Jane Hansen Hoyt is the International President of Aglow International, an organisation which, according to the back cover of the book, has a presence “in close to 170 nations”, “touching an estimated 17 million people each year”.  The Aglow organisation was originally called “Women’s Aglow”, but some years ago decided to allow males to also join their ranks.

This short book is subtitled “God’s Original Design for Men and Women”.  It totals 93 pages divided into 10 chapters, each chapter ends with a summary in point form and some questions for further thought.

The overall argument of the book is that these are increasingly difficult times, and the church needs to return to God’s original plan of men and women working together to achieve God’s purposes.  This is commendable, but it is in the detail that Hoyt goes astray.

The book emphasises the Old Testament with little reference to the New, and where the New is quoted, it misunderstands it.

Hoyt says that when Eve said to God in Genesis 3:13 “The serpent deceived me, and I ate“, she was showing an ability to identify Satan at work.   Women have ever since had this ability, which leads to Satan trying to suppress women.  “[S]he would crush his head and continue to expose him throughout the ages.  This has led to systematic attempts – both flagrant and subtle – to silence, suppress and undermine the women’s value as a person and her role in families and societies around the world.” (Page 43).  She goes on to say “the Church often does not recognize the strength of the woman’s role, and she is kept serving in the nursery or singing in the choir.” (Page 44).  The solution to the abuse of women is to “help women understand their authority over the evil one.” (Page 44).

Paul seemed to have a very different take on this incident in the garden, he said in 1 Timothy 2:14 “Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner.” (NIV11).  Paul sees this verse in Genesis as showing that the woman came under Satan’s deception, not that she had a special understanding of how Satan works!

Sadly this misuse of Scripture abounds in this little book.  Hoyt sees that men and women together are going to deal with and subdue Satan (Pages 17, 18).  She then quotes Psalm 8:2,6 to show that God has put all things under men and women’s feet.  In contrast, Paul and the author of Hebrews see these verses as being fulfilled in Christ, not the church (1 Corinthians 15:25-28; Ephesians 1:22; Hebrews 2:5-9).

When talking about the creation of Adam in the image of God, and then God creating Eve, Hoyt asks “what happened to that image of God?  Was it added to?  Was it subtracted from?  It was neither.  It was divided.” (Page 28).  Because of this, the image of God “must come through both the man and the woman.”  She doesn’t seem to understand that both can be made in the image of God without dividing it, she has misunderstood what that phrase means.

A great example of Hoyt’s confusion is found page 51:

Women are Satan’s enemy in a very profound and real way. For this reason, God has been awakening women to the crucial role we play in His overall plan in the earth to see the Church come into the fullness of His purpose. It is also why the enemy tries to keep women in what he thinks of as “their place,” to silence us, to make us unsure of who we are and why we are here. He does not want us to discover and fulfill our true purpose. He fears the female gender and understands that our strength will be his undoing. An even greater fear is that the Church will discover the combined strength of the genders merging their anointings together as God purposed from the beginning, thereby moving in a united way to expose and conquer his evil doings and enforcing the ultimate victory Christ died to give us. All power has been given unto us!

I can only assume she feels that the Apostle Paul’s writings are one of Satan’s methods of keeping women in “their place”.  In fact, all power has been given to Christ, not to us.  We only have power as we work in accordance to his will.  It is his victory already won, not something that we have to enforce.

Hoyt uses a misunderstanding of Acts 3:21 to support this view of the future.  She says this verse “says that the heavens will actually hold Jesus back until all things have been restored.” (Page 52). That is, until male and female are “walking together in the power and strength of God’s original design and purpose.” (Page 52).  In fact Acts 3:21 actually says “Heaven must receive him [Jesus] until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets.” (NIV11).  The heavens are not holding Jesus back, he is there until God makes the decision that it is time for Jesus to return to restore all things.  This is a reference to the second coming when the old heaven and earth will be destroyed and a new heaven and earth will replace them (2 Peter 3:10-13).  God is not waiting until the Church achieves something, he is wanting to give people a chance to repent (2 Peter 3:9).

Hoyt feels that until the Church fulfils it’s destiny and and begins “to live as the spotless bride for which Jesus will return”, (Page 92) Jesus cannot return.  She claims “[t]here is an alignment of genders, a merging of anointings, taking place in this hour that will bring forth a powerful victory on earth.  It was intended from the beginning; it is the true face of dominion; and it may well be necessary for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.” (Page 91).  The Church is to be Christ’s spotless bride, but the Bible tell us that this achieved not by the alignment of genders, but by Christ’s work on the cross, washing away our sin and making us pure.  It is true that John does say in his Revelation that the bride makes herself ready by “the righteous acts of God’s holy people.” (Revelation 19:7-8. NIV11).  However the biblical emphasis is on Jesus and what he has done.

But what does Hoyt think of what Paul and Peter have to say about the good ordering of the church as far as the roles of men and women are concerned?  She does not make any explicit reference to these passages.  She does say that the “restoration God desires for women is not about positions on church boards: it is not about whether we can be pastors or leaders and still be “doctrinally correct.” We can (and do) see women in all these positions in churches around the world.” (Page 88).  It appears that what churches have decided to do is more important than doctrine.  Apparently no discussion of whether what they do is correct or not is required.  Hoyt’s vision trumps biblical doctrine.

Paul gave us instructions for how churches should be ordered for very good reasons.  Carl Trueman was right when he said “Paul sees that a church structure, as well as a church message, is vital to the safeguarding and propagation of the gospel.”

She goes on to say “[yet] we are still missing God’s heart.  Although we have women functioning in all these roles, we are still nervous about it, uncomfortable, unsure that it is fully appropriate.” (Page 89).  The reason for the nervousness may be because God has told us not to go that way and people are aware of that, but Hoyt has a different idea, she says the “reason is that the issue goes much deeper than that. It is not about whether women can teach or hold offices in the Church.  It is about the image of God, the likeness and glory of God being manifested in the Church, male and female.”  Apparently the solution is to go further and, on one level, ignore the differences that God has designed into men and women so they can work effectively in a partnership.  However, Hoyt does see differences between men and women, she talks about women’s ability to battle against Satan, and that woman and Satan are especially enemies.  Does not this imply a different role for women than men?  She cannot have her cake and eat it as well!

Hoyt says that this “is the hour for the Church to awaken and arise to its fullest capacity and take dominion.” (Page 33).  This is to be fulfilled by allowing women to have the position in the church that she was designed to have from the beginning.  The Church must see “the strength of the place of the woman” and her influence and voice must not be minimised (page 33).  This is quite true, but that is not to be achieved by women taking roles in the church that are against what God has told us is the best way for the church to operate.  It should be achieved by women making the full use of their unique and important gifts to build up the church as God wants it to be, rather than working against God’s good purposes.

Along the way I gathered the impression that Hoyt is looking for paradise now, rather than in the new heavens and new earth that we will experience when Jesus returns.

As the International President of a large and influential organisation, I would have hoped for better exegesis and a yearning to ensure that everything that she said conformed to God’s word.  Sadly, that is not the case.