Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - June 07, 2019


Ep 122 | Josh Buice


Episode Stats

Length

32 minutes

Words per Minute

181.23819

Word Count

5,975

Sentence Count

287

Misogynist Sentences

32

Hate Speech Sentences

14


Summary

Pastor Josh Bice, founding director of G3 Conferences, joins me to discuss the controversy of "Chapelarianism vs. Egalitarianism" within the Southern Baptist Convention and why they are different.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, happy Friday. Welcome to Relatable. Hope everyone had a wonderful week and that you
00:00:05.340 are looking forward to the weekend. So we are going to talk to Pastor Josh Bice today,
00:00:12.320 the founding director of G3 Conferences. There has been a point of contention going on within
00:00:17.740 the Southern Baptist Convention. That's the convention that I have been a part of
00:00:20.780 my entire life. The churches that I've gone to in general have been a part of the Southern
00:00:27.300 Baptist denomination, and it is a centering the role of women in the church. Now I have already
00:00:34.060 recorded the episode that I'm going to do this summer on women in the church that's to be released
00:00:39.780 after maternity leave. And so if you are wondering what all the Bible says about women's role in the
00:00:47.020 church and my perspective on that based on the word of God, you can just wait just a few weeks,
00:00:52.160 maybe even just a couple more weeks to hear that. But today I wanted to get his insight. He has been
00:00:57.040 very vocal on this issue from the side of complementarianism versus the other side,
00:01:01.600 which is egalitarianism. And I wanted to see if he could give us some clarity on this extremely
00:01:07.560 hot button issue. Josh, thanks so much for joining me. Glad to be with you. Yes. Okay. If you could
00:01:13.360 tell everyone who may not know who you are and what you do. Sure. My name is Josh. I serve as a pastor
00:01:19.960 just west of Atlanta, Georgia. I have the privilege to serve a 177-year-old Baptist congregation.
00:01:28.400 Wow. Interestingly enough, my wife and I both grew up here as children. We met in the context of our
00:01:34.440 church. I went away to Southern Seminary, pastored out of state for about seven years. And then in God's
00:01:40.700 kind providence, I was called back home to serve the very people who served us as children.
00:01:46.780 Awesome. Where do you mind me asking where in Georgia you are? I lived in Georgia for a little
00:01:51.380 bit. Yeah. So take I-20 straight out west from the city, just past Six Flags, and you run right
00:01:57.800 through the heart of Douglas County. And that's where we are. Gotcha. Cool. My husband and I met
00:02:02.920 in Athens, Georgia, and his family is from a small town in Georgia. And so I'm very familiar with the
00:02:09.240 area. So as you know, there's a lot going on with the SBC right now. I was raised a Southern
00:02:15.020 Baptist in a Southern Baptist church, and I am very thankful for that. But there has been some
00:02:20.340 contention for a while, but I would say it seems like it's kind of blown up on social media for the
00:02:24.880 past couple of weeks. And it's centered on this issue of complementarianism versus egalitarianism.
00:02:31.360 Now, some people listening to this might not even know what I mean by that. So could you kind of break
00:02:35.760 down what we may call, for lack of a better word, the controversy that's going on right now?
00:02:40.620 Yeah, sure. So I think it would be helpful probably just to talk about definitions. So
00:02:45.600 complementarianism and egalitarianism are two different positions, opposing positions. Basically,
00:02:53.040 complementarianism was a term that was brought about as a response to the feminist movement back in the
00:03:00.780 60s and 70s. And complementarianism basically teaches that both men and women are created equal
00:03:09.220 in personhood, both in their value or their worth and their dignity. And so both men and women have
00:03:18.140 the same percentage or the same amount of the image of God upon them. The distinction would be this.
00:03:25.500 Complementarians believe that there is a distinction that God has for both men and women
00:03:32.440 in culture, in the home, and the church. So in other words, there are roles and responsibilities
00:03:38.580 that are very distinct for women that are different than the roles and responsibilities that God has
00:03:44.680 designed for men to carry out. And so that would be what we would call complementarianism.
00:03:51.480 Egalitarianism would be the idea that we could agree on would be that both men and women are created
00:03:57.600 equal by God with both dignity and value, the worth of both men and women are the same.
00:04:10.660 But distinction would be simply this. The egalitarian would say that there is no distinction,
00:04:17.660 there is no difference of role and responsibility for the man and the woman in the culture at large
00:04:24.420 or the home or the church. And so that's where you would get the idea of a woman serving as a pastor
00:04:31.860 in various different evangelical circles.
00:04:35.700 Right. So where, if you know, where do egalitarians, Christian egalitarians,
00:04:42.680 get their scriptural basis? Because you and I agree on the fact that the Bible is pretty clear in the
00:04:48.800 context of the family, in the context of the church, there are simply different roles for men and women.
00:04:53.980 It's not a degrading role for women and an honorable role for a man. They're honorable roles that are
00:04:59.460 just different. So what do you think is behind this egalitarian push to say, no, no, no, different
00:05:05.740 is inherently worse. And so women have to serve in the same way that men do. Where is that coming from?
00:05:12.860 Well, I think it would be helpful to recognize that this is not a new movement. This is not something
00:05:17.960 that was birthed in the last couple of years. And it certainly isn't something that just comes from the
00:05:23.080 feminist movement or the radical feminist movement of, say, the 60s and the 70s. This is a movement
00:05:29.280 that was birthed in the Garden of Eden. So when you see Eve usurping the authority of her husband
00:05:35.840 when she was tempted by Satan in the Garden, what you see is the very first role reversal. So
00:05:42.640 everything that you see coming out of the fall in the Garden of Eden, the very curse that we see,
00:05:49.060 according to Romans 5.12, is really the product of this first role reversal. So this is not
00:05:55.520 something new. This is something that's been happening. It's an ancient problem that we've been dealing
00:06:00.400 with as far as the differences between male and female since the very beginning, since the very curse
00:06:07.660 that took place in the fall. So what we're seeing now is that we're seeing in this present controversy
00:06:14.500 within the evangelical circles, we're seeing really this coming out of this recent Me Too movement
00:06:22.360 in the abuse of women. I think everyone can agree on the fact that for women to be abused or to be
00:06:30.160 harmed or to be degraded in any way as far as their value and worth and dignity is sinful, and we should
00:06:36.560 all stand against that. But the idea that simply because women have been abused or because women have been
00:06:43.120 somehow discriminated against in certain cultures, that we must now empower women to the highest roles
00:06:51.460 and responsibilities, both in the home, the church, and in culture, or even denominational settings,
00:06:58.500 I think is to just miss the mark. I think we can call out sin and deal with sin in different ways as far
00:07:07.760 as the issues related to the oppression of women or the injustices surrounding women without bypassing
00:07:14.460 God's blueprint for what men and women are to carry out in those different spheres.
00:07:19.140 Yeah. And Baptists kind of had this conversation a few decades ago, right? I mean, Baptists were kind of
00:07:26.600 having a similar controversy just about liberal theology in general, and then we made a correct turn,
00:07:32.720 which has really helped the Baptist church thrive, the Southern Baptist church thrive for a while.
00:07:37.800 And I think that you nailed it when you said, okay, there's been a lot of things that have happened
00:07:42.220 culturally and politically. I would even say for some people, the election of Donald Trump erupted
00:07:47.040 this desire in some Christian women to say, okay, any form of saying that a woman has to be in a particular
00:07:56.800 role is misogyny or saying that a woman can't exercise authority over a man as first Timothy 2.12
00:08:02.860 says, well, that's some form of sexism. So it's been interesting to see people that I would have
00:08:08.800 thought believed in the supremacy of scripture because of cultural changes. All of a sudden,
00:08:13.820 it seems like take a completely different approach to what scripture actually says. What do you think about
00:08:19.780 that? I think you're spot on, Ali. And I think that one of the problems with that is you talk about the
00:08:25.420 supremacy of scripture back in the day when we had this controversy related to liberal theology,
00:08:31.620 we went through this period of time, this movement called the conservative resurgence.
00:08:37.180 Back during that time period, you had individuals like the associate dean of the school of theology
00:08:42.620 at Southern Seminary. Her name was Molly Marshall, and she was actually teaching things such as
00:08:48.880 post-mortem salvation opportunities. I mean, there was all sorts of problems. She was an ordained minister
00:08:54.360 and all of this. But we moved through that controversy, and we come to this present situation.
00:09:00.940 And I think that there have been pastors and others who have rightly stated this before.
00:09:05.840 They have stated, we might have won the battle on inerrancy, but we're losing the battle
00:09:10.400 on sufficiency. And so when it comes to this issue of how we're going to treat women,
00:09:16.480 we want everyone in the culture to say that the Southern Baptist Convention loves women,
00:09:21.780 and that we want women to flourish and use their gifts for the glory of God. That's certainly true.
00:09:27.160 But the problem is, we are also, if we're just going to be really honest,
00:09:32.880 the Southern Baptist Convention, as well as many other evangelical circles, have become
00:09:36.880 slaves to pragmatism. So in other words, if it works, then let's do it. And so if empowering women
00:09:43.780 to certain roles of authority makes the culture at large view us as valuing women, then maybe we're
00:09:51.500 going to do that. And so that's problematic when it comes to using certain methods to gain the eye
00:10:00.240 of approval or to attract the culture at large. That's certainly problematic.
00:10:04.620 I think that there's been a big push within Christianity away from, in an attempt to push
00:10:11.560 themselves away from the title of evangelical as a group that is associated with Trump.
00:10:16.780 They have said, well, I'm going to be the opposite of that, which means I'm going to be woke,
00:10:20.280 which means instead of partnering with fellow Christians on which I have political disagreements
00:10:24.400 with, I am going to partner with people that I agree with politically, but that I have complete
00:10:30.020 disagreements with theologically. And because of that partnership, I think we see a lot of people
00:10:34.760 saying, well, these political issues are more important to me than theological inerrancy or
00:10:41.560 theological sufficiency. And so that's where we've kind of seen a lot of compromise. Now,
00:10:47.980 just so everyone is perfectly clear who is listening to this, what does the Bible say specifically about
00:10:55.400 a woman's role in the church and what should that look like?
00:10:58.480 Well, first and foremost, God has a huge plan and a massive blueprint for women to be useful in
00:11:08.180 the life of the church. So this idea that complementarians, that we somehow degrade women
00:11:14.120 or that we don't see value for women in the local churches simply to miss the mark, that's to
00:11:18.840 misrepresent where we stand. In other words, I would say it like this, that if we did not have faithful
00:11:25.140 women doing exactly what God has called them to do in the life of the church, our churches would
00:11:30.240 fall apart. I mean, they would be very unhealthy. So when we read like 1 Timothy 2.12, you cited a
00:11:37.260 moment ago, it just simply states that God's plan is not for women to teach or to have authority over
00:11:45.900 men. And I would say that by definition, if you're going to preach the word of God, that you're to handle
00:11:54.080 the word of God with authority. So the herald goes forth with the authority of the one that he's
00:12:00.680 representing or that she's representing. So if you're going to stand with the open Bible and preach
00:12:05.660 the Bible, you can't say, I'm coming under the authority of the elders, but now I'm going to ask
00:12:11.160 you to open the Bible and I'm going to now preach the word. You have to preach the Bible with authority.
00:12:16.160 It just comes with the territory. So the idea is that women from the beginning were created
00:12:22.120 to be a helper, to be, we see that with Adam, that Eve was created to be a helper. We go through the
00:12:29.220 life of the church and we don't see that God is calling women to be apostles. We don't see that
00:12:35.060 God is calling women to be elders. But what we see is that God is absolutely calling women to be
00:12:41.760 those who have their influence in the home, those who put their affection on the home, to be keepers
00:12:48.000 at home, to use a biblical phrase. But then also we go to Titus chapter two, and we see that women are
00:12:54.580 to be discipling, making disciples, training the younger, investing in children, serving in various
00:13:01.440 capacities. She's simply not called to the office of elder, and she's not called to preach the word to
00:13:08.820 a mixed audience or to preach the Sunday sermon within the context of the local church. And I would
00:13:15.620 actually say, even in the context of a Christian conference as well.
00:13:20.000 So that's what I would have a question on. And I think a lot of people listening probably have a
00:13:23.760 question on that too. You know, I went to, before I even thought about this issue, honestly, when I was
00:13:29.380 somewhat of a new Christian in college, I went to the Passion Conferences where you hear from people
00:13:33.840 like John Piper, you also hear from Beth Moore, Christine Kane. You know, again, I was kind of
00:13:39.080 even oblivious at that point to any discussion of whether or not this is biblical. But there are a lot
00:13:44.780 of Bible-believing, even complementarians, who would say, look, 1 Timothy 2.12 is in the context of the
00:13:50.520 local church, and that does not extend to Christian conferences. But as you said, you don't preach the
00:13:57.980 word of God without authority. So I guess I'm just asking for more clarity and insight into that,
00:14:05.620 because there are people that I respect who are complementarians who would say, you know what,
00:14:10.640 in the context of a conference, it's fine. They're not exercising authority and setting the doctrine for
00:14:15.420 a local church. Yeah. Well, I think, again, within the world of complementarianism, you do have
00:14:22.100 a couple of different categories. And even within those categories, you're going to have differing
00:14:26.280 levels and differing positions. You have what's called soft complementarianism, and that would be
00:14:31.880 the idea that would allow for women to use their gifts of teaching and preaching, that sort of thing,
00:14:39.320 in the context of a mixed audience, like a Sunday school class, a small group Bible study that's
00:14:46.740 sanctioned by or organized officially by the local church, or even on a Sunday morning,
00:14:51.900 so long as she doesn't have or occupy, you might say, the office of elder, so long as she hasn't been
00:14:59.500 ordained to the office of elder. But then you have what we might call the hard complementarianism.
00:15:07.200 And that's the idea that I would actually hold to that would state that if you're going to allow a
00:15:13.360 woman to preach the Bible to a mixed audience, or even in the pulpit on a Sunday morning,
00:15:18.220 on occasion, so long as she doesn't occupy that office of elder, then I would say it seems to be
00:15:25.280 a bit inconsistent. I mean, it seems to be that you're saying to her, you can exercise your gifts
00:15:30.440 occasionally, but you can't do that on a week-to-week basis and be called pastor. And so I think that
00:15:37.900 that's certainly an inconsistency among the more soft complementarians. But again, back to the biblical
00:15:45.720 text, I would say, you can't preach the Bible without preaching it with authority. So we must
00:15:52.380 say, thus says the Lord God, we must open the word, we must preach the imperatives and call people to
00:15:58.740 respond to God. And so that would involve preaching the Bible with authority. And so that's why I don't
00:16:05.200 embrace that more soft position.
00:16:07.460 And something like the Passion Conference, would you say there is an opening there for saying that
00:16:12.620 the women who are teaching, are teaching essentially children, because they're, you know,
00:16:18.380 they're college students now, they are 20 something. So I guess it depends on kind of where
00:16:22.180 you draw the line for adult men. But would you say there's an opening there for someone like a Beth
00:16:27.680 Moore or a Christian woman? And I know you might, you know, we have other maybe theological differences
00:16:33.100 with Beth Moore, but just the female part of it. Do you think there is an opportunity there for her to
00:16:38.260 kind of shepherd young people as more of like a spiritual mother or no?
00:16:43.340 No, I wouldn't say so. I think that we have to draw a line someplace. And I think that even with
00:16:48.360 passion, you're going to have, you're going to have young men and young women who are there. Let's just
00:16:53.000 be honest. Those are young men and young women. They're, they're college students. And in, in our
00:16:57.940 American culture, we like to have this delay of manhood and womanhood. But I would say
00:17:03.740 those are young men and young women. And, and furthermore, you have the organizers of the event,
00:17:09.480 you have lots of adults who are in that room, thousands of them. And so I think that it would
00:17:14.500 just be very good to say, we need to hold a position that states that, you know, we're not
00:17:19.840 going to have women preaching to thousands of, of young men in a context like a conference setting.
00:17:27.220 But I do think that there is room for her to serve in a conference. I think there's room for her to
00:17:32.640 stand and preach to hundreds of women. Uh, all you have to do is you just simply have to organize
00:17:38.080 it and then advertise it as such. Okay. Gotcha. So I do think that, like I was saying, there's
00:17:44.240 probably disagreement among complimentarians. I wonder if there would even be people who consider
00:17:49.040 themselves like you, like a hard complimentarian who doesn't believe that a woman should be
00:17:53.340 preaching on Sunday morning, but who take the first Timothy passage is saying, okay, this is in the
00:17:58.580 context of the local church and doesn't extend, uh, to doesn't extend to conferences. I think that
00:18:03.760 would be a really interesting conversation to have. And I do want to say that I think it's possible
00:18:07.740 for two Bible believing Christians to have that, that kind of differentiation, uh, behind what they
00:18:14.640 believe. Now, the bigger that this conversation gets, the bigger that the scope of complimentarianism
00:18:19.460 gets to where it's essentially saying, no, men and women have the exact same roles, no matter what.
00:18:24.560 I think that is obviously we agree there where we weighed into particularly dangerous territory.
00:18:30.620 So tell me how we properly and in a Christlike way engage with those who disagree so passionately
00:18:38.900 with us about this subject, because it's not just a political issue. It's, um, it's a much bigger
00:18:45.080 issue than that. I would say. Yeah. I mean, that's a really good question, Allie. I think that sometimes,
00:18:50.600 uh, in social media, and so you, you, you spend time in the social media world and you're online
00:18:56.540 in various different, uh, areas as far as YouTube or wherever else, I think it's oftentimes difficult
00:19:03.360 to, you might say, to, uh, show these differences or engage in these differences, or maybe even respond
00:19:11.580 to these differences through say a tweet or even a Facebook post or something of that nature. So we have
00:19:17.580 to be very cautious, I think, in how we do it. Yeah. I would say that with a public figure,
00:19:22.840 because I'm oftentimes, even on my blog that I write, if I write an article that addresses these
00:19:28.340 issues, uh, that someone holds such as a Beth Moore, for instance, I will receive hundreds of emails from
00:19:35.140 people who are, I think maybe even have a well-meaning attitude and heart behind it, but they'll say,
00:19:40.160 did you properly contact Beth before, you know, before you wrote the article, uh, in response to
00:19:46.380 say, or a position such as like Matthew 18, as far as that's talking about church discipline.
00:19:51.880 But I would simply state that when it comes to a public figure, that that person's outside of the
00:19:57.300 realm of my local church. So I don't have the privilege or the access to individuals who are
00:20:03.500 preaching public sermons or writing public books or espousing various different ideas and views.
00:20:10.160 in the public realm. So that, that's a contextual issue. And I think that we must understand that
00:20:16.780 Matthew chapter 18, when we're talking about church discipline is talking about the context of a local
00:20:21.160 church. So someone preaches a public sermon, it's plastered on YouTube, or someone writes a book for
00:20:27.680 everyone to read, and they're saying things in there that aren't biblical to write an article
00:20:32.660 publicly calling out that very error is not, uh, right. It's not a violation of the Matthew 18
00:20:40.960 passage. And I just think we have to be very honest with that. And because those are, I mean,
00:20:45.720 one thing happened in the public sphere and the response also happens in the public sphere. It would
00:20:49.740 be one thing if you're commenting publicly on something that happened privately, I would think
00:20:54.000 that would be kind of just a breach of trust. And that's just based on my own common sense. But I've
00:20:58.580 gotten some of the same things when I talked about the problems with the Sparrow conference that
00:21:02.740 happened here in Texas, uh, with Ms. Uwan, who had some interesting things to say about whiteness.
00:21:09.040 I don't think it's necessarily, um, always the responsibility of the person commenting on
00:21:15.440 something that they've seen publicly to make this a private conversation. Wonderful. If that happens,
00:21:20.900 as long as the public commentary is happening from a place of wanting to share the gospel,
00:21:25.700 and we're going back to the supremacy of scripture as our authority, I agree with you. I think that
00:21:30.840 it's totally fair game. Yeah. And I would just add to that. I would say, you know, if you chose to do
00:21:36.040 that and you had access to her, then that's fine. I mean, and that's a wonderful thing. Sometimes these,
00:21:41.940 these dialogues can take place in private instead of in the public sphere. And sometimes that's,
00:21:47.420 that's very good and profitable. However, I would say this, if Beth Moore were a member of my church,
00:21:53.620 then before I wrote one of the two articles that I've written recently, I would have had
00:21:58.820 conversations with her before I ever penned those articles simply because some of those differences
00:22:04.780 could have been worked out perhaps in private rather than public. So those are issues that I
00:22:10.940 think that we must be honest about as well. So I think we're on the same page there. Yeah. Um,
00:22:16.620 give some kind of encouragement to women who might be listening to this, because if, if,
00:22:20.360 if we're honest in our flashes, women, it can be hard. And I specify in our flesh,
00:22:25.420 it can be hard to read a verse that says women should be quiet in the church, especially in
00:22:30.080 today's day and age, when women are told, even if we don't believe the feminist mantra is that
00:22:34.240 you can have it all, you can do it all. You're just like a man. There is something that's,
00:22:38.600 and I think it does go back to the garden of Eden. That's kind of just rubs us the wrong way.
00:22:42.820 It rubs our pride the wrong way, which of course is a sin. It rubs our ego the wrong way,
00:22:47.080 which of course is a sin. So if you could give some encouragement to women about, again, I know
00:22:52.540 you've already explained this, but their role in the church and particularly for young women who
00:22:56.200 feel that they have the gift of teaching and leadership and what God, according to his word
00:23:01.960 has for them. Yeah. So I would just say a couple of things. I would say, number one,
00:23:07.980 the Bible never teaches that Christian women's place is to be spent in the kitchen and the laundry
00:23:13.860 basket and, you know, just taking care of little children and changing diapers in perpetuity for
00:23:20.440 the rest of your life. I would simply state that God has a plan for women and it's a wonderful plan.
00:23:27.080 But anytime that we violate the very blueprint that God has put in place, it's to question,
00:23:32.940 it's to question God, it's to question his word. In fact, if you go back to the garden of Eden,
00:23:37.580 and you look at that first sin, you will see that that is precisely what Satan did as he attacked Eve
00:23:44.960 is he caused her to question the validity and the sufficiency and the supremacy and really the
00:23:51.660 inerrancy of God's word. And same thing that he did with Jesus in the wilderness as well,
00:23:57.360 using God's own word to mean something that it didn't. Absolutely. So he's been twisting scripture
00:24:02.500 for a very long time and we need to be aware of that. But what we must understand is that the
00:24:07.800 feminist mantra, if you will, this agenda that women have to do everything that men do in order
00:24:15.020 to flourish in society and use all of their gifts, I think is a mistake. In fact, if you just look at
00:24:22.120 the mainstream television networks and you see the commercials that are being circulated on those
00:24:26.960 stations, you'll see, you know, little girls who are, you know, their position next to little boys
00:24:32.800 who are going out onto the football field, you'll see even in entertainment circles, you'll see women
00:24:38.180 who are now going into MMA rings and fighting like men. I mean, this is something that the feminists have
00:24:44.240 been trying to do for a very long time. If you'll go back to the garden of Eden, you will see that
00:24:48.940 Satan's very first attempt to sway Eve was to really question the very validity of the Bible,
00:24:58.880 to question the sufficiency and the inerrancy of God's word. He's been twisting scripture for centuries,
00:25:06.140 and so he's very good at that. What we need to understand, though, is that God has a very special
00:25:10.660 plan for women, and it's not that they are to only be in the kitchen or are in the laundry basket or just
00:25:17.520 changing diapers in perpetuity for the rest of their lives. There, you know, there's a very special
00:25:23.460 place for women in God's redemptive plan, and you'll look at that and you'll see in the Bible,
00:25:28.800 you'll see that Paul alludes to this when he's talking to his son in the faith, Timothy. He says,
00:25:33.640 remember who taught you the word, and he's talking about Eunice and Lois. He's talking about his
00:25:38.320 grandmother and his mother. So women have a very unique calling and to invest, to be on the front lines,
00:25:45.920 if you will, to invest in their children, to teach them the scriptures. You can go through history and
00:25:50.860 you can read about giants of church history who have stated things like, you know, my mother never
00:25:58.320 preached a sermon in her life, but she's far more powerful than any of the preachers that I've heard
00:26:05.080 in church history because of her investment in prayer, her investment in the teaching and the
00:26:11.600 discipleship of the home. If you read Charles Spurgeon, you're going to find that he talks about
00:26:16.860 the investment of his mother and her prayers and the prayers around the supper table and the prayers
00:26:25.000 at the bedside and things of that nature. So what we need to understand is that God has a very high
00:26:31.600 calling for women, but anytime that we deviate from God's blueprint, it's going to be very problematic,
00:26:37.760 and that has been the very goal of Satan from the very beginning. We need to be very cautious of
00:26:42.140 that. I think it's a little bit of idolatry too for women to look at the particular station that God
00:26:47.340 has said, look, I've got so much for you, Christian women, but this station of elder, this station of
00:26:54.220 exercising teaching authority over a man, that is not for you because like you said of the creation
00:27:01.160 order that was set up with Adam and Eve and also the order that we see reflected in Christ in the church,
00:27:06.060 that's a very gospel-centered and gospel-ordained order that is purposeful. It's not just this kind
00:27:12.500 of cultural context of saying, sorry, the women back then were stupid, and so they couldn't say
00:27:18.520 anything. No, it's actually rooted in creation, which again is reflected in the New Testament,
00:27:22.480 like I just said, but also for women who, like me, my whole life have been very outspoken and have
00:27:28.880 loved to lead and to organize and to talk about things that I'm passionate about. We also see
00:27:34.140 throughout the Bible, there are places of leadership for women that God uses women for,
00:27:41.400 but for us to say, well, no, we need access to everything or else you don't really love us
00:27:47.020 is an unfortunate, I think, mistrust of God's plan, his sovereignty, his love for women. We see in Jesus
00:27:54.680 exactly how God thinks of women, how much he relates to them, how much he attends to them,
00:28:03.000 is attentive to them in the same way that he is a man, but there are different roles, there are
00:28:08.980 different responsibilities, and there are different stations. And what I would want a woman to take
00:28:12.860 away from that is not that God loves you less or that he sees you as any less dignified or any less
00:28:18.300 worthy or any less smart, or that you can't, you're not a good teacher or something like that,
00:28:23.760 but that it's different. And there is a purpose behind that. And for us to be able to take a step back
00:28:28.400 and say, you know, even if this does hurt my ego, even if this does hurt my pride,
00:28:33.460 I trust God's word. And I trust that he does this because he loves me, as we see so well in the New
00:28:42.000 Testament. Yeah, you're spot on, Allie. And I think that the feminists have been very successful
00:28:48.300 in turning this idea of submission, biblical submission, into a pejorative, into something
00:28:53.580 that's, you know, looked down upon in our culture. And I think that that's very unfortunate.
00:29:00.120 Look, I have the privilege to serve as a pastor, and I serve as the pastor of very intelligent women
00:29:06.800 in our church, that there is a particular young lady in our church that knows Greek,
00:29:11.680 and she can converse with us on the highest level as far as biblical interpretation. And she puts her
00:29:18.940 gifts into use within the life of our church, but she knows that she has a role that God has
00:29:24.960 placed her in, and she's not willing to go outside of that particular role because she wants to honor
00:29:31.320 God. And so, again, you mentioned selfishness earlier and idolatry, and I think that a lot of
00:29:37.620 this movement is very much rooted in that. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for your insight. I think this
00:29:42.340 is going to be very encouraging and clarifying for people who maybe have been watching this conversation,
00:29:47.040 and they just don't know what to make of it. They like people like Beth Moore, who are kind of on
00:29:52.040 the other side of this, and they also like people like you and Al Mohler, who seem to be on the
00:29:57.720 opposite side, and they're trying to just reconcile it. But at the end of the day, what we all have to
00:30:02.660 remember is that any reconciliation of two opposing ideas can be found in the Word of God. And I agree
00:30:09.320 with you wholeheartedly that the Word of God supports the differing roles for men and women and the equal
00:30:14.200 value of men and women. So thank you so much for your insight, and thank you for all the hard work
00:30:18.720 that you do. If you could tell everyone where to find you and anything that you would like people to
00:30:24.280 know. Yeah, sure. Two things. You can find me on my blog. I write at deliveredbygrace.com. I'm also
00:30:32.080 active on social media like Twitter. You can find me there at Josh Beist. Also, I'm the founding
00:30:38.860 director of the G3 conference. It's held each January in Atlanta. I would love for you to come
00:30:45.220 and join us this January. We're having a worship conference, so the entire theme is going to be
00:30:50.620 focused on the theme of worship. And then finally, I would just simply state that if you're not a
00:30:56.580 follower of Jesus Christ, you need to know that you have sinned against God, that you have transgressed
00:31:02.340 His holy law, and that you deserve, just like all of us, all of humanity, you deserve the wrath of God.
00:31:09.060 But if you would turn to Jesus Christ by faith, believing that He died for you in a substitutionary
00:31:14.180 way, and call upon Him for the remission of your sins, the Bible says that you will be saved, that
00:31:19.740 God will reconcile you to Himself through the very blood of His Son. And so I want to encourage anyone
00:31:26.360 who might be listening to this, who's not yet a believer, to turn to Jesus Christ by faith.
00:31:31.740 Amen. Thank you so much. I think that's a great note to end on. I appreciate you taking the time to talk to me.
00:31:36.840 Thank you, Allie. Have a great day.
00:31:38.260 Thanks. You too. Well, I hope that you guys got some insight from him on this topic. Like I said, this is
00:31:44.900 something that I'm going to cover in depth from a biblical perspective, of course, as we always do
00:31:51.280 this summer and go back to what Scripture says about our role, particularly for someone like me.
00:31:57.880 And maybe you're out there and you can relate to someone who likes to teach, someone who loves to
00:32:03.220 talk about God's Word, someone who loves to lead. What does it look like to flourish in the strength
00:32:10.760 that God gave us, that I believe that I was born with? What does it look like to flourish in those
00:32:16.520 roles and still be in full submission to the Word of God? I think it is extremely possible. I don't
00:32:23.480 think that it is necessary for us to compromise at all on the talents that we've been given by God
00:32:30.180 or on obedience to God. I think it is always possible for us to do both to the glory of God.
00:32:38.080 So I'd be interested to hear maybe where you disagreed on this subject. As you could tell,
00:32:42.440 I disagreed with him on a few things, but if you have any thoughts, I would love to hear from you,
00:32:47.240 Ali at the conservativemillennialblog.com. Feel free to send me an email or of course a message
00:32:52.560 on Instagram. And I will see you guys back here on Monday for Theology Monday.