I'm sure I'll step on some toes...
Since our move, my wife and I have been looking for a Church home. There is little variety here, so we've been going to the traditional big three to see how it feels. Generally we move on when the typical happenstances recur prompting memories why we left that particular denomination years before.
For the past several Sundays, we have been attending a Methodist Church... In the back of my mind I recalled that UMC has women preachers. The female ***istant pastor has been away at retreat and whatnot until today.
I thought I had made my peace with women preachers... using the reasoning that women preachers are better than no preachers... since the vacancies are not being filled with enough male pastors. But this town has no lack of male preachers. And there is a male senior pastor... who apparently is in the ministry full time.
The lady preached an interesting sermon about suffering. She presided over the communion (which we did not partake... because P***over Seder is the true Lord's supper). And she did the benediction with up lifted hand.
In the past, I have argued against women preachers and shown how 1 Timothy 2:9-15 is as universal as marriage is (Matthew 19). And how the prophetic ministry of Deborah and her leadership in the war was to the shame of the men who would not step up in cowardice. Also how the scriptures are silent as to what exact role Priscilla played in Priscilla and Aquila teaching Apollos the fuller truth about Christ... that her ministry could have been Stephen ministry (Acts 6:1-5).
Then I started having difficulty separating the fact that there are many women in places like this forum... and on the radio and television. Would it be a sin if a man (the forbidding does not seem to cover male children in 1 Timothy 2) actually learned something from a woman?
1 Timothy 2:9 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;
10 But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works.
11 Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection.
12 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.
13 For Adam was first formed, then Eve.
14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.
15 Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.
For years I had seperated the goings on inside the Church those out in the world... we are in the world but not of the world that sort of thing...
And the last time I approached the subject online I came to the aforementioned conclusion (paragraph 3). But that was while not attending Churches that are lead by women. Today, the reasons why it is unbiblical came rushing back.
Even in the benediction, her uplifted hand did not have the loving sense of leadership instilling confidence in the followers. It was more like defiance. A hand drawn back as if to strike rather than the hand of comfort and blessing... and I feel sure she did not consciously intend any of it.
The senior pastor sat in silence during the service. Oblivious to the emasculation effect. God has his reasons for what he condones and what he forbids / warns against. I reread the p***age. It covers a lot of ground that has been long forsaken by society and now the Church.
"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."
Two things came from the overzealous feminist movement:
1. women show how bossy they can be
2. women can exploit their femininity for personal advantage
Part of the reason for a liberation movement was the exploitation of women by men. And for a woman to exert authority she must because beastly. She does not have that innate exertion of authority that males due. The closest example of that would be in her influence over children.
Mother could beat us within an inch of our lives using whatever object she could find to beat us with... and we wouldn't cry or we'd be defiant. But God helps us if Dad were angry with us! We feared for life itself. And he only used a belt...
There's something in nature that God provided for this. And when the male exerts authority (especially over children) ladies, you don't do the children any good whatsoever fussing at him for getting angry. If allowed to run its course, things work out, lessons are learned, children grow into responsible adults.
But these things, in recap, cause imbalance in society and now the Church. Exploitative males should have been censured by the church... but the church didn't want to be bothered... so ****sexual feminists stepped up and exploitative males have been replaced by irresponsible males who are emasculated Peter Pans that never grow up and who are always in trouble when they dare act like a male... that, after all, is a woman's *** to act like a male now.
Women Pastors Unbiblical!
1 Timothy 3:2, KJV, states: "A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach." The same thing is said regarding Deacons in 1 Timothy 3 and Elders in ***us 1 I believe. Okay, Isaiah refers to a prophetess, but she's thought to be Isaiah's wife by most Bible scholars. Okay, Romans 16 could be viewed as making women Apostles and Deacons, but that would contradict 1 Timothy 3 and the women in Romans 16 are plainly presented as wives and relatives there. If women are one flesh with their husbands, then, they can be called by their husband's priesthood office without actually holding that office in their own right, a principle that squares difficult p***ages with 1 Timothy 3:2 and such like. In the end, 1 Timothy 2:12, KJV, states: "But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence." It's impossible to square Women Pastors with that verse!:)
