My testimony starts with my father and mother’s testimony as they both were so integral in me coming to Christ as a child.
My father was baptized as an infant and raised in the Catholic church. My mother was raised in a Baptist church. My father’s parents were not genuine believers, but they raised their family in the Catholic church because of the societal pressure from their relatives.
My mother’s parents were not true believers either, but they raised my mother in the Baptist church because of pressure from my mother’s grandmother who was a devout born-again Christian. When my mother’s grandmother died when she was child, her parents stopped taking her to the Baptist church.
While my mother and father were initially married by a judge, my father asked my mother to convert to Catholicism so they could be married in the Catholic church and have their future children baptized in the Catholic church – and my mother did just that and my older sisters, I and my younger brother were all baptized in the Catholic church.
Eventually my mom decided she did not like the Catholic church, and she asked my father if they could start attending a Baptist church – and he was completely opposed to attending a Baptist church. He agreed as a compromise to change to going to a Lutheran church.
Like many Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox Christians, my parents were not true believers. They just went to church because it was the socially accepted thing to do, their parents and grandparents before them did it – so they had to do it.
After my father and mother started attending the Lutheran church, which had a stronger emphasis on Bible teaching, my mother started reading the Bible for herself. And she came across many Gospel passages and realized she had never truly repented and accepted Christ as her Lord and Savior. She then called upon the Christ to save her, and her conversion radically changed her life.
When my mother’s grandfather died, my father and mother attended his funeral which was hosted by a local Baptist pastor. After the funeral service, that Baptist preacher shared the Gospel with my father and while my dad did not accept it there the Lord was working on his heart.
At the same time, my mother as a new believer met a woman from that same church where that pastor was from. And that woman mentored my mother in how to be a godly submissive wife. She taught my mother to practice 1 Peter 3:1-2 with my father to help win him to Christ.
After my father accepted Christ, he stood up in that Baptist church and he told the people there that it was because of my mother’s newfound faith, and the total transformation he saw in her from a rebellious woman to a submissive wife, that he came to Christ.
So, if I were to trace my true spiritual heritage, I owe the fact that I was raised by a born-again, bible believing father and mother to my great-grandmother and my own mother who were huge godly influences in the lives of my great-grandfather and my father.
My Conversion and the Confirmation of My Faith
My father moved around for work, but my parents continued to faithfully serve in the Baptist churches they attended. When I was 7 years old, my parents sent me to church camp with the Baptist church we were attending at that time. It was there at that camp as I heard the Gospel and read the Bible that I realized I was not saved.
I came home from church camp and explained to my father what I had learned at camp and that I knew I was not saved. My father took me through some more Scripture passages and then I repented of my sins and called upon Christ as my Lord and Savior as a 7-year-old boy.
I continued with my family and parents in the Baptist church for most of my life and then after I graduated from a Baptist Christian high school and started community college, I wanted to explore other religions as well as the different Christian denominations.
I read books on Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. I read books on the history of the development of the Christian church including the early church, Roman Catholicism, the Great Schism and the Protestant Reformation and books on Baptist history.
After a couple years of these studies, I was more convinced than ever of my belief that Christianity was the one true faith, my belief in the Protestant doctrines of sola scriptura, sola fide, sola gratia and my beliefs in the Baptist distinctives of believer’s baptism and the autonomy of the local church.
My Rejection of Dispensationalism and Calvinism
There were, however, some things I came to question that were taught to me in the Baptist churches I grew up in. One of the first areas I began to question as a young man in my 20s was my church’s teachings on eschatology.
My issue was not with premillennialism itself, as I found that to be solidly based on a literal interpretation of prophesies of the Bible concerning the end times. My issue was with Dispensational Premillennialism which I found to be wanting for Scriptural support for their “secret rapture” theory and some other things they taught.
I discovered the writings of Charles Spurgeon, his critiques of Dispensationalism, and his belief in Historic Premillennialism which aligned with that of the early church fathers. And I found myself in general agreement with Spurgeon on this.
As I explored Spurgeon’s writings more, I came across his beliefs in the doctrines of Calvinism. And I thought that if he was right about Historic Premillennialism as I had come to believe, then perhaps he was right about Calvinism to.
Even as I began to identify as a Calvinist, I always had some doubts about Calvinism, but I figured if Spurgeon, the Reformers and Augustine all thought these doctrines were right, then they must be.
A couple years later, as I was studying the Scriptures I came across 1 Peter 1:2’s phrase “Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father” and God revealed to me that I was not chosen to believe on Christ – but rather that I was chosen to be justified, sanctified and glorified because God foresaw before I was ever born that one day I would believe. It was at that point that I utterly rejected the doctrines of Calvinism.
My doubts about my pastor’s teachings on Dispensationalism and then my doubts about Spurgeon, the Reformers and Augustine’s teachings on Calvinism taught me a valuable life lesson as a Christian man.
Except for Christ and his Apostles and the prophets before them – no one is inerrant in their interpretation or applications of the Bible. We can and must accept that these great men may have been right on some things and wrong in others.
My conversion from Complementarianism to Biblical Patriarchy
When I entered my second marriage, both my wife and I were complementarians. We believed in the modern extremely water-down version of male headship in marriage. This modern view of marriage makes the husband no more than a figure head leader who offers suggestions to his wife. Complementarians see marriage as a generally equal partnership with the tie-breaking vote belonging to a husband if the couple cannot agree on decisions.
I wasn’t just a Complementarian; I was a full on “Mr. Nice Guy” Complementarian believing that if I was just a “servant leader” and sought to make my wife happy that we would have a good marriage.
I bought my second wife lavish jewelry and took her on expensive trips all hoping to make her happy and truly win her love and affection. I cooked and cleaned as I worked on my software development job from home, and she worked at the hospital as a nurse. And while there were brief moments when she appeared happy, those moments became shorter and shorter.
Some might say the reason for the failure in our marriage was not because the Complementarian or “Mr. Nice Guy” approaches don’t work – they would just say maybe she had some issues with finding her own happiness that had nothing to do with me.
And I will fully admit, I have met couples over the years that have Complementarian or even Egalitarian marriages that seem to have very happy and even long-lasting marriages.
My second marriage could have been to a woman who didn’t bring in all the emotional baggage, discontentment, entitlement and stubbornness that my second wife brought with her. My second marriage could have been to a woman who found her value in being a wife to me rather than in her career and one who was grateful and appreciative for anything I did for her.
And if that were the case, we may have had a happy Complementarian marriage – and I would have never realized the truth that Complementarianism is an unbiblical way to conduct marriage.
In 2012, about two years into my second marriage, I began a deep study of all the Bible passages relating to marriage. As I studied the Scriptures, I saw in the Hebrew Language of the Old Testament that the husband was referred to as his wife’s master and owner.
And I saw in the New Testament in Ephesians 5:22 that wives were commanded to submit to their husbands not just as figured head leaders, but “as unto the Lord” and that in 1 Peter 3:5-6 wives were commanded to be subjection to their husbands, to be obedient them and to refer to them as their “lord”.
I came to realize that the Bible does not present marriage as an equal partnership with the husband only being a figure head and tie breaker. But rather, the Bible presents marriage as a benevolent master/servant relationship with the man representing God as the loving master and the woman representing the people of God as the adoring servant to the master.
And I discovered that I was not alone in my new understanding of marriage as a benevolent master/adoring servant relationship but that this belief was the traditional interpretation of the Bible by church leaders across the centuries and in modern times it was referred to as “Biblical Patriarchy”.
My Discovery About the Purpose of Life and Marriage
The “Purpose Driven Life” was published by Rick Warren in 2002 and it became a worldwide phenomenon selling more than 11 million copies in the first year. In the book, Pastor Warren said what a lot of Christian Pastors had said for years that the meaning and purpose of life was to worship God, fellowship with other Christians, become more like Christ, serve in ministries and give the Gospel to others.
While it is true that we as Christians are commanded to do all those things that Rick Warren mentions in his book “The Purpose Driven Life” – it is not true that the Bible say these things are the primary purpose for which we were created.
Once I discovered the historic Christian teaching that marriage is indeed a master/servant relationship I sought to understand WHY God setup marriage in this way. And this is when I came across a passage in 1 Corinthians 11 which shows the true purpose for which men and women were created by God.
“the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man… forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man… Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man. For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head”
1 Corinthians 11:3,7 & 9-10
I came to realize that God created male human beings to image his masculine nature, to literally live out his attributes. Men image God in their life’s work in various industries as builders, creators, warriors, athletes and scholars. They also image God as husbands and fathers.
1 Corinthians 11:9 absolutely crushes the modern notion that men and women were made for each other – it tells us that God made the woman for the man, and he did not make the man for the woman.
God tells us to honor the woman “as the weaker vessel” in 1 Peter 3:7. Why are we called to honor weakness? Because this was part of God’s grand design. God purposefully created women weaker both emotionally and physically so that they would need men to lead, provide for and protect them and this gave men a way to fulfill their intended design.
What does 1 Corinthians 11:7-9 show us is the meaning of life? Answer – to fulfill the reason for which we were created. If we are born in the male human body, then our purpose is to image God in all his various masculine attributes including as a worker, a husband and a father and thereby bring him glory. And if we are born in a female human body our purpose is to find a male human to serve as his wife, the mother of his children and the keeper of his home and thereby bring our husband glory and as a result bring glory to God.
The Birth of BiblicalGenderRoles.com
In 2014, after two years of study and the realization of the truth of the doctrines of Biblical Patriarchy, God placed a great burden on my heart to stand in this gap, to teach these lost or ignored doctrines that were not being taught in our modern churches.
Men were not being taught how to be men and women were not being taught how to be women – at least not from the Bible. Most churches were encouraging young women to have careers and to postpone getting married and having children. And when they did have children to have a small number of children. And most churches were teaching men it was impossible to be sole providers, that they would need to seek out career women who would share the load of leading and providing for the family as their partners in marriage.
And this is why in April of 2014, I started my blog – BiblicalGenderRoles.com.
I am fully convinced of the truth of Romans 8:28 which says “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose”. Everything that happened in my life prior to 2014 when I started Biblicalgenderroles.com, was ordained by God to bring me to start this ministry.
About five years after I started BiblicalGenderRoles.com, at the request of several of my readers, I started my podcast ministry BGRLearning.com in 2019. Since then, I have created several series and hundreds of podcasts, some directly based on popular articles I have written on BiblicalGenderRoles.com and others being brand new original content. And I am thankful to God that this podcast ministry is still going strong and I get people who write me regularly now to tell me how these podcasts have changed their lives.
I am also grateful that in the last few years God has allowed me to start Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) ministries that have seen good growth in spreading the message of God’s Word concerning gender roles.
When I started this ministry back in 2014, I was one of only a small handful of voices calling people back to the doctrines of Biblical Patriarchy as found in the Bible. I am happy to say that since that time God has moved hearts and minds in America and now many new voices have joined this fight for the restoration of Biblical Patriarchy especially on Instagram and X.
As I write this testimony in January of 2025, BiblicalGenderRoles.com has reached over 7 million people and had nearly 14 million views of various pages and content. And while I do receive a great deal of hateful emails and comments what truly encourages me is the positive emails I receive from men and women of all ages telling me how much the content of this blog has helped them grow in their walk with God and find a true biblical based purpose for their lives.
Answers to Other Questions People Commonly Ask Me
I believe in verbal plenary inspiration of the Bible – that the 66 books of the Bible, the 39 of the Old Testament and the 27 of the New Testament are the inerrant Word of God. Not only do I believe in the infallibility of the Bible, but I also am a Biblical Literalist. That means I believe with the rare exception of some symbolisms in biblical prophecy, that the Bible should be taken literally.
Because I am a Biblical Literalist, I am also a young earth creationist meaning that I believe God created the earth in six literal days – it did not evolve over six “periods” of time as some Christians teach.
I believe Jesus Christ was the sinless Son of God, part of the triune God head of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. That Christ was sent by the father, born of a virgin and he gave his life on the cross for the sins of mankind and rose again the third day.
I believe the Gospel as stated in Romans 10:9 “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved”.
I believe we as believers were predestined to be “called”, “justified” and “glorified” as Romans 8:30 states according to “the foreknowledge of God the Father” (1 Peter 1:2) that we would believe. In other words, God looked into the future saw who would respond to his call to believe and predestined those he foreknew would believe to be justified, sanctified and glorified – Amen.
With that said, I utterly reject the doctrines of Calvinism which say that we must first be regenerated in order to believe. The Scriptures are clear in Ephesians 1:13 of the order of the salvation process – first we hear the word of truth, then we believe, then we are indwelled with the Holy Spirit who regenerates us.
I am a husband, father and grandfather in my early 50s. My five children are all adults and some are married with children.
When I start this blog in 2014, Proverbs 22:3 came to mind which states “A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished“. I knew some people would seek to punish me for the Biblically based views I would espouse on this site – so I decided to write under the pen name “Larry Solomon“.
My first name really is “Larry” but my real last name is not “Solomon”.
I knew some people would seek to hurt me by trying to get me fired from my job or other even causing me physical harm. And I was right, there have been several doxing attempts and even death threats against me since I started this ministry.
My ethnicity is white, specifically I am of British, German and other Eastern European decent. My great great grandmother was a German Jew who married another non-Jewish German immigrant after they moved to Canada in the late 19th century after which their children and my ancestors moved to America in Michigan where my family resides today.
The Bible says in Romans 11:25-28 that the majority of the physical descendants of Jacob, whom God renamed “Israel” and were later called “Jews”, are blinded to truth of the Gospel and their true Messiah, Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul says they are “enemies” of Christians, yet “they are beloved for the father’s sakes”. And it for this reason that I am honored to share even a small part in the physical blood line of Abraham, Issac and Jacob who were the ancestors of the mother of my Lord and Savior – Jesus Christ.
While I don’t really talk about prophecy or politics much here on BiblicalGenderRoles.com, occasionally over the years I have written about my views of politics on the BiblicistReport.com (A site I built specifically for political issues from a Biblical perspective).
I am a Historic Premillennialist as opposed to a Dispensational Premillennialist as it relates to my interpretation of Biblical prophecies. And I do not believe Historic Premillennialism is inconsistent with Christian Nationalism which I also believe in. Many of my Biblical Patriarchist friends are Postmillennialists believing that all nations will be brought under Christian rule before Christ returns. I don’t believe that view is supported by a literal reading of the Scriptures. However, that does not mean that there won’t or couldn’t be some nations under the rule of Christian law when Christ returns – and I hope we can make America into one of those nations.
I have not addressed it yet on that site, but I probably will address the Jewish issue as it has been at hot topic of conversation amongst Biblical Patriarchs in recent years. For now, I will just say that I believe we can and should see Jews in America as political and spiritual enemies in that they oppose Christianity and specifically Christian nationalism. Jewish funded politic pacts have for decades driven the secularization of America and chasing Christ out of our politics and culture and we as Christians must oppose these secularist efforts wherever they rise.
Does the fact that I realize Jews are enemies of Christians as clearly stated by the Apostle Paul in Romans 11:28 mean that I support Nazism or depriving American Jews of basic rights to life and property? No. And those who support such harsh measures against Jews forget the last part of Romans 11:28 – that the blinded and unbelieving Jews while being our enemies are still beloved of God.
No, I do not have a college degree, nor did I attend seminary. My knowledge is based on my own personal study of the Bible and many church history books and Bible commentaries.
I am a licensed minister, I got my license several years ago to perform marriages for family members who asked me to officiate their marriages.
I am also the worship leader at a Baptist church where I faithfully attend with my family each Sunday. I have taught Sunday school at Baptist churches that I have attended over the years including the church I have attended for the more than 15 years.
Does the senior pastor of the church where I am a worship leader know about my ministry? Yes. He and I have been close friends for over 20 years. Does he agree with everything I write? No. My pastor is a Complementarian, and I am a Biblical Patriarchist – but he very much believes in my freedom and that of other Christians to believe in and teach the doctrines, principles and practical applications of Biblical Patriarchy.
Does my wife support my ministry? Yes and No. Like the pastor of our church, she believes that I and other Christians who are Biblical Patriarchists should be able to believe in and teach the principles of Biblical Patriarchy that we believe in. But no, she does not agree with much of what I write because she is a Complementarian and moderate feminist.
Do my beliefs lead to a lot of conflict in my marriage? Yes. When I changed from a Complementarian to a Biblical Patriarchist back in 2012 it caused a lot of turmoil in my marriage. If my wife who was a nurse at the time had not had a car accident that disabled her and made me her full-time caretaker, I believe we would have been divorced within a couple years of my change.
But our God is sovereign, and he didn’t want either me or my wife to have it easy. He decided to give us both a challenging marriage.
Lastly on my marriage I will say this – my wife is not some helpless victim. She loves me and I love her – she could have gone her own way even after the accident and started a new life as she is not a paraplegic. But the accident caused us to reevaluate our marriage, and we decided that God wanted us to stay together knowing it would be challenging.
One of the most challenging parts of our marriage after my conversion from Complementarianism to Biblical Patriarchy has been that we must forgive one another often when the other does not agree that a certain action was sinful. My wife may act in disrespectful or unsubmissive ways toward me that I believe are sinful but based on her worldview she won’t see those actions as sin – so I must forgive her without getting an apology.
And it goes the same for her, there are times when I will assert my position as her earthly lord (1 Pet 3:5-6) and head (Eph 5:23-24) and exercise dominance over her or I will discipline her in some non-physical way, and she will see it as me disrespecting her. And again, I won’t apology in those situations because I don’t believe I did anything wrong – in fact I believe I did what God calls me to do in ruling over her (Gen 3:16).
So that covers it for the most common questions I get asked. I hope you will explore the rest of my site to learn more about what the Bible says about God’s design of gender roles and marriage as well as sex and discipline in marriage.
Biblical Gender Roles 
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