"To Obey is Better than to Sacrifice" - A Response to "Evangelical Feminism" + other stuff
alright, so a couple of things:
a) i just checked Time's top 100 books of all time: http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/the_complete_list.html
I am graduating with an Honours degree in English Literature. I have read seven of the books on the list :S:
CS Lewis - The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe
Harper Lee - To Kill a Mockingbird
Anthony Burgess - A Clockwork Orange
Zora Neale Hurston - Their Eyes were Watching God
JD Salinger - The Catcher and the Rye
George Orwell - Animal Farm
JRR Tolkien - Lord of the Rings (and only the first one, and i thought it was boring)
Yeap - with this thorough knowledge of the English canon I would need only two years of teacher's college to be qualified to teach your future children grade 12 English. Excellent....
b) Evangelical Feminism
"All people are equal before God and in Christ. All have equal responsibility to use their gifts and obey their calling to the glory of God. God freely calls believers to roles and ministries without regard to class, gender, or race. We believe this because the Bible and Jesus Christ teach it to us. That is biblical equality." - Christians for Biblical Equality
"I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet."- 1 Timothy 2:12
So, I read 1 Samuel 15 today, and it talked about how Saul was told to destroy all the Amalekites and all their stuff, but he didn't. He saves some good cattle and oxen and he saves their king, which is in direct disobedience to God's command to him.
When Samuel questions him about it, Saul says something to the effect of "I was saving this cattle to sacrifice to the LORD". Samuel then explains to him the folly of this argument saying "To obey is better than sacrifice" (1 Samuel 15:22). In other words - God does things God's way. He doesn't need your logic and your gifts to help Him out, He's really serious about what His Word says.
Now, I have friends who are evangelical feminists (though they may dislike the term), meaning that they think, and i've heard this personally, that there is no difference in the roles of men and women, but each person is designed by God with different gifts which they are to steward in whatever Godly role they can. I can't guess everyone's motives, but I sense there IS a genuine desire to see God Glorified in their lives. However, there is a mistake that I think this passage helps out on. Notice the similarities in these arguments:
a1) There are lots of nice cattle, very fattened and ideal for worship purposes.
a2) There are lots of gifted women who explain doctrine well and have God-given leadership qualities.
b1) Cattle are made by God, and are part of His good creation.
b2) The spiritual gifts and the natural gifts are from God.
c1) Therefore, we should save the cattle for Worship purposes
c2) Therefore, women should not be limited in their capacities to utilise these God-given gifts.
Saul was wrong (if in fact this was his motive). And I hope you'll understand that the argument of evangelical feminists, or evangelical egalitarians, is wrong. God doesn't need our logic. God does things God's way. And His way is clearly found in His Word.
I believe that, read in the context of the book and the whole Bible, 1 Timothy 2 means that there are certain offices which are reserved for men. For an explanation, go to http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/TopicIndex/49/684_Manhood_Womanhood_and_the_Freedom_to_Minister/
The danger is that God's Word is clear. God tore the kingdom away from Saul. May He have mercy on us who are slow to trust in God's way as we do God's work.
This should be a call to men and not an attack on women. There are way too many poor male leaders. There are way too many boring male Pastors. I hope more and more faithful and gifted women will arise, but they should not feel a need to occupy the roles set aside for men. If only there would be a generation of strong Godly women AND men.
Anyways, not sure if anyone will misinterpret/be offended by what I just wrote, but feel free to give your thoughts.
a) i just checked Time's top 100 books of all time: http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/the_complete_list.html
I am graduating with an Honours degree in English Literature. I have read seven of the books on the list :S:
CS Lewis - The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe
Harper Lee - To Kill a Mockingbird
Anthony Burgess - A Clockwork Orange
Zora Neale Hurston - Their Eyes were Watching God
JD Salinger - The Catcher and the Rye
George Orwell - Animal Farm
JRR Tolkien - Lord of the Rings (and only the first one, and i thought it was boring)
Yeap - with this thorough knowledge of the English canon I would need only two years of teacher's college to be qualified to teach your future children grade 12 English. Excellent....
b) Evangelical Feminism
"All people are equal before God and in Christ. All have equal responsibility to use their gifts and obey their calling to the glory of God. God freely calls believers to roles and ministries without regard to class, gender, or race. We believe this because the Bible and Jesus Christ teach it to us. That is biblical equality." - Christians for Biblical Equality
"I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet."- 1 Timothy 2:12
So, I read 1 Samuel 15 today, and it talked about how Saul was told to destroy all the Amalekites and all their stuff, but he didn't. He saves some good cattle and oxen and he saves their king, which is in direct disobedience to God's command to him.
When Samuel questions him about it, Saul says something to the effect of "I was saving this cattle to sacrifice to the LORD". Samuel then explains to him the folly of this argument saying "To obey is better than sacrifice" (1 Samuel 15:22). In other words - God does things God's way. He doesn't need your logic and your gifts to help Him out, He's really serious about what His Word says.
Now, I have friends who are evangelical feminists (though they may dislike the term), meaning that they think, and i've heard this personally, that there is no difference in the roles of men and women, but each person is designed by God with different gifts which they are to steward in whatever Godly role they can. I can't guess everyone's motives, but I sense there IS a genuine desire to see God Glorified in their lives. However, there is a mistake that I think this passage helps out on. Notice the similarities in these arguments:
a1) There are lots of nice cattle, very fattened and ideal for worship purposes.
a2) There are lots of gifted women who explain doctrine well and have God-given leadership qualities.
b1) Cattle are made by God, and are part of His good creation.
b2) The spiritual gifts and the natural gifts are from God.
c1) Therefore, we should save the cattle for Worship purposes
c2) Therefore, women should not be limited in their capacities to utilise these God-given gifts.
Saul was wrong (if in fact this was his motive). And I hope you'll understand that the argument of evangelical feminists, or evangelical egalitarians, is wrong. God doesn't need our logic. God does things God's way. And His way is clearly found in His Word.
I believe that, read in the context of the book and the whole Bible, 1 Timothy 2 means that there are certain offices which are reserved for men. For an explanation, go to http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/TopicIndex/49/684_Manhood_Womanhood_and_the_Freedom_to_Minister/
The danger is that God's Word is clear. God tore the kingdom away from Saul. May He have mercy on us who are slow to trust in God's way as we do God's work.
This should be a call to men and not an attack on women. There are way too many poor male leaders. There are way too many boring male Pastors. I hope more and more faithful and gifted women will arise, but they should not feel a need to occupy the roles set aside for men. If only there would be a generation of strong Godly women AND men.
Anyways, not sure if anyone will misinterpret/be offended by what I just wrote, but feel free to give your thoughts.
posted by Adam @ 9:34 PM
1 Comments:
At 7:50 PM,
It's My DLu! said…
first of all ...
"That was the most complimentary comparison of fat cows to women ever."
haha, i actually laughed out loud there and i was in the library, thanks meredith.
good articulation of the issue. sometimes it's easy to read the bible through our culture's lens instead of reading it for what the Word says.
also, i'm glad that having only read 7 of those books on that top 100 list, you are qualified to teach children about english. gooood gooooood.
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