"Cultural relativity," is a very dangerous phrase. Years ago when I questioned a Pastor about allowing his wife to teach from the platform, he used that very same argument, the cultural relativity argument. Even although I was a relitivly young Christian at the time, I knew that what I was hearing was very dangerous. I immediatly asked him " then who is the judge of what was just a cultural thing back then and what does not apply now, who decides and where would that end?" I got no answer, he was intent on having his wife teach.
Listen to what Tertullian wrote around the year 200 in a piece entitled "The Veiling of virgins."
"Throughout Greece, and certain of its barbaric provinces, the majority of churches keep their virgins covered. In fact, this practice is followed in certain places beneath this African sky. So let no one ascribe this custom merely to the Gentile customs of the Greeks and barbarians.
Moreover, I will put forth as models those churches that were founded by either apostles or apostolic men. . . . The Corinthians themselves understood him to speak in this manner. For to this very day the Corinthians veil their virgins. What the apostles taught, the disciples of the apostles confirmed. [Tertullian, The Veiling of Virgins The Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. 4 pp. 27-29,33]
Hippolytus, a leader in the church at Rome around the year 200, compiled a record of the various customs and practices in that church from the generations that preceded him. His Apostolic Tradition contains this statement:
"And let all the women have their heads covered with an opaque cloth, not with a veil of thin linen, for this is not a true covering." [Hippolytus
From the second and third century we see paintings on the catacombs of woman praying with head coverings. Luther, Knox and Calvin believed in head coverins as did Matthew Henry. The german brethern, the anabaptists, the hutterites and the plymouth brtheren and early pentecostals all believed in a woman covering her head. What does all of that prove? It simply proves that from the earliest churches through the 2 and 3rd centuries and on through the dark ages up and through the middle ages and indeed right up until the 20 century almost all churches practised this belief. Given all of that, I am still for not having any ordinace. Everything we do for Christ must flow from the inside out. It is the Holy Spirit that leads and guides us into all truth, those who are genuinly born-again.........brother Frank |