16: CIRCUMSTANCES TRUMP SCRIPTURE 141ing that experience, not Scripture, should decide this question. And that
is just a way of saying that we are free to disregard or even disobey
Scripture. But disregarding or disobeying Scripture can never be right.
Another argument from “unique circumstances” might be the
objection of some people who fear, “We will be subject to a lawsuit if
we refuse to consider a woman for the job of pastor.” But this fear is
groundless at the present time at least in the United States, because case
law has consistently given wide deference to churches and religious orga-
nizations in the way they select people entrusted with ministry respon-
sibilities.^3 In other countries where laws may threaten the church, or in
the United States if the legal situation ever changes, we would still be
obligated to obey the Word of God even if it conflicted with the laws of
human society (see Acts 5:29, “We must obey God rather than men”).
Again and again, we keep returning to this question: what does the
Bible say? If it forbids women from taking the office of pastor or elder
(as I have argued extensively elsewhere),^4 then we have no right to say
this is a “unique time” when we can disobey what God’s Word says.
Therefore those who argue that women should have all ministry
roles open to them because this is a “unique time” in history are taking
the church another step down the path toward liberalism.
(^3) See Donald A. Balasa, “Is It Legal for Religious Organizations to Make Distinctions on the
Basis of Sex?” in Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: A Response to Evangelical
Feminism, ed. John Piper and Wayne Grudem (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway, 1991), 332-341.
(^4) See Wayne Grudem, Evangelical Feminism and Biblical Truth (Sisters, Ore.: Multnomah,
2004), especially pages 62-102.