Quote:
Originally Posted by Gryphonette  Is there a set, firm definition of "deacon" as it's being used here?
My general, knee-jerk reaction is "certainly not!" but some "deaconess" positions appear to be so service-oriented, with no authority over men (barring the "hey, please don't track mud through here!" sort), I don't see a problem with it.
Considering how humanity never seems to fail to slip rapidly down any slippery slope in a ten-mile vicinity, however, it's probably safest to refrain from providing even the slightest downward slope. | My general answer to danger of slippery slope arguments is that if God did not tell us in his word to put a fence around a particular slippery slope, we have no business adding one where he doesn't assign one to be placed. If there were women deacons in the early church (and the Scriptural evidence is such that we cannot reject the possiblity that there were), adding a fence here is not something we should do.
ISTM that adding a fence where he doesn't carries with it the inevitable suggestion that Christ is an incompetent shephed. May I suggest that perhaps more prayer for neighbours living near the slope might be something our Lord would rather see?
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In Christ's love and service
Mr. Tim Cunningham, Dip. CS (Regent College)
Member, First Baptist Church
Vancouver, BC
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"The Reformation was a time when men went blind, staggering drunk because they had discovered, in the dusty basement of late medievalism, a whole cellar of 1500-year-old, 200 proof grace—a bottle after bottle of pure distillate of Scripture, one sip of which would convince anyone that God saves us single-handedly. The word of the gospel—after all these centuries of trying to lift yourself into heaven by worrying about the perfection of your own bootstraps—suddenly turned out to be a flat announcement that the saved were home-free before they started. Grace was to be drunk neat: no water, no ice, and certainly no ginger ale." – Robert Farrar Capon
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