Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 06:4 (Fall 1992)
Article: Revelation, Proclamation And Women’s Responsibility
Author: Ralph A. Kee

PP 6:4 (Fall 1992) p. 10

Revelation, Proclamation And Women’s Responsibility

(A systematic theology in two or three pages)

Ralph A. Kee

The Reverend Ralph A. Kee is a career missionary with the Conservative Baptist Home Missionary Society. He and his wife Judy are engaged in Boston Urban Ministries, Boston, MA.

In history as recorded in the Bible, God often gave His revelation specifically to women, and often instructed women to pass on that revelation to others, including men. In the New Testament, at all of the most significant points of Christian revelation and proclamation, women played a role as significant as, or even more significant than, the roles played by men.

Upon this observation rests the notion that women, equally with men, are still entrusted by God with His revelation, and axe still held accountable by God for its proclamation. Women are still called by God to the basic ministries, including pastoral ministry in the Church.

At the Creation

God’s first revelation was both to a man and to a woman. According to Genesis 1, once humankind existed as man and woman, both genders were equally addressed, equally blessed and equally called to the care of the creation.

The very reason Eve was created was that Adam might have someone equal to himself so that there be mutuality in fellowship, in pleasure, in worship, and in work. Before Eve’s creation, Adam lacked a companion. The animals were there, but they were not Adam’s equal. God, who appreciated His own pleasure in sharing among the co-equal members of the Trinity, therefore made Eve for Adam, so that Adam could have someone with whom to share on equal terms, both in the fellowship of the Garden and in the responsibilities of the Garden. Following Eve’s creation, God revealed Himself to both Adam and Eve, speaking to both of them (Genesis 1:28ff), and revealing His will and His work to both of them.

When sin came, domination and subjection came with it. But our business in the Church is repentance and redemption. When they come, there is a reversal, and the move is back once again toward God’s original intention: the sharing by equals in the fellowship and in the responsibilities of God’s work and God’s world. The task of the church is to overcome, not perpetuate, the sins of domination and subjection between the sexes.

Annunciation of Jesus’ Birth

God first told a woman the news that Jesus of Nazareth would be The Incarnate One, the Messiah, and that woman, Mary, was the first human to announce the Incarnation: to Elizabeth, and to the male John in utero (Luke ...