natalie’s blog

Several hours on the road last weekend afforded me the time to finish the book, So Much More – The Remarkable Influence of Visionary Daughters on the Kingdom of God, by sisters Anna Sofia Botkin and Elizabeth Botkin. I was very impressed with both the quality and the content of their writing. They display remarkable maturity and wisdom and I found myself prompted to examine my own thinking on more than one occasion as the authors challenged mindsets and practices that have become widely accepted in Western society, even among Christians.

Throughout the book, the authors proclaim the beauty of God’s role for women, specifically for daughters living under the authority of their earthly fathers. They convincingly trace the feminist movement back to its Marxist roots and offer numerous quotations that expose the sinister plans of those who espoused the socialist, and later the feminist, ideologies – very sobering implications for those in this day and age who cling to their feminist ideals.

Feminist ideals. It is easy to brush aside such a description, convinced that I remain unaffected. As much as I would like to claim that my mindset is unquestionably based upon Scripture, I have had to face the harsh reality that I, too, have been “tossed to and fro, and carried about…by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive.”¹ The subtle – and not so subtle – influences of feminism have infiltrated all of society. Many Christian women unwittingly embrace them, trading in the fulfilling life to which God has called them for a lifetime of slavery to a philosophy that, while proclaiming liberation and freedom, at its root is hostile to God and His ways. (This is borne out in numerous ways and the authors do a much better job of elaborating on this than I can in this post. I highly recommend ordering and reading the book to gain a more thorough understanding of this topic.)

In a nutshell, though, here’s what we have to wrap our brain around: God created men and women differently, to fill unique roles in His kingdom. We are not equally fitted to the same tasks. We are not mutually called to serve in the same positions. Until we recognize and embrace these unique roles, there will be tension in the home, dissatisfaction in life and disrepair in society.

How can we even hope to combat a mindset that is so deeply entrenched in our culture? We must recognize what the protagonists of these ideologies recognized years ago. Check out this strategy summarized by Charles A. Reich in The Greening of America:

“There is a revolution coming. It will not be like revolutions in the past. It will originate with the individual and the culture, and it will change the political structure as its final act.”²

The revolution to which Reich refers has come. Now it is time for it to go. Now it is time for a rebelution!

In an interview included in the back of the book, Geoffrey Botkin (the authors’ father) declares,

“When people’s souls are changed so that they think differently and act differently, history changes. The consequences are eternal because souls are eternal.”³

We must be about the business of declaring the truth of God as it applies to every area of life, every facet of society. This will be done most effectively as we embody these truths in our own lives, embrace the familial roles God has called us to fill, and live a life that is set apart in stark contrast to the world around us. Let us grab hold of this challenging, yet exciting, life-long adventure! “Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” ⁴

1 Ephesians 4:14
2 So Much More, page 337 (emphasis added)
3 So Much More, page 315
4 Hebrews 12:1-2

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