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The Full Rights of Sons
by K.E. Stegall
The Interpretation Of Scripture:Finding Our Way
I’d thought about it from time to time. Thought about it a lot in fact. But I had acceptedthe teaching of my church that women should not be ordained to church leadership. And Iaccepted the rationale for this as based on the Bible. But I still had questions, little nagginginconsistencies, which went unanswered. Somehow it just didn’t all ring true.So I quit thinking about it. I said I was bored with all this ‘women’ stuff. But it keptcoming up anyway. It was hard to avoid.In 1988 the denomination to which I belong appointed a committee to study the role of women in the church. Their report was published in 1990 and recommended to the membershipfor study.So I looked it over.I tried to be bored. But I found it difficult.It’s not that there was anything so new. I’d heard most of it before. It’s not that I didn’tknow what the Bible taught. I had been studying it all my life. It’s not that the tone of the reportwasn’t completely respectful toward women. It was. It’s not that I wasn’t content with my life. Iwas.But still.....something seemed out of kilter. It just didn’t all come out square. When our understanding of some Scripture portions do not conform to the gospel (I Timothy 1:10-11;Philippians 1:27), this should be a warning bell that our understanding of those Scriptures may beincorrect and that intense reexamination is necessary.This report began with a list of rules for how we can find God’s truth through theinterpretation of the Scriptures. These principles of interpretation lingered in the back of my mindlong after I lay the report aside. These principles seemed to get at the heart of the inconsistenciesand questions I had harbored for so long.Thus I was motivated to begin my own study of the Scriptures about the role of women inthe church using these principles of interpretation as my guide. I found myself in more than just atheoretical study. It was a very personal study. I sought the answer to a most basic question,“Who am I? What does it mean for me, a woman, to be a Christian?”The pages before you contain what I found. I pray you will sense the joy and wonder withwhich I send this forth, the gratitude to the one true God, my Father, my Brother, my Life; theawe I am filled with for his revelation of Scripture, a tapestry of inexplicable beauty and truth.I have not looked to commentators or historical/archeological evidence in my study. Necessary as these things may be to aid and support our understanding of Scripture, I have nocommitment to their inerrancy or expertise to judge their validity. We all know a commentator can be found or a piece of archeological evidence exhibited in support of almost any claim.I am eager to gratefully credit the knowledge and insight I have gained from other Christians who have preserved, studied and explained the Scriptures throughout the ages. Thegrace ministered to me through them is of incalculable value. Yet it is the Holy Scriptures alonewhich must be both my original resource and my final authority. The Scriptures are the standard by which we must evaluate all other evidence. This truth became the battle-cry which galvanizedthe reformation of the church - Sola Scriptura.I am not a scholar. I am an ordinary Christian. I read my Bible in my own Englishlanguage. I am very thankful for able translators who have given me the Scriptures in a languageI can read and understand. Given this, I read God’s Word confident that the Holy Spirit will provide all that is needed for true understanding (John 14:26, 16:13). It is by faith that the eyes
Chapter I – The Interpretation Of Scripture: Finding Our Way
 
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The Full Rights of Sons
by K.E. Stegall
of our hearts are enlightened by the Spirit of revelation (Luke 24:45; John 16:13). My faith is inJesus, the truth. He is the living Word of God (John 1:1-5, 9, 14, 18). He is found in theScriptures (John 5:39-40). This is where I have turned.But how can we understand the truth that by faith we know is there in the Holy Bible?Or, more pertinent to this particular issue, how do we find the meaning of difficult or conflicting portions of Scripture?“...women should remain silent in the churches.” (I Corinthians 14:34)That’s a pretty confusing statement. Now of course someone might respond that it seemsstraight forward enough. It means women must be silent in the church.Well, yes. I guess that’s what the words say... Yet, I am still confused. That idea doesn’tseem to be in turn with so much else that is written in the Bible. There are so many biblicalinjunctions that cannot be carried out if one is silent, beginning with the Great Commission itself.It appears the church is confused also. You wouldn’t be reading this book today if thereweren’t different ideas about exactly what this Scripture means.I am a woman. And I have not kept silent in the church. I voice myself in many ways,through worship, through teaching, through discussion, through committee work, and throughministry.Yet I can think of only two times in my 47 years experience when I have been reprimandedfor not being silent in the church. ... Once, or was it many times, when Joyce and I used to sittogether during evening worship when we were in junior high school.... And once when I led aBible study/seminar on the word ‘head.’ Even though it may seem rather straight forward, wecannot all agree as to the real meaning of “...she must be silent.”Others have faced this question before us. This is not the first passage of Scripture toseem perfectly clear, yet somehow not really so clear.It also seems pretty straight forward when Paul says of Christ, “He is the image of theinvisible God, the firstborn over all creation.” (Colossians 1:15)And this passage seems clear enough. “Now if there is no resurrection, what will those dowho are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them?” (I Corinthians 15:29) Paul makes this argument in support of the resurrection of the dead.What about this Scripture? James seems quite plain, “You see that a person is justified bywhat he does and not by faith alone.”(James 2:22)Or this Scripture, “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there isno authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have beenestablished by God.”(Romans 13:1)Paul seems very clear when he says to the Ephesians, “Slaves, obey your earthly masterswith respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ.” (Ephesians 6:5)Peter says that slaves should submit not only to kind masters, but to cruel ones also (I Peter 2:18).Straight forward as these passages are, orthodox Christianity has not accepted the obviousmeaning. We do not believe that Jesus Christ is a created being, but rather God himself. Nor dowe believe that one can earn salvation for another who has died in unbelief by being baptized for him. We certainly do not believe that a person can be saved by his own good works. Nor do we believe that just because a person is a king or ruler everything they do or say is from God andtherefore must be obeyed. Nor do we believe that it is right for one person, whether cruel or kind, to own another person as a possession or slave.Someone might say these examples are contrived, not questionable issues. We all knowthe truth about these matters.Yet at one time in history each of these Scriptures was under major discussion. Greatecclesiastical battles were fought over these ‘straight forward’ passages. Many were called
Chapter I – The Interpretation Of Scripture: Finding Our Way
 
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The Full Rights of Sons
by K.E. Stegall
heretics for the positions they took. Some were even burned at the stake or suffered some other form of martyrdom for standing on the wrong side of these questions.But these ‘heretics,’ martyrs and reformers stood on the same side of these questions aswe stand today. We feel our present interpretation of these passages to be completely scriptural,even though we do not accept the obvious, straight forward meaning.The early church debated the person of Jesus Christ. After much struggle the churchaffirmed that Jesus is God himself, not a created being. We believe he is of the same substanceand equal in power and glory to the Father and the Holy Spirit.At the time of the Reformation the teaching that one can do anything to help gain thesalvation of those already dead was rejected.Certainly we cling to the great truth rediscovered by the Reformation, salvation by faithalone.Early Christians living under a Roman emperor, Covenanter martyrs of Scotland, our  pilgrim forefathers, as well as many other Christians throughout history have suffered and died because they did not believe in the divine right of kings. They did not believe the actions andwords of a king were necessarily God inspired. Nor did they believe absolute obedience to a kingwas commanded in Scripture.We look back with awe and admiration to those principled Christians here in America whorefused to accept slavery as a God ordained institution, and actively smuggled slaves to the northin the underground railroad, established free states in the west, and give their lives to free theslave because this was what their commitment to Jesus Christ demanded.How did individual Christians and the Church as a whole resolve these issues? How havewe come to accept as truth something which is quite contrary to the seemingly obvious meaningof the Scriptures I have cited?We did not become convinced that Jesus is completely God by studying only Colossians1:15. The entire Scripture was studied, paying special attention to the nature and personage of God and his son, Jesus Christ. Common threads of thought and repeated themes from the wholeof written revelation were studied. It was the overall unified message of Scripture that led us to believe that Jesus was and is truly, completely, infinitely and eternally God.Why do we believe that there may be times when we should not obey governingauthorities? Is it in defiance of Romans 13:1? Or is it rather based upon the theme of Scripturesummarized by Peter’s reply to the governing authorities of Israel, “...We must obey God, rather than men.” (Acts 5:29)We did not come to the conclusion that slavery is wrong by studying passages with theword ‘slave’ in them. Instead, the whole of Scripture was studied concentrating on those partswhich dealt with the nature of every human being, their status before God, and their relation toother men.The church has accepted an interpretation for these difficult passages which brings theminto unity and conformity with the rest of Scripture, thereby dismissing, or at least modifying, theapparently straightforward meaning.However, as in the case of Paul talking about being baptized for the dead
1
,I still scratchmy head and say, “What on earth did Paul mean there?” I simply don’t know. Yet I believe thatthe rest of Scripture is clear that at death our opportunity for repentance comes to an end.What convinced us to take a view different from the seemingly straightforward meaning of 1
Since I first wrote those words I have read an excellent article which explains that the baptism “for the dead”which Paul speaks of in I Corinthians 15:29 refers to the Old Testament ceremonial washing which was required for those whohad touched a dead body in Numbers 19. This ceremonial washing was itself a picture of Christ as he cleanses us from our sinand its consequent death through his own death and resurrection as in Romans 6:3-4. (Edward Fenton, “‘The Baptism For TheDead’ in I Corinthians 15 and Numbers 19",
Semper Reformanda
, Vol. 4 No. 1, Spring 1995, pg. 3-9)Chapter I – The Interpretation Of Scripture: Finding Our Way
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