"Pastor...That's so misogynist! Aren't you afraid of losing parishioners?"
No pastor wants disgruntled parishioners. They cause trouble for the pastor in many ways that have nothing to do with what their real beef is. I have been a pastor for around 40 years and the role of women in the church has been the most controversial and that amazes me because the teaching of scripture is abundantly clear on the subject.
1 Timothy 2:12 is direct and to the point. A direct command - not from the Apostle Paul - but from the Holy Ghost, from Holy Scripture!
Are we to accuse the one who created the woman of misogyny? Or do we now pick and choose our Scriptures? Should I refuse to preach and teach this scripture because it will anger the devil and his followers who refuse to believe and obey?
Wasn't the refusal to accept God's appointed positions the reason for Satan's fall in the first place? And wasn't Satan's first temptation to Eve a temptation based on her appointed position as a "helpmeet"? Eve... if you eat this fruit ye shall be as gods! Eve's temptation was to throw off the yoke of submission and be self actualized. Why should God make the rules for Eve? Throw off that yoke and she can be like a god herself and make her own rules.
Eve's sin was compounded by turning from being a helpmeet to undermine her husband by becoming the temptress. "Look Adam... I ate it already, did I die? Did God lie? Why would God withhold something so beautiful as this fruit from us if it were not that he wanted us to use our own discretion? " Eve brought about the downfall of Adam, the one she was appointed to protect and serve.
The so called "modern woman" is no more modern than the garden of Eden. The only difference is that modern contraception, abortion on demand and government funded child care (schools and preschools) have freed women from God's design of their physiology.
Woman means "womb-man". The major difference between the man and the woman is that the woman has a womb and her role is to bear and care for children. Being pregnant and nursing babies prevents the woman from venturing too far from the home and this is unapologetically, "God's Design!"
Not only has "the world" rebelled against God's design, preferring the forbidden fruit after the similtude of Eve, but those who claim to be Christian as well have made that tree in the midst of the garden a staple of their own diets and made themselves into gods deciding was is good and evil rather than accepting the clear teaching of Scripture.
So yes! I have been called all sorts of names by the same Christians who wear the cloak of "love, tolerance, diversity, unity and understanding."
I am old enough to remember the churches in America B.C. (before birth control!) The pastors were men. Not because they wanted to oppress women but because they wanted to be obedient to the Scriptures. In the spring of 1975 I took a bus to Saginaw, Michigan from my college in Owosso to see if my Dad would loan me the car so that I could drive up to Bay City to visit my girl friend (now my wife). Dad was there for a ministerial gathering of the Northern Baptist Convention. I entered the huge stone church to see hundreds of men in black suits and white shirts and black ties sitting in the Sanctuary all of their backs to me. At that precise instant I saw my father stand up and address the group. They were debating the ordination of women. My dad said, "If women are to be ordained how do you explain the Bible's qualifications for elder in Titus 1:6 and Timothy 3:2 , "that he be the husband of one wife"?
"A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach; (I Timothy 3:2)
"...ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee: If any be blameless, the husband of one wife,Titus 1:6
The place erupted in laughter. They laughed. They saw my dad as pathetically simplistic taking the Scripture as if it were gospel truth word for word. In their estimation if a woman were ordained she would simply have to be the wife of one husband. They would throw out the clear Greek meanings of these scriptures that make an absolute and certain differentiation between male and female.
I was never more proud of my father than that moment when he stood unapologetically before all of his peers, standing on the Word alone even as they mocked him. I know it was not a coincidence that I was there to witness that moment as it is the third greatest memory I hold of my father.
Women, Christian women are in rebellion today and the woke male pastors crumble in fear before them. How dare they as men attempt to oppress women by opposing their ordination. It turns family members against you. It "hurts feelings". It denigrates the contribution of the women in the church.
Since they can't debate the clear teaching of 1 Timothy 2:12 they attempt to discredit it in various ways... actual lies! "women were ignorant and could not read and that is why Paul said those things but our culture has changed and if Paul were here today he would support women clergy... after all Paul wrote, There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28)
They have since used the same verse to defend same sex marriage and the ordination of trans-sexuals.
Here is a good rule of thumb. We cannot overrule a direct command from the New Testament by personal inference of an unrelated verse. Galatians 3:28 is not speaking about ordaining women. It is referring to our personal salvation. Each of us must profess a saving faith and if we do we are all in effect Abraham's seed. The verse has nothing to do with God's ordained duties, differences and roles. I ask you. When you became a christian did God take away your womb? You mean there was still a difference?
Here is the Timothy teaching in context.
I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting. In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works.
Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection.
But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.
For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety. (I Timothy 2:8-15
The verse and Chapters were not put in these sacred writings... they were put there for purpose of reference. Chapter two ends at verse 15 but the context continues to flow into the third chapter. 1 Timothy 2:8-15 is setting the table for the first few verses of Chapter three!
1This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.
2 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach;
There are other verses on the subject as well:
34 Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law.
Note that it states that "They are commanded to be under obedience." and "it is a shame for women to speak in the church."
The supposed left winged theologians in various seminaries declare that Paul wrote this because women in those days were not allowed property, could not read, could not hold jobs etc. so now that all that has changed this scripture no longer counts. Those are all lies. Women were educated in Corinth much as men. They held property and even owned and conducted their own businesses. In fact the priests in Corinth were nearly all women! The temples were run by women and women were the priests! What the Holy Spirit wrote through Paul to the people in Corinth was upsetting the applecart of what the people were accustomed to.
If God had wanted to open the pastorate and church leadership to women when they chose the first Deacons would have been a good time to do it but not a single woman would be considered even though many had faithfully followed Christ!
Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. (Acts 6:3)
If God meant to change the rules then why did Jesus only choose men to be his disciples? Not a single woman among the 12 or even among the 70!
This does not diminish the role of women in serving God or the church. It simply creates the order that God has commanded. This is not only for the church but also for the family!
For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. (Ephesians 5:23-24)
Now while this verse speaks of the submission of the woman to her husband 1 Corinthians speaks of the submission of the woman to the man!
But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God. (I Corinthians 11:3)
Now the feminists have so corrupted the hearts and minds of the churches in America that the Churches now have feminists spreading the gospel according to the feminists and large gatherings occur to condition all of the women into thinking contrary to scripture. They assure the women that the Bible says we are to submit to one another but that does not over rule any of the Scriptures concerning headship or submission of the women to the men or order in the Church.
This is one of the reasons why I refuse to be an "employee" of our church. I am the preaching pastor and elder but I do not collect pay from the church. There is no retirement fund to trap me into compliance with and toleration of those who teach false doctrines.
Yes working full time plus to support myself has taken a toll on my time, my energy and perhaps my health ( who knows what would be if I had not?) Like the Apostle Paul I am free from the financial bondage of being a hireling of a church board. I pity those pastors who are caught between a rock and a hard place and pressured into toning down the Scriptures to make them acceptable to feminist minded women. The sin of Eve is one of the prevalent sins of the American churches and has been the mother of all the sexual confusions that are now in the church and is largely responsible for the harm and destruction of the Biblical family.
P.S. While I am on the subject and some are already fuming let me continue by sharing what types of ministry and what purpose the Bible commands for the Christian woman.
The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;
That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,
To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. (Titus 2:3-5)
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