From: "Richard Sydney-Smith" <>
To: <>
Subject: Leadership : the biblical model
Date sent: Fri, 5 Jun 1998 03:59:19 +0800

I read with some interest the article on headship as applied to the christian home.

I noted serveral attempts to avoid confrontation with the modern sensibilities of the submittees by stressing the christlike nature of christian leadersship.

While we would all applaud leaders/husbands who live manifest such beauty; I put it to you that this thread had avoided the nub of the problem.

The heart of this problem is how to deal with imperfect leadership, and the question/problem applies equally to the husband-wife relationship and the pastor-congregation relationships.

As Christians we know well how to deal with leadership/husbands who fail and fall into gross sin. It is written , we quote ... and judgement is passed.

However the models of biblical leadership Abraham, Moses, Joshua, David, Jesus, Paul do not give much place to the modern concepts of arbitration / conciliation in the decision making process. Thus the egalitarian model derives strength by placing leadership solely in the hands of the one leader who is fully trusted.

Headship is the core problem of the western church today. 400 years ago society was held together by rock hard principles of leadership cascading down from the Father Almighty, to Jesus, to Pope , to King, ......., to husband, to wife, to children.

Mighty eruptions have fragmented the biblical leadership model. Eruptions that were caused by the church failing to discern / implement an escape clause to deal with sin and falibility in leadership. In the absence of a godly solution society has opted for democracy which has such an escape clause in the principle of elections/voting.

Feminism is a basic statement of faith in the sin nature of man. For womanhood to florish trust is fundamental. For manhood to flourish responsibility is fundamental.

Feminism, democracy, egalitarianism etc are not the problem. The problem is that the Church of Jesus Christ has not discerned the solution to leadership in a fallen world.

I will read with interest your response.

Richard Sydney-Smith
Skynet Communications
Perth, Western Australia

Note : Democracy is the best solution discovered todate for non-combative leadership and the orderly transfer of power. However democracy is seen as a pre-christian , non-Jewish Greek solution to the leadership issue. Since it has not been derived from biblical sources it has become a bulwark against the biblical claim to being a complete revelation of "how should we then live". Democracy is a life principal is being expanded to include issues such as tolerence, anti-discrimination, arbitration and conciliation. As such democracy has become the New World Order which replaces the Biblical King model.

My personal opinion is that this is the counterfeit system being prepared for the counterfeit Christ. Were the deception to move from the political to the spiritual ( by the anti-christ being revealed) most of the church would go along with the deception because they do not know how to stand against the counterfeit principals of tolerance, anti-discrimination, arbitration and conciliation listed earlier. Thus the stage is set for the initial defeats predicted in the anti-christs war against the saints.

Thus I note that this question of leadership raised on a husband/ wife level in this newsgroup has indeed a much more urgent aspect, and indeed if I were to presume to impose I would state that it is THE question the mind of the Church is being asked to face and solve.