EPILOGUE

What we are left with after looking through the whole Bible at every key passage, in context, of gender authority is this;

1. A consistent principle of gender authority through the whole Bible.

2. Unity of principle and practice between the Old and New Testaments.

3. A strong and clear consistency between the instructions in Scripture, and the practice of Scripture, even with the difficult passages.

4. Consistency in gender authority in both the home and the Church.

5. A holding to the traditional interpretation of gender authority, affirming that the Holy Spirit has been faithful to lead us into all truth.

6. An ability to read every key passage from the Bible alone, and walk away with a consistent and reasonably accurate understanding of the teaching and practice of gender authority.

7. While we find a consistent prohibition against women in authority over men, we also find powerful examples of God’s ability to use people outside formal authority.

It is very important to note that the ministry of Jesus shows the incredible power of anointing and calling, apart from positions of authority. During his entire earthly ministry, Christ never stepped into the formal positions of authority he possessed! While he possessed ultimate authority, he served with that power set aside.


I have a challenge for those who still reject what is presented here;

Rewrite these passages in a way that honors the Greek, in a way that makes sense in the context they are found, and yet communicates other than gender authority. Show me a honest translation of all these passages that clearly and consistently communicates equal submission and women in formal positions of authority.


OBEYING WHAT GOD’S WORD SAYS

Oswald Chambers, “We don’t consciously and deliberately disobey God—we simply don’t listen to Him. God has given His commands to us, but we pay no attention to them—not because of willful disobedience, but because we do not truly love and respect Him. “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15). We show how little love we have for God by preferring to listen to His servants rather than to Him. We like to listen to personal testimonies, but we don’t want God Himself to speak to us. Why are we so terrified for God to speak to us? It is because we know that when God speaks we must either do what He asks or tell Him we will not obey. But if it is simply one of God’s servants speaking to us, we feel obedience is optional, not imperative. We respond by saying, “Well, that’s only your own idea, even though I don’t deny that what you said is probably God’s truth.”




NOT RE-INTERPRETING WHAT GOD’S WORD SAYS

1 Cor. 4:6 (NIV) ...so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, "Do not go beyond what is written."

“No one has the right to adjust the gospel or revise God’s plan for his church. Those precious things are not yours or mine; they are God’s. We need to stop fussing with them. We need to submit to the heavenly design laid down long ago.” Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire, Jim Cymbala

2 Peter 2:1-22 (NIV) But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them--bringing swift destruction on themselves. [2] Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. [3] In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.
[4] For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment; [5] if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; [6] if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; [7] and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men [8] (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)-- [9] if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment. [10] This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority.
Bold and arrogant, these men are not afraid to slander celestial beings; [11] yet even angels, although they are stronger and more powerful, do not bring slanderous accusations against such beings in the presence of the Lord. [12] But these men blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like brute beasts, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like beasts they too will perish.
[13] They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you. [14] With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed--an accursed brood! [15] They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness. [16] But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey--a beast without speech--who spoke with a man's voice and restrained the prophet's madness.
[17] These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. [18] For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. [19] They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity--for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him. [20] If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. [21] It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. [22] Of them the proverbs are true: "A dog returns to its vomit," and, "A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud."





















APPENDIX 1


INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE

I. REVELATION
-God has made Himself known
-divine origin and cause

II. INSPIRATION
-God has made Himself known in words
-God inspired men to write His words
*‘God-breathed’
-All Scripture is inspired
-Because it is divine/inspired, it is inerrant

III. AUTHORITY
-Because God’s word is inspired and inerrant, it alone
has final authority over man


THREE LEVELS OF CRITICISM

1. Lower Criticism; Word translation

2. Higher Criticism; Authorship, Date, Character of Book

3. Highest Criticism; Letter AND spirit of the word...
-Isaiah 66:2 "But to this one I will look, To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.
-Isaiah 8:20 To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn.
-1 Cor. 2:12-13 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, [13] which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.


GUIDES FOR INTERPRETATION

1. Am I Holy Spirit guided?
2. What principle is being proclaimed?
3. What principle is being practiced?
4. What is the context?
5. Is my interpretation consistent with other related passages in Scripture?
6. Is my interpretation consistent with the face meaning of the passage?

INHERENT POWER OF THE WORD

Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.


INTEGRITY AND PURPOSE OF THE WORD

2 Tim. 3:14-17 You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, [15] and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. [16] All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; [17] so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.


EVERY SCRIPTURE INSPIRED BY GOD

2 Peter 1:20-21 But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, [21] for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.


DURATION OF THE WORD, AND CHARGE TO KEEP IT

Matthew 5:17-19 "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. [18] "For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. [19] "Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.


SCRIPTURE ARGUING FROM SCRIPTURE

Present tense vs past tense;
John 8:58 Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am."

Importance of a single word;
John 10:34-36 Jesus answered them, "Has it not been written in your Law, 'I said, you are gods'? [35] "If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), [36] do you say of Him, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, 'You are blaspheming,' because I said, 'I am the Son of God'?

Significance of the singular noun vs plural;
Galatians 3:16 Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, "And to seeds," as referring to many, but rather to one, "And to your seed," that is, Christ.

Passive voice rather than active voice of the verb;
Galatians 4:9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again?

Implication of one phrase
Hebrews 12:27 This expression, "Yet once more," denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.


Taking the five passages together, they teach us that to alter or omit a phrase, change the voice or mood or tense of a verb, change a single word or even the number of a noun, is to break with the Scriptures.


JESUS’ RESPONSE WHEN TEMPTED BY SATAN

Matthew 4:4 But He answered and said, "It is written, 'Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.' "

Matthew 4:6-7 and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written,
'He will command His angels concerning You'; and
'On their hands they will bear You up,
So that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.'
[7] Jesus said to him, "On the other hand, it is written, 'You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.' "

Matthew 4:10 Then Jesus said to him, "Go, Satan! For it is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.' "

88 times Scriptures record, ‘It is written...’


THE WONDER AND POWER OF THE WORD

Isaiah 55:8-11 "For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways," declares the Lord.
[9] "For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways
And My thoughts than your thoughts.
[10] "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
And do not return there without watering the earth
And making it bear and sprout,
And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater;
[11] So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth;
It will not return to Me empty,
Without accomplishing what I desire,
And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.


OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT WARNINGS ABOUT THE WORD

Deut. 4:2 "You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.

Rev. 22:18-19 I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book; [19] and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.


Submission to the Authority of the Word means that when Scripture proclaims a fact about the Christian faith, we believe it. And when Scripture gives a command we apply it in obedience. This is rooted in the core shift of NOT deciding right and wrong for ourselves, and resubmitting to the authority of God to determine good and evil. This obedience is the genuine expression of our faith and love for God. It is the commitment to an obedience that encompasses every aspect of our being.

Romans 3:4 May it never be! Rather, let God be found true, though every man be found a liar, as it is written,
"That You may be justified in Your words,
And prevail when You are judged."