Mark

Dave,

My understanding of the husband/wife paradigm stands from more than Eph 5:21. After all, I’m sure you would not say that 5:21, means that I submit to your wife and your’s to mine in the same way they submit to us. Submission/authority will depend on the relationship involved. Now if you wish 5:21 to be equally reciprocal in all relationships (one another!) it would be ludicrous. Sure we serve one another (which is a form of submission), but I don’t think that Paul’s intention in 5:21ff is a reciprocal nature in the egal sense.

“So, if you are claiming something is BIblically mandated YOU should show the evidence.
Egals are saying husbands are not in authority because the Bible does NOT say they are – the absence proves our point.
Egals are saying that we should submit to one another because the Bible explicitly says WE should – the explicit instruction proves our point.”

I think you have overstated your case here Dave. Sure we all agree that we submit to each other in some sense within the whole Christian community. I submit to those in authority above me- if I was at your church I would submit to you as the Pastor. However, you and egals, are claiming much more than your statement suggests. Eph 5:21 does not prove I should submit to my wife in the same sense as 5:22. That would suggest that I should submit to my 3yr old in the same way she submits to me as her father. Like it or not, egals claim that the husband has to submit to his wife reciprocally, but the Bible does not teach that.

If all Egals were saying was quote “we should submit to one another because the Bible explicitly says WE should” then we would agree. We do submit to one another in many ways within the Christian community. I’m afraid though you and others push much more than what you have said above.

So I must disagree that the instruction proves your point. All it proves is the common ground you share with comps, that within the Christian community we ought to submit to one another. What you have failed to prove, is that male headship does not exist, or that I as a husband ought to submit to my wife in the same way she is called to submit to me. Until you can do that, your point is never proven.

By the way, where is the 2 or 3 witness to this reciprocal submission command?

Cheers