DIFFERENT BY DESIGN

JOHN MacARTHUR, JR.

While this book is intended for the reader’s personal enjoyment and profit, it is also designed for study. A personal and group study guide is included at the end of this text.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture references are from the New American Standard Bible, (c) the Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977; other references are from the Holy Bible, New International Version (NIV). Copyright (c) 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

Copy Editor: Barbara Williams

Cover Design: Joe DeLeon

Recommended Dewey Decimal Classification: 248.84

Suggested Subject Heading: Christian Living

ISBN: 1–56476–247–5

Electronic Edition Copyright 1996 by John MacArthur, Jr. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America.

No part of this book may be reproduced without written permission, except for brief quotations in books and critical reviews. For information, write Victor Books, 1825 College Avenue, Wheaton, Illinois 60187.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

PART ONE: THE ATTACK ON GOD’S DESIGN

1. Creation to Corruption

2. The Case for Authority and Submission

PART TWO: GOD’S DESIGN FOR MARRIAGE

3. Marriage As It Was Meant to Be

4. The Excellent Wife at Work

5. A Different Place in God’s Plan

PART THREE: GOD’S DESIGN FOR THE CHURCH

6. The Church’s Leading Men

7. God’s High Call for Women

8. The Character of Service

9. For the Sake of the Kingdom

Personal and Group Study Guide

INTRODUCTION

The fact that men and women are different by design is no surprise to those who are committed to reality or familiar with the Bible. It is a great surprise, however, to many who, over several decades, have engineered, vigorously endorsed, or passively succumbed to the social experiments that deny or attempt to alter that design. The experiments have failed, and have destroyed our culture in the process. A plethora of astute, honest, and brave observers in this closing decade of our century have begun to speak up:

• Item: In the former Soviet Union, where radical social experimentation on male/female roles has occurred since the early part of this century, “many Russian women see true freedom as the ability to be full-time wives and mothers,” according to a front-page story in a recent issue of the Los Angeles Times (Elizabeth Shogren, “Russia’s Equality Erosion” [Thur. 11 Feb. 1993], A1). That traditional option has long been denied them, and both men and women are beginning to sense that this denial was never right:

Public opinion polls show that many Russians, men and women, feel that if they could have the choice, most women would not work outside the home while raising their children …

Lyudmila is one girl who has already decided that she does not want to repeat the double-duty life of her mother, who has toiled full time for 20 years in a candy factory while, like many other Russian women, being solely responsible ...