04.0000. Introduction

Introduction

"It is incumbent upon Christian women to explain themselves,’’ writes the Editor of The Living Way, published in California. "They profess, as Christians, obedience to the Word of God. They think that St. Paul forbade women to speak in public, and that he discountenanced women teachers of the Bible. Yet they teach and pray and preach; and they do not even ’veil’ when they do these things.... With [women] rests the responsibility to explain the Apostle Paul in a convincing manner, as not in opposition to their conduct. It is not enough for a woman to say ’I must leave such matters to better scholars than I; but in the meantime I will teach or preach, because I know the Spirit prompts me to do so.’ [But] a woman who is called to ’ preach’ is likewise called to an understanding of the Word which will agree with that inward voice. It is the Word and the Spirit by which we must be led.... Perhaps in days past it was impossible for women to grasp the means of solving these problems that face the Christian women- why the Holy Spirit should seem to move in one direction, and the Bible point the other way, but that day has passed. Our colleges and universities are open to women. They can study Greek and Hebrew, with all essential help, as well as men. And now they should surmount these mental and spiritual perplexities.... They should equip themselves, as biblical scholars, to explain St. Paul as not at variance with their practice, or else they should keep silence in the churches...." The editor who writes thus exactly expresses the present situation. The hour has come when it is necessary that ’’Christian women should explain themselves," if the work of women in the service of Christ is not to lag behind the work of women in the world. The emancipation of women has burst upon the world as one of the epoch making results of the Great War. It is now impossible to stay the advancing tide. The noble work of the women of the country has, it is admitted, saved the British Empire. Many men who believed that women were "called" and "fitted" only for domestic life may be said to owe their lives to the womanhood of the nation proving the falsity of their theory. The question now is whether the Christian women, in their witness for Christ, are to share in this emancipation or are they to be kept back while their confreres in the world have every door opened to them. The question also goes much deeper than this. It touches the authority and infallibility of the Word of God and its divine fitness to meet the needs of every generation. It cannot be that the women of today are to be liberated for full share in the work of the world and at the same time have restrictions placed upon them in the work of God. For if this be so, all the emancipated women of the world must consent to retire to a narrower sphere of service when they become Christians, morally bound to conform their lives to the written Word of God. In this matter the Bible itself is challenged. Is it "out of date" for the guidance of the women of today? It has consequently become imperative that Christian women themselves should now search into this question and " explain themselves" and their true status from these Scriptures, so that it may be seen that the Bible is not an antiquated Book, out of harmony with the present times. The Church of Christ as it was originally constituted, without the addition of centuries of man-made laws, is not out of harmony with the principles of all the successive movements of God in the world itself. But where are the Christian women to obtain the knowledge necessary for thus independently searching the Scriptures, seeing that there are but few with the training necessary for such independent research? "The hour produces the man" is a saying which can be altered into "The hour produces the woman," to meet the woman’s need of knowledge on this vital subject.

"We are acquainted with a woman," writes the editor of The Living Way, ’’who has taken the matter very seriously. Katherine Bushnell, M. D., feeling called to a public ministry, early resolved that her practice and teaching should correspond. She would not let her zeal outrun her reverence for St. Paul and his instructions. If the voice within could not be silenced in its demand that she preach and teach the Word of God, then that same voice could be relied upon to teach her how her call could be consistent with God’s Word. Years of prayerful meditation over the Word, patient, persistent study of the sacred languages, and a delving in all works on Bible exposition promising any help (God placing within her reach the great libraries of England 1.), have brought an abundant reward. She has recorded some of the results of these years of research in a Bible correspondence course for women so that other women can ’enter into her labours.’ and begin their studies where she has left off.’’

1. E.g., The British Museum and the Gladstone Library at Hawarden.

Dr. Bushnell was an intimate colleague of the late Mrs. Josephine Butler, who, on the eve of her death, gave her a last charge that with her knowledge of the original languages of the Bible she would devote herself to the educating of her sex in God’s teaching about women in the Scriptures. In accordance with this promise, Dr. Bushnell has for years been conducting a Bible correspondence course for women, with the lessons issued in mimeograph sheets at periodic intervals. Again and again she was urged to give forth her knowledge in print, but her reply was that the time had not yet come. But now at the psychological moment when the minds of men have been opened by the discovery of the dormant capabilities of women, she has been manifestly guided of God to issue the first series of lessons in book form, under the title of God’s Word to Women. 1. They cover the whole ground of the status of womanhood from the beginning in the book of Genesis to the teaching of Paul in the New Testament. The lessons open up the Scriptures in a way which can only be described as containing a revelation direct from God to those who have sought to be faithfully obedient to the Spirit of God in His leadings to public service, convinced that in His own season God would bring to light the true meaning of the words of St. Paul which appeared to be opposed to the known mind of the Holy Spirit in their personal experience.

We gratefully recognize also that Dr. Bushnell, in doing this invaluable service to Christian women at this time, does her work with scholarly dignity and soberness of language, revealing the mind of a true scholar, whose only concern is to arrive at truth and not, as prejudiced persons might suppose, as a "woman" herself, endeavoring to stretch any possible point to prove her case. She also repudiates any "desire to discuss ’which is the greater in the Kingdom of Heaven, man or woman,’ as an unworthy question to raise at all," and is concerned only that women, as women, should know and fulfill their destiny as ordained of God.

Emphatically, too, she acknowledges the Scriptures as the infallible Word of God, with the early chapters of Genesis as true history. She says, "We are convinced that they are history, and to women very valuable history. But even if we did not believe this, women could not afford to ignore them, for the sufferings of women from a false interpretation of their teachings, have been no unreality...."

Thank God, at last with the aid of this God-given light Christian women can "explain themselves," and thank God still more that the infallible word of God is proved to be the very "Word of God" in truth by the harmony of its bedrock principles with the world movements of God in the present day. The sovereign Lord of the universe, who is bringing about the liberation of nationalities, is also emancipating womanhood from the bondage of centuries and thereby proving himself again to be the God of the Bible. He has never changed His original purpose toward the creatures He made, and never decreed, as theology, colored by Judaism, has taught, that in the dispensation of grace the largest number of His redeemed church should be relegated to a lower status than that which was given to them through the atoning work of the Son of God.

Many may say that there is no need to trouble about Paul’s supposed teachings today since women in general have won their freedom and nothing can ever put them back where they were before the Great War. But, in fact, the need to explain the Apostle’s language is greater, for the tide of liberation will not reach the Christian women, those who are born of the Spirit and seek to conform their lives to the Word of God, unless they can be shown that their liberation is in harmony with that Word. For this they must understand for themselves their true destiny as revealed in the Scriptures of truth, or else they will hold back from fulfilling the purpose of God for them in these closing days of the Age. Other women who know not God will fill the leading positions which are increasingly being opened to them on every hand. When God’s time comes to remove a veil from His Word, nothing can hinder the fulfillment of His will.

1. Published by the author, Oakland CA.

He is sovereign Lord of the universe, and He has permitted for some good purpose the centuries of misrepresentation and misinterpretation of His mind concerning women, even though the "trail of the serpent" is visible all along the line. We believe it will be a cause of unspeakable thankfulness to multitudes of Christian women when they know the truth, for the dark shadow of Paul’s (supposed) relegation of them to perpetual subordination on account of Eve’s deception has clouded their spiritual sense of the justice of God and their apprehension of the fullness of the gospel message. Christian men, too, who have known the truth in their inner consciousness will rejoice in the light now given.

Reviewing Dr. Bushnell’s book, we are bound to say it is singularly free from extravagances. Her language is restrained and dignified. Sometimes we find a little sarcasm, but knowing what she knows and having seen what she has seen of the results in the world of the Genesis 3:16 misinterpretation, nothing but the grace of God has enabled her to write so temperately.

Here and there may be some " thoughts" which might seem farfetched, but they are as legitimate an exegesis of the text as any others and do not affect any vital and fundamental New Testament doctrine. For instance, she says that she cannot find the place "where the Bible says that Eve was expelled from Eden." ’’Adam was thrust out with a flaming sword between him and the tree of life, lest he put forth his hand, and take of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever" (Genesis 3:22). But since Eve was ’’living spiritually, there was no such need to cut her off from the tree! " He drove out the man." Dr. Bushnell continues, " I choose to believe that something of the odours of Eden have enveloped Motherhood ever since creation." If deep hidden instinct is any evidence of an intuitive knowledge of some facts of life as they exist in the sight of God, Dr. Bushnell’s faith is shared by men and women alike, many of whom own that there is no more beautiful reminder of Eden with its odors than the picture of a young mother with her newborn child. Dr. Bushnell suggests, too, that if Eve had heeded God’s warning that she was "turning’’ to Adam and what the consequences would be, not yielding to this "turning," Adam might have been saved from the effects of his fall. Who is to say that this was not so? William Law declares that Adam lost much of his perfection before Eve was formed, and she was elaborated to prevent "worse effects of his fall, and to prepare a means of his recovery."

Concerning the sending forth of this edition, I refer to some reasons for its issue from the spiritual standpoint at the close, but here I would say in connection with the original book itself that I am constrained to send out part of its message in this simple form because (l) the complete edition is so full of deep, solid information that many women who need its truths may not have the foundational knowledge for grasping at this time, and (2) the book has had to be issued at a price which is prohibitive to widespread circulation while the need for knowledge of the truths it contains is urgent. It is my hope, therefore, that this edition will be a signpost, pointing those who desire full knowledge of the subject to the original book, God’s Word for Women, which contains much which has not been touched upon here, such as "God’s law of marriage" and other deeply vital aspects of the theme. With Dr. Bushnell’s permission, I have sought to give as simply as possible the main points of some of the lessons concerning those aspects of the subject which affect the ministry of Christian women in the service of God.

Jessie Penn-Lewis, 1919