09 May 2025
Ang panaginip
I was going up a hill. I ended up on a white horse, riding it upward while cars came down toward me in a traffic jam. The horse galloped over the cars. It was like the desert chase in Raiders of the Lost Ark, where Indiana Jones rides a white horse after the truck convoy and jumps onto the moving vehicle, except in the dream I was galloping over the cars themselves. I reached the destination. It was a big house, like a villa. It looked like a villa owned by the mafia or gangsters, the kind of nice house you see in movies.
Ang ibig kong sabihin
The house is a church. Scripture speaks of God’s people as a building and a household:
“Sapagkat tayo ay mga kamanggagawa ng Diyos. Kayo ang bukid ng Diyos, ang gusali ng Diyos.”
(1 Corinto 3:9)
“"Hindi ba ninyo alam na kayo'y templo ng Diyos at ang Espiritu ng Diyos ay nananahan sa inyo?"”
(1 Corinto 3:16)
“"Kaya nga, hindi na kayo mga taga-ibang bayan at mga dayuhan, kundi kayo'y mga kababayan na kasama ng mga banal, at mga kasapi ng sangbahayan ng Dios, Na mga itinatayo sa ibabaw ng kinasasaligan ng mga apostol at ng mga propeta, na si Cristo Jesus din ang batong panulok; na sa kaniya'y ang buong gusali, na nagkakaugnay-ugnay, ay lumalago upang maging isang templong banal sa Panginoon."”
(Mga Taga-Efeso 2:19–21)
“Kayo mismo, na gaya ng mga batong buhay, ay itinatayo bilang isang espirituwal na bahay.”
(1 Pedro 2:5)
“Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.”
(Hebreo 3:6)
The white horse against the cars is God-made against man-made. A white horse in Revelation carries a rider who goes out to conquer, and the one called Faithful and True also rides a white horse. In the old way of sending messages, the king’s messenger rode a horse. The ride is the carrying of a message that does not come from the ordinary traffic of man-made things.
The cars are the flow of what men have made. The horse goes over them. The message keeps moving. The place it arrives at is still a church, but it is the kind of house that appears in the movies when the owners are involved with that world.
In Singapore I understood this to be church hopping. It took some church hopping to find the church with the gangster nuance. I visited multiple churches each Sunday — two in the mornings and one in the afternoon. One of them had split from the church I had been part of. I went there for the first time on 25 January 2026. The preacher said he had aspired to be a gangster when he was young. The moment he said it, I knew this was the house in the dream. I continued to visit this church from time to time. This church is a strong biblical church that understands the gospel more than any other Protestant or Catholic church I have encountered.
After a few visits I began to wonder why I should keep going. One day a lady came up to the pulpit to teach. I remembered the verse that says a woman is not to teach or to exercise authority over a man. Back in July 2024 I had mentioned this to A. B., a good friend and teacher in my church who lives in Manchester. The reason I raised it with him was that there was an online conference involving women teachers. I told him to treat the apostles’ words more seriously. Analyzing the text on the basis of its own reasoning, it gave good reasons. There was nothing cultural about it. Even though I am in favour of egalitarianism, it is more important not to import worldly teachings and then pretend they are God’s. Scripture warns against this:
“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”
(1 John 2:15–17 ESV)
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
(Romans 12:2 ESV)
“For the wisdom of this world is folly with God.”
(1 Corinthians 3:19 ESV)
When Paul gives his own opinion he says so, as he does when he prefers remaining single. Where he does not mark a teaching as his personal opinion, it is more likely the Holy Spirit speaking through him than merely his own preference. I value what comes from the Holy Spirit more than I value Paul’s personal opinion. I never thought much of this ever since in July 2024.
After visiting this church a few times in 2026, I mentioned this to a friend at this church I was visiting in Singapore, I was not expecting to talk about this ever since 2024. He dismissed it and used the excuse of culture. I had heard the same excuse from a theology professor I met on a trip to Turkey in June 2024, who spoke of the young women in Ephesus.
The evil one tends to give excuses. When he tempted Jesus he offered reasons to take the easy path. The same attitude appears when people set aside what is written and call it culture.
The man-made teachings against the God-made teachings in the dream were fulfilled there.
It is fortunate to be loved by God. He disciplines those He loves, as both the Lord in the Old Testament and Jesus make clear. That discipline is the evidence of His attention and love toward this church:
“For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”
(Hebrews 12:6 ESV)
“"Sinasaway at dinidisiplina ko ang mga iniibig ko, kaya't maging masigasig ka at magsisi."”
(Pahayag 3:19)
“For the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.”
(Proverbs 3:12 ESV)
The verse and the excuses
Paul wrote:
“Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.”
(1 Timothy 2:11–15 ESV)
Some Protestants, especially those who hold the egalitarian view, set this aside by saying it only applied to the situation in Ephesus. They point to the cult of Artemis, to uneducated women, to false teaching circulating among women, or to a local problem that does not bind the church today. They treat the instruction as temporary and cultural rather than as apostolic teaching grounded in the order of creation. Complementarian Protestants generally reject that reading and hold that the restriction is rooted in creation and therefore continues. Paul does not present it as a temporary local rule. He roots it in Adam being formed first and in Eve being deceived. He does not call it his own opinion, the way he does when he speaks of remaining single:
“Now concerning the betrothed, I have no command from the Lord, but I give my judgment as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy.”
(1 Corinthians 7:25 ESV)
The excuse of culture is the same kind of reasoning the tempter used with Jesus. In the wilderness he offered reasons to set the written word aside:
“If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”
(Matthew 4:3 ESV)
“If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you…’”
(Matthew 4:6 ESV)
“All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”
(Matthew 4:9 ESV)
Jesus answered each time with what is written. The same pattern appears when people set aside 1 Timothy 2 and call it culture.
Paul also warned about the kind of people who target women who are easily led:
“For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.”
(2 Timothy 3:6–7 ESV)
Naivety and motherhood
The text itself notes that the woman was deceived. That is not a modern claim. It is what Paul wrote. Naivety appears in other places. Advertising on television and the internet often targets women with emotional appeals. Campaigns for plant-based food, beauty, and other causes frequently use the same method. Media knows how to play on feeling. There have also been news reports of people who died in connection with extreme vegan diets, including an influencer who followed a raw vegan diet for years and a student whose B12 deficiency linked to a vegan diet was connected by a coroner to psychiatric symptoms and her death. 1 2 3
The passage is a give and take. The restriction on teaching and exercising authority over a man is set alongside the positive role of motherhood. Motherhood is a gift. Through childbearing and the care of children a woman is kept, if she continues in faith, love and holiness with self-control. A mother learns the cost of sacrifice through the pain of bearing and raising children. That pain teaches her what love actually requires. Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13 ESV). His own sacrifice is the measure of that love. A mother’s love, which lays down comfort, time and often health for her children, reflects something of that same sacrificial pattern. Women who did not plan to have children have later written that the experience expanded their capacity for love and changed what they valued. One described the love for her child as startling because it opened a new kind of love. Others who had been certain they did not want children later said they could not imagine life without them. The design is not an insult. It is the way God made her, and the restriction in the church sits inside that design rather than against it. The verse on childbearing is the other side of the same passage: the place where a woman is kept through the role God gave her.
Ang mga talata
“And I looked, and behold, a white horse! And its rider had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he came out conquering, and to conquer.”
(Revelation 6:2 ESV)
“Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.”
(Revelation 19:11 ESV)
“"Tinatalikuran ninyo ang utos ng Diyos at pinanghahawakan ang mga tradisyon ng mga tao."”
(Marcos 7:8)
“See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.”
(Mga Taga-Colosas 2:8)
“Sapagkat tayo ay mga kamanggagawa ng Diyos. Kayo ang bukid ng Diyos, ang gusali ng Diyos.”
(1 Corinto 3:9)
“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.”
(Ephesians 2:19–20 ESV)
The horse carries the message upward. The cars are what men have built and set in motion. The house at the top is a church. In Singapore the church hopping led to the one where the preacher spoke of having wanted to be a gangster, and later where a woman taught from the pulpit and the written instruction was set aside as culture. That was the house the dream had already shown.
For me, this dream has been fulfilled. At least, I think it is.
Some studies for references: https://findgod.help/en/Church.html https://findgod.help/en/Apostasy.html https://findgod.help/en/Apostasy2.html https://findgod.help/en/Catholics.html https://findgod.help/en/Evangelicals.html https://findgod.help/en/Mormons.html https://findgod.help/en/Orthodox.html https://findgod.help/en/Protestants.html https://findgod.help/en/Jehovahs%20Witnesses.html
Notes on emotional appeals
Several articles and campaigns illustrate how commercial interests use emotional messaging that is directed especially toward women:
- The Conversation, “The dark side of plant-based food – it’s more about money than you may think” (2019): https://theconversation.com/the-dark-side-of-plant-based-food-its-more-about-money-than-you-may-think-127272
- BBC Future, “The mystery of why there are more women vegans” (2020): https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200214-the-mystery-of-why-there-are-more-women-vegans
- Dove’s “Real Beauty Sketches” campaign (2013) used self-perception and emotional self-image to drive engagement with a beauty brand.
- Always’ “#LikeAGirl” campaign (2014) reframed an emotional and social message around gender stereotypes to build brand loyalty with young women and parents.
- Longreads, “If Clean Food Is for Everyone, Why Are Its Gurus All Young, Pretty Women?” (2017) examines how wellness and clean-eating trends are marketed through emotional lifestyle narratives aimed at women: https://longreads.com/2017/08/17/if-clean-food-is-for-everyone-why-are-its-gurus-all-young-pretty-women/
- https://in.mashable.com/culture/57506/food-influencer-who-was-following-all-raw-vegan-diet-for-a-decade-dies-of-starvation ↩︎
- https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/student-found-dead-after-vegan-33980717 ↩︎
- https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/vegan-boy-starved-death-abiyah-yasharahyalah-birmingham-b2763407.html ↩︎
