Sunday, March 22, 2015

Who has authority in church?

A church should be a place where you can be with believers or non believers to encourage one another in the word, and where you can be taught His word through a pastor. Church should be a safe place for anyone to go and feel welcomed, while praising God either through prayer, worship, etc. Who should be in charge of the church? Well, a pastor of course. Preferably male, why? Because in 1 Timothy 2:12-14 it states " but I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet, for it was Adam who was first created, then eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became the sinner. " So now paul is proving his point with the fact that yes, Adam was created first and therefore should have authority over eve. Also yes, she was the one who convinced Adam to eat the forbidden fruit. Now In Ephesians is talks about submission and how we should submit to our husbands as the church submits to Christ. So overall I do think a man should be over a woman. But what kind of modern church practice would paul be trying to tell women by saying they are not to have authority over a man? The thing is paul is saying even if a woman's husband was to give her permission to have a high position in the church, that's not the problem. Paul's concern is not with the woman acting independently of her husband, but that the woman wants to exercise authority in the church over any man. Also, not all authority in the church is through teaching. Paul talks about how authority and teaching are closely related but very different and in 1 Timothy 2:12 paul is prohibiting women from conducting activities in relation to men. But here is the big question.  Does this apply to churches today? I do not think we can assume is does. Why? Because certain situations change like , in 1 corinthians it says " greet one another with a holy kiss. " but do we now? No, because time changes us and we now shake hands. So could we take 1 Timothy 2:12 and apply is circumstantally? Well we could think that paul just said that because of the back round at that time because of the false teaching at Ephesus. If so, how would this affect what he's saying. Well, I think Paul is having to give explicit teaching on this subject because it has become a problem in the church. But what if this only applies to women who have heard false teaching? Then Paul is saying that if you have heard false teaching you are not allowed to talk about it otherwise. But let's go back to 1 Timothy 2:14. It talks about how eve was the one who told Adam to eat the fruit that ruined the world. So paul is saying that you must not repeate the mistake by exercising false teaching to the church. So if the women at the church of Ephesus did not learn in quietness and full submission ( 1 Timothy 2:11 ) seeking roles that have been given to men in the church (2:12) they will make the same mistake eve did and ruin the church. Now let's apply Adam and Eve and why he would need to mention who was created first. He mentions Adam being created first because since women were created after men, this shows the woman's position of submission that God intended for the woman. So I think men should lead in a church. Why? Because God gave them the ability to have authority. And this applies to not only them having authority over women but other men as well.

1 comment:

  1. Wow... long post. I think I got lost a little in your argument. But I could tell you were bringing in a lot of what discussed in class. The Adam and Eve portion of this passage is a challenge... it trips up a lot of folks. It is good that you are wrestling with this one. I would encourage you to remember that, whatever position you take, women are not inferior to men. Even if you hold a conservative view of women submitting to the authority of men, you do not need to understand this to mean that women are less capable or valuable than men. Most who hold that view simply see it as a necessary order of things--God had to put someone in charge. Women play a very important role in God's Kingdom, let's never leave that out.

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