Currently, there are several pieces out there on the web that display the depth of rebellion against God's Order of Creation that has taken over the Reformed church today. Let's start with two women who have gone to the internet to correct and rebuke a number of church officers including Pastors John Piper and Doug Wilson.
The first thing to note is that they are women. Of course my pointing this out will elicit howls from the Joni Rebel side. "Our being women has absolutely nothing to do with it," they'll protest. But of course, it has everything to do with it. When women such as Dr. Valerie Hobbs and Ms. Rachel Miller publicly admonish and rebuke men, particularly men who are ordained officers of Christ's Church, it would be hard to imagine any clearer rebellion against their sex. To say these women are immodest or that the viewing of their public exercise is unseemly is a gross understatement, Scripturally. This is sexual rebellion on the order of the male effeminacy that Scripture tells us disbars a man from...
the Kingdom of God:
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. - 1Corinthians 6:9, 10
Yes, there will be protests against such a severe condemnation of these women's rebellion, but only because we live in a decadent age when almost no one recognizes, let alone feels, the depth of this violation of God's Order of Creation. "How can something be so evil that seems so unremarkable—almost normal—to me?" you may ask.
Because pastors today have stopped guarding the good deposit in any way analogous to the Apostle Paul's guarding of the souls under his care as recorded in the New Testament. When the Apostle Paul was faced with women rebels in the New Testament churches, how did he respond?
He taught to the issue and his teaching was simple and straightforward: God created Adam first and Eve second, and this act of God, combined with Eve being the one who was deceived, condemns women teaching and exercising authority over men:
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. And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.
But women will be preserved through the bearing of children if they continue in faith and love and sanctity with self-restraint. - 1Timothy 2:12-15
Read Dr. Hobbs and Ms. Miller's corrections and rebukes of these men who are church officers set apart to the work of shepherding God's sheep and it's hard to imagine women doing anything more directly contrary to the command of God above. Their correction and rebuke of Pastors Piper and Wilson is a public act flaunting their disobedience of God and the worst response we could have would be to avoid pointing out that rebellion, and condemning it.
If Pastors John Piper and Doug Wilson have betrayed the Word of God in their teaching on sexuality, they both are surrounded by pastors and elders whose duty it is to watch over their teaching and correct them when they are in error. This is not women's work.
So says the Word of God. So says God's Order of Creation.
Some would make an effort to justify Dr. Hobbs and Ms. Miller's rebellion by pointing to Deborah who was a prophetess. But as Calvin points out concerning Deborah, exceptions to the rule of God's Order of Creation of man and woman do not contradict God's Order. Rather, they prove it. He is sovereign over His Order and may set it aside as He chooses, but when He sets it aside, He never does so in order to dispense with that order or undercut it. Rather, through setting it aside He establishes it all the more. We see this with Deborah who, when forced to play the man, rebukes the man:
She said, “I will surely go with you; nevertheless, the honor shall not be yours on the journey that you are about to take, for the LORD will sell Sisera into the hands of a woman.” - Judges 4:9
God has not called Dr. Hobbs and Ms. Miller to rebuke Pastors John Piper and Doug Wilson. We may be certain of this for two reasons. First, the things Pastors Piper and Wilson have written and taught that Dr. Hobbs and Ms. Miller oppose and rebuke are central doctrines of Scripture. It is Pastors Piper and Wilson's submission to Scripture and call to those under their authority to join them in that submission that infuriates Dr. Hobbs and Ms. Miller. Second, Dr. Hobbs and Ms. Miller are women and women are forbidden by God's Order of Creation and Word from teaching or exercising authority over men.
Whether you are a woman or man, discipline yourself to recognize such rebels and to avoid them like the plague. Scripture calls us "to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil" (Romans 16:19). To cultivate innocence in the matter of today's feminist rebellion is to avoid associating with and listening to Dr. Hobbs and Ms. Miller.
How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers.
The wicked are not so, But they are like chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, But the way of the wicked will perish. - Psalms 1:1-6
Tim serves Clearnote Church, Bloomington, Indiana. He and Mary Lee have five children and big lots of grandchildren.
Want to get in touch? Send Tim an email!
