The Man:

Created to Rule and Lead

                                    Part I

America is in crisis. Our national problems have become so numerous and vexing that they cry out from every corner of our land for a solution. God-fearing Christians know the reason for this crisis:  we have departed from the God of our Fathers, broken the covenant upon which this nation was founded, repudiated His law, scorned the faith of our fathers, and served the gods of money, materialism, pleasure, power, and sensuality.  One of the first and most important steps to finding our way out of this national race to genocide is the restoration of manhood. America has become a feminized society, so much so that every aspect of society cries out for men to repent, seek the face of God, and be restored to the original design for which they were created.  Please join with me as we examine the desperate need for the restoration of manhood!

Pastor Dan Gayman

Just about three thousand years ago at the end of his life, King David, called a man after God’s own heart because he was not afraid to admit his sin, repent, and make corrections when he stumbled, spoke to his son Solomon, saying, “I go the way of all the earth: be thou strong therefore, and shew thyself a man; And keep the charge of the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways” (I Kings 2:2-3).  To the end that every young man and especially married men be not afraid to admit mistakes, let us resolve to admit to those mistakes, make corrections, and commence to rule and lead in the family, the church, and in our communities.

Satan, his minions, and an increasing percentage of the population have overturned, maligned, and perverted the original design for which our sovereign God ordained men, even inside the church. God designed the man, the woman, the family, the church, and the civil government to function for the blessing, prosperity, and happiness of His covenant people.  Everything God created originally was designed to fulfill His purpose. The goal of Satan is to pervert, transform, and counterfeit God’s original design in everything. 

The purpose of this essay is to focus on the one point where we have to get it right, or everything else will be wrong.  We can never have the blessings of God and find happiness and fulfillment until or unless the man, created to rule and lead, fulfills his role as our Creator God designed it originally.  The family, the church, the government, and all other areas of a civilized society fall into disarray if God’s original design for the man to rule and lead is perverted, transformed, or altered. 

Is it possible that the falling fortunes of America can be traced to one central problem—that of far too many men not leading in their families, churches, communities, and government? Could it be that this failure is the root from which so many other problems result? America is a nation in crisis: marriages are failing left and right, leaving families largely dysfunctional and the social structure unraveling like a ball of yarn.   Far too many children and youth are growing up without male leadership.   Churches are becoming more feminized all the time. Am I the only one who sees that men are in retreat while women assume leadership roles in the family and the church?  Men no longer lead in the church and certainly are in retreat at every level of government.

Far too many men have either abdicated or else been stripped of their masculinity. Perhaps they have let it happen, but it seems that so many have been neutered—robbed of their manhood. America is becoming a nation of eunuchs as men retreat from their God-ordained command to rule and lead in the marriage, family, church, community, and nation. The increase of homosexuality in America walks hand-in-glove with the feminization of the culture of this land. Men are in retreat, refraining from and delaying marriage because of the uncertainty and fear associated with a feminized culture.  When men fail to rule and lead, what does it do but open the door for women to fill the void and take control? When men fail to rule and lead under the headship of Jesus Christ, the entire structure of a nation is at risk.  

The feminist movement in America and throughout the Anglo Saxon world is the result of far too many men relinquishing their responsibility to rule and lead in the home, church, government, and other areas that constitute a civilized people. Indeed, lack of male leadership has allowed America to fall from glory. When men forfeit their God-given responsibilities in marriage, family, church, and government, society becomes increasingly dysfunctional.  If no correction by repentance and reformation occurs, the nation will suffer judgment, and the enemy will be at the gates to plunder the nation.  Is that not what we are facing right now?

Millions of men and the vast majority of all Americans, inside and outside the church, must share in the falling fortunes of America—our rapid plunge into moral, spiritual, social, and economic ruin.  Professing Christians must bear the greatest weight in confessing the failure of men to rule and lead in their marriages, homes, churches, and other areas of a civilized society.  We can find favor with our Eternal Father in Heaven only when each one personally assumes responsibility for our failures and with penitent and contrite hearts confesses our wrongs and seeks God’s grace and help in restoring the days, years, and decades that Satan, his minions, the palmerworm, the caterpillar, and the locusts have robbed from our lives. We have no one to blame but ourselves. The unspeakable corruption and dysfunction in our national government is a direct result of the generational dysfunction of men. The White House, Congress, Supreme Court, and lesser bodies of government are but a reflection of the pitiful state of men failing to rule and lead. What is that old definition we have heard countless times?  Politics is the administration of the religious tenets of a people.

When men fail to rule and lead and become corrupt, all of society crumbles into decay, dissolution, and eventually complete destruction.  America is traveling this pathway at neck-breaking speed today.

Adam and Eve: The Classic Case

Open your Bibles to Genesis—the seed plot of every doctrine, law, precept, and principle of truth and wisdom. In the beginning, God created Adam man and placed him in charge of the created world. Man was given lordship and charged with the responsibility of ruling and leading before he even had a helpmeet: “And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden that mayest freely eat:  But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Gen. 2:15-17). Adam alone was charged with the responsibility of dressing and keeping the Garden of Eden.  It is man’s responsibility to exercise dominion. Also to man was given the freedom of the will to choose whether or not to eat of the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil. As we all learned, violating this command would cost Adam everything, including his conditional immortality, his home in paradise, and his lordship over creation.

Knowing that it was not good that Adam should be alone, the Creator set out to form a helpmeet for him. In his position of lordship and dominion, Adam named and classified all the living creatures on land and in the air, a rather enormous undertaking. As Adam examined all living creatures, including the diverse pre-Adamic races, he found no one for a helpmeet. God set about to take from Adam’s side a rib.  From the rib He made a woman. Adam looked at the woman and said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man” (Gen. 2:23).

The Institution of Marriage

God joined the man and the woman, Adam and Eve, together in a unity of one flesh as confirmed in Genesis 2:24: “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.”  God’s original design in marriage was one man and one woman of the same flesh (genetic stock).  There is no other definition for marriage. Any other arrangement disqualifies that relationship from being within the definition of marriage.

The original design of marriage is monogamy: one man with one woman of the same flesh (racial heritage). It is dependent upon both the man and the woman functioning within their God-given sphere of responsibility. The man is the leader, ruler, provider, and protector, while the woman is the designated keeper of the home, the mother of children, and in charge of all the domestic responsibilities normally ascribed to a stay-at-home wife. The day the man relinquishes his role as the ruler/leader and the woman is removed from her designated sphere of responsibility is the day the entire concept of a monogamous relationship is imperiled.

A monogamous relationship requires nothing less than complete commitment from both. Subject to sin nature and given over to the lustful potential of scattering his seed over a wide field, man must spend the rest of his days with just that one woman whom he chooses to be his wife.  The man is vowed to spend the remainder of his life with this one woman for so long as she lives. He must not stray from this covenant to be with another woman, but must remain faithful to her and his vows of total commitment to the woman who takes his name, submits to his headship, bears his children, becomes a mother, and serves as his life long help-meet. Men are duty bound to love and cherish their wives all the days of her life.

The woman also vows to her husband her life-long commitment to placing herself under his cover and headship. In voluntarily accepting to marry him, she voluntarily places herself under his headship. She takes his name, accepts and embraces his faith and worldview, and shares his dreams. Together, they become one flesh united in Jesus Christ. This commitment means that the woman must be committed to bearing his children and training the children as well as guiding the house. She also must nurture and encourage her husband in his life vision. What power is possible in a marriage as the power of two unites in one force, one household! The husband becomes the sole recipient of the woman’s love, loyalty, and reverence. To you unmarried ladies reading this article I say this:  choose well and very deliberately he to whom you vow your lifelong loyalty and obedience.  Certainly we should all admit that there are not many arranged marriages these days, where a young lady has no say in the choice of her husband.  Remember, young men and ladies, that wise old saying:  marry in haste and repent at leisure.

Sadly in 21^st Century America, men born into the millennial generation (1980-2000) are increasingly either delaying or are abandoning marriage altogether.  Men are afraid of marriage. With skyrocketing divorce rates, who can blame them? They are probably aware of the fact that women file more than 85% of divorces in the United States. Courts tend to favor mothers with primary custody, child support, alimony, and property distribution. Houses generally go with the custodial parent, usually the mother. Men believe that women hold all the cards when it comes to marriage. They believe the woman has all the leverage, so they are afraid of committing to marriage.  Add to that the growing numbers of women willing to allow men sexual favors outside of marriage, and that only increases the tendency of men to remain single!

It is urgent that remnant Christians return to biblical standards for marriage.  Adam and Eve both shared a common bond, coming from the same genetic DNA. The woman Eve, taken out of Adam, was to be his perfect compliment.  Our Creator designed men and women with complimentary anatomies to enable reproduction of their own kind. Both were equipped with unique mental, physical, psychological, and other qualities to allow them to become perfect compliments of each other, to cleave together and become one flesh of the same genetic DNA.  In this state, “They were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed” (Gen. 2:25).

Being clothed in bodies of light, without sin and in innocence, the man and the woman shared a state of mutual paradise. In this euphoric state of sublime glory, one would assume that they would have come together in conjugal relations only for the purpose of conceiving a child.   Living in this state of innocence and perfection, their children would likewise enjoy conditional immortality so that few children would need to be born. They would live a very long time!

However, that proposed world of innocence and perfection was shattered when a third party appeared in the garden and tempted the woman. This third party, called “that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan” in Revelation 12:9 and 20:2, appeared as an angel of light (II Corinthians 11:14) and sought to bring death to the Adamic creation. He found the woman Eve alone, without the cover and protection of her husband.  What Adam was doing and why he was separated from his wife is open to speculation.  Perhaps he was busy subduing the earth. Having separated the woman from the lordship of her husband, the tempter proceeded to separate her from the sovereignty of God and the authority of His Word.  He offered the woman the grand prize if only she would reject God and truth.  Without the cover of her husband, Eve fell for the cunning temptation of the serpent when he promised her that if she would eat from the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil, should she surely would not die, but would become as a god, knowing good and evil. Eve submitted to the tempter, ate of the forbidden tree, and lost her innocence, cover of light, and her conditional immortality. Now a fallen woman afflicted with sin nature, alone and naked, she went to her husband Adam and tempted him. He, likewise, stepped down from his conditional immortality and innocence and partook of the forbidden fruit, in the end suffering the same fate.

Sin thus entered the universe. That old serpent, called the Devil and Satan, endeavored to make himself co-equal to God and usurp the authority and sovereignty of God. Sin entered the race of Adam when the same tempter appeared in the Garden of Eden and introduced sin into the race, first to Eve and then to Adam. Sin brought pain, suffering, and death into the previous world of perfection. The entire creation groaned in pain and travailed as a result of sin’s entry into the world.

Adam lost everything, including his lordship over the creation. Eve lost her conditional immortality. Now, naked and filled with sin nature, she and Adam yearned to return to the garden, the tree of life, and live forever, only to find that Cherubims with flaming swords now flanked the entrance into the garden, guarding the tree of life (Gen. 3:24). The tempter, man, and woman now faced the judgment of the living God.  To the man Adam, God said this:  “Because thou hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee…In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” (Gen. 3:17-19).  Men would thus suffer three primary punishments.

1. Man would labor under the sensual desire to eat of the forbidden fruit all the days of his life. Controlling sensual desire would become every man’s battle.
2. The ground was to be cursed, making dominion of the earth increasingly more difficult. Dominion would require more work and perseverance.
3. Man was to work by the sweat of his brow. Then, after a lifetime of work, he would return to the dust from whence he came. Death was the ultimate penalty for Adam’s disobedience.

To the woman God said this: “I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee” (Gen. 3:16). The woman’s punishment would also be felt in three ways.

1. She would suffer multiplied conception.  In a world of death, injury, and sickness, more children would need to be born.
2. The woman would find motherhood linked with sorrow. Unknown before sin, pain would now become part of motherhood—both in labor and in rearing these children.
3. The husband would rule his wife. Sin introduced disorder into the world, making headship vested in the man a necessary aspect of life. Curbing her desire for independence from her husband would become every woman’s battle in a fallen world. 

The Man Created to Rule and Lead

Several Bible studies would be required to address each of these conditions imposed Adam and Eve and their posterity. In this lesson, our concern is with the third condition placed upon women in this fallen world.  God said to the woman, “Thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.”  The key word here is rule.  Under the authority of God, the husband is to exercise headship for the woman. The man is the leader and protector of and provider for the woman. He is responsible for providing spiritual leadership, security, and protection. The woman is to reverence and trust her husband and invest confidence in his headship. It is difficult for women to invest confidence in her husband when he himself is not under authority. God declares this in I Corinthians 11:3:  “But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.”  The man who is not under the headship of Christ will not be able to rule and lead because he himself has failed to be ruled and led by his superior.  II Samuel 23:3 declares, “He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God.”  If men are required to rule over other men with justice and fear of God, how much more important is it for the man to know how to lead and rule the woman with justice, love, patience, perseverance, and in the fear of God?

God charged the man to both rule and lead the woman, the family, the church, the community, and civil government. What results when man does not do as God charged him? Confusion, eventual dysfunction, and disintegration of the marriage, family, church, and nation result. This, my friend, is America in the 21^st Century. The very foundations of marriage are under assault because men no longer rule and lead in the home. The church in America is becoming more feminized as men abandon their responsibility to rule and lead the church.  Government at every level is suffering for the want of men who themselves, under the authority of God, will rule and lead with justice and in the fear of God.

Fast Forward to the 21^st Century

The marriage and the family stand in absolute peril in modern America.  God’s original design for both men and women has been discarded in favor of the progressive, humanist feminism.  Currently, the roles of both men and women are undergoing a complete transformation into something never authorized in Scripture.  Early feminists in the mid 1850s such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, and later Susan B. Anthony ignited a movement that seems to have developed a life of its own. By 1920, this movement had successfully led to the 19^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, granting voting rights to women.  I will let the reader decide how the fortunes of America have fared since that historical event.

The never-ending search for equal rights began with Satan when he demanded to be like the most High God (Isaiah 14:14). The feminist movement in America never seems satisfied, with end results that are catastrophic for American society.  Men born into the millennial generation (between 1980 and 2000) are refraining from marriage in growing numbers.  Millions of them lack any vision and are afraid of marriage. Millennial men are delaying marriage or abandoning it altogether, preferring live-in relationships and living like alley cats.

As the institution of marriage is abandoned in favor of a society without God or any moral compass, the American family is coming unraveled. Today, far too many families are essentially dysfunctional. Divorce has wreaked havoc, and so many children barely see their fathers. The government provides a paycheck to the unwed mother, and each new child equals a pay raise from Uncle Sam and the American taxpayer. The end result is a whole new generation of children being raised without parenting.  They then are eager to join the rest of a dysfunctional society that lives with an entitlement mentality. The enormous economic and social consequences of circumventing biblical marriage are reaching critical mass in America as the nation marches toward economic and moral Armageddon. 

Even though we are responsible for this mess, we men need to repent of our unwillingness or inability to lead and rule, regain what ground we can, and plead with our Father in Heaven to give us a few good men to lead their families back to Christ in God’s original design.  Perhaps the next generation will do better than the last.