It is often supposed that Jesus was more permissive with regard to sexual ethics than the Old Testament. The reverse is, in fact the case.
Robert Gagnon invites us, in response, to consider the following:
1. The three stories of sexual sinners
Jesus reached out to sexual sinners. The key stories are: the sinful woman in Luke 7:36-50; 50; the woman caught in adultery in John 7:53-8:11; and the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4.…
If the Christian church is to adhere to (or recover) God’s good plan for men and women, then its pastoral care and witness will need some clarification and strengthening in a number of areas.
For example, we need to ask, How can we more effectively
I have great respect for Ian Paul. So, when he offers a view that I find unpersuasive, I’m glad to give it a hearing anyway.
Here, then, is the gist of his ‘considered summary’, arising from his study of the main biblical texts (Gen 1, 2 and 3, Luke 24, John 20, Acts 18, Romans 16, 1 Cor 11 and 14, Eph 5 and 1 Tim 2). But here are the bare bones.
…1. The creation accounts offer no evidence of hierarchy in male-female relationships as part of the original created order.
Sources: Office for National Statistics; The Marriage Foundation
Why do many people prefer cohabitation to marriage?
Courtesy of Metro News.
You might think: so superficial, so short-sighted, so selfish. I couldn’t possibly comment.…
The emotional costs of family breakdown are immense.
But the financial costs of family breakdown, are, in their own way, no less shocking.
The estimated cost is £51 billion.
The biggest contributor (about 45%) to this figure is the support that the state provides to lone parent families by way of tax credits, housing benefits and lone parent benefits.
Second comes the cost of care of children and adults. It is estimated that ’98 per cent of the cost of looking after children in care, two thirds of the cost of social services for looking after children at home, and 5-10 per cent of the cost of care services for the elderly, [may be attributed] to family breakdown.’…
The ‘trajectory’ argument, briefly, is that there are certain practices (such as slavery) that are permitted in Scripture, but Scripture itself sows the seeds of their eventual abolition. Conversely, there are certain practices (such as same-sex relations) that are forbidden in Scripture, but Scripture itself sows the seeds of their acceptance.
The Bishop of Bangor in the Church in Wales, Andy John, has invoked such a trajectory argument in his support of marriage for homosexual couples.…
In Across the Spectrum: Issues in Evangelical Theology, Greg Boyd and Paul Eddy list a number of instances where (notwithstanding the prohibition of texts such as 1 Timothy 2:11-14) we find women exercising spiritual authority over (or alongside) men:
1. …God incorporated the songs and statements of a number of women into his inspired authoritative Scripture (e.g., Exod. 15:21; Judges 5; Luke 1:46–55)…
2. Women were given the same command to “rule” over creation as were men.…
The Civil Partnership Act 2004 provided for the legal recognition of homosexual relationships in the UK. The Act came into force in December 2005. Over the next seven years a total of 60,454 were formed.
In 2018 (the most recent year for which statistics are available at the time of writing) 956 civil partnerships were formed in England and Wales. In the same year, there were 927 civil partnership dissolutions. (Source)
The Act extended all the legal rights and privileges of marriage to homosexual couples. …
Aída Besançon Spencer identified four broad categories.
First, Jesus’ conversations with women indicate his esteem for them. Jesus openly conversed with women despite the ancient practice of discouraging men from speaking with women in public. For example, in John’s Gospel Jesus has a deep theological discussion with a man, Nicodemus (Jn 3:1–21), followed by a deep theological discussion with a woman, a Samaritan, at Jacob’s well (Jn 4:4–42). She is the first person to whom Jesus discloses that he is the Messiah (Jn 4:25–26), and she becomes an evangelist to her people (Jn 4:28–29, 39–42).…
