10-1-2. Feminism And The Authority Of The Bible
To the majority of readers, passages like 1 Tim. 2:11 and 1 Cor. 14:34 will come to mind: “Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak...let the woman learn in silence...I suffer not a woman to teach...but to be in silence”. To serious Bible students, these passages clearly veto women leading Bible study in the church. The intellectual desperation of those who seek to justify women having an equal role with men is evident whenever these passages are mentioned. They are driven to either question their inspiration, or to say that they are only reflecting the local culture of the times. We will see that both these avenues are closed to the Bible-believing Christian.
These passages, along with the great emphasis which Scripture gives to the maleness of God, have driven modern theologians to suggest that the Bible needs to be re-written to give equal status to men and women. This indicates the crux of the problem; there is no fundamental acceptance of the Bible as God’s inspired word. Once we fail to accept the inspired word as our source of wisdom, we are faced with the problem of who or what to accept as authoritative. The word of God, even as it was in Paul’s day, was then and is now all that is required to provide teaching and instruction in every aspect of the Christian life (2 Tim. 3:16,17). Non-Christian feminists have blamed sexism on the Bible. Their thinking has evidently influenced theologians, because now they are calling for the Bible to be re-written in a ‘non-sexist’ way (1). There can be no doubt that radical feminism is quite contrary to the teaching of the Bible. One would therefore expect the true church to openly oppose it. Instead, we find mainstream Christianity adopting its philosophies. It has been rightly observed by Dr. William Gairdner: “The feminist agenda is consistent with the humanist agenda...to the extent that these institutions (the family, the church) are based on the Biblical model, radical feminism is as open a rebellion against the Most High as secular humanism” (2). Gairdner quotes leading feminists as triumphing that “The most remarkable achievement of feminism is the breakdown of family...the family is not sacred...the family unit must be disintegrated”. Yet the family is a Bible-taught, Divine institution. Again, we must emphasize that any Bible-believing Christian will be actively aware of the need to resist the encroachment of feminism on the true Church. Whilst we are not accusing the mainstream churches of being radically feminist, it ought to be a source of alarm for their members that feminist philosophy is being accepted, and that there are no warnings being sounded from the churches about the danger of going too far.
It is often claimed that the Holy Spirit is telling the church to allow women to teach and be ordained as priests (3) (4) (5). But it was the Holy Spirit which spoke to the men who wrote the pages of the Bible (2 Pet. 1:21). This is the very idea of ‘in-spirit-ation’. The Holy Spirit now speaks to us through those same pages. If God’s inspired word is truth (Jn. 17:17), then the Holy Spirit will not tell us something about the role of women in the church, and then during the same dispensation tell us something different.
Because God’s word is ultimately true, it follows that it is not influenced by the surrounding cultures of the time and place where those words were first written down. The call of God’s words transcends all cultural barriers. Thus converts from an ‘anti-sexist’ society like ex-Communist Russia, and those from a male-dominated African village, can meet together in harmony, through all adhering to the same Biblical principles. Later in this study, we will compare the Bible’s attitude towards women with that of the surrounding world. It is clear that a totally different set of standards is presented in the Bible as compared with those of the surrounding world. The Spirit and Truth of God is radical; it does not accommodate itself to the ways of the world in which it operates. Likewise, the Spirit-led believer will not accommodate him or herself to the surrounding world. The Bible is not male centred, as much ancient literature is. It is full of accounts of everyday women, as well as great women. Contemporary literature rarely gave high profile to the place of the average woman.
References
(1) For some radical feminist theology, see Mary Daly, Beyond God the Father; Toward a Philosophy of Women’s Liberation (Women’s Press); Elizabeth Fiorenza, In Memory of Her (S.C.M.); Elisabeth Wendel, A Land Flowing With Milk And Honey (S.C.M.); Elaine Storkey, What’s Right With Feminism (S.P.C.K.)
(2) William D. Gairdner, The War Against the Family (Stoddart Publishing Co.). This book is quoted extensively in J. Farrar, “A More Excellent Way”, Compass, Vol.17, Nos.1 and 2 (Jan. and March 1993). This article is an extended analysis of the links between humanism and feminism, forcefully bringing home the incompatibility of these philosophies with Bible-based Christianity.
(3) David Edwards, Are Women Priests Right? (M.O.W.)
(4) Colin Craston, By What Authority? (M.O.W.)
(5) Jonathan Inkpin, Jesus and Gender (M.O.W.)
