Is the biblically-old ordination of males-only to the office of minister in Christ's church a ministry initiated and continued by God's Will or man's will? Is it just a man-made tradition or a God-made rule? All serious Bible-believing Christians will agree that this is the question that must be answered to determine whether or not females should also be ordained to the office of minister.
The ordination of females is a subject of growing concern throughout Christendom. To date no clear, unequivocal, biblically-referenced answer, either pro or con, has been forthcoming. The Bible is allegedly unable to supply such an answer, and so God's Will on this question is also allegedly unknowable and thus man's will is allegedly free to supply the answer.
In this allegedly uncertain exegetical climate many main-line Protestant Churches have helplessly succumbed to the pressures, and non-biblical rationalizations, of its pro-female groups.
By contrast, for twenty-years the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) tenaciously has held out for a definitive ruling from the Bible
** * This article uses the word man as a collective noun which embraces both male and female.**
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before making a decision. In so doing, it has been spared the authority-debilitating effect of making a decision without clear biblical warrant.
But the hour of decision is fast approaching for the CRC. For the past 5-years its Synods have been under heavy pressure to produce an answer. CRC membership, both pro and con, has become increasingly confused, emotionally-polarized, and restless for a biblically-acceptable answer to our question.
To obtain such an answer, both God's Will and man's will should be examined more carefully than has been done heretofore. The following paragraphs briefly present such an examination and answer based on the two assumptions (1) that man reasons his will, and (2) that God simply reveals His Will.
Man reasons his will.
Whenever man does not have an explicit revelation from God to guide him, he may in good Christian conscience use his own reason to define and fulfill his will.
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Committee for Women in the CRC (CW-CRC)." Among other things its avowed purpose is to have females ordained in church offices, particularly the office of minister.
Early in 1981 the CW published a six-page "Position Paper" with four topical headings containing thirty-seven items in support of its purpose. None of the items presented an explicit revelation of God's Will on the issue.
All of the items were based on a form of man's reasoning called analogy. This is an illegitimate form of logic because it proves nothing. It does not conform to the legitimate syllogism of logic.
A typical analogy of the CW goes like this: (premise) we "are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3:28) and therefore (conclusion) females should be as "one" with males in ministerial ordination. To exclude females is unjust.
The conclusion obviously does not follow from the premise. If it did then we also could say: (premise) we "are all one in Christ Jesus" and therefore (conclusion) the ordination (choosing) of Jesus' 12-apostles should also have included females. Since it didn't then Jesus was unjust to females Obviously we dare not say this.
All of the CW's biblical references were from Paul, except one. The one Gospel reference was from Matt. 20:25-28 and it has nothing to do with ministerial ordination. I mention the Gospels vs. Paul simply to show that Jesus Himself did not speak any recorded words on the subject of ministerial ordination.
Later in 1981 the CW added a new item (its 38th) in an effort to bolster its "Position." I shall examine its illegitimate reasoning here to illustrate more fully the fallacy of analogy that permeates the CW's "Position Paper."
The new item centers around the analogy that (premise) "since the Government and the Church are both biblically-approved ministries of God, therefore (conclusion) the politics practiced in each may also be considered as having biblical approval."
With that analogy the CW's membership is told that in good biblical conscience it may now turn on political pressures in the Church just as pressure groups do in Government. T members may now "lobby" and "make sure that their next minister has the right idea."
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The members are told that the time is now tactically ripe to move ahead aggressively because the CRC is at an impasse in its efforts to find a biblically-authoritative answer to the question of female ordination to Church offices. It is said the CRC Synods have been playing politics by stalling just like Governments do when they can't find politically-palatable solutions for politically-sensitive problems.
The members are not told that politics in the ministry of the Church are repugnant to God. The biblical account is replete with examples of this. Consider these:
(1) God's terrible anger when Israel at Sinai put political pressure on Aaron for a golden calf.
(2) Jesus' adamant refusal to "play politics" with either the Roman or Jewish Governments, despite the fact that these Governments "played politics" to bring about His crucifixion.
(3) Jesus' adamant refusal to dialogue with the ministry of the Government on any matters concerning the ministry of His Church. He taught and practiced that while the sword is necessary for the ministry of the civil Government, it is lethally destructive for the ministry of the spiritual Church.
(4) And finally the CW should be reminded that:
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(a) politics in our U.S. Government may be permissable and good because the objective reference is an amendable (changeable) Constitution, while
(b) politics in Christ's Church is prohibited and evil because the objective reference is a non-amendable (non-changeable) Bible. Man's reason may change man-made rules; but it may not change God-made rules.
In 1983 the CW's political type activities accelerated in the Grand Rapids area in preparation for Synod 1984. On November 7 a public panel discussion, and on November 18 and 19 a conference sponsored by eight CRC Churches, analyzed the past and future directions of the WC's progress on female ordination. Included in the conference was one important group discussion devoted specifically to CW's political-type activities entitled "Strategies and Brainstorming."
Are you biblically able to resist "brainstorming" from human rationalizations? If not, then read on.
Based on the preceding (and the succeeding) consideration it may be said in summary that the CW's reasoning by analogy in all 38 of its Position-items, and its political-type activities within the ministry of our Church, are simply illegitimate human attempts to substitute man's will for God's Will.
Let us now examine how --
2. God reveals His Will.
We must accept God's revealed Will as our guide in every area of life in which He has made His Will known.
But where has He done this with ministerial ordination?
In the Bible of course. The answer to our question, either pro or con, must of necessity come from the Bible.
It is incomprehensible that God, after Jesus' physical departure from earth would leave His precious "body of Christ" without any teaching or rule on who should guide its earthly fortunes and minister to its daily needs.
It violates our knowledge of God's nature to think He would approve of politicial methods and procedures emanating from man's will to make the rules under which ministers are ordained to administer the affairs of His Holy Church.out where in Holy Writ is the answer for such ordination? Where are the teachings that established the rule for ordination to the office of minister? The answer appears extremely difficult to find. But actually it isn't.
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Since the Bible must have the answer to our question, why haven't we found it? Painstaking exegesis of words, texts, and their contexts, has not uncovered the sought-for answer. The search has centered almost exclusively on Words; on proof texts. We wanted Words, nothing but Words. It is Words only that are authoritative -- so we assumed. But is that assumption valid?
Are we making a pedagogical mistake?
In the pedagogical disciplines covering teaching and preaching, the two basic indispensible "tools of the trade" are the two media of Words and Works; variously described as preaching and practicing, precept and example, descript and demonstration, tell and show, etc. All objectively detectable communication of God to God, God to man, man to God, and man to man is conducted only via these two media: Words and Works. This excludes the third medium; i.e., th subjective non-detectable communication of the Holy Spirit.In teaching man, God uses three variations of the two objectively-detectable media: (1) sometimes only Words (e.g., 10-Commandments; Jesus saves the thief on the Cross); (2) sometimes both Words and Works (e.g., the flood; God sending His Son); (3) sometimes only Works (e.g. the works of (a) sudden confusion by diversifying speech at Babel and (b) sudden cooperation by diversifying speech at Pentecost). On the subject of ministerial ordination God uses just this third variation.
God taught His Will with Works.
In teaching His Will on the rule for the ordination of males to be ministers of His earthly Church He taught His rule with Works in a long, repeated, consistent, continuing stream stretching from the beginning to the end of the Bible. They span the five biblical milleniums starting at Creation; and cultures that passed from pastoral through agricultural into the present urban era starting with the Roman Empire.
During this latter era God's Will was evidenced by the obedience of His Son and the apostolic church, in adhering to the rule. During the following 19 centuries the rule remained unchallenged until the middle of our 20th century. Only now has man's will challenged the rule that God's Will established at Creation. The rule started when God created a male first and a female second. No Words. Just Works in choosing (ordaining) a male to be the ministerial head of the first family-church.
Then down through the biblical centuries:
First came the Works of first-born male progenitorship for His de facto theocracy with the early patriarchs; even signing and sealing the Covenant of Works with the first patriarchs by male circumcision.
Then came the long procession of Works with the formal theocracy of Israel for which God chose male prophets, priests, Judges, kings, and one notable exception with female Judge Deborah, to be the ministerial heads of His earthly Church-State.
This single exception made by God in choosing (ordaining) the prophetess Deborah to be the Judge of His theocracy for 50-years has been used by the CW to challenge the validity of the male rule.
But during the O.T. era God was operating a true theocracy on earth and He revealed His Will openly and clearly. He and He only chose the ministers for His Church. The will of man did not enter into these choices (ordinations).
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The case of Deborah indicates that God judged an exception to His rule was necessary. The Bible records God's choice of Deborah evidently because she was the best qualified person at the particular time in Israel's history. God had already made her a prophetess and Judge during Israel's 20-year oppression by the Canaanite army commanded by Sisera.
The only other leader in Israel at that time was army commander Barak. He obviously did not have the spiritual strength of Deborah because he refused to go into battle without Deborah at his side (Judges 4:8). Because of this, God refused to give him the earthly "glory" for the victory over Sisera's army. God judged that it should go to Deborah (Judges 4:9). In this particular, and singular situation, God ordained a female instead of a male to be the minister for His earthly theocracy.
Later O.T. history attests to the fact that the exceptional case of Deborah did not change God's Will for keeping the rule on male ordination intact. Then in the N.T. God's Will on mal ordination continued to reveal itself; Jesus kept the rule intact, with no exceptions.
After God's termination of His earthly theocracy came the Works that established the ministerial format for the Church (Body) of Christ: (1) Sending His promised Son (why didn't He promise a son and daughter?) to be head of His Church;(2) Choosing for ministerial successors 12 male apostles (why not six males and six females?);(3) choosing to lead missionary expansion the male apostles along with Paul and associated males (why not husband-wife teams?); (4) Choosing all males as delegates to the first apostolic Synod (again, why not females too?). Finally, in the book of Revelation are revealed the cataclysmic Works which God entrusted to His Son (male title) for rescuing His Church from the Devil. From all of this, we are taught that: God preferred Works over Words to reveal His Will on ministerial ordination. Why did God rely on Works to reveal His Will on this matter? The answer is not as inscrutable as it may appear. Consider briefly: Some of the comparative values of Works vs. Words in both quantity and quality. In terms of quantity:
In the Bible Words predominate because it may take hundreds of Words to announce, describe, and explain just one Work; e.g., Jesus' Virgin birth -- one Work, hundreds of Words. But in God's general revelations, there are no audible Words at all. In nature it's all Works; uncountable numbers of them which the psalmist says "pours forth speech" with speechless Words (Ps. 19:1-4). The silent (no Words) visible display of disciplined and orderly Works in the natural order, encompassing the organic and inorganic worlds, stretch into universes uncountable. God's Words are limited to the Bible. But His Works and the wordless-speech uttered by them, are limitless; covering time and eternity, the natural and spiritual orders.
In terms of quality:
Both Works and Words are used to reveal God's Will. Who, but God, can say whether one is of a higher quality than the other for teaching man His Will. Certainly man needs both. But in the Bible: Words sometimes pale into insignificance compared with Works. Just look at some of the highlights: the flood, the ten plagues, parting the Red Sea, Jesus' Virgin birth, His death, resurrection, and ascension. And when Jesus wanted to teach with a finality that Words alone couldn't register on man's perception, He called on Works. With 39 great truths, Jesus made them unforgettable with 39 parables about Works.
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Any of God's Words or Works alone may both affirm and confirm a position. But that is normally not true with man's Words and Works.
Man's Words may affirm a position; but man wants Works (sensory evidence from man) to confirm it. Thus when Jesus used Words affirming He was from God the Pharisees, not believing He was God-man, perversely refused to take Jesus at His Word. Instead, with keen human pedagogical discernment, they wanted to "test" His affirmation by having it confirmed with "a sign from heaven" (Works from God). Jesus refused to do so because they were an "evil and adulterous generation" (Matt. 16:4).
But now 2000-years later there are still many who are even more perverse, and much more lacking in pedagogical discern- ment, than the Pharisees. God has given us a super-abundance of Works confirming ministerial ordination. But now many will not accept His Works alone as teachings of His Will. They want a dual testimony. They want actual affirming Words too..
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A few clear well-chosen Words in God's biblical Revelations would indeed have affirmed and confirmed His Will on male ordination. Why didn't He give us these Words? The answer to this question has not been revealed to man. It would be easy to speculate on the answer in the context of the Pharisees' perversity. But such speculation would only degenerate into illegitimate analogy.
With the sense and value given by His special revelations (the Bible) to His general revelations God displays massive evidence of the quality (value) of His Works. He does this both in the delicate definitiveness in the earthly sciences, and the breathtaking panoramic sweep and depth of His handi-work in the cosmic sciences (again Ps. 19:1-4).
God's Words and Works are both authoritative in teaching us His Will. We would be remiss in our response to His revelations if we refused creditability to either one.
Man's Words are usually just descriptive, while his Works are usually more normative. Thus: man's Words without Works can be empty; but Works without Words are seldom empty.
Man's Works by themselves are usually fulfillments of themselves; his Words usually are not. His Words can prophesy, but without Works they cannot redeem.
God redeems both His Words and Works. That being so, should we now listen to the reasoned will of man, or the revealed Will of God? Should we heed the Words of the WC, or the Works of God?
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Man congenitally does not like to obey God's Will, but all earnest Christians know we must. An old Swedish hymn phrased it: "Trust and Obey, there is no other way."
Some might like to go behind simple trust and obedience, and ask: Why? Why did God establish a rule for male ministerial ordination?
Here again we could speculate on the answer but in the final analysis, we still must trust that God has a good answer for the "why" of His Works, even if we don't know it.
Until God reveals the answer, the least we can do by way of trusting and obeying is:
(a) As individual Christians
Be careful with Words we choose and use in criticizing the CRC over its struggles on ordination. Despite the opinions of some, the on-balance evidence shows that the CRC is striving carefully, painfully, sincerely, and without mixed motives, to be obedient to God's revealed Will. The CRC should be commended and not condemned for this kind of patient plodding effort; the voices demanding political pressures and quickie-change notwithstanding.
Instead of being guided by man's reason, the CW members would be better guided by the biblical reference that guides members of the Canadian Federation of CRC Women: "Thy Word (Lord) is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path" (Ps. 119:105). Then let me add in the same context "... and I will meditate on thy wondrous Works" (Vs. 27).
(b) As a Church:
Openly acknowledge and always remember what we've already learned from day one; namely that one of the two pedagogical media used by God to teach His Will to man is His Works. Then use the knowledge we have of His Works to guide us away from those presumptuous desires to use man's will in the place of God's Will on the issue of ministerial ordination for females.
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