When People Refuse to Become Biblical Adults

I. Introduction: A Generation Stuck in Delay

We are living in an age of prolonged adolescence, an era where grown men still act like boys, and grown women still dream like girls. Adulthood has been pushed so far down the road that most never reach it. Chronological age no longer corresponds with maturity. The very concept of “coming of age” has been diluted, perverted, and ultimately lost in our generation.

This is not a cosmetic cultural issue. This is a spiritual crisis. A people who do not become adults cannot inherit anything, cannot rule anything, and cannot be entrusted with the covenant of God. Scripture is clear: the Kingdom of God is built through mature sons and fruitful daughters. But when you look around modern society, from the universities to the churches, from entertainment to family life, you don’t see maturity. You see eternal childhood.

This is not by accident. The war on adulthood is strategic. It has been waged by globalists, feminists, and social engineers to keep people in a perpetual state of dependency, ignorance, and rebellion. Because children cannot rule, build, defend and children cannot stand in covenant.

This post will explore, expose, and declare war on the prolonged adolescence that grips our culture. It will define biblical adulthood, demonstrate how it has been delayed and destroyed,  then offer the pathway to restore maturity, responsibility, and dominion.

II. The Biblical Pattern of Adulthood

A. God Expects Maturity

From the very beginning, God created humanity for growth. Adam was not created to remain innocent forever. He was given a dominion mandate, to rule, to subdue, to name, to work, to guard, and to multiply (Genesis 1:28). These are not the tasks of a child. These are the responsibilities of a man. Likewise, Eve was not made to frolic in eternal girlhood; she was made to be a helper fit for dominion (Genesis 2:18). Not a doll or dreamer. But a builder of the house (Proverbs 14:1).

God’s pattern throughout Scripture is the calling and commanding of sons to become men and daughters to become women. Not in some vague, emotional sense, but through function, labor, responsibility, marriage, childbearing, and legacy. There is no neutral “young adult” phase in the Bible. You are either a child under tutelage, or an adult under responsibility.

B. The Jewish Rite of Passage

The Hebrews understood this. A boy became a man at thirteen in terms of moral responsibility. But his household maturity, the real proof of manhood, was shown in whether he could labor, lead, marry, and steward a household. Similarly, a girl was considered a woman when she was ready to marry and build a household of her own (Deuteronomy 22:13–21).

The entire system was designed to produce functioning, contributing, responsible adults by the time puberty ended. Not at 30. Not at 40. And certainly not never.

III. The Great Delay: How Adulthood Was Postponed

A. The State Replaces the Father

One of the main reasons for the failure of biblical adulthood is the destruction of the family. When the state replaces the father, boys and girls grow up under bureaucratic management instead of masculine leadership.

Public schools teach obedience to systems, not responsibility. They train children to submit to external authorities, bells, schedules, and ideological conformity, not to master themselves or govern a household.

Fathers who once trained sons to be warriors, craftsmen, farmers, and elders have now been sidelined by credentialed professionals and licensed therapists. Instead of learning how to be a man by watching his father, the modern boy is taught to stay in school, play video games, and find himself. The result? A thirty-five-year-old male with a Marvel hoodie, a porn addiction, no wife, no children, no plan, and living in his parents basement.

B. Feminism Abolishes Womanhood

Just as the father’s role has been erased, the woman’s role has been perverted. Girls no longer grow up aspiring to be wives and mothers. They are told from the youngest age that homemaking is slavery and marriage is oppressive. They are taught to compete with men, delay childbearing, and chase careers.

This demonic lie has created generations of girls who grow into confused, bitter, lonely women. They never enter real adulthood because they never build a home. They stay in an endless loop of romantic drama, social media addiction, and corporate servitude.

God defines womanhood not by independence but by fruitfulness. A woman is glorified through her ability to help a man rule, to train children, and to guard the garden of her home. But when she trades all this for student debt, STDs, attention, and cubicle politics, she forfeits the crown of womanhood and becomes a ward of the state.

C. Adolescence: The Modern Invention

The very concept of “teenager” is a modern invention. Historically, there were children and adults. The artificial category of adolescence emerged in the early 20th century, when industrialism and government schooling began to extend dependency well beyond puberty.

The new system encouraged rebellion against parents, peer bonding instead of family loyalty, and the deferral of responsibility. Now we have not only adolescence, but emerging adulthood, delayed launch syndrome, and quarter-life crises.

This is not growth. It is arrested development. It is psychological warfare dressed up as sociology.

IV. The Markers of Biblical Adulthood

Let us now define what it truly means to be an adult according to Scripture, not according to state policy or cultural norms.

A. For Men

1. Mastery of Self
   A man who cannot govern his appetites is not ready to govern anything else. Biblical manhood begins with discipline. He must rule over lust, anger, laziness, and foolishness. (Proverbs 25:28)
   
2. Productive Work
   Adam was given a garden to tend before he was given a wife. A man must work with his hands, produce value, and provide. Laziness is the mark of a child. (Proverbs 12:11)
   
3. Readiness to Marry and Lead
   Manhood culminates in headship. He must be able to lead a woman, provide for her, protect her, and raise children. He must be spiritually grounded, doctrinally sound, and mission-driven. (Ephesians 5:23–29)
   
4. Covenantal Responsibility
   A man must be accountable to God’s law, to his family, to the elders of the Church. He must see himself as part of a generational mission, not a solo journey. (Psalm 112:1–2)
   

B. For Women

1. Meekness and Submission
   The mature woman is not loud and defiant. She is meek, teachable, and reverent (1 Peter 3:1–6). She honors male headship, beginning with her father and culminating in her husband.
   
2. Home Orientation
   Adulthood for a woman is defined by her ability and desire to keep the home (Titus 2:4–5). She is not called to be a competitor in the corporate world but a queen within her domestic realm.
   
3. Fertility and Nurturing
   Godly women rejoice in childbearing. They do not delay or avoid motherhood, whether by birth or by mothering her sister-wives children; she embraces it as a high calling (1 Timothy 2:15).
   
4. Covenant Stewardship
   Like Sarah and Rebekah, mature women serve the covenant by supporting the household vision, preparing the next generation, and exercising wisdom within their God-assigned sphere (Proverbs 31).
   

V. The Fruits of Perpetual Childhood

Bitter Women, Broken Homes

The modern woman has been sold a lie: that growing up means throwing off God’s order, rejecting fatherly authority, scorning a husband’s leadership, and becoming “independent.” But what the feminist age has produced is not strength, it is emotional ruin, spiritual barrenness, and psychological chaos. When a woman refuses to become a biblical adult, the results are not neutral. They are disastrous. Her immaturity spreads like a contagion into every relationship she touches, especially the home.

When women delay or reject adulthood, they become unstable, insecure, and resentful. They give their bodies to men who defile and often will not marry them. They build careers that drain their soul. They reach their 30s and 40s with no children, no Biblical husband, and no joy. And then they rage at God.

The bitter reality is that in their quest for independence, these women become dependent on the state, on pharmaceuticals, and on emotional fantasy. They live in chaos because they rejected the order God gave them

A. Co-dependency Masquerading as Independence

The irony of modern womanhood is that it claims autonomy while living in emotional dependence. Many women today have not truly grown up; they have simply traded one dependency for another. Having rejected the righteous headship of their father or husband, they latch onto false substitutes, government programs, social media validation, friend groups, astrology, or emotionally enmeshed peer circles.

This co-dependency manifests in women who cannot function alone, yet refuse to submit to godly authority. They expect men to bear the burden of their emotional instability while denying those men the right to lead them. They demand provision and protection, but recoil at correction. These are not wives. These are full grown “littlegirls” with marriage certificates.

The biblical woman is a helpmeet, strong, wise, productive, and joyful in submission. The immature woman is a parasite, demanding, fragile, unstable and emotionally needy.

B. Manipulation for Attention

A core trait of the immature woman is her constant hunger for attention. This hunger drives her to manipulate, perform, exaggerate, and provoke.

Rather than quietly stewarding her domain in the home, she creates drama to draw the spotlight. Every emotion is a public event. Every minor disagreement becomes a test of loyalty. Every relationship must orbit her moods.

She will play the victim to avoid accountability. She will pretend to be fragile to avoid responsibility. She will exaggerate her accomplishments to avoid discipline. She does not want truth, she wants reaction.

This is emotional manipulation, a tool used by the spiritually weak and carnally ruled.

In contrast, the godly woman “opens her mouth with wisdom, and in her tongue is the law of kindness” (Proverbs 31:26). She doesn’t need to manufacture crises or force validation. She fears the Lord and is therefore secure, stable, and content.

C. Theatrics, Pouting, and Mercurial Moods

There is little more exhausting for a man than to lead a woman given to childish theatrics. One moment she is warm, the next moment she is cold. She sulks when she doesn’t get her way. She withholds affection to punish. She melts down over imagined slights and stews in self-pity to manipulate sympathy.

Scripture says that a “continual dropping in a very rainy day and a contentious woman are alike” (Proverbs 27:15). The wise man Solomon, despite all his grandeur, knew the misery of an unstable, emotionally volatile wife.

This is not a mental health issue, it is a discipline issue. Women are called to adorn themselves with a meek and quiet spirit (1 Peter 3:4), not with theatrical tantrums. They are called to bring stability to the home, not emotional whiplash.

An emotionally disciplined woman is a crown to her husband. But one given to constant mood swings is a curse upon the household and upon creation itself!

D. Lying and Embellishing for Control

Another hallmark of female immaturity is lying and storytelling as a means of control. The immature woman embellishes her past, invents grievances, and warps facts, not always to deceive maliciously, but to steer outcomes in her favor. She lies for sympathy, for status, or for sway.

She will retell conflicts with her parents or husband in a way that makes her always the wounded party. She will invent mistreatment where there was correction. She will rewrite the past to shield her ego.

This behavior is rooted in pride and self-idolatry. The immature woman cannot stand the idea of being wrong, so she builds a false world around herself where she is always the hero, or always the victim.

In contrast, the righteous woman is a woman of truth. “Lying lips are abomination to the Lord: but they that deal truly are his delight” (Proverbs 12:22). She speaks with honesty, repents when wrong, and refuses to bend reality to serve herself.

E. “Daddy Issues” and the Warped Female Soul

The phrase “daddy issues” is often used flippantly, but it reveals a deeper spiritual wound. A woman who grows up without a godly father, or who rejects his authority, often spends the rest of her life chasing male affirmation in twisted, unhealthy ways.

She may become flirtatious, dressing to draw the male gaze. She may become controlling, seeking to dominate men rather than submit. Or she may become cold and hardened, swearing off marriage while secretly craving the protection of a strong man.

These behaviors are rooted in disordered affections. Instead of honoring the authority God placed over her, she despises it and then seeks to recreate it in her own image.

The result is a woman who cannot relate to men in a healthy, covenantal way. She either tries to seduce them, subjugate them, or manipulate them. But she cannot respect them.

Only Christ can heal such a woman, and He does so by reestablishing her under the rightful covering of headship. Not therapy. Not feminism. Not a YouTube coach. But godly submission to order.

F. Failure to Launch

Finally, we must deal with the modern phenomenon of female stagnation. Just as many men refuse to grow up, countless women today live in a state of arrested development, what might be called “failure to launch.”

They stay in their parents’ homes well into their late twenties or thirties, not because of poverty, but because of comfort and immaturity. They pursue endless degrees and travel experiences, dabble in dating apps, and rotate hobbies, but never settle into biblical womanhood.

They may even attend church. They may even speak Christianese. But they have no intention of submitting to a husband, bearing children, or managing a home. They are perpetual adolescents in adult bodies.

Scripture is clear: “I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully” (1 Timothy 5:14).

Womanhood is not a vibe. It is a vocation. It begins when a woman commits to her God-given purpose as wife, mother, and homemaker.

G. Weak Men, Crushed Nations

When men refuse to grow up, entire nations collapse. Weak men allow their homes to be invaded, their churches to be feminized, and their governments to become tyrannical. Why? Because children do not guard the gates.

The man who never becomes a true adult is passive, addicted, unmotivated, and vulnerable. He cannot lead his wife (or even get one in many cases), discipline his children, or challenge evil. He becomes a servant of the system, not a patriarch of the Kingdom..

H. Fatherless Children, Lawless Cities

Prolonged adolescence produces fatherless homes. Boys without fathers become criminals or effeminates. Girls without fathers become promiscuous or masculinized. The result? Lawless, violent, directionless cities.

You cannot rebuild civilization with boys and girls who never become men and women. You cannot wage spiritual war with a generation of extended children.

VI. The Road Back to Maturity

A. Repentance from Rebellion

The first step is repentance. Men must repent for their cowardice. Women must repent for their rebellion. We must stop blaming society and start confessing our sin. Delayed adulthood is not just unfortunate, it is a rejection of God’s order.

B. Restoration of Patriarchy

There is no path to maturity apart from the restoration of father-rule. Fathers must reclaim their role as trainers, disciplinarians, and vision-casters. Sons must once again look to their fathers as heroes, mentors, and kings. Daughters must return to the covering of their fathers until they pass under the headship of a husband.

The family is the training ground of adulthood. Without it, the child will be raised by the streets, the screens, or the state.

C. Real Education for Real Life

Education must be reclaimed from the clutches of the state and reoriented toward dominion. Boys should learn to build, fight, and lead. Girls should learn to cook, nurture, and beautify. Math and language are useful, but not if they replace discipleship and household skills.

Adulthood is not formed by memorizing facts but by embodying function. We must restore household economies, apprenticeships, and covenantal education.

D. Marriage and Responsibility – Early

God never designed humans to live two decades in hormonal limbo. We must stop treating marriage as the final prize after a long season of “finding yourself.” It is the beginning of adulthood.

Young men should prepare for marriage early, not by dating, but by working, studying, and submitting to elders. Young women should be raised with a vision of marriage, not as an interruption, but as the fulfillment of their design.

Early marriage with the support of family and Church restores sanity to the maturation process. It connects identity with responsibility, not romance.

VII. The Church Must Lead the Charge

If the Church continues to pander to adolescents in adult bodies, she will forfeit her prophetic voice. Sermons must call men to rise and lead. Pastors must call women to marry and build. Programs must be replaced with purpose.

We don’t need more youth groups that encourage extended play. We need rites of passage that commission young adults into their roles as builders of homes and defenders of truth.

The Church must teach:

• That men are made to bear the weight of provision and protection
  
• That women are made to bear the glory of nurture and homemaking
  
• That age is not maturity, and comfort is not calling
  

Until the Church preaches adulthood, the world will preach adolescence.

VIII. The Fruit of Maturity: Order, Glory, Dominion

When people grow up into their God-given callings, the world begins to heal. Strong men lead nations. Wise women build households. Children are raised in the fear of God. The gates of cities are secure. The glory of God fills the land.

True adulthood is not just a milestone, it is a mission. It is a rite of dominion. It is the threshold into legacy.

When a man takes a wife, he becomes a father. When a woman bears a child, she becomes a queen. When both submit to God’s law, they become rulers under Christ.

And when households are governed in order, the culture around them has no choice but to change.

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IX. Conclusion: Put Away Childish Things

The Apostle Paul writes:

“When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”
—1 Corinthians 13:11

This is not optional. This is a command. A generation that refuses to put away childish things will lose its inheritance, forsake its children, and dishonor its God.

We were not made to remain in the sandbox of safety and immaturity. We were made to build, to conquer, to reign under Christ. The time has come to stop making excuses. Stop playing games. Stop waiting for the perfect moment.

Put away childish things.

Rise. Build. Rule.

This is The Great Order!