Paula

I’ve written before that if something is a law, then there must be penalties for breaking it. This is of particular importance on the issue of legalism and whether the old Levitical Law applies to Christians. The fact that there are no penalties in the NT for, say, failing to tithe, tells us it is not a law for us.

Likewise, if something is a sin, then there must be prescribed penalties for committing it, or remedies for forgiveness. No such penalties or remedies exist in the NT for a woman preaching correct doctrine, so it cannot be a sin. And if it is not a sin, then we must ask whether it applies under the general principle of being considerate of the “weak in faith” or the surrounding culture, per Romans 14. This is exactly the case with head coverings, especially for Christian women married to unbelieving men.

I think this argument is even tougher for male supremacists to circumvent.

Slick again commits a logical fallacy in this case, trying to equate the non-repeating of Heb. 10:25 as proof that God doesn’t have to repeat a law. His error lies in calling this a law at all. Is every grammatical command in the NT to be called a law? Hardly. Does he actually think Paul, the great liberator from the old law, went about making up new ones that were on the same plane as the old? Hardly.

The fact is that Heb. 10:25 is not a law, and there is no law against women teaching true doctrine either. Neither is repeated; neither carries penalties for violation. Slick apparently does not understand why you’re making the point about repeated laws at all. You’re saying we know it’s not a law because it’s not repeated, but he thinks everything is a law.

Paul prescribed actions to take against the man who had his father’s wife, and against false teachers, and John wrote strongly against “proud Diotrephes” who put people out of the church. But where is the penalty for women teaching the truth? What does the NT tell us to do as punishment? If the NT gives instructions for other things then why not for this? The answer, of course, is that it isn’t a sin, a law, or even an impropriety.