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VOL VIII  NO. 12  MONTH 2007

REV. ROBERT KELLEY

 


When Did God Change? - Part II

 

Rev. Robert Kelley is the founder and president of Open Door Communication Ministries, Inc. and pastored the St. Mark Baptist Church of Portland, Oregon at the time this was published.

 

(Editor´s note: This is the conclusion of an article considering whether God has made a change in the roles of men and women.)

 

As foretold, a day the four winds suddenly and temporarily cease on the earth; a day very near; God will mark out elect Jews with the Eternal Wind and they will see the Second Coming of Jesus their Messiah (Ezekiel 9:1-11; Mark 13:14-27; Revelation 7:1-8)!  The 144,000 persons made up of 12,000 of each elect tribe of Israel will be supernaturally protected by God from His judgments, wrath and Satan´s harm to enjoy this blessing (Malachi 3:16-18; Revelation 12:1-6, 13-17).  He will do this because of His immutability (Isaiah 61-62).

 

Knowing God did not formally announce a change in the roles of men and women anywhere in the Bible, clever rebels have sought ways to discredit Paul, the great Jewish apostle to us Gentiles.  He is despised in these last days because he upholds God´s order and thereby offends all those who wish to establish their own outside of His immutable Word!

 

Among their complaints, they accuse Paul of being a rigid prisoner of his times and Jewish traditions.  Therefore, they feel justified in not obeying his directives on male and female roles in the home and churches since he speaks out of his historical and cultural context.  However, how can one believe this and also take seriously what Paul writes to keep Gentiles from adopting Jewish customs (Philippians 3:1-3)?  How does such an accusation square with his willingness to endure even Jewish persecution and face down the apostle Peter serving Gentile Christians (2 Corinthians 11:22-28; Galatians 2:11-21, 5:7-12, 6:11-15)?

 

Other complainants assert Paul wrote his directives concerning women only to address a particular problem in a single, local church and therefore, they do not apply to our time.  The church in question of course, was that spiritually spastic group at Corinth.  If true, how then does one explain Paul comforting them about the coming of Timothy his protégé by saying concerning him, "who will remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach everywhere in every church," (1 Corinthians 4:17b, NKJV)?

 

Finally, many grossly err by dismissing Paul on the basis of his standing, authority and teaching compared to that of the Lord Jesus.  In so doing, they greatly deceive themselves by saying (as I once heard a prominent New York Baptist pastor similarly telling a national TV reporter), "Christ I listen to, but not Paul."  The not so subtle implication is that Paul is a mere mortal and fallible; he may not have gotten it all right or been fully expressing Christ´s heart in his New Testament writings.

Is there no fear of God yet left in such souls?  Are you that desperate to have your own way?  Apparently so and God granted this man Paul you hold in such low esteem to see you coming nearly 2,000 years ago (Acts 20: 17-31)! 

 

While Paul was a fallible mortal like all of the rest of us, if we doubt God´s infallible use of him, we may as well ditch the whole Bible including the quoted words of Christ since nothing but fallible men were its human penmen!  Ditch Christianity too; our faith is vain and our hope foolish because as pagan scoffers also charge (thinking they are on to something), the Bible was written by men!

 

The apostle Peter writes, "for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit," (2 Peter 1:21, NKJV).  He speaks of the men of the Old Testament.  If not his own writings which he set down to give a permanent witness to those he ministered to (2 Peter 1:12-15), Peter clearly believed Paul´s epistles were new Scriptures produced as those of old, in the Holy Spirit´s grip and power (2 Peter 3:14-16)!

 

For us faithful Gentile Christians, Paul is the closest you can get to Jesus without touching Him.  He was personally commissioned by the Lord Jesus to bring the Gospel about Him and its instructions to the Gentiles in fulfillment of such Old Testament prophecies as Isaiah 49:1-6 (Acts 9:1-19, 22:17-21; 26:12-18; 1 Timothy 2:5-7). It was to Paul that God gave the awesome privilege to receive direct revelation about and proclaim the mysteries of the Gospel long hidden in Him.  Among these mysteries is in Christ, believing Gentiles and Jews are brought together into one Church, His Body and God´s household (Ephesians 2:11-3:12)!

 

Coming to Christ in the first century, Gentile believers were often without knowledge of Judaism much less its correspondence with the Gospel.  The apostle Paul, that formerly proud and thoroughly self-righteous Pharisee was specially appointed by the Lord to teach them and us who read his epistles today.  Of the things we Gentiles had to know are God´s design of male and female roles and His order in our homes and churches.  Paul taught the Lord´s heart, will and commandments faithfully (1 Corinthians 7, 11:2-16, 14:26-40).

 

Truly, God has given a time frame to the world dominance of the Gentiles and Israel´s travail (Daniel 2:31-45, 9:20-27; Luke 21:20-24).  This dominance has expressed itself in and gone to the heads of professed Gentile Christians who now think they know more about the mysteries of God than Paul ever did!  Such are those who would discredit him to undermine his teaching on male and female roles.  But they show their arrogance, ignoring Paul´s warning (Romans 11:1-22) and blindness in ignorance of God´s immutable Word as the times of the Gentiles clearly near their end (Romans 11:23-36).  Their judgment is just!

 



©2007 Open Door Communication Ministries, Inc