“Creating Woman Was not God’s Original Idea” – Pastor Chris

“…AND THE WOMEN…”
(AN APOLOGIA FOR THE EQUITY AND DIGNITY OF WOMEN; PARTICULARLY, THOSE OF THE FAITH!)

A. [I dedicate this Apologia to my beloved wife – Pst. Favour Otibho Iruobe – whom God has used to reward/comfort me concerning all my toils and labors in this life! After Jesus Christ, she is the next! I have always carried this mentality; and that is why, even when things were hard, I remained satisfied because you never know what life (filled with peace and joy) really is until you marry your wife and not ANOTHER MAN’S OWN!

[All the experiences that I share, here, about women, and those that partly/lightly reflect on marriage and the Christian Home, are possible because of her God’s fear and virtuousness!

[Love you baby; I APPRECIATE and CELEBRATE you my Beyond Beauty – my one-and-only! IF there will be marriage in heaven (which I know will not be), I would marry you again!]

B. [Like I have always noted in all my write-ups, this Apologia is the exclusive research paper of Rhema International Institute of Divine Research, which will, eventually, be published as a book by Divine Revolutionary Publishers (Registered) with ISBN and National Library of Nigeria Cataloguing-In-Publication Data. Therefore, usage of any part of it (STRICTLY FOR STUDY AND NOT COMMERCIAL PURPOSE) MUST be with an appeal to the Author and Publisher.]

C. [Now, here’s what I meant when I wrote, in my piece on The Ministry of Apologia, that people do not know what these attacks on our God – Jesus Christ –, Bible and the Christian Faith do to me when I respond to them; and that is, it stretches my Biblical-mental capacity beyond what it would have assumed under normal circumstances.

[Now, I had long penned down this title “…THE WOMEN…” (with one or two thoughts) for years now, which I was Divinely inspired to write on as a book, but never really got to work on it until this moment. I remember, being in the bathroom, preparing for Sunday’s service, when it connected or dawned on me to fuse/merge it up with the correction I intended to make on the erroneous statement by a renowned Tele-Pastor that “women are not the original idea of God.”

[Suddenly, the thoughts started pouring in like a surge of torrents of water – flood. I rushed out of the bathroom to quickly write them down; and more kept on coming, and I ended up in the Church from opening prayer until I mounted the podium, writing down, which the Church has never witnessed me do in such degree/frequency.

[Know it that behind every OBSTACLE is a MIRACLE… behind every OPPOSITION is a REVELATION of opportunity of blessing in disguise… behind every mathematical problem is an EQUATION meant to SOLVE it in order to EVOLVE the SOLUTION… behind every ugly SCENE is a beautiful UNSEEN… and behind every CRITICISM, adverse SITUATION and CIRCUMSTANCE is your CONSTRUCTION and wellbeing when positively responded to (by you) in the Name (Jesus Christ) of the Lord.

[Some of these articles and apologias that I have rolled out by the Spirit, today, wouldn’t have ever come to reality if not for critics (some constructive while others are destructive) of Jesus Christ, Bible, Our Christian Faith, the Church and Her leaders.

Although, it is going to be unfortunate for those who do it with the intent to hurt and destroy the Body of Christ and Her leaders (Matt. 26: 24) if they refuse to repent; however, I say, “Thanks to all of you” because you ended up, making me give my brain to the Holy Ghost for more endowments and enlargement as I respond positively to your attacks!]

D. [One thing about the Ministry of Apologia is, it puts/keeps preachers and teachers of the Word on their toes; not just them, but also those of us who are fully involved in it because we know someone is out there, or probably sitting among those we are teaching/preaching to, who may know more than us. Your being chosen by God does not mean you know better than them. It is all God’s grace and election!

[And I ask, Is there anything wrong for someone to be made to sit up in whatever he/she does… dig properly from the shallow waters into the deep waters of the Word where The Deep (God) calls him/her (Ps. 42: 7)?

[I remember, those days, in the secondary school, I was in an ITK (I TOO KNOW) class (A – with the best fifty students) and group (in that same class) who would go study (with the syllabus) ahead of the teachers. And except you (as a teacher) were current, you would be disgraced out of the class with your outdated teaching note. But you know what? The diligent, intelligent and current teachers were enjoying us (while the lazy, outdated and proud ones where angry), and encouraged us to read ahead of them because it made their task (of teaching) not boring, but exciting; it made the job easier for them.

[I would prefer to preach/teach people who respond with sound knowledge of God’s Word when asked questions because they are studious about the things that I taught them… who would politely, and with all respect, come to me with Biblical backings to correct what I said, than those who are dull and do not want to wake up! And to add, I would prefer those who would be doers of these things that they are taught from Scriptures! It makes the work of Ministry simplified! DO THOSE IN MINISTRY EVEN UNDERSTAND WHAT MOSES MEANT WHEN HE WISHED (I prefer the word ‘WILL’) THAT ALL OF GOD’S CONGREGATION WERE PROPHETS (Num. 11: 29)? It is exactly what I speak of, here.

[Why? The technological advancement we have today is as a result of students/apprentices who disagreed with the wrong (OR PERCEIVED WRONG) stipulations/assertions/hypotheses/calculations/conclusions/etc. of their teachers/lecturers/masters that they were sitting under their tutelage or that they were apprenticed to. And most of these were done in research papers that they submitted.

[WHAT DID THESE WISE AND HUMBLE TEACHERS/MASTERS (MOST OF WHOM WERE PROFESSORS) DO? THEY SETTLED DOWN TO RECONSIDER THEIR EARLIER STAND ON SUCH ISSUES (BUT THE PROUD ONES WOULDN’T); AND SOMETIMES, WHEN THEY DID, THEY ENDED UP SEEING NOT MISTAKES IN THEIR WORKS, BUT NEW DISCOVERIES THAT THEY WOULDN’T HAVE KNOWN IF NOT FOR SUCH CRITICS!

A good example of this was a piece that I posted last, titled, “Time Travel. Someone made an observation about the title, and became curious if such ever happened in Scriptures. Although, I did answer him on the spot, however, when I went back to Scriptures for exploration, in respect of this, the result turned out to be five times (in pages, which will be out after the serial posting of this) of the first part with things that I never thought was there — I mean ten solid examples of what you might say look like it ( time travel).

[Have you ever heard of the Wright brothers? They disagreed with leading world professors (including their father, I was told) from all over the globe who concluded, in a conference, that it was not possible to float a vessel in the air after successive trials that ended in failures. And their disagreement (not disunity) ended up giving the world the aircraft of today! I have written on this in my book – “POSITIONING, SHAPING AND MOVING YOUR WORLD”].

I like to begin this Apologia by quickly responding to correct some statements made by Pst. Chris Oyakhilomen of Christ Embassy on his ALLEGED teaching (gotten through the social media, published by Daily Post Nigeria on July 11th 2019 by Fikayo Olowologba) on the place of women in the marriage.

I will be quoting him in bits, for responses, but to get all of what he taught, you can goggle “Pastor Chris Oyakhilomen’s teaching on ‘Women, Not God’s Original Idea.’” Although, I must honestly admit that not all he taught in this message are wrong; that’s why I wrote “statements” and not the whole teaching.

1) “NO HUSBAND WANTS ANOTHER MOTHER, HE HAS HAD ONE ALL HIS LIFE…”: Well, for me, I DO; even when my mother is still alive. Why? Because I need an answer to why Isaac would never be consoled/comforted after his mother’s death until he married and brought his wife (Rebecca) into his mother’s chamber (Gen. 24: 67) even when “he has had one all his life” (according to Pst. Chris)? If I am also to provide an answer to that question, it is because she didn’t only end up being his wife, she also filled the place or stepped into the shoes of his mother – she became his mother.

2) “WHEN YOU TAKE THE ROLE OF HIS MOTHER/SISTER, WHAT HAPPENS IS THAT HE STARTS SEEING YOU DIFFERENTLY…”: If I am to understand him, by implication, he meant to say, “A woman is not the mother/sister of her husband,” as much as he should also know that a man is not the father/brother of his wife. You see, this whole thing goes both ways.

And, you will be shocked that I totally agree with Pst. Chris on this, but in a different sense/perspective. My father, mother, sisters, brothers and the rest of the extended families are not my wife (they can never be her)… she is not them (she can never be any of them. The same applies to hers in regard to me, her husband. Why? No one of them (both sides) is “ONE” with me or her. Therefore, SHE COMES ABOVE THEM ALL IN EVERYTHING; AND THAT’S THE WAY I AM TO HER TOO.

God forbids eternally! If my wife and my mother were drowning, and I had just one life-line, I would reach out to my wife; my mother already lived her life, and she cannot be my wife — “ONE” with me. Yes! I know, because I heard you the first time; you do not need to over-flog it – “You mean your mother… your mother… your mother… she carried you in her womb for nine months and bla-bla-bla for you while you were growing up?”

I know all that, and no woman can do all that she did for me because she alone could have been able to do that. And I will continue to be grateful to God for her, and take care of her to the best of my ability, BUT you need to understand that she is not “ONE” with me; only my wife is (Eph. 5: 31)!

[And I BET YOU, THE SAME MY WIFE WOULD DO FOR ME. WE KNOW THIS MORE THAN TOO WELL FROM DEPTHS OF SCRIPTURES AND EXPERIENCES. Try her, and then you would judge/have conclusion of the same that I write here. For those who have already attempted, they don’t need to be asked to make another trial to confirm what I write here; they are better judges!

[That’s why for almost twenty (20) years now (20yrs by 1st Oct. this year), just like the testimony of Bishop David Oyedepo, our marriage and home have had no third party. No man or woman (living or dead) has ever received the tiniest of complaint from any of us. Never ever, and it will never happen in Jesus’ Name! Amen! Amen! Amen!

[On the day of my Traditional Marriage, one of her eldest cousins called me aside to say I should come to him in case there was any problem in our marriage; and I prophetically looked at him (a much older man), raged with that devil that spoke through him (I am not saying he is a devil, but the devil said that through him as he did through Peter to Jesus), which wanted me to anticipate problems in my about-to-be-born union and family, I said, “You will wait till you die, and will never have any because there will never be any problem in my marriage, home and family. Never ever!”

[All he could do (with whatever/whoever that was speaking through him), surprised, was to reach out to my hand, shook it, and walked away, smiling. I didn’t know what came over me, but you could hear The Old Lion (Whom you popularly know as The Lion of the Tribe of Judah) roaring through me the way He would through my father-in-the-Lord (Papa David Oyedepo) if he was the one in that situation. Hallelujah!

[And seven years into my marriage, her father (Mr. Stephen Abulu of Blessed Memory) who was almost a ninety years old man (a very reserved and official man), took and shook my hand, one day I came visiting, in his sitting-room, saying, “I am an old man. I have experiences, and I cannot be deceived. I have been watching you and your wife… and particularly, when she comes home, even if she doesn’t say anything, I can read the eyes… I am able to read body movements and other signs to know when something is wrong, but I have not been able to sense/detect one even when none of you have ever lodged a complaint.”

[And this was even in the period that we believed God for the fruit of the womb, yet not one STRESS or STRAIN… not one EXPLOSION or IMPLOSION… and not one PRESSURE, but PLEASURES all the way with Jesus Christ! Thank You Jesus for this testimony that is (and will remain) intimidating, harassing and a life-long blow on satan, the gates and hordes of hell! Hallelujah!

[Now, hear this other shocking thing: As our children are growing up, when they have reached the right age, they will be imparted with these same teachings – “Marry a God-given spouse (just like your mother and I did)… make sure each one of you hold his/her spouse tight well ABOVE the ungodly sentiments of anybody (including your mother and I, and your brothers and sisters – IF there is any at all, BUT THERE WILL NEVER BE IN JESUS’ NAME!)… you all should remain connected as one.. love each other… see how you can help each other (if the need arises, WHICH WILL NEVER BE BECAUSE ALL OF YOU, RESPECTIVELY, WILL BE WELL MADE AND ALL-ROUND ESTABLISHED BY GOD), but not at the detriment of your family (wife/husband and children)… etc.”

[It was from one of the books of Mama Faith Oyedepo, I understood from Scriptures that the family (not from African perspective – battalion of extended ones –, but your wife and children) should be Number One (#1) in the Kingdom’s scale of preference in regard to extended ones – relations and in-laws (1 Tim. 5: 8).]

3) “…A HUSBAND DOES NOT MEAN THE MALE PARTNER IN MARRIAGE, BUT YOUR MASTER AND SHOULD BE RESPECTED…” True words, but I don’t quite appreciate the word ‘MASTER’ in this statement (IF he used that). Bible used it when It was addressing what attitude believing servants (which in real sense, in that era, were slaves) should possess in discharging their duties to their masters (Eph. 6: 5-9).

I would prefer him calling the husbands the way Bible calls them, and that is, “HEAD” – the leader. The word ‘master,’ is forceful, oppressive, dictatorial, and readily invokes its antonym – slave – in respect to the married women. Although, I do not mean it is in all contexts of the usage of this word ‘master’ that it connotes forcefulness/oppression/dictatorship. I MUST honestly also admit this.

The phrase, “true words,” in the second paragraph preceding this, is used in the sense of the fact that my wife is ME (Eph. 5: 28c & 31) and not my partner like when you introduce somebody to another person, saying, “This is my business partner.” No! How can I be the partner of myself… and how can she be the partner of herself? It does not make Biblical and logical sense.

What I share, here, is one of the Biblical-mysterious secrets that our union, family and home thrives/trades with to silence any satanic incursion, which over ninety-something percent Christian unions have failed to harness literally, from facevalue, for marital exploits!! And until this is done, when a man would realise (with actions to ensure it) that he leaves to cleave with his/her missing half, and there is no going back, beating/insulting of oneself (which I call, “Abnormal abnormality”) continues! It Is not a prophecy, but a statement of fact.

Now, let me address those who advocate for equality between men and women in the homes and societies: You are wasting your time! Even in heaven, there is no such thing. There is nothing anybody can do about the God-ordained order of those who constitute the family. It is an attempt to change it that is causing problems in marriages, homes, Churches and the societies today.

And that is not to say that headship means being an Adolph Hitler (dictatorial)… forceful… and a Mike Tyson (a wife beater – I do not mean Mike Tyson beats his wife; that is written in a figurative sense to refer to those who turn their wives into punch bags). You are to love, honor, respect, and deal with her in wisdom (Eph. 5: 25 & 28; 1 Pet. 3: 7).

Yes! The male (married) is the head and the leader, just like Christ is to the Church (this is indisputable and must be acknowledged and held by the females – married – that way, without going against all that Bible says in this regard), but God never meant that in an oppressive, discriminatory, dictatorial and “deprivative” sense. No! Never ever!

UNLIKE what obtains in most traditions and customs of the world (especially Africa), females are “HEIRS TOGETHER” (1 Pet. 3: 7) with males in the “Common Wealth of Israel” – Zion (Eph. 2: 12)! They are never discriminated against or deprived of the heritage and inheritance of their Father Jesus Christ. They are not seen different from the male folks!

This is the revelation that will make our (my wife and I) daughters to have inheritances as much as their brothers! No discrimination! And you say to me, “Pastor, you do not understand; when they marry, they will take the wealth to their husbands’ homes.” And have you ever considered that when you are old, and you need care (of whatsoever), the over ninety percent of it comes from your daughters, granddaughters and, in some cases, great-granddaughters? And it does not bother you, then, that such funds, that they use in caring for you, come from their husbands’ homes?

What do the males do? The best is to drop by… drop some money (if they have) with the hospital’s admin and go their way, respectively… and before you see them again, it is going to take a while. But for the females, they do not only drop funds, but will constantly check on you… sometimes, if they are full housewives, they stay with you… or call constantly to find out how you are doing (in case they live afar off). Thumbs up for our true daughters who are taking care of us, parents, making heaven and us proud!

4) “WOMAN, NOT IN GOD’S ORIGINAL IDEA…”: This statement, I would be tempted to write, almost defeated the good intent of the whole message. And in another report I goggled, this explanation was given (by him, I suppose) to buttress this erroneous statement: “The reason God made woman was because of man. He made the woman because of the man; that is why he made the woman. So, woman was not His original idea; this is reality. Okay. Scripture, let’s see what Bible says, ‘When God had made everything, and He then had made Adam, everything was VERY GOOD.’ Already, everything was very good, no problem…”

Well, IF I do understand him, I THINK he meant to say that when everything was made, inclusive of man, which God saw “VERY GOOD” (Gen. 1: 31), there was no problem until the woman was made. This is all misconstrued by him!

First and foremost, in responding to this, I like to categorically state that that statement on quote (“Woman, not in God’s original idea”) is an insult on the Omniscient Nature of the Almighty!

The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English defines IDEA as “a plan or suggestion for a possible course of action, ESPECIALLY ONE THAT YOU THINK OF SUDDENLY.” With man, this is what is obtainable, but not with God! That can apply to man who makes plans, and because of limitations in knowledge (hence, what you call “exigencies”), he/she wouldn’t include all that needed to be in it; hence, you sometimes hear of plan B, C, D, etc. to take care of the unforeseen.

Nothing comes to God’s Head suddenly. Never ever! His Omniscience disallows that! He is the All-Knowledge Personified! He already knew the end from the beginning; and that’s why He goes by the Names – The Omniscient… Alpha (The Beginning) and Omega (The End)…

Know it that the woman is not a product of an afterthought of God. She has always been in the original plan of God. Otherwise, let him explain to me (if we are to go by his wrong understanding of the times and connection of Genesis chapters one and two), when God said man should multiply and replenish the earth, was it BEFORE or AFTER the woman was created/made? Now, the answer to this is, BEFORE (I am answering by his wrong interpretation of seeing the woman made in chapter two). Then, if it was before, how was Adam going to reproduce? All by himself? You see, this does not make Biblical and logical sense.

Again, did he read this, to seriously ponder on it, “And God said, Let us make MAN in our image, after our likeness: and let THEM have dominion…” (Gen. 1: 26). Note that the personal pronoun used, in this Scriptural verse, in respect to the word “MAN,” is “THEM” and not “HIM.” Again, understand that this statement was made by God not AFTER, but BEFORE the creation of “man” who the female (that the male called, “WOMAN”) was separated from later.

Now, my question: Why would God be using the plural pronoun “THEM” if the woman was never His original idea… why didn’t He just refer to the man He WOULD make as “HIM”?

I will answer: Because the man that He WOULD make, that most of us only understand to be the male, actually comprised both male and female. I will explain this in detail shortly (I must confess that I never knew this all my whole forty years walk with the Lord neither did I read it or heard it from anybody until this moment that I was working on this Apologia, as He opened my eyes into this Scriptural verse).

So, you discover that the analysis of the Scriptural verse above, with the usage of the word “THEM” by God, in respect of the man He WOULD make (which He didn’t at that point of the statement), shows that the woman was God’s original idea and not an afterthought!

Now, let’s interpret, to understand, the times and relationship between those first two chapters of the Holy Writ, because lack of it is what is responsible for this MISINTERPRETATION, MISUNDERSTANDING AND MISAPPLICATION. “…In the day that God created MAN, in the likeness of God made he him; Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and CALLED THEIR NAME ADAM, in the DAY (not DAYS) when they were created” (Gen. 5: 1a-2).

First, LET’S UNDERSTAND THAT ALL THAT YOU READ FURTHER ABOUT THE DETAILS OF THE CREATION OF MAN FROM SPECIFIC VERSES OF GENESIS, CHAPTERS TWO (2) THROUGH CHAPTER FIVE (5), IS NOT CHRONOLOGICAL IN TIME, rather, it is just to buttress all that transpired in verse twenty-seven (27) of chapter one (1). When I wrote “chronological in time,” I meant such verses didn’t happen after verse twenty-seven (27) of chapter one (1). So, the “VERY GOOD” that God saw of all that He made was not BEFORE the female was separated from the created man, but AFTER her separation and creation.

Verse one (1b) makes you to understand that whether male or female, they were referred to as “man” (even though Moses used the personal pronoun “him” because of what he observed of this created being before the female was separated). In verse two, he went further to tell you that this “man” comprised both male and female… and even after this “man” was separated into male and female, God called “THEIR” (not HIS) “NAME” (not NAMES) “ADAM” (not “ADAM and EVE”) because God wasn’t seeing two (even after their physical separation), but one entity comprising two.

It was Adam (and not God) who called the female (when she was brought to him before the wedding/marriage pronouncement – Vs. 24 – all by himself) “Woman” (Gen. 2: 23), which some sages interpret as “WO-MAN – the MAN with the womb” (and they are absolutely correct). And later on, after the Fall, “Eve,” meaning, “the mother of all living” (Gen. 3: 20), was given to his wife by Adam. Do not forget, Adam gave names to all the animals (Gen. 2: 19). He was (and is) always into name-calling.

And finally, verse two makes clear that they were created in the same day. This is also given credence in same Book, chapter one (1), verses twenty-seven (27) and twenty-eight (28). Note that He didn’t create “male” and “female” IN HIS OWN IMAGE (you will only find, to read, “male and female created He them” – Gen. 1: 27b; 5: 2a). No! He “created MAN in His Own Image, in the Image of God (Himself) created He him (although the right personal pronoun, here, should be “THEM” – as made known by the direct release from the Lips of the Almighty in the preceding verse of 26, in red, King James Version); MALE and FEMALE created He them” (Gen. 1: 27).

Therefore, the male and female are in His Image and likeness because they are from or comprised the “MAN” whom He created in His Own Image and likeness. It is like water, no matter how little it is in comparison to the parent body where it is taken from, it looks like and is exactly it; and when chemically analyzed in the laboratory, it has all the qualities of that parent body — no difference except the quantity/weight and momentum (when moving).

So, this ranting about man and woman… gender equality… and trying to differentiate them, is alien to God. There is no such thing with God in creation. So, there shouldn’t be inferiority or superiority complex, here. I make bold to declare that no male is superior to any female. Both are original – God’s PAN-MADE!

They are both Divinely seen as “man” (Gen. 1: 26); and they are both called, “Adam” (Gen. 5: 2). “Woman” or whatever name you gave your wife is your idea, and just know that it is for the purpose of everyone on the face of the earth to identify her with respect to you and all the other over 7.5 billion souls on the globe today.

Whether you would later find that word “woman” in Scriptures, used to refer to the female, and any other name used to call them (women), respectively, when they are married, it is not God’s idea (I repeat), but man’s… and like I earlier wrote, it is for the purpose of identification.

God, known to be male, and His manifestation in the flesh (Jesus Christ) as male, does not in any way mean the female is less or inferior; it is His design and how it should be in His Family/Body, just as it is physically. In His Family, with Us (the Church), being His Wife, He couldn’t and can’t be the led, but the Leader. Hence, His male status – from what we see and read from Scriptures.

It is just like when God instructed Moses to make the ark, it was done according to the pattern of what was (and is) obtainable in heaven (Heb. 8: 5). In the same vein, the family on earth today was instituted according to What (Christ’s Family) is obtainable in heaven; and there is no way God (Jesus Christ) can be any other member of the Family other then The Head (Eph. 1: 22; 4: 15; 5: 23)… (TO BE CONTINUED).

PST. SILAS REVELATION IRUOBE, President & Senior Pastor, Rhema Power Assembly World Outreach Center Inc. (God’s Untouchables’ Chapel Inter-World Inc.), Mararaba, a suburb of Abuja