<aside> 🖨️ Click for printable PDF version.
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I think the most important question here is how many people at Trinity I have tried to convince of my views. If I were truly divisive, you would expect me to be stirring it up. That's what divisive people do. You'd think I would be publicizing my book, my blog, my ministry, my new book deal. You'd think I would be sowing seeds by telling anyone who will listen all my disagreements with Ryan's preaching. Am I doing that? No. If there is division in our church now, it is largely because the elders stirred it up by bringing charges against me—charges that I maintain are utterly false.
On this page
This simply repeats the same examples I have already addressed in My full response to the charges of slander.
More repeat examples that I have already addressed.
The original context of this remark was an overtly feminist propaganda piece in the newspaper, Women hose down fireman cliche in rural Waikato, featuring Julia Bearsley. This piece was posted with wide approval in the TRBC Facebook group (you will need to be a member to view it):
If you judge by appearances, my views on this issue certainly seem "backward." Backward is another way of saying old. They are the views of our forefathers, not the views that have become accepted in the church since the rise of feminism in our culture.
I do not anticipate that you'll agree with these old views. What I do hope is that you will accept they are the historic position of the church—because this is easily proved. You can check , but I have also pasted three particularly relevant quotes below from famous Reformed theologians of the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries:
<aside> 💡 If you would like to inquire diligently into the reasons that the church always held this view until feminism came along, please see the article below. Although the context is bearing the sword, I believe that being a fireman is such a paradigmatically masculine job that it plainly falls under the same issue, as illustrated even in the modern word firefighter.
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Why a woman bearing the sword is an abomination to the Lord ⋆ Bnonn Tennant (the B is silent)
Now, I confess that my comment on Facebook was bad. I was trying not to be offensive, because I feared being divisive! I knew that because of the culture we live in, many congregants would be upset at how God himself describes women playing at being men (and vice versa) in Deuteronomy 22:5 and 1 Corinthians 11—i.e., as abominable and disgraceful. I wasn't sure how to broach the topic in a way that was gentle enough to gain an audience, but severe enough to convey the problem. I was also provoked that Bible-believers were celebrating something that I am conscience-bound to say God detests.
I think we can all agree that I did a poor job of initially broaching my concern, and I am sorry that I didn't state myself better. However, Matthew 18, applied to a public situation, did require me to say something.
<aside> ⁉️ It seems to me that the charge of division here amounts to saying that public disagreement, if it upsets someone, will not be tolerated—regardless of the theological giants you have in your corner. But this is exactly the unbiblical way of dealing with disagreement that brought homosexuality into the Western church. E.g., a well-liked guy in the church starts dating another guy, someone else raises a concern, and the pastors are horrified at how hurtful and divisive that person is!
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