph to a command for husbands to rule.
As priest he is the ‘spiritual leader’ of his wife for prayer and worship. As prophet the husband hears from God (presumably tells his wife what God said), establishes doctrine for his home (again apparently informing the wife of what she is to believe) and confronts her sin. Now, all of these things would be fine IF THIS WERE A TWO WAY STREET between believers. But it isn’t. Information flows one way, putting the husband as spiritual mediator between God and the wife. Finally, as king, I will quote him again. “He is to lead his wife. He is her provider. He is her protector. He is to know and apply the law of God in the home. A husband is to represent his wife and his family in the culture.” There it is again: he is to lead her, something, as you say, that God never once commanded. He applies the law of God in the home. Does that mean he also punishes the wife for infractions of that law? He represents her in the culture. Do we take the vote away from women to fulfill this?
I thought this book also talked about the father passing the spiritual responsibility for the daughter to her husband when she married, but I can’t find it. Must be something else I read. . .
These things are such twisted representations and interpretations of what the Bible actually says that it’s difficult even to know where to start in untangling the errors. The scary part is how many people seem to agree.
I appreciate your insights and am very glad you are writing about this topic.
BTW, did you see Piper’s post on his desiring god page that the husband is to decide how his wife and daughter will dress? Why don’t we all just don burkhas and convert to Islam? It would seem more consistent! http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/AskPastorJohn/ByTopic/52/2028_Why_is_a_daughters_modesty_a_dads_responsibility/