Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. -- 1Timothy 2:11-14 (ESV)
I saw another article today regarding the MacArthur-Moore bruhaha and was ready to do a line by line refutation because the Christo-feminists all use the same arguments and debunking them is becoming easier each time. Instead, I feel led to simply state the case for what the bible does say and present the truth about every woman that is leveraged by Christi-feminists to try and defend their unbiblical position. I say unbiblical for a reason. What they advocate for violates scripture. Specifically, the key verses above. These are the primary scriptures on this subject. There are supporting scriptures in Corinthians but the Christo-feminists crowd is better at attacking those. They have no lucid argument against the key verses in Timothy. These are clear, directive and unambiguous. I DO NOT PERMIT. As if knowing so many would try and be disobedient to this, God even gives us His reasoning! Yet still the spirit of feminism that has so corrupted the word continues to try and seep into the church as well.
Let me first deal with why we argue for biblical truth. The subject at hand is not near and dear to my heart. I know excellent sisters in Christ who can preach the paint off the walls. It brings me no joy to point out to them that because they can do something, even do it well, does not mean they should. All things are permissible but not all are beneficial, or in this case allowed. This is not trying to hold women back but rather to have them be obedient, as we would want for all of our brothers and sisters. The role of a discernment ministry is to correct biblical abuses and lead people out of false teaching to the real Gospel of Jesus Christ. One compromise leads to another. Jesus taught that a little leaven eventually works its way through the entire batch.
Secondly, let's deal with what is actually in dispute because the feminist forces always like to muddy the waters and bring up things that are not in dispute. Women play a crucial role in the church just like men. God however has designated one area that women are forbidden from. That is within church structure, women are not to serve in teaching or preaching capacities in authority over men. So when you see arguments like Phillip's daughters, who had the gift of prophecy, you know that is being offered only to confuse and muddy the waters because no one is saying women cannot prophesy.
Thirdly, let us deal with the faux outrage at John MacArthur for daring to say, "go home." What is lost in this discussion is that Beth Moore is a false teacher. This is widely documented and easy to discern. Her affection for eastern mysticism and contemplative prayer alone disqualifies her. As does her affinity for pretending to receive direct revelation. Her exegesis is terrible and her position on many social issues is squishy at best. So forgive me when I say that I simply do not buy all of this angst about the two simple words -- go home. I have written thousands of devotionals for over a decade now and I can say unequivocally that the people who cry outrage the loudest about the method of the message delivery do so because they know they have no arguments on the merits of the message itself. Christo-feminists have a cause and they are using the outrage to further that cause. God's word however, remains unchanged on this subject no matter how many times Beth Moore stamps her feet and declares otherwise.
Fourth, let us recognize the strategies employed to argue against the clear and directive scriptures above. They have tried to use cultural arguments. That means that the scriptures only applied to the church at Corinth because they must have had a problem with outspoken women. This of course does not explain why it is in the Timothy letter nor the fact that Paul specifically says this policy belongs in "all the churches." The larger point is God does not respect time or culture. In order for this argument to be correct or the arguments about Paul hating women, we must abandon the notion of divine inspiration. We believe that God wrote the above scriptures, not Paul. If not cultural arguments, Christ-feminists scour the bible for any female involvement and then read into that involvement as a logical conclusion that the key scripture must not be correct or interpreted correctly. Except we do not need to interpret the key scriptures -- we just need to read them. I read an article from J. Lee Grady today that referred to focusing on the clear, directive scripture as "narrow" because it ignores all of the scripture regarding women who served. That is a backwards argument. You do not dismiss clear directive scriptures for vague references to people where you get to fill in the gaps with your imagination. So, let us reason together through all of the women mentioned in the bible, that Christo-feminists use to try and ignore the key verses.
Miriam -- yes it is true that one verse in Exodus refers to Miriam as "prophetess." What can we glean from this? That she was considered a prophetess. That is it. In the Old Testament, the role of Prophet was much different than today. They did not hold authority either. They served God and the king (although in Miriam's case she was the sister of Aaron and served Moses). Does this one verse mean that women should hold leadership positions? No. It does however lend weight to the role of prophesying for women, which I have never heard anyone disagree about besides cessationists.
Huldah -- during the days of King Josiah, Huldah was indeed a prophetess of the Lord, as well as the "keeper of the wardrobe." The same points remain as we saw with Miriam and in addition, women are permitted to keep the wardrobe I suppose.
