Are women subordinate for eternity

No, you have not wandered into a Mormon or recovering from Mormonism blog. However, I have read one of those and it was extremely helpful. I felt a lot of resonance. But this is a request post. I did read the cited article and thought that it was too weird for words.

Here is the deal. I came from a fundamentalist church. I then attended an Anglican church because I thought it would be mainstream, whatever that is. I was disappointed. This particular church has been influenced by the doctrines of the Sydney diocese in Australia and the Council of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood in the US.

So here is an article from the CBMW website which certainly sounds like Mormonism. The very thought that in heaven people will not be free from the marriages that were hell on earth for them is a sobering thought. It should make us all rejoice in the fact that there is another place. Whew. Here is the passage,

Indeed, our relationships with those with whom we have spent so great a part of our earthly lives are very much a part of who we are. As Alcorn observes, we should not assume that those married in the present age will grow more distant in the new creation.³⁹ Certainly, there are conditions that apply, but we should expect that the relationships most dear to us in the present life in the new creation will be enhanced.⁴⁰

Given, then, that relationships between those married on earth will in some sense remain in the new creation, it remains for us to inquire regarding the nature of those relationships. To put it more directly, will husbandly headship and wifely submission still obtain in the new creation? The egalitarian response, of course, is that all traces of headship and submission will have been removed. The evidence, however, argues to the contrary.

First, consider the argument concerning man and woman as originally created. There is virtually universal agreement that man and woman are ontologically equal, equal in essence and worth, because both were created in the image of God. In the ordering of his creation, however, God formed the man first and gave him responsibility and authority as the head of the human race.⁴¹ This headship, far from being a result of the fall-feminist and egalitarian claims notwithstanding-is a central feature of the divine created order.⁴² Because the new creation is, fundamentally, a return to the divine order that prevailed before the fall, it follows that male headship will remain in the new creation.

Think of men and women in miserable situations, married to someone totally unsuitable. It is bad for the man in an unhappy marriage to think that it will endure for eternity. But at least he will finally be given the upper hand in heaven. Of course, too late perhaps for his earthly fulfillment, (Suzanne, smack your fingers for that one), but the woman will be eternally in submission.

Oh Garden of Eden, where are you? Is paradise truly the submission of the female to the male? Does the male never wish to be loved for anything other than his God ordained gift of rule and authority? (I bet any non-Christians reading this blog are thanking their lucky stars!)

Silly stuff, but CBMW is supported by and influences mainline churches like St. John's Shaughnessy Anglican church. I doubt the parishioners there ever read this stuff but sometimes they hear it preached in a slightly milder and more digestible form. Anyway, I was asked by a friend to expose some more of the disgusting material.