Women

Paul says in 1 Timothy 2:12 that he does not permit women to teach or have authority of men. I know that this is extremely looked down upon in modern culture. My personal opinion is that a woman should be allowed of course to teach other women. I think that there are certain circumstances that a wife can join/assist her husband in "teaching" a mixed company congregation, but the teaching should come from the man. An example would be Mark Driscoll taught through Song of Solomon and had his wife assist him in answering questions from the congregation. Perry Noble from Newspring in Anderson, SC will be doing the same thing when he does a series on marriage.

If we don't want to take Paul's word, then we can take God's when in Genesis he puts woman under the authority of her husband. In my opinion the same authority applies to men having authority in teaching at church.

I agree with Prudence.

Valuable thoughts and advices. I read your topic with great interest.

Renee I agree. There are obvious cases of women being evangelists that are very Godly, and soundly rooted in the Bible.

I think it is interesting that you mention Deborah, because God put her in such authority because Barak was in modern day terms a whim and wouldn't do what God told him to.

Ha. Baptists. I used to b 1 of those

Awesome

Very true. Hmm…

Check out the book, Phoebe, by Dr. Charles White. Some women can be called of God to minister in various ways. Why limit God and who He can use as He wills for His purpose?

man you are opening a can of worms with that! I think the interesting thing about this idea is that the bible actually does not sell itself as the ultimate canon of truth. I have been raised to unquestionably believe otherwise… All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
On the subject of women teaching I think Paul was addressing a situation where women were causing problems by creating cross chatter or rabbit chasing. Paul was focusing on a social issue… women were not respecting their husbands and Paul was giving guidance on that subject. The rule of Thumb is " Love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself" Under that definition as long as women are respecting the God Ordained authority of her husband then she is welcome to exhort and teach others. as far as Pastorship… that is another conversation completely… and depends on quite a few definitions

The problem is that it's not just a can of worms. It's Pandora's box. If you exclude verbal inspiration and decide that some things in the Bible are merely human opinions, then literally everything is up for grabs. Since liteally anything could theoretically be one of those purely human things, nothing in the Bible has any authority unless I want it to. That's exactly how the ELCA got into the mess it's in. Once you take that step, there is simply no authority in the Church and no inherent content to the Faith.

Now, this is not to say that there are not some things which the Bible itself makes clear are culturally conditioned. Contrary to the argument we often hear, it nowhere endorses slavery; it merely regulates it- and with Paul's argument to Philemon set the stage for its elimination. Luther pointed out that only the Jews were liberated from bondage in Egypt, and argued on that ground (with some support from Paul) that only they were obligated to keep the Sabbath as a day of rest. Even the rabbis agree that Gentiles do not sin when they eat ham or violate one of the other OT laws which God only gave to the Jews. Paul's argument about men uncovering their heads during worship and women covering them was not an attempt to create a new law to bind consciences, but precisely a reversal of the requirement in the OT that the rule be directly reversed. The historical-grammatical method (the method traditionally used in the Church, before the historical-critical method was invented) has no problem with looking at the internal evidence within Scripture to see what is time conditioned and what is binding for all time.

In the case of women pastors, though, Paul bases his argument on creation. His very argument excludes the possibility the prohibition is time-conditioned. Unfortunately, that means as a practical matter that you can't have women pastors without directly disobeying what Scripture explicitly says is not only a divine command, but one rooted in creation itself and therefore in force for all time.

One more thought. I would ask for examples of women serving as evangelists in the NT. There is no question that there were prophetesses, but that's a different issue. Prophets and prophetesses were not occupants of an office bearing authority; whatever authority they had came from the genuineness of their message. Prophets were charismatic leaders who arose when they arose, and had the gifts they had. That's a completely different matter than holding the pastoral office- an office instituted by God and invested with authority of such a nature that by Paul's argument it is closed to women.

will do. thanks

true

thats a good in-depth answer. thanks