GOD’S “THEM”
God created humankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them,
male and female he created them.
God’s image is male and female. His blessing was on both, and His purpose statement was for both:
God blessed them and said to them,
“Be fruitful and multiply! Fill the earth and subdue it!
Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air
and every creature that moves on the ground.”
(Gen. 1:27-28, NET)
We hope to help people see God’s purpose (1) for creating them, in the beginning, in the image of God—male and female together, and (2) for making them, in Christ, a new-creation, according to the image of the One who created them (Col. 3:10). Furthermore, we hope to inspire God’s new-creation “them” to fulfill their God-given purpose which is to subdue and to have dominion over the powers of darkness on earth by living and walking together, one in Christ through the power of the cross.
For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
(Gal. 3:27-28, Berean’s Study Bible)
For further explanation about mankind having dominion on earth see Let “Them” Have Dominion (a slide presentation).
The Lemons to Grapes Website
• Proclaims the truth that:
(1) The redemption of Christ has opened the door for both men and women alike, so that there can be a full restoration of their oneness (which is freedom-based and non-hierarchical).
(2) The redeemed—freed males and freed females—are called to walk together as new creation beings who, in volitional submission to God and to each other, multiply and fill the earth with more people like them.
(3) Male and female are to rule over the earth and subdue the devil by their unhindered prayers, together (1 Pet. 3:7), making way for Christ to have what He is eagerly waiting for: His enemies as a footstool for His feet (Heb. 10:13).
• Calls for God’s deceived, sleeping people, and especially women, to wake up to their responsibility concerning the devil, so they can effectively engage in spiritual warfare against him by persistently watching and praying, being strong in faith, and resisting him in his battle over God’s “them.”
In a certain town there was a judge
who neither feared God nor respected men.
And there was a widow in that town who kept appealing to him,
“Give me justice against my adversary.”
For a while he refused, but later he said to himself,
“Even though I do not fear God or respect men,
yet because this widow keeps pestering me, I will give her justice.
Then she will stop wearing me out with her perpetual requests.”
And the Lord said, “Listen to the words of the unjust judge.
Will not God bring about justice for His elect
who cry out to Him day and night?
Will He continue to defer their help?
I tell you, He will promptly carry out justice on their behalf.”
(Luke 18:2–8, Berean Study Bible)
• Exposes the devil’s ancient plot and ongoing, clandestine war against God’s “them.” In that war, the devil’s most effective strategies have been to:
(1) Lead them (male and female) into sin in order to separate them from God and from one another so that they would remain powerless over the devil.
(2) Twist and misuse God’s words to cause God’s people to believe that God decreed that males are to rule over females and that females are to be silent (especially in the church) and never teach males. Thus, the female half of God’s people would be greatly hindered from doing their part to facilitate God’s plan for “them,” which is to rule over the earth and subdue its fallen world ruler.
(3) Persuade people that he (the devil) is not real and that all the problems on the earth are simply natural phenomena for which solutions can be found by using scientific knowledge.
(4) Use such people to mock and disregard as ignorant and superstitious those who say that the devil is real and who offer the spiritual solution found in the Bible—full salvation by God through Jesus Christ.
• Joins with other Christian voices in proclaiming the liberating truth about women that is found in God’s Word, so that women can see and do their part in breaking up the spiritual log-jam the devil has built to stop the river of God’s Spirit on the earth.
• Helps women learn how to turn eight errant Bible passages about women—passages that hang like a bunch of lemons in a vineyard full of grapes—into the grape passages that they really are.
But my people do not know the requirements of the Lord.
How can you say, “We are wise, for we have the law of the Lord,”
when actually the lying pen of the scribes
has handled it falsely?
(Jer. 8:7–8, NIV)
• Shows that authoritarian patriarchal hierarchy, as the model for relationship between males and females and between males and other males, is a long-term, devilish construct through which free Christian men have produced ministries and churches with the labors of Christian women and men who are not free. This, in principle, is like free Abraham using the bondwoman, Hagar, to produce Ishmael. God rejected Ishmael. He intended that Abraham and Sarah, a free man and a free woman, a “them,” produce the true heir, Isaac, by faith in His promise. As it was then, so it is today. The church, like Isaac, must be produced by faith in the working of the Holy Spirit in and through beings who all are free in Christ, both male and female.
• Shows that Christian women must take the first step toward ending independent, unbalanced, female-suppressing, authoritarian male hierarchy among Christians. Christian men need Christian women’s help, because, alone, they are blind to the problem. They cannot see the place that authoritarian male dominance in the church has given the devil to damage the spiritual effectiveness of God’s people and stop God’s full blessing on them. God used a free woman, Sarah, to tell Abraham to put away Ishmael. Likewise, today, God will surely use Christian women whom He has set free to speak to Christian men about putting away Ishmaels.
• Calls for men and women, in the light of God’s “them,” to repent —to God and to one another—so there can be long-overdue healing in the body of Christ and a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the earth.
• Equips women to be strong, courageous, Bible-proclaiming, spiritual warriors—women of chayil—who will be used by God against His enemy like a secret weapon moved to the front lines of battle, late in earth’s day.
When the enemy comes in like a flood,
the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard
against him. (Isa. 59:19, NKJV)
• Serves as a collection place for the growing wealth of resources that have been produced and offered up to God, for His use, by all those who are committed to proclaiming and walking in the truth that, in Christ, there is neither male nor female—all are one in Christ Jesus (Gal. 3:28) as God’s new creation “them.”
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