Considering Jesus’ practice of only appointing men as apostles, there is a significant burden on those claiming Junia was a woman apostle. And that burden simply has not been met.
It was not that a husband’s authority and a wife’s submission were introduced as a result of the fall (as some egalitarians claim happened in Genesis 3:16), but rather that this hierarchical relationship was part of the created order and was now frustrated by the fall.
This book is worth it alone for the footnotes and references for further study. It is a resource every pastor and student of the Bible should have on his shelf.
Through millennia of history, God in Christ is bringing many sons to glory (Hebrews 2:10), and clearly, we can see both biblically and experientially that this is a long process, often subtle, often hardly even visible, often frustrating, and always slow.
The Bible teaches a strong continuity between the old and new covenants and between Israel and the church. While there have been some changes in covenant administration, I do not think these changes warrant the adoption of a form of dispensationalism or new covenant theology.
The Bible requires us to make a distinction between covenant and election. This is the only way to account for covenant breaking and apostasy in Scripture, and it provides a consistent paradigm for the practice of infant baptism.
The practice of infant baptism is neither commanded nor prohibited anywhere in Scripture. This issue must therefore be settled by asking a different question—What is the place of children in the church?
Is the pastor a third office in addition to elder and deacon? Or is the pastor an elder who has the special task of teaching and preaching in addition to ruling?
Solomon’s request for a “hearing heart” was not a request to magically become some kind of insightful sage, but for ears to hear the word of God, for a heart that absorbs its specific content, and acts accordingly.
At root, Rachel Green Miller is an egalitarian. While she may affirm that only men can be pastors and give lip service to male headship in the home, she is sowing the seeds of feminism.
If we reject the radical two kingdoms position and instead seek to apply the Bible to all of life, including the civil sphere, we will be in a much better place.
