11: TEACHING IN THE PARACHURCH? 113place, overseeing only specific kinds of on-the-job activities? It will
require godly wisdom to decide in each situation.
The commands in the New Testament do not say that Christians
should follow them “only in church settings.” This is a crucial point. The
reason some New Testament commands don’t apply to parachurch
organizations is not that they are not churches, but that they are not per-
forming the activity mentioned in those commands. The Council on
Biblical Manhood and Womanhood may never observe the Lord’s
Supper together, and therefore they will not have to follow the New
Testament directions for the Lord’s Supper. But if they ever do observe
the Lord’s Supper, then they will have to follow those commands.
Whether CBMW is a church is not the crucial point. The crucial point
is whether that organization is carrying out an activity for which the
New Testament gives commands.
We must continue to insist strongly that the New Testament applies
to all Christians in all societies and all cultures and all situations. Its
commands are valid whenever Christians carry out the activities
included in those commands. I cannot imagine the apostle Paul writing
to the Corinthians, “Follow these instructions if you are doing this as
part of the church in Corinth, but if you are doing this same activity as
part of a Christian organization outside the church, then you do not
have to obey my commands.” The New Testament never speaks that
way, or hints at any such way to “escape” from being accountable to
obey it. This should make us reject any claims that allow us to ignore
New Testament commands that speak to the same kind of situations we
are in. Otherwise, the “we are not a church” argument will function as
a “closet egalitarian” argument that will effectively nullify the author-
ity of Scripture to govern those areas of our lives.
For these reasons, therefore, the argument “We are not a church;
therefore we have women teaching the Bible to men” is another step on
the path toward liberalism.