Holly

@ 201
“Submission is not as strong a concept as telling a man to give up completely of himself for his wife even sacrificing himself to the point of dying for her. That kind of sacrifice is more than submission and is more of an opposite of dominating rule than submission is.”

I agree with your statement here and it would be “nice” if men and women of God understood this concept and applied it to their lives more. However, it seems that people in general “get” more specific statements like “wives submit/obey your husbands” as the last 2,000 years have proved as Christian men have still “ruled” and excercised “authority” over their “submissive” wives in many cases to the point of abuse since the days of Paul (I’m not implying that all are abusive as I’ve seen many lovely men of God love their wives sacrificially even while believing they were the final authority).
True that many men and women in churches are ignorant sheep, not reading and comparing all of Scripture, nor dividing rightly as we are told to do, but rather following ignorantly what man teaches. However, there have been so many great men of God throughout the centuries that have stood for sound doctrine, yet still have believed and taught the complementarian/hierarchical point of view. I find it difficult to comprehend why this egal understanding has been so “hidden” for so long, and it seems that a simple “husband submit to your wives as unto the Lord” would have saved a lot of women (and men because of their greater burden of “responsibility” than was necessary) a lot of pain and suffering over the years.