“Who’s Afraid of Polygamy?” taunts John Tierney in a New York Times Op-Ed piece not long ago (3/11/2006). Referring to the HBO series “Big Love,” which features a husband with three wives in Utah, Tierney calls polygamy, not “a barbaric threat to the country’s moral fabric,” but “an arrangement that can make sense for some… Read More
Children of Elders: What Are the Requirements?
In 1 Timothy 3:4, it is stipulated that an overseer’s children must “obey him with proper respect.” In Titus 1:6, the bar appears to be raised higher when it says that “[a]n elder must be . . . a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient”… Read More
What Does 1 Timothy 2:15 Mean? Will Women Be Saved by Childbearing?
In 1995, Tom Schreiner, H. S. Baldwin, and I edited the book Women in the Church: A Fresh Analysis of 1 Timothy 2:9–15 (soon to be published in a 3rd edition). The focus of the book is a thorough exegesis of 1 Timothy 2:12, where Paul says he does not permit women to teach or have… Read More
What Are the Biblical Exceptions for Divorce? What about Remarriage?
The book of Genesis speaks of the man leaving his father and mother and being united to his wife, and they will become one flesh (Gen. 2:24). When asked about divorce (Matt. 19:3), Jesus cited this passage and commented, “So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let no… Read More