The North American Division’s 248 page 2013 Theology of Ordination Study Committee Report urged that Seventh-day Adventists adopt a variety of hermeneutical innovations, among them, the “redemptive movement” or “trajectory” hermeneutic. References in the NAD document in support of these ideas included William J. Webb’s book Slaves, Women & Homosexuals. Pastors Larry Kirkpatrick and Mike Lambert share material from that book showing what happens when the people who developed it use their own “principle-based” approach on an issue like the seventh day Sabbath.
The NAD Report refers to William J. Webb’s book, Slaves, Women, & Homosexuals, in footnotes 18 and 19, and in several paragraphs in the report on pp. 26-28. The dean of the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary in Berrien Springs, Michigan, later in the NAD Report also promotes the “redemptive movement” hermeneutic.
Category: Genesis
Peters–Response to Rodriguez on headship: the Trinity and Genesis 1-3
John W. Peters is a pastor in the Pennsylvania Conference. As part of the Theology of Ordination Stdy Committee he has been among the presenters in the TOSC meetings. Some of his materials were critiqued by Angel Rodriguez in his 76 p. anaylsis of the [pro-biblical qualifications arguments (arguments opposing women’s ordination). In the paper now made available on OrdinationTruth.com, Peters responds to Rodriguez’ particular critique of Peters. READ IT HERE.
Kirkpatrick response to Chudleigh on "Headship Theology"
Pacific Union Conference communication director Gerry Chudleigh published his paper on May 1, 2014 titled, “A short history of the Headship Doctrine in the Seventh-day Adventist Church.” Chudleigh proposes that in the 1980s a small group of Adventists from Southern Michigan raided Calvinist theologians for their “headship theology.” Nevertheless, he says, practically no Adventists had heard such ideas until 2012. According to Chudleigh “headship theology” is a brand new doctrine for Adventists, and the TOSC process “may be the first Adventist school of headship theology.” Via TOSC, according to him, this divisive new doctrine is being spread across the world field. Pastor Larry Kirkpatrick (Bonners Ferry and Clark Fork Idaho churches, Upper Columbia Conference, NPUC, NAD) considers Chudleigh’s rendition of events in this short response video. He is one of several ministers who are part of the Council of Adventist Pastors (CAP).
The decision that cannot be avoided
By Many Hands
“[T]he question of homosexuality now presents evangelicals in the United States with a decision that cannot be avoided. Within a very short time, we will know where everyone stands on this question. There will be no place to hide, and there will be no way to remain silent. To be silent will answer the question.
“The question is whether evangelicals will remain true to the teachings of Scripture and the unbroken teaching of the Christian church for over two thousand years on the morality of same-sex acts and the institution of marriage” (Albert Mohler, “God, the Gospel, and the Gay Challenge—a Response to Matthew Vines,” http://www.albertmohler.com/2014/04/22/god-the-gospel-and-the-gay-challenge-a-response-to-matthew-vines/).
The church stands on a precipice. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, is seeing clearly on a crucial issue. The tides of culture are washing in on the church. Mohler warns we are now living in the midst of what is essentially a revolution. Society-wide conceptions of morality are rapidly changing, and “. . .our answer to this question will both determine or reveal what we understand about everything the Bible reveals and everything the church teaches—even the gospel itself” (Ibid.).
If Mohler is right, much more is at stake for Adventists than a mere attempt to hold together opposite wings as one church. The actual question for us, is whether or not the Seventh-day Adventist Church will continue its commitment to following the Bible, that is, whether or not the Seventh-day Adventist Church will continue to exist as we know it.
The larger context of Mohler’s article is the threat posed by the teaching of Matthew Vines. Vines, an evangelical Christian, began a few years ago to publicly argue that one can both be Christian and also engage in committed same-sex “relationships.” He has gone on to develop and publish his viewpoints. Mohler warns that Vines “specifically seeks to argue that the basic sexual complementarity of the human male and the female—each made in God’s image—is neither essential to Genesis chapters 1 and 2 or to any biblical text that follows.”
This will have a familiar ring to Seventh-day Adventists who support our longstanding use of the Historical-grammatical method, who see evidence in Genesis two as does the New Testament’s apostle Paul. Under inspiration, Paul looks back to Genesis two, before the fall, for divinely-revealed insight on male and female roles. Opposite this Genesis two understanding we find Adventists advocating what the NAD has recently designated as the “Principle-based, Historical-cultural” (PBHC) method of Bible interpretation. Theirs is a view holding that these male and female roles arise not from Genesis two but from chapter three, after Adam and Eve had disobeyed God.
The difference is enormous. If male and female roles of headship and submission are part of the Creator’s design from a sinless world (as are Sabbath and marriage), they remain forever normative. But if headship entered only after sin, it is temporary and not part of the created order.
It is interesting to ponder which approach is consonant with current cultural claims of role interchangeability and same-sex “marriage”? Mohler warns:
“There are a great host of people, considered to be within the larger evangelical movement, who are desperately seeking a way to make peace with the moral revolution and endorse the acceptance of openly-gay individuals and couples within the life of the church. Given the excruciating pressures now exerted on evangelical Christianity, many people—including some high-profile leaders—are desperately seeking an argument they can claim as both persuasive and biblical. . . . the Bible insists on a difference in roles. In order to overcome this impediment, biblical scholars and theologians committed to egalitarianism have made arguments that are hauntingly similar to those now made by Matthew Vines in favor of relativizing the Bible’s texts on same-sex behaviors” (Ibid.).
The warning is clear. Denial of male and female complementarity opens the way for the denial of sexual complementarity. There are risks and potholes all over this road. If the Seventh-day Adventist Church would remain on the path of faithfulness to Scripture, it must step carefully. It must look beyond short term “gains” (keeping the church “together”) to the longer-term perspective.
The church is not “together.” There are differing approaches, differing hermeneutics, different views concerning the authority of Scripture. But there is a movement toward clarity. In due course we will have clarity. As in the larger evangelical world, soon everyone will know where the Seventh-day Adventist Church stands. One pathway compromises with culture; the other, although painful, maintains the counter-cultural biblical witness of an Eden to be restored. This witness is God’s Eden corrective, not man’s compromise with culture.
We stand on the precipice. The only question is whether or not we recognize it. Clarification on sex-roles in the church is not coming one moment too soon. If Mohler is right, “within a very short time, we will know where everyone stands on this question.”
Sorke–Response to Angel Rodriguez
In Angel Rodriguez’ 76 page summary and analysis of the position of those pro-biblical-qualifications (anti-women’s ordination) position, Rodriguez noted several objections to materials provided by Ingo Sorke. Sorke, theology professor at Southwestern Adventist Universy and member of the Theology of Ordination Study Committee (TOSC), read Rodriguez’ paper and offers his reaction in the paper linked here. Sorke offers a firm and clear defense of his position and response to Rodriguez’ many assertions. FIND IT HERE!
Mills–Open letter to Angel Rodriguez
At the January 2014 meeting of the Theology of Ordination Study Committee (TOSC), Angel Rodriguez presented a 78 page paper summarizing and analyzing the theological arguments of those in the church who support the ministry of men and women according to the biblical guidelines, (that is, of those who oppose women’s ordination). Rodriguez’ paper, while offering some benefits, manifests significant deficiencies.
This letter is one of several earnest responses prepared by those who have carefully read and studied the Rodriguez paper.
Phil Mills shines light on the official answer of the pro-women’s ordination position to the pro-biblical qualifications arguments. It exposes Rodriguez’s surprisingly defective research and use of gender-altered Ellen White material. It gently notes his ad hominem attacks, out of context quotations, and the misjudging and misstating of the actual positions of those holding the pro-biblical qualifications view. This short paper should be required reading for those following the debate over the biblical validity of woman’s ordination in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. FIND IT HERE.
Evaluation of egalitarian papers
In the January 2014 meeting of the Theology of Ordination Study Commottee (TOSC), several papers were presented. Among these was this short paper prepared by 10 members of the committee. This paper is a concise evaluation of several of the arguments favoring women’s ordination. The ten authors writing this response are Gerhard Pfandl with Daniel Bediako, Steven Bohr, Laurel and Gerard Damsteegt, Jerry Moon, Paul Ratsara, Ed Reynolds, Ingo Sorke, and Clinton Wahlen.
Among other things, this paper addresses the following pro-woman’s ordination arguments advanced by those holding that position:
- In Genesis 1 there is full equality in function between man and woman.
- Adam and Eve were priests in the pre-fall Eden sanctuary.
- Male headship did not exist in the Garden; it is a result of the fall and applies only to the marriage relationship and not to the church.
- The qualification lists in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1:1-11 are gender neutral.
- Junia in Romans 16 was a female apostle.
- Galatians 3:26-29 applies not only to salvation, but it also abolishes the subordination of “females to males.”
- 1 Timothy 2:12-14 applies only to a specific situation in Ephesus and does not refer to the relationship that should universally exist between men and women.
- The priesthood of all believers permits women to be ordained as elders/ministers.
- Ministry in the New Testament Church was non-hierarchical.
- “Head” in 1 Corinthians 11:2-16 has the meaning of source rather than spiritual authority.
In this presentation Pastor Lambert further considers the Fall of Adam and Eve in Genesis three. In the garden did role-reversal play a part in the Fall from paradise? And when were Adam and Eve’s eyes opened according to Romans? Lambert follows by addressing the remarkable theory that Eve was a priestess in Eden.
Pastor Mike Lambert continues with part 3 of his series, “A gender agenda.” In this message, Lambert addresses texts including Ephesians 5; 1 Timothy 2; 1 Corinthians 11, and Genesis 2, and discusses creation order.
Louis R. Torres takes a look at a phrase commonly used (“Priesthood of all believers”, but probes a bit deeper in this short article. FIND IT HERE.