Sola Scriptura and Women’s Roles

Recently, I posted on social media, “The issue of women’s roles in the church is a litmus test of your view of Scripture. Those who hold firmly to inerrancy and Sola Scriptura will hold fast—those who do not will compromise. The issue is about the authority of Scripture. And ultimately the holiness of God.”

Inherency and Sola Scriptura

By inerrancy, we mean that the Bible, the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments, is God’s Word and thus without error (2 Tim 3:16). When God speaks, He does not stutter. If it is God’s Word, then we must understand that the Scriptures are not just the thoughts of John, Matthew, Peter, and Paul, but also the very words of God (2 Pet 1:21). If that is the case, then it is our sole authority on matters pertaining to life and doctrine. The formal cause of the Protestant Reformation was over the nature of Scripture’s authority. What is the sole authority in the Christian life? What authority does church councils, tradition, and popes have concerning Scripture? Protestants asserted that these have a secondary or lower authority than Scripture. Scripture alone is our highest authority. Sola Scriptura.

One of the great dangers in the church’s history is to elevate man’s tradition to the level of Scripture. So it was during the time of our Lord. This was Jesus’s main rebuke of the Pharisees. “So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God” (Matt 15:16). The Pharisees elevated midrash (their oral law) over the clear biblical commands to provide for ‘mother and father,’ and thus violated and made “void the word of God.” Rome made the same mistake by elevating man’s tradition to the same level as the Word of God—their tradition of the penitential system violated clear Scriptural commands.

Modern Evangelical Tradition 

Inherent in much of modern evangelicalism has been the desire to be accepted by contemporary culture. This is one of the ways it has delineated itself from modern fundamentalism. So on the issue of women’s roles, where the culture has been influenced by third-wave feminism, there has been tremendous cultural pressure on evangelicals to modify their complementarian positions. So much so that in the 1980s, Wayne Grudem, John Piper, and others felt the need to establish the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW)—an organization that would teach and defend the Bible’s teaching on gender and sexuality within evangelicalism. CBMW’s original doctrinal statement, The Danvers Statement, is very clear, and basic, and articulates simple biblical teaching on gender and roles within the church and family. I commend it. Despite CBMW’s effective witness, I believe the egalitarian position, which states that there is no inherent difference between men and women in terms of function or role, has largely carried the day. As the culture goes, so goes much of modern evangelicalism. This “tradition” of women pastors is being pushed upon America’s largest remaining conservative denomination, The Southern Baptist Convention. Many within the convention already affirm this tradition, as evidenced by the support that Rick Warren has received in his affirmation of it. But I pray that the convention will side with Scripture (and their confessional statement, the Baptist Faith and Message 2000) over and against this modern tradition.

Sola Scriptura and the Holiness of God

In the original tweet, I also mentioned that your view on women’s roles in the church indicates what you think about the holiness of God. Those who genuinely know and revere God tremble at the Word of God. “But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word” (Is 66:2). Scripture’s teaching on the roles of women in the church is very clear. “I do not permit a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man” (1 Tim 2:12). The office of elder is reserved for qualified men (1 Tim 3; Tit 1). The issue is not a matter of exegesis but obedience.

If there is a new reformation and revival in American Evangelicalism, by God’s grace, it will be thoroughly complementarian. It is impossible to say that you tremble at the Word of God when you directly violate clear New Covenant commands. The reformation and revival will come through leaders who once again tremble at the Word of God. Leaders who take God’s Word seriously. The Holy Spirit always honors those who honor His Word. The call of the hour is to press back into Sola Scriptura and to abandon unbiblical evangelical tradition. The future is at stake. The holiness of God is at stake.