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A Biblical View of Gender and Why it Matters
LGBT and gender issues continue to be on the cultural forefront. Each day the headlines bring us arguments for gender-neutral bathrooms, news about transgender athletes, or a doctor who loses his job because he holds to a biblical view of gender. The biblical view of gender is antiquated according to some, labeled as outdated, non-essential, and a relic of a bygone patriarchal era. In a secular worldview, gender has no value and the differences must be minimized. Despite obvious physical differences between men and women, these distinctions are minimized or ignored. According to the secular worldview, if someone wants to behave with masculine or feminine gender characteristics that is their choice. For many today, gender is a social construct and not related to anything inherent in either sex. Sadly, many churches are embracing a secular worldview and rejecting the biblical view of gender. It is rather common for Christians to…
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She will be Saved through Childbearing – 1 Tim 2:15
One of the most perplexing verses in the New Testament is 1 Timothy 2:15, “Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control” (ESV). Although this is a difficult text to understand, the application of this text is important for our understanding of the roles of men and women. There are a variety of questions that arise from this text about the nature of salvation and even how childbearing fits into the equation. We address the most important of these questions as follows. Who is the “she”? The immediate context of 1 Tim 2:11-12 demonstrates Paul is speaking about the role of women in general. Women are to “learn quietly,” and to refrain from teaching or exercising authority over men. As support for this command, Paul refers to the history of Adam and Eve. As part of the argument, Paul notes Eve’s…