Editor's Column

By God's grace, this issue of the journal offers a rich feast of biblical, theological, and pastoral materials relating to questions of manhood and womanhood. J. Carl Laney has been a faithful Bible expositor, teacher, and author, working out of Western Seminary, Portland, Oregon.  Here, Dr. Laney provides an in depth overview of the history of interpretation of 1 Cor. 14:34-35, offering rich understandings of how this passage has been interpreted and helpful suggestions that propose his own view of this difficult and important text. 

My article on the image of God covers some familiar ground, and then it attempts to apply a genuine complementarian understanding to this important theological conception, particularly as viewed by Paul's expression of the image of God in 1 Cor 11:7-9.  What we find here is that while both male and female are fully and equally image of God, there are differences in how they exist as God's images, and this shows the true complementarity of the male/female relationship, as created by God.

Mr. Steve Heitland looks carefully at the question of complementarian roles as applied in the para-church ministry of YWAM.  He uses as the backdrop for this discussion the recent publication of YWAM's founder and director, Loren Cunningham's egalitarian defense, entitled Why Not Women?  Mr. Heitland traverses much of the argumentation of this book, offering helpful responses, and then he turns attention to the broader questions raised for women's participation in a ministry such as YWAM.  Readers will find insight and direction in Mr. Heitland's reflections of these important questions.

Pastor Jim Andrews has both the gift of wisdom and a gift for colorful and insightful writing.  I asked Pastor Andrews to show our readers a bit of how a thoughtful and biblically-balanced pastor reasons as he thinks through the question of the appropriate ministries for women's service in the church.  Church leaders will benefit greatly as they think along with Pastor Andrews, noting both the strong emphasis he places on the inestimable value of women's ministries along with the proper boundaries within which these must occur.

Dr. Thomas Schreiner has taken on the task of writing a careful and lengthy review of a recent book that promises to play a significant role in ongoing discussions among egalitarians and complementarians.  In Slaves, Women & Homosexuals, William Webb proposes a novel and deeply troubling thesis that the true authority for current ethical questions lies not in the pages of the Bible itself but in a post-biblical period that carries the biblical trajectory on past the text of Scripture to see where it leads us today.  In this way, Webb can affirm, on the one hand, a basic complementarian understanding of biblical teachings, but deny, on the other hand, that those teachings apply directly to our situation today.  Dr. Schreiner describes Webb's view fairly and thoroughly before he discusses its many serious problems.

Once again, the question of gender-inclusive Bible translation has been raised, as Zondervan and the International Bible Society announced, late January 2002, the upcoming publication of Today's New International Version (TNIV) New Testament.  Despite a signed agreement by both parties to follow the Colorado Springs guidelines in matters relating to gender translation, both organizations, along with the Committee for Bible Translation, proceeded to disregard that agreement in the production of the TNIV.  Dr. Wayne Grudem offers a brief overview of some of its most serious problems.  Please visit the CBMW website for more information (www.cbmw.org), and look for more discussion of this issue in the Fall 2002 (7.2) issue of JBMW. 

Once again, I express my deep appreciate to Mr. Rob Lister and Mr. Todd Miles for their excellent work compiling and annotating the lengthy list of articles on gender issues from 2001.  Their work here is both excellent and time-consuming, and we owe them sincere thanks for making this resource available.  May God be pleased to use this issue of JBMW to the advancement of his kingdom's purposes, to the glory of his name.