In modern society we tend to
think if you are a person who has authority over another, that’s a good thing.
If you are someone who has to submit to an authority, that’s a bad thing.
However, have we rightly understood the categories of headship and submission?
Whilst popular culture portrays headship with the notion of domineering, and
submission with the notion of being a doormat, the bible presents a different
view. Rather these roles have their roots in something far greater, in God
Himself. If we dislike authority and submission we may just find that we are
beginning to dislike God himself.
The Biblical Basis for complementarianism
1.
Defining male-female equality
Male-female equality may be defined as
Man and woman are equal in the sense that they bear
God's image equally. (Raymond C.
Ortlund, Jr)
Evangelical feminism argues that God created man
and woman as equals in a sense that excludes male headship.Male headship/
domination (feminism acknowledges no distinciton) was imposed upon Eve as a
penalty for her part in the fall. It follows, in this view, that a woman's
redemption in Christ releases her from the punishmnet of male headship.
It may be understood that the image of God in man
is the soul's personal reflection of God's righteous character. To image God is
to mirror his holiness. (Calvins Institutes, 1, XV, 4, cr. Eph. 4:24, Col.
3:10) Others interpret the image of God as a combination of moral
uprightness and will, or even in a more general sense, including human
rationality, conscience, creativity, relationships, the God given capacity for
eternal life, and everything we are as man. However one interprets the image
Dei, God shared it with man alone. Man is unique, finding his idenity
upward in God and not downward in the animals. Matthew Henry said “that the woman was made of a rib out of
the side of Adam; not out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of
his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his
heart to be loved.”
2.
Defining
headship
In our culture, the concept of headship often conjures to mind male domination and the oppression of women, where a man's will is asserted over a womna's without regard for her spiritual equality, rights, and value. This, however, could not be further from the biblical understanding of headship. In fact the antithesis to male headship is male domination. The model of headship is our Lord, the Head of the church, who gave Himself for us. (Eph. 5:23, 25) Male headship, thus, can be defined as:
In the partnership of two spiritually equal human
beings, man and woman, the man bears the primary responsibility to lead the
partnership in a God-gloryfying direction. (Raymond C. Ortlund, Jr)
We see in Ephesians 5:23 that "the husband is
the head (Kephale) of the wife." Paul then goes on to clarify
the meaning of the husbands headship by saying that "the husband is the
head of the wife as Christ is head of the church" (v 23). It is evident
that Christ is the head of the church as the authority over it because the
following verse speaks of the church as submitting to Christ. The two concepts
mutually explain one another: the church submits to Christ's authority because
he is the head or authority over it. Thus John Piper says "biblical
headship for the husband is the divine calling to take primary responsibility
for Christlike, servant leadership, protection and provision in the
home."(John Piper, Wayne Grudem, Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, 1993, p
52)
3.
Defining
submission
In the garden the Lord God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make him a helper suitable for him." (Gen. 2:18) "Biblical Submission for the wife is the divine calling to honor and affirm her husband's leadership and help carry it through according to her gifts. This is the way of joy.... The Biblical reality of a wife's submission would take different froms depending on the quality of a husband' leadership. This can be seen best if we define submission not in terms of specific behaviours, but as a disposition to yield to the husband's authority and an inclination to follow his leadership.This is important to do because no submission of one human being to another is absolute. The husband does not replace Christ as the woman's supreme authority. She must never follow her husband's leadership into sin." (John Piper, Wayne Grudem, Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, 1993, p 47, 53)
4.
Men and Women have different Roles in Marriage
as part of the created order
When the members of the council on Biblical Manhood
and Womanhood wrote the “Danvers Statement” in 1987, they included the
following affirmations:
1.
Both Adam and Eve were created in God’s image,
equal before God as persons and distinct in their manhood and womanhood.
2.
Distinctions in masculine and feminine roles are
ordained by God as part of the created order, and should find an echo in every
human heart
3.
Adam’s headship in marriage was established by God
before the fall and was not a result of sin
4.
The Fall introduced distortions into the
relationships between men and women.
5.
Redemption in Christ aims at removing the
distortions introduced by the curse
6.
In both men and women a heartfelt sense of call to
ministry should never be used to set aside biblical criteria for particular
ministries. Rather, Biblical teaching should remain the authority for testing
our subjective discernment of God’s will.
5.
The fall
distorted the roles ordained in the created order
The fall of man itself was an inversion of the
gender roles, and God's judgement was to give them over to broken relationships
where the roles of men and women were distorted. The events bringing about the
fall reads that Eve, rather than obeying God she eat of the one tree they were
told not to eat of: "...she took some and ate it. She also gave some to
her husband, who was with her, and he ate it" (3:6b).
"Mark well what the text says and what it does
not say. The text does not say, "... she took some and ate it. her
husband, who was with her, also took some and ate it." What actually
happened is full of meaning. Eve usurped Adam's headship and led the way into
sin. And Adam, who (it seems) had stood passively, allowing the deception to
progress without decisive intervention- Adam, for his part, abandoned his post
as head. Eve was deceived; Adam forsook his responsbility. both were wrong and
together they pulled the huma race down into sin and death. Isn't it striking
that we fell upon an occasion of sex role reversal? Are we to repeat this
confusion forever? Are we to institutionalize it in evangelicalism in the name
of the God who condemned it in the beginning?"(Raymond C. Ortlund, Jr)
Rather than the order God had established:
1.
God as head of adam ruling over him
2.
with adam submitting to God as the head of woman
3.
with Eve submitting to the man ruling together with
adam over the animals and Satan as God's creation
We see, in man's sin, the order reversed
1.
Satan addressing eve rather than Adam (v 1)
2.
Eve listening to Satan rather than ruling over him
(v 2-5)
3.
Adam submitting to Eve (v6)
4.
God being blamed by Adam for their disobedience (v
12)
"but if Adam and Eve fell into sin together,
why does Paul blame Adam for our fall in Romans 5:12-21? Why doesn't Paul blame
both Adam and Eve? WHy does genesis 3:7 say that it was only after Adam joined
in the rebellion that the eyes of both of them were opened to their condition?
Why does God call out to Adam, "Where are you? (Genesis 3:9) (41) Why
doesn't God summon both Adam and Eve to account together? Because, as the
God-appointed head, Adam bore the primary responsibility to lead their
partership in a God-glorifying direction.... Satan struck at Adam's headship.
His words had the effect of inviting Eve to assume primary responsibility at
the moment of temptation: "You decide, Eve. You lead the way. Wouldn't you
rather be exercising headship?""
In God's judgement of the women, he brings about a
brokenness in relationship through the distortion of roles. In Genesis 3:6 God
says:
There is a helpful parallel statement in Genesis
4:7 which reads:
"[Sin's] desire is for you, but you must
master it."
To parallel and amplify the sense: "Sin has a
desire, Cain. It wants to control you. But you must not allow sin to have its
way with you. You must rule over it." This verse clarifies the meaning of
the woman's "desire". Just as sin's desire is to control Cain and
master him, God gives the woman up to a desire to control her husband and
master him. And as the woman attempts to usurp the man's God given headship,
the way the man now relates to the femal as she competes for leadership is to
oppose and even silence her through domineering. Just as Cain was to
oppose and silence sin.
6.
The
equality and difference between Men and Women reflect the Equality and
differences in the trinity
In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul
writes:
“But I want you to understand
that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and
the head of Christ is God.”
"In the verse, “head”
refers to one who is in a position of authority over the other, as this Greek (kephalē) word uniformly does whenever it is
used in ancient literature to say that one person is “head of” another person
or group. So Paul is here referring to a relationship of authority
between God the Father and God the Son, and he is making a parallel between
that relationship in the Trinity and the relationship between the husband and
the wife in marriage. This is an important parallel because it shows that there
can be equality and differences between persons at the same time." (Wayne
Grudem, Evangelical feminism and biblical truth. 2007)
When did the idea of headship and submission begin then? The idea
of headship and submission never began! It has always existed in the eternal
nature of God himself. And in this most basic of all authority relationships,
authority is not based on gifts or ability (for the Father, Son and Holy spirit
are equal in attributes and perfections. Authority belongs to the Father, not
because he is wiser or because he is a more skillful leader, but just because
He is the Father. The Westminster Catechism created in 1647 to
faithfully crystallize the doctrines of the bible says
"There are three persons in the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Ghost; and these three are one true, eternal God, the same in substance, equal
in power and glory; although distinguished by their personal properties." They
don’t differ in any attributes, but only in how they relate to each other. And
that relationship is one of leadership and authority on the one hand and
voluntary, willing, joyful submission to that authority on the other
hand. We can learn from this relationship among the members of the Trinity
that submission to a rightful authority is a noble virtue. It is a privilege.
It is something good and desirable. It is the virtue that the eternal Son of
God has demonstrated forever. It is His glory, the glory of the
Son as He related to His Father. This is evidenced by the following:
a.
The Father
and the Son are equal in value and essence and purpose
i. Jesus
is equal with the Father and one in essence (John 1:1, Hebrews 1:3, John 14:7)
ii. Jesus
is one with the father in saving mission and purpose to die for the elect “I
and the Father are one” (John 10:30)
b.
The Father
has eternally been the head of Christ and the Son has eternally submitted to
the Father.
i. The
Father planning the redemption of mankind to the praise of his glory in Christ.
(Ephesians 1:3-14, Matthew 24:36, 1 Peter 1:1)
ii. The
Father Creating the world through the Son. (Col. 1:16) Nowhere does Scripture
reverse this and say that the Son created “through” the Father.
The Son is the one “through whom” God created the world (Hebrews 1:2) –“God spoke
to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his
Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whome also he created the
world.” The Son was the powerful Word of God who carried out the commands of
the Father, for ”all things were made through him” (John 1:3). All things were
created by the Father working through the Son, for “there is one God, the
Father, from whom are all things… and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things” (1
Corinthians 8:6).
iii. Jesus
being sent into the world to save by the Father. The Father “gave” his only Son
(John 3:16) and “sent the Son into the world (John 3:17, 34; 4:34, 8:42; 10:36,
Galatians 4:4).
iv. Jesus
affirming his submission to the Father’s will – I came to do “the will of him
who sent me” (John 4:34; 6:38, Mark 14:36). “Father if
you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will but yours be done”
(Luke 22:42, Matt 20:22)
v. Jesus
obedience to the Father’s commands (John 10:18, 12:49),
vi. The
Son sits at the Father’s right hand (Romans 8:34; Hebrews 1:3, 13; 1 Peter
3:22); the Father does not sit at the Son’s right hand. And for all eternity,
the Son will be subject to the Father,
for after the last enemy, death, is destroyed, “the Son himself will
also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God
may be all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28)
c.
The headship
of a husband and the submission of a wife is designed to reflect the eternal headship
of the Father and the submission of the Son ( 1 Cor. 11:3)
7.
The
roles of men and women reflect Christ and his Church (Ephesians 5:22-32)
There is a leadership or
headship role that belongs to Christ and that the church does not have. It is
not reversible. Similarly, in marriage as God created it to be there is a
leadership role for the husband that the wife does not have. Likewise, It is
not reversible.
Marriage is ultimately a
symbol of Christ and His Church as Ephesians 5:24–32 makes clear:
“Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. . . . “Therefore [quoting Genesis 2:24] a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.”
Marriage is a visible symbol of the gospel - Christ laying down his life for His bride, the church. Two men or two women cannot symbolize the gospel, which is the purpose God's design for marriage. John Piper remarks:
“In other words, from the beginning there has been a mysterious and profound meaning to marriage. And Paul is now opening that mystery. And it is this: God made man male and female with their distinctive feminine and masculine natures and their distinctive roles so that in marriage as husband and wife they could display Christ and the church. Which means that the basic roles of wife and husband are not interchangeable.... The husband displays the sacrificial love of Christ’s headship, and the wife displays the submissive role of Christ’s body. The mystery of marriage is that God had this double (of wife and husband) display in mind when he created man as male and female. Therefore, the profoundest reality in the universe underlies marriage as a covenantal union between a man and a woman.” ” (Sermon: Let marriage be held in Honour by all. 2012)
“Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. . . . “Therefore [quoting Genesis 2:24] a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.”
Marriage is a visible symbol of the gospel - Christ laying down his life for His bride, the church. Two men or two women cannot symbolize the gospel, which is the purpose God's design for marriage. John Piper remarks:
“In other words, from the beginning there has been a mysterious and profound meaning to marriage. And Paul is now opening that mystery. And it is this: God made man male and female with their distinctive feminine and masculine natures and their distinctive roles so that in marriage as husband and wife they could display Christ and the church. Which means that the basic roles of wife and husband are not interchangeable.... The husband displays the sacrificial love of Christ’s headship, and the wife displays the submissive role of Christ’s body. The mystery of marriage is that God had this double (of wife and husband) display in mind when he created man as male and female. Therefore, the profoundest reality in the universe underlies marriage as a covenantal union between a man and a woman.” ” (Sermon: Let marriage be held in Honour by all. 2012)
8.
Men
and Women are Equal in Value and Dignity as both are made in the image of God
(Genesis 1:27.)
9.
Men
and Women have different Roles in Marriage as part of the created order
a.
“The language
of ‘complementarianism’ derives from the Bible’s account of the creation of man
and woman- “
I will make a helper suitable for him” (Gen. 2:18). The Hebrew word for
Suitable mean’s ‘a helper
corresponding to/oriented to him’.
b.
10
arguments showing male headship in marriage before the fall, and in God’s
restoration in Christ
1.
The order of creation. (Genesis
2:7 and Gen 2:18-23 cf. 1 Timothy 2:14).
2.
The representation of Adam
over mankind. “Sin came into the world through one
man…who was a type of the one who was to come… because of one man’s trespass,
death reigned through that one man.” (Romans
5:12-21, 1 Corinthians 15:22)
3.
The naming of women. As the
context of Genesis 1-2 demonstrates, the person doing the naming of created
things is always the person who has authority over those things. (Genesis
1:5, 8, 10, 2:19, 20, 23)
4.
The naming of the human race. The
word that is translated “man Is the Hebrew word Adam. (Genesis 5:1-2)
5.
The primary accountability of
Adam, though they both ate the fruit.
(
Genesis 3:9) This is similar to the situation in Genesis 2:15-17 where God gave
commands to Adam alone before the fall, indicating there also a primary
responsibility that belonged to Adam. By contrast, the serpant spoke to Eve
first (Genesis 3:1), trying to get her to take responsibility for leading the
family into sin, and inverting the order that God had established at Creation.
6.
The purpose of Eve as Adams
Helper. (Genesis
2:18) The activity of helping can be done by someone who has greater, equal or
lesser authority. In the situation under consideration, the person doing the
helping (Eve) is put in a subordinate role to the person (Adam) who has primary
responsibility for carrying out the activity of ruling. Paul captures this well
when he 1 Corinthians 11:9 he writes, “For indeed man was not created for the
woman’s sake, but woman for the man’s sake.” This does not take away from Eve
being equal in value and dignity as God is also described as Israel’s helper.
(Psalm 146:5)
7.
The conflict
of the fall lead to a curse that brought a distortion of previous roles, not
the introduction of new roles.
(Genesis 3:16, 4:7) The only other occurrence of the word translated “desire”
which is teshÛqāh plus the preposition
‘el in the whole Bible is in Genesis 4:7 where God says to cain “Sin is
crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but your must rule over it”
Showing the meaning of the word desire used for Eve to imply an aggressive
desire to conquer, rule over, oppress and act against. The word translated
“rule” where God says that Adam, “Shall rule over you” (Genesis 3:16), is the
Hebrew term māshal. This is a common
term in the Old Testament that regularly if not always refers to ruling by
greater power or force or strength. The word does not signify one who leads
among equals, but rather one who rules by virtue of power ans strength (Gen.
45:26, Judg 14:4, 15:11, 1 Kg 4:21, Ps. 66:7, 89:9, Nehemiah 9:37, Isa. 19:4)
8.
The
restoration we find through salvation and redemption in Christ in the New
Testament reaffirms the created order. If
God’s judgement in the fall was for woman’s desire to be to usurp the husbands
authority and the male’s tendency to harshly rule by power then we would expect
to find in the New Testament a reversal against these. That is exactly what we
find in Colossians 3:18-19. “Wives submit to your husbands, as is fitting in
the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them.” This
command Is an undoing of the woman’s desire to usurp authority (Hebrew -the
verb teshÛqāh +’el) and the harsh
rule of the husband (Hebrew māshal)
that God imposed as the curse. God reestablishes in the New Testament the
beauty of the relationship between Adam and Eve that existed from the moment they
were created.
9.
The mystery
from the beginning of creation was that Marriage was a picture of the
relationship between Christ and His Church. (Ephesians 5:31-32) It is not
reversible. There is a leadership or headship role that belongs to Christ and
that the church does not have. Similarly, in marriage as God created it to be
there is a leadership role for the husband that the wife does not have.
10.
The parallel with the trinity:
The equality, differences, and unity, between men and women reflect the permanent
and unchanging equality, differences, and unity in the Trinity.(1 Cor. 11:3)
c. The
New Testament consistently draws upon Genesis 2 for these instructions;
sometimes Genesis 2 and 3 together; but never simply Genesis 3. (Eph.
5:28, 31; 1 Cor. 11:3-12, 1 Tim. 2:13-14)
10. God
pronounced that the equality and differences between men and women expressed in
a hierarchically ordered relationship are Very Good (Genesis 1:31)
God after creating
the world, plants and animals reflected upon His creation and said
that all He had created was "good" (Genesis 1:25). It was not until
God created us as men and women, equal in His image and different in roles,
that "God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very
good" (Genesis 1:31). This created order is very good and also
fair. Our feminist egalitarian friends argue that it’s “not fair” for men to
have a leadership role in the family simply because they are men. But if this
difference is based on God’s assignment of roles from the beginning,
then it is very good and it is fair. Jesus always submitted to God the father
and no one would say that this was not very good, as it led to our
salvation! He said, “I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will
but the will of him who sent me” (John 6:38). The order of relationships within
the Trinity is fair. And the order of relationships established by God for
marriage is fair. This created order is also best for us, because it comes
from an all-wise Creator. This created order truly honours men and
women. It does not lead to abuse, but guards against it, because both men
and women are equal in value before God. It does not suppress women’s gifts and
wisdom and insight, as people sometimes have done in the past, but it
encourages them.
Teaching
within the Bible
11. Teaching
within the OT
a.
Male’s
are given the responsibility of teaching throughout the Old Testament.
In the OT the priests were responsible to teach
the people, and the priests were all men. (Leviticus 10:11; Malachi 2:6-7).
There is not one example in the entire bible of a woman publicly teaching an
assembled group of God’s people.
b.
Deborah
as Judge did not teach publically:
“She used to sit under the palm of Deborah
between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the people of
Israel came up to her for judgement” (Judges 4:5). She decided controversy,
discriminating between persons in civil, political, domestic and religious
questions. She was never a priest and therefore did not teach publicly in the
assembled congregation within the temple. Rather she affirmed male leadership:
Deborah did not summon the people of Israel to battle, but encouraged Barak to
do this (Judges 4:6-7,14).
c. Women
Prophets never taught God’s people because there were no women priests.
Prophets and teachers have different roles
in the Bible. A prophet is like a messenger who delivers a message but has no
authority on his own to do more than that, such as explaining or applying the
message. A prophet could not add to the message anything of his own. Even
Balaam admitted, “Must I not take care to speak what the Lord puts in my
mouth?” (Numbers 23:12, 24:13. cr. Hagg. 1:13).
12. Teaching
in the New Testament
a.
Men and women
can explain God’s truths to one another in a private context.
Eg “when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained
to him the way of God more accurately.” (Acts 18:26)
b.
Older women
are to teach younger women.
“Older women…. Are to teach what is good,
and so train the younger women” (Titus 2:3-5)
c.
Prophecy
is to be done by both men and women in an orderly nature within the church as
prophecy is not authoritative teaching.
i. Prophecy
in the NT is not an authoritative activity. Even unlike OT prophecy,
it could be ignored (Acts 21:10–14); it needs to be evaluated (1 Cor 14:29);
and so it is to be regulated by a process of ‘weighing’ —a process in which no
women were involved, even if they had been amongst the ‘two or three’ being
evaluated (1 Cor 14:29–35); and, presumably by means of this process, the
congregation was to reject the evil, and hold to the good (1 Thess 5:19–22).
ii. They
are always viewed as separate gifts in the New Testament (Rom. 12:6-7, 1 Cor.
12:28-29, Eph. 4:11)
iii. Prophecy
and teaching are not the same. Paul says of prophecy in1 Corinthians 14:30-31, that
“If a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent. For
you can all prophesy one by one.” Paul says that “the one who prophesies speaks
to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation.” (1 Cor.
14:3) The effect of this prophecy is seen in 1 Corinthians 14:25, that if a
stranger comes in and all prophesy, “the secrets of his heart are disclosed;
and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really
among you.” So we see that prophecy is spontaneous, for the building up of
others and can reveal the secrets of peoples own hearts. This activity is
described differently to teaching in the bible. In Acts 15:35, Paul and
Barnabas and “many others” are in Antioch “teaching and preaching the word of the
Lord.” Here we see teaching and preaching are closely related. The author of
Hebrews tells his readers, “you need someone to teach you again the basic
principles of the oracles of God” (Heb. 5:12) whilst paul says that “all Scripture” is “profitable
for teaching.” (2 Tim. 3:6) It is this explanation and application, this
preaching and teaching of scripture, within the assembled congregation that is
restricted to men only.
iv. The
fact that people can learn from prophecies does not mean that prophets were the
same as teachers. People can learn from many things – song, personal testimony,
confession of sin, joy amidst trials etc.
v. Prophecy,
like other spiritual gifts, was to be subject to the teaching authority of the
elders. (Heb. 13:17, 1 Peter 5:5, 1 Tim. 5:17) Paul means “women should keep silent in the
churches” (1 Cor. 14:33-35) with respect to the topic under discussion in this
context. Paul says that when people are weighing and evaluating a prophetic
message, the women should be silent and not speak up to judge the prophecies.
Speaking out and judging prophecies before the assembled congregation is a
governing role over the assembled church and Paul reserves that role for men.
13. Teaching
elders are to be men - the husband of one wife (1 Timothy 3:1-2, Titus 1:5-6)
14. The
restriction of some governing and teaching roles in the church to men
a.
The
setting for this passage is the assembled church: Paul says he is writing these things to Timothy “so
that, if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God,
which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of truth” V15.”
“In every place” in verse 8 indicates that it applies wherever groups of
Christian men where men “pray lifting holy hands” (v 8) to pray and women dress
“with modesty”.
b.
1
Timothy 2:11:
Female Christian believers are called to recognize, acknowledge and welcome the
responsibilities God has given to others for our welfare. Since pastors are to
watch over those in their care, female believers are to recognise and welcome
their pastor’s responsibility. The Greek word is a compound of hupo, “under”
and taxis or tasso, which is the idea of order– in the sense of orderly, as
well as the sense of things being in order. Taxis is used in the rest of the NT
to describe the good order that Christ brings to life. Redemption brings order
to disordered lives and disordered relationships. The passage does not require women
to be completely silent as else where in Paul’s letters women are encouraged to
pray and prophecy along with men (1 Cor.11). Rather, the context for being
quiet is as they “learn” (v 11) whilst men teaching (v 12),
c.
1
Timothy 2:12:
Paul did not allow women to do bible teaching or have governing authority over
the assembled church. What they are not to teach is described in 1:10, 11 as
“sound teaching in accordance with the glorious gospel of the blessed God.”
Authority is defined – and indeed limited – by responsibility. Authority is the
right to fulfil responsibilities. It seems to me clear therefore that in
context “to teach” is a particular and important example of “exercising
authority over” – both of which the overseer does. In 2:12, however, Paul is
referring, not to the office, but to the activities. Those that claim to
preserve the authority of male headship whilst allowing women to teach
contradict the biblical association between authority and teaching. There is no
evidence that the teaching women were forbidden to do was false teaching. In v
11 what women were encouraged to be learning was “sound teaching in accordance
with the glorious gospel of the blessed God.” (1 Tim. 1:10, 11 cf 4:6, 4:11,
4:16, 6:2, 5:17) Verse 12 therefore has to be that type of teaching. The only
false teachers spoken of were men- like Hymenaeus and Alexander in 1:20.
d.
1
Timothy 2:13:
The basis for male teaching and authority is found in the headship of man in the
created order before the fall in Genesis 2. Therefore Paul is talking about the
correct order within the church for Christians throughout all ages, not just
those of 1st century Ephesus.
e.
1
timothy 2:14:
The fall happened as a result of the overthrow of God’s created order of male
headship and woman’s submission- Eve lead Adam into sin. This could either be:
i.
A reminder how the created order being reversed lead to sin, and how this
distortion is to be reordered as Christians are restored into their original
order.
f.
1
Timothy 2:15:
Women, though deceived are Heirs of the grace of God with means them continuing
in faith and obedience as they fulfill God’s orderly design and purpose for
them. This could mean three things:
i.
“Through the childbirth” could mean “through the birth of the child” –
that is, the seed of the woman referred to in Gen. 3:16, who will crush the
serpants head. Paul therefore refers to the proto evangel (the first gospel)
and how our savior is born through a women.
ii.
“Through childbirth” could mean that women will be saved through the
judgement of God expressed in Genesis 3:16 as pains in childbirth provided she
continue in godliness.
iii.
Could mean through godliness expressed through them embracing their created
order and design expressed partly through their role in raising children.
15. This is a
matter of obedience to the bible: Biblical inerrancy is a watershed issue
This issue is not a matter of
exegesis but of obedience to the scriptures. The scriptures are clear and are
the wisdom of the Spirit for all people in all cultures. (2 Peter 1:20-21, 1
Cor. 2:12-13, 1 Thess. 2:13) The bible living and active for us now or is it a
dead letter to a different context. Objections to this doctrine come through an
external authority being placed onto the biblical text and not from the text
themselves. Evangelical Feminism or egalitarianism is the new form of
Theological liberalism (that is, those who reject the idea that the entire
Bible is the written Word of God.) Egalitarian advocacy of woman’s ordination
goes hand in hand with theological liberalism. The pattern is that egalitarians
first gain acceptance for their view and then promote it by requiring all
candidates for ordination to agree that they would participate in the
ordination of women and force out the complementarians who still differ with
them.
In more liberal denominations
a predictable sequence has been seen
1.
Abandoning biblical inerrancy
2.
Endorsing the ordination of
women
3.
Abandoning the Bible’s
teaching on male headship in marriage.
4.
Excluding clergy who are
opposed to women’s ordination
5.
Approving homosexual conduct
as morally valid in some cases
6.
Approving homosexual
ordination (eg the American Episcopal Church in Aug 5 2003)
7.
Ordaining homosexuals to high
leadership position (eg United Methodist Church in April 2004 voted to retain
the high church office of a lady who recently ‘married’ her lesbian girlfriend”
(Wayne
Grudem, Evangelical Feminism: A New Path to Liberalism, 2006)
The principles the egalitarian
position used to interpret and apply Scripture are soon broadened to many other
areas of life, ultimately leaving no moral command of Scripture safe from its
destructive procedures. As this happens the church ends up simply mimicing the
popular views of its culture in one issue after another, and Christians are no
longer subject to the authority of God speaking through His word. Because of
this it is an issue of major importance. In an important sociological study published
by Harvard University Press, Mark Chaves traces the history of woman’s
ordination in various denominations in the United States. He observed that “two
groups of denominations are particularly resistant to women’s ordination:
denominations practicing sacramental ritual and denominations endorsing
biblical inerrancy… Biblically inerrant denominations are… resistant to formal
gender equality.” Such evidence has lead Mark Dever to write:
“it is my best and most sober
judgment that this position [egalitarianism] is effectively an undermining of—a
breach in—the authority of Scripture. . . . it seems to me and others (many who
are younger than myself) that this issue of egalitarianism and
complementarianism is increasingly acting as the watershed distinguishing those
who will accommodate Scripture to culture, and those who will attempt to shape
culture by Scripture. You may disagree, but this is our honest concern before
God. It is no lack of charity, nor honesty. It is no desire for power or
tradition for tradition’s sake. It is our sober conclusion from observing the
last 50 years. . . . Of course there are issues more central to the gospel than
gender issues. However, there may be no way the authority of Scripture is being
undermined more quickly or more thoroughly in our day than through the hermeneutics
of egalitarian readings of the Bible. And when the authority of Scripture is
undermined, the gospel will not long be acknowledged” (Undermining Tolerance of
Egalitarianism, 2006)
16. This
controversy is much Bigger than we realize, because it touches all of life.
The roles of husband and wife,
parenting, how a church is run, how a society is run and the roles present in
the trinity are all at stake when people take a liberal view of this passage.
There are strong spiritual forces invisible warring against us. At both
extremes we see the hand of the enemy seeking to destroy God’s idea of sex, of
marriage, and of manhood and womanhood.
17. Christ
came to restore and reorder our lives.
Hupo-tasso then
appears repeatedly in the New Testament in an entirely positive sense. As someone
has put it, the New Testament teaches a “sub-ordinationist ethic.” This is the
way in which the new humanity is constituted. It is the way in which the
disintegration of human society is redeemed: not by individual liberation from
restraints and obligations to others, but by each gladly placing him or herself
under the ones God has placed “over” us. Disorder gives way to ordered
relationships. And so ordering our lives under others is a characteristic of
the Christian life (Eph 5:212): not independence that destroys community, but
order that binds us together. Just as the Son will forever be “under” the one
who put all things “under” him (1 Cor 15:28), so believers are to order our
lives “under” God (Heb 12:9; Jas 4:7) and “under” Christ (Eph 5:24), and
“under” the governing authorities (Rom 13:1, 5; Tit 3:1; 1 Pet 2:13), and
“under” ministers of the gospel (1 Cor 16:16). Christian slaves are to order
their lives “under” their masters (Tit 2:9; 1 Pet 2:18); younger men “under”
older men (1 Pet 5:5); children “under” parents (Luke 2:51; 1 Tim 3:4); and
wives “under” husbands (Eph 5:21-22; Col 3:18; Tit 2:5; 1 Pet 3:1, 5).3 Upo-tasso
is a word that affirms order in relationships.
18. The
Church Father’s unanimously testified to this truth:
William Weinrich, Professor of
Early Church History and Patristic Studies at Concordia Theological Seminary, says "there never was recognized ordained female
ministry in the West (or East) that involved teaching in the assembly and
ministering at the altar." In the early church, the church father
Tertullian (c 160/170-c. 215/22) taught that women could prophesy but not teach
in the church:
“in
precisely the same manner, when enjoining on women silence in the church, that
they speak not for the mere sake of learning (although that even they have the
right of prophesying, he has already shown when he covers the women that
prophesies with a veil), he goes to the law for his sanction that women should
be under obedience.”He also wrote,
“It is not permitted to a woman to speak in the church; but neither [is it permitted her] to teach, nor to baptize.”
Many councils over
the years were held which enforced the biblical stance of male teaching,
including The council of
Saragossa (380 AD), The council of Nimes (396 AD), The council of Orange (441
AD), Epaon (517 AD) and Orleans (533 AD), The Statuta Ecclesiae antiqua of
Gennadius of Marseilles (480 AD), Pope Innocent the third (1200 AD), The Corpus
Iuris Canonici, the present-day book of canon law in the Roman Catholic Church.
William Weinrich
says "within Protestantism,
the major Reformation and post-reformation leaders assumed without question the
practice of reserving the office of pastor and sacramental minister to men… The
Anabaptists, the Anglicans, the Puritans, and the Separatists all prohibited
women from the public ministry of preaching and teaching.”
Previous to the
last 60 years, there has never been a period of time in the church where the
church has overthrown and marginalized the distinctions of men and women, in
the family and in the church as they have been today. It
has been only in the last half of the twentieth century that the major
Protestant church bodies have begun to accept women as regular preachers and
pastors.
·
Martin
Luther: Paul forbade
women "to preach in the congregation where men are present who are skilled
in speaking, so that respect and discipline may be maintained."
·
John Calvin: "It is therefore an argument from things inconsistent - if
the woman is under subjection, she is, consequently, prohibited from authority
to teach in public." In his commentary on 1 Timothy, Calvin writes
similarly: Paul "excludes [women] from the office of teaching, which
God has committed to men only."
19. Our
responsibility is to refute false teaching not respect it
·
As much as we
are to engage with the beliefs and arguments of others with an attitude of
respect we are charged specifically to refute, correct and rebuke false
teaching. (2 Timothy 4:2, Titus 1:9, 13, Titus 2:15, 2 Timothy 3:16)
·
Paul was the
greatest evangelist in the History of the world, but his concern to reach the
lost did not lead him to shrink back from declaring unpopular doctrines if they
were part of the Word of God. He told the elders of the church at Ephesus. “I
testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all of you, for I
did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:26-27)
·
Remember that
Satan is the Father of lies and heresies are lies that the devil uses against Jesus
flock. (John 8:44)
·
Another
danger of controversy is the temptation to passivity and to avoidance of an
important issue that the lord is asking us to deal with in our generation.
Those who avoid teaching on unpopular topic that are taught in God’s Word have
forgotten their accountability before God for their congregations:”They are
keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give account.”
(Hebrews 13:17)
·
Churches and
institutions that decide not to take any position on this issue are in fact
taking a position anyway. They are setting themselves up for continual leftward
movement and continual erosion of their obedience to scripture. A Church or
organization that decides to have no policy on this issue will keep ratcheting
left one notch at a time; in the direction of the main pressures of the
culture.
·
God uses
false teaching so that genuine believers may be revealed. “for there must be
factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be
recognized.” (1 Cor. 11:19)
·
The ultimate
implication is that those who avoid unpopular teaching in the Word of God and
teach what is contrary have to answer to the Lord for their negligence on the
Last Day and risk judgment. (2 Corinthians 5:10, Galatians 1:8, 2 John 1:9)
·
Ultimately
this is a matter of humility. Will we accept God’s word as God’s word or will
we
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