Quote:
Originally Posted by aron
But God's sovereign arrangement, circa 50 or 60 AD Palestine, was not once and for all. Slavery as an institution ended, and eventually women were recognized as having the same personhood as men. Except in certain churches, of course. There, it is still first-century Palestinian social arrangements.
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While I agree with your analysis, this idea that the ways of the time was "God's sovereign arrangement" is an overlay that we Christians feel the need to put on everything. Is it not sufficient to state that we are commanded to live peaceably within our environment and then note that the environment has not always been perfect? Why do we feel the need to justify the way things are as being ordained by God?
Unless we are saying that the fact that God ordained to remove his absolute control on a temporal basis is effectively God's ordination of how things are. That God restrains judgment is different from saying God ordains something.
Not saying that whether or not women should be allowed to have position is worthy of judgment. Just generally saying that God is clearly withholding judgment on evil in the world. Do we say that God is ordaining the evil? Or do we rather say that God uses our living within evil to work in us?
Just asking. This need for claiming God's ordination on everything is something that has been bothering me for some time.