One In Jesus

[Uh, this is really long. I don’t think it would flow well if I split it into parts. I’ve tried to compress it, but there are some difficult parts here that require a careful explanation. Please be patient and wade through it. You see, to me, the key to Christian hermeneutics is found in Galatians.]

The New Testament’s most explicit statement of the new relationship of men and women is found in Galatians 3:28:

There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Not surprisingly, there are widely varying views on how to interpret this passage. Paternalists and hierarchicalists typically limit this truth to the requirements for being saved — men and women have the same right to salvation. Egalitarians, however, see this truth as applying more generally — it applies after men and women are saved as well as when they are saved. Continue reading →

Is the assembly under consideration?

The relationship between men and women established in the Garden of Eden surely is not limited to church affairs or to an hour of church assembly. How can we preach on one Sunday that Christianity is a seven-day a week, 24-hour a day religion affecting our entire lives, and then limit God’s laws to Sunday a.m.?

How could an eternal command be begun in the Garden of Eden and yet only apply to the affairs of a church founded thousands of years later?

There is nothing in this passage limiting its impact to the assembly, to Sunday School class, or even to church affairs. Even if we accept the NIV’s translation, “I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man,” we have no basis for limiting the command to church. But we don’t. Continue reading →

I believe that there would be much less controversy over this passage but for the references Paul makes to Adam being made before Eve and Eve being the first to sin. While these are true statements, they hardly argue for all women to be subordinate to all men.

After all, although Adam was made first, he was made incomplete (and hence imperfect) — without Eve. And while Eve sinned first, Adam sinned as well.

And in Romans 5 Paul gives Adam the blame for the Fall of Man (Rom. 5:12: “sin entered the world through one man … .”). The world was condemned through the one man, Adam, according to Paul.

And God gave the command not to eat of the tree of knowledge to Adam, before Eve was even made (Gen. 2:16-17). Adam can hardly claim the moral high ground over Eve! Continue reading →