Preaching the Gospel to Jews and women...
(Tim) Listening to one of the ClearNote Conference sermons this past weekend, it came to me that churches that hide the Biblical doctrine of sexuality by putting women forward as officers over men, as small group leaders over men, as directors of the diaconate over men, as advisers sitting in all the session meetings, as worship leaders of men, as teachers of men, as servers of the Lord's Supper to men; in other words, churches that do everything possible to hide the Creation Order God has ordained (without taking the final step of having a woman as a senior pastor) are placing stumbling blocks before women, denying them the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
How so?
Well, if the Law is our schoolmaster to Christ; and if the constant theme of Scripture when it addresses the sins of woman is a clear note calling her to submit to the Creation Order, not teaching or exercising authority over man but submitting to her husband; when this Creation Order is hidden, it is one of the principal sins of woman that we are hiding, and thereby denying woman the call to repentance that would lead her to the Cross.
Put bluntly, churches that hide Scripture's doctrine of sexuality are obscuring the Law and obstructing woman's entry to repentance and faith...
The Apostles were relentless in publicly exposing the sin of the Jews as an integral part of their Gospel preaching. Over and over they proclaimed to them, "you killed Jesus." Exposed in their sin, then, the Jews fled to the Cross.
But today, we are relentless in hiding and conniving at woman's sin. We set up our churches in ways precisely designed to obscure God's Creation Order and run far away from any unique call to repentance aimed at the weaker sex.
Jesus asked the Woman at the Well about her husband, but none of us would be so gauche.
A truly contextualized ministry in the midst of the feminist heresy will call woman to submit to God's Creation Order. True contextualization is knowing that as we are faithful in presenting this Creation Order call, "the secrets of (the unbelieving woman's) heart are disclosed; and so (she) will fall on (her) face and worship God, declaring that God is certainly among (us)." (1Corinthians 14:24,25).
Those who hide the Creation Order (as much as those who deny it) are faithless, and through their faithlessness they place a stumbling block before the very women they claim to be serving. They rob those women of the ability to repent at the principle place where they are rebels against their Maker.
This is the same error the Presbyterian Church (USA) makes in calling abortion "an act of faithfulness before God." Mothers who have murdered their unborn children are denied the call to repentance and a terrible stumbling block is placed between them and the Gospel. It is so very evil.
May God give us faith with both men and women to focus our preaching and teaching and pastoral care precisely at the gaps in the walls, trusting that a clear note of warning from God's Law will only be offensive to those whose hearts God has hardened.
To those appointed to salvation, it will be streams of living water.
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I recently went to the wedding of a man I know to a gal who is the assistant pastor a church. I assume that he has no problem with this, though he should. Should I have advised him not to marry her until she submitted to the creation order? I am saddened that he is entering a union on these terms, but I did not speak up when the pastor asked if there was anyone present who had any objections.
> churches that hide the Biblical doctrine of sexuality... are placing stumbling blocks before women
The churches actually think they are doing women the favor of removing the Scriptural stumbling blocks so they can have a fulfilling relationship with God. How can they relate to a God who expects them to do something they don't want to do, or restricts them, just because they are female?
The churches become enablers of sin and dysfunction, not to mention false representatives of God's truth.
> when this Creation Order is hidden, it is one of the principal sins of woman that we are hiding, and thereby denying woman the call to repentance that would lead her to the Cross.
Well said!
Is this hiding of the doctrine of sexuality also denying men their need for repentance from passivity and capitulation?
I saw a bumper sticker yesterday: "Army Wife: Don't Confuse Your Rank With My Authority."
> "Should I have advised him not to marry her until she submitted to the creation order?"
That's a tough one. It might depend upon how good a friend he was. If it is just "a man I know," probably not worth making a big deal about. But a casual remark could be said even then.
> "I assume that he has no problem with this, though he should."
If for no other reason than it points to how his marriage will be. Wives who do not believe in submission do strongly believe in wielding the veto. A warped idea of marriage or church effects the other.
> "I did not speak up when the pastor asked if there was anyone present who had any objections."
That would have been exciting! One way to express my objection is to not attend something I don't approve of. My passivity is showing there, I guess! The message would not come across, but at least it doesn't put me in a dilemma, where to be truthful would create a disaster.
"when this Creation Order is hidden, it is one of the principal sins of woman that we are hiding"
What exactly are 'sins of women'? Haven't heard that term before.
Michael M., what exactly is the doctrine of sexuality? I've not heard that in my church.
The guy wasn't a close friend, so I never had the opportunity to voice my concerns to him. I doubt his wedding party said anything either, because this extended crowd that I know has positions consistent with women not operating within the creation order. However, it was instructive to me that I was witnessing the start of union that will basically grow into a statistic of this sort of thing. I have to add that even in my reformed church I don't know how valued creation order is. Although I don't see blatant violations of it in our church services, I also don't see expressions of it in individual relationships. My hope is that if I were married, that this would be something that people could see and not guess at.
""Should I have advised him not to marry her until she submitted to the creation order?"
Advised? It's probably a satisfactory term.
Why speak to your friend (or family member? or fellow in your parish?) at all? And on what basis?
The right thing to do is to admonish and to exhort against a proposed or pending marriage when it transgresses the following prohibitions for Christians when they marry:
1. They may not marry a non-Christian.
2. They may not marry someone of the same sex (one didn't have to say this even 50 years ago; it's manadatory to say it today).
3. They may not marry within specified degrees of consanguinity (e.g. a sibling, parent, or generally those unions prohibited in Leviticus 18).
4. They may not marry someone who is already married (including the divorced whose original spouse is living).
5. They may not marry someone when they are already married (this would also entail a prohibition of marriage by a divorced person whose spouse is still living).
Yes, I realize that Presbyterians almost universally reject the last two prohibitions, because it expressly sanctions divorce in Article 24 of the WCF.
But, when one has eliminated all persons in the world by these prohibitions (or whatever of them one will salute), there remains a vast population of those whom it is ~lawful~ to marry. And among all the conceivable matches, some are incredibly foolish (though lawful), and some are manifestly wise and prudent.
So, yes, your friend was in need of advice rather than admonition or rebuke.
> What exactly are 'sins of women'?
Hello Martin,
The desire to overstep the Created Order and to rule over their husbands, as referred to in Genesis 3:16--
To the woman He said, "I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth, in pain you will bring forth children; yet your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you."
There are others, such as the tendancy towards immodesty, gossip, etc.
> Michael M., what exactly is the doctrine of sexuality?
Doctrine = teaching, and the Bible teaches that women should do some things and should not do other things. If the Bible says not to do something, then to do it is a sin. So, if the Bible tells women to not do something, then they are sinning if they do it, hence "the sins of women." Pretty simple, I hope.
Having established that, here are a few of the references to sexual doctrine, note the husband is included. It is inescapable that men and women are told different things, though many churches go out of their way to try to escape it. [The examples are listed only in the order they are found; the Old Testament ones are historical examples of opposition to the doctrine.]
Isaiah 3:12
O My people! Their oppressors are children,
And women rule over them
O My people! Those who guide you lead you astray
And confuse the direction of your paths.
Ezekiel 16:45-46
45 You [Jerusalem] are a true daughter of your mother, who despised her husband and her children; and you are a true sister of your sisters, who despised their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite. 46 Your older sister was Samaria, who lived to the north of you with her daughters; and your younger sister, who lived to the south of you with her daughters, was Sodom.
1 Corinthians 11:3-9, 14-16
But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ. Every man who has something on his head while praying or prophesying disgraces his head. But every woman who has her head uncovered while praying or prophesying disgraces her head, for she is one and the same as the woman whose head is shaved. For if a woman does not cover her head, let her also have her hair cut off; but if it is disgraceful for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, let her cover her head. For a man ought not to have his head covered, since he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of man. For man does not originate from woman, but woman from man; for indeed man was not created for the woman's sake, but woman for the man's sake.
Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him, but if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her? For her hair is given to her for a covering. But if one is inclined to be contentious, we have no other practice, nor have the churches of God.
1 Corinthians 14:35
If they [women] want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.
Ephesians 5:22-25, 28, 33
Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church... Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her...
In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies.
Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.
Colossians 3:18-19
Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.
1 Timothy 2:9, 11-14
I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety... appropriate for women who profess to worship God.
A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner.
1 Timothy 3:1-2, 12
It is a trustworthy statement: if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do. An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife... Deacons must be husbands of only one wife...
Titus 2:4
Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children
Titus 2:5
[women] to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.
1 Peter 3:1, 5-7
Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands... For in this way in former times the holy women also, who hoped in God, used to adorn themselves, being submissive to their own husbands; just as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, and you have become her children if you do what is right without being frightened by any fear. You husbands in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with someone weaker, since she is a woman; and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered.
So, there's just a sampling. There's way too many not to notice. What God obviously takes seriously, His people should also. The Lord says that if wives are not subject to their husbands, the word of God is maligned. Pretty serious.
> I've not heard that in my church.
Sadly, your leaders are guilty of neglect, aiding and abetting sin, downplaying Christ's headship over His Bride, and misrepresenting God.
>>Sadly, your leaders are guilty of neglect, aiding and abetting sin, downplaying Christ's headship over His Bride, and misrepresenting God.
Also guilty of refusing to preach the Gospel to women, calling them to faith in Jesus Christ through the Law of God applied to their consciences.
Love,
Excellent post, Tim! It was such a blessing to be there with you all this weekend.
That sermon confirmed for me some very good advice you already given. Funny how god works those things out, isn't it?
Kamilla
"Also guilty of refusing to preach the Gospel to women, calling them to faith in Jesus Christ through the Law of God applied to their consciences."
In our church the gospel is the same to men and women. Faith in Jesus as their Messiah in public confession. We don't require anyone to read and understand the Scriptures first before they can accept Jesus as Savior.
> We don't require anyone to read and understand the Scriptures first before they can accept Jesus as Savior.
Hi Martin,
The Scriptures themselves are what convict people to turn to the Lord.
Romans 10:14,17
"How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? ...So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ."
~~~
Many churches today want people to come to the Lord without offending or inconveniencing them in any way, which is why they leave out the doctrine of sexuality and other bothersome things explicit in Scripture.
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