 
WOMEN IN THE CHURCH (A Review)
Dr. Everett Ferguson has produced an excellent study on the role of women in
the Lord's church. This slim book of 80 pages is the best I have encountered
on the subject. It is a more than adequate response to the three volumes
recently produced by change agents advocating that women be given a place in
the public leadership of the church. Bro. Ferguson comes to his task with
outstanding educational credentials and a lifetime of scholarly research,
teaching and writing. Those of the opposite view cannot scorn him as an
unsophisticated writer lacking the scholarly ability to discuss the issue.
His book covers the full spectrum of the subject of women's role in the
church. He opens his discussion with a review of the several roles women
filled in apostolic times, showing that none of them establish that women
preached in the general assemblies of the church.
He then gives us excellent exegetical studies of the
passages that most directly deal with the subject.
* From I Cor. 14:27-40 he shows in a clear, concise way that Paul did forbid
women to serve as public teachers in the assemblies.
* In analyzing I Cor. 11:2-16 he identifies the permanent principles of
divinely ordained male leadership and throw helpful light on the cultural
factors expressed by the head-covering for women.
* His interpretation of I Tim. 2:1-15 point's out Paul's instructions that
men lead the church in public prayer and that women are forbidden to each or
have authority over men in the same setting.
* From Gal. 3:28 he shows that although men and women are equal recipients
of salvation and a place in God's church, the Lord has given them different
functions or assignments.
He then answers the claims of those who think they have
found a biblical basis for women preaching in the church.
The second chapter of his book looks at the evidence from Early Christian
History. He surveys the cultural and social history of Jewish, Greek and
Roman society, noting the roles filled by women. He notes that the few
examples of women preachers are not found among the broader stream of the
early churches, but principally among the Montanists and other heretical
sects. The overwhelming majority of the churches limited the public teaching
and preaching to men.
The author devotes his third chapter to Doctrinal Considerations. In this he
considers the doctrinal instruction regarding men and women in the context of
the New Testament. He notes that the divine assignments of men and women are
based not on culture but on the nature of God and the order of creation.
He establishes that even though all are equal in Christ, be they male or
female, Jew or Greek, bond or free, that equality does not abolish the
differences inherent to all. In Christ, a slave was still a slave, a Jew was
still a Jew and a woman was still a woman. The limitations imposed by God on
women stills stand for those in Christ.
He closes with the lines of an ancient Christian author.
"Heresies increased greatly because those who received them were unwilling to
learn the mind of the apostles, but followed on their own desires, doing what
pleased them and not what was right" (Apostolic Tradition, 43:3).
In only one point did I find myself in disagreement with the author and that
in a matter he expressed as his opinion. As pressures mount to open the
church's leadership to women, every preacher and elder needs to read this book
for the information and ammunition it provides. This book may be ordered
from Yeoman Press, 110 Meadowdale Dr. Chickasha, OK 73018.
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