254 WHERE IS EVANGELICAL FEMINISM TAKING US?
vately, “Our biggest problem in this struggle was not the ‘moderates’
who opposed us. Our biggest problem was conservatives who agreed
with us and refused to say anything or take a stand to support us.”
How different was the ministry of the apostle Paul! He did not lack
courage to stand up for unpopular teachings of God’s Word. When he
met with the elders of the church at Ephesus and recounted his three-
year ministry among them, he was able to say with a clear conscience,
“Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of
all of you, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel
of God” (Acts 20:26-27).
The word “for” indicates that Paul was giving the reason why he
was “innocent of the blood of all of you.” He said he would not be
accountable before God for any failures in the church at Ephesus
because he “did not shrink from declaring” to them “the whole coun-
sel of God.” He did not hold back from teaching something just because
it was unpopular. He did not hold back from teaching something
because it would have created opposition and struggle and conflict. In
good conscience he proclaimed everything that God’s Word taught on
every topic, whether popular or not. He proclaimed “the whole coun-
sel of God.” And he stood before God blameless for his stewardship of
the ministry to the Ephesian church.
If the apostle Paul were alive today, planting churches and oversee-
ing leaders in those churches, would he counsel them to shrink back
from speaking and teaching clearly about biblical roles for men and
women? Would he counsel them to shrink back from giving a clear tes-
timony of God’s will concerning one of the most disputed and yet most
urgent topics in our entire society? Would he tell pastors simply to be
silent about this topic so that there could be “peace in our time” in our
churches, and so that the resolution of the controversy would be left for
others at another time and another place?
When Paul began to preach that people did not have to be circum-
cised in order to follow Christ, great persecution resulted, and his
Jewish opponents pursued him from city to city, at one point even ston-
ing him and leaving him for dead (Acts 14:19-23). But Paul did not com-
promise on the gospel of salvation by faith alone in Christ alone, rather
than salvation by faith plus circumcision. And when Paul later wrote to
some of those very churches where he had been persecuted and even