It seems to me that if this question was put to every evangelical Christians today in Australia and in the West, there would be three main responses. The first and overwhelming response would likely be, yes of course the Bible allows women to lead, teach, preach or speak in the Church. The second response would likely be, I am not sure if the Bible allows women to lead, teach, preach or speak in the Church. But I think it should be up to each Christian to decide for themselves. And the third response would be, no of course the Bible does not allow women to lead, teach, preach or speak in the Church.
Well, whatever the response of the majority of evangelicals is today, it is fair to state that if this question had been put to evangelicals 30 years ago, the majority would have said no. Furthermore, if this same question was put to evangelical 60 or more years ago, the overwhelming reply would have been no. Also, the Christian church has held on to the convictions that women must remain silent in the church for about 1920 years. Well, if this is the case, which it is, then some very important questions need to be asked. Firstly, what has caused this massive swing of convictions, so that the majority of postmodern evangelicals now go against what evangelicals held to only 30 years ago, and what the Christian church held to for around 1920 years? Is the reason because todays evangelicals are smarter, wiser and more spiritual than their evangelical forebears? After all, this is the false reasoning of evolutionists. No of course, todays evangelicals arent smarter, wiser and more spiritual than their evangelical forebears. For we only have to compare the music, ministry, literature, spiritual life and morals of todays evangelicals to that of our evangelical forebears, to find that we fall very short in all of these areas.
Therefore, if this massive swing of convictions has nothing to do with the intellectual or spiritual superiority of todays evangelicalsthen what has caused the majority of them to change their beliefs? Well, the answer is very simplefeminism. For we need to realise that this massive swing of convictions has taken place since 1960, around the same time that the feminist movement (2nd wave) started its tireless campaign to distort Gods intended role for women.
The second important question we need to ask is, why would evangelicals be influenced by a secular movement whose main agenda was fighting for womens rights, many of which go against Gods calling for women? Well the answer once again is quite simple. As women were given more and more rights, power, influence and equality in the secular world, some professing Christian women saw this as a great opportunity to seek the same in the church. Sadly, many true, yet naïve Christian women were deceived and started to accept this unbiblical conviction. Furthermore, because of the huge influence that the feminists movement was having on the minds of secular people (men and women), some true, yet naïve Christian men were also deceived. Thus, they started supporting this new and unbiblical freedom. Furthermore, as the feminist movement gained momentum in the evangelical church, even some pastors and elders were deceived into supporting such an unbiblical mindset. The result being, that many pastors over the past 30 or so years have written books, defending the supposed right of women either leading, teaching, preaching or speaking in the church.
Now we return to the all-important question; does the Bible permit women to lead, teach, preach or speak in the church? This is the all-important question, because if the answer is yes then, not enough women are taking advantage of this permission. Furthermore, if the answer is yes, then not all churches are taking advantage of this permission, and so not making use of the available workers. Moreover, if the answer is yes, then Christian men who do not permit their Christian women folk to do such things will have to answer to God on the Day of Judgement.However, if the answer is no then, all women who do either lead, teach, preach or speak in the church have disobeyed Gods Word, and will have to answer to Him on the Day of Judgement. Furthermore, if the answer is no, all men who sit back and allow women to either lead, teach, preach or speak in the church have also disobeyed Gods Word, and will also have to answer to Him on the Day of Judgement. Moreover, if the answer is no, all pastors and elders who encourage and promote women to either lead, teach, preach or speak in the church have also disobeyed Gods Word, and likewise will have to answer to Him on the Day of Judgement.Therefore, we can see that it is imperative that we know what the true answer is to this all-important question. Why? So that we will not be disobeying Gods Word, and therefore, unnecessarily subjecting ourselves to Gods Judgement on that great Day. However, how can we find out the answer to this all-important question? Well, as with all areas of Christian life and doctrine, we need to go to the Bible, Gods Holy Word. For it alone is the final authority on all matters of faith and practice. Furthermore, we need to realise that all of Scripture is Gods Word. For Paul clearly stated in 2 Timothy 3:16, All Scripture is God-breathed... And Peter clearly stated in 2 Peter 1:20, Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
Therefore, the only thing that matters is what God has clearly revealed in His Wordnot the opinions of other, not our own opinions, and not our personal preferences.
What has God clearly revealed on this subject? In 1 Corinthians 14:34-35, the apostle commanded, As in all the congregations of the saints, 34 women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the Law says. 35 If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church. (NIV) This Scripture alone is sufficient to prove that women are not allowed to preach, teach or speak in the church, women should remain silent in the churches. (NIV). However, many people still ignore or twist Pauls first command and claim that he did not really mean that women are to literally remain silent in the church. However, this is false indeed, for Paul clearly qualified it by stating, women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak (NIV).
Moreover, Paul clearly qualified this by stating in verse 34, They (women) are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the Law says (NIV). Although this sounds very straight forward, the fact that many women today refuse to submit to all men in the church shows that they reject Pauls command here. Therefore, when a woman speaks in the church, she is not only failing to submit to all of the men of the church, but worse still, she is failing to submit to the Word and Law of God.
What is the cause for this refusal of many women to submit to Gods Word and to men in the church? Once again the simple answer is feminism. For we know that feminism has caused the majority of women to believe that they no longer have to submit to men. And sadly, this has crept into the church. For feminism has caused many professing Christian women to become rough, loud and arrogant, the very opposite of how God wants Christian women to be(1 Peter 3:3-6) (NIV).
Paul continues to reinforce the importance of women being silent in the church by saying in verse 35, If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home (NIV) Paul makes it very clear that women are not allowed to speak or talk in the church, not even to ask their husbands a question let alone preach, teach or lead. Yet, how many women and men for that matter ignore Gods clear Word here? Why does God not allow women to even ask their own husbands a question in church? Paul gives us the answer in the rest of the verse, for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church. (NIV)
Well, whatever the response of the majority of evangelicals is today, it is fair to state that if this question had been put to evangelicals 30 years ago, the majority would have said no. Furthermore, if this same question was put to evangelical 60 or more years ago, the overwhelming reply would have been no. Also, the Christian church has held on to the convictions that women must remain silent in the church for about 1920 years. Well, if this is the case, which it is, then some very important questions need to be asked. Firstly, what has caused this massive swing of convictions, so that the majority of postmodern evangelicals now go against what evangelicals held to only 30 years ago, and what the Christian church held to for around 1920 years? Is the reason because todays evangelicals are smarter, wiser and more spiritual than their evangelical forebears? After all, this is the false reasoning of evolutionists. No of course, todays evangelicals arent smarter, wiser and more spiritual than their evangelical forebears. For we only have to compare the music, ministry, literature, spiritual life and morals of todays evangelicals to that of our evangelical forebears, to find that we fall very short in all of these areas.
Therefore, if this massive swing of convictions has nothing to do with the intellectual or spiritual superiority of todays evangelicalsthen what has caused the majority of them to change their beliefs? Well, the answer is very simplefeminism. For we need to realise that this massive swing of convictions has taken place since 1960, around the same time that the feminist movement (2nd wave) started its tireless campaign to distort Gods intended role for women.
The second important question we need to ask is, why would evangelicals be influenced by a secular movement whose main agenda was fighting for womens rights, many of which go against Gods calling for women? Well the answer once again is quite simple. As women were given more and more rights, power, influence and equality in the secular world, some professing Christian women saw this as a great opportunity to seek the same in the church. Sadly, many true, yet naïve Christian women were deceived and started to accept this unbiblical conviction. Furthermore, because of the huge influence that the feminists movement was having on the minds of secular people (men and women), some true, yet naïve Christian men were also deceived. Thus, they started supporting this new and unbiblical freedom. Furthermore, as the feminist movement gained momentum in the evangelical church, even some pastors and elders were deceived into supporting such an unbiblical mindset. The result being, that many pastors over the past 30 or so years have written books, defending the supposed right of women either leading, teaching, preaching or speaking in the church.
Now we return to the all-important question; does the Bible permit women to lead, teach, preach or speak in the church? This is the all-important question, because if the answer is yes then, not enough women are taking advantage of this permission. Furthermore, if the answer is yes, then not all churches are taking advantage of this permission, and so not making use of the available workers. Moreover, if the answer is yes, then Christian men who do not permit their Christian women folk to do such things will have to answer to God on the Day of Judgement.However, if the answer is no then, all women who do either lead, teach, preach or speak in the church have disobeyed Gods Word, and will have to answer to Him on the Day of Judgement. Furthermore, if the answer is no, all men who sit back and allow women to either lead, teach, preach or speak in the church have also disobeyed Gods Word, and will also have to answer to Him on the Day of Judgement. Moreover, if the answer is no, all pastors and elders who encourage and promote women to either lead, teach, preach or speak in the church have also disobeyed Gods Word, and likewise will have to answer to Him on the Day of Judgement.Therefore, we can see that it is imperative that we know what the true answer is to this all-important question. Why? So that we will not be disobeying Gods Word, and therefore, unnecessarily subjecting ourselves to Gods Judgement on that great Day. However, how can we find out the answer to this all-important question? Well, as with all areas of Christian life and doctrine, we need to go to the Bible, Gods Holy Word. For it alone is the final authority on all matters of faith and practice. Furthermore, we need to realise that all of Scripture is Gods Word. For Paul clearly stated in 2 Timothy 3:16, All Scripture is God-breathed... And Peter clearly stated in 2 Peter 1:20, Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
Therefore, the only thing that matters is what God has clearly revealed in His Wordnot the opinions of other, not our own opinions, and not our personal preferences.
What has God clearly revealed on this subject? In 1 Corinthians 14:34-35, the apostle commanded, As in all the congregations of the saints, 34 women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the Law says. 35 If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church. (NIV) This Scripture alone is sufficient to prove that women are not allowed to preach, teach or speak in the church, women should remain silent in the churches. (NIV). However, many people still ignore or twist Pauls first command and claim that he did not really mean that women are to literally remain silent in the church. However, this is false indeed, for Paul clearly qualified it by stating, women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak (NIV).
Moreover, Paul clearly qualified this by stating in verse 34, They (women) are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the Law says (NIV). Although this sounds very straight forward, the fact that many women today refuse to submit to all men in the church shows that they reject Pauls command here. Therefore, when a woman speaks in the church, she is not only failing to submit to all of the men of the church, but worse still, she is failing to submit to the Word and Law of God.
What is the cause for this refusal of many women to submit to Gods Word and to men in the church? Once again the simple answer is feminism. For we know that feminism has caused the majority of women to believe that they no longer have to submit to men. And sadly, this has crept into the church. For feminism has caused many professing Christian women to become rough, loud and arrogant, the very opposite of how God wants Christian women to be(1 Peter 3:3-6) (NIV).
Paul continues to reinforce the importance of women being silent in the church by saying in verse 35, If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home (NIV) Paul makes it very clear that women are not allowed to speak or talk in the church, not even to ask their husbands a question let alone preach, teach or lead. Yet, how many women and men for that matter ignore Gods clear Word here? Why does God not allow women to even ask their own husbands a question in church? Paul gives us the answer in the rest of the verse, for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church. (NIV)
wether it is a disgrace for someone to speak in church depends entirely on what they say. who claims differently is stupid. so if you want to insist god says that, go ahead.. I for one don't buy it.
