Richardson Hosts Free Book Giveaway At Amazon from April 18th-22nd

It is a blessing to be able to return to The Center for Theological Studies (CTS) to make yet another announcement.
I have partnered with Amazon to offer a free Kindle book giveaway on three of my four published books. The titles are as follows:

1) Lydia's Heart: The Case for Prevenient Grace

2) Doctrinal Deception: Responding to Carlton Pearson's The Gospel of Inclusion

3) More Doctrinal Deception: Bishop Carlton Pearson's Inclusion, Further Examined

Remember, as I said above, only Kindle Books on the above three titles are free. As for paperback versions of these books, I have discounted the books to "at cost" -- meaning I'll make next to nothing on the sales. Amazon will get the profit. I get the satisfaction of seeing folks pick up copies of books to aid them on their Christian journey. Lydia's Heart: The Case for Prevenient Grace, a book I published on December 15, 2018, has been discounted from $22.50 to $14.50. Of the new discounted cost on the book, I'll only see a profit of 50 cents. Literally. I'm THAT determined to get books into the hands of those who've been wanting the titles but are paralyzed financially right now and have bigger financial problems to worry about.

The Amazon free book giveaway starts today, April 18th, and goes through SonRise Sunday (April 21st, known to many as Easter) to Monday, April 22nd. The giveaway lasts only 5 days, so don't put off tomorrow what you can pick up today.

Write back and let me know if you've picked up any of these three books, and the titles you downloaded on Kindle. If you decide to purchase the paperbacks, let me know which titles.

I look forward to hearing about your purchased titles. If I can be of service, please feel free to let me know.

In Him, Deidre

New Series!

                                                     Dear Men and Women,

 Your blog owner, Deidre Richardson here. I'm writing to share with you a new series I'm about to undergo at the site "Men and Women" as well as my other research site, "The Center for Theological Studies" (CTS). I sent CTS a post regarding the new series. I thought I'd send it to you all as well. May the Lord bless you in the days ahead. Happy New Year!
                                                                          - Deidre

                                          Dear Readership,

 Happy New Year again to you! About a week ago, I wrote my latest post at CTS. I realize that it has been an entire week since I've written. I wanna take time here to apologize to my readership for the time that I have been away. I am currently registered in a January term class here at Southeastern Seminary, called "Critical Thinking and Argumentation." I've spent the last two weeks going to class everyday from 8am-12:30pm, followed by a nap at home...only to wake up, shower, get dressed, grab dinner, and study with a brother of mine. It's been one heck of a two weeks!! Continue to pray for me; I am doing well, but I've pulled all-nighters everyday for the last two weeks just to make sure I'm up and awake for class at 8am. I don't do very well with morning classes, so I've been sleeping about 5 hours or so doing the day in order to have just enough sleep to stay up and do homework all night. In addition to the chapters of reading and the 150-page book my class has been reading (which I'll talk about in a minute), I've also been given the joy of having computer software (called "LogiCola") that tests your knowledge of the chapters in the book. I recently took my midterm in the Critical Thinking class and was thankful that I played with the software during the week. Many of the questions came from the software...so it was good to see that my efforts did not go unrewarded :-)


 On to the book my class has been reading...the title of the book is called "Exegetical Fallacies" by D. A. Carson. Now that I've read the book, I have to write an 8-page sermon (exegetical), using ten of the 56 fallacies Carson mentions in his book. It's a fun assignment...but it's also a hard one. I'm gonna struggle most with committing logical fallacies. I've been taught as an apologetics major here at Southeastern that God is a God of logic, a God of order...as creatures made in God's image and likeness, we too, should strive to think God's thoughts after Him. So committing logical fallacies to get a good grade...it's what I'm required to do, but my fear is that I'll write a sermon thinking I've committed fallacies that may not even be fallacies :-) such is the fear of every seminary student...


Having read Carson's book, I noticed that he tends to critique the views of Arminians and the position I'd like to refer to as "Spirit-gifting" in regards to the issue of women in ministry. I have used the term "egalitarian" at my other site, "Men and Women in the Church," but I do so to distinguish it from the view of complementarianism. There are some things that egalitarians believe that I do not. Among these, some egalitarians, particularly feminists, like to refer to "women's rights"  in regards to women in the church. Instead, I focus more on Spirit-gifting because to me, the debate on men and women in the church is not political, but Scriptural.  I hold to the headship of men in the home, but I do so because wives are commanded to submit to their husbands in several places in the New Testament. However, I don't see the kind of evidence that complementarianism espouses  regarding women in the church  in the Scriptures themselves. Rather, I see the presupposition (or assumption) that 1 Timothy 2: 8-15 means that women cannot be in leadership, and then everything else in Scripture regarding women is defined in terms of that one text (others being Titus 2 or 1 Corinthians 11, 1 Corinthians 14, etc.). I think 1 Timothy 2 as it has been interpreted by complementarians cannot stand up to the claims the Scriptures themselves make regarding the gifting of the Spirit. God didn't create roles irrespective of Spirit-gifting; rather, He created roles "in accordance with" Spirit-gifting. As a result, complementarians have to prove that a woman cannot serve in a role because she is not given certain gifts, rather than just "women have certain fixed roles in the church." And I don't think anyone can claim that God can't gift a woman to preach, teach, pastor, etc. To make that claim would amount to heresy, as some would begin to limit God's sovereignty. Calvinists (and even some Arminians) should think twice before making this mistake.


 And that brings me to the announcement. This coming week, starting Monday, January 17, 2011, I intend to start a new series here at the Center for Theological Studies titled "Exegetical Fallacies in D.A. Carson's 'Exegetical Fallacies.'" I think that Dr. Carson, as much as I respect him, has fallacies on his own (ironicly) in a book in which he tells believers not to commit exegetical fallacies. What I aim to do in this new series is show that Carson brings his own presuppositions to the biblical evidence, and that he attacks all views that disagree with his and uses both Arminians and egalitarians as part of his "fallacy" attacks. I have to be honest and admit that he does attack some of his Calvinist brethren who smear Calvin's name (and claim that Calvin separated faith and reason), but these examples are few compared to the "overwhelming" (I can use no less of an honest term) attacks he makes against egalitarians and their claims. I for one here at the Center often critique sharply the views of those who disagree with me...but I have my reasons. And I hope that you, the readership, will seriously study my views of theology and the Scriptures and question whether or not I hold to the biblical text. I desire to be faithful to what God says in His Word. I realize that we all have presuppositions, but that is not the issue; rather, the question to ask ourselves is, "Does the Bible support the way I think about this?", or, "Does the Bible support my perspective on this given issue?". These are the kinds of questions we must ask ourselves.


 So much for a brief announcement! In any case, I just wanted to let you all know that I am soon to return to CTS. I have much to tell and show in the coming days about the new understanding the course in Critical Thinking has provided. God bless you all...and keep studying the Scriptures for the glory of God.

Female Rabbi Ordained in Germany

Dear Readership,


I just stumbled today upon this article regarding a female, Alina Treiger, who was just ordained to be the first female rabbi since 1935. If I'm not mistaken, Alina Treiger was ordained to the German rabbi circle on November 4, 2010. To read the article, go here:


http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,6188567,00.html?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf


I desire to know your thoughts on this somewhat history-making event for Germany. Please comment here to give me some feedback. I'm sure this will make for interesting discussion.

The Early Church and Gnosticism: The Context Behind the Pastorals

Dearest Readership,

What a joy it is to write this announcement! I am so thankful to the Lord that He has allowed me the opportunity to return to my personal blog ("Men and Women") and continue writing to the glory of God.

I desire to announce that the work here at Men and Women in the Church will begin to take a different turn from the last series I did here. That series was on the Trinity and how we see good news for women in the fact that Christ's subordination on earth was not an eternal subordination. To have a situation of "God in hierarchy" in eternity would lead to such heresies as "tritheism" (three Gods, instead of one God) and the Lord Jesus Himself would be beneath us in eternity. Even Jesus said in the Gospels that there will be no marriage in heaven---which means that male headship in the home will not last forever! And if the church of God is supposed to be the visible sign of the kingdom of God come to earth, then we have got to stop completely living with a "life on earth is how it is" mentality. If we are now sons of God, we have to prepare for the day when we will fully live out that sonship...this means, then, that men have got to stop thinking in terms of power and control and begin to think of what life in Christ is really all about.

Those who stress the differences of the Trinity members do so at great peril; those who stress the similarities too much begin to conflate the Trinity (and the Son and Father, for instance, could be labeled the same person in this mindset). What believers must learn to do is demonstrate both the similarities and differences of the Trinity members. But we must not let go of the fact that, whether it be "Father," "Son," or "Spirit," none are "less God" than the other members. All three members of the Trinity are God, and share the essence of divinity. Because of this, neither can be "eternally subordinate" to the others, in the same way that no one human is eternally subordinate to any other human.

The new series will deal with a subject that I have been wanting to approach for a long time: that is, the context of the Pastorals. I have written some work here on complementarian scholars who argue that Gnosticism and false teaching is not the context of the Pastorals, and that the real issue is the role of women in the church. I intend to look at the Pastorals themselves to glean all the info we can about the situations that existed in the letters themselves; next, I intend to focus on how the details of the Pastorals "line up" with what we know of Gnosticism and the Gnostic Gospels. In addition, I will provide quotes from the church fathers themselves, who battled Gnosticism from even within the church (take Marcion for example, who even truncated down his version of the canon, even diminishing the amount of material in Luke's Gospel; Luke's was all he kept in his version of the Scriptures). All of this research is geared at showing believers that Paul did battle Gnosticism in his day (what scholars call "Proto-Gnosticism," meaning "first Gnostic thought").

It is my prayer that this will put to rest the idea that the Pastorals are just all about church leadership and that they are simply manuals for church leadership. While Paul does provide administrative counsel in these letters, he does so because of the atmosphere at the time: the church was battling false teaching from without that was being brought "within" the church. No wonder then, that Paul could write to the Corinthians, "But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ" (2 Corinthians 11:3, NKJV)!

Thanks so much for your support...and I apologize for my time away. For those of you who desire to see what I've been working on in all the time I've been away, please read posts written at my other blog, "Center for Theological Studies." I've done some interesting work there on the Doctrine of Eternal Security (or Doctrine of Perseverance of the Saints) as well as discussed issues of hermeneutics in the biblical text. I think the church needs to know what hermeneutics is and how valuable it was to the early church (and should be to us today).

Continue to pray for me and the work done here in cyberspace. May God grant you the opportunity to hang in here with me as we embark on this exciting series. May the Lord bless you and keep you until the day of His return.

New Series Starting Soon...

Dear Readership,

I've been starting new reading these days on the subject of women in ministry, and I've decided (after quite a long stay away) to resume work here at "Men and Women."

I am writing to announce that I will be starting a new series here at the blog soon, titled "The Trinity: Good News For Women." One of the readers here at the site, Cheryl, has made comments about Bruce Ware and his belief that Christians should not pray to Jesus (as Christ is "subordinate" to the Father). It is a sad state of affairs, but complementarians are now using the Trinity as the argument for their view of the eternal subordination of women (based off of their belief in the eternal subordination of the Son). Pray for this up and coming series, that the Lord will work wonders in my heart and mind as well as yours (you, the readers). There's still a lot of work to be done in making the case for women in ministry.

In case there are curious minds out there who desire to know what I'll be reading, I'll provide a starting list here:

(1) "Jesus and the Father: Modern Evangelicals Reinvent the Doctrine of the Trinity" by Kevin Giles
(2) "Who's Tampering With the Trinity? An Assessment of the Subordination Debate" by Millard J. Erickson

(3) "Father, Son, & Holy Spirit: Relationships, Roles, and Relevance" by Bruce Ware

There will be more reading for this subject as we make our way through the series.

I hope you're enjoying the work at "Men and Women." Pray for the blog, pray for the hearts and minds of egalitarians (that we remain ever faithful to the proclamation of the Scriptures), and last but not least, pray for our complementarian brothers and sisters, that the Lord would help them understand that women too are made in the image of God and endowed with spiritual authority. I look forward to much discussion in the coming days.

Ordained Women in the Early Church

I realize that I’ve spent some time away from the blog here at “Men and Women in the Church.” I ask my readership to forgive me. In case you haven’t heard at the site, I own another blog here at blogspot called “The Center for Theological Studies.” There’s a link here at the top of the page. For those of you who wanna read more stuff (albeit things not pertaining to the women debate—but other theological issues), go to the CTS site. When you don’t hear from me here at “Men and Women” for a few days, it’s probably because I’ve been working at CTS. Check there from time to time to continue reading me even when this blog doesn’t have anything new on it.

Now, I wanna announce to my readership here that I’m starting a new series at the site, called “Ordained Women in the Early Church.” Some months ago in a random post (can’t remember it now), I introduced you to the book called “Ordained Women in the Early Church: A Documentary History,” by Kevin Madigan and Carolyn Osiek. Well, it’s been six months since I read the book, and I figure that, now, since my 100th post has already been written (our very first 100!), I would get started on something new. As usual, I’m back to arm my readers with more and more evidence against the prevailing “patriarchal” culture that insists that the idea of ordained women in leadership is novel.

As I progress in my travel through the book (again), I will note examples of real women who served in various offices in the early church. There are number of other surprises the book offers, so stick around to read the exciting information regarding roles of women in early church history.

As you know, I am currently in Seminary, a soon-to-be fourth-year Master of Divinity student in Christian Apologetics. I am studying everyday to be able to learn and defend what I believe. Although I believed my degree would prepare me to meet the unbeliever, I think my degree has also prepared me to, in some way, reform the Church of Christ herself.

For now, let’s just say that there’s a possibility that most of you have never even read of actual evidence to support the idea of women in any leadership role in the early church. Well, buckle your seat belts, folks—it’s gonna be a long but fascinating ride!