Is A Woman A Pastor?
By jovitex
@jovitex (44)
December 28, 2008 9:23pm CST
I have been a born again Christian for many years and have taken care to study the bible to learn first hand what the word of God says. Moreso, as back in my university days, we were often caught up in arguments relating to how authentic those who speak in tongues were and things like that. I also took up voluntary work in church mainly as a Sunday school teacher in a Baptist church, but oftentimes, I have wondered why certain practices are allowed.
Notably, the scripture says in I Tim 2:12 'And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence.' (NKJV) I get amazed at the flagrant disobedience of this scripture as women are even more in number in the Sunday school as teachers. Thanks to my electronic bible that contains so much more than a paper bible can. I get so much information from commentaries, other bible versions, dictionaries and the like.
One of the commentaries I use most, Family Bible Notes, explains it better as follows:
Nor to usurp authority meaning as she would should she undertake publicly to teach. It is the revealed will of God that public religious teachers should be men, not women. He has alloted to them different spheres of action, and the perfection of each consists not in aspiring or submitting to occupy the place of the other, but in performing their own appropriate duties.
Wow! This is most mind bugging with the array of female teachers on parade. I even learned from a baptist history site that the issue was a controversial one with an exceptional story of how one woman performed so well that nearly all the students left a man's Sunday school class for hers. I think the issue here is not ability but permission to teach and should be obeyed.
Apostle Paul was directed by the Holy Spirit through out his ministry so he couldn't have given those instructions of himself. Even if we were to argue that he did, he said himself that he has the mind of Christ so I don't understand why this instruction is not being upheld in the Churches.
By extension, a Pastor is also a teacher and if a woman is not permitted to teach except presumably children, how then can she be a pastor? Is this a shame or is it?
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1 response
@redhotpogo (4401)
• United States
29 Dec 08
Timothy was just a man. All are sinners, as Timothy did not seem to know. He is not the Christ, just another follower.
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@jovitex (44)
•
29 Dec 08
Hey, redhotpogo - I both agree and disagree with you. Timothy was called to carry on the work of the ministry under Paul's tutelage. As such, he was no ordinary man; he was a Spirit filled young pastor. All are sinners, I agree, but all believers are supposed to put on a new self that gratifies the desires of the Spirit of God not still wallowing in the deeds and pleasures of the flesh. True, Timothy was a follower as we all are. Even pastors are called under-shepherd supposedly working under the chief shepherd who is Christ. We should all learn and understand what the apostle paul sent by God to the gentiles to be a light to them instructed.
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