Sola Scriptura is Essential to Complementarians, Part 3

This post is the third part of a series responding to Molly Aley, a self-described "99% egalitarian" blogger who recently posted My Disassembling Protestantism: Sola Scriptura.  In that post, she questioned whether or not the Scriptures were clear or even intended to be clear, and cited the following evidence:

Complementarians and Egalitarians both find their position from Scripture.  The Arminian and Calvinist positions both claim they are found in the clear teaching of the Bible.  Charismatic and non-Charismatic both base their stance on the Scriptures.  The Church of Christ claims it best reflects God's desire for the way "church" ought to be, but then again, so does the Baptist and the Pentecostal, and all three of them point to the Bible for "proof" that they are right. 

Certainly the Bible does contain challenging texts that require prayerful wrestling and cogitation in a community of believers.  John Piper helps us to understand why God inspired hard texts, and how a believer should respond.  My point is that the Bible itself is not to blame for disagreements in the church. 

On page 53 of Bible Doctrine, Wayne Grudem suggests two causes for long-standing disagreements.  One alternative is that Christians are seeking to make affirmations where Scripture itself is silent.  At these points, often on practical questions such as methods of evangelism or appropriate church size, the solution is to allow for differences of viewpoints within the church.

A second alternative more relevant to the gender debate is that believers have made mistakes in their interpretation of Scripture.  Grudem says, "This could have happened because the data we use to decide a question of interpretation were inaccurate or incomplete.  Or it could be because there is some personal inadequacy on our part, whether it be, for example, personal pride, greed, lack of faith, selfishness, or even failure to devote enough time to prayerfully reading and studying scripture."

Please do not read this as an accusation or personal attack, because that would miss my point.  Before we suspect the Bible of being muddled, we need to understand that we ourselves are muddled by sin.  We need to see ourselves as the Psalmist who is aware of his personal need and craves understanding from the perfect statutes of God (Psalm 119).

Please understand this primarily as a call to both complementarians and egalitarians for humility in dialogue, heart introspection, and a renewed zeal for engagement over the biblical texts themselves.  If you are new to the debate over gender issues, then the place to begin is with the Bible.