The biblical pattern of headship is neither the traditional nor the feminist. The feminist rejects the idea that subordination can ever co-exist with equality (though this is the basis of the Trinity’s relationship). The traditionalist believes that subordination assumes inequality. So both of these groups agree! They reject the biblical concept of headship as inconsistent. -Tim Keller
(Tim) As I've said before, if the Biblical doctrine of sexuality is limited in its significance and application according to what Tim Keller teaches--namely to "tie-breaking" authority in marriage, to session meetings and the pulpit in the church, and to nowhere in civil society--then the Bible doesn't say what it means or mean what it says.
And if the Bible's wrong, it's no surprise the Church has been wrong, too--for two-thousand years.
Sure enough, Tim Keller tells us the doctrine and practice of all previous centuries of the Church was given birth to in misogyny...
I see no other way to understand his smear of "traditionalists" claiming they "reject the biblical concept of headship" and "assume (the) inequality" of women.
Who are these "traditionalists," after all?
Well, first of all, they're not Tim Keller, are they? He certainly doesn't believe in "inequality," does he?
Then who are these "traditionalists?"
They're everyone who hasn't been blown by Tim Keller's latest wind of doctrine, accepting his false teaching that it's an accurate summary of Scripture's doctrine of sexuality in the church to say that a woman may do anything a non-ordained man may do.
In other words, Tim Keller's "traditionalists" are all previous generations of Christians.
None of them ever would have agreed with the above statement of Biblical anthropology, which is why none of them ever had women teaching men the meaning and purpose of sex in congregational life (as Tim Keller has his wife do), none of them ever blurred the distinction between male church officers and female assistants (as Tim Keller has by refusing ordination to his male deacons), none of them ever used women to serve the Lord's Supper to the congregation (as Tim Keller does), none of them ever denied the unique calling of men to lead in civil society (as Tim Keller does), and none of them ever described the authority of a husband with his wife as limited to tie-breaking authority (as Tim Keller does).
Tim Keller dismisses them all as "traditionalists," claiming they believe in "inequality."
Meanwhile, Tim Keller himself, you must understand, believes a man in the pulpit Lord's Day morning, men only in the monthly session meetings, and husbands manning up to placing the tie-breaking vote in a marital dispute all can co-exist with equality.
Realize, good reader, that this, above, is Tim Keller's definitive list. That's it--there's nothing more: male preachers and pastors, male session meetings, and male tie-breaking votes in marriage (when the man isn't enough of a servant leader to obviate the necessity by giving in to his wife).
All others are "traditionalists," and Tim Keller reports to us that these nasties hold to "inequality." Too bad Calvin and Luther and Edwards and Machen and Lloyd-Jones and the Apostle Paul aren't here to defend themselves.
What a disgusting straw man Tim Keller sets up. In my years of speaking, discussing, debating, and writing on this subject, I've never heard any traditionalist give the slightest indication that he or she believes in "inequality." But Tim Keller's tossed them on the ash heap of history. He's off to new and braver places where only enlightened souls dwell--souls that, like him, have rejected the inequality of traditionalists.
