tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4432829881659791534.post801045658789849195..comments2023-11-03T07:37:40.604-04:00Comments on Men and Women in the Church: Men, Women, and DominionDeidre Richardson, B.A., M.Div.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415891901162852180noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4432829881659791534.post-76342356703452541052009-05-23T16:37:11.505-04:002009-05-23T16:37:11.505-04:00"And it is here that I have to talk about God’s ac..."And it is here that I have to talk about God’s actions: when He makes man and decides to give him rule over the earth, He doesn’t just affirm their likeness to Himself IN THEORY—He actually gives them something to do or act upon because they bear the image of the Divine."<br /><br />When men and women exercise their God-given authority, they are demonstrating--giving evidence of--their mutual divine image. To deny woman's place in this scheme of things is to deny, to a significant degree, her participation in the imago dei.<br /><br />In my first blog post a year ago at www.menandwomenleaderstogether@blogspot.com (the blog is presently on hiatus), I wrote the following:<br /><br />When God created man and woman, he made them both—equally and without distinction—in the image of God, and he gave them both—equally and without distinction—authority and dominion to rule over the earth and all its non-human creatures. Notice the text suggests that the image of God entails and justifies the dominion of woman and man over all the earth. God made man and woman in his likeness so that they may rule. Where there is the image of God, there is authority.<br /><br />Although human sin has defaced the divine image in humanity and skewed the authority that man and woman once shared together, God has provided redemption for us. Because of the cross of Christ, his resurrection, ascension and session at the right hand of God, and his dominion over all his enemies, and because believers in Christ have identified with the death of Christ and are now (by faith, though not yet in eschatological fullness) raised with him at the right hand of God, we too have been given authority, not just over the earth but also over our spiritual enemies. Every believer—equally and without distinction—has been given spiritual authority in Christ.<br /><br />In Christ, the new creation has come. In Christ all redeemed humanity has authority over spiritual darkness and deception. In Christ all redeemed humanity is authorized and obligated to obey and to proclaim the Word of God to both the church and the world. And our authority to rule and to proclaim rests in the authority of Scripture and the authority of our risen Lord, not in any particular human quality or distinctive feature such as gender. Pragmatic considerations may require that in a particular setting the Word of God be proclaimed by one gender rather than the other. And, of course, a person’s particular spiritual gifts will point to certain ministry contexts and not to others. But the new covenant in Christ sets no universal spiritual limitations (or privileges) that are based solely on gender, race, or any other physical human characteristic.Rebecca Merrill Groothuishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14792830203814433318noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4432829881659791534.post-81308007693960143382009-05-22T16:33:48.470-04:002009-05-22T16:33:48.470-04:00Very edifying, Deidre!
Thank you.
I think you ha...Very edifying, Deidre!<br />Thank you. <br />I think you have an anointing for teaching us TRUTH which will set us FREE.<br />I am a lot older than you with a lot of bitter experience and disillusionment with "church" and I can't even tell you how much it uplifts me and ministers to me to read your healing uplifiting words. <br />May your tribe increase! :)Gemhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02778796852665760660noreply@blogger.com