Critique of �Women and Ministry at IBC�

Introduction (prolegomena)

1.     IBC issue

2.     We are not the aggressors

3.     How the document unfairly frames the debate

a.       �Muzzling women�? p. 22

b.      Slavery? p. 1

c.       Harming evangelism? p. 10

d.      Complexity? p. 2, 22

e.       Piety? p. 2, 22

4.     How the document is organized

The Five Proclamations

1.     The accounts of the creation and fall reveal a fundamental equality between men and women

a.       Points of agreement (Gen 1:26-28)

                                                               i.      Co rulers

                                                             ii.      Co image bearers

b.      Point of disagreement (Gen 3:16)-p. 5

                                                               i.      Order of creation

                                                             ii.      Adam names Eve (Gen 2:23; 3:20)

                                                            iii.      Accountability (Gen 3:6, 9; Rom 5:12)

c.       Trinitarian analogy

                                                               i.      Son submits to the Father (John 8:58-59)

                                                             ii.      Son retains deity (Luke 22:42; Phil 2:6-8)

2.     Women exercised significant ministry roles of teaching and leading with God�s blessings in both the Old and New Testaments

a.       OT

                                                               i.      Pattern

1.      No queens in Israel or Judah (Athaliah)

2.      No female priests (teachers)

3.      No female authors of OT books

4.      No ongoing female speaking ministries (Elijah/Elisha)

5.      Examples are exceptions to norm

                                                             ii.      Examples used

1.      Miriam (Exod 15:20)

2.      Deborah (Judg 4�5)

3.      Huldah (2 Kgs 22:14)

4.      Joel 2:28; Acts 2:17

b.      NT

                                                               i.      Pattern

1.      No women pastors

2.      No female congregational leaders

3.      No female elders (1 Tim 3:1-2; Titus 1:6)

4.      No female deacons (Acts 6:3; 2 Tim 3:12)

5.      No record of a female sermon

6.      No female apostles (Luke 6:12; Eph 2:20; Matt 19:28)

7.      No female authors of NT books

8.      Examples are exceptions to norm

                                                             ii.      Examples

1.      Priscilla (Acts 18:26)

2.      Philip�s 4 prophetess daughters (Acts 21:9)

3.      Junia the Apostle (Rom 16:7)

4.      Phoebe the deacon (Rom 16:1)

5.      Euodia and Syntyche (Phil 4:2-3)

6.      Gal 3:28����������������������������������������������

3.     The progress of revelation indicates an ethic in progress leading to full freedom for women to exercise their giftedness in the local church

a.       Webb�s upward trajectory redemptive hermeneutic

                                                               i.      Description of the upward trajectory

1.      Pre OT culture

2.      OT

3.      Post OT culture

4.      NT

5.      NT culture

                                                             ii.      Academy into the local church (ideas have consequences)

b.      Problems with Webb�s approach (See Grudem appendix 5)

                                                               i.      Not sola scriptura (Rev 22:18-19; Jude 3; 2 Tim 3:17; 2 Pet 1:3)

                                                             ii.      Apostasy

                                                            iii.      Hermeneutical innovativeness can be used to justify any theology

                                                           iv.      Homosexuality

                                                             v.      No upward trajectory

1.      Gen 1:26-28

2.      Overwhelming pattern throughout church history

4.     Key NT passages restricting women�s roles (1 Tim 2:11-14) were culturally and historically specific and not universal principles for all times and places

a.       Selective universalism

                                                               i.      Eden

                                                             ii.      Question of emphasis

                                                            iii.      Settle down vs. complete silence

                                                           iv.      Non-soteriological

b.      One time cultural situation

                                                               i.      Temple cult

                                                             ii.      Problems

1.      Cultural �cop out�

2.      Which scholarly reconstruction?

3.      1 Tim 5:13 only

4.      1 Tim 2:12 = any woman

5.      Adam and Eve = trans cultural

6.      Exousian vs. authentein

7.      Pandora�s box (2 Tim 3:15�4:2)

c.       Over breadth

                                                               i.      Appropriate circumstances (Titus 2:4; 2 Tim 1:5)

                                                             ii.      Secular employment (1 Tim 3:15)

d.      100 verses vs. 2-3 verses

                                                               i.      Previous

                                                             ii.      Epistolary material

                                                            iii.      Pastoral letter

5.     Though women are free to use all of their giftedness in teaching and leading, the role of the elder seems biblically relegated to the man

a.       IBC finally sees the obvious (1 Tim 3:1-2; Titus 1:6)

b.      Problems

                                                               i.      Post modern: bridging the opposites

                                                             ii.      Inconsistency

                                                            iii.      IBC still wants the mantel of being a conservative Bible church