CREATION AND REDEMPTION: CREATING PATHS TO MODERN TENSIONS

The growing tension about the topic of women preaching, an online eruption causing immediate responses for views long expressed from pulpits and books, is at its heart a THEOLOGICAL tension. The views of women as being under submission, under a male head, and having no other role in life but to marry and have babies can all be tracked back to a theological view that men and women were CREATED unequal and woman's lot was always to be inferior or subordinate. This line of thinking created theological arguments of Christ being eternally subordinate in the Godhead, and a direct line to implementation of that construct of Head and Subordinate in the marriage relationship.  In this "camp" is the idea that the SON IS ETERNALLY SUBORDINATE TO THE FATHER IN ATHORITY ETC. So, therefore is the wife eternally subordinate to a male figure.

Scholar Richard Longnecker has noted that at the heart of many discussions and conflicts about the role of men and women in the Church,  is the question of how "we correlate the theological categories of creation and redemption."

Where "creation" is stressed, he goes on, "subordination and submission are usually emphasized - sometimes even silence."

Where "redemption" is stressed, he adds, "freedom, liberty, mutuality, and equality are emphasized."   

"Paul also lays emphasis on redemption in such a way as to indicate that what God has done in Christ transcends what is true simply because of creation." (New Testament Social Ethics for Today (Eerdmans, 1974)92). This hints at a vision of the Church redeemed, "in Christ," as being "post patriarchal. 

 (see his New Testament Ethics for Today (Eerdmans, 1974; pg. 92).

This suggests that the theologies developed supporting certain views may be driving the divergent understandings.

The Creation emphasis argues that God created Man, and Woman is eternally under the rule, control, or authority of Man. They use certain verses as "proof texts" to support this argument. 

In searching the history of the groups which tend most to utilize this argument - the Reformed, Calvinists, Neo versions of both, Theologically flexible Evangelicals, Adherents to the Eternal Subordination of the Son to the Father or Functional Hierarchy in the Trinity, and members of the New Apostolic Renewal network.

Marilyn A. Hudson, Huldah's Gate, COPYRIGHT 2026

CREATION	REDEMPTION
Premise: Hierarchy was part of creation and thus eternal.  Woman was created to be subordinate to the Man See  “The Danver’s Statement “ (1989) = Complementarianism	Premise: Hierarchy is part of the judgement of sin and therefore not eternal, especially to those in Christ.
Key Verses: Genesis 3:16 (Punishment for Sin) “… Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” Ephesians 5:23 — The husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. Ephesians 5:22–33 — Wives … submit to husbands; husbands are commanded to love sacrificially. 1 Peter 3:1–7 — Wives submit with a gentle spirit; husbands honor their wives. 1 Corinthians 11:8–9 — Woman was made from man and for man.	Key Verses:  Genesis 1: 26 (Creation Account) “Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, [a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” 27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them;  male and female he created them. 28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” Ephesians 5:21 — Believers submit to one another in the fear of God. Galatians 3:28 — All are one in Christ
Submission of Woman to Husband	Mutuality of Submission
Headship, Authority, Control	Equality of Authority and Control
ESS (Eternal Submission of Son to Father) or  "eternal relations of authority and submission"; Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood at https://cbmw.org/	Christians for Biblical Equality (CBE International) at https://www.cbeinternational.org/
Functional Hierarchy within the Trinity (ESS).  This theological position influences and supports the idea that hierarchy was the intended design for Male/Female relationships. (see Affirmation #3 of the Danvers Statement)	Traditional Trinitarian Views (Equal within one substance). This theological position undergirds the mutuality of the New Testament. Even when forced to live under customs that made one inferior to another (i.e., slavery or marriage), the goal was to continue to express their liberty through voluntary  acts of love and grace to witness to the unbelieving.
John Calvin - “Submit yourselves. God has bound us so strongly to each other, that no man ought to endeavor to avoid subjection; and where love reigns, mutual services will be rendered. I do not except even kings and governors, whose very authority is held for the service of the community. It is highly proper that all should be exhorted to be subject to each other in their turn.” (Calvin, John. Calvin’s Writings On Ephesians: The Expansive Commentary Collection,104-105) ; “If the woman is under subjection, she is, consequently, prohibited from authority to teach in public. And unquestionably, whenever even natural propriety has been maintained, women have in all ages been excluded from the public management of affairs. It is the dictate of common sense, that female government is improper and unseemly.”    (John Calvin, Commentary on 1 Corinthians 14:34)   “On this account, all women are born that they may acknowledge themselves as inferior in consequence to the superiority of the male sex.” Commentary on 1 Corinthians (Calvin. 1 Corinthians 11)	Martin Luther -Before his marriage, he had a different take on women and marriage. “Although women are ashamed to admit such things, both Scripture and experience teach that among many thousands there is not one to whom God gives the grace to maintain pure chastity. A woman does not have the power [to do this] herself.” (Letter to Three Nuns, Wittenberg, 6 August 1524, WA, BR III, no. 766, pp. 326-328; in Karant-Nunn and Wiesner-Hanks, ibid., p. 141)   “For woman seems to be a creature somewhat different from man, in that she has dissimilar members, a varied form and a mind weaker than man. Although Eve was a most excellent and beautiful creature, like unto Adam in reference to the image of God, that is with respect to righteousness, wisdom and salvation, yet she was a woman.  For as the sun is more glorious than the moon, though the moon is a most glorious body, so woman, though she was a most beautiful work of God, yet she did not equal the glory of the male creature.”  (Commentary on Genesis, Chapter 2, Part V, 27b)   Martin Luther, after his marriage in 1525 - "Let the wife make the husband glad to come home, and let him make her sorry to see him leave" (Table Talk, 1569)
The Westminster Confession of Faith (1646), is a Reformed Christian creed.	The Thirty‑Nine Articles (1571), doctrinal standard of the Church of England, a broader Anglican position that blends Reformed, Lutheran, and Catholic influences.
Ancient Theophilus of Antioch Tertullian Justin Martyr Irenaeus of Lyons Origen of Alexanderia Athanasius of Alexandria The Arian heresy (a fourth-century teaching of Arius of Alexandria (c. 250–336 AD) that the Son of God was a created being—the greatest of creatures but not eternally divine. Captured in the phrase “there was when he was not,” it denied that the Son shares the Father’s substance; this blends with several versions different functions of Christ such as the ESS)	Ancient Theophilus of Antioch Tertullian Justin Martyr Irenaeus of Lyons Origen of Alexanderia Athanasius of Alexandria Council of Nicea (325 AD) Council of Constantinople (c 310-367 AD) Gregory of Nyssa Augustine of Hippo John of Damascus Maximus the Confessor
Middle Ages to Reformation Heinrich Bullinger Theodore Beza Francisus Gomarus William Ames	Middles Ages to Reformation Richard of St. Victor St. Bonaventure St. Thomas Acquinas John Wycliffe Ulrich Zwingli Argula Van Grimback Marie Dentiere Katrina Zell Teresa of Avila Bathsua Makin
Reformation to Modern Era Westminster Confession  1646 (WCF) one of the foundational documents of Reformed Christianity.  Trinitarian aspect of the Son static as eternally begotten of the Father will led to a theology of Christ being eternally subordinate to God = ESS EFS) Johannes Coceceius Herman Witsius Thomas Cranmer John Knox John Ball Thomas Blake Patrick Gillespie Jonathan Edwards Frances Turretin Richard Baxter Geerhardus Vos Charles Hodge Charles Spurgeon Alexander McClaren John Owen George Whitefield John R. Rice (Baptist. Sword of the Lord) see Bobbed Hair, Bossy Wives, and Women Preachers R.C. Sproul Carl F. H. Henry Herbert Bavinck B.B. Warfield John Machen Karl Barth J.I. Packer Donald Bloesch Michael Horton Charles Ryrie (Role of Women in the Church. Originally published by Moody Press in 1970 and later revised by B&H Publishing Group, Ryrie’s book addresses the question: What can a woman do in the church of God?) Wayne Grudem ( 20th century - resurrects Eternal Functional Subordination and uses it as a lens to interpret Womanhood and Manhood, i.e. Complementarianism) Bruce Ware John Piper John McArthur	Reformation to Modern Era Margaret Fell Mary Astell Rachel Speght Juana Ines de la Cruz Elizabeth Bathhurst John Wesley , son of Susanna, ..”But may not women, as well as men, bear a part in this honorable service?” Undoubtedly they may; nay, they ought; it is meet, right, and their bounded duty. Herein there is no difference; “there is neither male nor female in Christ Jesus. “Indeed, it has long passed for a maxim with many, that “women are only to be seen, not heard.” And accordingly many of them are brought up in such a manner as if they were only designed for agreeable playthings. But is this doing honor to the sex? Or is it a real kindness to them? NO; it is the deepest unkindness; it is horrid cruelty; it is mere Turkish barbarity. And I know not how any woman of sense and spirit can submit to it. Let all you that have it in your power assert their right which the God of nature has given. You. yield not to the vile bondage any longer.  You, as well as men, are rational creatures. You, like them, were made in the image of God; you are equally candidates for immortality; you too are called of God, as you have time, to “do good unto all men.” Be “not disobedient to the heavenly calling.” Whenever you have opportunity, do all the good you can, particularly to your poor, sick neighbor. And everyone of you likewise “Shall receive your own reward, according to your own labor.” ( Sermon 98, “On Visiting the Sick”, III. 7.) Susanna Wesley Jerema Lee Phoebe Palmer Amada Berry Smith Catherine Booth Frances Elizabeth Willard Craig S Keener Ben Wittington

 

Richard Longnecker writing in his  book New Testament Social Ethics for Today (Eerdmans, 1974)92) noted: “"Paul also lays emphasis on redemption in such a way as to indicate that what God has done in Christ transcends what is true simply because of creation."