Recently, the pastor of Bread of Life Christian Church (真道灵粮堂) in Los Angeles called on the congregation to restore the “factory settings”, emphasizing the uniqueness of men and women.
In the message, Pastor Cathy Chang pointed out there are “factory settings” God designed when He created man and woman. God created man and woman in His own image, she says and called the people to see through the enemy’s lies. Christians ought to restore their true identity and embrace the Heavenly Father’s love. Not only should they be the true children, but they are also to wield the heavenly authority given to them to influence the world and their communities.
Pastor Cathy then invited Gabriel, a young theology student from Truth Seminary, to share what God’s “factory settings” are.
Quoting from Genesis 1:27, Gabriel emphasized that God created man and woman in His own image. The original word for man is “Adam,” meaning man or human. Adam is as important as the prototype of all mankind as the prototype of the iPhone.
God put the man to sleep and took a rib from his body to make the woman. When Adam saw the woman, he wrote a poem about her, “You are the bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.” Gabriel emphasizes that the original word for woman, אִשָּׁה, meaning female or wife, appears frequently in the Old Testament. God saw that it was not good for Adam to live alone and made a suitable spouse for him to help him fulfill his God-given mission.
Gabriel further pointed out that God created the family model through marriage and the covenantal relationship according to His will. The family is made of one man and one woman, one husband and one wife, and for one lifetime. This is the model God intended to fulfill “Be fruitful and increase in number.” He emphasized that truth cannot be compromised. Especially as the sons and daughters of God, we ought to stand courageously on the sovereign and holy truth, even when different voices surround us.
Then from 1 Peter 3:7, Gabriel emphasized that men need to respect and protect women. Scientific studies have also shown that women's right and left brains are more active than men's, with greater emotional and verbal abilities, while men have an advantage in spatial awareness and decisiveness. Understanding the innate differences between men and women, couples can learn to be accepting, patient, and kind to each other, fulfilling the true meaning of love in 1 Corinthians 13.
Gabriel pointed out that the rise of the feminist movement has in some ways led to divisiveness in society, giving the enemy an opening to mold a “fatherless” culture. Citing Proverbs 1:8-9, he emphasized the different roles of fathers and mothers in the upbringing of children. Mothers provide warmth and care, fathers provide provision and protection, and it is in such families that children learn how to become men and women after God's own heart.
The pastor of the Bread of Life Christian Church emphasized in the church growth class that the husband is the spiritual leader of the family, and that the wife's submission is to carry out the divine mission together.
Finally, the Bread of Life Christian Church pastor called for the congregation to respond to God’s calling in the uniqueness of their male and female genders, and to become the fathers and mothers of this era to raise the next generation.
