Editor's Note from February 20, 1981

A major goal of CHRISTIANITY TODAY is to provide a forum in which evangelicals can work out solutions for current problems facing the church. Evangelical leaders can make better decisions and serve the church better if they are informed. Too often decision makers are sincere people, thoroughly committed to Christ and his church, who do not possess information necessary for good decisions; and the church suffers accordingly. Wise leaders must know both the clear teaching of Holy Scripture and the reality of the world in which they wish to apply divine instruction. CHRISTIANITY TODAY therefore seeks to provide articles on what the Bible teaches about subjects currently troubling the church. We do not consciously avoid even the most sticky issues on which Scripture speaks. We also wish to help church leaders understand the world in which we must all live and work so they can apply the Word of God more effectively to the difficult problems of our day.

In this issue, we explore a controversy that deeply troubles and sharply divides the evangelical church: the leadership of women. Some who claim to be evangelicals defend the right of women to teach in the church, but reject Scriptures they believe set forth the opposite. In so doing, they jeopardize the basic evangelical principle of the complete and final authority of the Bible. Some evangelicals, fully committed to the authority of Scripture, interpret these passages as addressed to a particular cultural situation, but fail to show how to distinguish the culturally relevant from the universally binding. Still others acknowledge these passages as directly applicable to the church everywhere, but sometimes do not show how this can be intermeshed with the equally clear teaching of Scripture on the freedom of the Christian woman.

Readers may be interested in how we selected the authors for our major pro and con articles. We inquired far and wide for the evangelical scholar who had written most knowledgeably on this topic. Again and again we were pointed to Dr. George Knight. Then we discovered a fine monograph by Dr. Austin Stouffer defending quite a different view. We believe the two articles here will not merely stimulate you, but will help your understanding of Scripture and how it may be faithfully applied to a vexing problem in the church of our day.

The editorial presupposes that you will have read these articles. Much is at stake and evangelical convictions run deep and strong. But more than anything else, an evangelical wants to obey Jesus Christ and his written Word. My prayer is that the articles may help us to do just that.

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