2. The church I belong to and have served, has for many years employed female pastors and is only waiting for the General Conference to be obedient to the clear call of God through Scripture and the writings of EGW to ordain the female pastors that are working for us.
I'm glad they are waiting. But where is the clear call of God through Scripture and the writings of EGW that: (a) Men and women ministers may primarily serve as local pastors of local churches? (b) Women may be "invested with full ecclesiastical authority" "to baptize" and to "organize churches" (LP 42)?
You said that there is a "clear call of God through Scripture and the writings of EGW," and yet you have never quoted for us this clear call to do (a) and (b) above. If it is that clear, then by all means settle the controversy and quote the clear call for us.
I wonder why nobody has taken up this challenge presented here by Bob?
Because I see no reason to repeat myself again and again.
Can you show me where you already answered that question?
No, Daryl, because that is the total picture of what I have been posting here for a long time. Too often the discussions here are limited to short phrases taken out of context which obliterate the total picture of redemption in Jesus Christ.
When this challenge was issued to me here on AT my wife and I were on a 6-day trip to enjoy nature. We intended to take a round trip of our country, but bad weather made us turn around and take the same way back. Our access to the Internet was mostly limited to stops we made at larger gas stations, where we were often disturbed by children, etc. So my concentration was quite limited for several days.
But now that my Division President has made it clear, and this is what I was referring to, I feel it is best that you see for yourself what he says. His views have been presented here now both by myself and Dedication.
Besides that, let me just repeat a few points.
We have seen lengthy discussions of what happened in 1891, and it has been made clear that some males tabled this in a committee, and it has even been suggested who these men were. So it could be suggested that some of the same men shipped EGW off to Australia.
Regardless of what happened in 1891, we have not found a single indication that EGW had anything to say against the proposal of ordaining women. Bob has tried to show us that there could have been some men who were opposed to it, at least we know that it did not happen.
Did EGW object to their opinions? It is my honest opinion, based on her writings, that under divine guidance EGW attempted to re-introduce the idea of ordaining women evangelists, then on a different level as part time evangelists who were to be ordained. This is what she made clear in 1895, and through several articles and writings, where she envisioned a great army of female evangelists meeting urgent needs in the homes and thereby revolutionize the whole concept of soul winning.
I understand the main hindrance being the vanity of egocentric men who were unwilling to break their traditional view of male superiority, fostered by what Pastor John from Yugoslavia termed as his own cultural tradition framed by Roman Catholicism, Orthodox, and Islamic teachings - until he had the time to read his Bible.
I invite you to do the same. Yesterday and today I have read quite a number of chapters in the New Testament, which inevitably leads to prayer, re-dedication, and a clearer understanding of the atonement of Jesus Christ, the investigative judgment going on, not to speak of the living hope of Jesus coming again.
Edited: 1891 - should have been 1881. Sorry for the mistake!