Are Women Saved Through Childbearing?

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Christ Alone and the Coming Judgment

People are tired of hearing nothing but doom and despair on the radio. The message of Christianity is that salvation is found in Christ alone, and any who reject Christ therefore forfeit any hope of salvation, any hope of heaven.

The issue is that humanity is in sin, and the wrath of almighty God is hanging over our heads.

They will hear his words, they will not act upon them, and when the floods of divine judgment, when the fires of wrath come, they will be consumed and they will perish.

God wrapped himself in flesh, condescended and became a man, died on the cross for sin, was resurrected on the third day, has ascended to the right hand of the Father, where he sits now to make intercession for us.

Jesus is saying there is a group of people who will hear his words, they will act upon them, and when the floods of divine judgment come in that final day, their house will stand.

Introducing the Question of Women Saved Through Childbearing

Welcome to Bible Bash, where we aim to equip the saints for the works of ministry by answering the questions you're not allowed to ask. We're your host, Harrison Kerrigan, Pastor Tim Mullett, and today we'll answer the age-old question, what does the Bible mean when it says women will be saved through childbearing?

Now, this episode is the fruit of a post that we made probably about a month and a half ago on all our social media accounts just asking you guys, what are some typical problem passages, you know, quote-unquote problem passages that you've dealt with in your life that you, or maybe you still don't understand and you wanted to hear someone lay out what it means specifically and dedicate time to that specific verse.

And we got a lot of helpful responses. Like always, we got a few unhelpful responses from people who are just, you know, bent on trying to cause division or stir up people for whatever reason. But a lot of people, they presented passages that they've either heard other people have issues with or maybe they've even had issues with that passage themselves.

And so, we wanted to take some time to make some episodes along the way just to try and directly confront the confusion around some of these verses because we believe the Bible is clear. We believe that God didn't misspeak when He gave us His word.

And we believe that all of scripture is profitable, that it won't return void. And so, it's good for us to deal with these passages and figure out what do they actually mean so that we can apply them to our lives.

So, this is sort of the first episode trying to accomplish that. And the first verse that we're going to be addressing is 1 Timothy 2 .15. So, Tim, why don't you go ahead and read that verse for us and maybe start by explaining why so many people seem to get confused over this verse.

Sure. I do think trying to read the context would help a little bit too. So, maybe I'll start out with 1 Timothy 2 .11 and I'll read from 1 Timothy 2 .11 to 2 .15 here. And then we'll talk about some of the reasons why people are getting confused.

But then, yeah, 1 Timothy 2 .11. So, yeah, I mean, I think when you think about a verse like this, I mean, there's very little in there that is not deeply controversial.

I mean, yeah, no, you're not lying. And even if you were to go further back, I mean, there's even more stuff just a few verses before.

Dorn themselves in respectable apparel.

Yeah, you know, respectable apparel. We're talking about hairstyles here and gold pearls and essentially don't flaunt things right. And so, you know, submission's a huge hot button topic. So, I mean, Paul here, he's stepping on a lot of toes.

I don't know if he knows this, but he's stepping on a lot of toes. I hope he's ready to.

I think he knew it.

Yeah, he probably did know. If we're being honest, he probably knew it.

I think he knew it.

Yeah.

But yeah, so I think everything mentioned in this brief little section, at the very least, I mean, you know, we're not even talking about the what women should wear conversation. I mean, if you got into that on Twitter or whatever, got into that in public, got into that in most of your churches, you'd have a lot of angry people who are saying you hate male.

But then, yeah. So, I mean, I think, you know, you think about verse 11, let a woman learn quietly and all submissiveness. That's, you know, you got the submission word there that most people hate. And then, you know, I don't permit a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man.

That's something, right?

Yeah.

Currently with the push to female pastors, that isn't good. And then rather she is to remain quiet. So, you know, how many sermons have you or how many, you know, times have you heard a man basically declare the worst thing in the world would be to tell a woman to be quiet or something like that?

And then you have, you know, Adam was first formed and Eve, and then Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. And then, so you have all that, like, are women more easily deceived than men kind of discussion added to this.

So, it's like, I mean, it's just a shotgun of offense, man. So, everything related to ladies currently in the current climate, it's just a shotgun of offense. And then you get this, yet she will be saved through childbearing if they continue in faith, love, holiness with self-control.

And then there's, you know, with that, there's two kind of thorny issues there. So, with the she will be saved through childbearing, you have a discussion about, like, what does the word saved mean, right?

Like, what does that mean? And then you have the whole childbearing thing as if you've reduced a woman to simply a baby maker. So, then you're just, I mean, it's just a dumpster fire of offense, man. So, this is just one of those passages that people are predisposed to get mad about.

I mean, I think honestly, like, about everything that you can see in this passage are just things that everyone basically just ignores. So, I mean, there's nothing in here that is currently popular in this section at all.

And I mean, all of it is just, like, put in this category of, who knows what that means, it's just Baldwin, whatever else. And, you know, I don't think a lot of churches are paying very much attention to any of it, period.

So, it's just

Misreadings of 1 Timothy 2:15

Yeah, I think a lot of people probably read this entire passage and they just think, like, well, some bigot must have put this in there. Paul didn't write this. Or they'll just think, well, Paul's not Jesus.

Well, yeah, and then they're even getting more impetus to say that because, you know, Paul says, I do not permit a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man. So, then they say, well, see, there you go.

You know, that's just Paul. That's just Paul bound by his first century bigot glasses or whatever. He was a Jew of his time and didn't know what he was talking about. So, then let's just ignore all of it.

Who knows what any of this has to say.

So, what are, in looking at this passage specifically, verse 15, but she will be saved through childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness with good sense. So, what are, I guess lay out for us what are the typical misunderstandings around this passage and then what are, you know, what are typically considered like the, or what's considered like the primary reading of this passage, if that makes any sense.

Yeah, I don't know that I've surveyed all the literature and can tell you what is. I've done a study on what is the most common or whatever. I mean, I think when you get to these kind of passages, you're going to have a variety of views and most of them are going to be, you know, unpopular in different ways.

So, you know, I think in general, the main views that people are going to take or are largely they're going to read, they're going to read verse 13 for Adam was formed first, then Eve, and then Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived.

So, they're going to read the woman there as Eve, which, I mean, that is Eve, but then they don't necessarily have a wonderful explanation for why Paul is transitioning from Eve to the woman, right?

Yeah.

So, they're going to say Adam was first formed, then Eve, and Adam was not deceived, but Eve was deceived. So, they're going to read that as Eve was deceived and became a transgressor. So, we don't know, like, so in the standard kind of egalitarian view of these kind of things, that phrase really is not going to have much meaning other than just to say, like, now Eve is going to be personally redeemed from the stigma of her own personal sin that doesn't affect women in any way, right?

So, she's going to be, like, redeemed from, like, this mistake she made, right? The shame of this mistake she made. If her children, like, if her children, which are Christians, because, you know, she's the Christ-bearer, she bears, you know, Christ.

And now, if her children continue in faith and love and self-control, right? So, she's going to be Eve herself. She will be saved through childbearing, like, meaning by bearing Christ. Now, the problem is, like, now you have an if statement.

If her children continue in love, holiness, and self-control, which they obviously are going to because they're Christians anyways, right? So, then you end up having, like, a very narrow application solely to Eve.

Like, Eve is going to be saved from the shame of leading the human race into sin.

You know?

Yeah, in the middle of a passage that's talking generally about men and women and giving them specific commands right before this, right?

Yeah, so, the major problem with this kind of thing is if you're following the context, which is why I wanted to read the context. Like, if you think about, well, what is the context? The context is verse 11.

Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness.

Okay?

So, that's the subject matter that we're talking about. Letting a woman learn quietly in all submissiveness. Now, why? Like, so, follow the logic of it. Why are we to let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness?

Well, Paul says, because I do not permit a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man. Rather, she's to be quiet.

Right?

Remain quiet. So, like, a woman... Like, here's the instruction. Women need to learn quietly in all submissiveness.

Why?

Because they're not permitted. God doesn't permit them. You know, Paul is delivering this, but yeah, he's speaking the very word to God. Because they're not permitted to teach or exercise authority over a man.

Rather, they should be quiet.

Right?

But then you have to ask yourself, well, why?

Right?

Why are they to be quiet? Well, the text tells you why. So, read it. So, you read it. Why should women... Why are women not permitted to teach or exercise authority over men? That's the whole discussion you're having.

Yeah.

Well, verse 13. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. So, reason number one is the created order. God made man first.

Right?

He made woman to be helpmate for man. So, God made man to be the head. And, you know, you have a whole theology of headship that is applied to this. I mean, this is the reason why the whole human race is consigned to sin.

It's because Adam was our federal head. He fell into sin. And because as a result of one man's sin, death entered into the world and death passed all men because all have sinned. So, Adam represented the human race.

He was the leader. He was the head. He was created first.

Right?

And then he exercises authority over Eve by naming her. That's what he did within the narrative. So, she's taken from him and created for him to be a helper for him. And then, so, like the issue is why does Paul not allow or permit a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man?

And why is she to remain quiet? Well, first reason that the text gave is because Adam was formed first and Eve. Second reason, and, right? So, look, and, right? What does the word and mean? Reason number two, right?

So, we're still answering the question why? Well, for tells you the answer, right? So, for Adam was formed first and Eve. And, and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.

Okay?

So, then the issue is like why, like you have to ask, well, why are they transitioning from saying Eve to the woman at this point? Well, because just as Adam represents all men, Eve represents all women, right?

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

So, like Eve is representing women. So, like the woman was deceived. So, what's happening here is Paul is giving you, he's saying, here's why I don't permit a woman to teach or exercise authority over man, but be quiet.

First of all, God designed man to be a leader. Second of all, women as a group are more easily deceived than men as a group. That's why he transitions just talking about women instead of men.

Follow so far?

Yeah, I get it. Paul thinks all women are stupid. Obviously, that's the only, that's the only way to understand the passage for sure.

That's the only. That must be it.

Yeah.

And it's funny that people go that direction with it because obviously men have enormous, massive weaknesses and insufficiencies of their own, just as women do, right?

Yeah.

So, if you think about men, if you want to, just a prime example of the insufficiency of men, the weakness of men, just look no further than to your average college dorm room. And as I'm talking about that, you can imagine the stench wafting up into your nostrils, clinging to your nose hairs right now, as I'm describing this.

And you understand just men, they naturally are bad at certain things too, right?

Right, yeah.

So, women, obviously, you think about the nature of a woman, women are made to be compassionate and they're made to be caring and they're made to be sensitive. This is why they're uniquely designed to care for children, which is what we're going to talk about in the passage in general.

But women are obviously more nurturing and they're obviously more caring and they're obviously more sensitive and they're obviously more compassionate. These things are just overwhelmingly true. And then you can think about that and you think, yeah, all those kinds of traits do mean that they have a temptation to be more gullible than men.

And I mean, every man who's ever been married for more than five minutes knows that their wife is more prone to think the best about, you know, scoundrels and other people than they are. It's just the overwhelming reality of the difference between men and women.

Men, much easier, like are much better at generalizing. They're much better at like being suspicious. They're much better at, you know, reading between the lines. And so like these things are obviously true.

But so look, I do not permit a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man. Rather, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first than Eve and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a childbearer.

It became a transgressor. And then it says, yet she would, she would save through childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness with self-control. And so when you get to that part, what do you, like, what is the whole thrust of the passage?

The whole thrust of the passage is that a woman's role is not to be the teacher of a church. That's not her role. Like she has a submissive role to be played, to play within the body, right? So think about it that way.

She's not permitted to teach or exercise authority.

Why?

Because Adam was designed to be the leader and he's uniquely equipped to be the leader. Adam's designed to be the leader. Adam's uniquely equipped to be a leader. But what is woman designed to do, right?

Like, what is she designed to do? It says, yet she will be saved through childbearing if they continue in faith, love, holiness, and self-control. She's designed for other purposes. That's the overwhelming thrust of what we're talking about here.

She is designed for other purposes. She is designed to raise children. That's how she's going to impact the world, right? And so when you, when you say that, like, what's happening is like you have like this very obvious biological truth, scriptural truth that it's just like, it's like one of those hit you and hit yourself in the head with a board kind of truths about how obvious it actually is.

And I feel like I just need to explain like some basic biology to people at this point. It's like, you know, women have a uterus and they have ovaries, you know?

Well, no, no, I don't know if you've, I don't know if you've seen the recent science on this stuff, Tim, but apparently now men can get pregnant too. Maybe you missed that, but you know, that's the new discovery now.

That's the new scientific stance.

Well, I guess I'm wrong.

You need to do the work and you need to.

Be a better person.

You need to do the reading, right? And you need to do the research.

Do better.

But yeah, just do better, Tim.

Do better.

Yeah, I mean, obviously, obviously women just from a physical standpoint, like men were designed to be the strong ones, right? That's why the NBA is awesome and the WNBA is lame. It doesn't make any money.

It's not even basketball. It's hardly even basketball.

I think like maybe one of them can dunk every now and then, like if the stars align.

It's low glide.

Low glide. You know, if like, I don't know, do they, I think they're in stadiums, but maybe like if they turn the AC on hard enough and the wind gets blowing, she's able to dunk.

With her 12-inch vertical.

Yeah.

But, you know, like men are obviously, men are obviously designed to be stronger just physically. I mean, like it's not even a debate. I'm sorry. I don't know what to tell you. If you think that women can be as strong as men, they just can't.

Like generally speaking, I mean, I'm sure you can find some outlier scenario where you have a woman who's trained her entire life, who's stronger than the guy that just sits in the basement and plays video games all day long.

You know, maybe then, but generally speaking, men are going to be stronger than women. You know, and not even generally speaking, but 100 of the time, you know, women are designed physically to better take care of children than men are.

Yeah, but it's, I mean, it's overwhelming, obviously, the case.

It's just. Zero men can give birth to babies. I get some, you know, some women can be barren, sure. But then like zero men can give babies.

I mean, it's the basic biological difference between men and women is that women can make babies.

It feels weird to even have to spell this, to say the sentence, zero men can have babies.

Yeah, this is what they're made. And I mean, you just think about it like that. That's what women love to do. Like when they're not brainwashed by feminism and what they love to do is they love children.

They love babies like they.

Oh, for sure. For sure. There's a reason women. There's a reason women love cats.

Right?

Because they're the ones who don't have babies. Yes. Because they're trying to baby the cat.

They want to baby everything. They want to baby men. They want to baby cats. They want to turn their pets into children.

Right.

They turn their toys into children.

I mean, yeah.

And the people and the people who are getting mad about hearing that right now, I guarantee you their cats probably sitting in the room with them.

Yeah.

Right now.

They treat as their baby, their fur baby.

Exactly.

Exactly. Because that's what they're made to do. I mean, I remember at our church when a lot of the younger folks didn't have babies yet. Maybe you kicked this off because we rebuked you, but we rebuked you about not having kids or whatever.

And then you had kids.

You did, yeah.

And then all of a sudden, like baby fever spread throughout the church.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

For sure.

And now, I mean,.

Basically all of them have multiple kids.

So, you know,.

It's just like women are designed to care for children, to crave them, to want them, to want someone to mother to take care of them. It's just overwhelming.

To be devastated when they can't have children.

Right.

I mean, that's a legit thing.

Right.

I mean, that's what the Bible says. The barren womb is never satisfied because you know that you're a creation by God who's uniquely designed for a particular purpose. Like it's very obvious. And so, you know, that's obviously what you meant to do.

And then we've turned this into a feminist, like source of outrage or rage or whatever to where, you know, if you say, hey, a woman was designed to make babies, it's like, is that all I am to you? It's just like, that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my life.

Well, I can't do it. So, someone's got to do it.

Well, is this all I am to you? Just a dumb provider, you know?

Well, you know, I don't know. I guess.

Is that all I am?

Just a leader?

Like you just want me to make all the decisions, you know?

Well, you know, and ultimately it just comes down to our society is like upset, has this weird obsession with power and who holds the power and who doesn't hold the power. And so, being the leader is like the cool thing, right?

The desirable thing. That's why so many women are, they're extremely concerned with how many women CEOs there are out there. They're not extremely concerned with how many, you know, women janitors there are out there or construction workers there are out there.

And so, that's why so many people get, you know, all up in arms about, oh, you're just relegating women to the home. Well, I mean, no. Number one, God's the one who is relegating them primarily to the home.

But then number two, that's like a big deal. It's not just a small thing, right?

If you think about the good things in life, so think about the good things in life. What are the good things in life? Like, is it a college dorm room with a bunch of smelly guys? Like, is that the thing that you think about with life?

Like a smelly dorm room full of

That's the American dream, man.

Full of like stinky, sweaty men living in their prison.

Musty dorm room.

I mean, when I went to college, I was so broke, I slept on a blow-up mattress.

If that's not the life, Tim, I don't know what is.

Yeah, but think about the things that make, like think about the good things in life. The good things in life, like they normally send her around home and holidays and that kind of stuff, you know?

Yeah, family.

Family, like the good memories that you're gonna have are related to hospitality and things like that. And so, I mean, you think about like this role of women raising the next generation. You think about how profound.

You think, hey, yeah, you take one woman, you put her out there and turn her into an independent boss babe and who can make her impact in the world. But think about how much more impact she would make if she raised five or six sons and sent them out into the world from a stable home, right?

Not operating under some sort of deficit or whatever. Think about how much impact that woman would have in the world over against the one woman who's just trying to make an impact on their own. But then not even that, think about all the people that are gonna come from those sons and daughters that she has, right?

You wanna change the world, you're talking about trying to change the world as one person. But then you compare that to another woman who has multiple kids, who all have multiple kids. And there's exponential math there that's at work in this project, right?

You're gonna have pretty soon in a couple of generations, a couple of hundred people, right? Who are sent out into the world to try to influence it instead of just like you by yourself with your cat, right?

So think about that. So, but yeah, I think the obvious thing is you have a redirection here. So you have let a woman learn quietly and all submissiveness. I don't permit her to do this yet she's gonna be saved through childbearing if they continue in faith, love, holiness with self-control, meaning she's been designed for something else.

And like this other thing that she's designed for doesn't have to compete with the former thing. There's no competition that's needed there. There are two needed things. So God's uniquely designed and equipped men to lead and he's uniquely designed and equipped women to impact the world through being a homemaker, to being domestic, to raising children.

That's the fundamental gendered task that they've been called to, which needs to be done. Who's gonna raise your kid if not for your wife? Are you gonna send them to a daycare to be raised by a bunch of pagans who are gonna teach them to get in touch with their feelings and everything else, right?

It's all a bunch of nonsense. When you think about that, that all makes sense. And I think we've walked through the passage and the logic all makes sense. But then the thorny word is the word saved, right?

Saved Through Childbearing as Sanctification

Yeah, that's what I was gonna ask you about.

Yep.

So that's kind of the thorny word that most people really get caught up on. And part of what's happening here is the Bible... In the Bible, there's categories. So you can see the English word saved. And sometimes it's talking about justification, like the theological category of justification.

Sometimes it's talking about the theological category of sanctification. And then sometimes it seems to be talking about the theological category of glorification. So justification is like that imputed righteousness that Christ attributed to us as a free gift.

Justification is like God declaring us not guilty on the basis of inheriting Christ's righteousness as a free gift. So that's a legal declaration of an alien righteousness to put it in theological category.

That's a righteousness outside of ourself. So to be justified is to be declared, like in the language of the courtroom, not guilty. So often when you're seeing the word saved, most people are trained to think about it solely and exclusively in terms of justification, meaning being legally declared not guilty, adopted into God's family, and all the things that are entailed with that.

So then you read it that way, she will be justified through childbearing. That's how they're reading it. Like she's going to be justified through childbearing. Meaning, so you're saying the barren woman can't be saved then?

Right?

So if you don't have children, you're going to go to hell, and then you have some smart-aleck come along and basically say, hey, so how many children do I have to have in order to be saved?

Right?

Does one count? Does two count? It's all subjective. And you should ignore those kind of people anyways because they, just a pro tip, they're just trying to make things unclear. They're just trying to throw out their smart-aleck comments in order to ignore everything it's saying.

But then what happens is the Bible also has this same word is going to be translated from the Greek word hageosmos, or in general it's like the hageos word group, which basically in this context, this hageos word group basically means personal dedication to the interest of a deity, holiness, consecration, or sanctification.

So basically what you have is you have in the Bible, you have when a person is legally saved, they're going to be declared not guilty, and then they're going to be progressively over the course of their life being conformed to the image of the Son, and that's what that language of sanctification means.

But then the issue is that those things are so tied together in the Bible that the biblical writers can talk about them under the same kind of rubric, if that makes sense. Because there's not a situation where you have an individual who is going to be justified and then just live like the world and the flesh and the devil in perpetuity forever, the end, until the end of time.

So the idea is that whoever God justifies, declares not guilty, he's also going to sanctify. And then if you look at a person's life that's totally uncommitted to anything that God has to say, you can look at a person that's showing no evidence that they have a transformed life, then you conclude from that, well, I don't care what you said, you probably weren't ever justified.

Because if you were really justified, then God would be making you more like him because to be saved is to declare Jesus as Lord. That's what it means.

It's like baptism, for example, where obviously the baptism doesn't save you, but then anyone who gets saved, anyone who gets justified is going to get baptized, right?

Yeah, I mean, unless you're the thief on the cross and you literally are nailed there.

Yeah, there's no way to.

Yeah, but then in that kind of situation, that guy would have, if he were to say, hey, you want to get baptized, he wouldn't have said, well, no, it's not really necessary.

You know?

Oh, you mean like, oh, I got this thing I got to go do.

I'm busy right now. I'm kind of occupied at the moment. No, but the thing is, yeah, the idea is she will be saved through childbearing. That is the language of sanctification in that way. Meaning she needs to devote herself to the purpose that God has called her to.

And all true Christians, right? All true Christians are going to be wanting to not fight God's purpose and God's design for them. They're going to be wanting to devote themselves to God's purposes. So she'll be saved through childbearing, sanctified through childbearing, if they continue in faith, love, holiness, with self-control.

Meaning, like, this is the evidence. Like, if you want to see the evidence of a woman who submitted to the Lordship of Christ, you're not going to find it in the woman who is trying to teach or exercise authority over man.

Right?

We're trying to play the role of man, act like a man. What you're going to find, if you want to look to evidence of a transformed life, what you're going to see is the woman who's learning quietly in all submissiveness, like, devoting herself to the things God has called her to, like childbearing, you know, continuing in faith, love, holiness, with self-control.

Those are going to be the real evidence that you see of a woman of transformed heart. Not the one who, like, thinks she's a better man.