Preparing to be his helpmeet WEEKLY STUDY anyone?

[IReallyAmHopewell]

Now you can learn from the WISDOM of Debi Pearl and learn to be a HELP MEET for your future husband thru a WEEKLY STUDY and online forum! You can post your testimony, get questions answered and even watch the Pearls youtube videos all in one SAFE Daddy-approved place! http://nogreaterjoy.org/blogs/preparing ... e-or-less/

If this has already been snarked on, please forgive me, I hadn't seen this site until this morning!

[Austin]

No, thanks, Debi. I've got my underwater knitting class at that time.

[emmiedahl]

Is it free? I might do it just to report back. I know I have said this before... but I am DYING to get my paws on these books! I can't find them on Torrent and the ultra-liberal lesbian librarian looked at me like I was crazy when I asked her about them. I tried to explain that it was for research, but she didn't seem to believe me--maybe it was my long skirt and the five children with me.

Or maybe she was trying to reconcile that with the book on Santeria and the Terry Pratchett novels? I have started using self-checkout just to avoid the weird looks I get for my unorthodox combination of interests.

[latraviata]

No, thanks, Debi. I've got my underwater knitting class at that time.

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

[contrary]

the weird looks I get for my unorthodox combination of interests.

HAHAHA...oh, i so feel ya.

i'm trying to find cheap kindle version of this book! i can't seem to get it, even through ILL, at my library...

[Chrystal-J]

Can someone please tell me what a Help MEET is? I think I understand the term "Help Mate", but what is a Meet?

I can't go to any Pearl site with out up-chucking, so I can't help you. lol

[Austin]

Can someone please tell me what a Help MEET is? I think I understand the term "Help Mate", but what is a Meet?

As far as I've understood, they're the exact same thing. I think the KJV or some more "approved" scripture uses "helpmeet", so of course, that's what the fundies will use.

[emeraldskull]

Can someone please tell me what a Help MEET is? I think I understand the term "Help Mate", but what is a Meet?

I can't go to any Pearl site with out up-chucking, so I can't help you. lol

In "pearl" definitions, "Help meet" is a wife always supporting, always submitting, always cheering her husband on. Based on the verse in Genesis: And the LORD God said, [it is] not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. Gen. 2:18.

The word used, "ezer", means "help". What they seem to overlook here is the word used is, in all other places shown in the Bible, more like "help coming when desperately needed", and other than this passage, is always referring to God himself coming and helping people.

http://www.preceptaustin.org/hebrew_wor ... p.htm#ezer

[Kaylee]

Can someone please tell me what a Help MEET is? I think I understand the term "Help Mate", but what is a Meet?

Pretty much answered already, but the KJV account of creation uses the phrase "And the LORD God said, [it is] not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him".

"Meet", at the time it was translated, just meant suitable or fitting, and some translations use the phrase "suitable helper/partner" instead of "help meet". The King Jame's translator's notes also add to "meet" the definition "as before him". Since too many people insist on using the KJV even when they don't understand the language, this got combined into the word helpmeet or "helpmate" as a synonym for wife in submission/complementarian circles.

As others have mentioned, in the Bible the term is actually used more in the sense of military type help, or rescue than as the subordinate helper/servant that fundies make it out to be, and is used of God Himself.

===

I also found it interesting that many old commentaries point out that part of this suitability was because woman was created as an equal to man, who he shared intellect with and could converse and identify with.

copypasta from a few old dead theologians/commentator's thoughts on the phrase:

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible:

one "like himself" ©, in nature, temper, and disposition, in form and shape; or one "as before him" (d), that would be pleasing to his sight, and with whom he might delightfully converse, and be in all respects agreeable to him, and entirely answerable to his case and circumstances, his wants and wishes.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible:

..."There was not found a helpmeet for the man" - an equal, a companion, a sharer of his thoughts, his observations, his joys, his purposes, his enterprises. ... It was therefore apparent that man in respect of an equal was alone, and yet needed an associate.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary:

but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him-The design of this singular scene was to show him that none of the living creatures he saw were on an equal footing with himself, and that while each class came with its mate of the same nature, form, and habits, he alone had no companion.

[Chrystal-J]

Thank you all for this information! It used to drive me crazy when I'd hear that term because it sounded like some kind of grammatical error. I read the New Living Translation of the Bible and that verse is worded differently in KJV. In the NLT, it says:

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.â€

So, it has the word "helper", not "help meet".

I find with fundies, that they tend to use the Old Testament as a way of life, rather than seeing it for it's historical value in relation to showing the chronology of Jesus' decedents and the history of the Jewish religion. In the New Testament, Jesus said (John 13:34-35) "So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.â€

They never seem to get the love that Jesus had for others. With fundies, it's all about control, wrath and punishment.

Thanks again all!

[emmiedahl]

That and other weird translations are why I love my Tanakh. I have Hebrew on one side, English on the other, and extensive footnotes below explaining every word.

[xDreamerx]

If you're really interested in translations and nuance I would recommend a Study Bible because they often have comprehensive footnotes, commentary, maps etc. Harper Collins makes a good one in the NRSV translation. The NRSV is the standard most scholars (not theologians) consider to be the best.

Has anyone ever thought of pulling a Gay Girl in Damascus and pretending to be a fundie online? If the Pearls course is free, it would be an interesting project.

[slh12280]

Ugh. I read part of "Created to be His Helpmeet", and I wanted to burn it but at the same time could not put it down. Haven't read anything about this new book, but my parents did joke they were going to get this book for me after I had enjoyed the first one so much :roll:

So many stories in that book I could not handle. How is it right for women to stay in an abusive relationship and then be blamed when he is abusive???? Debi even called women dumb and stupid. Real Christianly that's for sure. Sorry this book and author get me wound up.

[nuri]

If you're really interested in translations and nuance I would recommend a Study Bible because they often have comprehensive footnotes, commentary, maps etc. Harper Collins makes a good one in the NRSV translation. The NRSV is the standard most scholars (not theologians) consider to be the best.

Has anyone ever thought of pulling a Gay Girl in Damascus and pretending to be a fundie online? If the Pearls course is free, it would be an interesting project.

I have, but I hate the idea of being so dishonest. Also, I don't think I can pull off protestant well enough, having grown up catholic.

[Kaylee]

If you're really interested in translations and nuance I would recommend a Study Bible because they often have comprehensive footnotes, commentary, maps etc. Harper Collins makes a good one in the NRSV translation. The NRSV is the standard most scholars (not theologians) consider to be the best.

Has anyone ever thought of pulling a Gay Girl in Damascus and pretending to be a fundie online? If the Pearls course is free, it would be an interesting project.

For comparing verses & translations, there are also a lot of free online resources.

YouVersion.com lets you read scripture in the translation of your choice with either commentary, other users' notes, or a different translation beside it.

bible.cc is also great, because you can type in a verse and it gives multiple translations, with notes from various commentaries underneath.

As far as "pretending" to be a fundie online, don't have to. I'm a fundie in real life, although I reserve the right to think for myslef which means I find myself either biting my tongue or pissing people off pretty regularly. The funny thing is I fit right in with the people I know in real life, both the IFB's at my church and the women in a local Bible study group who are mostly headcovering, FIC or homechurch, quiverfull, homeschoolers. Online, it's harder, because people are always trying to one-up each other.

[xDreamerx]

For comparing verses & translations, there are also a lot of free online resources.

YouVersion.com lets you read scripture in the translation of your choice with either commentary, other users' notes, or a different translation beside it.

bible.cc is also great, because you can type in a verse and it gives multiple translations, with notes from various commentaries underneath.

As far as "pretending" to be a fundie online, don't have to. I'm a fundie in real life, although I reserve the right to think for myslef which means I find myself either biting my tongue or pissing people off pretty regularly. The funny thing is I fit right in with the people I know in real life, both the IFB's at my church and the women in a local Bible study group who are mostly headcovering, FIC or homechurch, quiverfull, homeschoolers. Online, it's harder, because people are always trying to one-up each other.

That's nice. Completely not my point though.

[BlahMachine]

You are worthless if you are not making money for your service–a marxist idea.

ORLY?

[gracegrace]

You are worthless if you are not making money for your service–a marxist idea.

Ok, I'm just goggling at this. Ummm. . . Marx? Developer of the Labor Theory of Value? Which says that the value of an object is solely the result of the labor required to produce it?

It's the reverse; according to that theory if you are working/serving/toiling, then the value of your product is totally the result of your effort. In other words, even if your daddy owns the house and the kitchen, if you're doing all the work the value of the place is due to you (and it should arguably be yours).

If you're not making money, you're not worthless according to that theory, you're oppressed. Big difference.

(Please to note that I'm not a marxist but I've studied Das Kapital in social philosophy and history of economic thought classes. At my eeeeevvvvillll college where I did terrible things like play D&D, listen to rock, drink, and make out with my boyfriend. We'll skip the part about church every Sunday and still being a virgin when I graduated :whistle: )

[mirele]

No, thanks, Debi. I've got my underwater knitting class at that time.

I believe I have to catalogue my belly-button lint that day.

[GenerationCedarchip]

Is it free? I might do it just to report back. I know I have said this before... but I am DYING to get my paws on these books! I can't find them on Torrent and the ultra-liberal lesbian librarian looked at me like I was crazy when I asked her about them. I tried to explain that it was for research, but she didn't seem to believe me--maybe it was my long skirt and the five children with me.

Or maybe she was trying to reconcile that with the book on Santeria and the Terry Pratchett novels? I have started using self-checkout just to avoid the weird looks I get for my unorthodox combination of interests.

I had to smile at this. I bought Quiverfull, a guide to American jurisprudence and a pretty steamy looking romance novel all at the same time. The Borders clerk looked a little puzzled.

[Guest Anonymous]

I believe I have to catalogue my belly-button lint that day.

I already penciled in a headache for that day. (Whether I'm going to have one or not.)

[JesusFightClub]

ORLY?

I'd be all WTF??? but I've heard this argument made before by fundies. I don't know how it even makes any logical sense in their heads that that idea could be Marxist. I guess SOTDRT doesn't run to political thought.