I'm sure we can all agree about Satan is that he probably doesn't care how we fall short of God's standard for us...just that we do. If he can get the church to go astray by having the men pridefully suppress women, fine. If he can get the church to go astray by having the men become emasculated wusses and the women take over, well fine to that as well....but I bet he probably prefers the former because he truly does hate women.
For almost two millennia, Satan managed to suppress women in society, in home and in the church. The Church...even with the Scriptures which show that God loves women and showed that women could be business owners, judges, prophets, and vital workers in the ministry of the Church, went right along with this suppression. Why the Church went along with this is most likely because Satan was able to infiltrate the Church and tempted her into all kinds of falsehoods and destructive behaviors. By the time of the great Reformers, suppression of women was so ingrained into European society...the Reformers did little to nothing to counter it. (Although Luther himself recognized biblical roles for women in ministry including preaching.)
I don't think you men can understand wholly what it is like for women to live in this world, even today. Today, right now, women are being harshly used all around the world. Girls get disfigured through what is euphoniously known as "female castration" (nice medical sounding name for a barbaric, horrible practice), women are denied education, can be beaten or killed if it is perceived that they have brought "dishonor" to the men of their family, raped, and murdered with little to no justice ever brought about. Yes, here in the West, we women have gotten right uppity since we don't face that kind of suppression, but the freedom we enjoy is still pretty new and therefore rather precarious.
I mean, do the folks right here at this board realize that it was only 30 years ago that it became recognized as illegal, right here in the United States, for a man to rape his wife...and that even up to two decades ago, if a man killed his wife if he found her with another man, he could likely get off for the reason of "extreme passion". It wasn't all that much earlier that it was considered part of a man's right to beat his wife if she got snippy with him. Even as late as the early 80's, there were still cases like the case of the woman gang-raped in a bar, and the men got off, because...well...she was in a bar, she was dressed kind of sexy and she was drinking so...she asked for it.
This is what I mean when I say that Satan hates women, and will do what he can to harm and suppress women. He's done a darn good job of it over the years, even here in the West which supposedly has been greatly influenced by the Church.
It was around the end of the last century that women began to work toward more equality...both in society and in the church, at least here in the West where the Church has had more influence than elsewhere. The rise of women pastors in the Church coincides with the recognition of basic human rights of women and women taking on greater responsibilities outside of the home. It's almost impossible to say whether or not the women's movement of the last century was prompted by the Great Revival of the late 1800's, which shepherded in more women pastors and preachers, or if the rise of more women pastors and preachers are the result of the women's movement, but the two are uniquely entwined.
So many see the fallout of the women's movement and see that perhaps the pendulum swayed too far in the other direction and society has truly suffered because of it. And, that the church is becoming far too worldly and too prone to deception because of the influence of all those women pastors.
I don't disagree with this either...the church certainly has fell under the sway of deception, and churches that were among the first to ordain women pastors are now also ordaining gays and lesbians and are very much under deception.
I think it's time for the Church to stop being so influenced by society and to go back to the Bible and truly follow what the Bible shows.
The Bible shows that women can fill vital roles within the Church...including prophesying, preaching and teaching, and doing diaconal work. Women can even hold a certain amount of authority...as we see Paul telling the Roman Christians to do whatever Phoebe asked of them.
Why these roles have been denied women in the church for so long is a stain upon the Church...it truly is...women should have been busy fulfilling these roles for the past two millennia, but were denied the right to do so by the men.
Now, women are demanding the right and in many churches being given the right to take on these roles, including that of pastor or overseer.
Has the pendulum swung too far?
Because one thing I think we can see from the Scriptures is that women were never called to hold spiritual authority over men. Yes, the Romans were told to do whatever Phoebe commanded of them...but this was at Paul's direct instructions...so who was really holding the final authority? Paul was and both Phoebe and the Romans were acting under his authority as an Apostle.
We know that women can serve as deacons (no need to feminize the word, the bible doesn't and there isn't any reason for us to either) because Phoebe served as one.
However, I don't think we can point to any woman who served as bishop, overseer or head pastor of a church...roles that hold spiritual authority.
Someone in this thread...I think it's TRUTH over TRADITION (if it's someone else, my apologies)...has pointed out that the church has gotten away from the roles defined in the Scriptures to just putting the "Pastor" out there as Overseer, Deacon, Preacher, Teacher, Evangelist, everything all rolled up in one. And, this is true for many churches...not all, but many.
Perhaps, if the Church was maintaining the roles defined in the Scriptures...we would all have much clearer understanding of what roles women are to fulfill (deacon, teacher, preacher, prophet) and what roles women are not to hold over men (bishop/overseer, apostle).
Paul did tell Timothy, "I do not allow a woman to teach...a man", but we see that Priscilla, with her husband, taught Apollos. Women can certainly be more intelligent than some men, and be more educated and be more spiritually attune to Biblical matters. And, in cases like these, wise overseers and apostles will use her gifts, under their authority. Paul had the utmost respect for Priscilla and commended her highly.
Because the offices and roles within the Church have been blurred to a "Pastor is everything" sort of role, then I think that wise women and Church leaders would be smart to at least follow the Biblical example set forth...that women can fulfill roles, but under the authority of male leadership. So, if a church has a number of Pastors, including women, OK, but the women should defer to the leadership of the male pastors. I know of many churches where this takes place...and the churches seem to be blessed by God. Also, in churches that do still have presbyters or bishops, and those presbyters or bishops place a woman as teacher/preacher over a flock...OK, because ultimately the final authority belongs to the presbyters/bishops.
But, for a church to have a woman as it's final spiritual authority, I don't believe there is any Scriptural support for this at all...and the churches that I see where this is taking place are church in which there is a lot of deception. And, we do need to keep in mind that the reason why Paul gave for women not teaching and holding authority over men was because it was Eve who was deceived by Satan.
The Bible does not teach that all women are to remain silent in the churches for all time...but it also doesn't teach that there are no differences in the roles between men and women in the church.
Satan will pull us from one extreme to the other...just as long as the Church errs.
