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Articles
EQUALITY
by Rev. Kathryn J. Riss
For a bio of Kathryn click here
With all the turmoil in society caused by the radical secular feminist and
homosexual activist agendas, many wonder if championing women’s rights in the
Gospel will compromise Biblical authority, weaken the church, or undermine
Biblical family values. The answer is clearly “NO!” Here are some of the
reasons:
1) The inequality of women taught by many conservative Christian
organizations provides a rationale for the abuse of women, one of the
leading causes of family breakup and violence in America. While no Christian
church would knowingly condone violence, the suppression of women’s freedom
and full humanity excuses it. On the other hand, studies have shown that the
happiest marriages are those in which an equal partnership of husband and
wife is upheld and practiced. Wives in such marriages have no reason to feel
wronged by their mate, so resentment does not build up. Being respected and
assisted by one’s husband is a great incentive to stay married to such a
good man! And the love that flows naturally from this kind of close union
models for the children how wonderful married life can be.
2) Those who promote injustice in the name of Scripture undermine Biblical
authority, which violates the character and works of God. It substitutes
religious legalism for the freedom of God to be God in the lives of His
people, gifting whom He chooses for whatever tasks of ministry they are best
suited for according to His divine plan. It also stamps the Christian life
with futility when women God has gifted as leaders are instructed to quench
the Holy Spirit rather than obey Him. Likewise, men whom God has gifted in
“background” ministries of helps are thrust into leadership for which they
are not suited. Such attempts to impose rigid sexual roles on people thwart
their growth and freedom in Christ and rob the church of the full use of its
resources.
Translators and editors, who have changed the scriptures regarding women to
fit their prejudices further compromise Biblical authority. Many examples could
be cited. The most common is the insertion of the gender-specific term “man” in
English translations where it does not exist in the Greek New Testament text. This confuses readers into believing that God excludes women where the original
text does not. Another example is faulty editing of the text. Many translations
of Ephesians 5:21-22 insert a sentence break, or even a paragraph break, between
these two verses. They also insert a command at the beginning of verse 22 where
none exists in the New Testament, saying, “Wives, submit yourselves to your own
husbands . . .” But the original Greek combines verses 21 and 22 in a single
thought. The sole command of this passage is found, not in verse 22, but back in
verse 18. There, God commands all Christians to “Be not drunk with wine, which
leads to excess, but BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT!” This is followed by a series of
parallel gerunds showing how we are to remain Spirit-filled. They are: “Speaking
to yourselves in psalms and hymns . . ." “Giving thanks in all things to God. .
. “ and “Submitting yourselves to one another in the fear of God.” In this
context, wives submitting to their husbands is not a legalistic command, but one
way in which all Christians are to remain filled with the Holy Spirit by
avoiding conflicts with one another.
Another example of mistranslation regarding women is found in Hebrews 11:11. The
structure of this verse is parallel to verses 4, 5, 7, and 8. All begin “By
faith . . .” and name the person who is an example of faith for us. Verse 4
begins, “By faith Abel. . .” Verse 5 begins, "By faith Enoch. . . “ Verse 7
begins, “By faith Noah. . . “ Verse 8 begins “By faith Abraham. . . “ And verse
11 begins “By faith Sarah . . .” However, modern translators of the NIV who did
not like to include a woman among the heroes of faith actually take Sarah’s name
out of the Bible and substitute Abraham’s name for hers, even though the word
“Abraham” occurs NOWHERE in verse 11 or 12 in ANY Greek New Testament
manuscript! (1) If you don’t believe me, look it up in any Greek edition of the
New Testament. You don’t have to be able to read Greek to see exactly what I
mean.
Such distortions of the text undermine the authority of Scripture. They need to
be corrected, so that people will have access to the true Word of God rather
than biased versions that promote a religious cultural agenda.
3) Those who would impose St. Paul’s advice to first century Christians
as a cultural imperative for the 21st century mistakenly substitute
Scripture application for principle. The idea of 21st century Christian
women being secluded at home, remaining uneducated, having no choice of a
husband, being silenced in the churches, and going about veiled in public is
ludicrous. Yet, hermeneutical consistency for those who believe in a
second-class role for women based on the first century model would require
these things.
St. Paul urged all Christians to honor the institutions and authorities of
their day, even though many were unjust. So, he advised slaves to obey their
masters and wives to obey their husbands although he also said that if slaves
had the opportunity to be free, they should take it. Thank God, we are not
slaves, nor do we sell our adolescent daughters into marriages to strangers who
own them! We, both men and women, are full citizens of the greatest country in
the world. How much more, then, should we take advantage of the rights and
privileges of freedom to promote the Gospel! We may wish to return to the
revival power and Christian love of the early church, but to throw away 2000
years of human progress in order to emulate their society would be worse than
stupid.
4) The teaching that women should be subject due to the “curse” of Eve
contradicts the Gospel truth that the blood of Jesus Christ washes away ALL
sin! It mistakenly substitutes the fallen state of humanity as God’s ideal
instead of His original creation of man and woman as full and equal partners
and overseers of His creation. It maligns Jesus’ redemptive work, claiming
that the sin of Eve is NOT atoned for or forgiven. Rather than rejoicing in
our freedom in Christ, it cruelly insists that not only must Eve be
punished, but her female offspring (although not her male offspring!) as
well, and that for all generations. But the Bible teaches that the Cross
destroyed ALL the works of the devil, bringing men and women into freedom
from ALL sin and equality as redeemed under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
5) Limiting the freedom of Christian women because of their sex is unjust,
because while any other sinner may be forgiven by God and set free on the
sole condition of repentance, women have no choice in and no ability to
change the condition which, under this view, constitutes the ground of their
punishment. We should be very clear about this, because being born female is
in no way a sin! On the contrary, it was only after the creation of the
first woman that God called His creation “very good.” Unlike any other of
God’s creatures, Scripture calls woman and her marriage to man “VERY good!”
The Fall could not change that! All it could do was to bring suffering and
death to humankind and distort the relationship between men and women.
Women need to understand that rather than being a curse, our femaleness is
“VERY good” in God’s eyes! We need to understand that being female is NOT a
sinful condition! On the contrary, it is a unique privilege, because only women
are able to bring into the world new human lives in the image of God, who will
love and serve the Lord Jesus Christ. No wonder the devil hates us! We keep
increasing the population of his enemies! It should be no surprise that satan
has been working overtime to torment us and keep us down, since our potential to
destroy him is so great.
Christian women are discriminated against not due to any sinful condition, but
due to a natural condition. In this, our situation is very different from that
of homosexuals and lesbians. While such persons may not be able to help their
attraction to those of their own sex, they DO have a choice and the power to
change their behavior. Discrimination against them occurs on the basis of their
homosexual behavior. Once they repent and embrace self-control, their status in
the church is the same as any other repentant sinner’s. But for those born
female, no repentance is possible; and full citizenship in God’s earthly kingdom
can never be gained as long as prejudice against women is actively promoted by
the church that should be setting them free.
6) Christian inequality undermines our Gospel witness to the lost. Unsaved people can see through religious rationalizations to the injustice
of “separate but equal” status in the church. The New Testament tells them
that Christ came to set the captives free and provide life more abundantly,
but religious legalists put women into bondage and rob them of the freedom
to fulfill their potential. Who can estimate how many unsaved young people
and women have been turned away from Christ by this barrier? I know that for
many years, I was one of them! Non-Christians often excuse their abandonment
of the church on the basis that it is full of hypocrites. Let’s take away
their excuses and make our homes and churches models of Christian truth,
love and justice.
NOTES____________________
1. The pronouns "he" and "him" don't appear in the Greek. They are supplied by
the translators. The verb "considered (Him) faithful" has a common singular
ending which could be translated accurately either as "he" or "she." Its object
is the "the one" which is translated here as "him." The NIV translators
substituted Abraham's name for Sarah's because the verb which the KJV translates
"conceive seed" is often used for ejaculation and not conception. In order to do
this they had to 1) remove Sarah from its position as the subject of the
sentence, 2) substitute Abraham, which does NOT appear in the text, and 3)
completely change the word order of the sentence to make Sarah's involvement an
afterthought.
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