Itching Ears, Part 16 (Husband as Ruler is a Gentile Edict)

II Timothy 4:3-4 NIV “For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”

Many Christians think their wife submit teaching is Christian doctrine that was set up by God, Himself. But there is biblical evidence that emphasis on the wife submit teaching, as many Christian churches teach it today, is a Gentile doctrine that is practiced by those who have itching ears. Look at King Ahasuerus and the seven princes of Persia and Media, who were neither Christian nor Jewish. These men thought it was acceptable for them to treat women as things to be used however they wished, including Ahasuerus’s plan to display his wife, Vashti, to a crowd of drunken men. Because the men were afraid all the women of the kingdom would stop obeying their husbands when they heard Vashti did not come at the king’s order, Vashti was banished from being queen, and a royal edict was sent out saying “that every man should bear rule in his own house.” This same edict is practiced in much of the church today. Again, note that it is a GENTILE edict, not a godly one. The result is often domestic violence, which these churches cannot combat without toppling their husband-rule doctrine, which they are loathe to do.

King Ahasuerus and his princes had itching ears according to Esther 1:21. “And the saying (of Memucan) pleased the king and the princes; and the king did according to the word of Memucan.” These men loved what they heard—that every man should bear rule in his own house, and wives who do not obey will be punished.

Many Christian husbands are following both the actions and the edict of King Ahasuerus, a Gentile king, who was definitely NOT a follower of Christ. They are heaping to themselves pastors who will teach that “head” means leader, authority, ruler, priest, or guide, instead of what the Bible says it means. And they are demanding that husbands rule their own wives and that wives submit to (meaning obey) their husbands, even claiming that it is the wife’s noncompliance, rather than the husband’s sin, that causes domestic violence.



Waneta Dawn is the author of "Behind the Hedge, A novel,"a story about a woman who grapples with her husband's demands that she submit--no matter what. Please visit www.wanetadawn.com