Reformed SHEology

Abraham Maslow is perhaps most famous for his Theory of Human Motivation, which involves a "hierarchy of needs." This hierarchy consists of five "levels" of human needs that range from the physical to the spiritual. The lowest level of needs is the physiological level, which includes needs like food, water, sleep, sex, and breathing. The highest level of needs is the level of self-actualization, which includes the need to address introspective topics such as morality, creativity, and other issues that can be labeled "spiritual". According to Maslow, the needs on the lowest level, the physical needs, must be met first. Then and only then will a human being be able to "graduate" to the next level of satisfied needs. Oh, really?

Consider this quote from Maslow (1943) himself: "Anyone who attempts to make an emergency picture into a typical one and who will measure all of man's goals and desires by his[her] behavior during extreme physiological deprivation, is certainly blind to many things. It is quite true that man lives by bread alone — when there is no bread." I don't think I need to slam anyone over the head with the incredibly obvious here, but this is in direct opposition to scripture.

Maslow is advocating the proper care and feeding of the flesh. The flesh takes priority over the spirit. He does have one thing correct: this certainly is a theory of motivation:

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. (James 4:1-3, NIV, emphasis mine)

If we were to invert Maslow's "hierarchy," we would see the proper order of our priorities as God sees fit: The spirit takes precedence. The flesh is the last thing we need to be focused on. (Note: Maslow is also wrong in his thinking. We do not become more "spiritual" when we meet the needs of the flesh. The richest countries in the world that have all their physical needs met are also the most discontent.)

Now let me just switch gears for a minute.

Perhaps it's just me. But I've noticed that most "resources" geared toward Christian Women seem to coincide with the first level of Maslow's heirarchy. Do a quick Google Search on "Christian Women" or "Proverbs 31," and you are most likely to find physiological fluff that is supposed to pass for "marriage and parenting" issues. One example that comes to mind: online communities designed for Christian women are replete with endless threads on how to make a tasty casserole or knit a cozy sweater.

Please do not misunderstand me. I am not taking a feminist stance and suggesting that these topics should be discarded. On the contrary, these topics often provide very useful information for everyday, practical affairs. (In fact, I enjoy baking and I still like to crochet every now and then.) But for a Christian woman who is looking for some kind of solid food upon which to build her faith, focusing solely upon recipes and sewing patterns can leave her asking, "Is this all there is?"

I think this is one of the reasons so many Christian housewives and full time mothers become so disenchanted with their lifestyles. I think this is why so many of them are tempted toward feminism. They are not properly taught that Biblical femininity starts with the needs placed at the highest level on Maslow's hierarchy. Where are the websites that encourage women to a deep study of God? Where are the books that cheer women on to a greater understanding of sound doctrine? Where are the Bible studies that allow women to focus on who they are in Christ, instead of who they are in the kitchen? When women continually focus their energies into activities that are designed to comfort the flesh, it is very easy to feel less than significant in God's kingdom.

Satan would love for women to remain on this basic level of operating in their femininity. But God wants every one of his daughters to grow in their faith! The Bible says that God's will is our sanctification (1 Thess 4:3). If you are increasing in knowledge of how to bake cookies and set grass stains, yet doing nothing or very little to feed your spirit, you are spiritually malnourished, and if you haven't already, you will most likely become unimpressed with all that biblical femininity has to offer.

God does not want you to just sit around baking brownies. He wants you to be a shining example of Christ to everyone you meet. This means sharing your faith. It's having the strength and the knowledge to teach your children the difference between truth and error. Don't sit back quietly - confront that sister in sin. Learn to exercise leadership within the boundaries of biblical femininity. Make a difference for the kingdom of God.

Christian wife, Christian mother, if you feel that your everyday routine has become mundane, look at the pyramid and ask yourself which level of the heirarchy are you placing the greatest importance? Continue to feed and clothe your family as Proverbs 31 directs, but do not let the physical become the main thing. The Bible tells us that Christ is the Chief Cornerstone. Let's flip that pyramid right-side up and put Jesus where He belongs: at the foundation of our needs and priorities.


Reference

Maslow, A.H. (1943) A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review,(50)370-96.

!Warning: The following contains discussion of abortion that may be upsetting to some readers. Links are provided to websites containing extremely graphic images and video footage of actual abortion procedures. Reader/viewer discretion is advised.

Dan Hayden had planned to be a doctor. He worked briefly as a surgical technician but got the call to ministry just before attending medical school. God would later use the combination of Dan's medical background and his Masters in Theology to create the most compelling Bible study I have ever experienced in my entire life. (I say entire because I am confident I will not encounter another study like this in the future.) It's an eight part study given in one-hour increments called The Living Word, and it illustrates how the human anatomy is actually modeled after the Word of God.

I was introduced to the study in the Spring of 2005. A group of women I met with every Tuesday night decided to give it a try. As was typical of a women's Bible study, the evening began with incessant chatter and cackling. But at the end of each of Hayden's lessons, we were speechless. The study began with a discussion of the four gospels, and how they comprise four complete but different portraits of Christ as the head of the Church (Ezekiel 1:14, Revelation 4:7, 1 Corinthians 11:3, Ephesians 4:15, Ephesians 5:23). The idea that Christ heads the Church just as the head controls a human body is not an unusual concept. We see it all the time in Scripture. But as the weeks went on, I was stunned as Hayden revealed how the Book of Acts was the neck upon which the head rests. The Books of the Law correspond to the legs. The Epistles to the Gentiles and the Jews correspond to the arms. And to top it off, Hayden was using only one reference to prove his points: Scripture itself. This was starting to get freaky.

One night, I distinctly remember being mesmerized by Hayden's comparison of Paul's pastoral letters with the circulatory system. In 1 Timothy, Paul explains how the gospel is to be preached across ethnic, gender, and economic criteria by which we are undivided in Christ(c.r. Galatians 3:28). In 2 Timothy, Paul provides encouragement for the times of hassle (Ch. 1) and hardship (Ch. 2). He encourages Timothy to refresh himself with the Word (Ch. 3) and to live in godliness (Ch. 4). Hayden then went on to compare the book of first Timothy to the left ventricle of the heart. The Christian is sent out to deliver the gospel to a lost and dying world. After being spiritually depleted, the Christian must return to the Word of God and the church to be spiritually refueled. This correlates to the right ventricle of the heart, which takes in blood that is depleted of oxygen, and brings it back to the lungs where it can be filled again, and then flow into the left ventricle to be pushed into the body all over again.*

The correlation was unbelievable, yet so thoroughly researched I couldn't deny it. The similarity between the letters to Timothy and the circulatory system had become staggeringly obvious. I sat there after the DVD was turned off, pondering what I had just seen and heard. A verse came to mind: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1). I had always wondered, how could Jesus actually be the Bible? With the help of Dr. Hayden's study, I was beginning to understand:

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us . . . (John 1:14).

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness . . ." (Genesis 1:26).

I gasped. We are not just made in His image. We are made in the image of His Word - in the image of Jesus, the Word who became flesh. It was starting to make sense now. A deep sense of fear and awe came over me as I sat nearly paralyzed in my chair. I looked down to see my stomach rise and fall with every cycle of inhalation and exhalation. My Bible, which was on my lap, rose and fell with it, yet it seemed to be moving on its own: For the Word of God is living and powerful . . .(Hebrews 4:12).

I have never looked at my Bible in the same way again. I have never looked at the human anatomy in the same way again. Suddenly, I began to see why we are commanded not to sin against the body. An irreverance for the body is an irreverence for the very likeness of God Himself. This is why the devil hates the human body and seeks to destroy as many of these little images of Christ as He can, through alcohol, drugs, sex, eating disorders, suicide, and especially abortion.

Throughout history, Satan has twisted everything that God has decreed. God calls for the shedding of blood as a substitute -- a method of atonement by which the blood of a bull or calf is shed in place of the human. Satan has always demanded human sacrifice:

The Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim. (2 Kings 17:31)

Today, we do not offer our children to the fire, but rather, we have been deceived into offering our children to the toilets. Every day, 4,000 innocent children are brutally murdered in the United States -- before they ever leave the womb. Consider some of the horrific ways in which abortion is performed. In the beginning stages of a pregnancy, a vacuum-like device is used to suction the baby out of the womb. In many cases, the baby is so tiny and fragile, it simply dissolves. Larger babies are grabbed with forceps and torn limb from limb. God declared that Christ would one day crush Satan's head. I think partial birth abortion - a procedure in which the baby's head is crushed - is Satan's response to God's decree.

Whenever I think of the brutal ways in which innocent babies are torn out of their mothers' wombs limb from limb, I get a visual of Satan tearing the Bible page by page. This really is his goal. He hates Christ, the Word who became flesh, and if he can't destroy the King of Kings, he will settle for merely destroying those made in His image. This is why the most evil method of abortion, and certainly the most symbolic, is what is called partial birth abortion. In partial birth abortion, the baby is near birth. Before pulling the baby from the womb, the abortion is performed by crushing the infant's skull. Is this coincidence? Consider Satan's fate:

The LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." (Genesis 3:14-16)

God declared that Christ would one day crush Satan's head. I think "partial birth abortion" - a procedure in which the baby's head is crushed - is Satan's response to God's decree. The violent acts on the unborn are a deliberate assault of the evil one** against the only creatures on earth that bear a striking resemblance to the Creator who will one day crush him. Yet our society continues to tell us, "It's not a baby, it's only tissue." This is the physical equivalent to saying the Bible is only paper.

Satan hates woman and will do anything to destroy her offspring. I invite you to examine some of the "tissue" that he has managed to convince some women to have "surgically removed" from their bodies. Where words fail, these graphic pictures will illustrate the hatred he has for humanity:

Warning: These websites are very graphic. Viewer discretion is advised: THE CENTER FOR BIOETHICAL REFORM &ABORT 73.COM

!Warning: The following article contains discussion of a deviant sexual practice and may be offensive to some readers. Reader discretion is advised.

Lisa M. has worked very hard to maintain a growing database about the practice of headcovering. Her site is comprehensive in that it addresses headcovering from various religious perspectives, not just Christian. One of the things in particular about Lisa's collection of headcovering resources that strikes me as fascinating is that there seems to be a never-ending list of stories about headcovering in the news -- stories in which headcovering is seen as a negative thing; as though the world is becoming more and more hostile to the tradition of headcovering and the women who elect to participate in it. Looking through some of the articles Lisa has on her site almost feels at times as if there is an all-out global attack on headcovering. This is not a coincidence.

Satan hates God's creation. He has always sought to distort what God has made, but through the ages, he has taken a particular interest in women. In the Garden of Eden, Satan sought to pervert God's order for the sexes. He approached Eve, asking her, "Has God really said...?" and caused her to doubt her Creator. He told her that God had lied to her, that Lord had not been 100% truthful with her concerning the tree of life because He had alterior motives. Satan targeted the woman in the garden, and he's been targeting women ever since. He has millions of women deceived into thinking that Christianity is oppressive. The simple manner in which he does this is by confusing submission with oppression.

God has commanded women to submit. Satan lies to women and tempts us to rebel by telling us that God has commanded men to oppress. The Bible tells us that Satan is the god of this world. His loyal subjects are continually being raised to power in various governments that force women to cover their hair, face, neck, and shoulders. They declare women second class citizens who are blamed for the fall of man, and their punishment is to be covered. God's way reflects perfect balance that is centered in orderliness. Satan's way reflects violent deviations from this. Satan twists things to extremes: submission becomes oppression, and leadership becomes domination. God's use of the headscarf is symbolic. Did you know that Satan has a symbolic use for the headscarf as well?

There is a whole underworld of perversion known as BDSM. Wikipedia* tells us: "Many activities can be found under the umbrella of BDSM, which include - but are not limited to - forms of social dominance, submission, discipline, punishment, bondage, sexual roleplaying, sexual fetishism, sadomasochism, and power exchange, as well as the full spectrum of mainstream personal and sexual interactions." Within this deviant sexual culture is a subculture that takes pleasure in the use of simple, ordinary headscarves as their preferred "sexual aid".

I first became aware of this perversion a few months ago when I was researching the godly practice of headcovering for myself. I had just completed writing my first headcovering post and was looking for some images to post on my blog, when suddenly, I stumbled upon some images of women that were bound and gagged with headscarves. Interestingly, I did not happen to see any men in these photographs, unless they were playing the role of "captor." Women were the primary focus of these scenes.

My first reaction was typical - "This is obscene." But I suddenly realized that this was perhaps a much deeper perversion than anything else I had ever seen or heard about, because it was symbolic. God has told women to be silent; Satan has them gagged. God has told women to submit, Satan has them bound. And he has bound and gagged them with the very symbol of authority that pleases God! If this isn't a blatant defiance of God Almighty, I don't know what is. As I considered the parallels between the obscene pictures and the scriptures, two verses came to mind:

And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day? (Luke 13:16)

And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years . . .(Revelation 20:2)

A chill came over me. I suddenly realized my choice to start covering my head is so much bigger than me, so much more meaningful than I will ever understand in this life. This is more than just perversion. This is the giant iceberg lying underneath the the global hostility toward headcoverings in almost every society today. The headcovering has meaning to Satan. What exactly? I don't know. But I truly believe the headcovering has a very, very deep significance to him:

For this reason she should be covered: because of the angels. (1 Corinthians 11:10)

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Ephesians 6:11-12)

And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. (Revelation 12:7)**

Some feel that the practice of headcovering is not for today. Yet there is a war going on for our souls right now. Even those of us who have been redeemed are constantly fighting a battle we cannot see with our eyes, but we know it's real. I will put on the full armor of God. I will wear the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, and have my feet fitted with the gospel of peace. I will take up my shield of faith and extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one as I wield the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. I will also put on the helmet of salvation. But as for me, I have chosen also to wear the headscarf of submission underneath!


*Due to the extreme graphic nature of this topic, I chose not to link back to any references that contained photographs, regardless of how "mild" the pictures were.

**Revelation 12 depicts the dragon waging war with a woman. The woman is not a literal woman, but a figurative expression of the nation of Israel. It is not to be confused with my assertion that Satan wages war on women. He makes war with all the saints, male and female alike.