The Vashti-Esther Transmutation

Men and women, particularly those who name the wonderful Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, prepare yourselves and count the cost of believing or disbelieving what is about to be said in this manuscript. The truth does always initially divide as Jesus said it would, and not unite as false teachers often claim. Jesus said: "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household" (Matthew 10:35-36).

I now solemnly declare to you from the beginning the purpose of this writing. It is to sound the trumpet that all husbands are heeding, following and submitted to their wives, that those who profess to believe and walk with the Lord Jesus Christ are obeying their wives and not the Lord as they may think. It doesn't matter if you are a minister of the Gospel, of the Church, real or supposed. It doesn't matter how long you think you have been a Christian or serving the Lord. Indeed, many have had a relationship with the Lord but now are called for the ultimate. I call on husbands who would walk in faith and obedience to the Lord Jesus, Who purchased them with His blood, to forsake their wives for His sake. I call on them to deny themselves, take up their cross and be crucified unto the world. I call them to cease allegiance to the Evil One.

"These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb" (Revelation 14:4).

But did Jesus come for division's sake? No. He came to redeem all of mankind. Ultimately, those divided would be reunited, not in the flesh but in the spirit, of one heart and one soul, not superficially as before but in truth, in reality.

We will begin in the beginning:

"And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat" (Gen. 3:6).

From that day forward, mankind has slowly but surely descended into utter corruption. It is speculated, and with good reason, that in the beginning, the earth and all things in it were much healthier, both in substance and appearance; that people, animals, birds and aquatic life were far bigger, stronger, more attractive, healthier; that plant life was far more luscious, verdant and fruitful; that weather and climate as well were far more conducive to enjoyment and productivity. It is not just speculation but a matter of record that our world is rapidly declining and that, for example, weather patterns are becoming quite erratic. Earthquakes are also increasing at an accelerating rate, century by century, decade by decade, year by year.

Is it not true, according to the testimony of the Scriptures, that in the beginning, mankind lived to be nearly a thousand years old and that as time passed, life spans decreased until the expected age was "threescore and ten"? In fact, throughout some of our recent history, the life expectancy has been considerably less, and even today is less in many nations around the world. There is no reason to believe that the same pattern of degeneration has not prevailed in all of creation.

However, the purpose of this paper obviously is not to discuss sin in general and its consequences as might be supposed, but to consider a more specific perspective. The declaration of this writing will no doubt surprise, shock and even enrage many people, and more particularly so-called Christians or believers of God. The writer will be condemned, reviled and accused of the very opposite of what he is doing by declaring the following truth. So it has always been and shall be now.

The truth is this: Ever since Eve partook of the Tree of Knowledge and gave Adam to eat, wives have ruled over the husbands. Yes, you read that correctly. Yes, perhaps you have many arguments, supposed examples, proofs and even scriptures to discredit this truth. For example, after the fall, God said to Eve: "...and your desire shall be to your husband, and he shall rule over you" (Gen. 3:16). But bear with me, you who seek the liberation of God, both men and women. "You shall know the truth and the truth will make you free... If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed" (John 8:32,36).

The Lord God spoke to Adam (to the man - Genesis 2:16) saying that he was not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The day came that Adam stepped out from the covering and law of God and heeded his wife rather than God. He disobeyed God; he abdicated his rightful place under God; he traded Head for head; he sinned. I hereby today do declare that ever since that day, men have been taken by, and submitting to, their wives and not to God. They have forsaken the law and the Word of God and believed their wives instead. The rib has ruled instead of the head.

The woman was deceived, leaving the covering of her head, her husband, and heeding the counsel and influence of the serpent who contradicted God. Heeding the serpent, Eve became subject to him, and in heeding Eve, Adam also became subject to the serpent through his wife. Has not Satan been referred to by Jesus Himself as the prince (ruler) of this world (John 12:31)? Yes, and the serpent took control when he seduced Eve who in turn seduced, by the power of the serpent, Adam her husband.

Men have been under the power and influence of their wives ever since, increasingly so as time has marched on. At first, it seemed otherwise in the main but the deadly seed had been sown. Even as all things have deteriorated down these many centuries to this day, death taking its toll as promised, so has the husband\wife relationship (as far as God, not necessarily man, is concerned).

People, is this not a liberating assertion, a truth? If, in reality, husbands are to be wholly submitted to God, wives are to be wholly submitted to husbands, neither is happening, but all is seen for what it is, know that liberation is at the doors. Here you've been trying and trying to make this happen, pretending that it is happening, knowing it is the will of God, yet in your heart you know it isn't a reality. What is the answer? Recognition, acknowledgment and confession to God and to all that this submission, this godly relationship with God and spouse, is not a reality. From there, God takes over because now is the time. Don't condemn yourselves for this not being there up to now. It hasn't been the time. Rejoice instead that now is the time, after long last! Men, it is time to lay down your lives, forsake your wives, believing and obeying God.

I walked with God in a certain way until some time after I married. At some point in my married life, I began to determine the will of God in various matters by whether or not there was agreement between my wife and me. I was looking for confirmation. "Shall I go to town, today, dear? How do you feel about it?" If she "felt" I should, I likely went, concluding it was the will of God. If she didn't feel I should, I figured my thought was not of God and therefore I did not go. There are many things wrong with this approach:

Firstly, I often had thoughts, not directions from God.

Secondly, with such, we were dealing more in the realm of feelings rather than inspiration from God. So we were not dealing with God's Word or inspiration and having a witness; we were only agreeing or disagreeing with each other on thoughts.

Thirdly, if God directed me, I was wrong in seeking confirmation from my wife or anyone in matter of obedience and direction before the act of obedience. Confirmations come after believing God, after obeying Him, not before. To seek agreement before one believes God or acts in obedience to God is to seek after a sign. That is unbelief; it is a preservation of self; it is wickedness; it is a perversion (a perverse version) of spiritual faith. Jesus said that an evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign and no sign will be given it.

But fourthly, I had set my wife up as judge as to what was of God or not. It was my job as head of the wife to do the judging; it was up to me to determine whether what she heard was of God or not, and not the other way around. I put a horrible burden upon her shoulders; in essence, I made her to be God in my life. With that kind of conduct, we descended into Hell, both of us. (Then she got a false prophecy which the Lord used to correct it all.)

“Into Hell, you say? So it wasn't the woman's fault after all, but man's, if we judge the general problem by your marriage, Victor." To this I must reply: "This is not a matter of whose fault it is but rather what the fault is." The woman was not created to be the head but the helper. Because she is out of place in hearing as head, she will not be blessed in guiding the husband; she will not hear from God but from her own mind, thoughts, emotions, inclinations, from the man of sin within. God cannot bless an illegitimate relationship, an arrangement between a man and wife not according to His will. He cannot bless a man for seeking counsel elsewhere than from Him. As He said, "...there will be no sign given..." (no direction, no guidance, no word).

Am I saying that we did not hear from God ever since I began looking to the wife? No. God did not abandon us, nor has He abandoned others who have walked this way. God did not abandon the Israelites in spite of many things they did contrary to God, such as retaining the high places and worshipping other gods. He continued to lead them; He continued to lead us. It was all part of His unfathomable program. God is merciful and longsuffering.

Am I saying that women do not hear from God? No. Am I saying that men should walk independently of their wives? When it comes to hearing from God, yes. If God should choose to speak a word of direction from the wife, it is up to the husband to judge whether the word is from God or not. The issue is not to whom God is speaking; the issue is one of the heart, a matter of faith, a matter of whether the hearts seek God and His will or that of their own.

Now the Scriptures clearly declare the proper order of things between the sexes in terms of spiritual authority and conduct, particularly in marriage. Paul wrote to Timothy: "In like manner also, [I will] that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with plaited hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; But (which becomes women professing godliness) with good works. Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression" (I Timothy 2:9-14).

He also wrote: "Let your women keep silence in the churches [not only a husband/wife matter but women in general]: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also says the law [not a matter of custom or 'the times,' as scholarly students of the Bible are erroneously taught, thinking they are wise in their 'looking at the historical and cultural context of the times,' but a matter of the law of God]. And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church. What? came the word of God out from you [notice - word of God, not situation ethics]? or came it to you only? If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write to you are the commandments of the Lord. But if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant" (I Corinthians 14:34-38).

The commandments of the Lord. And what did the Lord say of those? That not one jot or tittle of the law of God would pass, that heaven and earth would pass first. Therefore what stood then, stands today, seeing that heaven and earth have yet to pass. We are also not to believe Jesus meant that if and when heaven and earth pass that the law would then be null and void or changed. No. God's law is eternal, a reflection of His nature Who is eternal.

Look around you, people. Can you honestly point to one marriage in the present few generations, just one, wherein you can truly say: "In that marriage, the man is head in his house?" Can you declare of your own marriage that the man is truly the head? Get honest. Today, jokingly, even otherwise, the wife is referred to as "the better half" or "the boss." Men may sometimes think they make the big decisions in the household but do they really? Truly, many don't even think that anymore. But if they do think so, are they not allowed to do so, governed by their spousal supervision, whether obviously or subtly? Think about it. And where the wives do not make decisions, as for example when a man at work must do without the wife, is it a matter of authority or one of circumstance and convenience? Could it be that the wife can't be doing everything all the time or perhaps simply that she isn't interested? But let her become interested, let her become aware that she is being affected by those decisions, let her become aware that she has options, particularly those preferable to her, then see who starts to hold the reins.

How oft has society, both "secular" and "religious" or "Christian" referred to the wife of a prominent man as "the hand or the power behind the throne!" How true! The husband has been the President of the United States but it is the Hillary Clintons, the Nancy Reagans, the Barbara Bushes, the Betty Fords and the Rosalynn Carters who have ruled. Americans voted for the man, often under influence of the wife, and got women in the presidency every time. In spite of its corruption, does not the Roman Catholic Church have vestiges of sound, spiritual principle, however distorted, in its policy and practice of celibacy for its priests?

How often have you heard the saying, "She wears the pants in the family"? Ironically, it is said by those who do not realize that the same truth applies to themselves. For twenty-five years, I didn't realize that I was one of those. Now those who profess to be born again Christians do not as often make these remarks. Why? Because they usually know that in the light of the Scriptures, wives are commanded to submit to their husbands. And so, according to that counsel and law, wives try to submit and husbands try to love their wives even as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for it. The fact is, both fail and fail miserably. They may succeed somewhat in giving the appearance otherwise but, in the reality, they fail. Why? Because men have trusted their wives over God and have obeyed, relied upon, trusted them instead of God, howbeit in the Name of God. God knows it, I know it and you know it. I now confess it and declare it to you by the grace of God because God has given me to do so. Now you need to recognize, acknowledge, confess and repent of the same. It's time.

Many marriages appear to make a liar or fool of me. Doubtless my own past marriage would appear, in the eyes of some or perhaps many, to do so. They only appear to do so, and upon closer examination and deeper, honest consideration, you will realize that what I speak is the truth. Nor do I believe I judge other marriages by my own, lest any should think so. There is not one marriage I can think of, past or present, be it mine, that of friends, neighbors, relatives, parents, Christian families or otherwise wherein I recognize an exception to what I write here today. I speak by the revelation of God and, hopefully, by His grace, the reader will come to know whereof I speak and be liberated; man or woman...and it must begin with the man.

Many marriage counselors claim to have the proper order of God and harmony in their marriage. They believe that the husband is indeed relating to the wife as the weaker vessel, laying down the life for her, and that the wife is submitting to the husband out of a true appreciation for his love. Thus they believe they are qualified to be examples and teachers to other couples. The reality is otherwise. Rightly or wrongly, it has been a small source of amusement to see marriage counseling couples teaching, with the woman doing all the talking, or where the man speaks, it is evident that he speaks trying to be "politically correct," seeking her approval. The wife still "pulls the strings." At best marriages are limited "partnerships," and many "Christian" couples proudly declare so, as if such were a Godly virtue. But tell me, where in the Scriptures does it even suggest that marriage was ever intended to be a partnership, that husband and wife were to operate on an equal basis? The answer is quite simply, "Nowhere." While it does say that God made woman to be a helper, it does not in any way suggest she was to be an equal partner anymore than an apprentice is equal with his master.

The very fact that people would view their marriage as an equal partnership demonstrates that the wife already rules the husband. Since when should she have such a concession? Having power to gain such tells where the power is. If she has not gained such by her own power, the husband has abdicated his position, having no right under God to give her that status of equality in the first place. Yet in the sin of Adam coursing through his veins, he had no choice; the relationship was a matter of nature.

You may ask, "Do you dare say that women aren't equal to men? Isn't that 'sexist,' and even antiChristian? Didn't the apostle Paul say that in Christ there is neither male nor female? Didn't Jesus liberate women from male dominance?"

I reply: "In terms of personhood and individual value, God decides whom He favors and whom He does not; however, insofar as people in themselves are concerned, whether they be Greek or Jew, slave or free, ruling or ruled, rich or poor, wise or simple, royal or common, black or white, male or female, wed or single, young or old, weak or strong, God is no respecter of persons. In terms of authority and status in His order of things, no persons are equal." Consider: God sets up and brings down nations and rulers according to His will as declared by the Scriptures. Does not the Prime Minister of Canada whom God has raised up have powers and privileges that many do not have? Of course. This principle applies to all spheres of our existence. Do not managers of businesses have powers and privileges their employees do not have? Certainly. (Do not employees have advantages and privileges which business owners/employers do not have?) Do not quarterbacks and coaches have authority and power respecting their positions? Yes. Therefore, in terms of position, status, privilege and power, and in terms of consequences such as incomes and benefits (or responsibilities) there is no equality at all.

So with marriages. The same man who said there is neither Greek nor Jew in Christ also said that the Jew has much advantage (Romans 3:1-2). So while in Christ, there is no difference in value, yet the Jew has advantage; there is an inequality of sorts. The same man who said that in Christ there is neither bond nor free also said, "Servants be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart, as unto Christ...." The same man who said there is neither male nor female in Christ also said, "Wives, submit to your husbands; obey them" (Ephesians 5:22; Colossians 3:18).

Children are either male or female as are their parents. If in Christ, shall sons therefore be exempt from obedience to mothers, somehow being sexually neutralized, by virtue of Paul's words, which the rebellious quote to escape responsibility and accountability? Not according to Paul: "Children obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honor your father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise; that it may be well with you..." (Ephesians 6:1-3).

Authority is not a matter of sex but of status or condition as determined by God. (That should answer the second question: "Isn't that sexist?") Therefore Paul was not speaking of authority status when he said that in Christ there is neither male nor female, bond nor free, Greek nor Jew. Only those on, or considering, the path of iniquity choose to think so, ignorant or determined to have their own way. Neither was Paul saying that women in general do not ever have authority over men. Doubtless there were female masters with male servants and therefore these women had the responsibility to direct them.

So if I say that the Scripture declares that wives, being female, obey and submit to their husbands who are male, am I being sexist? No. I am simply speaking that which God has ordained and spoken and revealed in the Scriptures, those Scriptures that Christianity refers to as final authority. Therefore neither is it antiChristian. And if God doesn't have the right to decide and to order His creation, who does? His creatures who are rebellious? Those who are ignorant? Hardly. Do we want salvation and peace or destruction and torment? Each must decide for him or herself. There is no escape of reward or consequence for either choice, anymore than we can do away with the sun or gravity or death or God Himself.

Did Jesus liberate women from male dominance? Yes, He did. He gave His spirit to women as well as men, an inheritance in things eternal. And consider that as He did so, He inspired the apostle Paul to teach those things mentioned above. He also chose all male apostles and inspired them to appoint male leaders in His Church, His body.

And do I contradict myself when I consent that there was male dominance? Brutishly, men have exerted their powers over women wherever possible, even as strong animals might turn on their keepers, but as the pen is mightier than the sword, so spirit is more mighty than flesh, and women have had the power to rule not by force but by spirit, quite superiorly. Consider Samson, who not only believed but who had supernatural strength and anointing of God, and Delilah, a woman of an unbelieving people upon whom was destined the judgment of God, and that by Samson, for example. Samson lost his power and authority to her, having disobeyed God.

Tears, soft voices, tenderness, caresses, fragrances, beauty, intelligence, persuasiveness, persistence, weakness and helplessness, sexual temptations, inspirations, food ("The shortest way to a man's heart is through his stomach" it is said) and passion are all in the woman's formidable arsenal to subdue a man's will to her desires and purposes. Samson, the strongest man that ever lived, succumbed to such powers; Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, disobeyed God Who warned Israel to not marry unbelieving wives, lest they turn them to idolatry. He married many wives who then turned him, by the power of Satan, to worship their gods. The wisest man became the greatest fool, putty in the hands of wives.

Why was the flood brought upon the earth? Was it not because there was a horrible mingling of natures, a mixture, sons of God marrying daughters of men (spirit vs. flesh)? And why did they marry them and disobey God? Because even by then, women had that power from the serpent, the prince of this world. And what was the motivation? As it is written: "...the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair...and they took them wives..." (Genesis 6:2). Physical beauty overcame spiritual chastity.

The Bible mentions Jacob as being a pawn, an object of negotiation in Rachel's hands. Leah desired that Jacob sleep with her so Rachel bargained with her in mandrakes, a narcotic plant used for a love philter, and Jacob slept with Leah (Genesis 30:14-16).

Speaking of pawns! For all those familiar with Chess, please note that while the king can only move one space at a time, the Queen can move as many as she likes. The queen is the powerful one, protecting the king in the process. So it has been in this world and someone was wise enough to perceive it when fashioning the game.

Now the Scripture says that in Christ there is neither male nor female. What about outside of Christ? Shall one say there is equality of the sexes only in Christ and not in the flesh or world? Obviously, Paul was speaking of the believers' inheritance in Christ, which the world knows nothing of. In Christ, we are all heirs, partakers of His nature, male and female. Outside of Christ, whether we be male or female, we have no part in Him.

Also have you ever noticed that while Jesus has called men to forsake wives, one will not find anywhere that wives are called to forsake husbands? There are two reasons for that:

1. It is men and not women that Jesus called to be ministers in the Church. So it is to this very day. Therefore, if they are married or planning on it yet called of God to serve Him, they must be prepared to forsake their wives and not only them but all people and things.

2. As already declared, men are not merely in need of forsaking wives in the sense that they forsake any other persons or things; they are in need of turning, turning from one head to Another Head, their rightful Head; they are called to forsake obedience and allegiance to their wives, from seeking God's will and voice by their wives in the name of agreement or confirmation, to seeking God, His will, His voice directly as it was originally determined by God and occurred in the beginning (Genesis 2:16). They are called on to repent of having abdicated their responsibility and direct accountability to God. They are called upon to return to their rightful place in God, to lay down their lives for His sake, the gospel's, and for their wives, to fulfill all righteousness.

   Therefore it is not only the calling into a ministry upon a man that necessitates the forsaking of his wife, but the call upon every man in this final day to return to a rightful relationship with God. Adam did not have a "ministry" but that did not give him the right to obey his wife, to follow her, to eat from her hand instead of God's. He sinned. Today, I call upon "Adam" to repent and return to his rightful Head and his rightful headship. This is the day for that now.

Here is the sequence of events as they have formed over the millennia and are forming:

1. God is and declares His authority to His creation, man.

2. Eve is deceived and falls.

3. Adam falls following Eve.

   (Those events occurred about 6,000 years ago, continuing since).

4. Jesus Christ intervenes, laying down His life as the perfect sacrifice, to redeem man from this world, from the power of sin and from the power of the serpent who is prince of this world, having gained that power by the woman.

   (This event occurred about 2,000 years ago, continuing since).

5. Adam (man) rises, forsaking his wife, returning to God, restored by Christ laying down His life, and in turn lays down his life in obedience to God, thus throwing off the bondage to the prince of this world by the woman.

6. Eve is restored through the obedience of the man laying down his life.

7. God is and is glorified as Lord of all.

We are now in the fifth and following stages. This is the Day of the Lord. It is the day of the manifestation of the rising of Adam, of his repentance of a false god (his wife) and of the return to his rightful place under God as head of the woman, even as Christ is the Head of the man and God is the Head of Christ. This is the Day of God being all in all. This is the day of the Coming of the Son of Man, His sign being the laying down of the life.

Yes, we have a record of Sarah calling Abraham "lord" as late as the twentieth generation from Adam (I Peter 3:6). But we also have a record of Sarah talking Abraham into taking Hagar, an Egyptian handmaid, in order to have a child by her. He did so and begot Ishmael, the father of the present day Arabs and Muslims. To this day we have the multitudes of Arab nations, in mortal enmity with Israel, the seed of Isaac. (Isaac was the miracle baby God had promised Abraham and Sarah.) Sarah figured they needed to help God somehow to keep His promise; her unbelief and direction to her husband had severe future consequences, although all these things have not been without purpose.

In the very next generation, Rebekah counseled her son Jacob to lie and to deceive his own father, her husband. In the next generation, rulership of women over husbands was manifest in that when Rachel would have Leah's mandrakes, she granted Leah a night with Jacob. The power women have had! And all under the sovereignty of God Who works all things, both good and evil, according to the counsel of His own will. These things were all ordained of God.

Although Elijah slew the religious elite of his day by the power of God, he soon found himself fleeing for his life. The pursuer was Jezebel, the wife of Ahab, king of Israel. Jezebel also influenced her husband Ahab to kill Naboth and to steal his land (I Kings 21-16). She ruled her husband, and did many evil things until finally, near her end, she tried to seduce a successor to the throne, Jehu, but failed. Jehu was zealous for the Lord and did not succumb (II Kings 9:30-33).

In Revelation, a Jezebel type was described to be troubling one of the churches, teaching and seducing the Lord's servants to commit fornication, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit adultery (Revelation 2:20-22).

Of a king of Judah, Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, it is written: "And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel (in evil), as did the house of Ahab: For the daughter of Ahab was his wife: And he did evil in the sight of the Lord" (II Kings 8:18).

Am I not contradicted by the testimonies of the Holy Scriptures? Did not the apostles, for instance, forsake their wives? Clearly, of those who had wives, the Bible declares that they did (Matthew 19:27). So how then can I say that from the beginning, husbands have been in subjection to wives? Plainly, when Jesus came to overcome the world, He told His disciples He had done so (John 16:33). At His resurrection, saints rose from the dead. Did that mean that all was manifestly finished even though we saw some resurrected? No, the resurrection of all time for mankind was and is yet to come. All was not done then, finished yes, yet barely begun. So with marital relationships. Throughout the works of God and history, there are peaks, exceptions, reversals, samples, examples. But today, I declare to you that this is the time for the climax, the conclusion, the "times of restitution of all things" (Acts 3:21).

Have there not been wicked men and not wicked women only? Certainly. While Eve was deceived, Adam was the one who sinned. Cain killed Abel; King Saul disobeyed; David sinned by his own fault and not Bathsheba's, Solomon was held accountable by God for his marrying the pagan women...the Bible is replete with reports of wicked men sinning, with or without the influence of women. Even Abraham, our father of faith, acted fearfully against his own wife to save his skin.

Have there not been faithful and holy women? Of course, many. Notwithstanding the aforementioned human weaknesses, we do recognize Sarah as a daughter of faith, pious, as we do Rebekah, Leah, Rahab (who was a harlot), Abigail (who was married to a "son of Belial" - in today's parlance, "an absolute jerk"), Deborah, the only female judge of Israel, faithful in her calling, Miriam, a prophetess and sister to Moses, Ruth, Hannah, Mary (how can we deny that all men but Adam came from women?) who was called of God and faithful, and who gave birth to none less than the Saviour of all mankind. We also have Mary Magdalene, Mary and Martha, three ladies who were prominently fitted into history (the gospels no less), Phoebe, and others.

But now please read the Book of Esther, chapters one and two for the moment, then later the rest of the book to know "the rest of the story" as Paul Harvey puts it, and let us consider two more women. And the account of these two women symbolizes what I perceive is happening today, in this great Day of the Lord: If you turn to the Book of Esther, you will read of a rebellious, leastwise an uncooperative woman, Vashti, wife to King Ahasuerus. When he requested that she present herself as his wife at festivities held for his domain, she refused. Why? It doesn't say; only that she did. It does say that Ahasuerus desired to display her beauty "for she was fair to look on." Perhaps she didn't like to be displayed; perhaps she was shy; perhaps it was her time of month! Who knows? I do know that if she had honored her head, she might have explained something to him or requested pardon, citing some legitimate reason, had there been one. But there is no indication of anything other than self-will involved here. The result was that she was no longer queen and was replaced by another.

The other was Esther. And what an "other" she was, in contrast to the difficult Vashti. Esther paid homage to the king; she honored his person, his status. Was it out of fear? Of a sort, perhaps, but I believe it was not as much or not only out of fear but out of a respect born of a humility and godliness that she conducted herself in reverence to Ahasuerus. I believe that it was her character and not her physical beauty that won his favor...and respect.

Vashti had no respect for husband or for authority; Esther feared and honored her husband and king; Vashti cared nothing for peace and good example in the kingdom; she preserved her life...for herself; Esther laid hers down...for others, for her nation, for God. In this historical account determined by God for our example and for an allegory, there is set forth a figure of the old and of the new; of what has been till now and of what shall now come into being; of wives and what they have been like till today and of what they shall now become. In Vashti is exemplified the selfish, rebellious, stubborn, irreverent spirit of the man of sin, the soulish nature that insists upon its way, man choosing independence of God. In Esther is personified the broken spirit, that precious treasure to God, the whole mind that in humility and submission says, "Thy will and not mine." In Esther is demonstrated the sign of the coming (presence, unveiling, manifestation) of the Son of Man, the laying down of the life.

The point of this paper has not been to castigate women and to defend or absolve men. Not in the least. The point is quite different, to declare the revelation that women have not been in right relationship to their husbands until now, while holding the reins of power, almost imperceptibly at first but increasingly so to the present, and that now God is about to redeem us all, both men and women, setting all things in order.

Now, is it not also true that whereas in the beginning, men seemed to live longer than did women (of those recorded - Abraham longer than Sarah, Jacob than Leah), today the life expectancy of women is longer? Why is this? Could it be that, contrary to what some feminists would have you to believe, men have been the subjugated lot and not women, and more so as historical time has marched on? If not subjugated, at least vexed and frustrated with a disjointed relationship in marriage, even as God has been frustrated with man for the same reason, man seeking his wife for guidance, comfort and fulfillment instead of seeking God for same. And women have looked to their husbands to fulfill their dreams and aspirations, coercing, pushing, manipulating, inspiring, only to fail and be unsatisfied and frustrated with them instead. Both parties have been looking to each other instead of to God for that which only God can provide.

All has deteriorated to this day and now we have, in the last century or two, feminism rising as never before in the history of mankind. (Feminists would rather have me use the term "people" or "personhood" or even "womankind.") What is wrong with feminism? Nothing except everything. It is rebellion to God's chosen order of things. Women ought not to be exalted and neither should men. Anything pitting one against the other is evil, diabolical, be it feminism, "masculinism" or any other thing.

Men and women were not meant to be divided but harmonized. There are many parallels of dualities in God's creation. Some of those I believe are:

man and God // soul and spirit // wife and husband

As man has not been submitted to God's authority as he should be, so wives have not been submitted to husbands as they should be and souls have not been submitted to the spirit as they should be, having taken the pre-eminent role of leadership over the spirit within the human being. Rather than living from the Tree of Life, we have all been eating from the Tree of Knowledge; we, as "born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ," have all been doing our own thing; we have all walked in the "Christian conversion of the first Adam," the natural man. And truly, it has been meant to be so.

Now the day is here for the manifestation of the sons of God; it is the day for the "first Christian" to go, that man of sin, that pious Adam nature, to make way for the manifestation in these weak, earthen vessels of the Lord Jesus Christ in all His power and glory. The soul of every person will be finally established in its rightful place, wholly submitted to the spirit, man will be finally established in his rightful place, wholly submitted to God, and wives will be finally established in holy matrimony, wholly submitted to their husbands. This will be the final, manifest destruction of the power and influence of the serpent over God's creation, and the glory of God revealed in a way never before. What a day!

Victor Hafichuk