There are an ever-growing number of women clergy in the Christian Church to include, Pastor, Reverend, Evangelist, Bishop, and Minister; among other official religious titles. Gone are the days when women merely taught children’s Sunday School, Vacation Bible School classes, assisted in the preparation of the Lord’s Supper, directed the Church Choir, worked in the Church Nursery, assisted with the baptismal garments [for the female converts] or were the white-glove wearing Church ushers.
Women have had a steady but gradual evolution from assisting at the Lord’s Table (“Holy Communion”) and collecting the Church Tithes to speaking in the Church body through reading Church announcements, leading Prayer and invocations at the altar, and finally, Preaching the word to the entire Congregation of believing men and women. It does seem to be such a waste of valuable spiritual resources if only the men were allowed to minister to the saints for edification as well as preaching the Gospel to those who have not accepted the Lordship of Jesus Christ. What are the instructions written for the Church in its infancy and are these practices binding for modern Christians today? The Apostle Paul writes:
Galatians 3: 26-27, For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
However, this same Paul writes in I Timothy 2: 11-12: Let a woman quietly receive instructions with entire submissiveness [to her husband??]. But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over the man, but to remain quiet. He continues on with the next couple of verses, “For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve. And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being quite deceived, fell into transgression.
NOTE: The implication may be that if Eve hadn’t been busy running her mouth in a conversation with that crafty Serpent, and checked everything with Adam first before she ate of the fruit of the Garden, then “Pandora’s Box” would not have been opened and all these evils and sin would not have come into the world.
Again Paul says in I Corinthians 14: 34-35: Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law (where ??) also says. And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for women to speak in church.
NOTE: Perhaps the Christian Church in the beginning was modeled after rabbinical, orthodox Judaism or Islam, with a separate area for the women to worship God separate from the men. The women could offer prayers and sing songs of devotion to God in silence but not aloud, thereby disrupting the proceedings of the men.
Even the Apostle Peter takes a similar position in I Peter 3: 1-2, 4-6:
Wives, likewise, be submissive to your own husbands, that even if some don’t obey the word, they without a word [from you], may be won by the conduct of their wives, when they observe your chaste conduct accompanied by fear [reverence]. . .rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God. For in this manner, in former times, the holy women who trusted in God also adorned themselves, being submissive to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, whose daughters you are if you do good and are not afraid with any terror [of your husbands or God??].
Peter also instructs the husbands, thus (verse 7), Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers be not hindered.
Paul’s and Peters injunction to Love, Honor, and Obey would seem to go counter to the modern, politically-correct and believing women of the Western Hemisphere, especially in America. Either the new trend within the body of Christ is part of a greater understanding of equipping all the saints of God for the mission of the Church, or what these two Apostles wrote are so absurd as to be dismissed outright; because such nonsense belongs to another time and place where the cultural, social, and religious rules don’t apply; or the Church has some serious work to undue.
Robert Randle
776 Commerce St. #B-11
Tacoma, WA 98402
July 27, 2008
pbks@hotmail.com
