Dear Brother Karl,
Your email concerning ordination of women to the pastorate has been on my heart since I first opened it and I’ve been waiting to reply until I had sufficiently digested it, prayed over it, and have the time to reply. Having time has never arrived; so, I’m making time.
For me the Bible is first and foremost in making decisions. Sadly it has not always worked that way since Satan always throws a wrench in life works. When I was a child pondering whether or not the Bible is truth or myth I decided if it was Truth, no part of it should be ignored. It was an all or nothing decision that I incorrectly decided upon. And my life has reflected that decision causing Satan to giggle with glee no doubt.
Later, God called to me: (paraphrased) “Dwaine, if scientists like archeologists, historians of recorded history, astronomers, geologists, nutritionists and others verify their findings with the Bible, you should study the Bible to see why Israel is such an influential country throughout world history.” That lay on my mind for several months, but God kept prodding me and I finally picked up one of my wife’s Douay Rheims edition. I found the Apocrypha to be misleading; so put it away in favor of the KJV.
Reading KJV was somewhat confusing, so I turned to NIV for clarity. Later I learned that NIV really means it’s the Nearly Inspired Version since it contains so many revisions since it was first published. The Bible clearly and emphatically states that God’s Word is unchanging.
Some forty years later the problem of differing versions grated on my mind so much that I began my own research into which Bible version is correct. I began research into secondary documentation, which took almost three years to accomplish before I started writing my own research paper for my own edification. I mentioned secondary documentation because I had to rely on the research of other writers who actually made the time and had the resources to go to the certain Western libraries which held the original texts, or at least the earliest known records of God’s Word. For the most part their writings were founded on primary documentation.
I found the KJV to be the best translation for the English language, but only insofar as being the primary tool for in depth study and understanding God’s Word. However, that finding did not reveal to me why God uses other versions, and even the vastly incorrect and misleading versions to lead individuals to salvation. God apparently uses many tools to gather his flock.
All of this leads to my replying to your email.
One of the other mysteries of Christianity, at least in my mind, is why and how God uses women in spreading the Gospel of Christ. Like weak Bible versions leading to the salvation of some and destruction of others, God clearly states that women are to be teachers. But they are also to submit to the Biblical authority of men. Nevertheless, women as teachers are clearly expounded, and God is glorified by their correct teaching of his holy Word, just as he is glorified by men’s correct Biblical authority.
So, with the mysteries aside, what are we to do with ordaining women as pastors? In my mind, we put the Bible in its proper role as the foremost authority. As the foremost authority it must then override the minds of mankind in terms of how we are to live, i.e., the decisions we (mankind) are called to make. Careful Bible study, and even perusals of the Bible as a whole, demand our submission to God’s authority if we accept his grace. Does that submission allow us to make mistakes? Yes it does; and it allows us to overlook mistakes (sins of omission or comission) of the past. However, it does not allow us to assert our authority, our present-day actions in living, over God in any of his triune forms by adding meanings in the form of additional actions not mentioned or implied in the Bible as a whole. Accepting history as exemplary instead of God’s authority could well lead to sin. The mistakes of the past should not be our “live-by” examples.
To that effect, I do not find anywhere in the Bible for women to lead a spiritual congregation in the position of pastor, bishop or deacon in God’s church. Women are to be teachers, not congregational leaders. Men’s roles are clearly assigned, and women are to submit to them insofar as spiritual leadership assignation.
Now, dear Brother Karl, I must apologize to you, for I fear you are offended by my conclusions. I write to you with a “phileo” spirit reflecting my own feelings and the knowledge I’ve been given over the years. Throughout this writing I’ve been reminded of 1 Timothy 3:15, noting that it is Christ speaking to his church in reaching out to us today, rather than the simpler view of a personal letter to Timothy as an individual. Inasmuch as I am not a theologian, but only a sinner saved by grace, I am placing my own observations over God’s word only in hopes that I am correct. If that is not so, then I will be properly rebuked by the Lord himself in due time. Nevertheless, I do hope you will prayerfully reconsider your position in this matter.
