Read Part One HERE
In this post I continue to focus on bible teacher and author Nancy Leigh DeMoss Wolgemuth. She is a member of the Board of Reference of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood.
She has written a bible study called True Woman 101: Divine Design. One of the statements in that material is as follows:
Nancy Leigh DeMoss Wolgemuth: "God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit teach us something important about the differences between men and women. Each member of the Trinity is co-equal, yet the members of the Trinity have different roles and functions. For example, when He was on earth, Jesus often said things like, "The Son of Man can do nothing of His own accord, but only what He sees the Father doing." Jesus embraced His role, obeying the Father, without His value as God being lessened. The same is true in the relationship between men and women. Each has equal value, yet each is called to embrace their unique God-given role. The distinctions between male and female roles in the home and in the church are noble because they reflect the beauty of God's purpose and order. Do you want to be like Jesus? Accept with joy the role you've been designed to fill."
My Comment
Nancy Leigh DeMoss Wolgemuth's teaching on an authority/submission structure within the Godhead and connecting that structure to the roles of men and women as based on teaching by Professor Wayne A. Grudem who has stated the following: "When did the idea of headship (authority) and submission begin? The idea of headship (authority) and submission never began. It has existed eternally in the relationship between the Father and the Son in the Trinity. It exists in the eternal nature of God Himself. And in this most basic of all relationships authority is not based on gifts or ability. Father, Son and Holy Spirit are equal in all attributes and perfections, but authority is just there. Authority belongs to the Father, not because He is wiser or a more skillful leader; but just because He is Father. Authority and submission is the fundamental difference between the persons of the Trinity."
My Comment
Please understand that the above statement by Professor Wayne A. Grudem is a more recent teaching that has been developed by Presbyterian Pastor George W. Knight III in the 1970's which is unbiblical and not in line with the teaching of the Church throughout the centuries on the Trinity.
Nancy's teaching that God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit teach us something important about the difference between men and women, is based on Professor Wayne A. Grudem's teaching and is, therefore, unbiblical. Within the Trinity, there is co-equality in being but, likewise, there is co-equality in function even though there are different functions for each one of the Godhead. However, Jesus is Divine and He is human and in His humanity, He obeyed/submitted to God the Father.
As for men and women, we find God's design for men and women in Genesis 1:26-28. From that passage we learn that God told both the man and the woman to rule over creation together. And in Genesis 2:18 we learn that God made the woman specifically as an equal partner or "ezer kenegdo" for the man to work together with him. At the time of the Fall, things changed in that the man began to rule over the woman as we know from Genesis 3:16d. However, in Christ, that has been reversed through His death on the Cross as we know from Galatians 3:13. Therefore, in the church, male and female believers, submit to each other as we know from Ephesians 5:21 by serving each other in accordance with their spiritual gifts as we know from 1 Corinthians 12:7. At home, as believers, they likewise, submit to each other as we know from Ephesians 5:21-22, serving each other just as Christ came to serve and not to be served as we know from Matthew 20:25-28.
P.S. In my next post I will continue this post by focusing more specifically on the roles of men and women as understood by Nancy Leigh Demoss Wolgemuth.
Read Part Eleven HERE
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