In salvation in Jesus and ones ability to be saved by the the blood of Jesus it is not difficult to find a scriptural basis for gender neutrality in Christ. As for the church structure and church authority and the question often asked, does a man a women have instructions for any variation in gender for church rolls and offices ordained by God in HIS church and do we see the same gender neutrality there as well, in all things? Do we? Many use this scripture when addressing gender neutrality giving authorization to women in church leadership and for preaching of the gospel as an ordained minister:
Gal 3:28-29
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
If one used that passage in everything what would we do with HIS church, would it allow men to marry men and women to married women:
And then what would we do with this one?
Rom 1:24-27
24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
5 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
KJV
If one look at gender neutrality in all matters of the church structure, one would have to do away with some passages in the Bible and we know that is not right. The truth is all the scripture confirms each other:
1 Tim 3:1-4
3:1 Here is a trustworthy saying: If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task. 2 Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 4 He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect.
Through Christ as christians we have overcome some of the punishment that was given for sin of Adam and Eve being deceived in the garden but until we physically die is it completed? Does women still have pain in childbirth. Does man still return to dust until the day of redemption? Does man still earn his living by the sweat of his face?
Gen 3:14-19
14 And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;
18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
KJV
Then we would have to ask ourselves does any of this punishemnt still exist before a christian is absent from the body and present with the Lord?
Then one might have a picture to biblically discern the knowledge to make the call on gender neutrality interpretation if they were not concerned with what they wanted but what God said then if it was interpreted in all things and if one preached gender neutrality in all things, he would have to omit Romans 1:23-28 when he preached the sermon. And then what would he do when he read: Rev 22:19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
KJV
As for me, I [u]would not use or approve of a gender neutral Bible[/u]. But Paul said if a man wants to be ignorant, let him be ignorant.
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