Honest scholarship demands reading both sides of an argument. Over the last several years, I have been studying and understanding what the Torah and Scripture as a whole says concerning headship and patriarchy. In the process, I read a short book by David Wilber titled, Is God A Misogynist?: Understanding the Bible’s Difficult Passages Concerning Women, and frankly, fingernails on a chalkboard would have been more pleasant. Judging from the reviews on Amazon and the names attached, it is no wonder the Hebrew roots are so anemic. Like Christendom, the teachers are slopping at the feminist trough.

I’ll not review his book here as it needs a book to correct the plethora of errors, but I do want to demonstrate from one of his quotes how utterly absurd his position is.

Paul, in Ephesians 5:22-33 clearly articulates that Messiah is to the Church (Assembly) as a man is to his woman (wife). Without question, the union between a man and a woman is to image Messiah and the Church. A fifth grader reading that passage should under stand that:

husband : wife = Messiah : Church

This is not rocket science.

So, here is a direct quote from Wilber’s sixth chapter from the section titled ‘Submission in Marriage,’ only where he speaks of a ‘husband’ I’ve substituted ‘Messiah’ and where he speaks of a ‘wife,’ I’ve substituted ‘Church.’ IF Wilber has the picture correct in his understanding, then this should make sense. Brace yourself….

A common feminist complaint is the biblical virtue of submission of wives the Church to husbands Messiah (Ephesians 5:22-24). This virtue, feminists argue, demeans and oppresses women the Church.₂₁ While the Bible certainly extols the virtue of wifely Church submission, what many feminist critics tend to ignore is that it also extols the virtue of mutual submission (Ephesians 5:21), which would involve not only the wife Church but also the husband Messiah having an attitude of submission toward the other. As J.K. McKee explains:

“Submission of a believing wife the Church to a believing husband the Messiah is to be expected (Ephesians 5:22-33; Colossians 3:18-19), but this is to be controlled by the overriding statement, “submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ God” (Ephesians 5:21, ESV). Mutual submission also involves the submission of a believing husband Messiah to his believing wife the Church, and their co-equal, joint leadership of a home planet together.”₂₂

Though the instructions for submission are expressed more explicitly for the wife Church than for the husband Messiah, the ideal of mutual submission is not diminished. As Craig Keener points out, “I believe that it is biblically impossible to doubt that Christian husbands Messiah and wives the Church should practice mutual submission and servanthood (Eph. 5:21), even if it is specified more explicitly for the wives Church (v. 22), as all Christians should practice mutual love (v. 2), even if it is specified here more explicitly for the husbands Messiah (v. 25).”₂₃

Is God a Misogynist? by David Wilber, edits mine.

See how absolutely absurd Wilber’s idea of ‘mutual submission’ is when Paul’s image of Messiah and the Church are overlaid as Ephesians 5 outlines?

In fact, the egalitarian idea Wilber and his ilk promote would best be responded to with, ‘Hath God said?’ (Genesis 3:1) Wilber would do well to put the fruit down and back away from the poisoned feminist tree. As with other things that he has authored or co-authored, he twists words to meet his agenda in order to tickle ears.

Beware!!