Comments for Greystone Theological Institute

Comment on A Clean Union With the Levitical Woman by GTI

GTI — Mon, 12 Dec 2016 18:43:30 +0000

Ah, yes, that must have happened in a recent conversion. We’ll look into it. Thanks for the notice.

Comment on A Clean Union With the Levitical Woman by Barbara Roberts

Barbara Roberts — Mon, 12 Dec 2016 03:19:54 +0000

Yikes on my laptop the text reaches out way over the width of my screen. Can you fix that? The article is almost unreadable in current format.

Comment on We Have a Problem by Jeff Crippen

Jeff Crippen — Mon, 23 Feb 2015 13:22:53 +0000

Oops, I meant Mark, not Leslie. Still brewing the morning coffee.

Comment on We Have a Problem by Jeff Crippen

Jeff Crippen — Mon, 23 Feb 2015 13:20:27 +0000

Leslie, you said – “We seem to rush toward debates over the Mosaic administration, the extent of acceptable activities on the Lord’s Day, the most faithful preaching method, and how much the prophets knew when they spoke at the direction of the Spirit. All interesting and useful questions, certainly. But how many hours of stimulating, edifying, smoke-filled, stout-drenched conversations on back porches among confessional presbyterians – for which we are well known, or ridiculed as the case may be – are spent lamenting the stories of the church’s women and girls? Perhaps my experience is the exception, but I haven’t had many.”

I have been battling this very thing in our own fellowship of churches – Reformed Baptists. General Assemblies pick the kinds of topics you list here and deliver all kinds of lectures on them. Pastors debate this detail and that nuance of theology and what some historic Baptist figure intended. Right now controversy is raging on what the small phrase “without passions” means in the Reformed confessions. Myself and our elders at our church are, well, disgusted with this. Christ is more concerned with mercy. His eye is on the widow and orphan and oppressed. He rebuked the Ephesian church (Revelation 2) for losing its first love, though diligently dealing with false teaching. Your words here are dead on target.

Comment on We Have a Problem by Andrea Rietman

Andrea Rietman — Mon, 23 Feb 2015 13:08:08 +0000

I cannot thank you enough for being a voice on this matter. Years ago, I attended a church that was founded because on the belief that no other churches in our town truly taught the truth of Scripture adequately. Ironically, year down the road, when a woman close to me was abused by her husband in every category one could think of and had removed herself from her home for safety reasons, she was encouraged during counseling session number ONES with the pastor, an elder, and his wife to go back. (And by the way, the first counseling session was joint, when they knew she was being abused.). A really bad situation became worse when the elders were questioned by a few people (including myself) on the ridiculousness of their counsel before God and this woman. The elders maintained their position: “We have done nothing wrong.” When I offered materials and a collection of Scripture I had gathered on the issue, the pastor said, “I’m sorry, I don’t have time to read your papers.” When word began to get out that they sent the abused woman back home after counseling the firs session, others began to have reactions of shock, so in order to save face, the elder’s wife who had also been involved in the counseling began to tell people that the abused woman “had exaggerated.” I could go on and on with more sordid details related to the spiritual abuse of this woman and at least two others that suffered at the hands of grossly misapplied Scripture of these elders who were involved (and all the others supported them), but the point I want to make is that you are absolutely correct; there IS an elephant in the room and I’ve said many times that we can’t keep sweeping him under the church rug forever. God is using you, a man (and I believe it is key that this issue is exposed by true MEN of faith in order for even just some of the stiff-necked men (and women, sadly) to finally listen). Thank you for being a voice for truth and righteousness. May God bless you!

Comment on We Have a Problem by Virginia Knowles

Virginia Knowles — Fri, 20 Feb 2015 02:14:34 +0000

Thank you for writing this, Mark. I write about domestic violence in Christian homes, especially in the home schooling movement. I have found from my research and personal observations that abused women are often told by church leaders to stay, submit, and be sweet. Here is one of my articles which addresses that: http://watchtheshepherd.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-bad-boy-and-angel.html

Comment on Just Like a Woman, But What Is a Woman? by Valerie Jacobsen

Valerie Jacobsen — Thu, 19 Feb 2015 20:17:18 +0000

Following this discussion with great interest! Thank you!

Comment on We Have a Problem by Shane Anderson

Shane Anderson — Tue, 17 Feb 2015 22:07:08 +0000

Well–it is certainly timely and, so far, a very helpful and needed biblical exploration. Thank you for these articles.

Comment on Just Like a Woman, But What Is a Woman? by Mark A. Garcia

Mark A. Garcia — Tue, 17 Feb 2015 19:36:14 +0000

Thank you. Mashal does have, for me, that etiological significance, yes. However, it is always hard to confidently nail down “the” starting point, but at least in my studies, what I’m pointing to is in fact what appears to serve that role. This is the case within Scripture but hasn’t always been the case historically. Appreciate your positive reflections on it.

Comment on We Have a Problem by Mark A. Garcia

Mark A. Garcia — Tue, 17 Feb 2015 19:34:16 +0000

Thank you, sir, and sincerely. You haven’t said otherwise, of course, but just to state explicitly what the posts already indicate, I’m writing in general terms about a general topic of longstanding concern to the Church, and not with a view to any particular situation either in my own experience or anyone else’s. In fact, I write with an eye toward what others have experienced and expressed by way of concern rather than any specific scenario. Predictably, observations will apply to concrete questions or situations in a way that varies from reader to reader, but I hope that this general pastoral-theological and educational mode is a more widely helpful mode for writing about this. Thank you again.