Ordinary Women x 2

Things have been sparse here for a couple of days because I’ve been preparing two posts that are posted elsewhere this morning. First, I posted at Out of the Ordinary on what it means to worship In Spirit and Truth.

If God, as spirit, does not have a physical location, then those who worship him are not required to be at any one physical location to do so. There is no one right place to worship our God who is not himself limited to space. He can be worshipped everywhere.

While there is not one required place to worship God, there are indeed “musts” for our worship. Real worship, Jesus goes on, must be done “in spirit and truth.”

All the October post at Out of the Ordinary will be about worship. Read Kim Shay’s introduction to the topic.

And I  have a post on Lois and Eunice, Timothy’s grandmother and mother, at Theology for Girls, too.

Lois and Eunice were ordinary women in ordinary circumstances who were faithful in a rather ordinary way. Their situation was not ideal: They were raising a child who either had no father or an unbelieving one. Still, they taught young Timothy God’s word, and God’s word, as always, accomplished what he purposed for it.

It’s my addition this fall’s Women in Scripture Series. You’ve been reading all the contributions, right?

I may be back later today to finally post this week’s theological term: the twofold state of Christ, aka the two states of Christ.

Beginning with the Triune God

I ditched the books I was reading and started a new one. I decided the reason I was having such trouble reading—I’ve been reading (or supposedly reading) the same two books since June—was that I wasn’t very interested in either of the books I was trying to read.

I needed a book I would enjoy reading, so I began Covenantal Apologetics by K. Scott Oliphant.

Here is Oliphant’s first tenet in a list of “ten crucial theological tenets for a covenantal, Christian apologetic”:

1. The faith that we are defending must begin with, and necessarily include, the triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—who, as God, condescends to create and to redeem.

Generic theism is no part of the Christian faith.  … [A]ny defense that does not include the triune God is a defense of a false theism. And theism of this sort is not a step toward Christianity, but an idolatrous reaction to (suppression of) the truth. Thus, a belief in theism that is not Christian theism is a sinful suppression of the truth. It masks, rather than moves toward, true knowledge of the triune God.

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Linked Together: Ephesians 5:21

Phil Johnson
“Ephesians 5:21 poses a conundrum: Paul commends Spirit-filled Christians for ‘submitting to one another.’ Isolate the verse from its context, and it almost sounds as if the Apostle teaches a kind of mutual, universal submission, without regard to any structured leadership, hierarchy, or chain of command—as if he means to declare all authority void.” Read more of Love by Submission at Ligonier Ministries.

Piper and Grudem
“Egalitarians have taken [Ephesians 5:21] to mean that husbands and wives must submit one to another in a way that denies gender distinctions. Yet, is that what Paul meant to say?” Read more of Ephesians 5:21 and ‘Mutual Submission’ at The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood.