Dr. Alan J. Dunn
Gender roles are established in Creation and enforced by the Word of God. Some argue that Paul’s view of women was determined by his culture. Paul tells us that his views are rooted in Creation. Others say Paul was prey to Rabbinical chauvinism, so his views are just wrong. Paul says it is not a matter of his ‘view’: “the things I write to you are the Lord’s commandment.” (I Cor 14:37) Authority is precisely what lies at the heart of this debate. Feminism is rebellion against the Creator and the authority of His Word.
The male is to give leadership in the home and the church. The female is to be his helper to accomplish God’s purposes. These roles were established in creation and were not altered by the Fall. It is sin which gives us the war of the sexes. Sin makes us adverse to living as God created us to live. In sin, men are prone either to neglect and abdicate their responsibility to lovingly lead or to rule as a heartless tyrant. In sin, women are prone either to rebel and usurp male jurisdiction, or to efface themselves in extreme subjugation.
In Jesus Christ we find the balance. He commands our obedience precisely at the point where we are most prone to sin. Salvation does not rearrange the original creation, but triumphs over the sin of the Fall. In the home, the Christian husband is to love, nurture, and sacrifice himself for his wife. The Christian wife is to respect and submit to her husband. Likewise in the church leadership is to be masculine and lovingly authoritative. Women are excluded from pastoral ministry. Those who argue that a woman with a divinity degree is just as qualified as a man, sacrifice Creation and the authority of the Bible on the pagan altar of academic arrogance. They mistakenly think that pastoral ministry is merely another academic profession which distributes religious information. No, it is rather the ministration of the authority of the resurrected King Jesus, and He, in keeping with the roles He established in Creation, has determined that pastors are to be spiritually qualified men.
We think the modern distortions of God ordered sexuality are heinous, grotesque, and morally revolting. Will our families, churches and culture survive the destruction of women who act like men and men who let them?
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