Read Part One HERE
In this post I will continue to discuss the subject of head covering since today there is a movement called the Head Covering Movement based on 1 Corinthians 11:5 and beyond
And every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonours her head - it is jut as though her head were shaved....
In this post I will share the viewpoint of well known deceased Reformed Minister R.C. Sproul Sr (1939 -2017 A.D.)
He was the founder of Ligonier Ministries and has written the following:
R.C. Sproul Sr: "Our actions must conform to the principles that God has established... Do you disregard the exterior aspects of religion, saying the heart is all that matters? If so, confess your pride before God today."
R.C. Sprould Sr: "Whenever we have a lesson from both the Scriptures and from nature, we are doubly bound to obey. We must also regognise that it is a rule rooted in nature, not custom."
R.C. Sproul Sr: "It is shameful for a woman to have her head shaved, then she must realise that is just as shameful for her to enter public worship with her head uncovered. We must not confuse Paul's use of hair as "nature's covering" and the covering he is exhorting women to wear in public worship."
R.C. Sproul Sr: "Nowhere does Paul give cultural reasons for his teaching, i.e. abusive practices of pagan society that place prostitutes with shorn heads in the temple. Paul points back to God's established order in nature. Whenever a teaching in Scripture refers to "creation ordinances", that teaching is binding for all cultures in all ages...."
R.C. Sproul Sr: "The "rules of decorum"... regarding the worship of God are established by God Himself not by the whims of culture. It is proper for a woman to have a asymbol of authority on her head... The necessity of the symbol remains fixed even as the authority of the man remains fixed." (From "Table Talk" Devotional Guide for June 17-24, 1996, pp 36-43 - quoted by Sanseri op.cit.pp.278f.)."
My Comment
R.C. Sproul Sr misunderstood that according to the creation order or according to "nature" a man is in authority over a woman. Consequently, according to him, a woman is to wear a covering as a symbol on her head to prove her submission. However, according to the creation order, the first man was the "head" or "source of life" for the first woman as we know from 1 Corinthians 11:3 and the man as well as the woman were given the task of ruling over creation according to Genesis 1:26-28 which is confirmed in Genesis 2:18 where we read that the woman was formed as the man's "ezer kenegdo" or equal partner. R.C. Sproul is simply repeating what theologians before him have taught on women, including what Roman Catholic Church Fathers such as Tertullian and St John Chrysostom, who brought into the Church pagan culture, have taught. He, thereby, continued to bring into the Church pagan culture.
Read Part Twelve HERE
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