NOTE: Likely I should add that I don't really believe the statement quoted below is characteristic of paedocommunionists while I am certain it is characteristic of Redeemerites. I should have done a better job on the title of the piece.
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A federal vision, paedocommunion, PCA pastor writes that in 1Corinthians 11:2-16: "Paul speaks to the men and women in the church about issues of headship. In certain defined relationships, men are the heads of women (e.g., in marriage and in the church). The woman is the glory of the man, having been created from the man and for the man. This is an order of authority that arises from the creation itself. Since Christ came to redeem the creation and set it back on God’s intended track, the order established in creation matters. The whole issue before us about head-coverings has to do with observing that order."
"Men are the heads of women" only "in certain defined relationships," and that headship is because the Creation Order "matters" and Christ came to set that order "back on God's intended track." The Creation Order was established in the state of perfection in the Garden of Eden, prior to the Fall, but it now has application only "in certain defined relationships." In other words, there is no connection between sex and authority anywhere but "in marriage and in the church." This is the teaching of both Federal Vision paedocommunionists and Tim Keller Redeemerites.
When we deny that sex and authority have any connection outside the home and the Church, we are limiting God's Order of Creation to the private spheres where the doctrinal commitments of Christians may remain hidden from the sight of unbelievers. Thus we change our Lord's command...
to "you are the salt of the Church, so don't be ashamed of my commands, but let your light shine before other believers."
Meanwhile, the internet bandwidth consumed by debates over the idiosyncratic interpretive schemes of federal vision's luminaries rivals an evening's consumption of YouTube and Netflix. Meanwhile, also, the Christian governor of Indiana and all his Christian agency heads and all the Christian members of his state's General Assembly were led as sheep to the slaughter by Tim Cook and company, ending up giving their stamp of approval to the addition of gays and lesbians as a protected class under the state's civil rights laws.
Which is to say, Christians around the country have had decades of Reformed pastors—both Federal Visionists and Redeemerites—teaching them father-rule is a private truth for Christians which is only applicable only in certain defined relationships: specifically the home and the Church. So why on earth would we think governors and agency heads and assemblywomen and men would stand against sodomy? Were not heterosexuality and father-rule both established in the state of perfection in the Garden of Eden prior to the Fall, and are they not, therefore, Creation Order universals?
Give up defending father-rule as a universal and you lose the right to complain about others taking it to the next level and giving up heterosexuality as a universal. In fact, you not only don't have any right to complain, but you are the one responsible for this obscenity now firmly in control and vaunting himself in our public square.
Tim serves Clearnote Church, Bloomington, Indiana. He and Mary Lee have five children and big lots of grandchildren.
Want to get in touch? Send Tim an email!
