Should women be pastors and elders? Part 1 of 2

So, should women be pastors and elders? In a social climate of complete equality in all things, the biblical teaching of only allowing men to be pastors and elders isn't real popular. Many feminist organizations denounce this position as antiquated and even chauvinistic.

In addition, many Christian churches have even adopted the politically correct social standard and have allowed women pastors and elders in the church. But the question is, is it biblical? The answer is simple, no, it is not.

Women are not to be pastors and elders. Many may not like this answer, and that's fine, you don't have to like it. But I believe it's quite accurate, and as I will show you, it's biblical. You'll have to decide for yourself after hearing this video and checking out the evidence biblically.

First of all, women are underappreciated and underutilized in the church. There are many gifted women who might very well do a better job at preaching and teaching than many men. However, it isn't gifting in this situation that is the issue.

Rather, it's God's order and calling. It's what He has declared and what He teaches and what He says. Christians should seriously ask, what does the Bible say? We cannot come to God's Word with a social agenda and make it fit our wants.

Instead, we must change and adapt to what the Bible tells us. It is the inspired Word of God. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, the garden of Eden, and Adam and Eve. He put Adam in the garden and gave him the authority to name all the animals.

Afterwards, God made Eve as a helper to Adam. This is an important concept because Paul refers to the order of creation in his epistle to Timothy when he discusses the relationship between men and women in the church.

Paul’s Instructions in 1 Timothy 2 on Teaching and Authority

We know it is in the church context because in 1 Timothy 3, verse 15, Paul tells us that he is giving instructions on how we are to conduct ourselves in the household of God. So he is telling us, this is how it is to be in the church.

We need to listen to what he has told us. That is why we need to look at one chapter earlier, what he says about men and women and teaching. We look at 1 Timothy 2, verses 12 -13, where Paul says this, But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but remain quiet.

For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve. And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman, being quite deceived, fell into transgression. Now, let me just look at this a minute because there is something really important about the word quiet here.

In Greek, because the Bible was written in Greek, the New Testament was, there are two words for the word quiet here. One is hesychia and the other one is sygao. The word sygao is not used here. The word sygao in Greek means absolute silence, not speaking a single word.

Hesychia, however, means to be silent about it, but you can still talk, you can still do things. And that is the word here that Paul uses when he says that he does not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet.

He is not saying absolute silence, but to keep it down. This passage is very important because it is where God has instructed us through the Apostle Paul how we are to behave, how we are to conduct ourselves in the church.

Now clearly, the woman is not to have authority over the man in the church. Remember, 1 Timothy 3 .15 tells us that Paul is giving instructions on how to do things in the church. Therefore, this authority issue does not extend to the political, economic world.

Let me say it again. Paul is teaching about the issue in the church, not the political world, not the social climate out there, not the economic nature of things and women being bosses and stuff like that.

That is not what is going on. He is saying this is how it is in the church. Now we have to think about this because in the Old Testament, a lot of people will say, well, Deborah, she was a judge in Israel over men.

That is true. Deborah was, but she was not a pastor. She was not an elder. It does not apply to this situation. Also we see in the New Testament that Phoebe played an important role in the church at Centuria.

That is Romans chapter 16. There is no doubt that women supported Paul in many areas and they were great helpers in the church. Just check out Acts 2, verse 17, and chapter 18, verse 24, and Acts 21, verse 8.

But what Paul is speaking of in 1 Timothy 2 is the relationship between men and women in the church structure. Got to make this important. Got to understand this. It is not a social or political context here.

It is the church. When we look further at Paul's teaching, we see that the bishop overseer is to be the husband of one wife, that is 1 Timothy 3, verse 2, and he must manage his household well and he must have a good reputation, 1 Timothy 3, verses 4, 5, 6, and 7.

When we look at the phrase husband of one wife in the Greek, we find something very interesting. Now remember, the Bible says that the bishop, the overseer, the elder must be the husband of one wife. What it literally says in the Greek is a man of one woman.

That is what it literally says in the Greek. Likewise, it says deacons must be men of dignity. That is 1 Timothy 3, verse 8. Paul then speaks of women in verse 11 and their obligation to receive instruction.

Then in verse 12, Paul says, let deacons be husbands of one wife. Again, it literally is a man of one woman. When we look at Titus 1, verses 5 -7, we see this, Paul says, For this reason I left you in Crete, that you might set in order what remains, and appoint elders in every city, as I directed you.

Namely, if any man be above reproach, the husband of one wife, again in the Greek, that is a man of one woman, having children who believe, not accused of dissipation or rebellion. So the elder is to be the husband of one wife, that is literally a man of one woman, a man who holds to being married to one woman at a time.

For the overseer, he says, must be above the reproach as God's steward. Notice that Paul interchanges the word elder and overseer in his text here in Titus 1, verses 5 -7. In each case, the one who is an elder, a deacon, a bishop or overseer is instructed to be male He is the husband of one wife, again, a man of one woman.

He is to be responsible, able to exhort in sound doctrine, and to refute those who contradict. That's Titus 1, verse 9. We see no command for the overseers to be women. On the contrary, women are told to be dignified, not malicious gossips, but temperate, faithful in all things.

That's 1 Timothy 3. So, we need to ask, why is it that it is the men who are singled out as the elders, as the overseers, as the deacons? Why is that? Well, the reason is because of what Paul says in 1 Timothy 2 .12 -14.

He ties this into the created order. He says that Adam was created first. This is why Eve, was a white woman, are not to exercise authority over men or teach in the church, because Adam was created first, right away.

This is not a social context. This is the fact that Adam was created first. It's not a social thing. It's not just a cultural thing. It's based, again, on the created order. This is very important. Now, we have to understand something else.

In the Old Testament, in over 700 mentionings of priests, every single one was a male. There was never a place where a priest was a female. Not once, unless it was a pagan situation. This is significant because priests were ordained by God to hold a very important office of ministering the sacrifices.

This was not the job of women. Therefore, from what we see in Genesis 1 and 2, 1 Timothy 2 and Titus 1, the normal and proper person to hold the office of elder and pastor is to be a man. And that's why it says, a man of one woman.

The Church Must Resist Social Pressure and Liberal Ideas

Now, is this important to you? It is to me, because the Bible teaches what it says. But I'll tell you something. More and more in the Christian church, people are not listening to the Word of God, and instead what they're doing is listening to the liberal ideas from the world creeping and seeping into the Bible, and they're reinterpreting verses in such a way as to make the Bible agree with social ideas.