Author's Preface
1. Accepting Or Uniting
   
2. Who Is A Christian?
   
3. "Why Don't You Leave The Church of Christ?"
   
4. The Iniquity Of The Fathers
   
5. Our Judicial System
   
6. "You Are My People Now"
   
7. Serving "Otherwise Than As Prescribed"
   
8. Does Baptize Really Mean To Immerse
   
9. Our Relationship Through Baptism
   
10. Those Gospel Meetings
    
11. A Prelude To Worship
    
12. Worshipping In Spirit And Truth
    
13. The Forbidden Prayer
    
14. "I Didn't Hear Nobody Pray"
    
15. Communion Prayers
    
16. Communion With Bread, Wine, And Money
    
17. Thursday Is The Lord's Day Too!
    
18. Not Forsaking The Assembly
    
19. Acts 20:7 One More Time
    
20. Our Father Who Art Where?
    
21. Does Nature Reveal God's Love
    
22. Copyrighted: All Rights Reserved
    
23. Don't Pour Water On Them
    
24. The Remaining Restriction For Women
    
25. Some Questions About Revelation
    
26. Must One Fully Repent Before Baptism?
    
27. Nicodemus In Context
    
28. Our Respected Myths Of Religion
    
29. Hook's Points: A Potpourri
    

Although I could always see inconsistency in the restrictions that we placed upon women in service capacities, I was content to limit women to their traditional roles as a "safe course." Along with the usual restrictive prooftexts, I often quoted the sharpwitted English writer, Samuel Johnson: "Sir, a woman preaching is like a dog walking on his hind legs. It is not done well: but you are surprised to find it done at all."

Compelled by honesty with myself, however, in time my studies have forced me to change many strongly conditioned conclusions. Now I must admit that I see only one main restriction hindering a woman from any Christian ministry that her male counterpart can fulfil.

A few years ago I came across a booklet with a long title. These 18 pages titled, "The Christian Woman May Pray In The Public Worship Assembly," were written by Darrell Foltz, a house painterpreachermissionary. After reading it, I wrote Darrell stating that he had answered every objection that I had except one. If women are accepted in the same capacities as men, I inquired, why did Jesus not choose some women apostles?

Pondering that question after mailing the letter, I concluded that it was because the culture of his society would have considered it objectionable. A few days later I received a similar explanation from Darrell.

That is the chief, if not the only, restriction to be considered relating to the woman's activity today.

This factor is not too surprising when we consider that social and cultural perceptions are considered relating to various other things like the veil, women's hair, the kiss, footwashing, and slavery.

The limiting statements in 1 Corinthians 14 and 1 Timothy 2 were meant to correct improprieties in the conduct of certain women in their particular situations. Paul was not laying down universal prohibitions. He had already told what women could do in 1 Corinthians 11 and had not changed his mind by the time he wrote Chapter 14. He said that they could pray and prophesy in their gatherings.

Paul's regulations relate to husbandwife more than to manwoman relations. Man is not the head of woman in a universal sense. I am not the head of your wife; neither do you have authority over my wife. The husband is the head of his wife and she is to be submissive to him, not me. These points are clarified in good studies, or restudies, that are now available in books and tapes.

Simply put: Paul plainly states that women may pray and prophesy, and Phillip had four daughters who did so. And few of us would deny that a woman may rightly do what the evangelist Phillip did with the Ethiopian eunuch. He preached Jesus to him, and she can preach in a similar manner. So what is the problem other than our prejudicial social conditioning?

Alright, you caught me in my own trap, didn't you? A woman cannot be an elder. An elder must be the husband of one wife. We have never seen a woman with a wife!

It is undeniable that Phoebe was a deacon. (The Greek has no feminine form like the English deaconess.) Women are included in the description of deacons in 1 Timothy 3:813. Traditionally, we have tried to evade the impact of Paul's teaching here by explaining that he was speaking of wives-deacons' wives. But why would deacons' wives need qualities not required of the wives of elders? Women were to qualify as deacons. Yet, it says, "Let deacons be the husband of one wife." If a woman can be a deacon without a wife, why can she not be an elder without one?

The descriptions of elders and deacons are not lists of legal qualification as we have generally perceived them to be, else the lists to Timothy and Titus would be identical. They are, however, the general description of the kind of persons to recognize. Paul used male terms like man and he, like we do at times, to indicate persons without reference to gender, and he specifically includes women in 1 Timothy 3.

Are you declaring that you will never reach these conclusions? I never thought that I would, either. But when I declared that I would not change my mind, I was really saying to myself that I already knew and understood everything about the subject and would grow no more.

Fortunately, as with the expansion of my waistline, growth is not always intentional, invited, and without resistance. Expansion is of God when we hunger and thirst after righteousness.

Will the women's service be forever restricted as long as anyone objects to their participation? If it is the weak brother whose conscience is being violated, respect must be given to his convictions until he can be taught more fully. But the stubborn person who refuses to grow in understanding is not the weak brother. He is the divisive brother when he demands that his ideas rule.

In Romans 14 and elsewhere Paul called for consideration of persons with scruples about meats, days, and circumcision, yet he did not permit them to bind diet, days, or circumcision. We must not continue to allow contentious people to limit Christian liberty by binding their convictions. Much courageous teaching of the weak brother needs to be done regarding the liberty of women.

It is not the "safe course" to forbid the exercise of the Godgiven gifts of women in serving.