What is the value of a woman? Not much, in some cultures, according to several disturbing news articles. Gruesome female genital mutilation continues and isn't strongly condemned. It's just a cultural choice. Female feticide is rampant in India, because parents want boys not girls. A woman who dared to drive her own car in Saudia Arabia is jailed. What these stories have in common is the devaluation of women. Women just don't count as real persons in their own right.
This is not the Bible's view of women. The first thing we learn about Eve is that she was created in the image of God, and she was given dominion over the earth alongside the man.
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion...." (Genesis 1:27-28 ESV).
What does it mean to be a woman made in the image of God? An image is "a representation or imitation of the form of a person or thing, especially an imitation in solid form; a tangible or visible respresentation of something; a likeness" (Webster's). You can see your image in a mirror, capture your image in digital video, or order a bobblehead image on the web. Each of these would be like you and not like you. So it is with us as images of God. We are both like and not like God.
"God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth" (Westminster Shorter Catechism Q/A 4). We are not infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in anything! We grow and we age. We are not all-knowing or all-powerful, self-sufficient or self-existent. We are limited and created, and there are many things we cannot do. But we are "like" God. He created us with abilities "like" his. We don't have all of God's abilities, and we don't have any ability in the same way he does. But we are fearfully and wonderfully made to show off our Creator.
That means we have beauty, dignity, and honor; we have intelligence, creativity, the ability to reason and analyze; strength, dexterity, will; a conscience, moral sense, and the ability to love good and hate evil; the ability to make decisions and judgments; the capacity for personal relationships, the ability to communicate, and emotions. This is not a complete list of how we image God. In fact, I keep adding to the list as I study more. But these are enough to see the great value of women. Like the woman of Proverbs 31, each of us is worth more than the costliest gems!
May every woman be valued as an image of God!
Monday, May 30, 2011
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
The PCUSA will ordain homosexuals
The Presbyterian Church (USA) has voted to allow the ordination of "openly gay people in same-sex relationships." Their stated clerk said, "I hope that going forward we can stay together and be faithful witnesses to the gospel of Jesus Christ," the NY Times reported today. Well, there is little chance of being "faithful witnesses to the gospel of Jesus Christ" now! They have compromised one of the most fundamental elements of that gospel by embracing homosexual clergy living openly homosexual lives.
But this is a natural progression from ordaining women as pastors. Once you muddy the waters of God's creation, it's harder to see the truth that nature and Scripture proclaim in unison. How did the church get here? One path was by misunderstanding Eve's purpose.
Let's back up to the question of whether women should be ordained. I'm not saying women aren't smart enough to be pastors. Many have used this argument over the centuries, but women graduating from seminaries in increasing numbers proved this false years ago. Women are capable and wise teachers who can "rightly handle the Word of God" as well as men. In fact, as a friend once said, almost all heresies have come from men! But the role of pastor involves more than teaching. We don't call our pastors "vicars" anymore, but we should. A "vicar" is "one serving as a substitute or agent" (Webster's), a representative or proxy. The pastor is a "vicar" or representative of Christ to the congregation. What does that mean and how does it relate to Eve?
The "original fact" God had in mind when he made Eve was Christ and his church ("Canticles," Fausset's Bible Dictionary). As Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians 11 and Ephesians 5, Adam represented Christ and Eve represented the church in their relationship as husband and wife. Marriage is natural revelation; that is, it teaches us about God and our relationship to him. (See, for example, Mike Mason, The Mystery of Marriage). The marriage relationship involves all the senses; it is the most intimate and "complete" of the metaphors that Scripture compares to our union with Christ (cornerstone and building, vine and branches, head and body, husband and wife).
When we ordain women as pastors, we smear the picture of marriage as revelation of the relationship of Christ and his bride-church. We put a woman in the role of Christ our Husband. That should grate against our consciousness of God and ourselves, but the further we get from a biblical worldview, the less it seems to.
And so the next step is ordaining open homosexuals. Now we can't see even human marriage and sexuality correctly. The plain witness of nature tells us that marriage as God created it is between a man and a woman. But when we suppress the truth, God gives us more blindness (Romans 1). We can see how far the blindness has progressed in the church when the highest church officer of the PCUSA expresses hope that they can be "faithful witnesses to the gospel of Christ" while putting practicing homosexuals in the vicar's seat. Sorry, guys, but the picture has just gotten too fuzzy to be the gospel of Christ and his church.
But this is a natural progression from ordaining women as pastors. Once you muddy the waters of God's creation, it's harder to see the truth that nature and Scripture proclaim in unison. How did the church get here? One path was by misunderstanding Eve's purpose.
Let's back up to the question of whether women should be ordained. I'm not saying women aren't smart enough to be pastors. Many have used this argument over the centuries, but women graduating from seminaries in increasing numbers proved this false years ago. Women are capable and wise teachers who can "rightly handle the Word of God" as well as men. In fact, as a friend once said, almost all heresies have come from men! But the role of pastor involves more than teaching. We don't call our pastors "vicars" anymore, but we should. A "vicar" is "one serving as a substitute or agent" (Webster's), a representative or proxy. The pastor is a "vicar" or representative of Christ to the congregation. What does that mean and how does it relate to Eve?
The "original fact" God had in mind when he made Eve was Christ and his church ("Canticles," Fausset's Bible Dictionary). As Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians 11 and Ephesians 5, Adam represented Christ and Eve represented the church in their relationship as husband and wife. Marriage is natural revelation; that is, it teaches us about God and our relationship to him. (See, for example, Mike Mason, The Mystery of Marriage). The marriage relationship involves all the senses; it is the most intimate and "complete" of the metaphors that Scripture compares to our union with Christ (cornerstone and building, vine and branches, head and body, husband and wife).
When we ordain women as pastors, we smear the picture of marriage as revelation of the relationship of Christ and his bride-church. We put a woman in the role of Christ our Husband. That should grate against our consciousness of God and ourselves, but the further we get from a biblical worldview, the less it seems to.
And so the next step is ordaining open homosexuals. Now we can't see even human marriage and sexuality correctly. The plain witness of nature tells us that marriage as God created it is between a man and a woman. But when we suppress the truth, God gives us more blindness (Romans 1). We can see how far the blindness has progressed in the church when the highest church officer of the PCUSA expresses hope that they can be "faithful witnesses to the gospel of Christ" while putting practicing homosexuals in the vicar's seat. Sorry, guys, but the picture has just gotten too fuzzy to be the gospel of Christ and his church.
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Eve as natural revelation of God and man
My special interest in Eve began through exploring the idea of Eve as natural revelation. Natural revelation is what we can know about God through the things he has made. Several years ago, I was emailing with a friend, a PhD candidate at Westminster Seminary. He was bouncing ideas for his thesis on interpretation off me, and I was bouncing ideas for a book on women and work off him. In the course of our e-correspondence, he suggested I read up on natural revelation, because he didn't have time to. I thought it would take up an afternoon, but instead it started my looking at Eve in a whole new way. Let me explain.
How many of you have read Pat the Bunny? It’s a “touch and feel” children’s book. As you read with your child, she interacts with you and the book, hearing and touching and feeling and smelling and learning. The world God made is like an interactive picture book. Everything we see, hear, feel, taste, and smell reveals something about God. Everything tells of his glory, power, and nature (Psalm 19; Romans 1:19-20). As John Calvin wrote, we cannot open our eyes without seeing him, and we cannot even know ourselves without knowing something about God.
As part of creation, Eve was a "touch and feel" revelation of God. She was the last creature God made, the one and only suitable helper for Adam (Genesis 2:18-22), a more complete interactive visual aid than any other thing God made. In fact, like Adam, she was made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-28). She showed Adam (and she shows us) many things about who God is and what he is like. Sparks of God's glory shine in her and in every woman.
But in God's glorious theater Eve played a dual role. Not only was she an image of God, showing Adam and us what God is like, but as Paul expressed it, she was also "the glory of man" (1 Corinthians 11:7). "Glory" can mean honor, renown, beauty, splendor, magnificence, exhaltation. Commentators have often tried to explain woman as the glory of man in this sense. I don't think this is what Paul was getting at. He was using glory in the sense of natural revelation. Glory in this sense is "the spiritual made visible" (Mike Mason, The Mystery of Marriage). The "glory of God" is God's appearing in ways that we can perceive by our senses, by sight, touch, taste, hearing, smell (Mark Futato, Creation: A Witness to the Wonder of God). Radiant light, dark clouds, thunder, wind, earthquake, and an audible voice are examples in the Bible of God's "glory."
And so when Paul says woman is "the glory of man," he is saying that woman is man made visible. That is, Eve and women/wives in general show us what mankind in relationship with God is like. We are back to the metaphor of marriage. Eve was Adam's "glory." She was a "flesh of his flesh" likeness that he could see and hear and handle (Genesis 2:23).
Paul tells us this is a great mystery (Ephesians 5:22-32), and that's why I find Eve so interesting. I hope you will too.
How many of you have read Pat the Bunny? It’s a “touch and feel” children’s book. As you read with your child, she interacts with you and the book, hearing and touching and feeling and smelling and learning. The world God made is like an interactive picture book. Everything we see, hear, feel, taste, and smell reveals something about God. Everything tells of his glory, power, and nature (Psalm 19; Romans 1:19-20). As John Calvin wrote, we cannot open our eyes without seeing him, and we cannot even know ourselves without knowing something about God.
As part of creation, Eve was a "touch and feel" revelation of God. She was the last creature God made, the one and only suitable helper for Adam (Genesis 2:18-22), a more complete interactive visual aid than any other thing God made. In fact, like Adam, she was made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-28). She showed Adam (and she shows us) many things about who God is and what he is like. Sparks of God's glory shine in her and in every woman.
But in God's glorious theater Eve played a dual role. Not only was she an image of God, showing Adam and us what God is like, but as Paul expressed it, she was also "the glory of man" (1 Corinthians 11:7). "Glory" can mean honor, renown, beauty, splendor, magnificence, exhaltation. Commentators have often tried to explain woman as the glory of man in this sense. I don't think this is what Paul was getting at. He was using glory in the sense of natural revelation. Glory in this sense is "the spiritual made visible" (Mike Mason, The Mystery of Marriage). The "glory of God" is God's appearing in ways that we can perceive by our senses, by sight, touch, taste, hearing, smell (Mark Futato, Creation: A Witness to the Wonder of God). Radiant light, dark clouds, thunder, wind, earthquake, and an audible voice are examples in the Bible of God's "glory."
And so when Paul says woman is "the glory of man," he is saying that woman is man made visible. That is, Eve and women/wives in general show us what mankind in relationship with God is like. We are back to the metaphor of marriage. Eve was Adam's "glory." She was a "flesh of his flesh" likeness that he could see and hear and handle (Genesis 2:23).
Paul tells us this is a great mystery (Ephesians 5:22-32), and that's why I find Eve so interesting. I hope you will too.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Why a blog about Eve?
Why am I interested enough in Eve to start a blog "all about Eve"? And why would you want to read it?
Well, she is a fascinating and controversial figure. She is the first woman, described in Genesis 1-4, but afterward only mentioned by name in the Bible in the New Testament letters of Paul. She is somewhat mysterious, part of a distant and murky past, and yet so current that everyone knows her name and reputation. She is the female figure most often depicted in art, according to archeologist and OT professor Carol Meyers (Discovering Eve). Yet she is often overlooked in studies of biblical women--and even more often blamed for all our troubles.
Eve is fascinating because she tells us a lot about ourselves. Posts to this blog will explore what we learn from Eve. I invite readers to join the discussion so that together we may sharpen one another and through the Scriptures uncover more of God's majesty and woman's glory.
Well, she is a fascinating and controversial figure. She is the first woman, described in Genesis 1-4, but afterward only mentioned by name in the Bible in the New Testament letters of Paul. She is somewhat mysterious, part of a distant and murky past, and yet so current that everyone knows her name and reputation. She is the female figure most often depicted in art, according to archeologist and OT professor Carol Meyers (Discovering Eve). Yet she is often overlooked in studies of biblical women--and even more often blamed for all our troubles.
Eve is fascinating because she tells us a lot about ourselves. Posts to this blog will explore what we learn from Eve. I invite readers to join the discussion so that together we may sharpen one another and through the Scriptures uncover more of God's majesty and woman's glory.
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