Truthseeker

In my realm, comps have stated that what happened at Pentecost was for then, not for the rest of NT time.  It was for when the church was being established.  No other explanation is given, but they do seem to break NT time into two phases after Jesus ascends:  Phase one is establishing the new church and phase two is everything after that in this life and begins generally after the book of Acts.  That is how they try to explain away prophets and apostles.

They also do not refer to such things as the women’s issues as laws.  They are principles written for the church.  Somehow in their minds, that is a significant difference.  All verses that we egals would use to raise questions and/or explain the equality position are subordinated to the verses that explicitly tell women to be silent or not teach or usurp authority, etc.  When I asked one about the passage that begins with ‘when women pray or prophesy’, the only answer was that it would have to be done in a way that was consistent with their kingpin verses (be silent, do not teach or be in authority over….etc.)  When I asked how this could be done, short of having segregated services or the women being alone when they did this (which would conflict with the context), there was no direct answer.

Greg is right, they always have an answer.  It may fall flat in our understanding but it seems to work for them.  They do seem to tie everything back to creation.

I was told, in a recent discussion when I showed the person the interlinear and Strong’s per Phoebe being a deacon rather than a servant, I was told that the context was different.  That the passages dealing with the qualifications of deacons pertained to an office rather than just an individual woman ‘serving’.  This particular comp could just not see around the ‘husband of one wife’ phrase and condition even though I showed that the word for elder could mean more than one gender as could the word for ‘one’ as in ‘If one desires the office of…”

Sometimes I am told that we have to read it as it is written and sometimes I am told that context matters.  Context never seems to matter when it supports what I am trying to show, but always when it supports the other view.  In fact, I was accused of listening to every wind of doctrine for having changed my view in the past half year.  However, when I suggested that I would not likely have been so accused had I changed from egal to comp, I was met only with a look of disdain.

Blindness is blindness.  I can only appeal to the Holy Spirit in this matter and trust Him for the results.  Paula, you are right about the need to put energy and focus on establishing new ‘churches’ or house gatherings, whatever works, that have egal teachers and pastors throughout the country.  We are desperately in need of such missionaries in our country (the U.S.), at the very least.