For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. - Isaiah 55:8-9 (ESV)
Here it is again. One of my least favorite topics to write about but perhaps the one with the most clarity in scripture. As long as people like Eddie Hyatt continue to mangle the word of God in their pursuit of women serving in authoritative positions over men in God's church, I will provide the correction. Not because it is a crucial salvation matter of doctrine but because it is a core mater of obedience and the Hyatt's of the world do not mind if they lead countless numbers of people into disobedience. Additionally, if you train yourself to treat God's word so haphazardly on this subject that can only lead to further sloppy usage of the holy scripture. Beloved, we all have things in the bible that may not make total sense to us within this mortal frame. How quickly we forget the key verses today because we are inundated with cheap preaching that tries to bring God down to our level or lift us up to His. He is the creator of the entire universe! He does not think as we do! As the heavens are higher than the earth so are His ways higher than ours! You think you can figure out an infinite God? There are powerful verses in the Book of Job that ask if we are so arrogant that we think we can lie to Him as we lie to each other! With that as the backdrop let us turn to the above link from Eddie Hyatt who seemingly writes about two subjects, neither one correctly. One is his dominionist bent on insisting that this country is actually under covenant with God. Spoiler alert! It isn't. The other subject he routinely butchers is women in leadership within the church. He and his wife have written books on these subjects because of their obsession with disobedience. So, let us reason once more together.
"Lifeway Research recently released the results of a survey involving 1000 Protestant pastors concerning the level of their acceptance of women in leadership. They found that most would accept women leading Bible studies, but only 44% of evangelical pastors and 14% of Baptist pastors answered in the affirmative when asked if their church permitted women to serve as "senior pastors." "Senior pastor" is not a Biblical term, but for many Protestant pastors, it is the highest position of authority in the local church. Since "authority" is the central issue for them, they exclude women from that position. For other churches it may be the position of "elder" that is off limits to women, but the issue is the same""authority." One influential mega church, for example, allows women pastors, but only men can be elders. They explain that the governing body for their church is their board of elders, and since, in their opinion, women cannot exercise governing authority, all elders must be men." - Eddie Hyatt
As Eddie will soon be forced to admit, the reason why "authority" is the issue is that God said so in 1Timothy when he specifically stated that He does not permit women to teach of have authority over men. As if this was not plain enough, God even goes as far as to tell us why He deems it so. This is because Adam was formed first and the women is who was deceived in the garden and became a sinner. I know this flies in the face of what a lot of feminist Christians think but it is truth. It does not matter what Lifeway Research discovers. It does not matter what Protestant churches do. It only matters what the word of God says and it says - I do not permit. Period, full stop. No matter what linguistic or historical hoops Eddie Hyatt wants to jump through, he cannot escape these clear, directive scriptures.
"The truth is that neither Paul nor any New Testament writer ever made "authority" the issue when it comes to women serving in leadership roles in the church. The Greek word for "authority" in the New Testament is exousia, and it is found 102 times in the Greek New Testament, and numerous other times in its verb and other cognate forms. Not once is a woman told she cannot exercise exousia. How then are we to understand 1 Timothy 2:12, where Paul writes, I do not permit a woman to teach or have authority over a man? To understand correctly what Paul meant in this passage, it is necessary to examine his word choice. It is of utmost importance to note that the Greek word translated "authority" here is not exousia. Instead of exousia, Paul uses the word authentein, and this is the only place it is found in the entire New Testament. This should immediately raise a red flag for the Bible exegete, for if he were addressing the normal exercise of authority in the church we would expect him to use the normal word for authority that he and all other Biblical writers use. That he uses a strange Greek word that neither he nor any New Testament writer ever uses, is a clear indication that he is addressing a unique situation that exists with Timothy and the church in Ephesus where Timothy is ministering. The historical context in which Paul writes this letter to Timothy must, therefore, be taken into serious consideration." - Eddie Hyatt
Let the word linguistic games begin! I want you to follow along here in the twisted logic of Eddie Hyatt. Let's stipulate that the choice of using authentein instead of exousia is correct as Eddie has laid out. It is because of this fact however that he leaves the world of logic. His assertion that the usage of the "strange word" indicates that he is talking specifically about a unique situation that exists at Ephesus. Why did Eddie jump to this absurd conclusion? Because it fits the narrative he wants to support! There is nothing in the text that indicates this! Paul may have used a special word so that people would take heed of the importance of women not serving in authority in God's church over men! It is just a plausible. As an exegete, it always raises a red flag for me when someone adds personal bias to their conclusions. Let us never lose sight also of one of the primary arguments against this rationale from Hyatt and that is called divine inspiration. We believe that God divinely inspired the writers of all the books of the bible. This means God wrote these verses, not Paul. All scripture is God breathed and useful for all things, not just in Ephesus at the time of this writing. There is another verse later that states that Paul's writings were already considered scripture! Even if all of this leaves you unconvinced, look at the context!
