Cheryl Schatz

Mark,
You said to Susanna:

If God ordained that authorty exist in a sinless world we ought to teach and know that- that’s my point.

The rule that existed in the sinless world was the rule of man over God’s creation. As Dave mentioned, authority comes from God alone and I will add that taking authority when God hasn’t given it is usurping authority from God. The reason why there was authority and rule in the beginning is that God made us in His image. One of the ways that we were made in His image, is that we were made to rule God’s creation. The animals then were made to be ruled.

Once that is set as the foundation, then one can look further to see if such authority existed between husband/wife and if it did, we can be confident that authority is not in and of itself sinful.

The question then must be asked and answered whether the rule of Adam over Eve was given to him by God or whether he took it for himself. We start with Eve to see if she too was created in God’s image to rule and we find that the answer is “yes” in Genesis 1.

The next thing we ask is whether God gave image of God rule to Adam. He did not. We never see an inkling that Adam was meant to rule Eve or that Eve was created to be ruled by the animals or by Adam.

The only thing that we can identify about Adam’s rule over Eve is from Genesis 3:16 after the fall. Thus we know for sure that in the beginning in God’s good creation He did not create His image in Eve to be ruled by His image in Adam. The ruling over God’s image did not start until after sin entered the world and God did not “give” this rule to Adam. God predicted that Adam would this rule over God’s image but God never said one word to Adam that this authority belonged to Adam. Therefore we can be confident that the rule of one image of God over another image of God is usurping God’s authority.

This is at the heart of many egalitarian arguments, and unfortunately they by pass this point assuming authority=evil (which of course is a by-product of our post modern philosophy)

I think that it would be overstating the case to say that egalitarians believe authority to be evil. What egalitarians consistently believe is that the rule of the man over the woman in marriage is an authority not given by God. If it is an authority taken by a sinful man and not sanctioned by God then it is evil. I think you would agree with this that any self-assumed authority not sanctioned by God is evil as it takes away from God what He has not given.

I think that this is the issue that needs to be dealt with.