House Church Talk - A vision of women and silence in the church

[jesusislord343 at juno.com]

On Thu, 13 May 2004 03:37:56 +0000 "Bruce Woodford" <bwood4d at hotmail.com>
writes:
(excerpts)
> "As in all churches of the saints" is NOT a phrase that occurs in verse
23 or in verse 37 as if it applied all the regulations of 23-40 to "all
churches of the saints".  

> NOWHERE IN SCRIPTURE ARE WOMEN TAUGHT TO BE SILENT (the not to speak
variety) EXCEPT IN THE CONTEXT OF THE WHOLE CHURCH IN A CITY COMING
TOGETHER INTO ONE PLACE.]


Dear Bruce,
I'm finally able to respond (very briefly and hurriedly) to your response
from awhile back, and here is where I find your theory on this passage to
be troublesome.  The picture you paint is a most implausible one--that
the word of God gives such detailed commandments for, as you say, "whole
church in a city" gatherings ONLY--while totally ignoring order and the
specifics of the regular meetings of the churches (?!).  [Do you conclude
that the commands of I Cor. 11:17-34 are only for city-wide gatherings
also?]

You apparently theorize that "all churches of the saints" in v. 33 has in
view TWO different types of assemblies (both city-wide, and regular house
meetings), but that "silent in the churches"--in the very next verse, no
less--refers only specifically to corporate gatherings of the *city-wide*
variety.  [Again, I am amazed.  :-)]

What is your scriptural basis for concluding that our Lord's commands of
I Cor. 14:26-40, which undeniably apply to "the churches" (vv. 34-35),
somehow are not to given by our Lord to apply to "ALL the churches of the
saints" (and in an epistle full of the establishment of various universal
assembly practices: 7:17; 11:16, 14:36, etc.)?

I would further submit to you that the theme of a supposed city-wide
gathering, upon which your entire theory is founded, is utterly absent
from the context of I Corinthians, and that the "whole church" phrase of
I Cor. 14:23 refers to all persons of the church versus a subset of the
whole.

Grace in Christ,
Glenn S.

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