About The Freedom Papers

The Freedom Papers: A New Reformation

For as many of you as have been baptised into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:27-28

Written for all the world and her husband to read.

This series, The Freedom Papers: Three of the four posted here were distributed originally by Run With the Vision Ministries (RWVM). The papers were written to inform, educate and warn Christians about teachings that affect their full freedom in Christ. [1]

The role of the Freedom Papers is to examine erroneous teachings that the church continues to propagate to the detriment of Christian women and men in the church and home. Other biblical equality teachings are also available from rwvm.online.

The Freedom Papers went all over Ireland and England in the late eighties – mid-nineties and helped change the minds of church leaders and influenced their teaching on equality for women and men and the church in general.

If the church is to lay new foundation stones of equality it is imperative that an equal number of women and men function in their full capacity of abilities and gifts. This will enable the church to grow into a strong and healthy body. Our sons and our daughters will reap the benefits of such a reformation. We have yet to see such a church movement, where biblical equality is understood by the church leaders and taught and lived out in all its fulness. I live to see that day!

The groundwork has been prepared and the foundation stones honed and ready to be set in their place for the church to build upon. This is not a new idea it’s old as time and inscribed in Genesis chapter two and throughout the scriptures. It is time. Working to build together with one purpose there is no reason a new vision of a church that believes and practices equality cannot be realised.

From its inception, the Patriarchal agenda has never abated. Its motives are complex. It has an underbelly: the concealed side of its visible nature is not obvious to the uninitiated. Its’ true nature reveals itself when its power is threatened. It turns nasty and can quickly become violent. If I were to formulate it in bible language, I would identify its treacherous nature as the old man: the works of the flesh – sin.

I liken male-controlled doctrine to the tree of knowledge of good and evil. To the unschooled eye It initially looks good: it looks like a tree to make one wise. This external image is especially important in the eyes of those who, I have no doubt, work hard on keeping its outward appearance in shape. The wives and children of those pastors and other church leaders, priests, elders, board members, that adhere to this doctrine, know what I mean by that. I liken these oppressed poor souls as the Silent Minority.

As a family they must collaborate together to make a concentrated effort to keep up a good ‘front’. Having created a template, they must act a part publicly to show the doctrine as ‘working’. They want gullible people to believe that when the doctrine is followed, it will produce ‘God’s order’ in their marriage, family and the church. It is elitist. It is also deceptive. The majority who do not follow the patriarchs are not always aware that they are on the outer as they do not fit the elitist mold. Then there is the rest of us. We are on the outer of the inner closed circle and we do know.

In the first place, very many couples do not agree with the doctrine of male headship. It doesn’t work! Next, nearly 50% of families today are one-parent. Others are not parents. Of these, some have a partner, but they may not have a desire to be parents. Others simply choose to live single. This narrows it down to a small minority of people who follow this ‘male headship’ doctrine. Many of these do not realise how insidious it is.

As for the rest of us, I want to encourage us here to speak up and say it like it is. And what it is – is, its doctrine is irredeemable. The patriarchs are shrewd. They make every attempt to deflect any appearance of it ‘not working’. Their doctrines entrap people. It has a weakness. The men who identify with it may have a predisposition towards domestic violence. It appeals to this type of man.

These are the ones who love authority, obedience of others to themselves, the last word. They absolutely promote marriage, as this means a woman to serve in the kitchen, rear his children, at least those who bear his name, keep the house running, wherever humanly possible, as a showcase, as they are highly competitive and political, and publicly uphold him and at all times serve him (as his ‘helper’) in the everyday routine things of life in the home. Women are also pulled into his inner circle of subservience to serve him in public life. The fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was and still is poison. It brought death and its appetite has not abated.

So, taking this image of the tree further, let’s look at its seed. How was it initially produced? Where did it come from? This tree’s history is long. It is too much to go into here (to find out I strongly recommend you read my Genesis Revisited chapter 2). The shortened version goes like this.

In relation to its religious nature, the heretical seeds of patriarchy were sown and propagated through the means of skewed translation work of the bible’s original languages. In conjunction with these the ancient early Christian writers: the Paters, the Fathers, [2] wrote, taught, and distributed their written works based on these crooked foundation stones.

These early Church Fathers are highly regarded by today’s patriarchs. So much so that they are still published and read today. These dark misogynistic discourses publish an insidious belief system that was built up over time. Their writings reveal a deep hatred and fear of women. It began with the early Roman church. It grew into a strong edifice, framed by disjoined doctrines.

Like nature’s seeds, these too, are distributed on the air. Modern publishing could be titled, ‘the ruler(s) of the power of the air’. Their treacherous doctrines are broadcast by every available means. Today’s powerful examples of publishing include commercial TV incorporate Global TV and CTV. The term ‘broadcastmedia’, covers a wide range of different communication methods that include television, radio, podcasts, blogs, advertising, websites, online streaming digital journalism.

These tainted teachings are in turn sourced and closely followed by homegrown preachers of every denomination. They show their ignorance by the weekly sermons they produce and disseminate. Through them, the doctrine of the patriarchs finally infiltrates by way of the local church. Finally, it ends up in the homes of ordinary good people, of whom the majority, at best, love and desire to please God.

The patriarchs are also known as the Old Guard: Those people in an organization or society who oppose change and whose beliefs and ideas belong to a period in the past. They hate and oppose any reform much less, radical reform. The old guard is renowned for dragging its feet. It considers it to be the sublime connoisseur of conservative social values. Because of the way it sees itself and the power it must hold onto at any cost, it especially becomes jittery when major social changes are stirring. Major social changes threaten the Old Guard. There is much at stake.

The Old Guard especially protects ’family values’. It believes the ‘family comes first’. Its cornerstone is built, not on Jesus, but rather, on patriarchal marriage. Patriarchs believe their version of a godly marriage is the salvation of the human race. They foster the myth that a traditional marriage between a man and his wife, with 2 1/2 children, and the husband as the head (read ‘boss’) of the wife (read ‘helper’ and generally staying at home), and all members of the family serving him in their designated role and place,

One of the Old Guard recently thought up a name for their discriminatory club: the ‘Moral Majority’. Jerry Falwell called women a ‘God ordained minority’ on USA Today Chat: ‘Blacks, Hispanics, women, etc., are God ordained who do indeed deserve minority status’. [3].

Anyone deviating from their ‘creation order’ teaching, is relegated by them to the leper colony: divorcees, gay people, single mothers, children of one-parent families, etc. Patriarchy is in what it considers its Sunday best clothes when embedded in religion. One can recognise the same tree it in all its self-righteous rags in Sharia Law. These two are different branches but come from the same root: power and control, particularly over women and girls.

Patriarchy is like some obnoxious plants: passive-aggressive. An example of this in nature is English Ivy. You know, its decorative on the front wall of that stately Georgian manor or castle or even the little humble cottage. You’d expect a red riding hood to knock on its door. However, watch out!!! These plants crawl up walls and find little cracks in the mortar where they jam their tiny roots in to hang on. Before you know it, brick by brick the house begins to collapse. It also matches that description of that mustard bush Jesus warned us about. When fully grown it changes its appearance. At some point, it changes from what you thought you had planted, a bush, and instead becomes a gigantic tree. [4]

It’s a jungle out there for those in the Christian community who are duped by these giants. [5] It is difficult to navigate until you become fully acquainted with their methods of keeping a lid on you and your gifts. Some Christians are as naive as Red Riding Hood. This is the war we’re all involved in whether we want to be or not. Its underground roots travel largely unseen in polite circles. The axe was laid to the trunk and roots of this tree two thousand years ago and like death and sin, it’s lost its power over us, but some choose not to resist its pull.

Their teaching on male headship helps make men who suffer from a bad self-image feel like ‘men’. It makes strong women who like to get in and get going, (because of leadership gifts) feel better for not doing so, because they would be seen as ‘out of order’ because the teaching says a woman in leadership is against ‘God order’ [6] and this helps the patriarchs subdue women in their spiritual strengths. It makes other women feel protected, as if they can escape life’s pain by just fitting in under the armpit of ‘daddy’, the patriarch, and swoon.

It began to spread its roots through false translators of the original Word. The original translation of any written source is a product of its time. Time changes. Tradition doesn’t. The translation of the source text is not the original word. Translators help shape the target language into which they have translated. My paper, ‘Language of a Godly Leader’ shows how this has happened in the use of words chosen by the translators.

To suit their agenda at that time they introduced target language words to change the original meaning of source language words. These included the Apostle Paul’s words. They are, in the original language, ordinary gentle words any good parent would use when appealing to wayward children or instructing and encouraging mature adults. [7] However, the early ‘fathers’ chose words to give the impression of overbearing authority, typically used by rulers and those in power. Still used today this has led to a maligning of the Apostle Paul and ignorance of the intended meanings of certain words he used.

Translation, therefore, and the interpretation of the same are at the root of the problem we are experiencing today between two opposing parties. These have taken the names ‘egalitarian’ and ‘complementarian’, to make plain what they believe and to underscore the fundamental problem started by the early translators.

The complementarians disguise themselves, their teachings and the advice they bring as loving caring conservative concerned believers, deeply anxious for the preservation of Christian marriage, the family, the church and the nation. They claim their fight is on the front lines of the culture war. And so, it is.

They want to preserve the status quo: that is, for middle and upper-class elitist men and women who want to maintain their position, preeminence, and most importantly, the role in society of the Patriarch. He believes God ordained him to be the head (read ‘boss’) of the house, of ensuring women keep their ‘place’ as ‘helper’, to keep him in his place. That place is male-only leadership in society the church and home.

As I learned more about gender inequality in the church, it began to filter down inside me. I became empowered to write., to preach and teach about its insidious doctrine. I began to confront and expose these wrong teachings as divisive. I wrote the Freedom Papers and posted it out to church leaders, five hundred at a time, in Ireland and England. This was in the late eighties – mid-nineties. The Freedom Papers went all over and helped change the minds of some church leaders and influenced their teaching on women and the church in general.

The reader may be surprised that in the recent past, the patriarchs put all their efforts into blocking gender-inclusive translation of the Bible. When I first learned of this duplicity, some years ago now, it enabled me to understand my past experiences of the Patriarchs. That is, in the way in which I had been persecuted by a number of them. They have a lot to lose and anyone free in their spirit to preach and live without seeking their approval and their ‘covering’, so called, shakes them to the very core. This is when you will see the violent reaction and harsh derogatory words of judgment and intimidation. I have encountered it many times. So have their wives and children and staff, I’ve no doubt.

The Freedom Papers: A New Reformation

The Freedom Papers No 2: Token Women in the Church

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.

The Freedom Papers No’s 1-4 are printed and posted out by RWVM tor emailed to clergy of any denomination where name and address supplied, and donation made to cover cost where possible.

Author: Patricia Erlandsen

Email address: patricia@rwvm.online

Mailing address: PO Box 345 Chevron Island, 4217,. Gold Coast. QLD. Australia

[1] Further biblical equality teachings are available from the Run With the Vision Ministries website (rwvm.online).

[2] The period is generally considered to run from the end of the NT times or end of the Apostolic Age (c. AD 100) to either AD 451 (the date of the Council of Chalcedon or to the Second Council of Nicaea in 787.

[3] Moral Majority, American political organization that was founded in 1979 by Jerry Falwell, a religious leader and televangelist, to advance conservative social values. Although it disbanded in 1989, the Moral Majority helped to establish the religious right as a force in American politics. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Moral-Majority

‘More Than Meets the Eye: The Campaign To Control Gender Translation In Bibles’ Dr A. Nyland. www.smithandstirling.com ISBN 0 957772378. Politically powerful lobbyist groups such as Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood and Focus on the Family have controlled the release, and even the content, of certain Bibles, while producing and promoting their own Bible versions

[4] This is the church: as a mustard bush it’s in the community, small common garden variety type. The tree is religion. Even the ‘birds of the air’ come and nest in its branches. The birds of the air in this instance are cults, those who rob and steal and take by force what is not rightfully theirs, like the patriarchs and their doctrines.

[5] To help recognise them in the church, read my paper ‘Giants in the Land’

[6] Read my Freedom Papers: ‘The Creation Order’, etc. Go to rwvm.online RBW. NT The Freedom Papers.

[7] Go to rwvm.online: RBW: NT. The Freedom Papers ‘Language of a Godly Leader.’

[8] Go to rwvm.online RBW: OT Genesis chapter 2.