The Broken Order

Genesis 1:26-27: Read

God made man, that is, human beings, in his image. They bore His character.
The true object of education is to restore the image of God in the soul. In the beginning,
God created man in his own likeness. He endowed him with noble qualities. His mind was
well-balanced, and all the powers of his being were harmonious. {Christian Education,
63.3}

Adam could take in the grand idea that he was created in the image of God, to be like
Him in righteousness and holiness.{Confrontation, 11.3}
Both Adam and Eve were created in the image of God in this respect. They both
bore the character of God.
In the image of God created He him. These words refer to him, a male Adam as
created in the image of God.
What is this image? The image of God that is referred to here is not the character of
God in human beings, but rather the position that man should occupy in the family.
Just as God stands at the head of his creation sustaining, ruling, protecting and caring
for it, the man was created and placed at the head of the family to do the same.
It is in this respect that the words in the image of God created he him is understood.
Note the following: All members of the family center in the father. He
is the lawmaker, illustrating in his own manly bearing the sterner virtues: energy,
integrity, honesty, patience, courage, diligence, and practical usefulness. The father
represents the divine Lawgiver in his family. {Adventist Home, 212.1}
Responsibility and Accountability
Gen 3:9 And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art
thou?
Sin did not enter the world through Eve.
Romans 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death
by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
1 Cor. 15:21-22 - "For since by man came death, by man came also the
resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made
alive."
Genesis 3:1-6 [the serpents way] John 4:14-16: [Gods way] Note the difference in
the approaches? One did not invite the husbands in the decision making and the
other did.
Christ respected the divine order of the family.
The devil had no respect for the divine order of the family. Thus, he counterfeited
the family structure by exalting the woman to the position of the man.

God Reinstating the Order Genesis 3:16
Oneness
The family relation is a reflection of the order of heaven. John 10:30 - I and my
Father are one. Christ and God the Father are one.
Genesis 2:24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall
cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. (See also Matthew 19:5 and
Ephesians 5:31)
Christ and the Father are one, the wife and the husband are one.
Christ submits to the Father
Christ said in John 14:28, John 15:10 - Psalms 40:7 & 8 - "Then said I, Lo, I come: in the
volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law
is within my heart."
Philippians 2:5-8
The family of heaven represents that which the family on earth should be..
{Testimonies for the Church, vol.6, p.168.2}
Why the Counterfeit? Ephesians 5:22-33
Christ and the church Husband and wife
Christ is the head of the church For the husband is the head of the
wife
church is subject unto Christ Wives, submit yourselves unto your own
husbands, as unto the Lord.
Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it So ought men to love their
wives as their own bodies.
The reason for counterfeiting the mans role is to destroy the divine order that God
has set up and to remove man, the male figure, from the position that God has
appointed him. [comment on Marys role as Saviour in Catholicism { Mary is the head
of the church, if therefore the church is referred to in scriptures as a woman?} and
Islam]
The Lord Jesus has not been correctly represented in His relation to the church by
many husbands in their relation to their wives, for they do not keep the way of the Lord.
They declare that their wives must be subject to them in everything. But it was not the
design of God that the husband should have control, as head of the house, when he
himself does not submit to Christ. Adventist Home 118
The Reflection
A family that maintains an order opposite to that of God is reflecting the order of the evil
one.
God sets up a family with the male as the head, and the Devil sets up one with the
female as the head. This is reflected in his order of worship as we will discuss later.
Christ = man/Son of man
Church = woman
Christ is head of church just as man is head of wife/woman
The devil says the woman/church is the head of the man/Christ. [The doctrine of
transubstantiation and the attempt to change Gods law]
In paganism the unity of father son/seed and spirit is represented using the head of the
old man; the zero, or circle, for "the seed"; and lastly, the wings and tail of the bird or
dove. While this had been the original way in which pagan idolatry had represented the
Triune God over time the three persons had come to be, the Eternal Father, the Spirit of
God incarnate in a human mother, and a Divine Son, the fruit of that incarnation the
first person in the Godhead was practically overlooked. As the Great Invisible, taking no
immediate concern in human affairs, he was "to be worshipped through silence alone,"
that is, in point of fact, he was not worshipped by the multitude at all. The mother, in
point of fact, became the favorite object of worship.
(See The Two Babylons by Alexander Heslop )
In pagan worship there is a trinity in which there is a father, a son, and a spirit which is
represented by a female. The father is worshiped in silence, the son remains in the arms
of the mother who is the object of worship.
It is abundantly clear from scripture and history the Devil has subtly counterfeited the
order of God with a goddess as the object of worship. Today he has twisted, and is
twisting, the family order to resemble his order. Thus, he has counterfeited the mans
role by ascribing it to the female.
The husband is the head of the family, as Christ is the head of the church, and any
course which the wife may pursue to lessen his influence, and lead him to come down
from the dignified, responsible position God would have him occupy, displeases God. It
is the duty of the wife to yield her wishes and will to her husband. Both should be
yielding, but preference is given in the word of God to the judgment of the husband.
And it will not detract from the dignity of the wife to yield to him whom she has chosen
to be her counselor, adviser, and protector. The husband should maintain his position in
his family with all meekness, yet with decision. {Spiritual Gifts, Volume 4b, p.97 OR
Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 1, p.307.1}

As a church - if we are going to maintain our families according to the divine order, as
outlined in the scriptures - we have to shun this counterfeit.
Like every other one of Gods good gifts entrusted to the keeping of humanity,
marriage has been perverted by sin; but it is the purpose of the gospel to restore its
purity and beauty. In later times, Paul the apostle, writing to the Ephesian Christians,
declares that the Lord has constituted the husband the head of the wife, to be her
protector, the house-band, binding the members of the family together, even as Christ is
the head of the church and the Saviour of the mystical body. The grace of Christ, and
this alone, can make this institution what God designed it should be -an agent for the
blessing and uplifting of humanity. And thus the families of earth, in their unity and
peace and love, may represent the family of heaven.
{Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, p.64-65.1}