In the modern world the Scriptures have not changed and yet the world has. The feminist movements, “Women’s Lib” and other liberal organizations have taken the Scriptures and made them non-relevant for today’s society. We are now in a tumultuous time of being chauvinistic (as men), legalistic, and uncompromising when we claim Scripture does not support women pastorates. Today we need to see what is relevant for all Scripture to be profitable, not changeable. Women can prophesy, women can teach, women can be a valuable asset to the church. They however cannot be found as pastors in Scripture. There are so many people today trying to force Scripture to say things that are not there. In either the Old Testament or the New Testament there are no women priests, pastor-teachers, or elders ever listed. No parts of the 66 books we call the Bible and hold our faith in were penned by women. This by no means is derogatory towards women, it is the truth. This is a subject that has caused division throughout the church history, not just within the modern history of the church.
Today the church has turned to evangelical feminism. Schools, and seminaries are rapidly abandoning the truths of Scripture since their inception to accommodate this new wave of teaching. The problem has never been that of women serving in the church; the problem is there is no Scripture to put them in authority over the church. One of the main arguments for women pastors is the finding of 7 women listed as prophetesses in the Bible. Now let’s look at the 7 women that the word prophetess appears with;
Miriam in Exodus 15:20-21 led the women in a celebration and dance and to sing praises unto the Lord. This by no means meant that she was over the spiritual authority of any man, in this instance she led the women only.
Deborah in Judges 4-5 served as a judge, not a priest (leader of worship and authority on Scripture). Deborah then chose Barak to lead the battles, deferring to male leadership. Barak showed his insecurity by saying he would only go to battle if Deborah went with him, then she tells him because of his cowardness that he would not rule and she would.
Huldah in 2 Kings 22:14 and 2 Chronicles 34:22 was consulted on foretelling what was going to happen to Josiah after Hilkiah the priest and other leaders found scrolls. She predicted the future events, she prophesied in a literal sense, not in setting of worship or leader of a church or temple.
Each of the above women are called prophetesses, none are shown to have a permanent calling to that office. Miriam, Deborah, and Huldah have only one recorded prophecy, not authoritative temple leadership.
Noadiah in Nehemiah 6:14 along with Tobiah and Sandballat worked against Nehemiah in the rebuilding of the wall. Again nothing is said about her authoritative leadership in a temple or place of worship. Some have even speculated that this is not a prophetess but a mistranslation of the son of Binnui mentioned in Ezekiel 8:33.
In Isaiah 8:3 it is simply talking about the wife of the prophet having a child. It simply means the wife of a prophet who named a child with a name that had prophetic meaning.
Anna in Luke 2:36 was a lady of age who served God in prayer and fasting and talked to those who were seeking redemption. Never does it say anything about her being the head of the temple. The passage literally says she told people about the Messiah. The last person mentioned as a “self-proclaimed prophetess is Jezebel in Revelation 2:20 and we know this is a “self” proclamation, to lure people away from Christ.
Women have every right to tell people about their Savior as well as men. That is not what is in question; it is the authoritative leadership of the position of pastor that is in question for women.
In Acts 21:9 there were four daughters of Philip who did prophesy. Again they told people about Christ or future events. Never does it show anything about their authoritative leadership in the church, nor are their names ever mentioned in Scripture. Acts 2:17-18 show how people are to tell about Christ, nothing is mentioned about church leadership as pastor.
In Acts 18:26 Aquila and Priscilla both gave instruction to Apollos. This however was done in a private setting and not in worship or authority over the church.
In Matthew 8:15 when Christ healed Peter’s Mother-in-Law, it says she ministered unto them. This means she served them, met their needs, it does not mean she preached or taught them in an authoritative position. Phoebe is mentioned as a servant (or deaconess) in Romans 16 not as a pastor.
Now in order to set the church authority we need to first understand the leadership of the house as Paul wrote in Ephesians 5:22-33. This is where the feminist movement has taken and made Scripture non-relevant. The Greek Word for submit is hupotasso. This literally means to place oneself in submission. This does not mean that the woman is inferior, or less spiritually. God has made one woman to be the wife of one man, and so she is constituted by God. It is a willing personal subjection that is demonstrated by this Scripture.
Warren Wiersbe says in his writing;
In these days of “Women’s Lib” and other feminist movements, the word “submission” makes some people see red. Some well-meaning writers have even accused Paul of being a “crusty old bachelor” who was antiwomen. Those of us who hold to the inspiration and authority of the Word of God know that Paul’s teachings came from God and not from himself. If we have a problem with what the Bible says about women in the church, the issue is not with Paul (or Peter—see 1 Peter 3:1–7), but with the Lord who gave the Word (2 Tim. 3:16–17).
The word translated “subjection” in 1 Timothy 2:11 is translated “submitting” and “submit” in Ephesians 5:21–22 and Colossians 3:18. It literally means “to rank under.” Anyone who has served in the armed forces knows that “rank” has to do with order and authority, not with value or ability. A colonel is higher in rank than a private, but that does not necessarily mean that the colonel is a better man than the private. It only means that the colonel has a higher rank and, therefore, more authority.
“Let all things be done decently and in order” (1 Cor. 14:40) is a principle God follows in His creation. Just as an army would be in confusion if there were no levels of authority, so society would be in chaos without submission. Children should submit to their parents because God has given parents the authority to train their children and discipline them in love. Employees should submit to employers and obey them (Eph. 6:5–8, where the immediate reference is to household slaves, but the application can be made to workers today). Citizens should submit to government authorities, even if the authorities are not Christians (Rom. 13; 1 Peter 2:13–20).
Submission is not subjugation. Submission is recognizing God’s order in the home and the church, and joyfully obeying it. When a Christian wife joyfully submits to the Lord and to her own husband, it should bring out the best in her. (For this to happen, the husband must love his wife and use God’s order as a tool to build with, not a weapon to fight with—Eph. 5:18–33.) Submission is the key to spiritual growth and ministry: husbands should be submitted to the Lord, Christians should submit to each other (Eph. 5:21), and wives should be submitted to the Lord and to their husbands.[1]
It is the wife placing herself in the proper and divinely-fitted position under her husband. This is not because man made it this way but because God made it to be so. If you read through this passage (Ephesians 5:22-33) you find it is the husband’s responsibility to wash the family with the word of God, not the wife’s. Thus as the man is head of the family, he is the leader, director and teacher of God’s Word. In 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 the same word hupotasso is used for the phrase “to be under obedience”. Again the woman is regarded as one who is not to speak coming from the Greek laleo which means to utter, speak, or preach. This passage again reiterates what is said in 1 Timothy 2:12 on a woman’s role in the church, not to usurp authority over the man. John MacArthur write this about 1 Timothy 2:13 and 14;
A popular view today is that woman’s subordinate role is a corruption of God’s perfect design that was the result of the Fall. Since the effects of the curse are intended to be reversed in Christ, it is argued, differing male and female roles should be abolished. Paul, however establishes woman’s subordinate role not in the Fall, but in the divine order of Creation. For it was Adam who was first created, he writes, and then Eve. God made woman after man to be his suitable helper (Gen 2:18). The priority of man’s role is obvious.
Nor was Paul’s teaching prompted by some cultural situation at Ephesus and hence not applicable today, as some argue. He not only appeals here to the creation account in Genesis 2, but also taught this same truth to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 11:8-9).
Paul does not derive women’s role from the Fall, but he uses that event as further corroboration of God’s intention. He points out that it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being quite deceived, fell into transgression. Genesis 3:1-7 chronicles the tragic account of what happened when Eve usurped the headship role:
The whole human race thus fell into depravity and judgment. Eve was not suited by nature to assume the position of ultimate responsibility. When she stepped out from under the protection and leadership of Adam, she was highly vulnerable and fell. And, of course, when Adam violated his leadership role and followed Eve (though it was not he who was deceived), the perversion of God’s order was complete. The Fall resulted, then, not simply from disobedience to God’s command, but from violating God’s appointed roles for the sexes. That is not to say that Adam was less culpable than Eve, or that she was more defective. Although he was not deceived by Satan, as was Eve, Adam still chose to disobey God. As the head of their relationship, he bore ultimate responsibility. That is why the New Testament relates the Fall to Adam’s sin, not Eve’s (Rom. 5:12-21; 1 Cor. 15:21-22). Headship by man, then, was part of God’s design from the beginning, and he bears the responsibility for its success or failure. The tragic experience of the garden encounter with the serpent confirmed the wisdom of that design.[2]
The same word hupotasso is used in Titus 2:5. To say a woman can be pastor negates the leadership in the family. The church is based on family orientation, through fellowship, and the edifying of the body through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
The problem is when people interpret the word men to mean all of humanity.
1Ti 2:5-8 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. Whereunto I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle, (I speak the truth in Christ, and lie not;) a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity. I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.
In 1 Timothy 2:5 the word men, (Greek anthropos) does mean all humanity yet the word used in 1 Timothy 2:8 the word is only for men (Greek aner) and this is where any modern translation loses the fullness of the original languages. By using the same word men, holding two separate meanings in the same passage, people now interpret from the English language and not the original language that when men is the word used it must mean all humanity. The Greek Word (aner) not (anthropos) is used for husband in 1 Timothy 3:1-7 meaning man not woman. We must know the difference between humanity as a whole and the separation of the sexes.
The next problem is women cannot be qualified through the characteristics of 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:6-9. There are characteristics listed for men only! The problem with qualifying women through Ephesians 4:11 the word some is negated by turning it to meaning all; the word some is qualified by distinction as in 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:6-9 for pastorates (overseers or bishops) as for the some being men. When we change it to all, we then open it to all worldly interpretation. Thus, we make Paul contradict the authority of the home in Ephesians 5:22-33 and what he wrote to Timothy and to Titus. The words used in 1 Timothy 3:1-7 have distinct and unchangeable words for this office being for men alone. To say women qualify again makes Paul’s writing to be non-effect and thus agrees with his words in 2 Timothy 4:3-4.
Galatians 3:19-4:7 teaches the spiritual equality for Jews, and Gentiles, slaves and free, and both sexes. The misrepresentation of this passage is assuming all are equal in leadership; the true context shows that Paul is speaking on salvation in our faith in Jesus as our Savior, not on our authority to lead.
[1]Wiersbe, Warren W.: The Bible Exposition Commentary. Wheaton, Ill. : Victor Books, 1996, c1989, S. 1 Ti 2:9
[2] MacArthur, John F., Jr. The MacArthur New Testament Commentary 1 Timothy, Chicago, Ill. Moody Press, 1995 pp. 88-89
