Buy Premarin without a perscription

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I. INTRODUCTION

How can Christians today know which parts of the Bible are "culturally relative" and buy Premarin without a perscription which parts apply to all believers in all cultures throughout history?

William Webb has buy Premarin without a perscription provided an entirely new approach to that question in a book that buy Premarin without a perscription focuses specifically on slavery, men's and women's roles, and buy Premarin without a perscription homosexuality, but that also provides a general approach to the question of cultural relativity, an buy Premarin without a perscription approach that Webb hopes will prove useful for solving similar questions on other topics.

The book provides an buy Premarin without a perscription extensive and rather complex system of cultural analysis that Webb calls a buy Premarin without a perscription "redemptive-movement hermeneutic." Because of its amount of detail and buy Premarin without a perscription the sophistication of its argument, the book has prompted widespread interest among evangelicals, many of whom have buy Premarin without a perscription enthusiastically embraced its system.

In brief, Webb says that buy Premarin without a perscription the ancient world in which the Bible was written had buy Premarin without a perscription gravely deficient moral standards. God in his wisdom knew that buy Premarin without a perscription it would be best to work gradually to lead his people from buy Premarin without a perscription the moral practices of the surrounding cultures to much higher standards of moral conduct. Therefore in the buy Premarin without a perscription OT God gave moral commands that were a great improvement over the buy Premarin without a perscription standards of the surrounding culture, but were not yet his highest ideal. In the buy Premarin without a perscription NT, God gave even higher moral standards, making further improvement over what buy Premarin without a perscription was taught in the OT. But even these NT moral commands were not God's "ultimate ethic." Our task today is buy Premarin without a perscription to try to understand the direction in which God was gradually leading his people, so that buy Premarin without a perscription by observing that trajectory we can discover God's "ultimate ethic" on various topics, an "ultimate ethic" that we should seek to teach and obey today.

Webb uses eighteen criteria to buy Premarin without a perscription attempt to discover the direction of God's "redemptive movement" in three specific test cases: slavery, homosexuality, and buy Premarin without a perscription the role of women in marriage and the church. Because I will refer to buy Premarin without a perscription Webb's eighteen criteria throughout this buy Premarin without a perscription article, I will list them here. They are more fully explained in the buy Premarin without a perscription material that follows, and I summarize my evaluation of each criterion in section VI near the buy Premarin without a perscription end of this article. Webb's eighteen criteria are as follows:

1. Preliminary Movement (p. 73)

2. Seed Ideas (p. 83)

3. Breakouts (p. 91)

4. Purpose/Intent Statements (p. 105)

5. Basis in Fall or Curse (p. 110)

6. Basis in Original Creation, Section 1: Patterns (p. 123)

7. Basis in Original Creation, Section 2: Primogeniture (p. 134)

8. Basis in New Creation (p. 145)

9. Competing Options (p. 152)

10. Opposition to Original Culture (p. 157)

11. Closely Related Issues (p. 162)

12. Penal Code (p. 179)

13. Specific Instructions Versus General Principles (p. 179)

14. Basis in Theological Analogy (p. 185)

15. Contextual Comparisons (p. 192)

16. Appeal to the Old Testament (p. 201)

17. Pragmatic Basis Between Two Cultures (p. 209)

18. Scientific and Social-Scientific Evidence (p. 221)

I expect that most readers will find Webb's explanation of why the buy Premarin without a perscription Bible regulated but did not immediately prohibit all slavery to be buy Premarin without a perscription a helpful analysis. Readers may also find helpful Webb's explanation of why the Bible's prohibitions against homosexual conduct are buy Premarin without a perscription transcultural, not culturally relative. This is because Webb has read widely concerning slavery and buy Premarin without a perscription homosexuality in the cultural backgrounds that surrounded the writers of the buy Premarin without a perscription OT and NT, and his book provides a helpful resource in those areas. However, as Thomas Schreiner pointed out in an buy Premarin without a perscription earlier review,¹ Webb's opposition to buy Premarin without a perscription homosexuality is a dangerously weak basis for evangelicals to use, because he fails to buy Premarin without a perscription quote or discuss in any detail the strongest NT text on homosexuality, Rom 1:26-27, where buy Premarin without a perscription Paul bases his argument on the natural order that God created (he gives the buy Premarin without a perscription text only one paragraph on p. 109, lumping it together with Lev 18:22 and buy Premarin without a perscription 20:13).² Webb never argues that buy Premarin without a perscription homosexual conduct is wrong because the NT says so and the buy Premarin without a perscription NT is God's final revelation to us in this age (to argue this way would be contrary to Webb's system; see below).

Regarding biblical roles for men and women, Webb's book provides a buy Premarin without a perscription significant new challenge to those who believe that the Bible teaches that buy Premarin without a perscription wives should be subject to their husbands today (according to several NT passages), and buy Premarin without a perscription that some governing and teaching roles in the church, such as the buy Premarin without a perscription office of elder or pastor, are restricted to men. In contrast to buy Premarin without a perscription many egalitarians who have argued that the NT does not teach that buy Premarin without a perscription wives should be subject to their husbands, or that only men should be buy Premarin without a perscription elders, Webb takes a different approach: he believes that the buy Premarin without a perscription NT does teach these things for the culture in which the NT was written, but that in today's culture the treatment of women is an area in which "a buy Premarin without a perscription better ethic than the one expressed in the isolated words of the buy Premarin without a perscription text is possible" (p. 36, italics added).

Webb admits that buy Premarin without a perscription the OT and NT improved the treatment of women when compared with their surrounding cultures, but, he says,

If one adopts a redemptive-movement hermeneutic, the softening of patriarchy (which Scripture itself initiates) can buy Premarin without a perscription be taken a considerable distance further. Carrying the redemptive movement within Scripture to buy Premarin without a perscription a more improved expression for gender relationships . . . [today] ends in either ultra-soft patriarchy or complementary egalitarianism (p. 39).

Later in the book, Webb defines such "ultra-soft patriarchy" as a buy Premarin without a perscription position in which there are no unique leadership roles for men in marriage or buy Premarin without a perscription in the church, but men are given "a certain level of symbolic honor" (p. 243). He defines "complementary egalitarianism" as full interdependence and "mutual submission" within marriage, and the only differences in roles are "based upon biological differences between men and women," so that Webb would favor "a greater participation of women in the buy Premarin without a perscription early stages of child rearing" (p. 241). Thus, Webb's "ultra-soft patriarchy" differs from his "complementary egalitarianism" only in the slight bit of "symbolic honor" which ultrasoft patriarchy would still give to men.

Because of its detail, novelty, and buy Premarin without a perscription the complexity of its approach, this book deserves to be taken seriously by complementarians. However, because of concerns that buy Premarin without a perscription are detailed below, I do not think that the book succeeds in showing that buy Premarin without a perscription male headship in the home and the church is culturally relative. Nor do I believe that buy Premarin without a perscription the book provides a system for analyzing cultural relativity that is buy Premarin without a perscription ultimately helpful for Christians today.

II. CONCERNS RELATED TO THE AUTHORITY OF SCRIPTURE AND THE FINALITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT

1. Webb's trajectory hermeneutic nullifies in principle the buy Premarin without a perscription moral authority of the entire New Testament and thus contradicts the buy Premarin without a perscription Reformation principle of sola Scriptura. At first glance, it buy Premarin without a perscription may not seem as though Webb "nullifies" the buy Premarin without a perscription moral authority of the entire NT, because he agrees, for example, that buy Premarin without a perscription homosexual conduct is morally wrong and that the NT condemnations of homosexual conduct are buy Premarin without a perscription transcultural (pp. 39-41, 250-52, and many other places in the book). He also affirms that buy Premarin without a perscription the NT admonitions for children to be subject to their parents are buy Premarin without a perscription transcultural (p. 212). Is Webb not then buy Premarin without a perscription affirming that some aspects of NT ethics are transcultural?

The important point to realize is the basis on which Webb affirms that buy Premarin without a perscription these are transcultural commands. Most evangelicals today read a text such as, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right" (Eph 6:1) and conclude that children today are buy Premarin without a perscription to obey their parents because the NT was written for Christians in the buy Premarin without a perscription new covenant age (after Christ's death). Since we Christians today are also in the new covenant age (the period of time until Christ returns), this command is binding on us today.

Most evangelicals today reason similarly about the buy Premarin without a perscription NT texts concerning homosexual conduct (see, for example, Rom 1:26-27; 1 Cor 6:9), and buy Premarin without a perscription conclude that these are morally binding on us because these texts were written to buy Premarin without a perscription new covenant Christians, and we today are also part of the buy Premarin without a perscription new covenant.

But for Webb, the process is entirely different, and buy Premarin without a perscription the basis of authority is different. The commands concerning children and buy Premarin without a perscription homosexuals are binding on us today not because they were written to new covenant Christians and we today are part of the new covenant (I could not find such a consideration anywhere in Webb's book), but because these commands have passed through the filtering system of Webb's eighteen criteria and buy Premarin without a perscription have survived. Actually, the command concerning children has not entirely survived his filtering process. Webb believes that buy Premarin without a perscription the commands for children to obey their parents actually teach that buy Premarin without a perscription adult children should continue to buy Premarin without a perscription be obedient to their parents throughout their adult lives, but that buy Premarin without a perscription this aspect of the command was culturally relative and need not be buy Premarin without a perscription followed by us today (see p. 212).³

In this way, it is fair to say that Webb's system invalidates the buy Premarin without a perscription moral authority of the entire NT, at least in the buy Premarin without a perscription sense that we today should be obedient to the moral commands that buy Premarin without a perscription were written to new covenant Christians. Instead, only those commands are buy Premarin without a perscription binding that have passed through his eighteen-part filter.

Someone may object, "Doesn't everyone have to use some kind of cultural filter? Doesn't everyone have buy Premarin without a perscription to test the New Testament commands to see if they are buy Premarin without a perscription culturally relative or transcultural before deciding whether to obey them?"

My response is buy Premarin without a perscription that there is a fundamental difference in approach. Most evangelicals (myself included) say that we are under the buy Premarin without a perscription moral authority of the NT, and we are morally obligated to buy Premarin without a perscription obey its commands when we are in the same situation as that buy Premarin without a perscription addressed in the NT command (such as being a buy Premarin without a perscription parent, a child, a person contemplating a divorce, a church selecting elders or buy Premarin without a perscription deacons, a church preparing to celebrate the Lord's Supper, a husband, a wife, and so forth). When there is buy Premarin without a perscription no exact modern equivalent to some aspect of a command (such as, "honor the emperor" in 1 Pet 2:17), then buy Premarin without a perscription we are still obligated to obey the command, but we do so by applying it buy Premarin without a perscription to situations that are essentially similar to the one found in the buy Premarin without a perscription NT. Therefore, "honor the emperor" is buy Premarin without a perscription applied to honoring the president or the prime minister. In fact, in several such cases the buy Premarin without a perscription immediate context contains pointers to broader applications (such as 1 Pet 2:13-14, which mentions being subject to "every human institution" including the "emperor" and "governors" as specific examples).⁴

But with Webb the buy Premarin without a perscription situation is entirely different. He does not consider the moral commands of the buy Premarin without a perscription NT to represent a perfect or final moral system for Christians. They are buy Premarin without a perscription rather a pointer that "provides the buy Premarin without a perscription direction toward the divine destination, but its literal, isolated words are buy Premarin without a perscription not always the destination itself. Sometimes God's instructions are simply designed to get his flock moving" (p. 60).

At the heart of Webb's system is what he calls a "redemptive-movement hermeneutic." He says that some may prefer calling his approach a "progressive" or "developmental" or "trajectory" hermeneutic and he says "that is fine" (p. 31). Webb explains his hermeneutic by what he calls "the X→Y→Z Principle." The letter Y indicates what buy Premarin without a perscription the Bible says about a topic. Webb says, "The central position (Y) stands for buy Premarin without a perscription where the isolated words of the Bible are in their development of a buy Premarin without a perscription subject" (p. 31). The letter X represents "the perspective of the original culture," and the letter Z represents "an ultimate ethic," that is, God's final ideal that the Bible is moving toward.

Therefore in Webb's system, what evangelicals have ordinarily understood to be "the teaching of the Bible" on particular subjects is buy Premarin without a perscription in fact only a point along the way (indicated by the letter Y) toward the development of a final or ultimate ethic (Z). Webb says,

The X→Y→Z Principle illustrates how numerous aspects of the buy Premarin without a perscription biblical text were not written to buy Premarin without a perscription establish a utopian society with complete justice and equity. They were written within a buy Premarin without a perscription cultural framework with limited moves toward an ultimate ethic (p. 31).

Therefore, Webb discovers a number of points where "our contemporary culture" has buy Premarin without a perscription a better ethic than what is found in the words of the buy Premarin without a perscription Bible. Our culture has a better ethic today "where it buy Premarin without a perscription happens to reflect a better social ethic-one closer to an ultimate ethic (Z) than buy Premarin without a perscription to the ethic revealed in the isolated words of the biblical text" (p. 31).

Webb's approach to buy Premarin without a perscription Scripture can also be seen in the way he deals with biblical texts regarding slavery. Most evangelical interpreters today would say that buy Premarin without a perscription the NT does not command or encourage or endorse slavery, but rather tells Christians who buy Premarin without a perscription were slaves how they should conduct themselves within that situation, and buy Premarin without a perscription also gives principles that would modify and ultimately lead to the buy Premarin without a perscription abolition of slavery (1 Cor 7:21-22; Gal 3:28; Phlm 16, 21). By contrast, Webb believes that buy Premarin without a perscription the Bible actually endorses slavery; however, it is a kind of slavery with "better conditions and fewer abuses" (p. 37).

Webb's redemptive-movement hermeneutic approaches the buy Premarin without a perscription slavery question by saying that the original culture (X) approved of "slavery with many abuses" (p. 37). Partially correcting that original culture, the Bible (Y) endorses "slavery with better conditions and fewer abuses" (p. 37). However, Webb believes that on the issue of slavery "our culture is buy Premarin without a perscription much closer to an ultimate ethic than it is to buy Premarin without a perscription the unrealized ethic reflected in the isolated words of the buy Premarin without a perscription Bible" (p. 37). Today, the buy Premarin without a perscription ethic of our culture, which is superior to that of the buy Premarin without a perscription Bible, has "slavery eliminated and working conditions often improved" (p. 37). Webb believes our culture is much closer to an "ultimate ethic" (Z) in which we will see "wages maximized for all" (p. 37).⁵

At the buy Premarin without a perscription end of the book, Webb recapitulates the results of his analysis regarding slavery:

Scripture does not present a "finalized ethic" in every area of human relationship. . . . To stop where buy Premarin without a perscription the Bible stops (with its isolated words) ultimately fails to buy Premarin without a perscription reapply the redemptive spirit of the text as it spoke to buy Premarin without a perscription the original audience. It fails to see that further reformation is buy Premarin without a perscription possible. . . . While Scripture had a positive influence in its time, we should take that buy Premarin without a perscription redemptive spirit and move to an even better, more fully-realized ethic today (p. 247).

Therefore, rather than saying that the NT does not endorse or buy Premarin without a perscription command slavery, Webb believes that it does approve a system of slavery for buy Premarin without a perscription the people at the time at which it was written. However, in its modifications and buy Premarin without a perscription regulations of slavery, the Bible starts us along a trajectory that buy Premarin without a perscription would lead to the ultimate abolition of slavery, though the NT never actually reaches that buy Premarin without a perscription point.

Webb asks why the Bible is this way:

Why does God convey his message in a buy Premarin without a perscription way that reflects a less-than-ultimate ethic . . . that evidences an buy Premarin without a perscription underlying redemptive spirit and some movement in a positive direction, it buy Premarin without a perscription often permits its words to stop short of completely fulfilling such a buy Premarin without a perscription spirit? Why did God not simply give us a buy Premarin without a perscription clearly laid out blueprint for an ultimate-ethic utopia-like society? How could a buy Premarin without a perscription God of absolute justice not give us a revelation concerning absolute justice on every page? (p. 57)

Webb's answer to buy Premarin without a perscription these questions is to see this incomplete movement toward an ultimate ethic as a buy Premarin without a perscription manifestation of God's wisdom. In showing us that buy Premarin without a perscription the Bible was making progress against the surrounding culture, but not completely correcting the buy Premarin without a perscription surrounding culture, we can see God's pastoral wisdom (p. 58), his pedagogical skill (p. 60), his evangelistic care for buy Premarin without a perscription people who might not have heard the gospel if it proclaimed an buy Premarin without a perscription ultimate ethic (p. 63), and other aspects of God's wisdom (pp. 64-66).

According to Webb's system, then, Christians can buy Premarin without a perscription no longer simply go to the NT, begin to read the buy Premarin without a perscription moral commands in one of Paul's epistles, and buy Premarin without a perscription believe that they should obey them. According to Webb, that would be buy Premarin without a perscription to use a "static hermeneutic" that just reads the "isolated words of the text" and fails to understand "the spirit-movement component of meaning which significantly transforms the buy Premarin without a perscription application of texts for subsequent generations" (p. 34). Rather, we must realize that buy Premarin without a perscription the NT teachings simply represent one stage in a trajectory of movement toward an buy Premarin without a perscription ultimate ethic.

So how can Christians discover this "ultimate ethic"? Webb takes the buy Premarin without a perscription rest of the book to explain eighteen fairly complex criteria by which Christians must evaluate the buy Premarin without a perscription commands of the Bible and thereby discover the more just, more equitable ethical system toward which the buy Premarin without a perscription Bible was heading. Once that ultimate ethic has been discovered, that buy Premarin without a perscription ultimate ethic is the moral standard that we should follow and buy Premarin without a perscription obey.

What this buy Premarin without a perscription means in actual practice is that the moral authority of the buy Premarin without a perscription NT is completely nullified at least in principle. There may be buy Premarin without a perscription some NT commands that Webb concludes actually do represent an buy Premarin without a perscription ultimate ethic, but even then we should obey them not because they are taught in the NT, but because Webb's system has buy Premarin without a perscription found that what they teach is also the moral standard found in his "ultimate ethic."

The implications of this buy Premarin without a perscription for Christian morality are extremely serious. It means that our ultimate authority is buy Premarin without a perscription no longer the Bible but Webb's system. Of course, he claims that the "redemptive spirit" that buy Premarin without a perscription drives his hermeneutic for each area of ethics is derived from buy Premarin without a perscription the biblical text, but by his own admission this "redemptive spirit" is buy Premarin without a perscription not the same as the teachings of the Bible, but rather is buy Premarin without a perscription derived from Webb's analysis of the buy Premarin without a perscription interaction between the ancient culture and the biblical text. Here is buy Premarin without a perscription his key explanation:

The final and buy Premarin without a perscription most important characteristic of a redemptive-movement hermeneutic is its focus on the buy Premarin without a perscription spirit of a text. . . . The coinage "redemptive-movement hermeneutic" is derived from a concern that Christians apply the redemptive spirit within Scripture, not merely, or even primarily, its isolated words. Finding the buy Premarin without a perscription underlying spirit of a text is a delicate matter. It is buy Premarin without a perscription not as direct or explicit as reading the words on the buy Premarin without a perscription page. In order to grasp the spirit of a text, the buy Premarin without a perscription interpreter must listen for how the text sounds within its various social contexts. Two life settings are buy Premarin without a perscription crucial: the broader, foreign ancient Near Eastern and Greco-Roman (ANE/GR) social context and the immediate, domestic Israelite/ church setting. One must ask, what change/improvement is buy Premarin without a perscription the text making in the lives of people in the buy Premarin without a perscription covenant community? And, how does the text influence the larger ANE/GR world? Through reflecting upon these social-setting questions the buy Premarin without a perscription modern reader will begin to sense the redemptive spirit of the buy Premarin without a perscription text. Also, a buy Premarin without a perscription third setting permits one another way of discovering the redemptive spirit, namely, the buy Premarin without a perscription canonical movement across various biblical epochs (p. 53, italics added).

This paragraph is buy Premarin without a perscription remarkable for the candor with which it reveals the subjective and buy Premarin without a perscription indeterminate nature of Webb's ethical system. If the heart of the "most important characteristic" of his hermeneutic is discovered through "reflecting upon" the buy Premarin without a perscription way the Bible interacts with ancient Near Eastern and Greco-Roman cultures, and buy Premarin without a perscription through such reflection the interpreter will "begin to sense the redemptive spirit of the text," we have buy Premarin without a perscription entered a realm so subjective that no two interpreters in the buy Premarin without a perscription future will be likely to agree on where the "redemptive spirit of the text" that they are beginning to "sense" is leading, and what kind of "ultimate ethic" they should count as God's will for them.

Those with a buy Premarin without a perscription predisposition toward socialism will no doubt be delighted that Webb has buy Premarin without a perscription begun "to sense" a "redemptive spirit" that will lead to "wages maximized for all" (p. 37). But those more inclined to capitalism will no doubt "begin to sense" quite another "redemptive spirit" in which the buy Premarin without a perscription dominant biblical themes of freedom and liberty and fair reward for buy Premarin without a perscription one's labor lead to an "ultimate ethic" (Z) that encourages investment and a free enterprise system, one with maximization of profits for buy Premarin without a perscription those worthy individuals who through their business activities best meet the buy Premarin without a perscription material needs of mankind, and thus by means of the high quality of goods they produce for buy Premarin without a perscription others best show that they love their neighbors as themselves.

No doubt Arminians will "begin to sense the redemptive spirit" of Arminianism moving against the buy Premarin without a perscription fatalism of the ancient world in a much more Arminian direction than buy Premarin without a perscription we find even in the NT. And Calvinists, through serious and buy Premarin without a perscription sober reflection upon the way in which the biblical text corrects the buy Premarin without a perscription puny, weak gods in the Greek and Roman pantheon, will "begin to sense the redemptive spirit" of Calvinism moving through the buy Premarin without a perscription NT toward an even higher emphasis on the sovereignty of God than buy Premarin without a perscription we find in any current NT texts.

And on and on it will go. Baptists will "begin to sense the redemptive spirit" of believer's baptism as the buy Premarin without a perscription NT corrects the all-inclusive nature of the religions of the ancient world, and buy Premarin without a perscription paedobaptists will "begin to sense the redemptive spirit" of inclusion of infants in the buy Premarin without a perscription covenant community, as the NT decisively corrects the neglect and abuse of children found in many ancient cultures. People seeking justification for buy Premarin without a perscription their desire to obtain a divorce will "begin to sense the redemptive spirit" of more and buy Premarin without a perscription more reasons for divorce, moving from the one reason that buy Premarin without a perscription Jesus allowed (adultery in Matt 19:9), to buy Premarin without a perscription the increasing freedom found in Paul, who allows a second ground for buy Premarin without a perscription divorce (desertion by an unbeliever in 1 Cor 7:15), along a buy Premarin without a perscription trajectory toward many other reasons for divorce as we move toward an buy Premarin without a perscription "ultimate ethic" (Z) where buy Premarin without a perscription everyone should be completely happy with his or her spouse.

Now Webb may object that these hypothetical "redemptive spirit" findings could not be buy Premarin without a perscription derived from a responsible use of his eighteen criteria. On the buy Premarin without a perscription other hand, I have lived in the academic world for over thirty years, and buy Premarin without a perscription I have a great deal of confidence in the ability of scholars to buy Premarin without a perscription take a set of eighteen criteria and make a case for buy Premarin without a perscription almost anything they desire. But whether or not my hypothetical suggestions are buy Premarin without a perscription the result of a proper use of Webb's criteria, the point remains: the buy Premarin without a perscription standard is no longer what the NT says, but rather the buy Premarin without a perscription point toward which some biblical scholar thinks the Bible was moving. And that is why I believe that Webb's redemptive-movement hermeneutic nullifies in principle the buy Premarin without a perscription moral authority of the entire NT.

Webb's system therefore constitutes a buy Premarin without a perscription direct denial of the Reformation principle of sola Scriptura, the doctrine that "the Bible alone" is buy Premarin without a perscription the ultimate authority for what we are to believe and do, and buy Premarin without a perscription that its teachings constitute the norm to which all our beliefs and buy Premarin without a perscription practices are to conform. In Webb's system the buy Premarin without a perscription norm is no longer the teachings of the Bible but what buy Premarin without a perscription we can discover about the "ultimate ethic" (Z) toward which the Bible was heading.⁶

2. Webb fails in nearly every section of the buy Premarin without a perscription book to recognize that Christians are no longer bound by old covenant laws, and buy Premarin without a perscription thus he neglects to use the fundamental structural division of the buy Premarin without a perscription entire Bible (the difference between the Old and New Testaments) as a means of determining moral obligations for Christians today. It is remarkable that in most of the sections of the book (not all), Webb fails to buy Premarin without a perscription distinguish between the teachings of the OT and the teachings of the buy Premarin without a perscription NT. Thus, in dealing with slavery, he often combines NT and buy Premarin without a perscription OT passages in the same list, without noticing any distinction between them (pp. 44, 74-76, 163-64, and elsewhere). He does the same thing with texts referring to women (pp. 46-47, 76-81, 160, 165-67) and primogeniture (pp. 94-95, 136-42) and with other elements of the Mosaic law code.

Although Webb occasionally gives limited attention to what he calls "canonical movement" from the OT to the NT (see pp. 77-78, for example), for buy Premarin without a perscription him such development is just additional evidence that we should move beyond the buy Premarin without a perscription NT even as the NT developed beyond the OT. He sees the buy Premarin without a perscription OT and NT as just two steps along the way toward further redemptive-movement in ethical development beyond the buy Premarin without a perscription NT. He never considers the buy Premarin without a perscription possibility that the development from OT to NT is the end, and buy Premarin without a perscription that the NT itself provides the final ethical standard for Christians in the buy Premarin without a perscription new covenant.

When Webb claims that "a redemptive-movement hermeneutic has buy Premarin without a perscription always been a major part of the historic church, apostolic and buy Premarin without a perscription beyond" (p. 35), and therefore that all Christians believe in some kind of "redemptive movement" hermeneutic, he fails to buy Premarin without a perscription make one important distinction: evangelicals have always held that the buy Premarin without a perscription redemptive movement within Scripture ends with the NT! Webb carries it beyond the NT.

In doing this, Webb fails to buy Premarin without a perscription recognize the centrality of Jesus Christ for all of history. Yes, there is buy Premarin without a perscription movement and development beyond the OT, because in the OT "at many times and buy Premarin without a perscription in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets." By contrast, "in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the buy Premarin without a perscription heir of all things, through whom also he created the world" (Heb 1:1-2). In the buy Premarin without a perscription writings of the NT we have a written record of the buy Premarin without a perscription revelation that God gave us in Christ and the revelation that buy Premarin without a perscription Christ gave to his apostles. We are not to look for buy Premarin without a perscription doctrinal or ethical development beyond the teachings and commands of the buy Premarin without a perscription NT, for that would be to look for development beyond the buy Premarin without a perscription supreme revelation of God in his Son.

Yes, the buy Premarin without a perscription NT explicitly tells us that we are no longer under the buy Premarin without a perscription regulations of the old covenant (Heb 8:6-13), so we have buy Premarin without a perscription clear warrant for saying the sacrificial laws and dietary laws are buy Premarin without a perscription no longer binding on us. And we do see the apostles in a buy Premarin without a perscription process of coming to understand the inclusion of the Gentiles in the buy Premarin without a perscription church (Acts 15; Gal 2:1-14; 3:28). But that process was completed within the NT, and buy Premarin without a perscription the commands given to Christians in the NT say nothing about excluding Gentiles from buy Premarin without a perscription the church! We do not have to progress on a "trajectory" beyond the NT to discover that.

Christians living in the time of Paul's epistles were living under the buy Premarin without a perscription new covenant. And Christians today are also living under the new covenant. This is buy Premarin without a perscription "the new covenant in my blood" (1 Cor 11:25), which Jesus established and buy Premarin without a perscription which we affirm every time we take the Lord's Supper. That means that we are living in the same period in God's plan for "the history of redemption" as the buy Premarin without a perscription first-century Christians. And that is why we can read and directly apply the buy Premarin without a perscription NT today.

To attempt to go beyond the NT documents and derive our authority from "where the New Testament was heading" is buy Premarin without a perscription to reject the very documents that God gave us to govern our life under the buy Premarin without a perscription new covenant until Christ returns. It is to reject the Reformation doctrine of sola Scriptura and buy Premarin without a perscription establish an entirely new basis of authority distinct from the buy Premarin without a perscription Bible itself.

When Webb does touch on the buy Premarin without a perscription relationship between the OT and NT, he says that he is buy Premarin without a perscription not going to decide how the OT relates to the NT. After saying that buy Premarin without a perscription he rejects both the idea that "only those particulars of the Mosaic law that the New Testament expressly sanctions apply to New Testament believers," and the idea that "Christians are bound to obey all those particulars in the Mosaic law that the NT does not expressly abrogate," Webb tells us: "Nor am buy Premarin without a perscription I going to establish a more durable and alternative dictum about how the buy Premarin without a perscription Old Testament relates to the modern Christian. Such is beyond the buy Premarin without a perscription scope of this work" (p. 205).

The problem is buy Premarin without a perscription that throughout the book Webb uses dozens of examples from the buy Premarin without a perscription OT to establish and support the need to use his eighteen criteria in determining what buy Premarin without a perscription is culturally relative and to support the idea that we should abandon what buy Premarin without a perscription he calls "biblical patriarchy" and move beyond it by "taking . . . a buy Premarin without a perscription redemptive-movement approach to the present-day application of biblical patriarchy" (p. 172, after appealing to buy Premarin without a perscription several Mosaic covenant laws regarding the treatment of women [pp. 165-67, for example]). Rather than buy Premarin without a perscription saying, for example, that we should not follow the law that buy Premarin without a perscription a woman was to be stoned if she was not a buy Premarin without a perscription virgin at the time of marriage (Deut 22:20- 21) because we are buy Premarin without a perscription under the new covenant and no longer subject to the laws of the buy Premarin without a perscription Mosaic covenant, Webb uses this buy Premarin without a perscription law about stoning as one of his examples showing that "the Christian who buy Premarin without a perscription embraces the redemptive-movement hermeneutic will surely carry the redemptive spirit of the biblical text forward in today's setting" (p. 167). What is telling in this statement (and dozens like it throughout the book) is his phrase "the biblical text." Anything found in any part of the buy Premarin without a perscription Bible for Webb is simply part of "the biblical text," which is buy Premarin without a perscription heavily affected by its ancient culture and which we need to buy Premarin without a perscription move beyond today.

When Webb repeatedly gives long lists of Mosaic laws on slavery or buy Premarin without a perscription wives, and then says it would be foolish to obey what buy Premarin without a perscription "the Bible" says on these subjects today, unsuspecting readers may think that buy Premarin without a perscription he has built a persuasive case for his eighteen criteria. But he has buy Premarin without a perscription not, because the change from old covenant to new covenant means that buy Premarin without a perscription those dozens of Mosaic laws are not part of what "the Bible" requires of Christians today. We are buy Premarin without a perscription not under the Mosaic law.⁷

Yet this fundamental omission is pervasive in Webb's book. If someone were to buy Premarin without a perscription go through his book and remove all the examples he takes from buy Premarin without a perscription the OT, and all the implications that he draws from those examples, we would be buy Premarin without a perscription left not with a book but with a small pamphlet.

Webb's failure to buy Premarin without a perscription adequately take into account the fact that Christians are no buy Premarin without a perscription longer bound by Mosaic covenant legislation is an omission of such magnitude as to buy Premarin without a perscription nullify the value of this book as a guide for buy Premarin without a perscription hermeneutics.

3. Webb denies the buy Premarin without a perscription historicity of Genesis 2-3 in order to deny the contemporary validity of the buy Premarin without a perscription male headship that he finds recorded in the text. Another concern related to the authority of Scripture emerges from Webb's treatment of Genesis 2-3. Webb agrees that "the practice of primogeniture in which the buy Premarin without a perscription first born is granted prominence within the ‘creative order' of a family unit" (p. 135) is buy Premarin without a perscription found in the narrative in Genesis 2. Webb sees this as support for buy Premarin without a perscription male headship within the text of Genesis 2. He also thinks this buy Premarin without a perscription is how it is understood by Paul when he says, "For Adam was formed first, then Eve" (1 Tim 2:13). But Webb sees this "primogeniture" theme in Genesis 2 as a cultural component in that text.

But how could there be buy Premarin without a perscription changing cultural influence in the pre-fall Garden of Eden? Webb answers this buy Premarin without a perscription question in three ways. First, he says these indications of male headship may be buy Premarin without a perscription a literary device that anticipates events in the future rather than buy Premarin without a perscription accurately recording what was in fact true in the garden: "A second question is buy Premarin without a perscription how cultural features could possibly be found in the garden before the buy Premarin without a perscription influence of culture. Several explanations exist. First, the whispers of patriarchy in the buy Premarin without a perscription garden may have been placed there in order to anticipate the buy Premarin without a perscription curse" (pp. 142-43).

Webb then buy Premarin without a perscription claims that the literary construction of Genesis 2-3 includes at least one other example of "literary foreshadowing of the curse" in the pejorative description of the serpent as "more crafty than any of the wild animals" (Gen 3:1). Webb then asks, "If the buy Premarin without a perscription garden is completely pristine, how could certain creatures in the buy Premarin without a perscription just-created animal kingdom reflect craftiness? Obviously, this Edenic material embraces an artistic foreshadowing of events to come" (p. 143, italics added).

Webb's analysis here assumes that buy Premarin without a perscription there was no sin or evil in the garden in actual fact, but that buy Premarin without a perscription by a literary device the author described the serpent as "crafty" (and therefore deceitful and therefore sinful), thus anticipating what he would be later, after the Fall.

There are buy Premarin without a perscription two problems here. First, it makes Gen 3:1 affirm something that buy Premarin without a perscription was not true at that time, and this denies the truthfulness of a buy Premarin without a perscription section of historical narrative in Scripture. Second, it fails even to buy Premarin without a perscription consider the most likely explanation, namely, that there was sin in the buy Premarin without a perscription angelic world sometime after the completion of the initial creation (Gen 1:31) but prior to Gen 3:1.⁸ Because of this rebellion in the angelic world (see 2 Pet 2:4; Jude 6), Satan himself was somehow speaking through the serpent.⁹ So Webb's claim that there must be "artistic foreshadowing of events to come" is buy Premarin without a perscription not persuasive with respect to the serpent in Gen 3:1.

The same should be said of his claim that "the whispers of patriarchy in the buy Premarin without a perscription garden may have been placed there in order to anticipate the buy Premarin without a perscription curse" (pp. 142-43). Webb is saying that patriarchy did not exist in the garden in actual fact, but the buy Premarin without a perscription author placed hints of it in the story as a way of anticipating the buy Premarin without a perscription situation that would come about after there was sin in the buy Premarin without a perscription world. This is also an explicit denial of the historical accuracy of the buy Premarin without a perscription Genesis 2 account.

Webb goes on with a buy Premarin without a perscription second explanation for the indications of male headship in Genesis 2:

Second, Eden's quiet echoes of patriarchy may be a way of describing the past through present categories. The creation story may be using the social categories that Moses' audience would have been familiar with. God sometimes permits such accommodation in order not to buy Premarin without a perscription confuse the main point he wants to communicate with factors that buy Premarin without a perscription are secondary to that overall theme (p. 143, italics added).¹⁰

This is buy Premarin without a perscription another way in which Webb denies the historicity of the Genesis 2 account. He says that buy Premarin without a perscription Moses in the time he wrote used "present categories" such as patriarchy to buy Premarin without a perscription describe the past, and this was simply an "accommodation" by God "in order not to confuse the main point." Patriarchy did not actually exist in the buy Premarin without a perscription garden of Eden, but Moses inserted it there so as not to buy Premarin without a perscription confuse his audience. Thus, Moses inserted into Genesis 2 facts that buy Premarin without a perscription were not true.

Finally, Webb gives a third reason:

Third . . . the patriarchy of the garden may reflect God's anticipation of the buy Premarin without a perscription social context into which Adam and Eve were about to venture. An agrarian lifestyle . . . would naturally produce some kind of hierarchy between men and buy Premarin without a perscription women. . . . The presentation of the male-female relationship in patriarchal forms may simply be buy Premarin without a perscription a way of anticipating this first (and major) life setting into which humankind would enter (p. 144).

Again, Webb believes that the element of primogeniture (Adam being created before Eve) in Genesis 2 may have buy Premarin without a perscription been written there, not because it reflected the actual facts of the buy Premarin without a perscription situation in the garden of Eden, but because Adam and buy Premarin without a perscription Eve after they sinned would enter into a situation where Adam as husband had buy Premarin without a perscription leadership over his wife. This again is buy Premarin without a perscription an explicit denial of the historical accuracy of the headship of Adam and buy Premarin without a perscription his prior creation as found in Genesis 2. It was simply "a practical and gracious anticipation of the agrarian setting into which Adam and Eve were headed" (p. 145, italics added; repeated on p. 151, note 55).

It is buy Premarin without a perscription important to realize how much Webb is denying as historical fact in the buy Premarin without a perscription Genesis narrative. He is not just denying that there actually was a buy Premarin without a perscription "crafty" serpent who spoke to Eve (Gen 3:1). He is also denying the entire theme of primogeniture in Genesis 2. That is, he is buy Premarin without a perscription denying the entire narrative structure that shows the man as created before the buy Premarin without a perscription woman, for this is the basis for the "primogeniture" theme that Webb sees Paul referring to in 1 Tim 2:13, "For Adam was formed first, then Eve."

How much of Genesis 2 does that involve? How much inaccurate material has buy Premarin without a perscription to be inserted into Genesis 2 either as a literary device foreshadowing the buy Premarin without a perscription fall (reason 1), or buy Premarin without a perscription as an accommodation to the situation familiar to readers at the buy Premarin without a perscription time of Moses (reason 2), or buy Premarin without a perscription as an anticipation of an agrarian society that would be buy Premarin without a perscription established after the fall (reason 3)? It is no small amount.

According to Webb's view, the buy Premarin without a perscription entire narrative of God putting the man in the garden "to work it and keep it" (2:8, 15) and buy Premarin without a perscription commanding the man by himself that he may eat of every tree of the buy Premarin without a perscription garden but not of the tree of the knowledge of good and buy Premarin without a perscription evil (2:16-17), and saying, "It is buy Premarin without a perscription not good that the man should be alone, I will make him a buy Premarin without a perscription helper fit for him" (2:18), and buy Premarin without a perscription bringing the beasts of the field and the birds of the buy Premarin without a perscription heavens to the man to see what he would call them (2:19), and buy Premarin without a perscription the man giving names to all livestock and all the buy Premarin without a perscription birds of the heavens and every beast of the field (2:20), and there not being found a helper fit for man (2:20), and buy Premarin without a perscription God causing a deep sleep to fall upon the man and buy Premarin without a perscription taking one of his ribs and forming it into a woman (2:21-22)-all of this buy Premarin without a perscription sequence that is summarized by Paul in the statement "For Adam was formed first then Eve"-all of this buy Premarin without a perscription is a mere literary device that did not actually happen, according to buy Premarin without a perscription Webb.

And all of this then enables him to say that criterion (7), "basis in original creation, section 2: primogeniture" is only a "moderately persuasive criterion" (p. 123), so that he can then say that Paul's appeal to buy Premarin without a perscription the creation of Adam prior to Eve is not proof of a buy Premarin without a perscription transcultural ethical standard.

III. CONCERNS RELATED TO INCORRECT OR HIGHLY UNLIKELY INTERPRETATIONS OF SCRIPTURE

1. Webb repeatedly confuses events with commands, and buy Premarin without a perscription fails to recognize that what the Bible reports as a background situation (such as slavery or monarchy, for example) it does not necessarily approve or command. Again and again in his analysis Webb assumes that "the Bible" (in Webb's undifferentiated form, lumping OT and NT verses together) supports things such as slavery (see pp. 33, 36-37, 84, 106, 186, 202-3). He also uses monarchy as an buy Premarin without a perscription example, assuming that the Bible presents monarchy as a favored form of government, one that buy Premarin without a perscription people should approve or even say that the Bible requires (see, for example, pp. 107, 186, 203).

With respect to slavery, therefore, Webb says that

[A] static hermeneutic [this is Webb's term for buy Premarin without a perscription the hermeneutic used by everyone who does not use his redemptive-movement hermeneutic] would apply this slavery-refuge text by permitting the ownership of slaves today, provided that buy Premarin without a perscription the church offers similar kinds of refuge for runaway slaves. . . . Christians would dare not speak out against slavery. They would support the institution of slavery (p. 33, italics added).

What is buy Premarin without a perscription rather astonishing is that the only alternative that Webb acknowledges to buy Premarin without a perscription his position is what he calls a "static hermeneutic." But then he affirms that such a "static hermeneutic" would have to support slavery:

Even more tragic is that, in arguing for or in permitting biblical slavery today, a buy Premarin without a perscription static hermeneutic takes our current standard of human rights and working conditions backwards by quantum leaps. We would shame a buy Premarin without a perscription gospel that proclaims freedom to the captive. . . . A static hermeneutic would not condemn biblical-type slavery if that buy Premarin without a perscription social order were to reappear in society today (pp. 34, 36).

In his eyes there are only two choices: Do you support Webb's system or do you support slavery? Which will it be? He appears oblivious to buy Premarin without a perscription the historical fact that for centuries many Christians have opposed slavery from the text of Scripture itself, without using Webb's new system of interpretation, and buy Premarin without a perscription without rejecting the final moral authority of the NT. To say we have buy Premarin without a perscription to choose between Webb's system and buy Premarin without a perscription slavery is historically unfounded, is biblically untrue, and is astonishing in its failure to buy Premarin without a perscription recognize other alternatives.

Webb sometimes appeals to buy Premarin without a perscription the fact that proponents of slavery or proponents of monarchy in the buy Premarin without a perscription past appealed to the Bible to prove their case. He says, "slavery proponents frequently argued from buy Premarin without a perscription theological and christological analogies in the text" (p. 186), and that "in the buy Premarin without a perscription past, the submission texts cited above were used by Christians to buy Premarin without a perscription support monarchy as the only appropriate, God-honoring form of government" (p. 107). But the buy Premarin without a perscription fact that some Christians in the past used the Bible to buy Premarin without a perscription support slavery does not prove that the Bible supports slavery any more that buy Premarin without a perscription one can prove that the Bible supports any number of false teachings (such as Arianism, or buy Premarin without a perscription the Crusades, or the Inquisition, or salvation by works) that were supported in the past by people "using the Bible," but were ultimately rejected by the buy Premarin without a perscription church. The devil himself even quoted the Bible to support his enticement to buy Premarin without a perscription Jesus to throw himself down from the top of the temple (Matt 4:5-6), but that does not prove that the Bible actually supports the devil's ideas!

With regard to buy Premarin without a perscription slavery, the Bible was used by more Christians to oppose slavery than to defend it, and buy Premarin without a perscription eventually their arguments won, and slavery was abolished. But the fundamental difference from buy Premarin without a perscription Webb is that the evangelical, Bible-believing Christians who ultimately brought about the buy Premarin without a perscription abolition of slavery did not advocate modifying or nullifying any biblical teaching, or moving "beyond" the buy Premarin without a perscription NT to a better ethic. They taught the abolition of slavery from buy Premarin without a perscription the Bible itself.

Webb shows no buy Premarin without a perscription awareness of biblical anti-slavery arguments such as those of Theodore Weld in The Bible Against Slavery,¹¹ a buy Premarin without a perscription book which was widely distributed and frequently reprinted. Weld argued strongly against American slavery from buy Premarin without a perscription Exod 21:16, "He that buy Premarin without a perscription stealeth a man and selleth him, or if he be buy Premarin without a perscription found in his hand, he shall surely be put to buy Premarin without a perscription death" (KJV) (pp. 13-15), as well as from buy Premarin without a perscription the fact that men are in the image of God and buy Premarin without a perscription therefore it is morally wrong to treat any human being as property (pp. 8-9, 15-17). He argued that buy Premarin without a perscription ownership of another person breaks the eighth commandment, "Thou shalt not steal," as follows:

The eighth commandment forbids the taking of any part of that which belongs to another. Slavery takes the whole. Does the same Bible which prohibits the taking of any thing from him, sanction the taking of every thing? Does it buy Premarin without a perscription thunder wrath against the man who robs his neighbor of a buy Premarin without a perscription cent, yet commission him to rob his neighbor of himself? Slaveholding is the highest possible violation of the eighth commandment" (pp. 10-11).

In the buy Premarin without a perscription rest of the book Weld answered detailed objections about various verses used by slavery proponents. The whole basis of his book is buy Premarin without a perscription that the moral standards taught in the Bible are right, and buy Premarin without a perscription there is no hint that we have to move beyond the buy Premarin without a perscription Bible's ethics to oppose slavery, as Webb would have us do.

The NT never commanded slavery, but gave principles that buy Premarin without a perscription regulated it and ultimately led to its abolition. Paul says to buy Premarin without a perscription slaves, "If you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity" (1 Cor 7:21). And he tells Philemon, regarding his slave Onesimus, that buy Premarin without a perscription he should welcome him back "no longer as a slave but more than a slave, as a beloved brother" (Phlm 16), and that he should "receive him as you would receive me" (v. 17), and buy Premarin without a perscription that he should forgive anything that Onesimus owed him, or at least that buy Premarin without a perscription Paul would pay it himself (vv. 18-19). Finally he says, "Confident of your buy Premarin without a perscription obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say" (v. 21). This is buy Premarin without a perscription a strong and not very subtle hint that Philemon should grant freedom to buy Premarin without a perscription Onesimus. Paul's condemnation of "enslavers" (1 Tim 1:10, ESV)¹² also showed the buy Premarin without a perscription moral wrong of forcibly putting anyone into slavery.

When we couple those verses with the buy Premarin without a perscription realization that every human being is created in the image of God (see Gen 1:27; 9:6; Jas 3:9; see also Job 31:15; Gal 3:28), we then buy Premarin without a perscription see that the Bible, and especially the NT, contains powerful principles that buy Premarin without a perscription would lead to an abolition of slavery. The NT never commands people to buy Premarin without a perscription practice slavery or to own slaves, but rather gives principles that buy Premarin without a perscription would lead to the overthrow of that institution, and also regulates it buy Premarin without a perscription while it is in existence by statements such as, "Masters, treat your buy Premarin without a perscription slaves justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a master in heaven" (Col 4:1).

The Bible does not approve or buy Premarin without a perscription command slavery any more than it approves or commands persecution of Christians. When the buy Premarin without a perscription author of Hebrews commends his readers by saying, "You joyfully accepted the buy Premarin without a perscription plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had buy Premarin without a perscription a better possession and an abiding one" (Heb 10:34), that does not mean the Bible supports the plundering of Christians' property, or that it commands theft! It only means that if Christians find themselves in a buy Premarin without a perscription situation where their property is taken through persecution, they should still rejoice because of their heavenly treasure, which cannot be buy Premarin without a perscription stolen. Similarly, when the Bible tells slaves to be submissive to buy Premarin without a perscription their masters, it does not mean that the Bible supports or buy Premarin without a perscription commands slavery, but only that it tells people who are in a buy Premarin without a perscription situation of slavery how they should respond.

Webb's mistaken evaluation of the Bible's teaching on slavery forms a buy Premarin without a perscription fundamental building block in constructing his hermeneutic. Once we remove his claim that buy Premarin without a perscription the Bible condones slavery, Webb's Exhibit A is buy Premarin without a perscription gone, and he has lost his primary means of supporting the buy Premarin without a perscription claim that we need his "redemptive-movement hermeneutic" to move beyond the ethic of the Bible itself.

2. Webb repeatedly assumes unlikely interpretations of Scripture in order to buy Premarin without a perscription present a Bible that is so clearly wrong that it buy Premarin without a perscription is impossible to believe and obey today. In numerous sections Webb presents what buy Premarin without a perscription he claims is the teaching of the Bible in order to buy Premarin without a perscription build up a long list of culturally relative teachings, teachings to buy Premarin without a perscription which readers will evidently respond by thinking, "Of course we cannot believe or obey those things today!" Webb then uses these lists of "impossible for today" teachings in order to buy Premarin without a perscription show that his eighteen criteria are necessary and valid to determine cultural relativity.

The problem is, most evangelicals do not need Webb's "redemptive-movement hermeneutic" to buy Premarin without a perscription know that the Bible does not teach these things. In fact, few if any responsible exegetes claim that buy Premarin without a perscription the Bible teaches any of these things as ideas or ethical standards that buy Premarin without a perscription should be followed by Christians today.

Here is a list of things that Webb assumes the Bible teaches:

1. People should pursue farming as an occupation (pp. 124-25). Webb derives this from the fact that "in the buy Premarin without a perscription garden man was instructed to till the ground and eat of its produce" (p. 124). The problem here is that Webb takes a good thing in the Bible (raising food from the ground) and wrongly makes it into a requirement for every person, rather than buy Premarin without a perscription seeing it as one among several responsibilities that God gave the buy Premarin without a perscription human race. A more sound application of this text is to buy Premarin without a perscription say that God still expects human beings to gain food from buy Premarin without a perscription the ground, but the diversity of occupations within Scripture shows that buy Premarin without a perscription this never was an expectation or a requirement of every single person.

2. People should use only ground transportation. Webb says that "the mode of transportation within the garden was walking," and he allows for extending that to "transportation by horse and other animals" (p. 125). He says that the creation pattern thus "squares nicely" with the buy Premarin without a perscription lifestyle of those who restrict their transportation to horse and buggy today. But he says most Christians would see this buy Premarin without a perscription as a "non-binding pattern within the creation texts" (p. 125). The problem in this buy Premarin without a perscription case is that even within the first two chapters of Genesis the buy Premarin without a perscription commands to "subdue" the earth and "have dominion" over it buy Premarin without a perscription imply an expectation that human beings would develop all sorts of products from buy Premarin without a perscription the earth, including many different means of transportation. We do not need Webb's redemptive-movement hermeneutic to know that the Bible never presents "ground transportation" as the buy Premarin without a perscription mode of transportation that people should use exclusively (think of all the journeys by boats in the Bible), nor is buy Premarin without a perscription this pattern of transportation ever used elsewhere as a basis for buy Premarin without a perscription commands to God's people, nor does the buy Premarin without a perscription Bible ever command people to use only ground transportation.

Webb has taken an event (Adam and Eve walking) and buy Premarin without a perscription has mistakenly viewed it as a requirement that has to be buy Premarin without a perscription overcome by Webb's redemptive-movement hermeneutic.

3. Singleness is outside the will of God. Webb says, since Adam and buy Premarin without a perscription Eve were married in the garden of Eden, "if the buy Premarin without a perscription creation material provides a tightly ordered paradigm for all of humanity to buy Premarin without a perscription follow, one might get the impression that singleness was outside the buy Premarin without a perscription will of God" (p. 124). Here Webb has buy Premarin without a perscription misread the Genesis narrative. Genesis 1-2 does not present a pattern where buy Premarin without a perscription no human being could rightfully be single, for God's command to Adam and Eve to "be fruitful and multiply" (Gen 1:28) envisions a buy Premarin without a perscription situation where they would have children, and these children would have buy Premarin without a perscription to be single for some time before they could be buy Premarin without a perscription married. What we see rather from the creation narrative is buy Premarin without a perscription that God created marriage, that marriage is "very good," and buy Premarin without a perscription that the relationship between Adam and Eve in marriage was not sinful but was good in God's sight. But to say that marriage is good does not imply that singleness is bad, or that marriage is required for buy Premarin without a perscription every single individual, nor does the Genesis narrative imply those things.

4. Women should be viewed as property. Webb says, "Within the buy Premarin without a perscription biblical text one discovers an ownership mentality in the treatment of women. Women are buy Premarin without a perscription frequently listed with the cattle and servants (Exod 20:17; cf. Deut 5:21; Judg 5:30)" (p. 165). But Webb over-simplifies when he assumes that listing "with" something implies a buy Premarin without a perscription similar status. The main verse he cites is Exod 20:17: "You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or buy Premarin without a perscription his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or buy Premarin without a perscription his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's."

This does not imply an "ownership mentality" toward women any more than buy Premarin without a perscription it proves that people thought of women as houses! This amazing commandment actually establishes a buy Premarin without a perscription high level of protection and honor for women and for buy Premarin without a perscription marriage, for it addresses purity of heart.¹³ People were not to covet someone else's house or buy Premarin without a perscription wife or animals, but this surely also implies that wives were not to buy Premarin without a perscription covet their neighbors' husbands, and buy Premarin without a perscription surely the commandment does not also imply that husbands were viewed as property. Hearers could easily distinguish between houses, animals, and buy Premarin without a perscription wives. Moreover, in the previous verses the seventh commandment (against adultery) is separate from the eighth (against stealing), thus clearly making a buy Premarin without a perscription distinction between husbands and wives, on the one hand, and buy Premarin without a perscription property on the other. In any case, it is not hermeneutically legitimate to buy Premarin without a perscription take aspects of the Mosaic law code as part of what buy Premarin without a perscription the Bible teaches about women, for Christians are no longer under the buy Premarin without a perscription Mosaic covenant. We do not need Webb's redemptive- movement hermeneutic to buy Premarin without a perscription understand this, nor do these Mosaic covenant provisions demonstrate the legitimacy of Webb's hermeneutic.

5. Families should practice primogeniture. Webb sees a buy Premarin without a perscription system of primogeniture, in which the oldest son received "a double portion of the buy Premarin without a perscription inheritance . . . led in military protection for the family . . . avenged wrongs done against family members . . . performed religious ceremonies" (p. 141), and buy Premarin without a perscription so forth, as a pattern that is found in the buy Premarin without a perscription ethical system contained in the Bible. But he says primogeniture is buy Premarin without a perscription culturally relative and should no longer be practiced today. But again Webb has buy Premarin without a perscription mistakenly confused events that are reported by the Bible with things that are required in the ethical system taught in the Bible. Nowhere does the buy Premarin without a perscription Bible command people to follow primogeniture customs (and buy Premarin without a perscription Webb himself shows many examples where Scripture deviates from this buy Premarin without a perscription pattern, pp. 136-39), and buy Premarin without a perscription therefore we do not need a redemptive- movement hermeneutic to buy Premarin without a perscription know that such a pattern is not required for people to buy Premarin without a perscription follow, nor was it ever something that God required everyone to buy Premarin without a perscription follow, even in the ancient world.

In addition to buy Premarin without a perscription these five items, Webb claims that the Bible teaches a number of other objectionable things that buy Premarin without a perscription few or no responsible evangelical scholars today would say are taught by the buy Premarin without a perscription Bible. I do not need to comment on each one, but what buy Premarin without a perscription is surprising is that Webb seldom shows awareness of, to say nothing of responding to, the buy Premarin without a perscription reasoning of competent interpreters who argue that the Bible does not in fact teach these things. Webb simply asserts that buy Premarin without a perscription the Bible teaches the following:

6. We should establish and support slavery (pp. 33, 36-37, 84, 106, 186, 202-3).¹⁴

7. People should establish and buy Premarin without a perscription support monarchy as the right form of government (pp. 153, 186).

8. People should wash each others' feet (pp. 204, 211).¹⁵

9. Adult children should obey their parents (p. 212).

10. The earth is the center of the universe. Webb says, "Scripture depicts a buy Premarin without a perscription geocentric or earth-centered model of the universe. The earth is buy Premarin without a perscription placed on a stationary foundation in a central location with other luminous bodies revolving above it" (pp. 221-22).

11. The earth is flat. Webb says, "The church had difficulty accepting [that the earth was round] . . . because the Bible incorporated a ‘flat earth' view of the world" (p. 223).

12. Wives should be buy Premarin without a perscription subject to their husbands because husbands are older and better educated (pp. 213-16).

13. Husbands should be allowed to physically discipline their wives (pp. 167, 189-90). Webb actually claims that buy Premarin without a perscription the Bible gives approval to the idea that a husband should "strip his wife" and "physically confine" her (p. 189). Webb basis this buy Premarin without a perscription on his misinterpretation of Hosea 2:1-23. He claims that in this buy Premarin without a perscription passage,

"unless Gomer puts away her sexual promiscuity, Hosea will take action against his wife:
I [Hosea] will strip her [Gomer] naked
and make her as bare as on the day she was born. . . .
Therefore I will block her path with thorn bushes;
I will wall her in so she cannot find her way" (p. 189).

What Webb does not disclose to buy Premarin without a perscription readers is that the overwhelming majority of commentators understand this buy Premarin without a perscription entire chapter to be speaking, not of Hosea and Gomer, but of God's judgment upon Israel. Speaking in prophetic imagery, as is buy Premarin without a perscription common among the OT prophets, God says that unless Israel abandons her sins, he will "strip her naked and make her as in the day she was born" (Hos 2:3), vividly portraying God's judgment on the nation.¹⁶

14. People should greet one another with a holy kiss (pp. 203-4).¹⁷

15. Women are simply "reproductive gardens" and husbands provide 100 percent of the baby's new life. Webb says that the biblical picture is one in which

. . . a woman provides the "soil" into which a buy Premarin without a perscription man planted the seed of the miniature child . . . to buy Premarin without a perscription grow for nine months. . . . A tight agricultural analogy-the man provides the buy Premarin without a perscription totality of the new life in seedling form while the buy Premarin without a perscription woman provides only the fertile environment for its growth-reflects a buy Premarin without a perscription culture-based component within the text (pp. 223-24).

16. The Bible approves obedience to buy Premarin without a perscription many details of the OT narrative and the OT Mosaic laws, such as "polygamy and buy Premarin without a perscription concubinage, levirate marriages, unequal value of men and women in vow redemption . . . the buy Premarin without a perscription treatment of women as spoils of battle" and so forth (pp. 166-67).

If readers believe Webb when buy Premarin without a perscription he says that the Bible teaches these things, then they will be buy Premarin without a perscription inclined to agree with his argument that we need to go beyond the buy Premarin without a perscription ethical system of the Bible and use Webb's "redemptive-movement hermeneutic" to move closer toward an "ultimate ethic."

But the buy Premarin without a perscription Bible teaches and commands none of these things for Christians today. And that buy Premarin without a perscription is not because Webb's "redemptive-movement hermeneutic" enables us to move beyond the buy Premarin without a perscription ethics of the Bible. It is rather because new covenant Christians know that buy Premarin without a perscription the ethical system of the Bible itself does not support or buy Premarin without a perscription require these things. Webb has given us a pot of stew mixed with Mosaic covenant laws that buy Premarin without a perscription no longer apply, fragments of narrative history that were never commanded, cultural customs or buy Premarin without a perscription habits the Bible never commanded us to follow, and phenomenological observations of the buy Premarin without a perscription natural world which the Bible never presented as a description of the buy Premarin without a perscription shape of the earth or the structure of the universe. We do not need a buy Premarin without a perscription "redemptive-movement hermeneutic" to buy Premarin without a perscription know that the Bible does not require these things of people today. We simply need the buy Premarin without a perscription Bible itself, understood in each case with sensitivity to the immediate context and buy Premarin without a perscription to the larger old covenant-new covenant structure of redemptive history found within the buy Premarin without a perscription Bible itself.

IV. CONCERNS RELATED TO SHIFTING THE LOCATION OF OUR MORAL NORMS FROM THE OBJECTIVE COMMANDS FO THE NT TO THE SUBJECTIVE THEORIES OF CONTEMPORARY SCHOLARS

1. Webb creates an buy Premarin without a perscription overly complex system of interpretation that will require a class of "priests" who buy Premarin without a perscription have to interpret the Bible for us in the light of ancient Near Eastern and buy Premarin without a perscription Greco-Roman culture. At the heart of Webb's system is his requirement that the interpreter "must listen for buy Premarin without a perscription how the text sounds within its various social contexts," especially "the broader, foreign ancient Near-Eastern and Greco-Roman (ANE/GR) social context and the immediate, domestic Israelite/church setting" (p. 53).

How does one do this? Webb gives eighteen criteria which one must use in order to buy Premarin without a perscription carry out his redemptive-movement hermeneutics properly. His first criterion is buy Premarin without a perscription called "preliminary movement," and here is how he says it should happen:

Assessing redemptive-movement has buy Premarin without a perscription its complications. Without going into an elaborate explanation, I will simply suggest a buy Premarin without a perscription number of guidelines: (1) the ANE/ GR real world must be examined along with its legal world, (2) the biblical subject on the whole must be examined along with its parts, (3) the biblical text must be compared to a number of other ANE/GR cultures which themselves must be buy Premarin without a perscription compared with each other and (4) any portrait of movement must be buy Premarin without a perscription composed of broad input from all three streams of assessment-foreign, domestic, and buy Premarin without a perscription canonical (p. 82).

And this is just his procedure for the first of eighteen criteria! Who will be able to do this? Who knows the buy Premarin without a perscription history of ancient cultures well enough to make these assessments?

Speaking from buy Premarin without a perscription the perspective of over twenty-five years in the academic world, I will not say that buy Premarin without a perscription only one percent of the Christians in the world will be able to use Webb's system and buy Premarin without a perscription tell us what moral standards we should follow today. I will not even say that buy Premarin without a perscription one percent of the seminary-trained pastors in the world will be able to follow Webb's system and buy Premarin without a perscription tell us what moral standards we should obey today. I will not even say that buy Premarin without a perscription one percent of the seminary professors will be buy Premarin without a perscription able to have the requisite expertise in ancient cultures to buy Premarin without a perscription use Webb's system and buy Premarin without a perscription tell us what moral standards we should follow today. That is buy Premarin without a perscription because the evaluation and assessment of any one ancient culture, to buy Premarin without a perscription say nothing of all the ancient cultures surrounding the Bible, is buy Premarin without a perscription a massive undertaking, even with one narrow subject such as laws concerning marriage and buy Premarin without a perscription divorce, or property rights, or education and training of children. It is buy Premarin without a perscription time-consuming and requires much specialized knowledge and an excellent research library. Therefore I will not even say that buy Premarin without a perscription one percent of the seminary professors who have academic doctorates in OT or NT will be able to use Webb's system and buy Premarin without a perscription tell us what moral standards we should follow today. No, in the end Webb's system as he describes it buy Premarin without a perscription above can only be used by far less than one percent of the buy Premarin without a perscription professors of NT and OT in the Christian world today, those few scholars who buy Premarin without a perscription have the time and the specialized knowledge of rabbinic studies, of Greco-Roman culture, and buy Premarin without a perscription of ancient Egyptian and Babylonian and Assyrian and Persian cultures, and buy Premarin without a perscription who have access to a major research library, and who will then buy Premarin without a perscription be able to use Webb's "redemptive-movement hermeneutic" in the buy Premarin without a perscription way he describes in the paragraph just quoted. This tiny group of experts will have buy Premarin without a perscription to tell us what moral standards God wants us to follow today.

And that buy Premarin without a perscription is only for Criterion 1 in his list of eighteen criteria.

If the evangelical world begins to adopt Webb's system, it buy Premarin without a perscription is not hard to imagine that we will soon require a buy Premarin without a perscription new class of "priests," those erudite scholars with sufficient expertise in the buy Premarin without a perscription ancient world that they can give us reliable conclusions about what buy Premarin without a perscription kind of "ultimate ethic" we should follow today.

But this buy Premarin without a perscription will create another problem, one I have observed often as I have buy Premarin without a perscription lived and taught in the academic world: Scholars with such specialized knowledge often disagree. Anyone familiar with the buy Premarin without a perscription debates over rabbinic views of justification in the last two decades will realize how difficult it buy Premarin without a perscription can be to understand exactly what was believed in an ancient culture on even one narrow topic, to buy Premarin without a perscription say nothing of the whole range of ethical commands that we find in the buy Premarin without a perscription NT.

Where then will Webb's system lead us? It will lead us to buy Premarin without a perscription massive inability to know with confidence anything that God requires of us. The more scholars who become involved with telling us "how the Bible was moving" with respect to buy Premarin without a perscription this or that aspect of ancient culture, the more opinions we will have, and buy Premarin without a perscription the more despair people will feel about ever being able to buy Premarin without a perscription know what God's requires of us, what his "ultimate ethic" is.

How different from Webb's system is the simple, direct teaching of the NT! Consider the following commands:

Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you buy Premarin without a perscription speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another (Eph 4:25).

Let the buy Premarin without a perscription thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that buy Premarin without a perscription he may have something to share with anyone in need (Eph 4:28).

Let no buy Premarin without a perscription corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is buy Premarin without a perscription good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to buy Premarin without a perscription those who hear (Eph 4:29).

Let all bitterness and buy Premarin without a perscription wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away

from buy Premarin without a perscription you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving

one another, as God in Christ forgave you (Eph 4:31-32).

But sexual immorality and buy Premarin without a perscription all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is buy Premarin without a perscription proper among saints (Eph 5:3).

And do not get drunk with wine, for buy Premarin without a perscription that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit (Eph 5:18).

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord (Eph 5:22).

Husbands, love your buy Premarin without a perscription wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for buy Premarin without a perscription her (Eph 5:25).

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right (Eph 6:1).

Fathers, do not provoke your buy Premarin without a perscription children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and buy Premarin without a perscription instruction of the Lord (Eph 6:4).

I do not believe that buy Premarin without a perscription God gave us a Bible that is so direct and clear and buy Premarin without a perscription simple, only to require that all believers throughout all history should first filter these commands through a buy Premarin without a perscription complex system of eighteen criteria before they can know whether to buy Premarin without a perscription obey them or not. That is not the kind of Bible that buy Premarin without a perscription God gave us, nor is there any indication in Scripture itself that buy Premarin without a perscription believers have to have some kind of specialized academic knowledge and buy Premarin without a perscription elaborate hermeneutical system before they can be sure that these are buy Premarin without a perscription the things God requires of his children.

2. Webb creates a buy Premarin without a perscription system that is overly liable to subjective influence and therefore is buy Premarin without a perscription indeterminate and will lead to significant misuse. A built-in liability to subjective influence is evident in Webb's treatment of several subjects, particularly his treatment of texts relating to buy Premarin without a perscription the role of women in marriage and in the church. With few exceptions, the buy Premarin without a perscription selection of materials and the evaluation of the criteria are skewed in order that buy Premarin without a perscription Webb can show again and again how male leadership in the buy Premarin without a perscription home and in the church is a culturally relative idea. For example, he places his first three criteria (1) Preliminary Movement, (2) Seed Ideas, (3) Breakouts within the category of "persuasive criteria" (p. 73), because all three of these assume that buy Premarin without a perscription one needs to move to a higher ethic than that of the buy Premarin without a perscription NT. These categories therefore allow him to say that the NT teachings on women are buy Premarin without a perscription only "preliminary," and buy Premarin without a perscription that the exceptions he finds in Gal 3:28 and in Deborah and buy Premarin without a perscription Junia are the truly "persuasive" examples that point to the far better "ultimate ethic" toward which the NT is heading.

By contrast, when he gets to Criterion 6, which is "Basis in Original Creation, Section One: Patterns" (p. 123), Webb brings in several bizarre items such as "farming as an occupation" and "ground transportation," which no buy Premarin without a perscription responsible interpreter would ever say the Bible requires for everyone today. Why does he do this? These allow him to claim that "original creation patterns do not provide an buy Premarin without a perscription automatic guide for assessing what is transcultural within Scripture" (p. 126). But when buy Premarin without a perscription someone brings in such bizarre interpretations in order to be able to buy Premarin without a perscription say that original creation patterns of marriage are not clearly transcultural, then buy Premarin without a perscription the reader rightly suspects that a subjective bias has entered into the buy Premarin without a perscription selection of material.

Similarly, when we reach Criterion 14, "Basis in Theological Analogy" (p. 185), the buy Premarin without a perscription difficulty for egalitarians is going to be the fact that buy Premarin without a perscription in Eph 5:22-33 Paul makes an analogy between the relationship of a buy Premarin without a perscription husband and wife and the relationship between Christ and the buy Premarin without a perscription church. How does Webb evade the force of the argument that buy Premarin without a perscription this is obviously a transcultural comparison? He says there are other "theological analogies in Scripture that are not transcultural" and he says that slavery, monarchy, and "right-handedness" are also supported by "theological analogy" within Scripture (pp. 186-87). The problem is buy Premarin without a perscription of course that the examples are not parallel. The Bible never says, "Support monarchy as the buy Premarin without a perscription best system of government because God is a heavenly king," or "Support slavery as an buy Premarin without a perscription institution because God is the ultimate slave owner in heaven," or "It is better to be right-handed because Christ sits at God's right hand." So Webb's examples are not parallel to the example of Paul's statement,

. . . the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church. . . . As the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your buy Premarin without a perscription wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for buy Premarin without a perscription her (Eph 5:23-25).

The fact that Webb brings in what he calls examples of "theological analogy" that buy Premarin without a perscription are not really parallel is again evidence of subjective bias in the buy Premarin without a perscription formulation and development of his criteria. Once he brings in these examples, he is buy Premarin without a perscription able to classify "Basis in Theological Analogy" as an "inconclusive" criterion (p. 185), one that really cannot rightly be used to prove that a wife's submission to her husband is transcultural.

Webb follows a similar procedure in Criterion 16, "Appeal to the Old Testament" (p. 201). In order to show that this also is an "inconclusive" criterion, Webb brings in examples that buy Premarin without a perscription are not parallel to the OT quotations about the role of women. Webb says that buy Premarin without a perscription "several slave/master texts within the buy Premarin without a perscription New Testament rely heavily on the Old Testament for their formulation for buy Premarin without a perscription their ideas and words" (p. 202), but the passages he mentions (such as 1 Pet 2:22-25) are buy Premarin without a perscription simply used by the NT authors to show that Christians should trust in God when buy Premarin without a perscription they are mistreated, and the passages in no way affirm that buy Premarin without a perscription mistreatment of others is proper or that slavery is a morally right institution. In the buy Premarin without a perscription same way, when Webb talks about "kings and subjects," he says, "The monarchy texts within the buy Premarin without a perscription New Testament derive their message largely from the Old Testament" (p. 203), and buy Premarin without a perscription he mentions particularly 1 Pet 2:13-17 and Rom 13:1-5. But these passages do not support what buy Premarin without a perscription Webb claims. They tell Christians to be subject to the ruling authority, but they nowhere quote the buy Premarin without a perscription OT to prove that monarchy as an institution is required. Webb even goes so far in this buy Premarin without a perscription section as to claim that the "holy kiss" and "foot-washing" are supported from the OT (pp. 203-4), though no OT verses are ever quoted to support them.

Once Webb has buy Premarin without a perscription claimed that all these things are supported from the OT but are buy Premarin without a perscription not transcultural, it gives him the basis on which he claims that buy Premarin without a perscription the NT teachings on the role of women are not transcultural just because they are buy Premarin without a perscription supported by quotations from the OT (he mentions 1 Cor 14:34, 1 Tim 2:14-15 [sic], and 1 Pet 3:5-6 (p. 204)). But because his examples like monarchy, slavery, and buy Premarin without a perscription right-handedness are not really supported by OT quotes, this argument has buy Premarin without a perscription little force.

Why is buy Premarin without a perscription it then that Webb brings in these examples that are not parallel in his Criterion 16, "Appeal to the Old Testament"? Readers may well suspect that buy Premarin without a perscription a subjective bias has entered into the selection of material here. But the buy Premarin without a perscription same criteria could easily be used by others, with other examples selected, to buy Premarin without a perscription produce widely divergent results.

V. CONCLUSION REGARDING MEN AND WOMEN: WEBB FAILS TO DEMONSTRATE THAT NT TEACHINGS ON MEN AND WOMEN IN THE HOME AND IN THE CHURCH ARE CULTURALLY RELATIVE

Throughout Webb's book he attempts to buy Premarin without a perscription dismantle the complementarian arguments for male leadership in the home and buy Premarin without a perscription the church by claiming that the biblical texts on male leadership are buy Premarin without a perscription culturally relative. Yet in each case, his attempts to demonstrate cultural relativity are buy Premarin without a perscription not persuasive. In the following section, I consider each of Webb's claims for buy Premarin without a perscription culturally relativity in the order they occur in his book. (At several points in what buy Premarin without a perscription follows I will briefly summarize arguments that have been made earlier in order to buy Premarin without a perscription apply them to Webb's specific reasons for rejecting of a complementarian view).

1. Webb fails to buy Premarin without a perscription show that NT commands regarding male headship are only a buy Premarin without a perscription "preliminary movement" and that the NT ethic needs further improvement (Criterion 1). Webb claims that buy Premarin without a perscription the commands regarding wives submitting to their husbands in Eph 5:22-33 are buy Premarin without a perscription not a final ethic that we should follow today, but are buy Premarin without a perscription simply an indication of "where Scripture is moving on the issue of patriarchal power" (pp. 80-81). But this buy Premarin without a perscription claim is not persuasive, because it depends on his assumption that buy Premarin without a perscription the ethical standards of the NT are not God's ultimate ethical standards for buy Premarin without a perscription us, but are simply one step along the way toward an buy Premarin without a perscription "ultimate ethic" that we should adopt today (pp. 36-39).

2. Webb fails to show that Gal 3:28 is a "seed idea" that buy Premarin without a perscription would ultimately lead to the abolition of male headship once cultural changes made it buy Premarin without a perscription possible to adopt a superior ethic to that of the buy Premarin without a perscription NT (Criterion 2). Once again, Webb's conception of a "seed idea" is buy Premarin without a perscription based on his claim that some NT commands are inconsistent with that buy Premarin without a perscription seed idea, and those commands show only that "the biblical author pushed society as far as it buy Premarin without a perscription could go at that time without creating more damage than good" (p. 73). Webb claims that the "seed idea" is simply a pointer showing that there should be "further movement" toward a "more fully realized ethic" that is "more just, more equitable and buy Premarin without a perscription more loving. . . . a better ethic than the buy Premarin without a perscription one expressed in the isolated words of the text" (p. 36).

But, as I indicated above, it is not necessary to "move beyond" the buy Premarin without a perscription ethic of the NT in order to argue for the abolition of slavery, for buy Premarin without a perscription the NT never condones or approves of slavery and never says it buy Premarin without a perscription was created by God (as marriage was). And the buy Premarin without a perscription NT provides statements that would eventually lead to the abolition of slavery based on the NT ethic itself, not based on some "higher ethic" that buy Premarin without a perscription would later be discovered. Similarly, Gal 3:28 should not be seen as a buy Premarin without a perscription "seed idea" pointing to some future "higher ethic" but as a buy Premarin without a perscription text that is fully consistent with other things the apostle Paul and buy Premarin without a perscription other NT authors wrote about the relationships between men and women. If we take the buy Premarin without a perscription entire NT as the very words of God for us in the buy Premarin without a perscription new covenant today, then any claim that Gal 3:28 should overrule other texts, such as Ephesians 5 and buy Premarin without a perscription 1 Timothy 2, should be seen as a claim that Paul the buy Premarin without a perscription apostle contradicts himself, and therefore that the word of God contradicts itself.

3. Webb fails to buy Premarin without a perscription show that 1 Cor 7:3-5 establishes an egalitarian model within marriage (Criterion 3). In 1 Cor 7:3-5 Paul says,

The husband should give to buy Premarin without a perscription his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. For the buy Premarin without a perscription wife does not have authority over her own body, but the buy Premarin without a perscription husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the buy Premarin without a perscription wife does. Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for buy Premarin without a perscription a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then buy Premarin without a perscription come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your buy Premarin without a perscription lack of self-control.

Webb claims that buy Premarin without a perscription the explanation that John Piper and I gave for this text in our book, Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood,¹⁸ nullifies all male headship within marriage. Webb says that buy Premarin without a perscription Piper and Grudem's approach "ultimately abandons their own position" because "once one has buy Premarin without a perscription eliminated any power differential and set up mutual deference and mutual consent as the buy Premarin without a perscription basis for all decision making in a marriage (such as Piper and Grudem have done) there is nothing that makes the view substantially different from egalitarianism" (p. 101).

But Webb has buy Premarin without a perscription misread our argument. In the very section to which he refers, we say,

What are buy Premarin without a perscription the implications of this text for the leadership of the husband? Do the buy Premarin without a perscription call for mutual yielding to sexual need and the renunciation of unilateral planning nullify the buy Premarin without a perscription husband's responsibility for general leadership in the marriage? We don't think so. But this buy Premarin without a perscription text . . . makes clear that his leadership will not involve selfish, unilateral choices (p. 88).

Thus, Piper and buy Premarin without a perscription I agree that 1 Cor 7:3-5 shows that there are areas of mutual obligation between husband and buy Premarin without a perscription wife, and that we can extrapolate from that and say that buy Premarin without a perscription the husband's leadership in the buy Premarin without a perscription marriage should not be a selfish leadership that fails to listen to buy Premarin without a perscription the concerns of his wife. But in that very context, and buy Premarin without a perscription in dozens of places throughout the rest of the book, we argue that buy Premarin without a perscription the husband has an authoritative leadership role in the marriage that buy Premarin without a perscription the wife does not have. To say that the word "authority" is buy Premarin without a perscription sometimes misunderstood is not to say that we deny the buy Premarin without a perscription concept. We qualify and modify the concept of authority, as Scripture does, in many places, but we nevertheless affirm it buy Premarin without a perscription throughout the rest of the book.

4. Webb fails to show that the only purpose for the wife's submission to buy Premarin without a perscription her husband is evangelism, or that this purpose is no longer valid (Criterion 4). In dealing with his criterion (4), "Purpose/intent statements," Webb says that Peter "tells wives to obey their husbands so that unbelieving husbands ‘may be won over without words' (1 Pet 3:1)," but that today the kind of "unilateral, patriarchy-type submission" that Peter advocates "may actually repulse him and buy Premarin without a perscription prevent him from being won to Christ." Webb concludes that "the stated evangelistic purpose of the buy Premarin without a perscription text is not likely to be fulfilled in our contemporary setting" (pp. 107-8).

We should be buy Premarin without a perscription very clear what Webb is saying here. He is saying that buy Premarin without a perscription wives with unbelieving husbands today do not need to obey 1 Pet 3:1-2, which says,

Likewise, wives, be buy Premarin without a perscription subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the buy Premarin without a perscription word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives- when buy Premarin without a perscription they see your respectful and pure conduct.

One problem with Webb's assertion is buy Premarin without a perscription that it trivializes the testimony of thousands of Christian women whose unbelieving husbands have been won by the submissive behavior of their believing wives.

A second problem with Webb's claim is buy Premarin without a perscription that it makes first-century Christian evangelism into the ultimate "bait and switch" sales technique. Webb claims that Peter's command aimed to buy Premarin without a perscription attract non-Christian husbands by the submissive behavior of their wives, but once these men became Christians and buy Premarin without a perscription began to grow toward maturity, they would discover the "seed ideas" for equality and "mutual submission" in texts such as Gal 3:28, and then (according to Webb) they would learn that this buy Premarin without a perscription command for submission of their wives is a morally deficient pattern that buy Premarin without a perscription has to be abandoned in favor of an egalitarian position. Therefore, according to buy Premarin without a perscription the logic of Webb's position, first-century evangelism was a buy Premarin without a perscription deceptive maneuver, in which the Word of God told people to buy Premarin without a perscription use a morally deficient pattern of behavior simply to win unbelievers.

The third problem with Webb's explanation is buy Premarin without a perscription that it opens the door for people to disobey many other NT commands if they think that buy Premarin without a perscription the reason given for the command will no longer be buy Premarin without a perscription fulfilled in our culture. For example, the command to be buy Premarin without a perscription subject to human government is also based on an expected good outcome:

Be subject for the Lord's sake to buy Premarin without a perscription every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or buy Premarin without a perscription to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and buy Premarin without a perscription to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that buy Premarin without a perscription by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people (1 Pet 2:13-15).

But people today could say that buy Premarin without a perscription being subject to government might not "put to silence the ignorance of foolish people," because some governments are buy Premarin without a perscription just so hardened against the gospel that it will make no buy Premarin without a perscription difference to them. Therefore (according to Webb's reasoning) we do not have to obey that command either.¹⁹

A fourth problem with Webb's approach is that it fails completely to consider the other reasons given in the NT for a wife's submission to her husband. Paul says, "Wives, submit to buy Premarin without a perscription your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is buy Premarin without a perscription the head of the wife even as Christ is the buy Premarin without a perscription head of the church" (Eph 5:22-23).

Similarly, when Paul talks about being subject to "the governing authorities," he does not give evangelism as the buy Premarin without a perscription reason, but rather says that the agent of the government "is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the buy Premarin without a perscription wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience" (Rom 13:4-5).

It is better to reject Webb's redemptive-movement hermeneutic and buy Premarin without a perscription see the NT as the words of God for us today, words that buy Premarin without a perscription contain God's morally pure standards for us to obey, and to obey all of the NT commands simply because they are the words of God who buy Premarin without a perscription holds us responsible for obeying them. We do not have the buy Premarin without a perscription right to take it upon ourselves to say, as Webb's position implies, "If a buy Premarin without a perscription wife today submits to her unbelieving husband according to 1 Pet 3:1, I don't think that buy Premarin without a perscription will help evangelism in our modern culture, so women should not follow that buy Premarin without a perscription text today." That is buy Premarin without a perscription simply setting up our own moral judgment as a higher standard than buy Premarin without a perscription God's word.

5. Webb fails to show that Adam's naming of Eve in Genesis 2 indicates only equality (discussed under Criterion 5). Webb claims that when Adam calls the woman (‘ishshah) in Gen 2:23, because this word for "woman" sounds like the Hebrew word for man (‘ish) that shows that "Adam pronounces an buy Premarin without a perscription affinity between the woman and himself. This act of naming places man and buy Premarin without a perscription woman as partners in the dominion over the animal/plant kingdom" (p. 116).

This argument is not convincing because the names for "man" and "woman" (‘ish and ‘ishshah) are buy Premarin without a perscription somewhat the same and somewhat different. The words mean different things: ‘ish means "man" or "husband" (BDB 35), and ‘ishshah means "woman, wife, female" (BDB 61), and buy Premarin without a perscription though the words look similar, they are related to different roots (the BDB lexicon speaks of "the impossibility of deriving ‘ish and ‘ishshah from the same root," p. 35). For Webb to say that this name only indicates equality is buy Premarin without a perscription simply reductionistic- it is taking part of the truth and buy Premarin without a perscription making it the whole truth. The names are similar and buy Premarin without a perscription different and they signify both similarity and difference.

Second, Webb fails to buy Premarin without a perscription consider the strongest reason that this process shows male headship, and buy Premarin without a perscription that is that throughout the OT the one giving a buy Premarin without a perscription name to someone else has authority over the one receiving that buy Premarin without a perscription name. Therefore, just as Adam's prior activity of naming the buy Premarin without a perscription animals indicated that he had the right to name them because he had buy Premarin without a perscription authority over them, so Adam's giving a buy Premarin without a perscription name to the woman is an indication that God had granted to buy Premarin without a perscription Adam an authority or leadership role with respect to his wife.

6. Webb fails to buy Premarin without a perscription show that there are culturally relative components in the pre-fall garden of Eden (Criterion 6). First, Webb attempts to buy Premarin without a perscription minimize the significance of the fact that God called Adam to buy Premarin without a perscription account first after Adam and Eve had sinned (Gen 3:9). Webb admits that this might qualify as "a quiet whisper of patriarchy" (p. 130), but this buy Premarin without a perscription is minimizing what is there in Scripture. If this is buy Premarin without a perscription God's action and God's call to Adam, it is anything but a whisper! This is buy Premarin without a perscription the action of the sovereign God of the universe calling the buy Premarin without a perscription man to account first for what had happened in his family (even though Eve had sinned first). It is buy Premarin without a perscription an indication that God held Adam primarily responsible for what had buy Premarin without a perscription happened (and this is confirmed by Paul's explanation that it was Adam's sin-not Eve's-that led to buy Premarin without a perscription sin spreading to all people; see Rom 5:12-19 and 1 Cor 15:22: "As in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive").

With regard to buy Premarin without a perscription the pre-fall narrative itself, Webb claims to find some culturally relative elements within the buy Premarin without a perscription account, such as "farming as an occupation" and "ground transportation" and a "vegetarian diet" (pp. 124-25). But this buy Premarin without a perscription is hardly a persuasive list of examples, because Webb fails to buy Premarin without a perscription take account of the nature of the items he lists. Surely nothing in the buy Premarin without a perscription text suggests, and no responsible interpreter claims, that these events are buy Premarin without a perscription presented as the only activities human beings can buy Premarin without a perscription do. So it is unclear why Webb thinks these can be buy Premarin without a perscription counted as examples of "culturally relative" principles.

The point Webb overlooks is that everything in the garden is good because it buy Premarin without a perscription has been created by God and it was declared by him to buy Premarin without a perscription be "very good" (Gen 1:31). Therefore farming and buy Premarin without a perscription gaining food from the earth are good. Walking through the buy Premarin without a perscription garden is good. Vegetables are good. Bearing children is good. None of these things is buy Premarin without a perscription later superseded by a "superior ethic" that buy Premarin without a perscription would declare the goodness of these things to be culturally relative, so that buy Premarin without a perscription farming or walking on the earth or bearing children would no buy Premarin without a perscription longer be good!

Similarly, we have buy Premarin without a perscription in the garden male-female equality together with male headship in the buy Premarin without a perscription marriage. That also is good and it is created by God, and buy Premarin without a perscription we should not follow Webb in thinking that we can buy Premarin without a perscription one day create a "superior ethic" that declares male headship to be not good or not approved by God.²⁰

7. Webb fails to show that 1 Tim 2:13, "For Adam was formed first, then Eve," is culturally relative (Criterion 7). The reason egalitarians find 1 Tim 2:13 particularly difficult is buy Premarin without a perscription that Paul uses the order of creation as the basis for buy Premarin without a perscription saying, "I do not permit a buy Premarin without a perscription woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is buy Premarin without a perscription to remain quiet" (1 Tim 2:12). If God's original creation of Adam and buy Premarin without a perscription Eve was very good and free from sin (which it was), and if Paul sees in Adam's creation prior to buy Premarin without a perscription Eve an indication that some teaching and governing roles in the buy Premarin without a perscription NT church should be reserved for men (which Webb agrees is Paul's reasoning), then buy Premarin without a perscription it is hard to escape the conclusion that the creation of Adam before Eve indicates a buy Premarin without a perscription permanent, transcultural principle that supports some exclusively male teaching and governing roles in the buy Premarin without a perscription church for all generations.

Webb attempts to buy Premarin without a perscription avoid this by claiming there are some culturally relative things in the buy Premarin without a perscription original creation account. But, as I indicated in the previous section, Webb fails to buy Premarin without a perscription take into account that everything in the original creation is buy Premarin without a perscription morally good and free from sin, and that includes Adam's headship in the marriage. In addition to that, if Webb's reasoning were correct, then buy Premarin without a perscription Paul could not have appealed to the creation account in the buy Premarin without a perscription first century either, because people in the first century were not limited to buy Premarin without a perscription "farming as an occupation" (Paul was a tentmaker), and people in the first century were not limited to "ground transportation" (Paul traveled by sea), and people in the first century were not all married (both Jesus and Paul were single), and there was no requirement for everyone to have children (neither Jesus nor Paul did), and there was no limitation to being a vegetarian (Paul approved the eating of meat, Rom 14:2-4; 1 Cor 10:25-27). Therefore the apostle Paul himself did not think that any of Webb's supposedly "culturally relative" factors claimed by Webb were found in the buy Premarin without a perscription creation account itself, or could be used to prove that buy Premarin without a perscription it was invalid to appeal to the creation of Adam before Eve for buy Premarin without a perscription transcultural principles that apply to conduct within the NT church. In short, Paul was not persuaded by any of the buy Premarin without a perscription factors that Webb claims to show cultural relativity in the buy Premarin without a perscription creation account. Paul knew that all those factors were there, yet he still believed that buy Premarin without a perscription "Adam was formed first, then Eve" was a buy Premarin without a perscription valid reason for affirming an abiding, transcultural principle.

Webb's argument that buy Premarin without a perscription the author of Genesis projected later circumstances back into the buy Premarin without a perscription account of the garden of Eden and thereby placed primogeniture in the buy Premarin without a perscription Genesis 2 account (see discussion above) is buy Premarin without a perscription also unpersuasive, because it denies the historical truthfulness of extended sections of the buy Premarin without a perscription narrative in Genesis 2.

Finally, Webb objects that if complementarians take Paul's argument seriously in 1 Tim 2:13, then, to buy Premarin without a perscription be consistent, we should argue that primogeniture should be practiced today as well. He says, "It is buy Premarin without a perscription interesting that those who appeal to primogeniture in affirming the transcultural status of 1 Tim 2:13 say very little about the buy Premarin without a perscription sustained application of other primogeniture texts for our lives" (p. 142).

But here Webb is buy Premarin without a perscription simply confusing the issue. The Bible never says, "All families should give a buy Premarin without a perscription double portion of inheritance to the first-born son, because Adam was formed first, then buy Premarin without a perscription Eve." The Bible never commands any such thing, and buy Premarin without a perscription Webb himself shows how the Bible frequently overturns such a practice (see pp. 136-39). Webb has imported into the discussion an idea of "consistency" that buy Premarin without a perscription is foreign to the Bible itself. Webb is basically arguing as follows:

(1) The Bible makes one application from Adam's prior creation.

(2) If you buy Premarin without a perscription affirm that the Bible is correct in that first application, then buy Premarin without a perscription you have to say that the Bible makes other applications from buy Premarin without a perscription Adam's prior creation.

But that buy Premarin without a perscription reasoning does not follow. We are not free to say that buy Premarin without a perscription the Bible should make applications that it does not make! That decision belongs to God, not us.

Consistency in this buy Premarin without a perscription matter is simply affirming what the Bible says, and not denying the buy Premarin without a perscription validity of any of the reasoning processes in Scripture (as Webb attempts to do with 1 Tim 2:13), as well as not adding to the commands of Scripture (as Webb tries to push complementarians to do with this text). Consistency does not require that buy Premarin without a perscription we make all sorts of applications of a biblical principle even when buy Premarin without a perscription the Bible does not make those applications. Rather, consistency says that buy Premarin without a perscription the application Paul made from Genesis 2 is a valid and buy Premarin without a perscription good one, and Scripture requires us also to affirm it buy Premarin without a perscription as a transcultural principle today.

Paul is saying in 1 Tim 2:12-13 that Adam's prior creation proves at least one thing: in the buy Premarin without a perscription assembled church a woman should not "teach" or "exercise authority over a man" (1 Tim 2:12). We are buy Premarin without a perscription not free to adopt an interpretation that leads to the conclusion that buy Premarin without a perscription Paul's reasoning process was incorrect even for his day.

8. Webb fails to show that Gal 3:28 is a "new creation" pattern that overthrows the "old creation" patterns of male leadership in the home and church (Criterion 8). Webb says there are several "in Christ" statements like Gal 3:28, which tells us that "there is buy Premarin without a perscription neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." These "in Christ" statements, he claims, "should be given prominence over the old-creation patterns" that include what Webb sees as "patriarchy" within the "old-creation" patterns. He says, "New-creation theology transforms the buy Premarin without a perscription status of all its participants . . . into one of equality. . . . It . . . heavily favors an buy Premarin without a perscription egalitarian position" (p. 152).

In this buy Premarin without a perscription case again, Webb fails adequately to take into account that the buy Premarin without a perscription male headship in marriage that was found in the garden was itself "very good" in God's sight, and buy Premarin without a perscription we should not look for some morally superior ethic to buy Premarin without a perscription replace it. Moreover, Webb fails to take into account other "new-creation" statements that buy Premarin without a perscription affirm male headship in marriage, such as Col 3:18, "Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord." This command is part of the new "in Christ" or "in the Lord" creation, just as "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right" (Eph 6:1) is part of the new creation in Christ. In fact, Paul's commands as an apostle for the NT church are part of the "new-creation" in Christ, and therefore "I do not permit a buy Premarin without a perscription woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man" is also part of that new creation, because it is part of the teaching of the NT for the church.

9. Webb fails to buy Premarin without a perscription show that the Bible adopted male leadership because there were no buy Premarin without a perscription competing options (Criterion 9). Webb says, "It is buy Premarin without a perscription reasonably safe to assume, therefore, that the social reality of the buy Premarin without a perscription biblical writers was the world of patriarchy. . . . This consideration increases the buy Premarin without a perscription likelihood of patriarchy being a cultural component within Scripture" (pp. 154- 55). Webb explains that buy Premarin without a perscription this is because an egalitarian position regarding marriage or the church was simply not an buy Premarin without a perscription option, given the surrounding culture.

But this buy Premarin without a perscription criterion is not persuasive. The NT teaches many things that were not found in the buy Premarin without a perscription surrounding culture. No people in the surrounding culture believed in Jesus as the buy Premarin without a perscription Messiah before he came. Even Webb admits that the idea that buy Premarin without a perscription husbands should love their wives as Christ loved the church was revolutionary for buy Premarin without a perscription the culture. The idea that there could be a church made up of Jews and buy Premarin without a perscription Gentiles fellowshipping together was not an option in the surrounding culture.

Scripture often challenges and buy Premarin without a perscription transforms the societies and cultures into which it speaks. Therefore, if a buy Premarin without a perscription truly egalitarian model for marriage had been what God wanted for buy Premarin without a perscription his people, he surely could have proclaimed it clearly through the buy Premarin without a perscription pages of the NT and through the teachings of Jesus and buy Premarin without a perscription the apostles. But (as Webb admits) the NT does not teach an egalitarian position. (According to buy Premarin without a perscription Webb, we have to move beyond the ethic of the buy Premarin without a perscription NT to reach full egalitarianism.)

10. Webb fails to show that the general principle of "justice" nullifies specific NT commands regarding male leadership (Criterion 13). Webb asks, "Does the power inequality [sic] between men and women violate a theology of justice? Is there a buy Premarin without a perscription hint of inequity or unfairness about the treatment of women in the buy Premarin without a perscription Bible?" (p. 181). Webb's answer is that "the general or buy Premarin without a perscription broad principles of Scripture appear to favor movement from soft patriarchy to buy Premarin without a perscription an egalitarian position" (p. 184).²¹

The problem with Webb's analysis in this buy Premarin without a perscription case is that it pits Scripture against Scripture. We are not free to buy Premarin without a perscription take general principles like "justice" or "love" and buy Premarin without a perscription say that they take priority over specific teachings of Scripture. Are we to buy Premarin without a perscription say that the commands of the Bible in Ephesians 5 or buy Premarin without a perscription 1 Timothy 2 were "unjust"? Another problem with Webb's entire Criterion 13 (on specific vs. general principles) is that it allows an interpreter to select any "general principle" he wants, and buy Premarin without a perscription so drive the discussion in one direction or another. Webb chooses the buy Premarin without a perscription general principles of "justice" and "equality," but why should these be the driving considerations? Why not choose the general principle of "the imitation of Christ" in his subjection to buy Premarin without a perscription rightful authority and in his submission to the will of his Father? Why not choose the general principle of "submission to rightful authority," which is buy Premarin without a perscription found in many levels of the Bible, and which is even found in the buy Premarin without a perscription relationship of the Son to the Father in the Trinity? Of course, Webb does not select that buy Premarin without a perscription general principle, for it would lead to a complementarian position.

This procedure of arguing that buy Premarin without a perscription some broad principle overrides specific texts of Scripture is not a buy Premarin without a perscription new idea with Webb. It is remarkably similar to the procedure used by liberals in the buy Premarin without a perscription early part of the twentieth century when they appealed to the buy Premarin without a perscription general principle of "the love of God" to override the specific teachings of the Bible about God's wrath, and particularly about God's wrath being poured out on his Son on the buy Premarin without a perscription cross for our sins. In this way liberals commonly denied the buy Premarin without a perscription heart of the atonement, that is, the doctrine of Christ's death as a substitute sacrifice in which he bore God's wrath against sin in our place (the penal substitutionary doctrine of the atonement).

Therefore this criterion (Webb's Criterion 13, "specific instructions versus general principles") is among the most dangerous of Webb's criteria, because it buy Premarin without a perscription potentially can give legitimacy for people to find some "general principle" that buy Premarin without a perscription will override texts of Scripture they find uncomfortable on any subject. The "love of God" principle could override the buy Premarin without a perscription doctrine of hell, or could override the idea that not everyone will be buy Premarin without a perscription saved. The "grace of God" principle could override the buy Premarin without a perscription need for church elders to measure up to specific character traits. The "grace and forgiveness of God" principle could be buy Premarin without a perscription used to override the specific teachings of the NT on divorce and buy Premarin without a perscription remarriage. And so forth.

Webb himself says that this criterion is "susceptible to misuse" (p. 183), to which I certainly agree. But then he says it is still "extremely helpful" (p. 183), a buy Premarin without a perscription statement with which I strongly disagree. Scripture does not contradict Scripture.

11. Webb fails to show that a wife's submission may be buy Premarin without a perscription culturally relative because it is based on an analogy with Christ or buy Premarin without a perscription with God (Criterion 14). Webb argues that buy Premarin without a perscription there are a number of culturally relative standards in the buy Premarin without a perscription Bible, such as "slavery" or "monarchy" or "right-handedness" (pp. 186-87) that buy Premarin without a perscription are based on an analogy with Christ or with God, and buy Premarin without a perscription therefore it is not valid to say that NT teachings on male headship are buy Premarin without a perscription transcultural because they are based on an analogy with Christ or buy Premarin without a perscription with God. Specifically, Webb says that Eph 5:22-33 and 1 Cor 11:3 should not be buy Premarin without a perscription seen as transcultural just because they depend on a "theological analogy" (pp. 188-89).

But once again Webb has buy Premarin without a perscription mixed together things that are not parallel. 1 Cor 11:3 draws a buy Premarin without a perscription parallel between the headship of the Father with respect to buy Premarin without a perscription the Son and the headship of a husband with respect to buy Premarin without a perscription his wife: "But I want you buy Premarin without a perscription to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the buy Premarin without a perscription head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is buy Premarin without a perscription God."

But the buy Premarin without a perscription Bible never makes statements like this regarding the other categories that buy Premarin without a perscription Webb mentions. We do not find anywhere in Scripture statements like these: "I want you buy Premarin without a perscription to understand that right-handed people are superior to left-handed people, because Christ sits at the buy Premarin without a perscription right hand of God." "But I want you buy Premarin without a perscription to understand that slavery is the best economic system, because God is buy Premarin without a perscription the supreme slaveholder and you are all his slaves." "I want you buy Premarin without a perscription to understand that monarchy is the form of government that all nations should adopt, because God is buy Premarin without a perscription the supreme king over the universe and you are all his subjects."

These are buy Premarin without a perscription all ridiculous statements that Scripture would never make. Of course God is king over the universe and of course Jesus does sit at God's right hand, but the buy Premarin without a perscription Bible never reasons from these things to the kinds of foolish statements it buy Premarin without a perscription would have to make in order for Webb's argument to work.

Another problem with Webb's argument here is buy Premarin without a perscription that it is once again based on his underlying assumption that buy Premarin without a perscription it is possible to move to a "better ethic" (p. 32) than the ethic of the NT. But consider 1 Cor 11:3 once again: "But I want you buy Premarin without a perscription to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the buy Premarin without a perscription head of the wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is buy Premarin without a perscription God."

Are we to understand that "the head of Christ is God" is only true for certain cultures at certain times? Are we to understand that "the head of every man is Christ" is true only for certain cultures and certain times? Certainly not (unless Webb also thinks these statements are culturally relative). But if the buy Premarin without a perscription first and third sentences in this verse are transcultural, then must we not also consider the buy Premarin without a perscription second sentence to be transcultural, "the head of a wife is her husband"? Paul says there is buy Premarin without a perscription a parallel between the eternal relationship of the Son to the buy Premarin without a perscription Father and the relationship of a wife to her husband. And if Paul is buy Premarin without a perscription correct that there is such a parallel, then the headship of a buy Premarin without a perscription husband with respect to his wife is surely transcultural. Webb has buy Premarin without a perscription shown no passages in the NT where such an argument is buy Premarin without a perscription culturally relative.

The same considerations apply to Eph 5:22-23, where Paul says, "Wives, submit to buy Premarin without a perscription your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is buy Premarin without a perscription the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church." Paul bases his command on the buy Premarin without a perscription fact that the relationship between a husband and wife is buy Premarin without a perscription analogous to the relationship between Christ and the church. That is buy Premarin without a perscription also a transcultural truth. Would Webb say that the statement "Christ is the head of the church" is culturally relative? Webb has buy Premarin without a perscription produced no examples from the NT where a culturally relative command is buy Premarin without a perscription similarly based on an appeal to the conduct of Christ or buy Premarin without a perscription his relationship to the church.

Contrary to Webb's claim on page 186, 1 Pet 2:18-25 does not endorse slavery based on Christ's submission to suffering! First Peter 2 tells Christians how to suffer based on an imitation of Christ's example, but it buy Premarin without a perscription does not thereby encourage persecution of Christians or say that such persecution or buy Premarin without a perscription mistreatment is right. Similarly, it does not argue, "Slavery is a morally good institution because Christ submitted to mistreatment." The NT never makes any such claim.

Webb's other response to buy Premarin without a perscription Ephesians 5 and 1 Corinthians 11 is to say that buy Premarin without a perscription if Paul had been addressing a different culture he would have buy Premarin without a perscription commanded something different:

If Paul had buy Premarin without a perscription been addressing an egalitarian culture, he may have used the very same christological analogy (with its transcultural component) and buy Premarin without a perscription reapplied it to an egalitarian relationship between husband and wife. He would simply have buy Premarin without a perscription encouraged both the husband and the wife to sacrificially love one another (pp. 188-89).

This amazing statement reveals how deeply committed Webb is buy Premarin without a perscription to finding an egalitarian ethic that is "better than" the ethic taught in the NT. Even though he admits that Paul did not teach an egalitarian view of marriage, he says that Paul would have taught an egalitarian view of marriage had buy Premarin without a perscription he been addressing a different culture, such as our egalitarian culture today! Webb is buy Premarin without a perscription not at all bound by what Paul taught, but here as elsewhere feels free to buy Premarin without a perscription use his speculation on what Paul "might have" taught in a buy Premarin without a perscription different situation as a higher moral authority than what Paul actually did teach.

As I mentioned earlier, Webb also claims that buy Premarin without a perscription the Bible in Hosea 2 endorses the idea of a husband physically disciplining his wife after the buy Premarin without a perscription analogy of God who disciplines the people of Israel (pp. 189-90). But here Webb is buy Premarin without a perscription assuming a very unlikely view of Hosea 2, and he is buy Premarin without a perscription surely assuming a morally offensive view of God and the Bible, because he is buy Premarin without a perscription claiming that Hosea 2 could have rightly been used by husbands within Israel as a buy Premarin without a perscription justification for stripping their wives naked and confining them physically as discipline for buy Premarin without a perscription wrongdoing! This is buy Premarin without a perscription something the Bible nowhere teaches, and certainly it is not taught in Hosea 2, but Webb claims it buy Premarin without a perscription is taught there in order to find another "theological analogy" text that buy Premarin without a perscription he can claim as transcultural. This one is a long stretch, and buy Premarin without a perscription it is anything but persuasive.

12. Webb fails to buy Premarin without a perscription show that NT submission lists have some culturally relative commands and buy Premarin without a perscription some transcultural commands (Criterion 15). Webb says that when he looks at the "submission lists" within the NT, two of the items are "culture bound" (monarchy and slavery), while two are "transcultural" (children/parents and congregation/elders) (p. 196). Therefore he says it is uncertain whether the wife/husband submission command is buy Premarin without a perscription cultural or transcultural, based on this criterion alone.

The problem with Webb's analysis here is buy Premarin without a perscription the way he dismisses two of the commands in the buy Premarin without a perscription NT as culturally relative. According to Webb, the command, "Be subject for the Lord's sake to buy Premarin without a perscription every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or buy Premarin without a perscription to governors as sent by him to punish those who buy Premarin without a perscription do evil and to praise those who do good" (1 Pet 2:13-14), is "culturally relative" and buy Premarin without a perscription we need to move to a better ethic than that buy Premarin without a perscription of the NT, an ethic where we no longer have buy Premarin without a perscription to submit to government leaders. But a better approach, and buy Premarin without a perscription the one used by evangelicals who do not believe that buy Premarin without a perscription we can move to a "better ethic" than that of the NT, is to say that we are still to obey that command, but we are to apply it to buy Premarin without a perscription the closest parallel in our situation today, which is to be buy Premarin without a perscription subject to government authorities. In fact, Peter allows for this when buy Premarin without a perscription he talks about "every human institution," and buy Premarin without a perscription Paul makes the same kind of general statement, not even mentioning an buy Premarin without a perscription "emperor," but simply saying, "Let every person be subject to the governing authorities" (Rom 13:1). I see no buy Premarin without a perscription reason why we should try to move beyond this NT teaching or buy Premarin without a perscription see it as culturally relative.

In the same way, Christians today can obey the command, "Slaves, obey your earthly masters" (Eph 6:5) by applying it to buy Premarin without a perscription the nearest parallel situation in our modern culture, namely, employees being subject to buy Premarin without a perscription and obedient to their employers. The institution of "slave" (Greek doulos) was, in general, significantly different from buy Premarin without a perscription the horrible abuses found in American slavery in the nineteenth century, and buy Premarin without a perscription it was in fact the most common employment in the ancient world. To make a buy Premarin without a perscription parallel application to employees in their relationship to their employers is buy Premarin without a perscription still to be subject to the ethic of the NT and buy Premarin without a perscription obedient to it, and it is far different from Webb's system, in which we are buy Premarin without a perscription no longer to obey this ethic but move toward a buy Premarin without a perscription "better ethic" in which employees simply have to "fulfill the terms of their contract to the best of their ability" (p. 38) in the hope that we will move toward Webb's "ultimate ethic" which has "wages maximized for all" (p. 37; he nowhere explains this utopian platitude).

13. Webb fails to buy Premarin without a perscription show that wives were to be subject to their husbands only because they were younger and buy Premarin without a perscription less educated (Criterion 17). Webb says that buy Premarin without a perscription it made sense for wives to submit to their husbands in an buy Premarin without a perscription ancient culture because they had less education, less social exposure, less physical strength, and buy Premarin without a perscription they were significantly younger than their husbands (pp. 213- 14). But these reasons, says Webb, no buy Premarin without a perscription longer apply today, and therefore the command for wives to be buy Premarin without a perscription subject to their husbands should be seen as culturally relative. A wife today should just give some kind of "honor" and "respect" to her husband (p. 215).

Webb's argument here is buy Premarin without a perscription not persuasive, however, because these are not the reasons the buy Premarin without a perscription Bible gives for wives to be subject to their husbands. The reasons the buy Premarin without a perscription Bible gives are the parallel with Christ's relationship to the church (Eph 5:22-24) and buy Premarin without a perscription the parallel with the relationship between the Father and Son in the buy Premarin without a perscription Trinity (1 Cor 11:3). Another reason that Paul gives is that this is what "is fitting in the Lord" (Col 3:18). Yet another reason is that it is part of "what is good" (Titus 2:3-4), and another reason is that unbelieving husbands may be "won without a word by the conduct of their wives" (1 Pet 3:1).

Webb's reasons here are buy Premarin without a perscription merely speculative, and there is no indication that the biblical authors are buy Premarin without a perscription taking these factors into account when they give these commands. Moreover, these NT commands apply to buy Premarin without a perscription all wives, even those who buy Premarin without a perscription were more intelligent that their husbands, or the same age as their husbands, or buy Premarin without a perscription physically as strong as their husbands, or had as much social exposure and buy Premarin without a perscription social rank as their husbands, or as much wealth as their husbands. Webb's reasons are simply not the reasons the Bible uses.

In short, Webb says that the Bible teaches a wife's submission because of Webb's own invented reasons. Then he removes these invented reasons for buy Premarin without a perscription today's culture and buy Premarin without a perscription concludes that we can count the command as culturally relative. It is buy Premarin without a perscription far better to heed the reasons the Bible actually gives, and buy Premarin without a perscription to believe that these are the reasons that the Bible commands wives to buy Premarin without a perscription be subject to husbands.

14. Webb fails to show that 1 Tim 2:14, "And Adam was not deceived, but the buy Premarin without a perscription woman was deceived and became a transgressor," is culturally relative (Criterion 18, "Scientific and Social-Scientific Evidence"). Webb argues that buy Premarin without a perscription women were more easily deceived in the ancient world because they were not as well-educated as men, were younger, and buy Premarin without a perscription had less social exposure and less knowledge (p. 229). But Webb goes to buy Premarin without a perscription great lengths to demonstrate that these factors are not true of women today (he even has buy Premarin without a perscription an appendix on research showing that gender plays a very small role in differences in ability to buy Premarin without a perscription detect deception, pp. 269-73). Therefore he says 1 Tim 2:14 is buy Premarin without a perscription culturally relative and does not apply to women today.

This argument is buy Premarin without a perscription not persuasive because Paul makes no reference to his current culture or buy Premarin without a perscription to women being susceptible to deception in the first century. Paul is buy Premarin without a perscription talking again about Adam and Eve, and he says that another reason why women should not "teach" or "exercise authority over a man" is that "Adam was not deceived, but the buy Premarin without a perscription woman was deceived and became a transgressor" (1 Tim 2:12-14). However we understand that buy Premarin without a perscription passage, it is evident that Paul is saying that something is buy Premarin without a perscription true of Eve in relationship to Adam that buy Premarin without a perscription has transcultural significance for women and men generally in the NT church. Paul is buy Premarin without a perscription not basing his argument on education or age or social exposure or buy Premarin without a perscription knowledge (for buy Premarin without a perscription no doubt there were many older and wiser women in the buy Premarin without a perscription large church at Ephesus when Paul was writing to Timothy), but he is buy Premarin without a perscription basing his argument on something that he sees to be a buy Premarin without a perscription transcultural principle that has application to men and women generally. Some complementarians understand this buy Premarin without a perscription verse to refer to Eve wrongfully taking leadership in the family and buy Premarin without a perscription making the decision to eat the forbidden fruit on her own, and buy Premarin without a perscription other complementarians understand this to refer to a woman's "kinder, gentler nature" and buy Premarin without a perscription that she is therefore less likely to draw a hard line when buy Premarin without a perscription close friends are teaching doctrinal error and relationships need to be buy Premarin without a perscription broken.²² Whatever interpretation we take, Paul is arguing from Eve's action at the buy Premarin without a perscription Fall to a general truth about men and women teaching and buy Premarin without a perscription governing the church; he is not explicitly arguing from any statement about women in his culture or buy Premarin without a perscription any other culture.

15. Webb fails to ask, "What if I am wrong?" about his entire system, but asks it buy Premarin without a perscription only about one inconsequential point. When readers see the title of Webb's last chapter, "What If I Am Wrong?" (p. 236), they will likely expect, from buy Premarin without a perscription the placement of this chapter at the end of the buy Premarin without a perscription book, that Webb is raising the question, "What if I am wrong about my entire system?" But when buy Premarin without a perscription we read this chapter carefully we find that is not at all what buy Premarin without a perscription Webb is asking. He does not even raise the buy Premarin without a perscription possibility that his entire system about moving to a "better ethic" than the NT might be wrong. He asks, "What if I am wrong?" about only one very small point, and that is whether Paul's appeal to buy Premarin without a perscription primogeniture in 1 Tim 2:13 should be viewed as transcultural rather than buy Premarin without a perscription cultural. He says, "I am prepared to ask this chapter's reflective question about one aspect of my findings, namely, my assessment of 1 Timothy 2:13" (p. 236). But he concludes that buy Premarin without a perscription it does not really make much difference in the end, for buy Premarin without a perscription even if one sees primogeniture as a transcultural factor, it buy Premarin without a perscription is "light (not heavy) value in Scripture" (p. 238), and it is significantly modified by other "culture-based factors" (p. 238), and Gal 3:28 still has "sociological implications that will modify the application even further" (p. 240).

Therefore, even if Webb finds himself to be "wrong" on primogeniture in 1 Tim 2:13, he says it buy Premarin without a perscription will make very little difference. If he is right on 1 Tim 2:13 being culturally relative, then buy Premarin without a perscription he will end up with a "complementary egalitarianism" in which there is no "power differential based solely on gender" and no "role differentiation related to that power differential" (p. 231). The only difference between the genders would be "based upon biological differences between men and women" and would include, for instance, "a greater participation of women in the buy Premarin without a perscription early stages of child rearing" because of "the benefits of breast-feeding during early infant formation" (p. 241).

But if Webb is buy Premarin without a perscription wrong on 1 Tim 2:13, then he thinks it would lead to buy Premarin without a perscription an "ultra-soft patriarchy" in which there is "an equal power differential" between men and women in the home and in the church (p. 243), but in which men would be granted "a certain level of symbolic honor for their first born status within the human family" (p. 243).

Is there any difference, then, between Webb's two models, whether he is "right" or "wrong" on 1 Tim 2:13? Webb himself says there is buy Premarin without a perscription very little, because in either case,

The application of 1 Timothy 2 is buy Premarin without a perscription going to be very similar for both complementary egalitarians and ultra-soft partriarchalists. The only difference is buy Premarin without a perscription whether there should be a dimension of symbolic honor granted to one gender over the other (p. 241).

What Webb is buy Premarin without a perscription telling us, then, is that the only two options his system will allow are buy Premarin without a perscription both thoroughgoing egalitarian options. In both cases, all teaching and buy Premarin without a perscription governing roles in the church are open to women as well as men. In both situations, marriage is buy Premarin without a perscription based on "neutral submission" and buy Premarin without a perscription there is no unique leadership role or authority for the buy Premarin without a perscription husband in the marriage. The only difference is no real difference at all, a mere question of whether some kind of "symbolic honor" should be buy Premarin without a perscription given to men, a kind of honor that Webb does not further specify. I think it buy Premarin without a perscription would be hard for anyone to see that "symbolic honor" as anything other than meaningless tokenism.

16. Webb proposes a misleading "forum for harmony" (p. 243) which requires the buy Premarin without a perscription abandonment of all gender-based leadership for men and asks that both sides begin to buy Premarin without a perscription dialogue on the basis of a 99 percent capitulation to egalitarian claims. At the end of his book, Webb says, "Complementary egalitarianism and buy Premarin without a perscription ultra-soft patriarchy provide a forum for harmony and healing within the buy Premarin without a perscription church" (p. 243). He says that buy Premarin without a perscription his reflections in this final chapter have been included because, "I hope they will awaken a buy Premarin without a perscription spirit of reconciliation between egalitarians and partriarchalists" (p. 243).

What is the basis on which Webb proposes this "forum for harmony"? It is a forum to discuss whether we should adopt choice 1, "complementary egalitarianism" (which is Webb's title for a thoroughgoing egalitarian position), or whether we should adopt choice 2, "ultra-soft patriarchy" (which is Webb's other egalitarian option that gives a token "symbolic honor" to men).

Quite honestly, I find this buy Premarin without a perscription somewhat insulting. I fail to understand how Webb expects his invitation to buy Premarin without a perscription be taken seriously when the only two options offered in his "forum" are buy Premarin without a perscription to capitulate 99 percent to egalitarian claims or to capitulate 100 percent to buy Premarin without a perscription egalitarian claims. And even the 99 percent capitulation in what buy Premarin without a perscription he calls "ultra-soft patriarchy" in the buy Premarin without a perscription end is demeaning because it expects men to give up all male leadership roles in the buy Premarin without a perscription home and the church and accept in return a token "symbolic honor."

In addition, complementarians will consider Webb's terminology offensive and buy Premarin without a perscription confusing. As a co-founder of the Council on Biblical Manhood and buy Premarin without a perscription Womanhood in 1987, and as a co-author of the complementarian book Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1991), I wish to lodge a protest against Webb's use of two terms. His phrase "complementary egalitarianism," which he uses to buy Premarin without a perscription describe a thoroughgoing egalitarian position, simply confuses the issues by using complementary for buy Premarin without a perscription a position totally antithetical to what complementarians hold. In 1991, in the buy Premarin without a perscription preface to Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, John Piper and I wrote,

If one word must be buy Premarin without a perscription used to describe our position, we prefer the term complementarian, since it buy Premarin without a perscription suggests both equality and beneficial differences between men and women. We are buy Premarin without a perscription uncomfortable with the term "traditionalist" because it buy Premarin without a perscription implies an unwillingness to let Scripture challenge traditional patterns of behavior, and buy Premarin without a perscription we certainly reject the term "hierarchicalist" because it buy Premarin without a perscription overemphasizes structured authority while giving no suggestion of equality or the buy Premarin without a perscription beauty of mutual interdependence (p. xiv).

Since that time, "complementarian" has buy Premarin without a perscription been the term we have consistently used to describe our position, and buy Premarin without a perscription it has been widely (and courteously) used by others (though not all) to buy Premarin without a perscription describe our position as well. For Webb to apply it to buy Premarin without a perscription an egalitarian position is to needlessly confuse the issues.²³

For similar reasons, I find it buy Premarin without a perscription objectionable that Webb consistently characterizes our position as "patriarchy." That term (which literally means "father-rule") almost uniformly has buy Premarin without a perscription a pejorative connotation in modern society, and it carries nuances of an buy Premarin without a perscription authoritarian father ruling over several generations of adults and children in an buy Premarin without a perscription extended family in an ancient culture, none of which we are buy Premarin without a perscription advocating today. The term by itself says nothing about the equal value that buy Premarin without a perscription the Bible and our position attribute to men and women alike, nor does it buy Premarin without a perscription say anything about a leadership role for the husband within the marriage (since it focuses on the role of the "father" or patēr in the relationship). So it buy Premarin without a perscription is an inappropriate, pejorative, and misleading term to refer to the buy Premarin without a perscription position that we represent. It would seem more appropriate in academic debate, and buy Premarin without a perscription indeed a simple matter of common courtesy, to refer to positions by the buy Premarin without a perscription terms that the representatives of those positions choose for themselves rather than buy Premarin without a perscription by pejorative terms that they reject.

VI. CONCLUSION REGARDING WEBB'S REDEMPTIVE-MOVEMENT HERMENEUTIC: MOST OF WEBB'S EIGHTEEN CRITERIA FOR DETERMINING CULTURAL RELATIVITY ARE UNRELIABLE GUIDES FOR CHRISTIANS TODAY

Webb's entire system is buy Premarin without a perscription based on an assumption that the moral commands of the NT represent only a buy Premarin without a perscription temporary ethical system for that time, and that we should use Webb's "redemptive-movement hermeneutic" to move beyond those ethical teachings to a "better ethic" (p. 32) that is closer to the "ultimate ethic" God wants us to adopt. Since all of Webb's criteria are buy Premarin without a perscription based on that assumption, the entire system is unpersuasive and buy Premarin without a perscription inconsistent with a belief in the absolute moral authority of the buy Premarin without a perscription teachings of the NT.

But at this buy Premarin without a perscription point it is appropriate to comment specifically on each of the buy Premarin without a perscription eighteen criteria that Webb produces, because in some cases his analysis produces helpful insight even though it buy Premarin without a perscription is based on an underlying assumption with which I disagree.

In the buy Premarin without a perscription following material, I offer only brief observations on each of the buy Premarin without a perscription eighteen criteria.

1. Preliminary Movement (p. 73): I find this buy Premarin without a perscription criterion unhelpful because it assumes that there can be "further movement" beyond the buy Premarin without a perscription ethical teachings of the NT to a higher or better ethic. However, Webb's discussion is buy Premarin without a perscription helpful as it applies to a number of OT moral commands, which all interpreters I think would admit are buy Premarin without a perscription a "preliminary" set of standards and not God's final moral standards for his people today. (All Christians, of course, see the buy Premarin without a perscription OT as preliminary to the NT, but that is far different from buy Premarin without a perscription seeing the NT also as preliminary to further ethical development.) Another way of saying this buy Premarin without a perscription is that all Christians agree there is "redemptive movement" from buy Premarin without a perscription the OT to the NT, but evangelicals have held that the buy Premarin without a perscription movement stops with the NT. Prior to Webb, only Roman Catholics and buy Premarin without a perscription liberal Protestants, not evangelicals, have taken developments beyond the NT as part or buy Premarin without a perscription all of their ultimate authority.

2. Seed Ideas (p. 83): I find this buy Premarin without a perscription category unhelpful and unpersuasive because it assumes that some ideas in the buy Premarin without a perscription NT (such as Gal 3:28) are contradictory to other NT commands, and these "seed ideas" show us the buy Premarin without a perscription direction we should look for a superior ethic to the NT.

3. Breakouts (p. 91): I also find this buy Premarin without a perscription category unhelpful and unpersuasive because it assumes that certain people in the buy Premarin without a perscription Bible (such as Deborah or Junia) engage in activities that buy Premarin without a perscription are contrary to the moral teachings in the biblical text, but that buy Premarin without a perscription anticipate a movement to a higher ethic superior to that found in the buy Premarin without a perscription Bible.

4. Purpose/Intent Statements (p. 105): I find this buy Premarin without a perscription category unpersuasive and troubling because it implies that we can disobey NT commands (such as the command for wives to be subject to their husbands) if we decide that buy Premarin without a perscription the purpose specified in the command will no longer be fulfilled (for buy Premarin without a perscription example, if we decide that wives being subject to their husbands will no buy Premarin without a perscription longer help evangelism). This again assumes that buy Premarin without a perscription we can move to a higher ethical level than that buy Premarin without a perscription of the teachings of the NT. However, if Webb's analysis did not have buy Premarin without a perscription the assumption that we could move to a higher ethical system than buy Premarin without a perscription the NT, his explanation of the specific details of application today, such as his explanation of why we need not give a buy Premarin without a perscription "holy kiss" (because it may not make people feel welcomed at all!), but should instead give some other kind of warm greeting, is buy Premarin without a perscription a helpful explanation.²⁴

5. Basis in Fall or Curse (p. 110): I agree with Webb's argument that buy Premarin without a perscription moral commands based on the curse that God imposed in Genesis 3 are buy Premarin without a perscription not valid as a standard for us to obey today. I also agree that buy Premarin without a perscription the results of the curse continue in the present time, so that buy Premarin without a perscription we are still subject to death, the ground still brings forth weeds, and buy Premarin without a perscription women still experience pain in childbirth. I also agree with Webb that buy Premarin without a perscription we should attempt to overcome these effects of the curse because I believe that buy Premarin without a perscription has been the purpose of God in the history of redemption ever since he in justice imposed the buy Premarin without a perscription curse.

6. Basis in Original Creation, Section 1: Patterns (p. 123): I am not persuaded by Webb's argument that a component of a text only "may" be buy Premarin without a perscription transcultural if it is rooted in the original creation material (p. 123), because I do not think he has buy Premarin without a perscription discovered anything in the garden before the fall that is not morally good or buy Premarin without a perscription that we should not see as morally good today. His attempts to buy Premarin without a perscription find culturally relative components in the Genesis narrative are all based on a buy Premarin without a perscription misreading of the purpose and intent of that narrative.

7. Basis in Original Creation, Section 2: Primogeniture (p. 134): I find Webb's analysis here to buy Premarin without a perscription be unpersuasive, both because his position is based on a buy Premarin without a perscription denial of the historicity of Adam being created before Eve in Genesis 2, and buy Premarin without a perscription because he thinks that the principle of primogeniture found in Adam's being created before Eve should not be buy Premarin without a perscription taken as a transcultural principle unless people are willing to buy Premarin without a perscription apply primogeniture in other aspects of society today. As I explained above, this buy Premarin without a perscription assumes that Paul cannot properly make one application of a buy Premarin without a perscription pattern found in Genesis 2 unless he also makes many other applications of a buy Premarin without a perscription principle found in Genesis 2. I believe, in contrast to buy Premarin without a perscription Webb, that it is up to God, not us, to buy Premarin without a perscription decide what commands to give us based on principles in Genesis, and buy Premarin without a perscription that we should simply follow the ones he gives.

8. Basis in New Creation (p. 145): I find this buy Premarin without a perscription criterion unpersuasive and unhelpful, not because I think that "new creation patterns" in the buy Premarin without a perscription NT are wrong, but because Webb wrongly assumes that these patterns are buy Premarin without a perscription in conflict with the pattern of male leadership found in God's original creation of Adam and buy Premarin without a perscription Eve, and because Webb fails to consider other "new creation" commands that buy Premarin without a perscription encourage wives to be subject to their husbands "in the Lord" (Col 3:18), and because Webb again assumes that the "new creation" statements in the buy Premarin without a perscription NT are simply an indicator that leads us along the path to buy Premarin without a perscription a higher ethical standard than that found in the commands of the buy Premarin without a perscription NT itself.

9. Competing Options (p. 152): I find this criterion helpful in Webb's discussion of why God did not immediately give commands to buy Premarin without a perscription outlaw slavery (it would have caused massive and destructive economic upheaval), but rather gave principles that buy Premarin without a perscription would lead to its abolition. But I find this criterion unhelpful in its assumption that buy Premarin without a perscription the NT actually commanded or endorsed slavery, and also I find it buy Premarin without a perscription unpersuasive in its claim that the NT could not have taught an buy Premarin without a perscription egalitarian position at the time it was written (something Webb has buy Premarin without a perscription failed to prove, and something that cannot be proven in light of the buy Premarin without a perscription NT's willingness to challenge culture at many points).

10. Opposition to Original Culture (p. 157): I find this buy Premarin without a perscription criterion to be generally helpful, especially as it indicates the buy Premarin without a perscription ways in which both OT and NT oppose many current cultural attitudes and buy Premarin without a perscription practices regarding slavery. I am not as sure that it buy Premarin without a perscription is helpful for Webb's argument that buy Premarin without a perscription the commands against homosexuality are transcultural because homosexuality was widely accepted in the buy Premarin without a perscription ancient world, since I think that Webb underestimates the widespread moral disapproval of homosexual conduct in many sections of ancient society. And I think in this buy Premarin without a perscription section Webb has not adequately considered the way the NT does oppose some cultural values regarding marriage when buy Premarin without a perscription it strongly emphasizes the need for husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the buy Premarin without a perscription church. But this shows that the NT was willing to stand against cultural views on marriage when buy Premarin without a perscription it was something that was morally right.

11. Closely Related Issues (p. 162): I find this buy Premarin without a perscription category to be unhelpful and unpersuasive because Webb deals almost entirely with Mosaic laws regarding women while failing to buy Premarin without a perscription take into account that Christians are no longer under the Mosaic covenant, and buy Premarin without a perscription these laws are not what "the Bible" teaches for buy Premarin without a perscription NT Christians in any case. Webb seems in this section to buy Premarin without a perscription be on a fishing expedition to find deficient elements in Scripture, especially about the buy Premarin without a perscription treatment of women, so that he can argue that we need to buy Premarin without a perscription move to a higher ethic than that taught in the buy Premarin without a perscription commands of the biblical text.

12. Penal Code (p. 179): I found this buy Premarin without a perscription section to be helpful in its observation that most actions that buy Premarin without a perscription received the death penalty in the OT still receive divine disapproval today (though there are buy Premarin without a perscription a couple of exceptions regarding Sabbath breaking and cultic violations, so the buy Premarin without a perscription analysis is not entirely convincing). This criterion does not have buy Premarin without a perscription much application to the relationship between husbands and wives, as Webb himself admits (p. 179).

13. Specific Instructions Versus General Principles (p. 179): I found this buy Premarin without a perscription section to be unpersuasive and actually quite dangerous for Christians today, because it buy Premarin without a perscription could easily give legitimacy to disobedience to Scripture on any uncomfortable subject, simply by enabling people to buy Premarin without a perscription find a "general principle" of Scripture that buy Premarin without a perscription could be used to override a specific teaching.

14. Basis in Theological Analogy (p. 185): I found this buy Premarin without a perscription section to be deeply flawed, because it wrongly assumes that buy Premarin without a perscription the Bible taught and approved slavery, monarchy, and even right-handedness! Then it buy Premarin without a perscription argues that not all of these theological analogies are transcultural, and buy Premarin without a perscription therefore the teachings on marriage in Ephesians 5 and 1 Cor 11:3 are buy Premarin without a perscription not necessarily transcultural.

By use of this procedure Webb potentially nullifies all "imitation of Christ" passages in the NT. Webb's claim that buy Premarin without a perscription a command based in theological analogy need not be transcultural is buy Premarin without a perscription based on his claim that some culturally relative commands are based on similar theological analogies, but in fact he has buy Premarin without a perscription produced no examples that are actually parallel to Ephesians 5 or buy Premarin without a perscription 1 Cor 11:3.

15. Contextual Comparisons (p. 192): I found this buy Premarin without a perscription category to be unhelpful because Webb incorrectly assumes that the NT approves and buy Premarin without a perscription endorses slavery and monarchy.

16. Appeal to the Old Testament (p. 201): I found this buy Premarin without a perscription analysis to be unpersuasive and unhelpful because Webb incorrectly brings in a buy Premarin without a perscription number of texts that do not appeal to the OT to buy Premarin without a perscription prove the validity of slavery or monarchy, and also because he brings in a buy Premarin without a perscription number of texts that do not appeal to the OT at all but simply have buy Premarin without a perscription parallels in the OT (such as foot washing or the "holy kiss"). Therefore Webb wrongly dismisses texts regarding women that buy Premarin without a perscription appeal to the OT (such as 1 Cor 14:33, 36; 1 Tim 2:11-15; 1 Pet 3:1-7).

In addition, Webb rightly sees that buy Premarin without a perscription if the NT discontinues a practice, it is not required for buy Premarin without a perscription Christians to obey (p. 201). But he wrongly sees this buy Premarin without a perscription as an evidence of cultural change rather than an evidence of a buy Premarin without a perscription change from the old covenant to the new covenant.

17. Pragmatic Basis Between Two Cultures (p. 209): I found this buy Premarin without a perscription criterion to be unpersuasive because in a number of cases (particularly with respect to husbands and wives) Webb assumed that buy Premarin without a perscription he knew the reason for a command, then he used his assumed reasons (such as that wives were younger or less educated) to buy Premarin without a perscription replace the actual reasons the Bible gave for a command. However, in the buy Premarin without a perscription obvious example of why we do not wash other people's feet today, Webb's observation that buy Premarin without a perscription we do not travel on dirt roads with sandals did express what buy Premarin without a perscription people instinctively understand about this difference between ancient and modern culture.

18. Scientific and Social-Scientific Evidence (p. 221): I found this buy Premarin without a perscription entire section unpersuasive because Webb claims that the Bible teaches many things that buy Premarin without a perscription it does not actually teach (such as a flat earth and a geocentric model of the universe). He then buy Premarin without a perscription uses these examples to show that we have to abandon the buy Premarin without a perscription teaching of the Bible because in a number of cases it buy Premarin without a perscription goes contrary to present-day scientific evidence. Moreover, if Webb really believes that buy Premarin without a perscription the Bible teaches these incorrect things, this indicates that he does not believe the buy Premarin without a perscription Bible is inerrant in everything it affirms (and buy Premarin without a perscription this is similar to his denial of the historicity of the buy Premarin without a perscription creation of Adam prior to Eve in Genesis 2).

VII. THE DIFFICULT PASSAGES FOR DETERMINING CULTURAL RELATIVITY ARE FEW, AND MOST EVANGELICALS HAVE ALREADY REACHED A SATISFACTORY CONCLUSION ABOUT THEM

Webb has made the question of determining when something is "culturally relative" into a buy Premarin without a perscription much bigger problem than it actually is. The main question is buy Premarin without a perscription not whether the historical sections of the buy Premarin without a perscription Bible report events that occurred in an ancient culture, because the buy Premarin without a perscription Bible is a historical book and it reports thousands of events that buy Premarin without a perscription occurred at a time and in a culture significantly different from buy Premarin without a perscription our own. The question rather is how we should approach the buy Premarin without a perscription moral commands found in the buy Premarin without a perscription NT. Are those commands to be obeyed by us today as well?

Although my comments in this section are prompted by Webb's book, they are buy Premarin without a perscription applicable more broadly to the general question of how we can buy Premarin without a perscription know what parts of the NT are culturally relative and buy Premarin without a perscription what parts are still binding on us today.

I am buy Premarin without a perscription just concerned about the moral commands here. The question is not whether the buy Premarin without a perscription historical sections of the Bible report events that buy Premarin without a perscription occurred in an ancient culture, because the Bible is a historical book, and buy Premarin without a perscription of course it reports thousands of events that occurred at an buy Premarin without a perscription ancient time and in a culture significantly different from our own. The question rather is buy Premarin without a perscription how we should approach the moral commands found in the buy Premarin without a perscription NT. Are those commands to be obeyed by us today as well?

The question of which NT commands are buy Premarin without a perscription culturally relative is really not a very complicated question. It is buy Premarin without a perscription not nearly as complicated as Webb makes it out to be. The commands that buy Premarin without a perscription are culturally relative are primarily-or exclusively- those that concern physical actions that carry symbolic meaning. When we look at the buy Premarin without a perscription commands in the NT, I think there are only six main examples of texts about which people wonder if they are buy Premarin without a perscription transcultural or if they are culturally relative:

(1) Holy kiss (Rom 16:16; 1 Cor 16:20; 2 Cor 13:12; 1 Thess 5:26; 1 Pet 5:14)

(2) Footwashing (John 13:14; compare 1 Tim 5:10, which is not a command)

(3) Headcovering for women or wives in worship (1 Cor 11:4-16)

(4) Short hair for men (1 Cor 11:14)

(5) No jewelry or braided hair for women (1 Tim 2:9; 1 Pet 3:3)

(6) Lifting hands in prayer (1 Tim 2:8)

The first thing that we notice about this list is that all of these examples refer to buy Premarin without a perscription physical items or actions that carry symbolic meaning. The holy kiss was a buy Premarin without a perscription physical expression that conveyed the idea of a welcoming greeting. Footwashing (in the way that Jesus modeled it in John 13) was a buy Premarin without a perscription physical action that symbolized taking a servant-like attitude toward one another. Headcovering was a buy Premarin without a perscription physical piece of clothing that symbolized something about a woman's status or role (most likely that buy Premarin without a perscription she was a married woman, or possibly that she was a buy Premarin without a perscription woman and not a man; others have proposed other interpretations, but all of them are buy Premarin without a perscription an attempt to explain what the headcovering symbolized). As Paul understands long hair for buy Premarin without a perscription a man in 1 Cor 11:14, it is a "disgrace for him," because it is something that was distinctive to women (in that culture at least), and buy Premarin without a perscription therefore it was a physical symbol of a man being like a buy Premarin without a perscription woman rather than like a man.

For these first four examples, one can buy Premarin without a perscription still find a few examples of Christians who argue that we should follow those commands literally today, and buy Premarin without a perscription that they are still applicable to us. But the vast majority of evangelicals, at least in the buy Premarin without a perscription United States (I cannot speak for the rest of the world), have not needed Webb's "redemptive-movement hermeneutic" to buy Premarin without a perscription reach the conclusion that the Bible does not intend us to buy Premarin without a perscription follow those commands literally today. That is because they are not in themselves fundamental, deep-level actions that buy Premarin without a perscription have to do with essential components of our relationships to buy Premarin without a perscription one another (such as loving one another, honesty with one another, submission to buy Premarin without a perscription rightful authority, speaking the truth and not lying about others, not committing adultery or buy Premarin without a perscription murder or theft, and so forth). Rather they are outward, surface-level manifestations of the deeper realities that we should demonstrate today (such as greeting one another in love, or buy Premarin without a perscription serving one another, or avoiding dressing in such a way as to buy Premarin without a perscription give a signal that a man is trying to be a buy Premarin without a perscription woman, or that a woman is trying to be a man). Therefore the buy Premarin without a perscription vast majority of evangelicals are not troubled by these four "culturally relative" commands in the NT because they have concluded that only the physical, surface manifestation is culturally relative, and the underlying intent of the command is not culturally relative but is still binding on us today.

In seeing these outward manifestations as culturally relative (long before Webb's book was written), evangelicals have not adopted Webb's viewpoint that we need to move to a "better ethic" than buy Premarin without a perscription that found in the NT commands. Evangelicals who take the buy Premarin without a perscription Bible as the very words of God, and who believe that buy Premarin without a perscription God's moral commands for buy Premarin without a perscription his people are good and just and perfect, do not see these commands as part of a buy Premarin without a perscription deficient moral system that is just a "pointer" to buy Premarin without a perscription a higher ethic. They see these commands as a part of the buy Premarin without a perscription entire NT ethic that they even today must submit to and buy Premarin without a perscription obey.

For most people in the buy Premarin without a perscription evangelical world, deciding that a holy kiss is a greeting that buy Premarin without a perscription could be manifested in another way is not a terribly difficult decision. It is buy Premarin without a perscription something that comes almost intuitively as people realize that there are buy Premarin without a perscription of course different forms of greetings among different cultures.

The last two items on the buy Premarin without a perscription list need to be treated a bit differently. When we rightly interpret the buy Premarin without a perscription texts about jewelry and braided hair for women, I do not think that buy Premarin without a perscription they prohibited such things even at the time they were written. Paul says that "women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and buy Premarin without a perscription self control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or buy Premarin without a perscription costly attire" (1 Tim 2:9). Paul is buy Premarin without a perscription not saying that women should never wear such things. He is buy Premarin without a perscription saying that those things should not be the things that they consider the buy Premarin without a perscription source of their beauty. That is not how they should "adorn themselves."

This sense of the buy Premarin without a perscription prohibition becomes even clearer in 1 Pet 3:3. The English Standard Version, which is buy Premarin without a perscription very literal at this point, translates the passage as follows: "Do not let your buy Premarin without a perscription adorning be external-the braiding of hair, the wearing of gold, or the putting on of clothing-but let your buy Premarin without a perscription adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the buy Premarin without a perscription imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious" (1 Pet 3:3-4). If this buy Premarin without a perscription passage forbids braiding of hair and wearing of gold, then it buy Premarin without a perscription must also forbid "the putting on of clothing"! But surely Peter was not telling women they should wear no buy Premarin without a perscription clothes to church! He was rather saying that buy Premarin without a perscription those external things should not be what they look to for buy Premarin without a perscription their "adorning," for buy Premarin without a perscription their source of attractiveness and beauty to others. It should rather be buy Premarin without a perscription the inner character qualities which he mentions.²⁵ Therefore I do not think that buy Premarin without a perscription the statements about jewelry and braided hair for women, rightly understood, are "culturally relative" commands, but they have buy Premarin without a perscription direct application to women today as well.²⁶

Finally, should men be "lifting holy hands" in prayer today? Personally, I lean toward thinking that buy Premarin without a perscription this may be something that is transcultural and that we should consider restoring to buy Premarin without a perscription our practice of prayer (and praise) in evangelical circles today. (I realize that many Christians already do this in worship.) What influences my thinking is buy Premarin without a perscription a frequent OT pattern of lifting hands or stretching out hands to buy Premarin without a perscription God in prayer (see e.g. Exod 9:29; 1 Kgs 8:38; Pss 28:2; 63:4; 134:2; 143:6; Lam 3:41). On the other hand, since this is an outward, physical action (and buy Premarin without a perscription thus some may think that it falls in the same category as a buy Premarin without a perscription holy kiss or the washing of feet), I can buy Premarin without a perscription understand that others would conclude that this is simply a variable cultural outward expression of a buy Premarin without a perscription physical expression of an inward heart attitude toward God and dependence on him and buy Premarin without a perscription focus on him in our prayers. It seems to me that buy Premarin without a perscription there is room for Christians to differ on this question, but in any case it buy Premarin without a perscription certainly is not a complicated enough question that it requires Webb's entire "redemptive-movement hermeneutic" to buy Premarin without a perscription encourage us to move beyond the ethic of the commands that buy Premarin without a perscription we find in the NT.

Is it really that simple? Are the buy Premarin without a perscription only matters in dispute about cultural relativity just these simple physical items or buy Premarin without a perscription actions, all of which carry symbolic meaning? Perhaps I have buy Premarin without a perscription missed one or two other examples, but I suspect it really is buy Premarin without a perscription that simple. I believe God has given us a Bible that buy Premarin without a perscription he intends believers generally to be able to understand (what buy Premarin without a perscription has traditionally been called the clarity or the perspicuity of Scripture). Surely the question is not as complex and confusing as Webb's book portrays it. The general principle is this: Some commands of Scripture concerning physical actions that buy Premarin without a perscription carry symbolic meaning are rightly obeyed through different actions that buy Premarin without a perscription would still convey a similar meaning in each culture. (I say "some commands" because baptism and the Lord's Supper are buy Premarin without a perscription exceptions: they involve physical actions that are tied in many ways to buy Premarin without a perscription the central events of redemptive history, and these actions should not be buy Premarin without a perscription changed.)

At this buy Premarin without a perscription point someone may object, what about all those other passages that buy Premarin without a perscription Webb lists at the beginning of his book (pp. 14-15), passages we found so difficult to buy Premarin without a perscription classify regarding the question of cultural relativity?

My response to buy Premarin without a perscription that is that there are other widely-accepted principles of biblical interpretation that buy Premarin without a perscription explain why many other commands in the Bible are not binding today. These principles of interpretation, however, are buy Premarin without a perscription far different from Webb's principles, because they argue that buy Premarin without a perscription certain commands are not binding on Christians today because of theological convictions about the nature of the Bible and its history, not because of cultural analysis or because of convictions about cultural relativity, and buy Premarin without a perscription surely not because of any conviction that the NT commands were simply representative of a buy Premarin without a perscription transitional ethic beyond which we need to move as we find a buy Premarin without a perscription better ethic in today's society.

The following list gives some kinds of commands in the buy Premarin without a perscription Bible that Christians do not have to obey in any literal or buy Premarin without a perscription direct sense today (a fact which is evident apart from Webb's "redemptive-movement hermeneutic"):

(1) The details of the buy Premarin without a perscription Mosaic law code, which were written for people under the Mosaic covenant.²⁷

(2) Pre-Pentecost commands for situations unique to Jesus' earthly ministry (such as "go nowhere among the Gentiles" in Matt 10:5).

(3) Commands that buy Premarin without a perscription apply only to people in the same life situation as the buy Premarin without a perscription original command (such as "bring the cloak . . . and above all the parchments" in 2 Tim 4:13, and also "no longer drink only water" in 1 Tim 5:23). I would also put in this buy Premarin without a perscription category Acts 15:29, which is a command for people in a buy Premarin without a perscription situation of Jewish evangelism in the first century: "That you buy Premarin without a perscription abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and buy Premarin without a perscription from what has been strangled" (note that buy Premarin without a perscription Paul himself explicitly allows the eating of foods sacrificed to buy Premarin without a perscription idols in 1 Corinthians 10).

(4) Everyone agrees that there are some passages, especially in Jesus' earthly teaching, that buy Premarin without a perscription are difficult to understand in terms of how broadly we should apply them. Passages like, "Do not refuse the one who would borrow from you" (Matt 5:42) must be buy Premarin without a perscription interpreted in the light of the whole of Scripture, including passages that buy Premarin without a perscription command us to be wise and to be good stewards of what buy Premarin without a perscription God has entrusted to us. But these are not questions of cultural relativity, nor do these difficult passages cause us to buy Premarin without a perscription think that we must move beyond Jesus' teaching to buy Premarin without a perscription some kind of higher and better ethic. We agree that we are buy Premarin without a perscription to be subject to this teaching and to obey it, and buy Premarin without a perscription we earnestly seek to know exactly how Jesus intends us to buy Premarin without a perscription obey it.

(5) There are buy Premarin without a perscription differences among Christians today on how much we should try to buy Premarin without a perscription follow commands regarding the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit such as, "Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons" (Matt 10:8). Some Christians think we should obey those commands directly, and buy Premarin without a perscription they seek to do exactly what Jesus commanded. Other Christians believe that buy Premarin without a perscription these commands were given only for that specific time in God's sovereign work in the buy Premarin without a perscription history of redemption. But the important point here is that these differences are buy Premarin without a perscription theological. This is not a dispute over whether certain commands are culturally relative because the buy Premarin without a perscription point at issue is not one of ancient culture versus modern culture, but is buy Premarin without a perscription rather a theological question about the teaching of the whole Bible concerning the buy Premarin without a perscription work of miracles, and concerning God's purpose for buy Premarin without a perscription miracles at various points in the history of redemption.

After we have made these qualifications, how much of the NT is left? Vast portions of the buy Premarin without a perscription NT are still easily and directly applicable to our lives as Christians today, and buy Premarin without a perscription many other passages are applicable with only minor changes to modern equivalents. As I was preparing to buy Premarin without a perscription write this analysis of Webb's book, I read quickly through the buy Premarin without a perscription NT epistles, and I was amazed how few of the commands found in the buy Premarin without a perscription epistles raise any question at all about cultural relativity. (I encourage readers to try the same exercise for themselves.) Where it buy Premarin without a perscription is necessary to transfer a command to a modern equivalent, this buy Premarin without a perscription is generally not difficult because there are sufficient similarities between the buy Premarin without a perscription ancient situation and the modern situation, and Christian readers generally see the buy Premarin without a perscription connection quite readily. It is not difficult to move from "the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud" (Jas 5:4) to "the wages of the employees who work in your factory, which you kept back by fraud." It is not difficult to move from "honor the emperor" (1 Pet 2:17) to "honor government officials who are set in authority over you." It is not difficult to move from "Masters, treat your slaves justly and fairly" to "Employers, treat your employees justly and fairly." It is not difficult to move from "Slaves, obey in everything those who buy Premarin without a perscription are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the buy Premarin without a perscription Lord" to "Employees, obey your employers" (with the buy Premarin without a perscription general biblical principle that we are never to obey those in authority over us when buy Premarin without a perscription obedience would mean disobedience to God's laws). It is not difficult to move from "food offered to idols" (1 Cor 8:10) to buy Premarin without a perscription other kinds of things that encourage Christians to violate their conscience. And, to buy Premarin without a perscription take one OT example of a command that everyone believes tells us what buy Premarin without a perscription God expects today, it is not difficult to move from "You shall not covet your neighbor's . . . ox" (Exod 20:17) to "You shall not covet you neighbor's car or boat."

My suggestion, then, about the buy Premarin without a perscription question of culturally relative commands, is that it is not that buy Premarin without a perscription difficult a question. There are perhaps three to five "culturally relative" commands concerning physical actions that carry symbolic meaning (at least holy kiss, headcovering, footwashing; perhaps short hair for buy Premarin without a perscription men and lifting hands in prayer), but we still obey these by applying them in different forms today. There are buy Premarin without a perscription other broad categories of commands (such as Mosaic laws) which are buy Premarin without a perscription not binding on us because we are under the new covenant. There are buy Premarin without a perscription some fine points that require mature reflection (such as to buy Premarin without a perscription what extent the details of the OT show us what pleases God today). But the buy Premarin without a perscription rest-especially the commands in the NT addressed to Christians in the buy Premarin without a perscription new covenant-were written for our benefit, and they are not for buy Premarin without a perscription us to "move beyond," but to obey.

VIII. IS WILLIAM WEBBS BOOK HELPFUL FOR CHRISTIANS TODAY?

Although Webb raises many interesting and buy Premarin without a perscription challenging questions regarding cultural relativity, I believe Slaves, Women and Homosexuals: Exploring the Hermeneutics of Cultural Analysis is buy Premarin without a perscription a deeply flawed book that fundamentally contradicts the Reformation principle of sola Scriptura because it buy Premarin without a perscription nullifies in principle the moral authority of the entire NT and buy Premarin without a perscription replaces it with the moral authority of a "better ethic," an buy Premarin without a perscription ethic that Webb claims to be able to discover through a buy Premarin without a perscription complex hermeneutical process entirely foreign to the way God intended the buy Premarin without a perscription Bible to be read, understood, believed, and obeyed. Because a denial in principle of the buy Premarin without a perscription moral authority of the NT commands is at the heart of the buy Premarin without a perscription whole system, and because the system denies the historical accuracy of the buy Premarin without a perscription creation account, I do not believe Webb's "redemptive-movement hermeneutic" should be buy Premarin without a perscription accepted as a valid system for evangelicals today.

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