Women of Intelligent Faith

          With transgenderism issues increasing in our culture, topics relating to gender and gender roles are hotly debated. While it may be interesting to tune in to popular conversations on the subject, even in church, I seek to sift out the lies, deception and man-made (even church-made) tradition, to arrive at the Truth, no matter what that Truth may reveal.           As you may or may not know, before I became a dedicated follower of Jesus, I identified as a liberal feminist. I believed in the right of women to be strong, independent, equal, and even the right to make hard "choices." My identity changed as I discovered who I really was as a special child of God. This led me to reject feminism (at least all those feminist ideas from the various waves of feminism which ran contrary to God's Word).           As a child of God I questioned who I was as a Woman of God. What is my role as a wife and mother?...

Eliminating False Teaching, Not Females Teaching JULY 24, 2016  /  MELISSA CAIN TRAVIS This will be my final post in what has been a series on gender roles in the church, and I thank all of you who have sent encouraging emails and tweets along the way! Soli Deo gloria! You can read the previous posts in this series by clicking here:  Part 1 ,  Part 2 ,  Part 3 ,  Part 4 ,  Part 5 ,  Part 6 . At the conclusion of  my first post on 1 Timothy 2 ,  I gave fair warning that I would be leaning upon respected New Testament scholars who have done much more thorough academic work on this passage of Scripture than I have had the time to do.  I have studied a few different interpretations, and for the sake of time, I will here explain the argument I find to be the most compelling. Dr. Craig Keener of Asbury Theological Seminary  has written an incredibly helpful book on this topic entitled  ...

A Picture of Redemption!  Man and Woman, Partners Teaching All JULY 5, 2016  /  MELISSA CAIN TRAVIS Today, a brief detour before I complete my examination of 1 Timothy 2. This will function as additional foundation for that penultimate installment in my series on gender roles in the church.  This past weekend, my husband and I hosted some dear friends of ours for dinner, friends we don’t get to see nearly often enough, due to distance and ministry responsibilities. It was an edifying time of fellowship with like-minded believers, and over the course of the evening the topic of my blog series on gender roles came up. The wife, like me, is in professional apologetics ministry, and is well acquainted with the various negative attitudes that come from certain corners of the church. At one point, she said something that really resonated with me, and the more I’ve pondered it, the more I’ve realized the importance of her remark. Before...