Last November, I wrote a post entitled Women Pastors… Biblical or Not? (See it Here)
Since then, it seems like some so-called Christian Churches have accelerated their push to put women in positions of authority over men, even though God’s word clearly reserves the responsibility of pastors, elders, deacons, and overseers for qualified men only.
This morning I read that a regional body of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (the largest Lutheran denomination in the U.S) has named the Rev. Megan Rohrer to the position of bishop. Rohrer will be the first openly transgender in the liberal mainline Protestant denomination’s history. She was elected last Saturday to head the California-based ELCA Sierra Pacific Synod.
Rohrer is quoted as saying “I’m glad my liberal Mainline Protestant denomination is ‘beginning to dismantle’ the injustice at the Council of Nicaea. No doubt much more dismantling must be done before true justice and knowledge can prevail against the external authority of revelation proposed by historic Christianity. Or so the Gnostics, yesterday and today, always proclaim (sic).”
Really? Does that statement make any sense at all?
Equally alarming is Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church’s recent decision to ordain three women. In a May 7th Facebook post, the church announced, “We ordained our first three women pastors, Liz Puffer, Cynthia Petty, and Katie Edwards.” A check of that page shows a disheartening amount of comments that show support for the move…
Women bring many spiritual gifts to the church... hospitality, mercy, teaching, evangelism, and service. Women in the church are not restricted from public praying or prophesying (1 Corinthians 11:5). The Bible nowhere restricts women from proclaiming the gospel (Matthew 28:18–20; Acts 1:8; 1 Peter 3:15). This reflects the fact that men and women are different but remain equal and complementary to each other.
Nowhere in scripture does it promote the idea of a woman preaching to men or interfering with a male pastor’s duty to correctly preach the word of God. Instead, God has intended that only men are to serve in positions of spiritual or preaching authority in the church. It is simply the way God designed the church to function. This does not make women less valuable or important by any means, rather, it means to be in agreement with God’s plan. Since God has chosen to give men the primary authority in the church, women who assume positions of authority over men or seek to preach to men, represent open rebellion against God’s plan and intention for His church.
God has established a divine order of things when it comes to the role of women in the church. Anything else is allowing secular culture to shape their churches, instead of respecting and adhering to the biblical mandate that the church should shape the culture around them.
Both of these decisions to elevate women over men to positions of spiritual authority show complete and absolute disrespect for the word of God. The Bible is clear on this, leaving no room for interpretation. In 1 Timothy, Paul addresses exactly why women should not teach men or have authority over men.
“12 But I do not allow a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. 13 For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve. 14 And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a wrongdoer.” (1 Timothy 2:13-14 NASB)
God created Adam first and then created Eve to be a “helper” for Adam… not the other way around.
18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” Genesis 2:18 NASB)
The fact that Eve was deceived was the main reason why God never intended for women to serve as pastors or have any type of spiritual authority over men.
This is not my feeling or opinion… it is scriptural.
With that said, how can any Bible-believing Christian stay in one of these two churches?
