The Ten NOT Reasons (Continued)

I’m back here at Men and Women to tackle another of Grudem’s “Ten Reasons For Male Headship Before the Fall.” I promised you I would tackle these ten reasons, and I will get to them all before I stop writing on them.

Reason #5 supplied by Wayne Grudem is “The primary accountability”:

“…in a similar way, when God summoned Adam to give an account, it indicated a primary responsibility for Adam IN THE CONDUCT OF HIS FAMILY. This is similar to the situation in Genesis 2:15-17, where God had given commands to Adam alone before the Fall, indicating there also a primary responsibility that belonged to Adam. By contrast, the serpent spoke to Eve first (Gen. 3:1), trying to get her to TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR LEADING THE FAMILY INTO SIN, AND INVERTING THE ORDER THAT GOD HAD ESTABLISHED AT CREATION” (Wayne Grudem, “The Key Issues in the Manhood-Womanhood Controversy, and the Way Forward” from “Biblical Foundations for Manhood and Womanhood,” page 31).

It’s good to at least be able to write a post on Wayne Grudem from time to time. I mean, there are days when (as you can imagine) I have to step away from the men and women debate. It gets to be too much. If I don’t step away, I get frustrated by the opinions out there regarding an “unequal” view of women…

However, there are times when courage is needed to approach this task; and so, no matter how frustrating the opinions of men like Wayne Grudem may be, I am on a mission and I CANNOT GIVE UP THE FIGHT!! I must persevere in this subject until women are where God places them.

Regarding Grudem’s quote above, the most striking phrase of all involves the fact that he believes Adam’s “family” played a role in his accountability to God. Before this moment, Adam and Eve were married—but there was no family except for Eve. There were no children at all (no Cain, Abel, or Seth).

Next, he claims that the serpent tried to “get her [Eve] to take responsibility for leading the family into sin, and inverting the order God had established at creation.” First, let me say that the serpent had one task—that is, to get the first couple to attempt to “overthrow” God—and the first couple did attempt this impossible feat!! This idea that the serpent tried to get Eve to “usurp” power from Adam and take his responsibility, is NOWHERE IN THE TEXT! This is Grudem’s interpretation of 1 Timothy 2 coming to play. As I’ve said at the blog here, Grudem LOVES 1 Timothy 2, and if there were no 1 Timothy 2 as we know it, Grudem wouldn’t have any problems with women (I’m being sarcastic…he’d still find a new reason to replace 1 Tim. 2).

Why then, is Adam responsible to God? Because God charged him with the task. God made Adam the human head of creation, the “lord” over the earth. As a result, Adam was to dress the garden and keep it (as well as watch over it). This is all Genesis 2 tells us about Adam being the head of creation.

But here’s a rare moment in time: Grudem actually goes on to say something that I agree with…but, you’ll have to stay tuned to find out what it is...