Times they are a changing
With regard to orthodoxy or various issues of orthopraxy, is it right to change teachings which are centuries, or even two millenia old just because they do not fit the current cultural milieu of today? How much of Scripture do we take within the cultural setting of the context it was written in versus our cultural context of today?
When Paul forbids an action, does that mean only for first century AD?
When Paul encourages an action, does that mean only for first century AD?
What do we do?
One issue comes to my mind which have been brought to my attention of late. Women pastors. I fall in the line of believing which is the more historical, orthodox view of a male only clergy. Not that I think women are less desirable than men, and certainly not that I think women "can't handle it", but I believe that Scripture sets patterns for leadership within the Church and that is that the leadership is male. I do not fall in line with historical critics who teach that the early church was a patriarchial organization which suppressed women and that we need to reinterpret texts in Scripture in light of that and allow for women pastors.
I just don't see it in the text, even when I take the cultural setting the New Testament was written in. Yes, I understand the setting Paul and the other Apostles wrote in, but if you take one issue as cultural, you have to take more.
I do not mean that to make a direct coorelation of ordaining women= X, then Y, then Z, but if you take the so-called major denominations which do allow ordination of women, PCUSA, UCC and UMC, there are other cans of worms which have arisen within those organizations, which are leading to the the shrinking of membership (the PCUSA has lost over 300,000 in the last ten years), and the basic cultural irrelevance of their message.
What is the answer though?
What should we do about issues which are now being deemed as "cultural" for the time it was written in?
I think there is a good answer in this: we need to examine our beliefs according to Scripture and learn to defend them well. We must know why we believe what we believe and be able to support it with Scripture and not according to our cultural milieu or philosophy. We cannot change the meaning because we don't like it, the meaning is supposed to change us.
Book of the day New Dictionary of Theology by InterVarsity Press. Sinclair Ferguson, David Wright and J.I. Packer, editors.
When Paul forbids an action, does that mean only for first century AD?
When Paul encourages an action, does that mean only for first century AD?
What do we do?
One issue comes to my mind which have been brought to my attention of late. Women pastors. I fall in the line of believing which is the more historical, orthodox view of a male only clergy. Not that I think women are less desirable than men, and certainly not that I think women "can't handle it", but I believe that Scripture sets patterns for leadership within the Church and that is that the leadership is male. I do not fall in line with historical critics who teach that the early church was a patriarchial organization which suppressed women and that we need to reinterpret texts in Scripture in light of that and allow for women pastors.
I just don't see it in the text, even when I take the cultural setting the New Testament was written in. Yes, I understand the setting Paul and the other Apostles wrote in, but if you take one issue as cultural, you have to take more.
I do not mean that to make a direct coorelation of ordaining women= X, then Y, then Z, but if you take the so-called major denominations which do allow ordination of women, PCUSA, UCC and UMC, there are other cans of worms which have arisen within those organizations, which are leading to the the shrinking of membership (the PCUSA has lost over 300,000 in the last ten years), and the basic cultural irrelevance of their message.
What is the answer though?
What should we do about issues which are now being deemed as "cultural" for the time it was written in?
I think there is a good answer in this: we need to examine our beliefs according to Scripture and learn to defend them well. We must know why we believe what we believe and be able to support it with Scripture and not according to our cultural milieu or philosophy. We cannot change the meaning because we don't like it, the meaning is supposed to change us.
Book of the day New Dictionary of Theology by InterVarsity Press. Sinclair Ferguson, David Wright and J.I. Packer, editors.
posted by Bobby's blog at 2:56 PM
1 Comments:
Well, this is interesting. My name is Bob Griffith, and I am a seminarian at the General Theological Seminary in New York City. I just posted a comment on my blog a few days ago concerning orthodoxy and orthopraxy.
I am in my final year of a three-year M.Div. program (frankly, it needs to be four years!). My class started our weeklong General Ordination Exams today. What a task, but today's two questions went quite well.
Bob
Post a Comment
<< Home