Beth Moore "should go home." These are words that are shameful coming from a supposedly "child of God", but completely natural and expected from an unpolished demagogue.
Although these kinds of people sincerely believe that they have a corner on the truth, they stumble over the obvious in order to magnify a moot point, at the same time being completely unaware not only of the moot-ness of their point but more so unaware of the wrongness of their point due to the wrong hermeneutic framework, the same framework that invented the "detestable doctrine of predestination (John Wesley, who himself WAS a Calvinist)".
In fact, they clearly have not exceeded "the righteousness of the Pharisees" quite in the same way that the Pharisees were more concerned about the letter of the law than the spirit behind the law. Note that Christ stated this principle in the context of handling the Law and the Prophets or, clearly, the Word of God! This is the interpretive fallacy of "verbal inspiration that ignores the plenary inspiration" of Scripture. While verbal inspiration focuses dangerously on the letter of the law (God's revelation), plenary inspiration focuses correctly on the big picture of the "spirit" of the God's revealed word(s). In fact, it is the misuse of the doctrine of verbal inspiration that has produced almost all the "christian" cults that exist today!
The danger of McArthur's position and those who subscribe to his belief and hermeneutic system is that they may be unaware that they are QUENCHING the Holy Spirit or even worse, BLASPHEMING the work of the Holy Spirit in Beth Moore's life and her ministry. This comes quite close to the UNFORGIVABLE sin as declared by Christ Himself! To this people, may I remind you that during the golden age of the holiness movement, many of your fundamentalist partners including yourselves were ascribing the Pentecostal work of the Holy Spirit to the works of demonism! So may I admonish you to stop quenching and/or blaspheming the Holy Spirit and His work.
I have to acknowledge "Pastor" Beth Moore at this point for behaving as a true Kingdom child of God, taking the higher ground and obeying the call of God instead of the doctrines of men. Moore is a true pastor-teacher and the only reason she does not have that title is because, as far as this issue is concerned, she belongs to the wrong denomination. I must criticize Moore, though, for allowing a man-made denomination to restrict the gifting of the Spirit upon her, but only in the sense that she allows mere men to confine her ministry to women only.
But ALL of these controversies are a matter of opinion until we explore the science and art of communication which is the basis for correct hermeneutics.
The PARADOX of Verbal Inspiration (i.e., every word of Scripture is God's chosen word)
Let me start by asking a pointed question. Read the discussions in Matthew 19:1-12 and Mark 10:1-10. Focus now on Matthew 19:7-8 or Mark 10:3-5. The Pharisees and even Jesus Christ Himself AGREED that the accommodation on divorce was given by Moses and not God. However, such accommodation is CLEARLY in the TORAH! Look up Deuteronomy 24:1-4 and by implication Deuteronomy 22:19, 29.
Now, is the Torah the Word of God or not? Of course, it is! BUT why did Christ Himself state that these are the words of Moses and not God? So there is your paradox - is the Torah the Word of God or is it not? Now, you are in danger of saying that it is indeed the word of God EXCEPT for those particular passages? Then who or what is to determine what is inspired and what is not?
How about the letters of St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 7 where he adds a disclaimer to his statements. Read 1 Corinthians 7:6 (Now, as a concession...), 12 (I, not the Lord...), 17 (This is MY rule...), 25 (I have no command from the Lord, but I give my judgment...). So are these verses the Word of God or just the words of Paul? If these are just Paul's opinions, can we simply ignore the whole chapter??? How do you intelligently reconcile and resolve these paradoxes?
How about the rule on head coverings in 1 Corinthians 11 of which, mind you, Paul was more passionate about compared to his stating that "women should be silent in churches" in 1 Corinthians 14:34. In fact, for the head covering principle, he even pointed to a theological background as basis for imposing such a rule!!! So, are all the churches of America sinning? Or are you saying that some churches are sinning by ordaining women pastors but they are not sinning due to the head covering rule? Is this NOT quite an arbitrary application of verbal inspiration making you the GOD of interpreting Scripture equivalent to the interpretive authority of the Pope of the Roman Catholic church????
Now, if you continue to insist on verbal inspiration, how about the laws on divorce and remarriage? Clearly, verbal inspiration declares that divorced women can NEVER remarry while the husband is alive (Romans 7)! It is also clear that a man who marries a divorcee is committing adultery which is one of the Ten Commandments, the violation of which is as bad as murder itself! So are all 60% of Christian American marriages apostate and clearly wallowing in willful sin, and subject to the curse of the God of the Ten Commandments????
HOW THEN SHOULD WE CORRECTLY INTERPRET SCRIPTURE???
The answer is given by Christ Himself. We MUST EXCEED the righteousness of the Pharisees and Scribes who make many attempts to obey the letter of the Law (outward actions) but ignoring the spirit of the law (inward inclinations of the heart).
The FIRST step is to start interpretation with the assumption that God is intelligent, He is the greatest and clearest communicator, and Divine logic is no different from human logic simply because MAN WAS MADE IN THE IMAGE OF GOD. If this is not true, then God has no capability nor basis for revelation and his revealed word is pointless since man cannot understand God's logic anyway.
The SECOND step is to accept that God is LOVE primarily and his Kheced ALWAYS preempts his Sovereignty as proven by the incarnation of Christ. Christ actually surrendered his sovereignty in order to clearly demonstrate his KHECED (a combination of phileo and eros founded upon agape).
Hence Love is the main attribute of God when trying to understand His revealed word. The Bible clearly shows that it is NEVER THE OTHER WAY AROUND!
The THIRD step is to focus on the Plenary revelation of God on any subject. Let's apply this to women pastors in ministry. The plenary (full, complete and final) revelation of God in terms of the role of women in His kingdom are the following:
Based purely on age, I think we know who should really "go home"! Time to retire....
In fact, they clearly have not exceeded "the righteousness of the Pharisees" quite in the same way that the Pharisees were more concerned about the letter of the law than the spirit behind the law. Note that Christ stated this principle in the context of handling the Law and the Prophets or, clearly, the Word of God! This is the interpretive fallacy of "verbal inspiration that ignores the plenary inspiration" of Scripture. While verbal inspiration focuses dangerously on the letter of the law (God's revelation), plenary inspiration focuses correctly on the big picture of the "spirit" of the God's revealed word(s). In fact, it is the misuse of the doctrine of verbal inspiration that has produced almost all the "christian" cults that exist today!
The danger of McArthur's position and those who subscribe to his belief and hermeneutic system is that they may be unaware that they are QUENCHING the Holy Spirit or even worse, BLASPHEMING the work of the Holy Spirit in Beth Moore's life and her ministry. This comes quite close to the UNFORGIVABLE sin as declared by Christ Himself! To this people, may I remind you that during the golden age of the holiness movement, many of your fundamentalist partners including yourselves were ascribing the Pentecostal work of the Holy Spirit to the works of demonism! So may I admonish you to stop quenching and/or blaspheming the Holy Spirit and His work.
I have to acknowledge "Pastor" Beth Moore at this point for behaving as a true Kingdom child of God, taking the higher ground and obeying the call of God instead of the doctrines of men. Moore is a true pastor-teacher and the only reason she does not have that title is because, as far as this issue is concerned, she belongs to the wrong denomination. I must criticize Moore, though, for allowing a man-made denomination to restrict the gifting of the Spirit upon her, but only in the sense that she allows mere men to confine her ministry to women only.
But ALL of these controversies are a matter of opinion until we explore the science and art of communication which is the basis for correct hermeneutics.
The PARADOX of Verbal Inspiration (i.e., every word of Scripture is God's chosen word)
Let me start by asking a pointed question. Read the discussions in Matthew 19:1-12 and Mark 10:1-10. Focus now on Matthew 19:7-8 or Mark 10:3-5. The Pharisees and even Jesus Christ Himself AGREED that the accommodation on divorce was given by Moses and not God. However, such accommodation is CLEARLY in the TORAH! Look up Deuteronomy 24:1-4 and by implication Deuteronomy 22:19, 29.
Now, is the Torah the Word of God or not? Of course, it is! BUT why did Christ Himself state that these are the words of Moses and not God? So there is your paradox - is the Torah the Word of God or is it not? Now, you are in danger of saying that it is indeed the word of God EXCEPT for those particular passages? Then who or what is to determine what is inspired and what is not?
How about the letters of St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 7 where he adds a disclaimer to his statements. Read 1 Corinthians 7:6 (Now, as a concession...), 12 (I, not the Lord...), 17 (This is MY rule...), 25 (I have no command from the Lord, but I give my judgment...). So are these verses the Word of God or just the words of Paul? If these are just Paul's opinions, can we simply ignore the whole chapter??? How do you intelligently reconcile and resolve these paradoxes?
How about the rule on head coverings in 1 Corinthians 11 of which, mind you, Paul was more passionate about compared to his stating that "women should be silent in churches" in 1 Corinthians 14:34. In fact, for the head covering principle, he even pointed to a theological background as basis for imposing such a rule!!! So, are all the churches of America sinning? Or are you saying that some churches are sinning by ordaining women pastors but they are not sinning due to the head covering rule? Is this NOT quite an arbitrary application of verbal inspiration making you the GOD of interpreting Scripture equivalent to the interpretive authority of the Pope of the Roman Catholic church????
Now, if you continue to insist on verbal inspiration, how about the laws on divorce and remarriage? Clearly, verbal inspiration declares that divorced women can NEVER remarry while the husband is alive (Romans 7)! It is also clear that a man who marries a divorcee is committing adultery which is one of the Ten Commandments, the violation of which is as bad as murder itself! So are all 60% of Christian American marriages apostate and clearly wallowing in willful sin, and subject to the curse of the God of the Ten Commandments????
HOW THEN SHOULD WE CORRECTLY INTERPRET SCRIPTURE???
The answer is given by Christ Himself. We MUST EXCEED the righteousness of the Pharisees and Scribes who make many attempts to obey the letter of the Law (outward actions) but ignoring the spirit of the law (inward inclinations of the heart).
The FIRST step is to start interpretation with the assumption that God is intelligent, He is the greatest and clearest communicator, and Divine logic is no different from human logic simply because MAN WAS MADE IN THE IMAGE OF GOD. If this is not true, then God has no capability nor basis for revelation and his revealed word is pointless since man cannot understand God's logic anyway.
The SECOND step is to accept that God is LOVE primarily and his Kheced ALWAYS preempts his Sovereignty as proven by the incarnation of Christ. Christ actually surrendered his sovereignty in order to clearly demonstrate his KHECED (a combination of phileo and eros founded upon agape).
Hence Love is the main attribute of God when trying to understand His revealed word. The Bible clearly shows that it is NEVER THE OTHER WAY AROUND!
The THIRD step is to focus on the Plenary revelation of God on any subject. Let's apply this to women pastors in ministry. The plenary (full, complete and final) revelation of God in terms of the role of women in His kingdom are the following:
- CONTEXT: The Old Testament had, clearly, a male chauvinistic culture. It also had slaves as a common commodity. It practiced divorce and remarriage left and right without any restrictions whatsoever.
- CONTEXT: Paul was clearly living in almost entirely the same context - a male chauvinistic culture. Paul did not condemn this culture in the same way he did not condemn slavery
- SCRIPTURE: The book of Joel and repeated in the Acts of the Apostles states that AFTER the resurrection of Christ and Pentecost, "I will pour out my Spirit on ALL flesh and your sons and DAUGHTERS shall PROPHECY...even on my male servants and FEMALE servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit and they shall PROPHECY...(Acts 17-18)"
- SCRIPTURE: The gifts of the Spirit include pastor-teacher and there is no qualification of GENDER in any and ALL of the Gifts. Now, that is VERBAL inspiration!
- SCRIPTURE: Galatians 3:25-29 states that "you are all sons (does this mean no female can exercise faith?) of God through faith...there is no male and FEMALE (i.e., there is NO DISTINCTION OF GENDER AT ALL), for you are ALL ONE in Christ Jesus"
- SCRIPTURE: The first witness to the Samaritans was the WOMAN at the well (John 4)
- SCRIPTURE: The first person Christ appeared to AFTER the resurrection was Mary Magdalene, a WOMAN
- SCRIPTURE: The missionary couple, PRISCILLA and AQUILA, was always addressed with the woman mentioned first, clearly counter-culture because the Christian faith is clearly counter-culture. This same faith abolished slavery in England. In the USA the RIGHT denominations abolished slavery which the HUMAN-INVENTED denominations opposed (using false hermeneutics and blatant Scripture twisting and capitalizing on Verbal Inspiration without plenary inspiration) which created the American Civil War. It was Christians that created hospitals, public schools, women suffrage, ALL CLEARLY COUNTER-CULTURE!!!
The FINAL step is to junk your cherished doctrine if it proves to be even slightly inconsistent with the plenary revealed Word of God !!! God is NEVER SLIGHTLY correct. He is ALWAYS COMPLETELY CORRECT!
As we can see, some of our dear brothers in the faith are still living in the dark ages of history and the church, where church doctrine supercedes the clear plenary teaching of Scripture, where tradition is accepted without question ignoring the spirit of Christian perfection as required by the word of God to enter the Kingdom of God, and where division is instigated on moot matters instead of debating based on the eternal character of God and his Word.
As we can see, some of our dear brothers in the faith are still living in the dark ages of history and the church, where church doctrine supercedes the clear plenary teaching of Scripture, where tradition is accepted without question ignoring the spirit of Christian perfection as required by the word of God to enter the Kingdom of God, and where division is instigated on moot matters instead of debating based on the eternal character of God and his Word.
Based purely on age, I think we know who should really "go home"! Time to retire....
No comments:
Post a Comment