New Weekly Podcast of Sermons

I have begun recording my sermons each week for my new podcast, "Proclaiming Law & Gospel." My sermons each week will be posted here and will be hosted at http://proclaiminglawandgospel.libsyn.com/rss, if you would like to subscribe to the feed. It will be up on itunes in the next week or so. My first program is a sermon on Psalm 130 from our Mid-week Lent service. Here is the message.

Baptism in the Early Church

On today's program I discussed baptismal regeneration and the early church. I went through various Patristic sources to demonstrate that there is a strong doctrine of baptism as a means for the forgiveness of sins and reception of the Holy Spirit in the early church. Here is the program.

St. Augustine on the Law

"A law was not given that could give life, but which might show his sins to the sinner. For the sinner had forgotten himself, and saw not himself; the law was given him, that he might see himself. The law made him guilty, the Lawgiver freed him: for the Law-giver is the Supreme power... There is therefore a law of the mercy of God, a law of the propitiation of God. The one was a law of fear, the other is a law of love. The law of love giveth the forgiveness of sins, blotteth out the past, warneth concerning the future; forsaketh not its companion by the way, becometh a companion to him whom it leadeth on the way." St. Augustine, commentary on Psalm 130:4

Atonement Theories and Objective Justification

On today's program I did a brief overview of the controversy over objective justification and gave some of my thoughts on the matter. Then I answered a question about the Governmental theory of the atonement and launched to a discussion of the various atonement motifs. Here's the program.

Here is the article I referenced in regards to objective justification: What is objective justification?

The Lordship Salvation Controversy

On this week's program I did an overview of the Lordship Salvation controversy within evangelicalism, and explained why from a Lutheran perspective, both sides of the debate are wrong. Here is the program.

The Reformed View of Patristics and Entire Sanctification

On this week's podcast I answered a listener question about how the Reformed view early church history and concluded with a discussion of the Wesleyan doctrine of entire sanctification. Here is the program.

Answering Arguments for Women in Ministry: the Old Testament

I was pointed to an article by one of my readers regarding the issue of women in ministry. This article (which can be found here)is an official document of the Evangelical Covenant church in defense of their allowance of female clergy. This is particularly interesting to me because I was raised in the Evangelical Covenant church, a small church body which has its roots in Swedish Pietism. Because this paper gives many of the common reasons that many use to argue for women in ministry, I have decided to respond to the major arguments utilized here.

The first part of the article presents evidence from the Old Testament that women were active in the ministry of Israel. Exodus 38:8 mentions women who minister, as does Exodus 15:20-21. The gift of prophecy was sometimes given to women, such as Deborah in Judges 4-5. The story of Deborah also demonstrates that a woman could be fit as a leader for the people of Israel. This is then placed in contradistinction to other ancient societies which did not allow women any place in leadership, assigning her a relatively insignificant role in society.

What these texts demonstrate is not an egalitarian perspective on gender, but simply that God loves and utilizes both sexes to accomplish his purpose. It is significant that the Biblical narrative places women in a higher role than did many other ancient societies. This shows that both men and women are created in the imago Dei; it does not mean that their roles are interchangeable.

The unique male role in spiritual leadership is demonstrate in several places and institutions throughout the Old Testament. The two primary roles which governed the faith and civil law of Israel were the priesthood and the monarchy. The priesthood is first seen with the story of Melchizedek in Genesis 14. This priest was a male, who Abraham offered tithes to. This priesthood was typological (Hebrews 5:6), pointing to Christ as the true high priest. There was then a priesthood instituted through the tribe of Levi. Aaron was instituted as the high priest at the time of the Exodus, and the priesthood continued through his male lineage. The priesthood, both Melchizedekian and Levitical, is an office instituted solely for men. One could argue that this was done solely for the purpose of cultural sensitivity, due to the fact that women were not respected in the Ancient Near East. However, this is negated by the fact that there were female priests in some ancient pagan religions.

Similarly, the monarchy was passed on through male lineage. Saul was appointed as king, later to be removed from the throne so that David would rule over Israel. The monarchy passed to Solomon, and then to his male descendants. There were no female kings. This is significant especially because the monarchy of the Old Covenant was, like the priesthood, typological. Christ, through his incarnation, death, and resurrection, fulfilled both the roles of priest and king. He did this because these were the two most important institutions in the life of the nation of Israel, and both were limited to males.

The role of prophet is also linked almost exclusively to men. As the paper demonstrates, there are certain examples of women who prophesied at times. There were even exceptional cases like with Deborah, who was a leader and prophet. However, the normal pattern is for a prophet to be male. Just take a look at the prophets who have written books which are included in Scripture: Joshua, Ezekiel, Daniel, Jeremiah, and all of the minor prophets. They were all men.

We can gather some important truths in the Old Testament regarding the role of women in the spiritual life of the church/Israel. First, women are an essential part of the life of Israel. God created both male and female in his image, giving them both inherent dignity. Women have exceptional skills and are utilized for God's purpose. However, women were not designed to be the spiritual leaders of Israel. The priests were men. The kings were men. The prophets were most often men. Of the three leadership roles prominent in Israel's worship life, two are tied exclusively to males, and the third is most often attached to a male figure. This does not mean that either sex has more worth, dignity, or ability than the other; it simply shows that God created both genders to compliment one another, with different tasks in both the world and the church.