The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood Q&A

Answers to Key Questions

Why is it so important to understand and live out biblical manhood and womanhood in the home and local church?

What does the Bible say about the roles of men and women in marriage?

Do you believe in "mutual submission" the way Paul teaches in Ephesians 5:21, "Submit to one another"?

What does the Bible say about leadership in the church?


Do you deny women the right to use the gifts God has given them? Doesn’t God's giving a spiritual gift imply that He endorses its use for the edification of the church?

Are you saying that it is all right for women to teach men under some circumstances?

Doesn't Paul's statement that "There is . . . neither male nor female . . . for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28) take away gender as a basis for distinction of roles in the church?

How do you explain God's apparent endorsement of women in the Old Testament who had prophetic or leadership roles?

But what about the liberating way Jesus treated women? Doesn't He explode our hierarchical traditions and open the way for women to be given access to all ministry roles?

Doesn't the significant role women had with Paul in ministry show that his teachings do not mean that women should be excluded from ministry?

Weren’t these Bible texts written in a patriarchal culture, while the main thrust of Scripture is toward complete equality of men and women?

Aren't you guilty of a selective literalism when you say some commands in a text are permanently valid and others, like, "Do wear a head covering," are culturally conditioned and not absolute?

How can a Christian single woman enter into the mystery of Christ and the church if she never experiences marriage?

Since many leading evangelical scholars disagree on the questions of manhood and womanhood, how can any lay person even hope to come to a clear conviction on these questions?

If role distinctions for men and women are rooted in God's created order, why don't you apply the rules everywhere in secular life as in the home and the church?

Isn't giving women access to all offices and roles a simple matter of justice that even our society recognizes?