Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Does God make mistakes?

In a follow-up to the issue of egalitarianism below in the post, An Issue of Gender, I came across a great blog post from the Council On Biblical Manhood and Womanhood titled: Spirit-Gifting and Ministry in the Church.

The author of the post I was originally referring to made a statement to the effect that the ability of women to teach, perhaps better than men, is evidence that God intended for them to teach. Why would God give them this ability and then deny them? The CBMW post I reference above makes a great point:

In her recent book Gifted to Lead, Nancy Beach makes the following statement:

No mistake was made in heaven when God gave you the gift of leadership or teaching. Every gift you have came from the hand of a loving Father who crafted you.
When taken apart from her egalitarian beliefs, this statement elicits complete agreement. I also believe that God does not make mistakes when he gives gifts to believers. I further agree that God intends believers to exercise those gifts, to his glory and for the good of the church.

But I would also add this statement to Beach's:

No mistake was made in heaven when God authored the qualifications in Scripture concerning the exercising of spiritual gifts. Every gift you have been given should be exercised according to the qualifications laid down by your wise and loving Father.
What I tried to capture with that statement is the fact that the Bible places limits on how and when spiritual gifts can be exercised. Beach and other egalitarians seem to miss this point. Christians certainly receive spiritual gifts from the Father, but that fact does not mean that Christians can exercise those gifts however they please. In a variety of contexts, the Bible places qualifications on the exercising of spiritual gifts.

God indeed doesn't make mistakes in gifting. God also does not make mistakes when He laid down qualifications for excercising gifts in the Body.

1 comment:

Bethany W. said...

Good point, Arthur.

I have struggled with this daily for about 8 years! I know I have gifts, but I cannot always use them in the corporate gathering. Fortunately, I am able to use some of my gifts at home (like being a home school teacher).

Bethany