May 22, 2015
Manifestation the Spirit
I’ve visited four different
Pentecostal churches and one commonality seems to be that it is the women and
girls who display an outward manifestation of being spirit filled — dancing,
arms swaying, hands lifted and in some instances talking in tongues. These churches
often reference Paul’s teaching on spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians
12). For me, as a visitor, a dichotomy arises when two chapters later Paul gives
instructions on orderly worship, “As in all the congregations of the
saints, women should remain silent in the churches. They
are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the Law says. If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own
husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church” (1
Cor 14:33b-35 NIV).
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2 comments:
Gail;
-----Can we imagine the Holy Spirit writing Paul’s bias into God’s Word? This is the same Paul who carried the message from the elders in Jerusalem back to Antioch saying the Law should burden Gentile believers no more than to abstain from pollution by idols, unchastity, or eating what had been strangled, or eating blood. This is the same Paul who told the Galatians, “You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the Law; you have fallen away from grace, ” (Gal 5:4) and who assured the Colossians, “If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the universe, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations, ‘Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch’ (referring to things which all perish as they are used), according to human precepts and doctrines? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting rigor of devotion and self-abasement and severity to the body, but they are of no value in checking the indulgence of the flesh.” (Col 2:20-23) “Likewise, my brethren, you have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God,” he wrote to the Romans. (Rom 7:4) And now women are forbidden to even make a sound in church because the Law says? Maybe Paul needed an editor.
------Maybe not. Maybe he had one who is greater than are we by as much as infinity is greater than specks. Maybe specks have no chance of understanding why the Infinite edited Paul the way He did. Some of the Bible’s most profound concepts are found in its deepest paradoxes. For instance, Jesus compared His own death on the cross to Moses’ raising the bronze serpent on a pole. Christ like a serpent? Now, isn’t that interesting? Actually, it’s a thing of beauty. Both save lives of those turning to them. And at the moment Christ died, raised up on a "pole", He became sin, which thing the serpent symbolizes. How tidy!
-----The Bible has secreted away into wisdom availed from following its precepts a teaching of human psychology exceeding by light-years those psychologies taught by any other men, except maybe by Eric Erickson. It exceeds his by almost one light-year is all. Several years ago Rush Limbaugh gave us a great laugh about NewsWeek reporting a study which concluded men are different than women! No! Shock! Man! I thought something had been wrong with my perceptions from what I've heard since women's lib.
-----Most people in denial of Paul’s expressions about women in the church say he was only reflecting first century norms. “For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.” (I Tim 2:13-14) Maybe it was the reasoning of the norm, but you’ve got to admit, the reasoning is founded on Biblical history. And history can abide only in truth. “But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a woman is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.” (I Cor 11:3) Is that like a picture or something? Is there maybe some psychology to all of this? “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” (Eph 5:25) So the husband gives himself up for the provision, security, joys, and pleasures of his wife, being her greatest servant as Christ is the church’s. It’s a thing of beauty. My life has never been better since I started treating Char according to that picture.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
continued...
-----But like children coloring outside the lines using inappropriate colors, many fill in their lives with colors they like regardless of what colors nature or Scripture shows differently. Moreover, they do this with all the slop and disregard for lines as do little children. Then they call themselves church. We praise children for their sloppy coloring because their messes are masterpieces of developing minds. We should stop praising adult’s “masterpieces” because their messes are products of developed minds searching to obfuscate Scriptures they don’t like. No fundamental, psychological principle is more important to both your life in the Lord and your ways amongst man than is that simple principle of submitting to what is right.
-----So. OK. You were expecting this: WHO’S TO SAY WHAT’S RIGHT? Isn’t obfuscation so serpentine? It’s like I would think Moses’ snake had slithered off its pole into our midst had Hezekiah not broken it up. This slithering, rhetorical question is based upon centuries of senseless, philosophical babbling about what is right and wrong and whether either can be known. None of those ole, dead philosophers ever won that debate. Therefore the rhetoric of the question is supposed to shout, “NOBODY!!!!” And we’re all supposed to go, “YEAH!!!”
-----But they forgot to ask the non-rhetorical question, “Who’s to say what’s right?” Anytime, anywhere its answer is, “THE BIBLE!!!” And do we all go, “YEAH!!?” No. As soon as it tells women to stay silent in church, not to teach, or to have authority over men they send women off to be elders and to teach men that The Great Book has a chauvinist viewpoint. Oh, but not just one! Don‘t forget to give way to those gays!
-----Paul tells us at I Corinthians 14:6 not to go beyond what is written. That is a profound line drawn around the Bible’s authority. It states we must not interject anything there. Yet we‘re free to take away from its authority? “,,,and if any one takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.” (Rev 22:19) What? Is the Word written only on paper? Repeated only in ink? What about the writing on our hearts? If our hearts are to no more be stony, but are to be alive with God’s law written upon them, just how much of His Word can we take away from the writing on our hearts?
-----If we think any at all, we have a serious chain of thought to ignore. “All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,” (II Tim 3:16) We don’t have to discuss the “Holy Spirit wrote the Bible” thing. He did. So when judging anything of it as incorrect or invalid, like they judge the “women silent” and “abominable homosexuality” things, they are passing judgment upon the Holy Spirit. And judging the Holy Spirit is that big B sin, that unforgivable one. OOoohhh, mmmyyyyy! I’ll be backing away from this one now, thank you.
-----”If any one thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that what I am writing to you is a command of the Lord. If any one does not recognize this, he is not recognized,” (I Cor 14:37-38) the Holy Spirit wrote by Paul. Well, let’s just place it back into its context, then. What two verses immediately precede it? “If there is anything they desire to know, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church. What! Did the word of God originate with you, or are you the only ones it has reached?”
-----Go ahead. Try it; you’ll like it. Its worship. Its obedience. Its about what a heart learns by worshipfully obeying Scriptures rather than by selfishly obfuscating them. And when we can’t quite obey a Scripture, don’t judge it. Just confess that we are wrong and it is right, like God is true and all men are false. That kind of leaves the Scriptures with a little dignity, now, doesn’t it? And us with a bit of confession, our better profession.
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