Understood. Thanks at least for responding.

Not to criticize but let me suggest to you that speculation can be a dangerous thing because then we read into the text things that aren’t there, as opposed to reading from the text what is there. When we read Daniel, his integrity shines forth from being tossed into the lions den to calling Nebuchadnezzar to repentance after interpreting Neb’s dream.

If I were going to speculate, I’d speculate that Daniel is showing that he was not some spiritual superstar who alone displayed this type of godly character but at least three others did as well.

Now we could assume that because Daniel alone was thrown into the lions den that the three others did not pray as Daniel. However, all of this is inconsistent with the book Daniel.

Let us therefore read from the text rather than engage in needless speculation or endless geneologies.

John’s gospel ends by telling us that the works of Jesus cannot be contained in one book… but we have the gospels and we know what we need to know.

Deut. 29:29 tells us that the secret things belong to the Lord and the things revealed in His Law, the Scriptures, are for us and our children…

Who knows what Daniels reasoning was for not commenting on himself? We cannot know. But we do know that Daniel was written by the Spirit of God through a man like Daniel to instruct us on the importance of integrity and to show that God is faithful… and to give us insight in the latter chapters to the end times…

Lo and behold, the issue came up. I searched the Scriptures, I read the arguments, I talked with people on both sides of the issue, and I could not find biblical justification for the LibProt promotion for women elders. In fact, the contrary. There are clear biblical and normative injunctions against women serving as elders.

I was a “Daniel” exactly like the blog article said: “you must draw lines where Scripture draws them. If the truth of God’s Word opposes the world’s wisdom on a certain issue, you must align yourself with God’s Word.”

Price? High. False accusations, distortion, back-biting, rumor-mongering, gossiping, tongues of fire. Eventually, I stepped down along with several other deacons and we all left the church.

Would I do it all over again? Absolutely.

Soli deo Gloria.

I don’t offer this comment in an attempt to be argumentative or divisive, only to offer a thought…Perhaps sometimes a failure of integrity in the face of those who have kept theirs intact strengthens our own integrity when it is tested again.

Any thoughts?