Martin Luther is remembered annually on Reformation day, October 31, 1517, for when he began the Protestant Reformation by nailing his 95 Theses, protesting the sale of indulgences, to the door of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg, Germany. His ensuing one man public battle with the Catholic Church was made possible by the arrival of printing presses, whose owners printed, and widely sold to the public, copies of Luther’s criticisms and condemnations of the wayward church. By the time the papacy responded to Luther’s writings in June 1520 offering Luther 60 days to recant or be excommunicated, Luther, a prolific and compelling writer, had not only publicly denounced the authority of the pope, but had declared him an antichrist.
Heresiarch definition: Arch-Heretic – an originator or chief advocate of a heresy.
I am Sharkly, and as you may know, I consider it foundational to our Christian faith that we understand who God is, and who we are. I believe God is masculine or male, a Father, Son, and their masculine Spirit, and that men alone are earthly likenesses or images of God. I believe we are told of this repeatedly in the Bible. I believe the misunderstanding of God and humankind has led Christendom and the world back into the serpent’s trap of once again deifying women and catering to Eve’s desires rather than the will of our Creator, thereby we worship a creature rather than our Creator. We as a society make ongoing human child sacrifices, through abortion, at the altar of idolatrous Feminism. In just our generation we have shed more innocent blood, tearing more babies to bits, than all who died from all the wars of history combined. The Heavenly Father in great anger will hold our generation to account for this unprecedented sacrifice of innocent babies at the satanic altar of female supremacy. We must repent and return to the ways set up by our loving Father!
I first realized that men alone were in the image of God by reading Genesis 1:26-27
26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27 So God created man in his own image.
In the image of God created he him.
Male and female created he them.
It became apparent to me after reading this that God clearly mentioned man/him(Adam in Hebrew) being made/created in God’s image or likeness, four times right in a row, while then contrastingly telling us that male & Female(them) were only just created by God, with conspicuously no mention of it being done in God’s image. God clearly went out of His way to solidify that Adam was made in His image, but never is Eve or womankind said to be in God’s image. So I searched the scriptures for the image of God, and every single place it is mentioned it is assigned to the masculine Adam/men/Jesus.(in non-neutered Bibles) The Apostle Paul made it quite clear that men alone are the image of God in 1 Corinthians 11:7
6 For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. 7 For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.
No part of God Himself needs to be exhibited through the feminine, because all of God is masculine in Himself and in His representation. Jesus Christ did not need a female counterpart to exhibit the full image of God according to Colossians 2:9 ( Colossians 1:19 states similar)
9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
(ESV) 9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,
There is no exclusively female aspect to the image of God. The whole of the image of God was shown in Jesus Christ, a man come in the flesh, the Son of God.
I have also come to discover that this is what the early church taught and unanimously believed. Saint Augustine said: But we must notice how that which the apostle says, that not the woman but the man is the image of God, is not contrary to that which is written in Genesis, “God created man: in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them: and He blessed them.” For this text says that human nature itself, which is complete in both sexes, was made in the image of God; and it does not separate the woman from the image of God which it signifies. For after saying that God made man in the image of God, “He created him,” it says, “male and female:” or at any rate, punctuating the words otherwise, “male and female created He them.” How then did the apostle tell us that the man is the image of God, and therefore he is forbidden to cover his head; but that the woman is not so, and therefore is commanded to cover hers? Unless, forsooth, according to that which I have said already, when I was treating of the nature of the human mind, that the woman together with her own husband is the image of God, so that that whole substance may be one image; but when she is referred separately to her quality of help-meet, which regards the woman herself alone, then she is not the image of God; but as regards the man alone, he is the image of God as fully and completely as when the woman too is joined with him in one.
Ambrosiaster says: Paul says that the honor and dignity of a man makes it wrong for him to cover his head, because the image of God should not be hidden. Indeed, it ought not to be hidden, for the glory of God is seen in the man. … A woman therefore ought to cover her head, because she is not the likeness of God but is under subjection.
Epistle of “Mathetes” to Diognetus 10:2a For God loved men (… whom He created after His own image …) for whose sake He made the world, to whom He subjected all things that are in the earth … [This includes women, who are repeatedly told to be in subjection to their fathers and then husbands]
In past posts I have shared other quotes from early church fathers sharing the unanimous belief of the apostolic and patristic church that only men are the express images of God and designated as representatives of God, here living on earth. These beliefs were unchanged until the latter portion of the fourth century when the church was taken over and instituted as the state religion of the Roman Empire by Emperor Constantine. All sorts of politics, greed, and secular rot got syncretized into the church as it became a secular world power. Notably, Mary was deified, (to appease forcibly converted goddess worshippers) and in the process of doing so, women had to be falsely claimed to be images of God as well as men, for Mary to be able to be deified. How could Mary be claimed to be equal with Jesus Christ if she wasn’t even in the image of deity? Mary went from being a minor figure, less mentioned in the Bible than some other women, to then being claimed to be co-redemptrix with Christ, who is the central hero of the Bible. Today the false belief in women being made in the image of God has been brought to its logical conclusion of making women fully equal to men, just as Mary was blasphemously made equal with Christ. And today God’s institution of marriage is being debased, and families destroyed, since marriages won’t operate properly because a democracy of two equals can’t resolve conflict and attain the solidarity of a patriarchal family that works together to achieve one man’s ambition, as God intended. Just as the Protestant reformation after over a millennium rolled back the false divinity of Mary, returning all the reverence due solely to Jesus Christ as all the fullness of the Godhead in human flesh, so also, the image of God, the birthright of men, is a reverence, long stolen, that urgently needs to be returned solely to men.
Here is some Early church advice on telling heretics from true teachers:
Didache (Teaching of the Twelve Apostles) Chapter 11. Concerning Teachers, Apostles, and Prophets. 11:1 Whosoever therefore shall come and teach you all these things that have been said before, receive him; 2 But if the teacher himself be perverted and teach another doctrine to destroy these things, do not listen to him. But if he teaches so as to increase righteousness and the knowledge of the Lord, receive him as the Lord.
So, who is teaching the doctrine that was delivered to the apostolic church? Based upon the words of the Apostle Paul, and upon the remaining writings of many of the earliest church Fathers, that would be those of us who teach that women by themselves are not the image of God, but that women and men portray Jesus Christ(who is God) and his bride the true church that is eventually to become one with the Lord.
Which doctrine fits best with the rest of scripture, and which doctrine destroys other scriptural doctrines? The belief that both sexes represent the image of the Most High God, and are thus equal in their rank and dignity, fights against so many other teachings of the Bible:
- Ephesians 5 teaches us that husbands image Jesus Christ, while wives image the church. So the sexes are clearly not equal.
- Women are told to be in subjection.(1Peter 3:1-2) So the sexes are clearly not equal.
- Men alone are allowed to represent God and teach His word to both men and women.(1 Timothy 2:12) So the sexes are clearly not equal.
- Women are not to usurp authority over men. (1 Timothy 2:12) So the sexes are clearly not equal.
- Women are to reverence their husbands (Ephesians 5:33) So the sexes are clearly not equal.
- Women are to cover their heads in prayer, but men should not.(1 Corinthians 11:3-9) So the sexes are clearly not equal when coming before God.
- Man was created preeminently in God’s image, while woman was secondly created from man’s flesh and bone.(Genesis 1:26-27, Genesis 2:18-24) So the sexes are clearly not equal in their creation.
- The husband is to be the head,(1 Corinthians 11:3) and the wife the helper.(Genesis 2:18) So the sexes are clearly not equal in rank.
- Women are unavoidably ceremonially unclean during menstruation,(Leviticus 15:19-27, Leviticus 18:19, Ezekiel 18:5-6, Ezekiel 36:17) So the sexes are clearly not equal. Nor does that periodic uncleanness fit the image of God.
- Women are natural defilers. (Revelation 14:4) So the sexes are clearly not equal.
- We are clearly told that women are the “weaker vessel”.(1 Peter 3:7) So the sexes are clearly not equal.
- We are told specifically that women are to be shamefaced. (1 Timothy 2:9) So the sexes are clearly not of equal glory and status.
Those are just a dozen of the many other doctrines that are damaged by having women equally in the image of the Most High God, that first popped into my head. Feel free to offer more in the comments section.
Some women might falsely claim that giving husband’s dominion, as unto the Lord, will lead to cruelty and abuses, well here is how it should work as described by the apostolic church:
Epistle of “Mathetes” to Diognetus from Chapter 10 … How will you love Him who has first so loved you? And if you love Him, you will be an imitator of His kindness. And do not wonder that a man may become an imitator of God. He can, if he is willing. For it is not by ruling over his neighbors, or by seeking to hold the supremacy over those that are weaker, or by being rich, and showing violence towards those that are inferior, that happiness is found; nor can any one by these things become an imitator of God. But these things do not at all constitute His majesty. On the contrary he who takes upon himself the burden of his neighbor; he who, in whatsoever respect he may be superior, is ready to benefit another who is deficient; he who, whatsoever things he has received from God, by distributing these to the needy, becomes a god to those who receive [his benefits]: he is an imitator of God.
So as you can see, being the image of God places greater duty upon the man, to look out for his inferior, including the call to be ready to lay his life down for his bride, like Christ(God) did for His bride the church. Truly understanding and practicing God’s order for the family will lead to deeper love and harmony than the lie of having two supposed equals constantly contending with each other for control.
So in conclusion, I want to bring the church back to its original teaching on womankind, where “ she is not the likeness of God but is under subjection.” This fits far better with the rest of the Bible’s doctrines, and it destroys the basis for evil Feminism that has unleashed so much death and destruction against our own children. God’s plan is based upon His love, and will promote greater harmony between the sexes again, when properly followed. Join me in returning back to God’s simple truth.