Christian Heritage News

 By Jesse Johnson - Posted at The Cripplegate: I recently came across TIME Magazine from the week I was born—January 7, 1976. The issue was devoted to the “Women of the Year,” and on the cover was the Rev. Alison Cheek. She broke the so-called glass ceiling by becoming the first female Episcopal priest to lead/perform the Eucharist. Cheek was part of the “The Philadelphia 11,” a group of female priests all ordained in Pennsylvania, long before that was acceptable in the Anglican church. It was immediately met with howls of protests. This was coming after the fall of Saigon, and after the zenith of the hippie movement. The “mainline denominations” were at a tipping point, one that is much more recognizable in the hindsight than I’m sure it was at the time. Many people protested such a brazen show of rebellion by the Philadelphia Episcopal church—compounded all the more because the Anglican Church had rejected calls to ordain women. While some Anglicans may have protested the Philadelph

Source:  A Word about Spurgeon and Female Pastors – Denny Burk  By Dr. Denny Burk Published May 20, 2023 Earlier this week, it was announced that Rick Warren had been installed as the honorary Chancellor of Spurgeon’s College in London. After his installation, Warren took the opportunity to double-down on his support for female pastors and to claim that “ my views on ordination are identical to Spurgeon’s. ” I am no expert on Spurgeon, but I am reasonably certain that Warren’s views on ordination are not identical to Spurgeon’s—at least insofar as it relates to the ordination of female pastors. In his book Lectures to My Students, Spurgeon devotes an entire chapter to “The Call to the Ministry.”* In that chapter, I can see at least three differences between Spurgeon’s and Warren’s views on this point. 1. The Gender of “Pastor” Warren claims that the Bible permits women to serve as pastors in the church and that they should be afforded the opportunity to lead and teach as pastors. Sp

 By Samuel Sey - Posted at Slow To Write: Published January 7, 2023 Many young, Christian men have become fans of Andrew Tate because they think he’s a good example of masculinity. Most of these young men are Generation Z teenagers who are growing up in a repressive, woke culture that labels their masculinity as “toxic”. Teenage boys know they are offered only two alternatives: they must either transition from boys to “girls” or they must transition from boys to weak men. This is why a self-proclaimed misogynist like Andrew Tate is so appealing. Unlike many cowardly evangelicals, Andrew Tate doesn’t seem like a weak man. Continue here... See also: The Red Pill Antidote | See, there's this thing called biology... (wordpress.com)

 By Elizabeth Prata - Posted at The End Time: AIMEE BYRD is a woman that has been in spiritual decline for a few years. At least, public evidence of a decline has been observed for a few years, the inward decline was probably a lot longer. Her 2020 book, Recovering from Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: How the Church Needs to Rediscover Her Purpose was a huge red flag. ‘There are significant problems with Byrd’s interpretation of the important passages about biblical manhood and womanhood, passages she does not even address in the book. Worse, the entire thrust of Byrd’s book is in the direction of feminism”, as this reviewer (and many others!) noted. A month after her book was published, her long-time broadcast/podcast partner, Reformation 21, announced they had dropped her from the podcast. Continue here... See also: Markers on the way-station of downgrade: Exhibit A, Aimee Byrd – The End Time (the-end-time.org)

 By Uri Brito - Posted at Kuyperian Commentary:  The biblical arguments for male headship in the Church are vast, ranging from the man’s role under the creation order ( I Tim. 2), the qualification for elders (I Tim. 3), his function in the liturgical order and decency of worship (I Cor. 14), and his significative symbol under the new man, Jesus Christ (Eph. 4-5). These are taken as presuppositions in the history of redemption and exceptions are theological judgment imposed on God’s people. Additionally, the East and the West have carefully crafted the liturgical service with a man in mind. Christ is the perfect priest and he was enfleshed in a male body. Therefore, the liturgy starts with male vocal cords and ends with male vocal cords. The man gathers and calls and leads and protects. God decided on such things in the Old and New Testaments happily moving against cultural norms, pagan norms, emotional norms and sexual norms. God structures his creation in a Trinitarian fashion and th

 By Elizabeth Prata - Posted at The End Time: I was saved in around January 2004. For 18 months I followed Joel Osteen, until I got a Bible that is. In mid-2006 I moved to Georgia and began attending church, and was baptized. Since then, the acceleration of false teachers populating the faith and their numerous public implosions, seem to be accelerating. Even previously solid-seeming platformed teachers and theologians are falling like dominoes. I used to listen to Reformation 21’s Mortification of Spin Podcast with Carl Trueman, Todd Pruitt, and Aimee Byrd. I’m not a huge fan of listening to women, I prefer men, but I was pleased that the so-named “Housewife Theologian” was able to speak on theological issues in a roundtable with men. ‘Good for her’ I’d thought. ‘If she has time away from family to do that.’ Aimee wrote as to why she wrote her book Housewife Theologian: How the Gospel Interrupts the Ordinary and joined the podcast in 2013, “Much of my blogging speaks to why it matter

Editor's Note : This was written in September of 2019 and is still relevant today, as the "Patriarchy" controversy continues to rage in Reformed circles.  I would be remiss if I did not share this with the hope it will help clarify the issue for readers and reveal the Biblical truth that is at stake within the body of Christ. May God gives us eyes to see and ears to hear. Amen. - AW  By Thomas F. Booher - Posted at The Tulip Driven Life: The Reformed church is deeply divided over many issues, not the least of which is gender roles, or even more fundamentally perhaps (depending on how we are defining things), gender itself, what it means to be a man, and what does it mean to be a woman. What is masculinity and femininity? What does the Bible have to say about this, if anything at all? It should be pointed out that this crisis mirrors the very real issues in our nations today, especially here in the United States, concerning gender/sexuality, etc. It is quite likely that th

By Michael Grasso - Posted at Green Baggins: Should the OPC hire GRACE to investigate potential instances of abuse in its churches? This question came before the 87th General Assembly (GA) in the form of a motion to add a docket item called “Ministering to victims of abuse”. [1] The motion needed a 2/3 majority to be added to the docket, and it failed to reach this threshold. This motion did not come in a vacuum. Aimee Byrd had called on the OPC to hire this organization on April 5, 2021. [2] Following the GA’s decision not to take up the question of hiring GRACE, Aimee Byrd publicly condemned the decision of the GA in two blog posts on July 21 [3] and 26 [4] respectively. A few months after GA, on October 8-9, the Presbytery of Philadelphia hosted a fall conference on the subject of spiritual abuse with Diane Langberg as the speaker. Diane Langberg is the author of Redeeming Power: Understanding Authority and Abuse in the church and is a former board member of GRACE. The

By Elizabeth Prata - Posted at The End Time: In 2019 at the Truth Matters conference, there was a panel Q&A. Moderator Todd Friel of Wretched Radio ended the session with a sort of lightning round, by asking John MacArthur to respond to the some names with one or two words only. Friel said, “Beth Moore” and famously, MacArthur’s reply was “Go home”. You can see the entire discussion with video host commentary, here . Or without commentary, here . That was not all he said. He expounded on his thought regarding why he said what he said, why Moore should go home. He used scripture and said there is no place in the Bible that allows a woman to preach. Owen Strachan was asked to reply as well, and Phil Johnson replied too. So the entire conversation was not simply two words, but a scripture-based mini-lesson on the error of a woman preaching. Moore waited two and a half years, and this week tweeted out a Twitter thread whining about how long she has been waiting to hear an apology from

 By Pastor Mike Myers - Posted at HeritageOPC.org: A final reflection on how a housewife theologian ended up recovering from biblical manhood and womanhood. From Housewife Theologian (HWT) in 2013 to Recovering from Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (Recovering) in 2020, the published work of Aimee Byrd spans nearly a decade. Throughout my reviews of her books, I have indicated marks of evident theological drift. Certainly every thinker, writer, pastor, and person for that matter, will change over the course of a decade. I certainly have. For the Christian, the key question is this: are the changes occurring in my life and thought more and more conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ? We must always ask, “Am I finding my mind more and more transformed by its renewal, or conformed to this present world (Rom. 12:1-2)? My concern is that the writings of Mrs. Byrd have gradually drifted from helpful, orthodox, and godly, to harmful, heterodox, and worldly. Such a serious statement r

 By Anna Grace Wood - Posted at Femina Sola Gratia : The ugly truth is this: Feminism isn’t just out there; it’s in here. In our hearts and minds, our churches, homes, families, clothing choices, and in nearly everything we’ve been taught to believe about duties, society, culture, choices, and life. Feminists hate God, men, women, children, and all that is holy or normal. Until we understand that, we will continue to swallow feminist’s lies. Even saying “men’s and women’s roles” rather than “duties” smacks of swallowing the poison of feminism. God didn’t give us roles to play or fill but duties to perform. To some this might seem a slight difference but nothing could be further from the truth. “Roles” suggest mutability, the ability to step in and out of roles as the need or desire arises. “Duties” suggests that God has given men and women different but equally important inherent responsibilities that they have to fulfill so that God might be glorified and all might work as it is desi

 By David de Bruyn - Posted at Churches Without Chests: When Joab prepared for battle with Ammonites, he realised he was now to face conflict from behind and before: from the city walls of Rabbah, and from a hoard of arriving mercenaries ( 2 Sam 10:9-12 ). He told Abishai to be ready to run to wherever the battle was hottest. It did not make sense to simply divide their forces evenly, for they did not yet know from where the fiercest opposition would come. Furthermore, enemies attack more fiercely where they sense the defences are weakest. Believers who earnestly contend for the faith must mimic that approach: run to where the battle is. Practising swift sword-strokes in the air while on the battlements facing south when you can hear a real battle raging to the north is wilful ignorance, and probably cowardice. The quote attributed to Luther (which is a very dynamic paraphrase of his original words) runs thus :”If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion o

Cover of a 1901 edition of The Yellow Wallpaper by American Feminist writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman   (Image Source: Wikipedia )  By Pastor Mike Meyers - Posted at HeritageOPC.org:  In 2020 Zondervan Academic published Aimee Byrd’s fifth book, “Recovering From Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: How the Church Needs to Rediscover Her Purpose.” Here is a basic overview of the major points of the book: Purpose : “This isn’t a man-bashing book. And this isn’t a woman-empowerment book. This is a book that appeals to the reader to look at the yellow wallpaper in the church and to do something about it…One of our biggest challenges is to actually see this yellow wallpaper’s scrawling patterns that are stifling the force of the biblical message and strangling the church’s witness and growth. Don’t we want to rip those away and reveal the beauty and unity in God’s Word?” (19). [1] Later she writes, “I am writing because we need to recover a better way. We need to peel off this yellow wallpaper

  By Nathanael Blake - Posted at The Federalist: After decades of tearing down manners and norms, self-proclaimed social progressives are now frantically trying to reconstitute some sense of public decency. Social conservatives are always losing, yet never quite defeated. In politics and the culture wars, it feels like we have fought a long rearguard action, with counterattacks only covering for a general retreat. But we should not despair, for human nature ensures that our insights will remain relevant and our principles will be unexpectedly revived. Just ask Michelle Goldberg of The New York Times, who reports that “sex-positive feminism” is on the outs. Goldberg’s column is an exercise in admitting that social conservatives were right without saying that social conservatives were right. Thus, she presents this as a debate between sex-positive feminism (“the idea that feminism should privilege sexual pleasure and fight sexual repression”) and anti-porn feminists, whose warnings are

 By Ron Paul - Posted at The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity: The Senate Armed Services Committee approved last month a National Defense Authorization Act that includes a requirement that women register with Selective Service on their 18th birthday. If the bill becomes law with this provision included and a military draft is reinstated, women will be forced to join the military, and America will have equality in slavery. Proponents of drafting women argue that since women can now serve in combat it makes sense to make the draft “gender neutral.” Some conservatives have made moral arguments against drafting women, saying that women should be able to decide for themselves whether or not to serve in the military. It is certainly true that it is immoral to force women into military service, but that is because it is wrong to force anyone into military service. Forcing young people, regardless of their sex, to fight, kill, and even die in war is the worst violation of individual

 By Zachary Garris - Posted at Knowing Scripture: The egalitarian books just keep coming. And they will keep coming as long as people keep buying. The latest trend is for women authors to attack complementarianism, the view that men are to lead in the home and church, as being rooted in unbelieving cultures. I previously reviewed two popular books by women who attend complementarian churches (both in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church), Recovering from Biblical Manhood and Womanhood by Aimee Byrd and Beyond Authority and Submission by Rachel Green Miller. Beth Allison Barr’s book, The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth , is different in that she is openly egalitarian, explicitly advocating for women to serve as pastors. In this sense, Barr’s book is less dangerous. Whereas Miller and Byrd seek to push complementarianism in an egalitarian direction, Barr calls for a complete abandonment of complementarianism. Barr’s attack is much less subtle

Adolf von Harnack (born Harnack; 7 May 1851 – 10 June 1930)   Image Source: Wikipedia  By Calvin Goligher - Posted at CBMW.Org:  Introduction Over the past thirty years, complementarianism has enjoyed something of a consensus position among conservative churches in North Am erica. Over against feminist arguments that men and women should be treated equally in every respect, complementarians have insisted that God intends for men to exercise leadership in the home and in the church. This consensus has faced an ever-growing challenge from society’s rapidly progressing views on gender and sexuality. Recently, the subject has become controversial also within the Church. At the heart of this controversy are two books by conservative Reformed authors that reexamine complementarianism in order to discern which aspects of it should be kept and which should be discarded. [1] Both books have met with vigorous critique in Reformed and evangelical circles. [2] Evaluating this controversy is diffi

 By Denny Burk - Posted at DennyBurk.com:  Mike Bird and Devi Abraham recently interviewed authors Kristin DuMez, Beth Allison Barr, and Aimee Byrd (see video below). All three of these authors have written books condemning complementarianism. Both DuMez and Barr are convinced egalitarians. While I have never heard Byrd own that label, she has said in her book that she is not a complementarian. In any case, it’s difficult to detect any daylight between Byrd’s position and that of the two egalitarians in this interview. They all three are very much opposed to complementarian theology, which is denigrated as abusive patriarchy in this interview. One thing that they all three seem to agree on is the need for women to take on more teaching and leadership positions over men in churches. On this point, there was one revealing moment at the end of the interview that I think complementarians would do well to take note of. Devi Abraham asks the authors what one thing needs to change in evangel

By Anna Wood - Posted at Femina Sola Gratia: Proverbs 31 woman is timeless The Word of God is sufficient, inerrant, and infallible. This means that it doesn’t change, speaks to all people in all times, is without error and is incapable of being wrong; thus God’s Word never fails to speak to God’s will or to accomplish His will. Hence, we can know that God’s Word to women, including in Proverbs 31, is both what God wanted women to know and to be when it was written and that it remains so today. God’s Word is truth God’s Word has been maligned and twisted, denied and explained away. Feminism has so attacked and assaulted the Word of God and His church that much of what we think we know about the Word of God is instead man’s word. A drop of poison in a glass of pure spring water, though it might be tasteless and colorless and only a tiny drop, still makes that water poison. We can add nothing to nor take anything from Scripture and have it remain pure. Yet this is exactly what we’v

By Anna Wood - Posted at Femina Sola Gratia Gynocentric interruptions Gynocentric interruptions of Scripture–have you ever heard of such a thing? Well, you have now because Aimee Byrd has made sure that you did. What once wasn’t even a thought is now, according to Aimee, an important part of Scripture. And we’ve bought into it. Bought into what, you might ask? Gynocentric interruptions… what is that? Oh, not to worry. It’s a teaching that clearly falls within the historic biblical faith. I mean, after all, don’t you remember Martin Luther talking about it? John Calvin? Or what about John Owen? A.W. Pink? No? Yeah, it’s because they never even heard of gynocentric interruptions of Scripture and neither had anybody else. Until recently, that is, when Aimee Byrd discovered there was such a thing as, wait for it, gynocentric… oh… yeah, you got it already. Right. So, these gy…uhm…the female voice interruptions in Scripture (don’t you feel a little bit dumber having read that?)…I have a secr