7 Reasons Why We Are Biblical Egalitarians

1. Creation teaches mutuality  • Men and Women each created in the image of God  • “rib” vs. side/half  • Ezer- helper= Savior  • If you get creation wrong, you get it all wrong- Paul and etc.     2. Men ruling over women is a result of the fall and desecration of the world  • If Jesus’ death and resurrection reverses the effects of the “fall” it disproves complementarian roles    3. The idea of gender “roles” is not biblical. “Giftings” is a more biblical approach.   • The Spirit always gives gifts indiscriminately   • God doesn’t show partiality.     4. Authority (rulership) and hierarchy are antithetical to the Kingdom of God.   • Throughout the Bible we see many instances of God’s ideal that that no person have rulership over another, but rather that we rule mutually   • We obey God alone, we submit to each other out of reverence for Christ, our King  • When Paul used head in Col 3 and Eph 5 it’s talking about the thing on top of your shoulders and not authority. Preeminence.   • Considering marriage in 1 Cor 7 everything is applied mutually     5. 1 Tim 2 and 1 Cor 14 were dealing with specific issues, in a specific church, at a specific time. These passages do not prohibit women from speaking, teaching, or leading today.   • These passages are descriptive and not prescriptive.   • The command in 1 Tim 2 is for the woman to learn (This is exciting for the women!)  • Women being commanded to be silent in 1 Cor 14 must be reconciled with all the other instances of women praying and prophesying in 1 Cor 11, 12, and 14 in the same letter.   6. The Bible teaches a priesthood of all believers (not just men)   • Adam and Eve were the original priesthood  • 1 Tim 3 and Titus 2 use neuter (masc/fem) pronouns when referring to the giftings and character of the elders and deacons. (11 he/his pronouns in the NIV and ESV that aren’t in the text)  • There’s lots of evidence of women leading and exercising their mutual priesthood in the Bible… Here’s a few:  o Mariam (led Israel with Moses)  o Deborah (Led as a judge)  o Huldah (Prophet who explained the law)  o Mary Magdalene (first to preach the resurrection)  o Percilla (discipler/teacher)  o Phoebe (deacon, house church leader, Roman’s letter carrier/reader) o Junia (apostle/church planter)  • Unity and mutuality … All are one in Christ!    7. Biblical Theology and the entire lens of scripture point to God’s ideal of mutuality  • We need to view the bible not as a flat text but as a narrative  • The Bible begins and ends with a picture that looks like Eden  • We see the early church in the Bible living out this ethic of the age to come in the present because it has broken in with the resurrection of Jesus