Al Mohler comments on the fact that Dr. Frank Page (SBC President) once affirmed that women should be allowed to be pastors. In Dr. Page’s 1980 Ph.D. dissertation, he argued for the abolition of all distinctions in the role of men and women in the church. Mohler explains that this was the prevailing view in the SBC at that time, which led him, too, to accept this position as a seminary student in the early 1980s. Get this: Mohler actually went so far as to help lead a protest of the 1984 SBC resolution on women in ministry.
So how did Mohler come to change his mind on this crucial issue, such that he now embraces complementary roles for men and women in the family and in the church?
It started with a general unrest in my thinking. But then it exploded with a comment made to me in personal conversation with Dr. Carl F. H. Henry in the mid-1980s. Walking across the campus, Dr. Henry simply stopped me in my tracks and asked me how, as one who affirms the inerrancy of the Bible, I could possibly deny the clear teaching of Scripture on this question. I was hurt, embarrassed –and highly motivated to answer his question.
Mohler began to study the issue voraciously, even though most of the literature was egalitarian. The result of Mohler’s passionate inquiry:
my study of the question led me to a very uncomfortable conclusion — my advocacy of women in the teaching office was wrong, violative of Scripture, inconsistent with my theological commitments, injurious to the church, unsubstantiated, and just intellectually embarrassing.
Read Mohler’s explanation here. There is nothing embarrassing about gladly accepting the clear teaching of Scripture, and it is never too late to do so.
HT: Justin Taylor and Russell Moore
And here is Bob Allen’s breaking story in Ethics Daily.