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Old 03-05-2008, 02:39 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by timmopussycat View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by raekwon View Post
Same here, but I don't know that I believe that female deacons will necessarily lead to having female elders. Case-in-point, Mars Hill Church in Seattle. They have female deacons, but hold probably the strongest complimentarian position I've ever seen in regards to male-only eldership in the church and male headship in the home. There's no way they'll ever have female elders, even after Driscoll's dead.

I do think, though, that if you're convinced that opening the diaconal office to women is biblical, that you'll need to guard very strongly and consistently against the those who come in and try to extend that opening to the office of elder.
If one's understanding is that the diaconate is a a purely serving ministry like the job the seven in Acts 6 were assigned to, then it is rather easy to maintain the line against women in eldership since such a diaconate is neither a teaching nor an authoritative ministry.
Exactly, both the ARP and RPCNA have female deacons and neither would even be on a short list of denominations that lean towards an egalitarian worldview.
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Benjamin P. Glaser
Pittsburgh, PA,
Fairmount ARP Church
Candidate Under Care Pittsburgh Theological Seminary & Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary
"The benefit of deliverance becomes the more precious in the same proportion in which we are brought to apprehend the magnitude of the evil from which we have been rescued"
-- Zacharias Ursinus, Commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism