10.1 Women In The Church
A Biblical Discussion
Foreword
This study was produced in conjunction with a public dialogue between the writer and Rev. Jacqueline Henry of the Church of England, held in Dudley Town Hall, UK in May 1993. The Biblical guidance concerning a woman’s place in church life is quite plain. But the thinking of our natural mind, uninfluenced by God’s words, is complex and often illogical. The arguments used to overcome the Scriptural teachings are therefore highly complicated, both in terms of presentation and thinking. The transcript of that dialogue should provide a plain statement of the Biblical position. This booklet aims to re-state that teaching in more detail, and also to examine the sophisticated intellectual arguments used against it. Please note that the terms “man” and “woman” are normally used in this study with reference to male and female believers.
It is the writer’s firm conviction that an ever deeper study of God’s word will demonstrate the Bible’s amazing relevance to the objections of every generation. Such study will provide the strength we need to resist the encroachment of worldly thinking into true Christianity in these last days.
Readers will hopefully forgive the repetition of at least one theme in this study: Our attitude to women in the church is a reflection of our attitude to other basic doctrines. A clear understanding of basic Bible teaching concerning the relationship of both Jesus Christ and ourselves to God, the nature of Jesus Christ, the nature of God and the nature of Christ’s atoning work, will result in our having a correct understanding of many practical issues, not least the place of women in the church. Those concerned with the roles of women within mainstream Christianity need to appreciate that there is therefore cause for great concern about other doctrinal areas. But such concern need not consume us. There is a way forward: to search the Scriptures for ourselves, and find in them the system of true Christianity, whereby each doctrine perfectly fits in to another.
Introduction
In terms of salvation, man and woman are equal. We both have the same basic need, and must make the same response of faith in Christ, and show this by baptism into him. For those baptized into Christ, there is neither male nor female, in this sense (Gal.3:27-29). But those words do not apply to those outside of Christ. They cannot be used to prove that man and woman are equal right across the board of human experience. We believe that the Bible teaches that God is a real, personal being in Heaven, and that Adam was made in God’s image. His wife, Eve, was made to reflect Adam’s image (1 Cor.11:7). Adam was the son of God (Lk.3:38), and as such was a type, or representative, of Christ. As Adam was physically in God’s image, so Christ was completely in God’s image, both physically and spiritually. As Eve was taken and made out of Adam and reflected him, so the church has been made out of Christ. The relationship between Christ and his church should be the basis of the relationship between man and woman in Christ. We therefore obey the New Testament commands for a woman to be silent in church meetings, and to have her head covered as a sign of her submission to the man. But we would like to emphasize at the outset that we are in no way male chauvinists. Indeed, as a community we have featured many influential female thinkers and workers.
We cannot repudiate strongly enough the wrong use of Scripture by men in order to justify and strengthen their position of male dominance. Writing at a time when this was done more so than today, Robert Roberts stressed: “Being a sister...only precludes her from the act of public speaking and involves subjection to her husband. It does not shut her up to babies, pots and pans...she is a partner, a helper, a fellow-heir in all things pertaining to Christ, and the man who would degrade her from this position, is not fit for a place in the body of Christ”, i.e. the church (Robert Roberts, in 1879). We do not believe that God’s statements concerning women were influenced by the attitudes of the society in which they were first given. The principles established in Eden have remained firm, and so has the true church in its attitude to the male/female issue.
