Read Part One HERE
In this post I have decided to quote from statements by Professor Bruce Ware and Assistant Professor James Hamilton and Pastor Tim Challies. Their statements are very much in line with statements of my previous post.
Professor Bruce Ware has said the following of 1 Timothy 2:15
In 1 Timothy 2:15 we read that "woman shall be saved in childbearing." We note that the word translated as "saved" always refers to eternal salvation. It means that a woman will demonstrate that she is in fact a Christian, that she has submitted to God's ways by affirming and embracing her God-designed identity - for the most part, generally this is true - as wife and mother, rather than chafing against it, rather then bucking against it, rather than wanting to be a man, wanting to be in a man's position, wanting to teach and exercise authority over men. Rather than wanting that, she accepts and embraces who she is as a woman, because she knows God and she knows His ways are right and good, so she is marked as a Christian by her submission to God and in that her acceptance of God's design for her as a woman."
And Assistant Professor James Hamilton has said the following of 1 Timothy 2:15
"All women must embrace their role as women and bear children, and if they do so in faith they will be saved. For Paul wants women to embrace what it means to be female, and he has chosen childbearing as an example of something that only women can do. This doesn't mean that single women or barren women can't be saved, but they should by faith embrace what it means for them to be women."
And Pastor Tim Challies has said the following on 1 Timothy 2:15
"There is a good warrant to expand the word childbearing here so it points not just to the act of giving birth, but to all that Paul has just discussed a couple of verses earlier - godly womanhood in the wider context of the passage Paul is referring to the whole of a woman's calling within the family, within the church, within the world. She is to embrace godly womanhood, to be who and what God has created her to and called her to be. She is to fight against that tendency to usurp authority that is not hers."
My Comment
These men have turned the gospel message for women into a gospel of works!! And it seems that even women who are either single or barren are to somehow still give birth to children by faith if not in reality in order to be saved.
They furthermore seem to believe that any woman, who teaches men acts like a man.
I wonder what these men would say to women like the four daughters of Philip who had the gift of prophecy, Phoebe, who represented Paul to the Church in Rome, Junia who was an apostle, Chloe who was an overseer, and Nympha who was an overseer. These women may well have been married and have had children but Paul focuses on their spiritual activities rather than their homemaking activities including giving birth to and raising their children.
It is clear that these men do not have any understanding of this verse for they have not taken the time to study the cultural background of this verse. If they had taken the time to do so then they would have learned that Paul is not here writing about women being saved in childbearing for no woman is saved in childbearing. Every woman is saved through the blood of Jesus. Paul is exposing here a false teaching that had entered the church in Ephesus that marriage and motherhood prevented women from an intimate relationship with God and he is saying here that, contrary to what was being taught, marriage and motherhood are part of God's plan for women as their Creator and are not obstacles to a close walk with God as these false teachers claimed.
Read Part Three HERE
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