Quote:
Originally Posted by Evangelical
I think it's funny how everyone is arguing for a prescriptive reading of the bible when we discuss the matter of the church in the city, but on the matter of females in the church all of the descriptive examples come out.
The verse about Deborah is descriptive and it is unclear whether that Old Testament example can be overlayed onto the New Testament church. I say not, because Paul's commands regarding women are prescriptive commands, and using the prescriptive versus descriptive rules that people on this forum seem to like, Paul's New Testament commands take precedence over any descriptive examples you could come up with from the Old Testament.
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The reason is that when you look at this one example, you find reasons for restraint on women leading. A culture of domination by women apparently infiltrating the church.
Paul's goal was not domination by men, but the end of domination. Yet in that environment, leadership by women lead to domination by women.
But in other places it was not so. So the examples stand unhindered by the declaration to Timothy. The examples make it clear that there is not a simple prescriptive position. Rather there was a prescription provided for a location that was sick because of a problem that needed help.
Even with prescriptions, they are not always required by everyone. Only the sick. But no matter whether the prescription is universal (more like a vaccine) or case-specific, it is prescribed. But what is never prescribed cannot be turned into a universally-required prescription. Therefore your complaint about dismissing the claim of a city-church rule is pointless since you cannot find such a prescription. That means no basis to claim bias no matter what you think about how to treat this other apparent prescription.