Our purpose is to see what the entire Bible says, rather than staying in certain chapters or related scriptures like some Bible study groups, thinking that deviating from the topics discussed in these assigned scriptures is a distraction. The Bible is one in which one topic leads to another, as Isaiah said, “So the word of the LORD to them will be, “Order on order, order on order, Line on line, line on line, A little here, a little there,” …”(Isaiah 28:13) Here, we will use John 8:21-30 as an example to illustrate this point. From the assigned ten verses, we will be led step by step to the controversial, related topics of submission and clarifying its meaning. We start from the fact that the Bible is inspired by God. Although Paul said that “All Scripture is inspired by God …”(2 Timothy 3:16), the New Testament had not be chosen, such as the Book of Revelation has not yet been written, so He was talking about the Old Testament at that time, but Christians believe that both the Old and New Testaments are inspired by God, and that the one who established both the Old and New Testaments is the same God. Because the Bible is inspired by God, we believe that what God tells us through the Bible is consistent. When we believe this, we may see some things that we have not seen before. And because we know that the Bible is inspired by God, we see and practice not to discount the words of the Bible. Then we take these two as the premise as the starting point of the logic that we personally can accept. We will explain this in detail later.
Precisely because we do not discount the words of the Bible, we quote the words of the Bible in all our discussion whenever we can. The point we want to emphasize here is that we are asking a simple question about a narrative, that is, whether the Bible explicitly talks about it or has this concept. For the latter, we can use the Trinity as an example. The Bible does not use this term, but it definitely has this concept. If a narrative includes neither, we know that the narrative is subjective and the person said so has created a God who is not the God of the Bible.
Now let’s look at John 8:21-30, “Then He said again to them, “I go away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin; where I am going, you cannot come.” So the Jews were saying, “Surely He will not kill Himself, will He, since He says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?” And He was saying to them, “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.” So they were saying to Him, “Who are You?” Jesus said to them, “What have I been saying to you from the beginning? I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is true; and the things which I heard from Him, these I speak to the world.” They did not realize that He had been speaking to them about the Father. So Jesus said, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me. And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.” As He spoke these things, many came to believe in Him.”(John 8:21-30)
We have shared it before in “3. Where Jesus Christ belongs?” of “1120 Jesus’ teaching at the Feast of Booths and He belongs- John (7) 1-36” that we now know that Jesus is the incarnate Word, and He belongs in heaven. Those who are interested in this article can go to the website “https://a-christian-voice.com/” and click “Understanding of Spiritual Life.”
Here, it was once again stated at the beginning of these verse that it was impossible for the Jews at that time to know where Jesus would go. Of course, Jesus would not commit suicide. He was eventually nailed to the cross. On the cross, “…when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.”(John 19:30) God’s plan of salvation was completed. Here, and again emphasized, “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”(John 3:18)
Then it follows by saying clearly that Jesus is the Christ, as the verse is said, “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”(John 8:24) They still ask who you are, clearly not believing His words. We also see in these verses that it was the Father who sent Him, so we saw before that there was an order during this time of His incarnation, “…for if I do not go away, the Helper (Holy Spirit) will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.”(John 16:7) But before the creation of the world, there was no time. At that time, the Trinity of God was of equal dignity and glory, as the scripture says, “Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.”(John 17:5) They are connected by love, “…for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.”(John 17:24) Only the Father and the Son are mentioned here, and the Holy Spirit is not mentioned. However, in other scriptures, we see that although the Bible does not use the term Trinity, there is definitely the concept of Trinity of God that Christians believe in. In time, we see an order. In the absence of time, from what God tells us through the Bible is consistent, the Triune Gods are all connected with love and share the same honor and glory.
Jesus didn’t preach due to Himself since the verse says, “I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is true; and the things which I heard from Him, these I speak to the world.”(John 8:26) “I speak the things which I have seen with My Father; …”(John 8:38) We see that the Spirit of truth came to testify about Jesus (cf. John 15:26). That is, “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.”(John 16:13-14) Isn’t this the same line of descent? During the time of the incarnation, it ultimately came down to the teachings of God the Father and the Trinity had different roles in the plan of salvation.
This scripture tells us that He knew long ago that He would be crucified and lifted up, and He indeed “…always do the things that are pleasing to Him.”(John 8:29) Because “…I do exactly as the Father commanded Me. …”(John 14:31)
Because He spoke the truth, “…many came to believe in Him.”(John 8:30) We also see that not only about one hundred and twenty believed in Him as described in the first Pentecost after Jesus’ resurrection, “At this time Peter stood up in the midst of the brethren (a gathering of about one hundred and twenty persons was there together), and said.”(Acts 1:15) Please note that there were only brothers and no sisters in the meeting at that time, because this was the custom at the beginning. But later on, sisters joined in, because Paul said, “The women are to keep silent in the churches; for they are not permitted to speak, but are to subject themselves, just as the Law also says. If they desire to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is improper for a woman to speak in church.”(1 Corinthians 14:34-35) Here, it naturally leads us to the topic of obedience that we will discuss later.
Paul knew very clearly that in the New Testament era, there was no need to keep the literal law. From what God tells us through the Bible is consistent, the prohibition of women speaking only refers to the situation of the Corinthian church at that time, because the church in Corinth was in great chaos at that time (see 1 Corinthians). Paul said this to correct the situation at that time. He said it to the church in Corinth, and he said clearly that this was the command of the Lord. “If anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize that the things which I write to you are the Lord’s commandment.”(1 Corinthians 14:37) In 2 Corinthians, we see that this church repented. If you are interested, please read 2 Corinthians. I won’t go into details here.
We have noticed that there are deaconesses and prophetesses mentioned in the New Testament. As the scripture says, “I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea.”(Romans 16:1) and “…Now this man (Philip the evangelist) had four virgin daughters who were prophetesses.”(Acts 21:8-9) Please note that some of the preaches mentioned in the translation of 1 Corinthians in the Union Version are related to this word G4395, such as “Therefore, my brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy (G4395), and do not forbid to speak in tongues.”(1 Corinthians 14:39) and “So then tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe but to unbelievers; but prophecy (G4394) is for a sign, not to unbelievers but to those who believe.”(1 Corinthians 14:22) The word G4394 comes from G4395. Therefore, when you see the word ‘preaching’ in the Union Version, you must be careful to distinguish its meaning.
We see that there were sisters who taught in private in this verse, “and he (Apollos) began to speak out boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.”(Acts 18:26) There were also sisters who labored with Paul, “I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to live in harmony in the Lord. Indeed, true companion, I ask you also to help these women who have shared my struggle in the cause of the gospel, together with Clement also and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.”(Philippians 4:2-3)
However, we have noticed that the twelve disciples are all men, and there is no mention of female elders or overseers in the New Testament. Is it true that the era of New Testament does not allow women to preach? In other words, is Paul’s statement “The women …are not permitted to speak, …”(1 Corinthians 14:34) universally applicable? If this is the case, it is really unfair between men and women in Christianity! No, men and women have different roles from the beginning of creation.
We have already shared that Paul said this just because of the chaos in the Corinthian church at that time, otherwise it would be inconsistent with what God tells us through the Bible is consistent. The reason is simple. We know, “for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”(Romans 10:10) Let us take a look at another verse, “(Our Savior)
who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”(1 Timothy 2:4) Then the verse in the same book, “…the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers.”(1 Timothy 4:10) Are there any differences between men and women regarding salvation mentioned in these verses? No.
But from the beginning of creation, the roles of men and women have been different. “Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.””(Genesis 2:18) We cannot change this fact, that is, “For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve. And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.”(1 Timothy 2:13-14) “For as through the one man’s (Adam’s) disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One (Jesus) the many will be made righteous.”(Romans 5:19)
In “1. Definition of sin” of “1096 Yu Hongjie’s Discipleship of Newcomers – Unbiblical Places (1)”, we proved that the definition of sin according to the Bible is disobedience to God. Because the proof is very long, I will not repeat it here. Please go to the website “https://a-christian-voice.com/“, click “Understanding of Spiritual Life” to find this article. Thank you.
Therefore, obedience is very important. The Book of Hebrews says, “For we do not have a high priest (Jesus) who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.”(Hebrews 4:15) He was “…once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.”(Hebrews 9:26) How could He put away sin by not sinning? It is to obey God. On this point, the scriptures are very clear, “…I do exactly as the Father commanded Me. …”(John 14:31) When Paul said, “Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her.”(Ephesians 5:22-25) This is God’s will. From a human perspective, the requirements for husbands in the New Testament are greater than the requirements for wives to submit to their husbands. However, from God’s perspective, the husband is the head of the family and must sacrifice himself for his wife. It should be natural for him to do so just as Jesus Christ does for the church by give up His life.
Let us take another verse, “But every woman who has her head uncovered while praying or prophesying (G4395) disgraces her head, for she is one and the same as the woman whose head is shaved.”(1 Corinthians 11:5) Therefore, for some people, it is necessary to keep the law of wearing a hat as a covering. If you dig deeper, you will find that this custom did not exist in the early church and was developed later. In fact, even if one wears a hat but doesn’t really obey in your heart, is it useful? That person can only wear a hat on the surface to show people that she is pursuing. If you think about it, God has already prepared head coverings for the sisters. Doesn’t the scripture say this? “… if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her? For her hair is given to her for a covering.”(1 Corinthians 11:15)
If both husband and wife are in Christ, it will lead to the inevitable result, “…be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.”(Ephesians 5:21). And this obedience must be under this principle, as Peter and John said, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you (men) rather than to God, you be the judge.”(Acts 4:19) So when Paul said, “A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. But I do not allow a woman to teach (G1321) or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet.”(1 Timothy 2:11-12). It is clear that this is only his personal opinion, and it is no longer the command of the Lord as he told the church in Corinth (see 1 Corinthians 14:37). We must distinguish between the two. There is a difference between the two, because Paul is not God. After he received the revelation, he still made mistakes because he did not completely put to death his old self.
The meaning of the word G1321 can be seen from this verse, “But when it was now the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and began to teach (G1321).”(John 7:14) This word G1321 refers to public teaching. There are no examples in the New Testament of women teaching in public without being criticized, but there is only one God in the Old and New Testaments, so the principle will not change. We can look at this issue from what God tells us through the Bible is consistent.
In the Old Testament, “Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time.”(Judges 4:4) We cannot say that because she is a judge, she must have public teachings. We must see what the Bible says. First of all, we see that she did prophesy, “Now she sent and summoned Barak the son of Abinoam from Kedesh-naphtali, and said to him, “Behold, the LORD, the God of Israel, has commanded, ‘Go and march to Mount Tabor, and take with you ten thousand men from the sons of Naphtali and from the sons of Zebulun. I will draw out to you Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his many troops to the river Kishon, and I will give him into your hand.’”(Judges 4:6-7) This prophecy was also fulfilled, “Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali together to Kedesh, and ten thousand men went up with him; Deborah also went up with him.”(Judges 4:10) Please refer to Judges 4:1-24 to see what happened. What we want to emphasize here is that Deborah did have public teaching, because “Then Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam sang on that day…”(Judges 5:1) This song is public teaching which is sung to the crowd, so women can do public teaching today because what God tells us through the Bible is consistent.
Finally, let’s mention that Paul also made mistakes. Let’s look at an incident about Paul in the Book of Acts, “It happened that as we were going to the place of prayer, a slave-girl having a spirit of divination met us, who was bringing her masters much profit by fortune-telling. Following after Paul and us, she kept crying out, saying, “These men are bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.” She continued doing this for many days. But Paul was greatly annoyed, and turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!” And it came out at that very moment.”(Acts 16:16-18) We see that “…Paul was greatly annoyed …” first, but even so, the Trinity God listened to his words, and he paid the price for it, because “The crowd rose up together against them, and the chief magistrates tore their robes off them and proceeded to order them to be beaten with rods. When they had struck them with many blows, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to guard them securely; and he, having received such a command, threw them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.”(Acts 16:22-24) But we should note that “But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.”(Acts 16:25) What happened next saw that this mistake fulfilled God’s will, “And he (jailer) took them that very hour of the night and washed their wounds, and immediately he was baptized, he and all his household.”(Acts 16:33) God often accomplishes His will through human mistakes, as was the case with Jesus’ crucifixion. But we notice that such a thing as the slave girl never happened again, because Paul learned not to speak casually in the name of Jesus and controlled his tongue.
We said at the beginning that our purpose is to see what the entire Bible says, rather than staying in certain chapters or related scriptures like some Bible study groups and thinking that deviating from the topics discussed in these scriptures is a distraction. The Bible is such that one topic will lead to another topic, just as it takes us step by step from this initial scriptures to controversial obedient topics and clarify their meanings. So we basically won’t stop until we finish sharing the topics brought up, especially when we see controversial topics from a human subjective perspective. We must look at what the Bible says from a biblical perspective. It means starting from the fact that the Bible is inspired by God, believing that what God tells us through the Bible is consistent, and not discounting the words of the Bible, and then taking these two as the premise as the beginning of a logic that we can personally accept.
If you do this, it will be possible not to forcefully interpret the Bible. When a person forcefully interprets the Bible, you can easily point out where the logic he uses violates the Bible. If you can refrain from interpreting the Bible forcefully, others will not be able to point out where you violate the logic of the Bible. To give an example of the former, Martin Luther said there is only foreknowledge, while Calvin said there is only predestination. So far, some people are still arguing about which one is right. But both men were wrong on this point, because the Bible clearly says, “For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that His son is the eldest among many brothers. ’ (Romans 8:29) At this point, their knowledge at that time told them that only one of them could be right, that is, they clearly did not believe what the Bible said, because the Bible clearly stated that there was both foreknowledge and predestination. We discussed this issue in detail in “Only One Bible 2005”. You can find this article using the method mentioned before.
Simply put, when our current knowledge conflicts with what the Bible says, we should not rely on our own knowledge but believe the words of the Bible because the Bible is inspired by God. To give an example of this, the book of Job says, “God…suspended the earth in vain.” ’ (Job 26:7) At that time, people’s knowledge told them how this was possible, and it was wrong. But today’s spacecraft can see that the earth is really hanging in the void, so the words of the Bible are correct. It’s just that people at the time didn’t know it.
When it comes to personal logic, it is divided into two parts, namely personal axioms and logical mechanisms. We will explain what personal axioms are in a moment. This is similar to publishing a paper. The mechanism of logic is the same all over the world and is objective. Therefore, people far away can also review the article before publishing it. Otherwise, it would be impossible to publish the paper, so everyone’s logic The mechanism is the same.
Publishing a paper in a certain field has two parts, namely the axioms of that field plus the basic logic. The axioms in that field can be accepted by everyone in that field and considered to be facts. We use the term personal axioms in order to correspond to the logic used in publishing papers. The axioms are acceptable to everyone in that field, so the axioms are objective, not personal, and will not change. Personal axioms refer to what an individual sees and experiences, and therefore is a fact that the individual can accept, so this will change. For example, God can open our eyes at any time to see facts that we could not accept before and thought were not facts. This can be illustrated by the Lord opening the eyes of Elisha’s servant, “Elisha prayed, “Lord, please open the eyes of this young man (servant) so that he can see.” The Lord opened his eyes, and he And he saw a mountain full of chariots of fire and horses of fire surrounding Elisha. ” (2 Kings 6:17) This servant’s original personal righteousness was that there was no mountain full of chariots and horses of fire surrounding Elisha. Now there is, so his current personal righteousness is the original old personal righteousness plus This article means that his current personal axioms are updated from the original personal axioms. Therefore, personal axioms will change over time, which is different from those that do not change and are called axioms. In other words, we just borrowed the word axiom. I hope everyone can see this analogy and understand more clearly what personal axiom means!
It might be clearer if we look at the last question! We would reasonably ask, if this is the case, then a mentally abnormal person’s mind will change at any time, and may even have contradictory phenomena at different times, and his logical mechanism is the same as ours. How could this be the case? How to explain this phenomenon? In fact, it is very simple. This is his personal axiom that will change over time. What a mentally abnormal person sees at one point in time may be inconsistent with what he sees at another point in time. Therefore, although his logical mechanism remains unchanged, his decisions may therefore be contradictory. In fact, logical mechanisms come from God, and the Bible also clearly states this. We will discuss this in detail later and point out the corresponding scriptures.
(Verses refer to those in NASB95 unless otherwise specified.)
(You can get all articles in “https://a-christian-voice.com/” under “On spiritual understanding about life.”)
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