Becoming God's True Woman Offers Keen Insight into Biblical Womanhood

Many of us who fall under the “bibliophile” category, wonder with some incredulity what Solomon was driving at when he complained in Ecclesiastes 12:12, “Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.” Imagine what he would have thought had he anticipated Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press in the 15^th century! Indeed, books flow off our presses today by the truckload to a degree that it is difficult for most books to gain lasting consideration. However, once in a while a book comes along that demands further consideration and our friends at Crossway have re-released just such a book: Becoming God’s True Woman, a Scripture-saturated compilation on biblical womanhood edited by author and radio host Nancy Leigh DeMoss.  

Crossway originally published the book in 2002 under the title Biblical Womanhood in the Home. In her introduction to the new edition, DeMoss establishes the contemporary problem which the book seeks to examine through the spectacles of Scripture:

“The feminist revolution was supposed to bring women greater fulfillment and freedom. It was supposed to make us feel better about ourselves; after all, ‘You’ve come a long way, baby!’ But we see the poisoned fruit of the revolution in the eyes and pitiable cries of women who are drowning in the quagmire of serial divorce and remarriage and wayward children; women who are utterly exhausted from the demands of trying to juggle one or more jobs, function as single parents, and be active at church; women who are disoriented and confused, who lack a sense of mission, vision, and purpose for their lives and who are perpetually, pathetically, shrouded in woundedness, self-doubt, resentment, and guilt. Yes, the revolution has come to church. And when you add up all the gains and losses, there is no question in my mind that women have been losers—as have their husbands and their children and grandchildren—as has the entire church—as has our lost, unbelieving culture.

DeMoss and fellow essayists Carolyn Mahaney, Mary Kassian, P. Bunny Wilson, Barbara Hughes, Susan Hunt and Dorothy Patterson offer bold and biblical relief to the local church for the crisis and confusion among women which the contemporary feminist movement has created, particularly as it has infiltrated the church.

In Part I—“The Glory of Womanhood as Created by God”— of the three-part work, Mahaney and Kassian establish the fundamentals of biblical womanhood by examining biblical femininity, authentic beauty and knowing God as Father.  In Part II—“The Challenge of Biblical Womanhood in a Fallen World”— DeMoss contributes chapters which paint a portrait of the woman used by God and Wilson examines sanctification—“Pruned to Bloom.” The final section—“The Freedom and Joy of Women as Helpers and Nurturers of Life—provides compelling and clear-headed biblical application for biblical womanhood in five chapters:

• “A Wife’s Responsibility to Help Her Husband,” by Hughes.
• “Liberated Through Submission,” by Wilson.
• “How to Raise Feminine Daughters,” by Hunt.
• “Nurturing Mothers,” by Patterson.
• “Older Women Mentoring Younger Women: Titus 2 in the Church Today,” by Hunt.

In the final chapter, Hunt provides practical guidelines forbuilding a Titus 2 culture within the women’s ministry of local churches. Sheoffers a plan for beginning Titus 2 mentoring groups in which mature Christian women serve as “spiritual mothers” to younger women. The goal, of a Titus 2ministry, she writes: 

“Is not a dazzling, well-runministry. Paul told the young preacher to equip older women with sound doctrine so they could train young women, ‘that the word of God may not be reviled.’ (v.5) This is compelling. It is a gospel imperative. It is the way Christian womenshow and tell the next generation of women ‘the glorious deeds of the LORD, and his might, and the wonders that he has done…that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments.’ (Ps. 78:4, 6-7) And thus Christendom is advanced.”