Sovereign Grace Church of Coulter, Iowa confesses,
together with all true churches throughout the ages,that the Scriptures of the Old and New
Testaments are the only perfect authority by which we may
knowwhat man is to believe
concerning God and what duty God requires of man.
Sovereign Grace Church notes that the Scriptures
specify, in Numbers 1: 2-3 that Moses was to "take acensus of all the congregation of the children
of Israel, by their families, by their fathers'
households,according to the number
of names, every male individually, from twenty years old and above -
all who are able to go to war in
Israel. You and Aaron shall number them by their armies." We find in
this passage thesimple principle
that warfare is the responsibility of qualified males.
From the
Garden of Eden, the Lord God differentiated the roles of men and
women. The primary sphere ofresponsibility for the woman is domestic. This truth is
repeated throughout Scripture, being especiallyemphatic in the New Testament (see Ephesians 5,6; I
Timothy 2 and Titus). This teaching, we believe, hasat its center, a design intended to protect
women, whom the Bible denominates as the weaker sex (I Peter
3:7). God's holy Law always
provides greater protection to the vulnerable. The churches of Jesus
Christmust insist upon this without
compromise.
Warfare,
as a result of sin in the world, is a horror, yet an occasional
reality for which every sovereignnation must be prepared. We fully recognize the
responsibility of Christian men to take part in just wars
ofdefense on behalf of the nation
of which God has providentially made them members. We regard as
an abomination, however, the forced
inclusion of women to be among the ranks from which an army is to
bemustered. Those who would point
to Jael (Judges 4: 17-21) as an imagined justification for
femalesubscription, fail to note
that this exceptional woman of valor performed her courageous and
noble deedwhile interrupted in her
fulfillment of her domestic duties. She was at home in her tent, not
in combat onthe field. The
testimony of Scripture remains uniform. Warfare, as such, is the
responsibility of qualifiedmen.
We have
no quarrel with policies which permit women voluntarily to engage in
support and ancillaryactivities
appropriate to their sex, outside of combat providing the authority
of their husbands/fathers in thematter is given due consideration. However, even these
activities must be done in a manner which protectstheir dignity as women and does not expose them
to abuse or unwarranted risk of assault or injury. It is
theresponsibility of man to bear
whatever sorrows may be necessary to protect their women and
children.
The
Council of Sovereign Grace Church of Coulter, Iowa, with the
authority it has received from Christ ourKing, instructs its members to submit to the testimony
of God Himself and to instruct their families inaccordance with the truths herein expressed. Our wives
and daughters may not be subject to military draft,may not be regarded as proper participants in
any pool from which armed combatants are to be drawn,
andought not to be placed in any
environment or circumstances which would otherwise compromise their
highand holy calling as women of
the covenant community.
