andy

Mara your question: “Do we know that this practice has gone away and no longer plagues us in the twenty-first century? Or does such a teaching still exist under a different name, persona? I’m not setting you up. I’m just wondering if you have noticed anything in your journeys.”

Yes. it still exists under the heading of grace and other reasonings. I don’t want to put in print what I heard from a person who went to a pastor for counseling with a sexual problem; I can only say this, he told him that his sexual sin gave him ballast in his life.

We know that the environment of Ephesus was centered on the goddess Diana (Artemis) and for a man to have sex with the female priestess of Diana was to enhance ones spiritual sensitivity. It is hard to conceive any Christian society not being influenced by pagan practices. I could write volumes on this. Just look and sex in the church, the world’s practices may not be taught, but we have their influence just the same. How often do we hear of Christians living together and not being married? Having sex before marriage? We make no stand of these issues and ones salvation.

We can understand some to these priestesses getting saved and having some of these beliefs, one doesn’t have to extend their imagination very much. Deception and compromise has been with us and will continue.

I did a very long article on “women in the church” on my website. It deals with head covering, silence in 1 Cor 14 and the whole issue in 1 Tim 2.
http://www.therealchurch.com/articles/women_in_the_church.html

In 30 plus years I have taken much material form many books… sorry I didn’t put in the quotes. Hopefully the authors will forgive me. It has been too long and too much material.
Andy