One more article on the subject of Women in Ecclesiastical office? No doubt many people are getting tired of reading articles on this subject. Yet, that irritation can become very dangerous. The subject has been before our denomination for a dozen years and our patience is being worn down by it. Why must there be one committee after another to study practically the same subject? Could it be that where proposals to place women in office failed to pass the Synod its proponent marked time by appointing another committee so as to make more propaganda for it?

Those who are in favor of placing women in ecclesiastical office are using their time well. Announcements appear frequently in The Banner that the committee set up for the purpose of propagating this view is again meeting at Calvin. On Jan. 23, 1984, a whole issue of The Banner was devoted to the purpose of making this practice more palatable to the church. A majority of the members of the Calvin Seminary faculty have expressed themselves as favoring women in office either by signing reports or by public statements. The report on Office and Ordination which was accepted by the Synod of 1973 laid the groundwork for this approach . Our churches should be informed that Ecclesiology bas not been taught at Calvin Seminary in the department of Dogmatics for the last 15 years. This is the department in which the doctrine of the church should be taught. At Calvin Seminary only five loci of dogmatics have been taught in recent years instead of six.

The issue before us regarding this subject is plainly this: Is it allowed by Scripture? The answer to that question should determine our views, shouldn’t it? The editor of The Banner says: “The church would be well served if we who say that the Bible allows women to hold office in the church frankly admit that we have made a hermeneutical decision: we have decided how to interpret certain Bible texts. One should not try to make these texts say the opposite of what they seem to be saying to the ordinary reader.” I applaud the honesty of the editor revealed in this statement! I do not agree with him concerning the interpretation which he then gives of some of the crucial texts in this debate. But, a certain hermeneutical decision has been made when this interpretation is given and I do not believe in that type of hermeneutics. It is the same hermeneutic which has been used in De Gereformeerde Kerken in Nederland for many years and it has destroyed that church. De Reformatie of Oct. 15, 1983 pp. 39–40 contains a very interesting statement made by Prof. Van ‘t Spijker of the Christelijke Gereformeerde Kerken in Nederland. He believes that the authority of the Scriptures has been placed on trial and points to the development in the Synodical reformed churches. “People who are capable of judging have said: The Scriptures do not permit a woman to serve in office! We did it anyway. (And Prof. Kuitert said of this: and rightly so.) And then the direction changed. According to Paul, according to the Bible, it may not be done. Nevertheless, we do it!” (Translation mine V.D.K.)

Prof. H. Kuitert is surely not known for a conservative stance in regard to a view of Scripture. However, he admits that the Scriptures do not allow women to serve in ecclesiastical office. I believe he is right on this score. I still believe, as I wrote to the Synod of 1981 in a minority report, that the Scriptures do not allow the practice of having women serve in the offices of the church. For me this is the end of the matter. Scripture determines. What about the findings of others who do not believe that the Scripture forbid this practice? The committee which reported in 1978 did a quite thorough exegetical study of the pertinent Scriptural passages. When one reads the part of the report dealing with their exegetical findings, one expects that the conclusion will be: the Scriptures close the door! Instead, the conclusion is: it may be done. There is a leap between the exegetical part of the report and the conclusion and recommendations.

I think the editor of The Banner is correct when he says: “Therefore I think we’ll soon see a major assembly that is ready to approve women as deacons, but that body will change the Church Order to underline the service character of deacons and the ruling functions of elders.” Take note, deacons! The report alluded to before concerning Office and Ordination emphasizes the serving character of each office.

What will happen when Synod opens the way for women to serve in the offices of the church? Let us learn at least one thing from recent history. Our sister churches in the Netherlands ordained their first women as deacons in 1968. In 1972 when we lived there for five months, they bad already ordained elders and ministers as well as deacons! What will happen here? Who knows? There are certain things which can be expected. I , for one, do not believe that Synod will make it “settled and binding” (Cf. Outlook Jan. 1984, page 9). I believe that it will be done in a much more “loving” way—that the decision will be left to each consistory. Will our people swallow this too? I doubt it! A few years ago I wrote an article in The Banner in which I stated that if all the changes which have taken place in the church over the last fifteen years had been made in one year, we would have had a gigantic split. Many of these changes were, perhaps, not well understood. But, our people do understand this proposed change! Many will accept this too but others will rebel at this.

That some women have left our denomination because they felt deprived of their rightful place in this church is mourned by many. I join the mourners. However, I am also disturbed about the approximately eighty ministers who have left the denomination in the last fifteen years. I am also grieved at the scores of people who are leaving the CRC because they do not believe it feeds and shepherds them adequately.

I am afraid that the decision to allow women to serve in the offices of the church is going to produce a division the like of which we have never seen before. It may very well lead to a split in the church which all ofus must seek to avoid.

I gladly accept brother Kuivenhoven’s concluding sentence in the article mentioned before: “And I, too, wish to be faithful to the Word.” So do I!

Henry Vander Kam, writer of our Bible outlines, is a retired Christian Reformed minister living at Orange City, Iowa.