Present But Not Accounted For

June 25, 2023 Leave a comment

The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus– who did the evangelists turn to for their record of these events? They relied on the testimony of several women – supporters and disciples – who had been with Jesus from the earliest days of his Galilean ministry and followed him to Jerusalem. The women were authoritative apostolic witnesses of these events in the early Christian community. Their telling and retelling of these events shaped the Gospel tradition.

The four gospel accounts variously record the women’s eyewitness testimony of the exceptional events in spite of what is alleged about a first century woman’s testimony not considered credible in a court run by men.

The gospel writers, as did other ancient historiographers, set great store in the role of eyewitnesses.[1] First-hand accounts of what was seen and heard and its interpretation were the most reliable. As a matter of record and for a connection to the sources, the identities of the women who witnessed the events of the Passion and resurrection are clearly identified by the gospel writers (see Women as Eyewitnesses below). The women were present and accounted for in the gospels.

The-Three-Marys-Henry Ossawa Tanner

Across the four gospel accounts, two or three women are noted to be at the cross, at the burial and at the empty tomb. This would fulfill Torah’s requirement (Deut. 19:15) for two or three witnesses for evidence to be substantiated.

We can be thankful that the women’s eyewitness testimonies, even if rejected by a first century court of men, provides for us today the historical reality of the extraordinary events. Those who have not seen the risen Lord are dependent on those who have such as Mary Magdalene, an apostle to the apostles, who said “I have seen the Lord!”

The women’s testimony, even if rejected by men, certainly didn’t preclude women in the community from accepting it. The women’s firsthand account of the events spread throughout the Christian community, where as many women as men, and likely more, were drawn to early Christianity. And where the role of the women as benefactors and disciples of Jesus was already well-known.[2] That a woman was commissioned by Jesus to be his “go and tell” witness – this was no surprise. The resurrection was the “Do you know what this means!” surprise.

For the women involved, it wasn’t a matter of passive observation. It involved active understanding, as Richard Bauckham, in Gospel Women: Studies of the Named Women in the Gospels writes [3]:

“It would be a mistake to envisage the women’s role of eyewitnesses as a passive one. As participants in events that radically changed their own lives, the women, in telling and retelling the stories of the events of the passion and resurrection, were also interpreting the significance of the events.”

It would also be a mistake to assume that what the women were relating had to reinterpreted and retold by men.

Again, Richard Bauckham[4] :

“I conclude that there is no evidence to suggest that the role of women in the resurrection stories has been depreciated or limited in the Gospel narratives of Matthew, Luke, and John. Where male prejudice against the credibility is explicitly evoked (Luke 24:11), this is so that it may be decisively overturned.

“Where readers may bring such prejudice to the texts, even though the texts give no pretext for doing so, again the effect of the narratives will be to refute and to reverse assumptions of male priority and female unreliability.

“. . . it suggests that within the Christian communities themselves the role of women as witnesses was highly respected. There seems to be no evidence that it became less so over time. It is one of a variety of striking aspects of early Christianity that belong to the countercultural nature of the Christian communities as societies in which God’s eschatological overturning of social privilege was taken very seriously.” (Emphasis mine.)

Present but not accounted for: women, apostolic traditioners and eyewitness guarantors of not only the Passion and resurrection events but also of the incarnation, are not included in the kerygmatic summaries of Peter and Paul.

(Kerygmatic summaries can be thought of as basically sermon outlines open to improvisation and amplification from gospel tradition influences.)

Kerygmatic summaries in sermons (Acts 2:14-36, 3:12-36, 10:34-43, 13:16-41) and in Paul’s resurrection discussion (1 Cor. 15) do not mention the role of women. That they are not mentioned doesn’t disavow the women’s roles as apostolic traditioners and eyewitness guarantors of the gospel tradition. The sermons are an overview of the gospel story meant for a crowd not aware of it.

(Did Peter and Paul have concerns about mentioning the role of women to a patriarchal assembly? Where they concerned that their message would be rejected by male listeners? It’s a real possibility.)

What may be seen as a snub, though, is not being accounted for in Paul’s resurrection appearance list (1 Cor. 15:3-7).

Here ‘s Richard Bauckham’s take on that [5]:

“. . . we should notice that the women are not in fact, as so often assumed, absent from 1 Corinthians 15:3-7. Paul distinguishes between an appearance to the twelve and one to all the apostles, since, unlike Luke, he does not confine the term “apostle” to the twelve. At this appearance, he would have assumed that other apostles he knew, such as Barnabas, Sylvanus, and James the Lord’s brother, were present along with the twelve. Now that it is generally recognized that Paul knew and had a great respect for at least one woman apostle, Junia (Rom 16:7), we must certainly also conclude that he would have taken for granted that women were included in an appearance to “all the apostles.”

(The apostle Paul calls Andronicus and Junia (Rom 16:7) “apostles”, likely meaning that they had been present at a resurrection appearance of Jesus. The name Junia was probably the Latin name of Jesus’s disciple Joanna (Luke 8:3; 24:10).) Andronicus (Junia’s husband Chuza?) and Junia (Joanna), Palestinian Jews, were likely members of the Jerusalem church before going to Rome.

Present today but not accounted for: Women as apostolic traditioners and eyewitness guarantors of the gospel traditions in today’s sermons AND women of the same caliber and devotion to the Lord in our pulpits.

We need more women traditioners, like those who followed and supported Jesus from the earliest days of his Galilean ministry and then followed him to Jerusalem and to the cross, the burial, and the empty tomb. We need more women traditioners like those who sat at Jesus’s feet and were discipled by him: “[Martha’s] sister, Mary, sat at the Lord’s feet, listening to what he taught.” (Luke 10:39). But women today have been “roled” into submission with the weight of out of context scripture verses.

The apostle Paul, in 1 Timothy 2:14, alludes to women being deceived and about divine order needing to be observed. Does anyone think that the women supporters and disciples of Jesus were deceived and out of order? Does anyone think that women were deceived in the tomb garden as Eve had been deceived in Eden’s Garden? What I see in scripture is a reversal of status – from women easily deceived to women rightfully believed.

Paul wrote to Timothy alluding to the female only cult of Artemis (Diana) in Ephesus. The women of the cult had been deceived. The women of the cult subordinated men. Paul didn’t want that deception and disorder brought into the church community at Ephesus. Ephesus and the Diana cult were the context for “I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet.” (1 Tim. 2:12). Paul’s words to Timothy were of a parochial concern, intending to make Timothy be aware of what’s around him and how he could confront it.

Paul’s words to Timothy were not a universal injunction against women believing them to be unreliable in discerning what is true and good and thereby disqualified as an authoritative voice in the church. If Paul thought that, then the female apostolic traditioners and eyewitness guarantors of the birth, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus would also be suspect. That would fly in the face of reality.

Consider that throughout scripture we find that God used lowly salvation agents to bring about a reversal of status, not just for the agents e.g., Hannah and Mary, but also for Israel and the world. And, as mentioned, women – Mary and Elizabeth – were also apostolic traditioners and eyewitness guarantors of the incarnation. (Read Luke chapter 1 where events are related from a gynocentric perspective, rather than the typical androcentric perspective. Quite a pulpit!)

The narrative of women communicating the word of God is so clear in the New Testament. Women were present and accounted for in the Gospels, in the epistles and in extrabiblical sources. Today, women are being accounted for in a role, a designated role, a pre- “countercultural nature of the Christian communities as societies in which God’s eschatological overturning of social privilege was taken very seriously” role.

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[1] See Richard Bauckham’s Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony (William B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., Grand Rapids, MI, 2017) for the role of testimony in ancient historiography and in the gospels.

[2] See chapter 5, Joanna the Apostle, in Richard Bauckham’s Gospel Women: Studies of the Named Women in the Gospels (William B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., Grand Rapids, MI, 2002) for the background behind the financial support given Jesus by Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza (Luke 8:3) and for background of women in the first century being in possession of independent financial resources.

[3] Richard Bauckham, Gospel Women: Studies of the Named Women in the Gospels (William B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., Grand Rapids, MI, 2002) 302

[4] Ibid, 285-286

[5] Ibid, 310

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Why women should be church leaders and preachers // Ask NT Wright anything – YouTube

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The Biblical Basis for Women’s Service in the ChurchDownload

N.T. Wright on the Dangers of Neglecting the History of the New Testament by The Stetzer ChurchLeaders Podcast (soundcloud.com)

How Not to Read the Bible

How (Not) to Read the Bible: Making Sense of the Anti-women, Anti-scie – FaithGateway Store

How (Not) To Read the Bible (bibleproject.com)

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There are sermons and books on the roles for men and women. There are sermons and books about male-female hierarchy. There are sermons and books explaining gender roles in egalitarian or complementarian terms. “Roles!” “Roles!” “Roles!”  There are voices so contentious and acrimonious demanding “Roles” that schisms result. The apostle Paul would be a-Pauled!

Southern Baptists vote to expel two churches led by female pastors (nbcnews.com)

“Sarah Clatworthy, a member of Lifepoint Baptist Church in San Angelo, Texas, who has called on the SBC “to shut the door to feminism and liberalism,” said she supported the ban on female pastors.

“We should leave no room for our daughters and granddaughters in the generations ahead to have confusion on where the SBC stands,” she said. “Let them know Scripture is our authority and not the culture.”’

Southern Baptist Convention votes to uphold removal of Saddleback Church over women pastors after appeal by Rick Warren | CNN

The first century women were not feminists or liberals, though it would look that way to the legalists. They saw and reported what they had witnessed and learned. They were active in the “countercultural nature of the Christian communities as societies in which God’s eschatological nature overturning of social privilege was taken very seriously”.

Many think of Scripture and the church in androcentric terms. How could they not when they see men on a platform expounding, in male voices, what the scripture says. Have these interpreters rightly divided the word of God regarding men and women in the Kingdom of God? Have they wrongly divided men and women in the Kingdom of God into superficial roles?

I’ve read inferences and assumptions as to how things are to be: The Role of Women in the Church | Articles | Moody Church Media (moodymedia.org) and Dispensational Theology | Articles | Moody Church Media (moodymedia.org). The latter includes nonsense about a “rapture” occurring – a misinterpretation of scripture which leads one to doubt the former’s “Role of Women” interpretation.

And, I’ve read even-handed accounts:  Can Women be Pastors and Preachers? What the Bible Really Says (biblestudytools.com) and Complementarianism vs Egalitarianism – Do Christians Have Gender Roles Wrong? (crosswalk.com)

Remember Genesis 2? Adam (‘adam, a generic term meaning “human person”) was split in two and Eve was formed from one half of Adam. We read that this was done to form an equal partnership that would work to bring form and function to creation, a work God started and handed over to mankind. I find this partnership emphasis continued in the apostle Paul’s writing.

As I read Paul’s letters to the individual Christian communities, as I read his explanations and guidance of how to think and relate as new creations where they’re at, I hear his admonitions: “Get your act together! The world has its way of thinking! The world has its own form and function! But you are of different stock! Think and act like it! Work together for the sake of the gospel!”

The Spirit of God has been released into the world. The Spirit of God will go where it will. Did you really think that anyone could domesticate the Holy Spirit with theology and dispensationalism and policies of roles? Sure, those things tend to make one feel safe and secure, like you have a handle on things. But as we have seen with Jesus and now with the Holy Spirit, neither one “plays” by our rules.

Finally, note that Paul wrote to the Corinthian “brothers and sisters” that God gives His gifts as He determines (1 Cor. 12:1, 11). No further distinction is made regarding their allotment.

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Women as Eyewitnesses

In the gospel narratives of the Passion, burial and resurrection of Jesus, there are five named eyewitnesses and two unnamed but specified eyewitnesses: Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, Salome, Joanna, and Mary of Clopas, the mother of the sons of Zebedee, and the mother of Jesus. Each evangelist mentions the women significant to their readers.

These had active roles as eyewitnesses. You see, they were there in person at the cross, at the burial, and at the empty tomb, as we learn in Matthew’s gospel account:

“There were several women there [at the cross], watching from a distance. They had followed Jesus from Galilee, helping to look after his needs. They included Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.” (Matt 27: 55-56).

Mary Magdalene and the other Mary [the mother of James and Joseph] had watched the burial of Jesus. They had been sitting opposite the tomb (Matt. 27:61). They returned on the first day of the week to look at the tomb. (Matt: 28:1). There, they encounter an earthquake and an angel. They receive divine revelation: “He is not here; he has risen, just as he said.” (Matt. 28: 5-6). The women then receive a command to proclaim (“Go and tell”) the Lord’s resurrection to the disciples (Matt. 28: 7). As they start running to herald the news, they are suddenly met by Jesus who says “Hello!” and “Don’t be afraid” and “Go and tell my brothers that they should go to Galilee. Tell them they’ll see me there.”

The gospel of John, chapter 20, records that Mary Magdalene, after seeing the stone rolled away from the Jesus’ tomb, runs off to tell Peter and John, the one closest to Jesus, that the body was missing. Peter and John run to the tomb and check it out. Mary Magdalene must have shown them the way because she – not them – had watched the burial.

Back at the empty tomb, Mary begins crying as she looks inside. She then sees two angels who ask her why she is crying. Mary then turns and sees a figure standing nearby. She thinks it’s the gardener. The figure asks why she is crying. She explains and then Jesus reveals himself to her. Jesus then tells her “Go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I’m going up to my father and your father – to my God and your God.”

Mary Magdalene, an apostle to the apostles, went and told the disciples, “I’ve seen the Lord!” and that he said these things to her. Later, when the disciples see the Lord, they corporately say what Mary said: “We’ve seen the Lord!” Seeing is followed by belief.

Jesus told the group “God’s blessings on people who don’t see, and yet believe!”

Notice in the following synoptic gospel texts how “women” and seeing verbs are emphasized.

Matthew 27:55-56

Many women were there, watching from a distance. They had followed Jesus from Galilee to care for his needs. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.

Mark 15:40-41

 Some women were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joseph, and Salome.  In Galilee these women had followed him and cared for his needs. Many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem were also there.

Luke 23: 49

But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.

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Informed Dissent:

A Nurses’ POV on COVID and Healthcare (substack.com)

“Atrazine [a herbicide] is an endocrine disrupter, which is able both demasculinize (chemically castrate) and completely feminize adult male frogs as well as other aquatic life. It has been documented to affect murine (mouse) reproductive systems.

“. . . common foods which are endocrine disruptors can cause feminization in adult human males:

“. . . Secondary hypogonadism caused by the excessive intake of isoflavones in soy milk was diagnosed. In men, an excessive intake of isoflavones may cause feminization and secondary hypogonadism.”

Kennedy is right – Atrazine and Gender Fluidity (substack.com)

Dr. Ben Hu, Patient Zero? New FOIA Documents Released Reveal a ‘Smoking Gun’: COVID Was Created at Wuhan Lab, Escaped From ‘Gain of Function’ Research – And Was Financed by US Taxpayer Money! | The Gateway Pundit | by Paul Serran | 176

Here we go. Swedes are moving in the right direction:

Sweden adopts ‘100% fossil-free’ energy target, easing way for nuclear – EURACTIV.com

Even Sweden Doesn’t Want Migrants Anymore (foreignpolicy.com)

Oh, swell!

Convalescing Pope Francis Slips Right Back Into Old Habits: Meets With Socialists, Climate Alarmists – Globalist Pontiff Pushing Document in Favor of LGBTQ+ Acceptance by the Church | The Gateway Pundit | by Paul Serran | 176

Child trafficking:

Discord servers used in child abductions, crime rings, sextortion (nbcnews.com)

End Child Trafficking | Operation Underground Railroad (ourrescue.org)

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Why Weren’t We Allowed To Question The Covid Vaccines? – YouTube

A Mighty Host [Lyric Video] – YouTube

A Mighty Host — Brian Sauvé: For the New Christendom (briansauve.com)

Bryson Gray – Reclaim The Rainbow (w/ @JimmyLevy & Shemeka Michelle) [MUSIC VIDEO] – YouTube

Filed under Christianity, Culture, Gospel women, Gospels, women in ministry Tagged with , , ,

The Eyes Have It

April 15, 2022 Leave a comment

At the cross. At the burial. At the empty tomb. Three wait-and-see days. Three women.

The gospel according to Mark begins with the ushering in of “the good news of Jesus the Messiah, God’s son” (Mk. 1:1). Composed of short narratives that could be easily visualized by those who heard its reading, Mark’s terse and unembellished gospel clears a straight path so that the reader can see and perceive Jesus as the fulfillment of God’s promises (Mk. 1:3).

For example, Mark uses literary bracketing (inclusio) to focus in on that fulfillment. Two accounts of blind men receiving their sight bracket Jesus telling his disciples (three times) that he will be rejected, handed over to the authorities, killed and then rise from the dead after three days.  (Beginning Bracket: Mark 8:22-26; End Bracket:  Mark.10:46-52.)

Because of their own unwillingness to really really look at Jesus (cf. Mk.8:25) the disciples do not perceive Jesus as the fulfillment of God’s promises through death and resurrection.

At a mission critical point in the gospel account -Mark chapter 8 – Jesus reproaches his disciples for their lack of understanding. We learn from the brutally honest account that those closest to Jesus, each with two good eyes and two good ears, still did not grasp that the Messiah had to be crucified and then rise again. We hear that in Peter’s repudiation of that mission (Mk. 8:32).

Peter is Mark’s principal eyewitness source of what Jesus said and did and of the disciple’s reactions. But after the end of Mark chapter 14, where Peter’s denial is recorded, Peter and the male disciples are nowhere to be seen or heard from.

Three women are introduced into the passion narrative (Mk 15). They are the source for Mark’s passion account. They are eyewitnesses of what occurred at the cross, at the burial and at the empty tomb.

Earlier in the text, Mark wrote of the blind gaining sight, of those with two good eyes not seeing and not perceiving what was taking place. Mark now places emphasis on seeing that would lead to perceiving and, hopefully, to belief. He records the seeing of the women seven times:

Henry Ossawa Tanner

At the cross. Some of the women observed from a distance. They included Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of the younger James and of Joses, and Salome. They had followed Jesus in Galilee, and had attended to his needs. There were several other women, too, who had come up with him to Jerusalem. (Mk. 15: 40-41).

(Note that Mark added that these women had also been with Jesus for most of his ministry. He is telling us that they had observed Jesus from his early ministry to the empty tomb. These women likely heard Jesus teach his disciples new things: about him being handed over to be killed and his rising from the dead after three days. (Mk. 8:31-32; 9:31-32; 10:32-45)

At the burial. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses observed where he was buried. (Mk. 15:47)

At the empty tomb. After the Sabbath, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they could come and anoint Jesus …” who’s going to roll the stone away for us?”

Then, when they looked up, they observed that it had been rolled away. (It was extremely large.) (Mk. 16: 1-4)

So they went into the tomb, and there they saw a young man sitting on the right hand side. He was wearing white. They were totally astonished.

“Don’t be astonished,” he said to them. “You’re looking for Jesus of Nazarene, who was crucified. He has been raised! He isn’t here! Look – this is the place where they laid him.

“But go and tell his disciples – including Peter – that he is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there, just like he told you.” (Mk. 16:5-7)

The earliest manuscripts of Mark’s gospel account end at 16: 8:

They [the three women] went out, and fled from the tomb. Trembling and panic had seized them. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.

This is a curious ending for a gospel that begins with “the good news of Jesus the Messiah, God’s son”. Mark clearly wanted the readers to perceive Jesus as the Messiah, God’s son. He clearly wanted the reader to take in the crucifixion of the Messiah and his bodily resurrection. Why end good news with fear and trembling?

Mark’s gospel account may have had a longer ending. If the original manuscript was written on a scroll (likely), the edge of the scroll containing his ending may have deteriorated. This also happened to many dead sea scrolls.

Later copies of Mark contained appended text (Mk. 16: 9-20). This text may have been added by a scribe in the second century who was familiar with Luke’s gospel account. There are similarities. Mark’s promise of “the good news of Jesus the Messiah, God’s son” has been restored- fulfilled – with the added text. And so was Mark’s emphasis of those not perceiving what is taking place.

Mark’s narrative emphasis on hardness of heart leading to unbelief – rejecting what has been seen and heard by eyewitness accounts– is reinforced in the added text:

When Jesus was raised, early on the first day of the week, he appeared to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. She went and told the people who had been with him, who were mourning and weeping. When they heard that he was alive, and that he had been seen by her, they didn’t believe it.

After this he appeared in a different guise to two of them as they were walking into the countryside. They came back and told the others, but they didn’t believe them.

Later Jesus appeared to the eleven themselves, as they were at table. He told them off for their hardness of heart, for not believing those who had seen him after he had been raised. (Mk. 16: 9-14)

At the cross. At the burial. At the empty tomb. Three wait-and-see days. Three women seeing seven times. Eleven hard-hearted disciples. And you? You still don’t get it? (cf. Mk.8:21)

All God’s promises, you see, find their yes in him: and that’s why we say the yes, the “Amen,” through him when we pray to God and give him glory (2 Cor. 1:20)

The eyes have it. Amen.

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“Nowhere in early Christian literature do we find traditions attributed to the community as their source or transmitter, only as the recipient. Against the general form-critical image of the early Christian movement as anonymous collectivity, we must stress that the New Testament writings are full of prominent named individuals . . . Compared with the prominence of named individuals in the New Testament itself, form criticism represented a rather strange depersonalization of early Christianity that still exercised an unconscious influence on New Testament scholars.”[i]

[i] Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony (William B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., Grand Rapids, MI), 2017), 297

Filed under Christianity, Easter, resurrection, The Gospel of Mark Tagged with , , , , , ,

Journeywomen and the Sons of Thunder

April 3, 2022 Leave a comment

Post spoiler: The world hasn’t ended and the gates of hell have not prevailed against the church.

In preparation for a move, I went online searching for an Anglican church in a different state. I came across an interesting web article:

Beth Moore is not the first Baptist to journey to the Anglican Church – Baptist News Global

The article drew me in with the transition mentioned in the title. The first paragraph offered more detail about the move:

. . . Beth Moore left the Southern Baptist Convention in 2021 and soon after was seen in a photo serving Communion at an Anglican church.

The article went on to disturb me as I read of the appalling way Christians treat other Christians. The author, Rick Pidcock, relates some of the ‘ex officio’ and corrosive reaction to Beth Moore prior to her leaving the SBC in 2021.

 At the Truth Matters Conference in 2019, which was a gathering to celebrate John MacArthur’s five decades of ministry, Todd Friel asked MacArthur to play a word association game with the two words “Beth Moore.” To which, MacArthur famously replied, “Go home.”

MacArthur’s henchman Phil Johnson added, “The word that comes to my mind is ‘narcissistic.’”

Then MacArthur jumped back in to say: “Just because you have the skill to sell jewelry on the TV sales channel doesn’t mean you should be preaching. … The church is caving in to women preachers. … Women are not allowed to preach.”

Dear God! A celebration of five decades in ministry and grown men on a stage mocking a woman in public? Is this how Christian men should treat a Christian woman and even when they think they possess all the Truth that Matters (and, apparently, none of the grace that matters)? I understand, though. Some men want to play Elijah.

One would think that after five decades Mr. Sola Scriptura would have learned that Christians were not given the Word of God for the purpose of belittling and calling down fiery scorn onto women of faith. The Word, its understanding by the spirit, and the fruits thereof are given to inform our love, our grace and our prayers for others along with our worldview.

It remains to be seen if John MacArthur and his henchmen are mature Christians. Was Beth Moore present to defend herself against the scorners? And, did those present smile and laugh in agreement? Will MacArthur speak to Beth Moore, confess what he did, and ask for forgiveness? It remains to be seen.

Women are not allowed to preach: MacArthur’s authoritarian intransigence reminds me of another insular authoritarian: Dr. Anthony Fauci. During the media’s COVID pandemic Fauci preached “the science” dogma. If you disagreed with “the science” you were declared a heretic, exiled from social media and from any and all discussion. Period. And like MacArthur, Fauci has a fan club to ensure that the doctrine-of-what-he-says is in your face. Science Matters.

The behavior of the Truth Matters men gives the appearance of a pride of place smack down, their use of authority and power as “Truth is what I say it is”.

Their behavior also recalls the either-or-or thinking of James and John – the “sons of thunder” as Jesus calls them (Mk. 3:17). Either you think and do as I say and get with the program or you are against us and we will demand that you stop. And if you don’t accept us then we will call down fire from heaven and burn you up, just saying.  

“Master,” commented John, “we saw someone casting out demons in your name. We told him to stop, because he wasn’t part of our company.”

“Don’t stop him,” replied Jesus. “Anyone who isn’t against you is on your side.”

As the time came nearer for Jesus to be taken up, he settled it in his mind to go to Jerusalem. He sent messengers ahead of him. They came into a Samaritan village to get them ready, and they refused to receive him, because his mind was set on going to Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Master, do you want us to call down fire from heaven and burn them up?” He turned and rebuked them, and they went on to another village.

Do those, who sit in the seat of scoffers (Ps. 1:1), think that Beth Moore is now a heretic because she serves in a capacity they adamantly deem to be unfitting for a woman?

Apparently so, as the article states:

When Reformation Charlotte recently discovered that Beth Moore was wearing a robe and serving Communion in her new church, they called her an apostate, posted screenshots of the service and of the church’s volunteer schedule, and reminded the world of their prediction that “it would only be a matter of time before Beth Moore becomes full-on gay-affirming.”

Slippery slope arguments are not arguments. They are cheap shot syllogisms done to create fear and disdain among the hearers. Slippery slope arguments are prayer avoidance techniques – why talk to God about this when I can foresee the future because I possess all the Truth that Matters? In this instance, it is the grease on the slopes of Truth Mattershorn.

No Christian woman should ever be treated in this way. And, certainly not by a group of authoritarian church leaders who believe they have rightly divided the word of God by cutting women out of heralding the Good News.

Two of the three reasons Jesus summoned, appointed, and named twelve “apostles” was 1) to be with him (as eyewitnesses), and 2) to be sent out as heralds (of what they witnessed). (Mk. 3:13-15). * Let us be reminded that many, many of the eyewitnesses of Jesus’ life, ministry, crucifixion and resurrection were women. They heralded what they saw:

Some of the women were watching from a distance. They included Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of the younger James and of Joses, and Salome. [From the beginning] They followed Jesus in Galilee, and had attended to his needs. There were several other women, too, who had come up with him to Jerusalem. (Mk. 16: 40-41)

After Jesus’ crucifixion and burial, and when the sabbath was over, it is Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome who bought spices so that they could come and anoint Jesus. They find the stone rolled away. They are greeted by a herald.

The angel tells them to go herald the news (Mk. 16: 7):

But go and tell his disciples – including Peter – that he is going ahead of you to Galilee. You’ll see him there, just like he told you. (What, Jesus talked to women? Women receive revelations from God?! Isn’t that setting up a slippery slope scenario?! And go tell the Matterhorn of the church?!)

Does anyone think that these women – and so many other female eyewitnesses of the ministry of Jesus, e.g., Mary and Martha and the resurrection of Lazarus – does anyone think that these women didn’t herald in their community and synagogue what they witnessed?

And who can forget that two disciples (Cleopas and one unnamed- likely a woman named Mary) met Jesus as they were walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus on the day that Jesus rose from the dead. They invited Jesus to come home and eat with them. (Luke 24)

Women are not allowed to preach. Huh? What about the female apostle Junia (Romans 16:7)? Junia minsters in partnership with Andronicus and Paul, is well known to the apostles and is a fellow prisoner (for preaching?). It is very likely that Junia had seen the risen Lord.

You may not hear this acknowledged in your androcentric church: beyond a Proverbs 31 characterization of the “good wife”, women are featured prominently in the incarnation, crucifixion and resurrection narratives in the gospels. And women, like those mentioned above, continued to herald the events of those narratives to the growing church and to all who would listen. (I use the word “herald” in the Apostle-choosing sense noted above so as to not trigger certain males with the word “preaching”.) The topic of women in ministry deserves a dedicated post.

Now, I don’t know much at all about Beth Moore. But with regard to the ongoing slander of a Christian sister, I agree with the apostle Paul: When people persist in sin, rebuke them openly, so that the rest may be afraid. (1 Tim 5:19).

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As mentioned above, the article drew me in with the transition mentioned in the title. The author uses Moore’s evolution to relate his own journey from Baptist to Anglican. He notes at one point that he is no longer Anglican because his spiritual journey kept going beyond where the Anglicans were willing to go. He goes on to say . . .

The Anglican Church drew me in from my Baptist heritage because it acknowledged my exile and gave me space to move. While I was there, it gave me a taste in the particular for what is true everywhere. But ultimately, it allowed harmful voices within its walls to speak to my children and built walls for women and LGBTQ people that I believed needed to be knocked down.

Pidcock goes on to acknowledge My Baptist-to-Anglican journey may be different than others. 

My own church progression has been from Baptist to Evangelical Free to Anglican. My journey has also been about breaking down walls but not in the sense and direction that Pidcock is willing to go to – I will not be an LGBTQ activist. The walls that kept me from growing spiritually were within me and surrounded the outer court – the church setting.

For example, the Bible church services I attended during much of the sixties and seventies seemed to reenact the ‘62 and ’71 Billy Graham crusades in Chicago. Sunday services had calls to walk down the aisle and commit your life to Christ. Then, it was understood, one was supposed to go to church, straighten up and fly right. Church approved options were “go into ministry” and “become a missionary”. Church approved options for women: women could dream of being a pastor’s wife or a missionary wife. Tra-la.

Wasn’t there more to the Christian life than talk of sin, judgment, and salvation and producing more expositors of sin, judgement, and salvation? What did it mean to walk in the spirit and to abide in Christ? To grow up in Christ? And, I never once heard a sermon about serving Christ as an engineer, high school band director, artist, writer or poet. Secular occupations were not deemed Godly enough, I guess.

There was and still is a part of Just as I Am before my commitment to Christ that needed to grow and not linger in the aisle of salvation sentimentality. I became disheartened and disillusioned by the church. I felt intellectually and spiritually stunted just being there. Sure, there was plenty of Bible teaching. But getting Bible knowledge was not enough for me. (Sounds heretical, doesn’t it?) And, it seemed that the church wanted to remain Just as It Was. I wasn’t the only one to notice.

During the late ’60 and into the ‘70s I was involved in the Jesus People movement in Chicago. Our local group often read from the Book of the Acts of the Apostles. The contrast between the church in Acts and the church I was attending was stark. I didn’t respond well to the disparity.

I began a prodigal journey that, like the parable account, brought me all kinds of loss. Looking back, it wasn’t until I began attending an Anglican church in my fifties that I began to lead a redeemed and productive journey. The author of the above-mentioned article put it this way regarding his own transition to an Anglican church:

For many people who come from conservative Baptist backgrounds, finding the Anglican communion feels like coming out of exile and returning home to everything that had been growing in you for years. 

Those words resonate with me in this key regard: the Anglican church I attended offered the Real Presence of the Lord in the Eucharist. The Eucharist is the pinnacle of the Anglican liturgy, not preaching. I realized that that is what I have been looking for all of my life: a confirmation of the presence of the Lord in the elements and in me as I partake.

“We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we began and to know the place for the first time.” T.S. Elliot, Little Gidding

In the Anglican church setting the Book of Common Prayer informs the liturgy with readings, collects, the prayers of the people and rites. I savor this type of intellectual atmosphere. The liturgical format allows me to listen and think and grow. Rick Pidcock put it this way:

While my theology was shifting, the liturgies felt like anchors that were keeping me from getting swept away. And in the liturgy of the Eucharist, I could receive an experience of the presence of Christ with all my senses.

How did this transition happen? Before coming to the Anglican church, I tuned out Bible teachers. I cleared my head. Preaching and personalities were getting in the way of my understanding. I avoided the either-or thinking of the John MacArthurs. I stayed away from “red in tooth and claw” Christianity.

As revealed above, there are those “sons of thunder who believe they have a right and are justified to talk and act the way they do because they walk around with their body of truth and must defend it from outliers and Samaritans. During much of my life I operated the same way. I was judgmental, lacked grace, and hurt many along the way. I was just like the “sons of thunder”. But Jesus would have none of that.

I acknowledged my own sorry disposition and began a self-imposed apprenticeship to understand Jesus and his worldview. I read extensively outside what I have been taught, assessing the new knowledge against the old. Walls were breaking down. I began to view the Christian life as a series of spectrums. (See the article’s quote of Thomas McKenzie’s The Anglican Way.)

During the apprenticeship process, my eyes were opened to many things, including . . .

-The either-or thinking that uses the pulpit to make fun of others and speaks of grace as something only doled out when you are acceptable.

-The reductionist young earth creation account that I was taught in ‘Bible” churches. A “plain reading” of Genesis is vastly different for the ancients who read Genesis than it is for moderns who impose their version of “plain reading”.

In short, Genesis begins, not with the material creation of the universe, but with the ordering of and function-giving to the preexisting non-functional material creation. The ancients reading Genesis understood that a cosmic temple was being built.

What happens within the 7-24-hour days? Day One God gave humans the function of time. Day Two God gave humans the function of weather. Day Three God gave humans the function of food. Each function is necessary for a human-oriented world.

Days Four to Six parallel Days One to Three but now roles are assigned to functionaries. Humans are given the image of God imprint.

Day Seven is when God has complete setting up his temple and now sit down (the earth is his footstool) to oversee his work. Humans are given the responsibility to care for the cosmic temple. This is where God and man are to dwell together.

-The certainly of the presence of the Lord in the Eucharist. Scripture says this is so and I have experienced it. My life has changed.

-God declared (imputed) me “righteous” in the law court scenario Paul presents in Romans.

-There is no such thing as the “rapture”. That is a misreading of the text. God will not abandon his creation. He is rebuilding the temple: Don’t you see? You are God’s temple! (1 Cor. 3:16)

-We are saved not just so that we get go to heaven when we die. More reductionism. Rather, we are born again so that Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. As new creations we are to advance the kingdom of God on earth, reflect God’s glory on earth, his cosmic temple, and wait for our Lord’s return to put things to right. “Heaven” is just a short-term way station before “new creations” return to earth with the Lord.

-Memorizing large portions of Scripture enables me to meditate, gain insight, instill the word into my life, and cross reference and contextualize Scripture. I have memorized four Psalms and the first five chapters of the Gospel According to Mark.  

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I will always have a desire to explore and push myself further than where I am now. Once I know what is out there, I will reflect back on where I started and understand it using my new knowledge.

Having gathered what I have learned and the tools acquired over time, I have become a journeywoman for Christ. Where the Lord uses me is up to Him. When he does, the world won’t end and the gates of hell will not prevail against the church.

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* Could it be that one reason Jesus chose men to be apostles was not for a “created order” motive but for very practical ethical reasons. Spending 24/7 time with women would raise questions and offer temptations to everyone involved.

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Miroslav Volf and N.T. Wright talk about the future of the Church:

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Modulation of VEGF Expression and Oxidative Stress Response by Iodine Deficiency in Irradiated Cancerous and Non-cancerous Breast CellsDownload

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“Episode_1743 economy, biolabs, Ukraine, serfdom, w/Steve Cortes, Don Jr., Dr. Naomi Wolf, Dr. Robert Malone, John Solomon”.

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Informed Dissent:

The COVID-19 crisis of 2020 to 2022 has exposed for all to see how evidence-based medicine has been corrupted by the governments, hospitalists, academia, big pharma, tech and social media. They have leveraged the processes and rationale of evidence-based medicine to corrupt the entire medical enterprise.

The illusion of Evidence-based Medicine (substack.com)

The paper of record has a terrible record:

Of course, the New York Times should be teaching by example. In fact, it has not supported free speech, protected the First Amendment, or allowed honest debate. It has not allowed competing perspectives about the most important issues of the day. It has been a mouthpiece for greedy corporations and corrupt government officials.

Mendacious New York Times’ warning about Censorship (substack.com)

Moderna’s co-founder created a quantum dot tattoo to track the vaxxed. The company is now using AI to generate endless mRNA jabs. Welcome to Transhumanism, Inc.

Vaxxed By Machines, Tracked By Machines: Humanity To Be Augmented One Cell At A Time (substack.com)

When you submit to irrational government COVID mandates, Christians suffer. Nothing in Scripture tells you that you have to submit to pagan nonsense.

Exclusive: Pastor Artur on his 51 days behind bars – Rebel News

Your (inflation) taxes increase . . . with Biden’s (not Putin’s) inflationary economics:

Inflation Will Cost Americans an Extra $5,200 This Year: Bloomberg (businessinsider.com)

Dehumanizing and objectifying women:

Women Should Never Be Reduced To “Bleeders,” No Matter How Much The Feminine Hygiene Companies Try | Evie Magazine

Another article by Rick Pidcock:

In this world of spiritual warfare, theological compromise and Republicans losing the White House, there lives a group of men, mostly white, who put on their armor, saddle up and ride into the glorious battlefield known as Twitter. They alone wear the belt of truth as they stand firm against the wiles of the Devil.

Who are these men? They are the Theobros.

Their mission? Correcting women’s theology on Twitter.

Meet the Theobros, who want you to know they’re right about everything – Baptist News Global

Sunday Funnies:

Sunday Strip – by Robert W Malone MD, MS (substack.com)

And not funny at all:

There is a secret society that wants to control . . . everything . . .

The World Economic Forum and the Sovereignty of Mankind – Dr. Robert Malone (rumble.com)

End of the dollar empire:

Phillip Patrick – The New CPI and “The End of the Dollar Empire” (rumble.com)

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