Revisionism's Nemesis
You and I know, that in a blind panic to become popular and to escape persecution, large swathes of the western church (including parts who would call themselves 'evangelical') are engaged in a revisionist program to re-interpret the Scriptures.
Look folks, we all know that persecution is around the corner.
And we all know exactly where it is going to come from.
Not from our views of Jesus Christ, nor from our doctrine of salvation, but from our beliefs about mankind.
And so fearful of coming troubles - and also sometimes from a desire to look hip and cool - the church is accepting popular anthropology. But knowing it has a rather big Bible problem in doing so - some have decided to undertake a revisionist programme which will make the Bible say whatever the world is currently saying.
(Should the world come to its senses and accept biological fact one day, will the same revisionists eat humble pie and revert back to what the Bible actually teaches? We wait to see.)
In this new programme, the revisionists are taking the traditional so-called proof texts and trying to show that, all along, Scripture does not oppose homosexual practice, and that, all-along, women may lead churches.
However, unbeknown to them, hiding in plain sight is their biggest enemy: the rest of the Bible, the silent majority, the very loud silent majority.
Case 1: Marriage
Take the issue of homosexual practice. There are around seven verses / Scripture portions which speak directly to this issue and "on the surface" "seem" to teach that homosexual practice is sinful.
Each of these texts is reinterpreted by the revisionists to make them say exactly the opposite to what the church has historically thought they meant. No mean feat. (And for anyone who has read these efforts, no material success either.)
The revisionists proudly pronounce Q.E.D. (Quod Erat Demonstrandum: "That which was to be demonstrated." We used to place these three letters - all too confidently!- after a mathematical proof.)
The matter, they think, is settled.
Just accept the new New.
But not so quickly.
Because not only are the revisionist interpretations easily proven to be ludicrously foolish (and you must read them to appreciate the intentional and deliberate use of the word ludicrous), the silent majority of Scripture stands against these fashionable new interpretations.
Everywhere in the Bible, chapter after chapter, book after book, testament after testament, marriage is assumed to be between a man and a woman. There are no other kinds of 'marriages.' Nowhere in big wide Scripture is it ever even hinted that anything apart from a one-man-one-woman relationship is God's intended will.
Better still (or worse if you are a revisionist), the Bible opens with a heterosexual marriage, Adam and Eve, and ends with a metaphorical heterosexual marriage (between the bride, the Church, and the groom, Christ Jesus).
Indeed, if none of the Seven Scriptures were extant, we would still know, through and through, fully and completely - by the silent loud majority of Scripture - what God's will was.
CASE 2: Women in chruch leadership
Once again, the revisionists engage in their magic arts and before you know it, passages you thought taught that men should lead the church are turned on their eisegetical heads.
Q.E.D., etc., etc.
But once again, in steps the Loud Voice of Majority Scripture.
Not a single women leads a church in the New Testament. But lots and lots of men do.
Phoebe is a deaconess (Romans 16:1), Priscilla works alongside her husband Aquilla (Romans 16:3), the daughters of Philip prophesied (Acts 21:9), but not one single women is said to lead a church in the New Testament.
All the leaders are men, bar none.
Jesus could have chosen women to lead the church. He could have chosen 6 women and 6 men - he was radical in every other way.
But Jesus chose 12 male apostles to found the church.
Paul could have chosen women to lead the churches he planted.
But he didn't.
Paul could have written in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, that women could become elders. But he talks exclusively about men being elders.
From Matthew to Revelation, men, and men only lead the church.
Once again, if we had no specific Scriptures on this issue (which we do), we would still know, clearly, loudly and repeatedly, that it is God's will that men should lead the church.
(Sisters in Christ play a monumental role in the kingdom of God, should anyone reading this blog think misogynally otherwise. Eldership is an exception to their amazing roles - an exception, BTW, that also applies to most men because of the qualities laid down for elders.)
Thank God for the Majority Voice
If the Scriptures stated only once that homosexual practice was sin, or that men should lead the church, only once, it would suffice those who come before God's will with a humble heart.
But if none of those verses were present, the will of God would still be crystal clear, by the sheer volume of Scriptural testimony.
We ought to be thankful for the mighty majority voice of the Lord through his Word. He does not expect us to believe any truth on the basis of a few verses. He has given us an abundance of testimonies to his will and plan.
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