Author: Jay Forrest

“There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28).

If there are neither male nor female in Christ Jesus, then why do we segregate women from the ministry?

Apostle to the Apostles

Mary Magdalene was the Apostle to the Apostles. For Jesus appeared to her first, and sent her to give the news of the resurrection to the Apostles (Matt. 28:10). So she was the first Apostle of the resurrection.

Prominent Among the Apostles

“Greet Andronicus and Junia, my fellow Israelites who were in prison with me; they are prominent among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was” (Rom. 16:7).

Junia, a woman, is here called an apostle. Since a woman can be an apostle, a woman can be a bishop. Patriarchy is not happy with this verse, because it makes women equal with men.

Woman Teaching a Man

We also read about a man named Apollos, who had an imperfect understanding of Christianity. So yge Bible says that “Priscilla and Aquila,” a husband and wife, “took him aside and explained the Way of God to him more accurately” (Acts 18:26). Here a woman taught a man.

What Should Be Done?

I believe that it is a universal principle that “there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28). Which means it serves to guide interpretations that are circumstantial.

As Paul said, “What should be done then, my brothers and sisters? When you [men and women] come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up” (1 Cor. 14:26).

Alisa Childers in her book Another Gospel?: A Lifelong Christian Seeks Truth in Response to Progressive Christianity, makes a fundamental error about Progressive Christianity. It is that Progressive Christianity is one thing.

As I say in “A Progressive Christian Declaration”:

“Progressive Christianity is not a unified group, but a movement that seeks to be honest with the evidence of science, history, and modern scholarship.”

But the response to this evidence is varied, ranging from conservative adjustments to a radical abandoning of core Christian doctrines. So to paint Progressive Christianity with a broad brush as another gospel is unfair.

Unlike the pastor she uses as a representative of Progressive Christianity, I am not an agnostic. I believe in the Virgin birth of Christ. I believe in the resurrection of Christ. I believe in the atonement. And I believe the Bible is given by the inspiration of God and contains all things needed for our salvation.

That is not another gospel, that is the essential doctrines handed down by the historical church. Alisa Childers picture of Progressive Christianity is a caricature, because it is “a picture, description, or imitation of a person in which certain striking characteristics are exaggerated in order to create a comic or grotesque effect” (Oxford English Dictionary).

So to say that Progressive Christians believe this, or deny that, or the like, is simply incorrect. Rather, they should say that some Progressive Christians believe this, or deny that. Because not all do. In fact, there is a growing group of Progressive Christians who believe that the Nicene Creed should form the foundational understanding of what Christianity is.