Journeying Into Theology - Pt. 2

I have been learning a lot after settling at Harvest but there were a few things that came up these past two years that have made me think a bit more. (Read Part 1 HERE)

Women In Ministry
I had heard about Harvest's views on this subject even before entering university, and I remember attending Party with the Pastors and asking the head pastor about his thoughts on it. Pulling up the notes I wrote down, here are a few of the things he said. He brought up 1 Timothy 2:8-15 which is the passage that is often used to support the view of not having women in ministry. He said that he saw women serving in ministry as wrong, but not as bad. A comment he made that took me off guard was that he thought that those who have women as pastors have a weak understanding of scripture.

Coming from a church where women were pastors, I immediately thought "does that mean my home church has a weak understanding of scripture?" and I suddenly became a messenger, relaying the pastor's response back to my pastors at home. They countered the argument with Galatians 3:28 which says that there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for we are all one in Christ Jesus. From my understanding, they were saying that we are all equal in Christ. One thing my pastor at home said that struck me was when she challenged me, asking that if a woman had believed that God had given her the gift of teaching, if we have any right to deny her because scripture said women should not teach.

The discussion went on, where both sides commented that the other party took their passage out of context, how it was not seen in a cultural context, etc... But one thing that I was convicted of and believe was that there are specific and distinct gender roles. I was not (and still am not) too sure what that implied and I knew I wanted to look into that.

One question that continues to linger in my mind is "why would God's Word lead two different groups of people to such drastic and opposing views? Why didn't he just make it clear? I'm sure he knew that this could potentially cause division... doesn't God want his people to be unified?" I didn't understand why God didn't just make things easier by being more explicit in his Word.

All in all, I think as of right now, I do think that both man and women have different gender roles, not that one is better than another but that they complement each other. Theologically, this falls under a complementarian view (gender distinctions are present, having different roles and functions in the society, the church and the household) compared to an egalitarian view (no biblical gender based restrictions, no gender distinctions). But at the same time, I think if a woman believed and was firm that she had been given the gift of teaching, we as limited humans are not in any position to deny what God has given them. God can do anything and everything he wants right?

More on complementation vs egalitarian views HERE.

Free Will vs. Predestination
This is another example of something i've wrestled with for a long time and it continues. Its quite a big topic so i'll try to be brief with it. I actually can't remember how it came up, but at Harvest, I do know they talk a lot about "the elect" and I remember listening to a sermon by John Piper on the doctrine of election.

The doctrine of election basically states that "God chooses before the foundation of the world who will be saved and rescued out of sin undeservingly and those who would not be." This basically tells us that God has predestined some of us to be saved. In a sense, this means that we do not have free will, that instead of us choosing to respond to Christ and receiving salvation, God actually wills and helps us to believe. There are many verses in scripture that point towards this view, from John 1:13 to Acts 13:48.

But for me, this pretty much goes against what i've learnt growing up. I had always learnt that God loves everyone, that everyone has the choice and the opportunity to accept and receive salvation. This view is basically the opposite of that. It was a struggle to grasp that the LORD Almighty only chose certain people to be saved and some not to. How was that fair?

I shared a few of these concerns and confusions with a pastor back at home and he encouraged me to continue to think it through, to read up more on it and ultimately to determine where I stand on it all. So I did just that, I read up on articles, listened to sermons, but in turn that overwhelmed me with different opinions which just threw me back to square one, what side do I take? I would then remember that God's Word is the fundamental truth so I took to scripture in an attempt to find my stance, but I didn't get very far as I wasn't confident in my own interpretation. So it was a cycle of reading up on opinions, getting overwhelmed, reading scripture and being unsure of my understanding of it.

I will say that the past year or two I have seen the idea of predestination come up in scripture here and there, an example being the hardening of the Pharaoh's heart in Exodus 9. The text tells us that the LORD hardened his heart. Does that mean that the Pharaoh was not elect, that there was nothing the Pharaoh could do to receive the grace of God? Another example was during a bible study on the book of Jude, where verse 4 talks about how there were "certain people whose condemnation was written about long ago", which implies predestination right?

With all these opposing views, I couldn't help but think if one was right and one was wrong. They may just be two different interpretations of scripture, but I wondered if there would be one day where we would all stand before the LORD and hear him point to one group and say "you have interpreted scripture correctly" and "you did not"; not that it would affect one's salvation as the gospel is central and most important, but it shocks me to think that it could possible that one could have interpreted scripture incorrectly/inaccurately or not according to how God intended their entire life...?

I will honestly say that a lot of these topics shook my faith drastically, I almost felt like I didn't know what I believed any more, I questioned everything, and I had no idea what was "right" or where to stand. The bible didn't have some check-the-back-of-the-book-answers for me to refer to, so nothing seemed concrete and definite.

On top of that, I also felt that a lot of what I learnt in Guelph "opposed" what I learnt back at home, and so in my mind, I saw it as two sides battling head to head and I was in the middle of it all.

Sitting down with one of the pastors at home, I let it all out, explaining to her how I felt, and the situation I was in. She shared something that really helped me put on a new lens to see my situation through. First being that we are all under The Church of God. We were all a part of the body of Christ. You may have noticed that my language earlier made it seem like a fight or a battle, using words like "each side", "argued", and "countered". She helped me realize that it was wrong for me to see it as A vs B, because we all belonged the the LORD. Yes there were different views, but at the end of the day, what is important is our belief and agreement on the gospel, the centrality of our faith. One LORD, one hope, one baptism, one Spirit, one body. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. All else is secondary to this and is not worth dying on a hill for.

Being where I am now, still wrestling with these ideas and doctrines, I am thankful for this challenge even though it is tough. I'm grateful that I was able to move away from home for university because it allowed me to expose myself to different churches, different views and it pushed me to think more for myself. I think that if I had stayed in town, I could have easily remained in a position where critical thinking would have been lacking, and everything would have been taken and internalized as it is. I believe these things are good to ponder on, to discuss, and to learn about, but it is also important to not let these things take over or cause any potential division.

At the end of the day, I'm reminded that we cannot possibly know everything, and that we are so limited as humans. As John Piper mentioned in his sermon on the doctrine of election, that some things are just not good for us to know which is why certain things have been concealed by God. Piper compared it to when we teach children about table manners; it may not make sense as to why we keep our elbows off the table or why we chew with our mouths closed at first, but there is a good reason behind it. Perhaps we are not know how this doctrine is good for us right now, in this lifetime. Let us have faith that this doctrine comes from a good God!