Collegial relations with false shepherds...

The following questions were posted to the comments section of our sister "World" magazine blog, Stealth Bible: TNIV. Here is my own response.

So what then do you make of (John Doe), one of the most vocal opponents of the TNIV, who taught at (such and such seminary) for years, and only recently moved from there to (another seminary), not out of opposition to (his prior seminary's) handling of these issues, but rather because of (personal reasons)? Did he (and others like him) who teach at schools that permit women to gain "ordination-track" MDiv's demonstrate lack of zeal and sound judgment by continuing on at (his former seminary for so long)?

Should we now shun all schools that allow women to gain ordination-track MDiv's, and those who teach at them, even though they are complementarian? Should complementarians who are looking for teaching positions in the evangelical academy teach only at those schools who won't permit women to earn ordination-track MDivs? I doubt that Dallas Seminary and Reformed Theological Seminary can house all of them on their faculties...

Since there are many complementarians who believe it is proper to maintain collegial relations with those who promote the heresy of feminism, let's depersonalize the issue and not limit our discussion to any particular individual. The man you've mentioned is one among many.

The nub of your question is the degree to which I believe there ought to be some separation between those who hold to the biblical doctrine of sexuality and those who reject and attack that doctrine. You raise the question in the context of academic institutions but I think the prior place to consider and resolve this question is the Church of the Living God referred to by the Holy Spirit as "the pillar and support" of God's Truth.

Men who are elders (or whatever they may be called in any given polity) ought to be disciplined for rejecting the plain teaching of Scripture...

on the Fatherhood of God, and man's subsidiary fatherhood in society, the family, and the Church; as well as for rejecting the universal application of the order of creation spoken of by the Apostle Paul, "Adam created first, and then Eve," to these same relationships.

If a pastor preaches or teaches against these clear biblical doctrines and, being rebuked by proper authority, refuses to repent, he should be removed from his position of authority out of which he is destroying God's flock.

From the greater to the lesser, how much less ought seminaries and other inferior institutional modalities to tolerate such false doctrine, particularly when seminaries purport to be prepare men for faithful ministry. And as to the number of new academics such faithful seminaries might be able to employ, it might be found that such faithful men failing to find jobs in academia would be a great blessing for both them and the church as they use their gifts in the one institution founded by Christ which He promised the gates of hell would not prevail against.

This is not to say that I'm cavalier about the insecurity and fear such a stand might cause such faithful men; I'm not--I feel for such men. Nor is it to say that I reject the academy and/or seminaries. I have constructive criticisms of both and yet have received degrees from both the University of Wisconsin (Madison) and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

But to be blunt: there are places where the rubber of our faithfulness to Scripture meets the road of taking up our cross, and this is one. Evangelicalism and its various subcultures ought to divide over the acceptance and rejection of Scripture's plain teaching on the nature and meaning of sexuality. Men and women are both bearers of the Image of God, thus of equal value, and created in an order that for all time teaches us, according to the Holy Spirit, that it is not lawful for a woman to exercise authority over a man.

But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve. (1 Timothy 2:12, 13)

We may spend our lives pulling at what many purport to be the loose threads of this clear Scriptural truth, claiming that everything's so confusing and difficult that we must wait for heaven to understand and (possibly) obey. Or we may see in the heresy of feminism the designs of the Evil One to destroy souls and contend against him remembering the precious promise, "Resist the Devil and he will flee from you."

And resisting the Devil has always been bound up with exposing false shepherds and removing them from the flock they seek to devour.

(The Apostle Paul to the Ephesian elders:) Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears. (Acts 20:28-31)