Response to Dan 1

I wanted to respond to a very thoughtful reply to my post: "What's wrong with those who oppose women in ministry?" I obviously worded this purposely in a very strong manner, implying that those who disagree with women in all forms of ministry disagree with God. This is a subject where I would not use my frequent tag-line "Feel free to disagree." On this one I would have to say, "Feel free to express disagreement." But I'm hoping you will change your mind.

I figure I'll babble on long enough that I had better respond to you, Dan, in stages.

DAN:
Ken, I love your heart for what is best in the church and for God's people, but I take your heading personally! ;-) What's wrong with me is a very big topic, but here's a try as it applies to this subject: There are some who simply purpose to accept the authority of the Word in all things.

Me:
So what does the Word say on this matter? All evangelicals accept the following process:

1. Since the books of the Bible were written to ancient audiences (as the books of the Bible themselves say, so to take the words differently is not to submit to the authority of the Word in its literal sense), the first task of appropriation is to ask what those words meant in their original settings and situations.

2. Joining those original meanings to our world requires us to identify the timeless principles of those words in their original context so that we can reapply those same timeless principles in our context.

I would add to these universally accepted evangelical principles (at least) two comments of clarification:

1. Joining the teaching of these writings, each written to its own individual context, is a task the biblical texts themselves do not do for us. James does not tell us how to connect its "A person is justified by works and not by faith alone" with Paul's "A person is justified by faith apart from works of law." We are forced to step in and synthesize these. There can be no straightforward submission to the Bible's authority on the topic of jusification by faith or works because we are forced to find the point of unity between constrasting statements. On this subject, the authority of the Word of God unavoidably must be filtered through human reasoning on some level.

2. Blindly doing what the biblical audiences were commanded to do is very dangerous, since those actions may not achieve the same purposes in our context. This is just the way it is, like it or not. A woman who puts a veil on her head when she prophesies in church (to follow 1 Corinthians 11) just isn't doing the same thing the women of Corinth did when they veiled at Corinth. And I doubt any of us would suggest we should stone our rebellious sons because of a blind application of Deuteronomy 21:18-21.

I don't think you disagree with what I'm saying here, although there are many Christians with such misguided understandings, thinking it is God's will to apply every verse blindly to themselves (as they understand the words on the basis of their varied "dictionaries"). The New Testament authors certainly did not read the OT this way (next post). In fact, not even the Amish do--even if they don't trim the edges of their beards (Lev. 19:27) and the men do greet each other with a kiss (1 Thess. 5:26).

What I think you are suggesting is a valid question (but with the wrong answer): Is the position of the Word of God so clear on this topic that to favor women in all kinds of ministry is a failure to submit to biblical authority. So next post...