Complementarianism, God’s Design, Gender roles
-by Kathi
This series is a review of God’s Design, a children’s book which teaches children about complementarity. For an introduction of the book, click here. All of the underlined subtitles below are chapters from the book.
This is a very sad day, children. This is our last day to talk about God’s Design. I know, I know….we’ll get through this together. Today, we will talk about work and summarizing everything we’ve learned.
Made for Work
This chapter takes off by explaining how hard sheepdogs work. How appropriate is that for SSB?!
When I visited Ireland a couple of years ago, I had the pleasure of watching a herd of sheep driven down the road from one property to the other. The sheepdogs were definitely the workers. It was mesmerizing watching them run around the sheep making sure they all stayed moving in the right direction.
Just as sheepdogs are made for work, God designed men for work too (emphasis added).
Men are designed for work. Why is work a men’s only club? Because of Adam.
The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. Genesis 2:15 (ESV)
Yes, we are reading the Bible that literally. Men work because God put man in the garden to work.
So where does that leave women? Of course, Eve was not created for work the way Adam was. She was a companion to Adam’s work.
Eve was created for Adam, and Adam was created to work.
As a woman, I’m left to believe that my only purpose is to serve and please a man. I guess there can be no satisfaction in any work that I do. How do comps feel about women who are EMTs and save lives on the way to a hospital? Do they mind that she’s not home where she should be when she’s working on getting their heart started? …or a woman police officer … or fire fighter who works at protecting their home and neighborhood? Or, heaven forbid, a woman in the military who fights for our country’s freedom. Are comps looking down on them thinking, “She should be home encouraging and supporting her husband!” Please, don’t answer that.
Oh, but children, you need to work too! No time for play and rest, you little sluggard! Be like the ants and go to school, answer questions in Sunday school, rake the leaves, take out the garbage, and pray! Or, better yet, be like Chick-Fil-A owner, S. Truett Cathy. Seriously, could they pick a more obvious example of how a good Christian works?
God’s Good Design and You
The final chapter. Here is what we learned in this book:
#1…The way God designed male and female is very good.
#2…Men were designed to lead, provide, protect (home and church), be strong, be responsible, be self-sacrificing, take initiative and work hard.
#3…Women are designed to encourage, support and submit to those that God has put in leadership above them, be a helper, be a companion, be gentle, be cooperative, and care for others and home.
#4…If we do not follow God’s design it’s like choosing to eat a burnt hot dog over a beautiful meal. (Really!)
#5…If we trust Jesus we will want to follow God’s design.
#6…If we pray God will help us fight the battle of sin over a wrong view of manhood and womanhood. (Notice that homosexuality was never mentioned.)
And, that’s what this book has left us with. If you do not follow the complementary view of gender roles you are sinning and rebellious. Thank goodness the book ends with a call to accept Jesus. It must end with the gospel!
Thanks for joining me on this journey through God’s Design. We’ve had some great discussion along the way. I hope you have enjoyed (is that the right word?) this series. It sure has been eye opening. If you’re all up for another book series, I’d be happy to do it again (because I’m a sucker for punishment and I take one for the team). Make some suggestions and let’s see where we go next.
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If you would like to read prior reviews on God’s Design, here are links in the order of the book chapters:
Headship, Helper, and an Answer We Already Knew
Rebellion, a.k.a. It’s All Her Fault!
Teachings on Homosexuality as a Distortion of God’s Design
Examples of Complementarian Manhood and More Doublespeak
Purity and Honoring God’s Design
Married/Single; Husband/Father; Wife/Mother
The Church and Learning About Things We Already KnowÂ
Spiritual Sounding Board 
According to the U.S. Census, the vast majority of married women — including 66% of wives with children under the age of 18 — work outside of the home. So stay-at-home wives are a minority.
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Honest question because this seems to be coming up a lot. Where does ‘protect’ come from? My opinion is that protecting people is not a gendered duty (the good Samaritan, for instance) but many seem to think it is. Is there a bible verse they are using or are they just throwing it in there?
These people have clearly never been camping. “Burnt” or charred hot dogs are awesome.
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Kathi, I laughed so hard I snorted when I saw the picture. Thanks so much for doing this series. It’s been excellent (and as bad as I thought it would be).
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Julie Anne – Do you know how hard it was to get that picture? What you can’t see is the treat waiting for him when all was done.
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Judge a tree by its fruit, yes? But also look at its roots, yes? Here’s a quote from, in my opinion, a heretic; and as is customary, those in that camp have written pages trying to vindicate the man, even on the following quote. Sorry, it ain’t working. You know, what’s in the heart eventually gushes from the mouth.
Here’s…Luther: “The word and work of God is quite clear, viz., that women are made to be either wives or prostitutes.”
Kathi, has your dog left a booby trap on the book? It would be rather symbolic.
Thanks for covering this “book.” Now, if only we can keep it away from the young ones…
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That the “book” ends with a call to accept Jesus means less than a mobile phone in a coffin.I can think of two Jesuses within the framework of this book and post: A Jesus who died for you, me, and everyone who calls on His name and who are saved by accepting His gift of salvation, or the “Jesus” who died for a precious few to secure/rubber stamp something that had been decided from before time began. And if you’re not one of the precious ones; well, then you’ll never be. So what must these youngsters “accept”? That they have no chance (never), or that they do (maybe), or that they will never “know.” What an exciting choice to spring on these young minds. I abhor it.
So, putting in accepting “Jesus” in the book is cruel, deceitful, dishonest. “Look, Mom, they ARE preaching the gospel!” No, they’re not. They would not know the gospel if they shared the same Twitter account with it.
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How can these people sat this stuff and still believe women have souls? Burnt hot dogs? Yeah, baby …… the best ones are crispy on the outside!
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I find it interesting that complementarians ignore that the “Cultural Mandate” was given to SPECIFICALLY “them” (Adam and Eve). They want to argue that Adam was an intermediary between Eve and God. Same with Job who offered sacrifices for his family – that gets turned into “the father is the priest of his family”(TM). Interesting that Job offers sacrifices for his children and not for his wife…
Again, find it very interesting that mountains of doctrine are made from one or two verses, and even those taken out of context.
As I said on the Trey article, modern complementarianism rose out of a perceived need to Biblically justify the Industrial Revolution mandated family model, where the husband left the house to work and left the “family responsibilities” to the wife.
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