Honesty and Consistency
Sep 7th, 2007 by Cheryl Schatz
Kerryn sent me a link to Pastor Wade Burleson’s blog regarding being intellectually honest and consistent in our beliefs.
Grace and Truth to You: A Call for Intellectual Honesty and Consistency
Why are so many quick to condemn women Pastors or women bible teachers and not follow through with the same check list that they have created? Do they also see gifted male Pastors as being in sin if these male Pastors are not married? Do you also see godly men as sinning against God if they become Pastors before they have had children? If one is to be consistent in charging sin against a woman Pastor, then one must also charge unmarried or married but with no children, male Pastors. The link above is a good read and sparks some good food for thought especially in reading those who condemn women as sinning against God merely because they are teaching and preaching to the full body of Christ.
Thoughts?
September 7th, 2007 at 6:11 pm
Cheryl,
Loved your post on Wade Burleson’s blog. I will read the rest of your site.
dm
September 7th, 2007 at 6:23 pm
DM,
Welcome! If you loved my post on Wade’s blog, you’ll love the outside-the-box thinking here. Welcome to this little community!
September 7th, 2007 at 7:50 pm
There is a link to his dad’s blog in the article. I hope everyone will take the time to go and read it. It is excellent.
September 8th, 2007 at 7:11 am
I believe a person can be a believer and also be a Roman Catholic, an Eastern Orthodox, a Evangelical, or a Messianic Jew; yet these groups believe some very different things and even they are not monolithic on some things. There is a tendency to claim a “my way or the highway” method of interpretation, would it not just be simpler if everyone agreed with me?
I believe this temptation should be resisted.
Another point is that Jesus was CONSISTENTLY making people uncomfortable in some way by breaking their paradigms. If I am not changed by attending a church and studying the Bible, what is the point? Do I really think I know it all from the get go? The life of a believer is to be characterized by repentance, as one learns of one’s hidden sins.
September 8th, 2007 at 8:12 am
Don,
Wade’s article deals mostly with grace regarding side issues. This is the struggle that many have in accepting other believers as brothers and sisters in Christ but who share different beliefs on the side issues. Yet in the fundamentals we need to hold tight without wavering. As far as there being believers in the Roman Catholic faith, etc, in my field of apologetics I have seen people who appear to be true Christians but they are this way in spite of the RC religion, not because of it. There are too many deviations from the essentials that cause people to be devoted to a form of religion and pulled away from a pure faith in Jesus.
September 9th, 2007 at 5:26 am
Cheryl,
I’m a little behind due to attending a pastor’s conference the last few days, but I finally got ’round to reading your post under Wade’s blog article. You presented a truly excellent challenge for consistency my sister!
September 9th, 2007 at 10:33 pm
Thank you Dusman. Consistency is the key and those who do not allow women to minister should be asked to answer to their inconsistent use of scripture. I believe that truth is always consistent.