Bloopers From the Church Fathers

Colin Melbourne

© 98-08 Born-Again-Christian.info

Things they wished they'd not said

Praise God for the first believers and followers of Christ. By God's grace, we got the New Covenant Scriptures through them. But, let's be even more grateful that the Holy Spirit was The Editor.

Read some of the writings of these 'Great Saints', and rejoice that God rejected them.

Tertullian

"God's sentence hangs over the female sex, and His punishment weighs down on you. You are the devil's gateway. You first violated the forbidden tree and violated God's Law. You shattered God's image in man. And because you merited death, God's Son had to die."

That's not from God, that's from the Church.

This horrendous gaff, is not a matter of political correctness, it completely contradicts God's revelation of redemption laid out in His Word.

Poor Tertullian missed it big time.

God instructed Adam to keep the garden. Gen. 2:15 He should never have let the Serpent in. Genesis tells us plainly that Adam was with Eve in the garden when she was tempted and ate the fruit. Gen. 3:6

Adam didn't say a thing to stop her, or contradict the Serpent. He kept silent.

The revelation God gave Paul, which is described in the New Testament, proclaims perfect redemption for women just the same as men. Tertullian was missing that Gospel fact.

Augustine Viewed Women as Subhuman

"How can woman be the image of God? Woman, compared to other creatures, is the image of God, for she bears dominion over them. But compared unto man, she may not be called the image of God, for she bears not rule and lordship over man, but ought to obey him."

How's that for a breathtaking contradiction of God's Word and Christ's perfect redemption!

Let's listen to Thomas Aquinas

Another 'Great Saint', on one of his not so great days;

"Woman is defective and misbegotten. For the active power in the male seed produces a perfect male likeness. A female comes from a defect in the male seed, or some indisposition, such as the south wind being too moist."

Note: This is not God's Word, it's man's crazy ideas. Thomas Aquinas in the 13th. century was still influenced by pagan concepts from Aristotle, and instilled them into Church tradition. It plagues the Church even today.

Poor Tom. A good job all believers are under grace.

Now let's hear Martin Luther

Who had the wonderful revelation that we are saved by God's grace, not works.

Concerning women, Marty was not so hot.

"Take women away from their house-wifery, and they are good for nothing. If they get tired, and die from bearing children, that is no problem. They are made for that."

(Ouch! Now Luther gets scientific)

"Men have broad shoulders and narrow hips, so they have intelligence. Women have narrow shoulders, and broad hips to sit upon, so they ought to stay home, keep the house, and raise children. The woman differs from the man. She is weaker in body, in honour, in intellect, and in dignity."

That fixes you women.

What about the Presbyterian, John Knox?

I love and thrill to this man's wonderful anointed preaching denouncing Catholic idolatry, but concerning women, sadly, he too missed the mark.

"Women are weak, they are frail, impatient, feeble, and foolish. They are inconstant, they are cruel, and lacking of spirit, and counsel. Woman in her greatest perfection was made only to serve, and obey men."

Poor Mrs. Knox.

But we make great allowance for John Knox, having just witnessed the terrible slaughter of Christians at the hands of 'Bloody Mary', the Catholic Queen of England, during the Reformation. And the adultery and treachery of another Catholic Queen, Mary Queen of Scots.

It's Got To Go

This kind of demonic thinking has permeated Church doctrine for too long, and it has got to stop. It is of the devil, and completely contradicts the work of Christ on the Cross. And the written Word of God.

It is not Scriptural. It is unbalanced, non-judicial, unfair, prejudicial and unreasonable.

Adam Clark, the respected author of the famous Bible Commentary wrote:

On the subject of the verses about women keeping silent in church;

"They are the only verses in the whole Book of God, which even by a false translation can be made prohibitory of women speaking in the church.

How is it, that by these isolated passages, which according to the best Greek authorities, are wrongly rendered, and wrongly applied, how come that women's lips have been sealed for centuries. How is it, that these texts have been allowed to stand unexamined, and unexplained for centuries?"

(Kenneth Hagin has written a superb book that satisfies Clark's plea, and I recommend everyone to read The Woman Question for a sound Scriptural understanding of the woman verses.)

It is time to put this right. Women Believers are Redeemed as much as male believers.

Let us rid the Church of pagan attitudes that contradict the revelation of Redemption through faith in Jesus Christ for everyone who believes.