Comments on: Gender roles display sin nature ?

By: joanne

joanne — Wed, 27 May 2009 14:40:57 +0000

Liz…I know, it makes the body of Christ incredibly meaningful and beautiful. the bruises and scars are what it took to knit humanity together in Christ. iIthink too, that is why the resurrection is so amazing. This new body once brusied and battered is now whole, holy, healed… any who are united become so in him.

worship anyone?

By: leigh

leigh — Mon, 25 May 2009 17:12:59 +0000

Hence the way I started that first sentence in the quote, “Interesting. There is no way for us to really know what happened, of course….”

Sorry. I tire of the number of disclaimers we must include sometimes, even with one another.

By: tiro

tiro — Sun, 24 May 2009 16:02:22 +0000

“And…..talking about God speaking to Adam first because he was the ‘head’,

There is no such rule, command, directive or example of such in Scripture. God chooses case by case whom He will speak with. God does not prefer the male gender over the female gender. God is able to speak to both and both are able to comprehend conversation with God.

By: tiro

tiro — Sun, 24 May 2009 15:55:17 +0000

“There is no way for us to really know what happened, of course, but what *I* have heard proposed is that Adam told Eve what God had said to him. God did not speak directly to Eve about the tree.

Adam, in stressing to Eve the importance of not eating from the tree, added that God said they were not supposed to even *touch* the tree.”

Since Scripture does not say that Adam told Eve, we do not know for sure. Adam could have said something to her, but we don’t know what. God also could have told Eve. In fact, it is more likely to believe that God told Eve because Eve said so herself where it is written that Eve said that God said. As for Eve adding to what God said, since we did not hear God’s exact words to Eve, it is more likely to believe that Eve said exactly what God told her. There was no rule that God had to say exactly the same thing to Eve in exactly the same words as God said to Adam. In fact, there were already two ways that God commanded that the tree not be eaten from. Once by his words to Adam and then once by saying that only trees with seed were given to be eaten from. The implication is the the tree of “knowledge of good and evil” did not have seeds, meaning it could not reproduce. Then God’s words to Eve would be the third command – all slightly different but with the same intent.

By: Donald Guffey

Donald Guffey — Fri, 22 May 2009 02:47:12 +0000

I totally loved this post and the conversation that spawned from it. It was refreshing albeit a little unpleasant at times and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I can’t wait to see the outcome for my next article.

By: Francine

Francine — Sat, 16 May 2009 12:53:52 +0000

Liz you stated “And…..talking about God speaking to Adam first because he was the ‘head’, there are numerous accounts in the old and new testaments where God spoke to the wife or single woman first (rather than her father in that case)”. One very good example is Samson’s parents. The wife was told that she was going to have a son and she tells her husband what the “man of God” said. He prays that the “man of God” would return to explain how they were to raise the child. The “man of God” does come back but he comes to her, again. She had to go to get the husband. I like the fact that the man of God said I already told your wife what she is to do.

By: Liz

Liz — Fri, 15 May 2009 15:56:47 +0000

That is so beautifully expressed Joanne. The thought of reconciliation is the gospel. We have just committed to being at the CBE conference and my communion talk is on that subject. It’s so central to everything.

By: joanne

joanne — Fri, 15 May 2009 14:51:22 +0000

Liz… that is a great quote. I think that is exactly the issue. We are at odds with one another instead of in union with one another. Moses (in Genesis) Jesus (in the gospels) and Paul (in Ephesians) stressed the One Flesh union of the man and the woman.

What we need is not division and blaming of one another, we need reconciliation. It begins with God and extends to one another. How I wish men and women could be reconciled to one another.

I think that is the heart of the Bible. Union with God through faith in Christ and union between humans as opposed to division and separateness. (being separated from God and division in humankind).

I think it is what was intended and the place of healing or mending in Christ. It’s like the division is healed or mended in Christ’s own body.

When Paul says there is niether Jew nor Greek, Slave or Free, Male or Female in Christ… he is speaking of healed, reconciled relationships because of Christ’s broken and resurrected body.

We are united with Christ through faith and One New Human made up of people who were formerly divided by sin.

By: Liz

Liz — Fri, 15 May 2009 12:35:49 +0000

Just read a great statement by Gretchen Gaebelein Hull who wrote “The ABC’s of
Biblical Equality”

‘Genesis 3: 16-19 predicts such toil and pain, with fallen man now in disharmony with the ground from which he was created and fallen woman in disharmony with the man from which she was created. Relationally, sinful man and woman have become competitors, adversaries, and even oppressors of each other, instead of cooperators and joint administrators of their God-given inheritance.’