Position of the Providence Church Elders:
Male Headship
The Created Order
The Bible is not an egalitarian document. It describes levels of
authority, responsibility, and privilege within society, government,
and families. There are those who speak and act for whole households
(Ex 12:3-4), nations (1 Chron 21-7-17) and even entire races (Rom
5:12-21 and 1 Cor 15:22). There are responsibilities within the Triune
Godhead, and sins against one person of the Trinity are treated
differently from sins against another (Matt 12:32 and John 5:30).
All order flows from the Trinity, and God established order in the
universe as a work of the Trinity. This order extended to the
relationship between Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and through
Adam’s federal headship to everyone born after them. God created Adam
first and treated him as the head of his family from the beginning.
In Genesis 2 God took dust out of the ground and formed man, breathing
life into him (Gen 2:7). He then established a covenant with Adam,
promising Adam life if he obeyed and death if he disobeyed (Gen
2:16-17). After making this covenant, the Triune God declared that it
was not good that Adam should be alone, and He created Eve from the
body of Adam. This woman was to be Adam’s helper, one who completed
Adam (Gen 2:18-24).
The Bible does not record Eve receiving the command of God, yet she is
considered a member of the covenant with Adam. She sinned but Adam was
held responsible, and God came to him first (Gen 3:9). God then casts
them out of the Garden, referencing Adam (not Adam and Eve) in Gen
3:23-24 -- “therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden
to till the ground from which he was taken. So He drove out the man;
and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming
sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.”
As a consequence of the fall, the relationship between the first man
and woman was distorted. In Genesis 3:16 God declares that Eve’s desire
will be for her husband and that he will rule over her. Wayne Grudem,
in his Systematic Theology, states that the word “desire” means that
“Eve would have a wrongful desire to usurp authority over her
husband.” It is the same word used in Gen 4:7 where sin is said to
“desire” Cain. Also, Adam’s relationship with Eve would devolve from
loving headship into an iron-fisted rule. Both of these distortions are
curses from God as a result of sin. They are deviations from the
original, created order of Adam’s loving, covenantal headship of his
wife and Eve’s loving, covenantal submission to her husband, both in
imitation of the loving, covenantal bond of the members of the Trinity.
Thus, throughout biblical revelation the original pattern of headship
and submission is held up as the normative standard for godly
husband-wife relationships. The Bible shows a pattern of godly
submission in the home (Num 30; Deut 22:13ff; 1 Cor 7:32-40).
Daughters are under the headship of their fathers until they marry.
When they do marry, their submission is transferred to a husband. This
process provides protection for women and is not a draconian, slavish
relationship, where the father or husband crushes his daughter or wife.
God commands that husbands love their wives and, as opposed to lording
their headship over her in a selfish manner, they are to give
themselves for their wives even as Christ gave Himself for the Church
(Eph 5:25-33). Husbands fall into grievous sin when they neglect,
dominate, or abuse their wives.
This creation order was not abrogated with the death and resurrection
of Jesus Christ. Jesus crushed the work Satan started in the Garden (1
John 3:8); however, the godly submission of a wife was not a
consequence of the fall. The apostles emphasized and defined these
roles further.
Paul writes to the Church at Colosse, “Wives, submit to your own
husbands, as is fitting in the Lord” (3:18). And again in Ephesians
5:22-24 Paul writes, “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the
Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of
the church; and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the
church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands
in everything.” Notice that the basis for this submission is that it
is “fitting in the Lord” and the motivation is to submit “as to the
Lord.” While the model situation is one of a godly husband
sacrificially loving his wife as Christ loves the Church, Peter also
tells the Church that wives are to be submissive to their husbands even
when the husbands are not believers (1 Pet 3:1,2).
Male Headship Within the Church
The teaching of some that there are no role distinctions within the
church is dubious at best and egalitarian wishful thinking at worst.
When Paul addressed his spiritual son, Timothy, he told him, “Let a
woman learn in silence with all submission. And I do not permit a woman
to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence” (1 Tim
2:11-12). This instruction applies not only to wives with respect to
their husbands but in context it points to order and discipline within
the life of believers and the church. Paul made the same point to the
Corinthian church.
The church at Corinth was experiencing massive problems with disorder
and a lack of mutual submission. John Calvin quoted a proverb, “Evil
manners beget good laws.” The evil behavior of the Corinthians
required Paul to send them instruction about church life. Part of that
instruction went to the women of the church, who were rebelling in
their new found liberty. In 1 Cor 11:3-16 Paul addresses the “evil
manners” with regulations. He starts in verse 3 saying, “But I want
you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is
man, and the head of Christ is God.” Paul appeals not only to the
Trinity but also to the created order in his admonishment.
Women are gifted by God to exercise all the spiritual gifts recorded
for us in places like 1 Corinthians 12:28-29 (teaching, helps and
administration are still operative today). The issue is not whether
women are capable; rather, the Bible’s teaching shows us all things
must be done decently and in good order. One way that good order is
preserved in the church is by women and men aligning their conduct with
the roles and responsibilities delineated in Scripture.
The place of authority in the Church is the pulpit. From the pulpit
God speaks as his under-shepherds faithfully expound His Word. It is
in the elders’ formal ministry of the Word that God orders His church.
The office of elder, according to the New Testament, is reserved for
men, a pattern which demonstrates the overarching principle of male
headship.
Providence Church will endeavor to put practical legs to the principles
laid out in this teaching. Only qualified men will hold the position of
elder (1 Timothy 3:1ff; Titus 1:6ff.). Women will not hold formal
teaching positions over men in the church. Married women will conduct
themselves in the church as under the headship of their husbands, while
single women will conduct themselves under the headship of their father
or the elders, if she is outside her father’s home.
Practical Applications
Men are called to servant leadership of their wives. They are to lead
their families in regular devotion to God through family worship.
Men are to provide for their families’ material needs under the
providence of God. Young men are to leave their mother and father and
take a wife. “Leaving and taking” here indicates the financial
wherewithal to accomplish both tasks.
Worship at Providence Community Church will reflect this truth by
expecting the heads of households to lead their families in worship by
preparing and ordering family members for worship, teaching family
members concerning the worship and the ministry of God’s Word, and
distributing the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper to baptized family
members.
The biblical pattern is for women to remain under the headship of their
fathers until they marry and transfer that submission to their
husband. Weddings performed by elders at Providence Community Church
will reflect this truth of Scripture whenever possible.
Affirmations and Denials
We affirm that both men and women are created in the image of God, which can not be extinguished.
We affirm that women are to be under authority as the normal biblical pattern.
We affirm that any authority man has been given over wives or daughters
is derived from the headship of Jesus Christ and extends only as far as
the Word of God merits.
We affirm that headship is founded in love for one’s wife or daughter,
and men are sinning when lording over their wives or daughters for
their own convenience, selfish desire, or pride.
We affirm that women are a great help to men and other women alike
through their informal conversations, counsel, and comments, both in
informal situations and during Bible studies, and as they use their
spiritual gifts for the edification of the body.
We affirm that men called to the position of elder are given a place of
headship in the church and are invested with authority only by God’s
Word.
We deny that submission necessitates inferiority. Within the Trinity,
the Son submits to the Father, while the Spirit submits to the Father
and Son, and all the members of the Godhead are one in substance,
glory, perfection, and deity.
We deny that women are to submit to men in general. Outside the
biblical commands for all Christians to submit to one another, to
authorities in the church and the state, women are under no obligation
to submit other men.
We deny that passages such as Galatians 3:28, which affirm the unity of
the body of Christ and the equal access all have to justification by
faith, teach an egalitarian philosophy on role distinctions in the
church.
We deny that men may arrogate to themselves any authority, and that the
only authority possessed by men is from God and His Word.