Above is a pic of my youngest daughter and me.
My Husband, My brother in Christ
IV. A Biblical Vision of Manhood and Womanhood in the Church, Part 1
"Prove all by the Word of God; measure all by the measure of the Bible; compare all with the standard of the Bible; weigh all in the balances of the Bible; examine all by the light of the Bible; test all in the crucible of the Bible. That which can abide the fire of the Bible, receive hold, believe, and obey. That which cannot abide the fire of the Bible, reject, refuse, repudiate, and cast away." -John Wycliffe
This is my fourth of a series of weekend postings from Evangelical Feminism and Biblical Truth by Wayne Grudem. (Click the archives on the left sidebar to find the other postings.)
Also, I will list page numbers in parentheses from the book that these excerpts can be found on.
Chapter Two: A Biblical Vision of Manhood and Womanhood in the Church
In light of the seemingly high numbers of posts on the direction of the church right now, including a well-written article by Dan Phillips at Pyromaniacs on women dressing modestly in the church as well as Phil Johnson's Modest Church Attire post, I am excited to post these excerpts this morning
Read how this picture of manhood and womanhood works itself out in the church:
2.1: Equality in value and dignity (62)
Mr. Grudem writes in this section about men and women eing created in God's image (Gen.1:27) and how that status is shared equally. He mentions Acts 2:17-18 regarding both men a women having the Holy Spirit poured out in a new kind of fullness. And how "this New Covenant work of the Holy Spirit would involve giving Spiritual gifts to both men and women... All will have spiritual gifts for various kinds of ministry." He mentions I Corinthians 12:7, 11 applying it by stating that "every believer will have at least one spiritual gift to be used for the benefit of others in the church. (I Pe. 4:10)" He mentions that Baptism is another "very visible to the equality of men and women in their importance to God." (8:12) Circumcision was the outward sign of membership in the Old Testament which excluded women. He says, "Therefore everytime we witness a baptism today, it should be a reminder that both men and women are equally valuable to God. and equally valuable as members of His people." Another is our unity in the body of Christ. (Gal. 3:28) He goes on to state more excellent truths that I will not mentions here, so make sure you read the "rest of the story".
2.2: Biblical passages that restrict some governing and teaching roles in the church to men (65)
He addresses several Biblical passages here. But writes, "The Biblical passage that addresses this situation most directly is I Timothy 2:11-15." He states that the setting for this passage is the assembled church in which "men lift "holy hands" to pray and do so "without anger or quarreling" . Similarly the demand that women dress "with modesty" implies a church gathering and "in every place" where "groups of Christians might meet together for prayer, worship, and instruction." . He touches on the fact that there is a huge difference between Biblical male headship's balanced complemenatrian view verses the repressive male dominance view. He states that these passages in I Timothy deal with how we are to behave in the house of God (v. 15) "Therefore according to the context of this passage, the setting in which Paul does not allow a woman to teach and have authority over men is the assembled church, where Biblcal teaching will be done." This does not include women teaching men math or geometry, or hundreds of other subjects, but "the verb "teach" (didasko) would have meant in the context to the Christian's ... when the whole church came together" for Bible teaching. (See Acts 15:35, Acts 18:11, I Cor. 14:37, I Tim. 4:11, 6:2, 2 Tim. 2:2.) Using the related noun didaskalia, "teaching, instruction," Paul says that , "all Scripture is breathed out by God and is proitable for teaching" (2 Tim. 3:16) "The conclusion is that Paul did not allow women to do the Bible teaching or have governing authority over the assemble church." This entire section is 15 pages long and will require more than one posting. It is excellent and I do not want to skim too much of it. So next time, I will post more excerpts from this section along with excerpts from 2:3 (see below). The continued excerpt from this section will answer the question "Does this apply to Christian's today? Or was this a temporary command given for a specific local situation?"
I am going to stop there. Here are the titles to what I would like to post in the next couple of book excerpts:
2.3: The relationship between the family and the church (80)
2.4: The example of the apostles (81)
2.5: The history of male teaching and leadership throughout the whole Bible (82)
2.6: The history of the Church (82)
2.7: But what should women do in the Church? (84)
Comments
Hi Lisa! This is really good.
Several years back, I sat under a teaching about the Fall. The thrust was that part of the curse for women would be that we would always be vying with man for his 'role.' We have a natural (read: sinful) bent towards that.
I think this is (at least) part of the reason for the radical emasculation of men over the years.
Anyway, just my initial thoughts on the subject. :)
Posted by: Gayla | May 12, 2006 10:18 AM
by stating that "every believer will have at least one spiritual gift to be used for the benefit of others in the church. (I Pe. 4:10)"
This at least I can agree with . We each have spiritual gifts and should use them - as directed by God - for the church (local and universal)
Be blessed
Posted by: Lorna | May 13, 2006 06:15 AM
Gayla... excellent input. Thank you.
Lorna... When you come to Arkansas (grin) I will take you to lunch, we will have a fantastic time talking about our lives and lovingly disagreeing on theology, and then you will sadly have to go home and I will miss ya (hug).
You are someone I have come to care for and pray often for.
Much love,
Lisa
Posted by: 4ever4given | May 13, 2006 12:45 PM