128 FEMINIST VIEWS THAT UNDERMINE SCRIPTURE
different from girls, and to teach girls how not to be different from
boys). As they enter their twenties, there will also be increased
reluctance to marry because of confusion about what it means to
be a husband or a wife.All this is to say that the “evident blessing” that God gives when
women preach the Bible is not the only result of such preaching. There
will be many, far-reaching negative consequences as well.
It is not always easy to see the long-term consequences of any
action. A better course is to have a settled conviction in our hearts that
in the long run God will bring blessing to our churches and our lives
when we obey all of his Word.
E. PUTTING EXPERIENCE ABOVE THE BIBLE IS A FORM OF
“SITUATION ETHICS” AND IS ALSO THE FOUNDATIONAL PRINCIPLE OF
MODERN LIBERALISM
What is right and wrong must be determined by the Bible, not by our
experiences or our evaluation of the results of certain actions.
Determining right and wrong by means of results is often known as “the
end justifies the means.” It is a dangerous approach to ethical decisions,
because it so easily encourages disobedience to Scripture.
In 1966, Joseph Fletcher published Situation Ethics: The New
Morality.^17 He argued that people at times needed to break God’s moral
laws in the Bible in order to do the greatest good for the greatest num-
ber of people. But as these ideas worked their way through American
society, the “new morality” of Fletcher’s situation ethics brought about
a tremendous erosion of moral standards and widespread disobedience
to all of God’s moral laws.
If I say that women should be pastors because it brings good results,
even if I honestly believe the Bible says that women should not be pas-
tors, then I have simply capitulated to situation ethics. What is right and
wrong must be determined by the teachings of Scripture, not by the
seemingly good results of actions that violate Scripture.
J. I. Packer explains that one of the characteristics of theological lib-
eralism is “an optimistic view of cultured humanity’s power to perceive
(^17) Joseph Fletcher, Situation Ethics: The New Morality (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1966).