I believe it is the very desire to bolster oppressive forms of authority that has led to the necessity of the principle of the inequality of equals and therefore also the subsequent fabrication and blasphemy of subordinating the Son to the Father in all eternity.  The Scripture does not teach ESS.  The Scripture also does not teach the metaphysic of oppression.  When the Son of God voluntarily subordinated Himself in time to become a bondservant on behalf of fallen man, it was not in that in which He was equal with the Father (Godhead) that He became a slave, but in His flesh:

George Whitfield believed that “Africans” were human but subordinate creatures and as such could rightfully be enslaved.  He saw this as an act of beneficence on behalf of the white Christian slave holder. In like manner, Robert Lewis Dabney, while discussing “natural equality” states the following:

[…]if the low grade of intelligence, virtue and civilization of the African in America, disqualified him for being his own guardian, and if his own true welfare (taking the “general run” of cases) and that of the community, would be plainly marred by this freedom; then the law decided correctly, that the African here has no natural right to his self-control, as to his own labour and locomotion. Hence, his natural liberty is only that which remains after that privilege is retrenched.[1]

While hideous, the metaphysic of such a position was simple: those unequal in nature, being, dignity, and attributes are also unequal in relations, including authority and submission, right to command and duty to obey. “Equality” only extends to the individuals as a requirement for equal duty before God—one to care for his subordinate and the other to obey his superior.  Equity was simply the Golden Rule practiced according to one’s natural lot.

This type of pro-slavery argument, so regrettably advanced from within the Church, was handily demolished by the New School Presbyterians and Abolitionists of the 19^th Century via physiology, anthropology, philosophy, and most importantly, the clear witness of the Scriptures.  Would that this had ended the vile and blasphemous pro-slavery arguments in the Church.  Instead, the annals of history treat us with a much more pernicious pro-slavery argument; more pernicious because much more “advanced”, “Biblical”, and “acceptable”.  Rather than the simple metaphysic of Whitfield and Dabney, we are presented with a new metaphysical category, the inequality of equals.

Here we might give as an example James Henley Thornwell. He argued forcefully that the “African” was indeed of the exact same constitution as was he, with the same capacities, intelligence, will, equal in all dignities, and most importantly, equal in the eyes of God:

Men may be seeking eminence and distinction by arguments which link them with the brute; but the instinctive impulses of our nature, combined with the plainest declarations of the word of God, lead us to recognize in his form and lineaments—in his moral, religious and intellectual nature—the same humanity in which we glory as the image of God. We are not ashamed to call him our brother.[2]

One might expect based on the plain metaphysic of his forebears that this should end all controversy. One clearly could not deprive such a one of “his self-control, as to his own labour and locomotion.” Unfortunately, Thornwell goes on to argue that due to the fall of mankind into ruin, God has instituted hierarchies and social arrangements for the perfecting of all men as they find themselves by providence in their current estates.  Thus, though the “African” be equal in every sense by his nature and substance, he is subordinate and unequal by birth and race, viz., in his very personal subsistence.  Not temporarily, by agreement or arrangement, but by the relational properties of his very being. Sure he is one in nature with his brothers, but he is subordinate as to estate and role until the resurrection, and all that was set awry by the fall is restored through Christ.

Charles Hodge makes similar arguments, though he does not, to my knowledge, accord this inequality of equals to a dispensation due to the fall.  Hodge argues clearly for the unity of the whole human race: “Wherever we meet a man, no matter of what name or nation, we find he has the same nature as ourselves. He has the same organs, the same senses, the same faculties, the same understanding, will and conscience, the same capacity for religious culture”[3].He admits the “dignity, equality and destiny of men” as taught by the Savior.[4] But, once again, for Hodge slavery is nevertheless “not necessarily sinful.”[5]  God in His wise providence has placed each individual in his ordered position within the social hierarchy and it is each man’s duty to perform the requirements thereof as “equal” before God.  For Hodge, as for Thornwell, one’s being equal in every way—in nature, being, and attributes—can be seamlessly coupled with inherent relations of subordination, without the blatant contradiction setting off any intellectual alarms.

When discussing the “subordination” of women enjoined upon the Corinthians by the Apostle Paul, he shows us the contours of this inequality of equals:

[…] order and subordination pervade the whole universe, and is essential to its being. The head of the man is Christ; the head of the woman is the man; the head of Christ is God. If this concatenation be disturbed in any of its parts, ruin must be the result.[…]And still further, as the subordination of the woman to the man is perfectly consistent with their identity as to nature, so is the subordination of Christ to God consistent with his being of the same nature with the Father.[6]

Further,

[…]these subordinate relations of one creature to another are merged, as it were, in the supreme causality of God. It matters little whether the man was of the woman or the woman of the man, as both alike are of God; just as he before said, it matters little whether a man were a Jew or Gentile, bond or free, since all are alike before God.[7]

Equality of nature does not preclude inequality in subsistence but are rather perfectly compatible; they merge in the “supreme causality of God”.  Thus we see Hodge arguing from 1 Corinthians 7:17 that,

[…]it was a general ordinance of [Paul’s] that men should remain in the same social position after becoming Christians, which they had occupied before. We can very imperfectly appreciate the effect produced by the first promulgation of the gospel. […]the perfect equality of men which it announced […]produced a ferment in the minds of men such as was never experienced either before or since. It is not surprising, therefore, that men were in many instances disposed to break loose from their social ties; wives to forsake their unbelieving husbands, or husbands their wives; slaves to renounce the authority of their masters, or subjects the dominion of their sovereigns. This was an evil which called for repression. Paul endeavoured to convince his readers that their relation to Christ was compatible with any social relation or position. It mattered not whether they were circumcised or uncircumcised, bond or free, married to a Christian or married to a Gentile, their fellowship with Christ remained the same. Their conversion to Christianity involved, therefore, no necessity of breaking asunder their social ties. The gospel was not a revolutionary, disorganizing element; but one which was designed to eliminate what is evil, and to exalt and purify what is in itself indifferent.[8]

The hierarchical relations among men, the “social ties”, including slavery, were all concordant with “the perfect equality of men.” In fact, the evil to be redressed was rebellion against this, while the bondage was “in itself indifferent.”

The premise for this whole method of reasoning is this presumed metaphysic of inequality of equals, a metaphysical having one’s cake and eating it too that grants a veneer of universal human dignity and equality of nature wilst denying the logical concomitants of this truth.  What possibly could be the basis for this metaphysical pairing?  Full equality of nature and attributes, but subordination in the relational attributes of personhood?  Perfect equality yet unequal in authority and right to command or owe obedience? Note that for Hodge and Thornwell, this subordination is not a role taken up by one naturally endowed with freedom from coercion, but rather a place in society or relation dictated by one’s very race or birth.

Modern complementarians were faced with a similar challenge as were the enslavers of the past.  Note well: I am not in any sense trying to draw a parallel between slavery and male headship in the home, nor arguing that any complementarians under discussion support slavery.

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