Dave

Markie Sparkie! Thanks for the reply (558). I note you only got to point one. Is there more coming or did you forget to keep numbering? Or perhaps you only had one point in you? 🙂

You said, “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.”
Yes, I do. Paul is clear, we should submit to one another. It might look different in different relationships, but yes, we should one to another. No ifs or buts.

You said, “ 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.”
No it would not be ludicrous. Further, I agree, we are called to serve one another, but just because you say Paul’s intention is different, you need to show how. If you want to say it involves authority, then please indicate where Paul mentions authority.

You said, “ if I was at your church I would submit to you as the Pastor.”
I am touched, but if I was your pastor I would hope that you would submit to me as I would submit to you. I am a brother in Christ, no more. I might have certain responsibilities within my church, but neither the Bible nor the Presbyterian Church of Australia instills me with any authority over you. I do however have “the power invested in me” to marry you (but we both already are!!).

You said, “ 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. “
I submit to my 14, 12 and 9 yo kids. It looks different at points for all three of them, as it does for my wife. But this is a different topic to whether or not I have authority over my kids and/or them over me.

You said, “Like it or not, egals claim that the husband has to submit to his wife reciprocally, but the Bible does not teach that.”
Yes it does. We should all submit to one another. No one is excluded. It will look different in different situations, but the Bible DOES teach that husbands and wives, indeed all of us should submit to one another. But this is a different topic to whether or not a husband has authority over his wife. It is not in the passage.

You said, “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.”
Well, it sounds like we do agree, except you comps(!) push much more and say that there is different types of submission due to hierarchy.

You said, “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.”
Yeah, common ground! I have found this comment interesting with how you want to say we sort of submit to one another, but it would be ludicrous for this to actually happen, and yet we do submit to one another…but we don’t really…!

You said, “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.”
Mark I cannot prove something does not exist. All I can ask is for you to prove something does exist. Until you can do that…

Cheers big ears!
(I have never seen your ears and was simply giving a customary farewell often used in the small town of Gulargambone…)