Deborah13
Member
Maybe, just maybe, the church has redefined the authority that a pastor has. I don't see where a pastor has anymore authority or honor given them than a teacher. I don't see where the pastor has more authority than any other elder in the church. The protestant church of the Reformation pretty much made pastors the pope of their church. I don't see that in scripture.The Biblical teaching on women pastors seems pretty clear, but is many decades out of date with the trend of society. Women are not being put in leadership roles across the spectrum of government and private industry merely because the law requires it, but because they are capable leaders and bring a valuable perspective. If I were a Biblical hard-liner, I suppose I'd feel compelled to defend the Biblical teaching on women pastors, bit I feel certain that in 100 years (or some reasonable period of time) homosexuality will be just about as big a deal within the Christian community as divorce now is and 50% or more of Southern Baptist pastors will be women. This is the inevitable trend. Christians keep drawing lines in the sand and then eventually acquiescing as those lines are erased. Put a 16th Century Puritan in the middle of today's "strictest" evangelical community, and Ye Puritan would be completely aghast at the decadence.
I'd actually find it kind of appealing to live in a modern day Qumran, where a little group of believers fanatically tried to live by the strictest Biblical principles. I'd probably hate it after six weeks, but I'd be willing to give it a shot. This would be preferable to me to being part of a supposedly Christian community where we draw increasingly silly lines in the sand and then inevitably acquiesce as they are erased.
We also seem to ignore the word translated in the KJV as 'usurp'. Women must not 'usurp' the authority of men.
That means to take it 'violently'. In other words overstep their authority and take it rather than accepting what is given to them.
The church is not the same thing has a marriage between a husband and wife. Christ/husband/wife.
The church is Christ/Body of Christ. Christ is the husband, the body is His wife.
The very idea that woman should never teach men is proven to be false by the scriptures themselves. Priscilla taught the Jewish Apollos. Acts 18:26
Adam Clarke's Bible Commentary - 1798-1838 quote:
"They took him unto them - This eloquent man, and mighty in the Scriptures, who was even a public teacher, was not ashamed to be indebted to the instructions of a Christian woman, in matters that not only concerned his own salvation, but also the work of the ministry, in which he was engaged. It is disgraceful to a man to be ignorant, when he may acquire wisdom; ..."
It appears that the description of an elder, bishop, deacon is all the same. And yet Paul speaks of Phebe, as a deacon/ministrant.
Rom 16:1 And I commend you to Phebe our sister--being a ministrant of the assembly that is in Cenchrea--
1Ti 3:12 Ministrants--let them be of one wife husbands; the children leading well, and their own houses,
How could Phebe be the husband of one wife????
When Eve listened to satan rather than Adam she 'usurped' his authority. She didn't ask for his approval, she just took it, in a violent act that had terrible consequences.