Page 218 - THE REVELATION OF THE THIRD HEAVEN and THE MEAT OF THE WORD

esteem or status as far as the Holy Ghost is concerned (Acts 2:18). Women
laboured in the gospel (Phil 4:3).

There is a set order to the ministries (1 Cor 12:27-31) but there is no rank order to
those holding them who, since there is no gender to Christianity, are 'all one in
Jesus Christ' (Gal 3:28), and all are open and available to any sex (Gal 3:28). The
first ministry, that of apostle is open to women (Gal 3:28). All of the ministries,
including that of ‘governments’, listed in 1 Cor 12:28-30 are open to women (Gal
3:28) as there is no preference between the sexes (1 Cor 11:7, 11-12, Gal 3:28).
Women can be elders, since 1 Timothy 3:1 poses the desire of a man to become an
elder so necessarily it talks about his being a husband of one wife just as a woman
elder should be the wife of one man under the Law (1 Cor 11:11, Gal 3:28). Adam,
Man and men often refer to both sexes in the Word (Gen 5:2, 1 Cor 15:19-23).
Deacons can also be of either sex as the same point applies in that it is talking
about husbands, the same would apply to wives being the wife of one husband (Gal
3:28, 1 Tim 3:12). The commandment to have one spouse for life, unless or until
death parts, is part of the Law (Deut 30:10, Mark 10:6-9, 11-12, 1 Cor 7:2, 10-11,
Rev 22:18-19).

Phebe is described as someone whom the Roman Christians could admire (Rom
16:2). Women prophecy to Paul and Philip in Acts 21:9.

Some of the apostles were married (1 Cor 9:5) although Paul was not (1 Cor 9:15),
so marriage should not be forbidden to any category of Christian. Disputation
about the primacy of man over woman in a Christian context is utterly absurd
because the man should love his wife as himself as a sub-set of the second of the
two great commandments (Eph 5:33), so that any raising of status becomes
completely circular (Eph 5:33).

Christ is the head of every man and the man is the head of the woman (1 Cor 11:3)
but this implies no difference in status or esteem but is rather a reference to the
male Jesus Christ and that that man - ‘the man’ (1 Cor 11:3, 1 Tim 2:5), Jesus, is
the head of the man and thereby of the woman too (1 Cor 11:1-12). The passage
about woman being created from and for the man refers to the parabolical, non-
literally true (Psalm 78:1-2), Adam and Eve, but the Word establishes the equality
of status or esteem (Gal 3:28), though not the equivalence as in identical nature or
absolute identity, of the sexes before God (1 Cor 11:11) and indeed the man is born
of the woman (1 Cor 11:12). The Man is the head of the wife too (Eph 5:23) but
this relates under the Christian dispensation to the fact that the wife being referred
to is the Bride (Eph 5:32), the Church (Eph 5:32), and the Man is Christ (1 Tim