Frenemies of the Faith and Misogynistic Ministers

Women and the Christian Church

Christian social media entered a firestorm last weekend over two words uttered by John MacArthur about Christian teacher/preacher Beth Moore. At a conference this past week at Grace Community Church, the 80-year-old MacArthur said Beth Moore ought to quit teaching the Word of God in churches and other venues and "Go home."

MacArthur believes that Beth Moore or any other Christian woman who teaches God's Word to others should go home and be the wife, mother, and person God intends for them to be and leave it to the men to give spiritual direction. MacArthur believes Christian men are to be the leaders and Christian women are to be the receivers.

To MacArthur and other male misogynistic ministers, qualification for Christian ministry revolves around one's sexual genitalia rather than one's spiritual giftings.

Some might object that my language is too harsh. However, it's high time for people who believe in the infallible and inspired Scriptures to speak out in defense of our Christian sisters and what the Bible says about their freedom to teach, preach, and lead. Christian male leaders who regularly debilitate, denigrate, and dismiss Christian women doing Kingdom work should be confronted.

The viper known as 'the doctrine of male authority' has bitten the  Christian church. The toxin emitted by this errant teaching affects the females within our Christian assemblies. Ministers within infected churches will do three things:

1. They will debilitate females with God-given gifts,
2. They will denigrate females in their Spirit-led ministries,
3. They will downplay females as New Covenant priests. 

Some evangelical conservative churches have misconstrued and misinterpreted Paul's writings on this subject while at the same time ignoring Jesus' words and life example on the same subject. Misogyny is a real problem in American conservative evangelicalism. 

Misogyny is defined as "a hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women or girls, manifesting in social exclusion, patriarchy, male privilege, or belittling of the female sex." 

The evangelical Christian church is filled with pastors who say publicly that they love women but are actually filled with misogyny toward Christian women.  They're "friends" to Christian females with their words, but they are "enemies" to Christian females by their actions.

Frenemies.

The scary part is that these frenemies of the faith actually believe that God is on their side when they say "Go home" to Christian women who are preaching the Gospel to others.

I'm a conservative evangelical who believes the Bible and also believes it's past time to call out fellow conservatives whose misinterpretations of a couple of specific passages in the Bible leads them to misogyny.

Religion News Service reports that MacArthur said at his conference:

“When you literally overturn the teaching of Scripture to empower people who want power, you have given up biblical authority. I just know women are not allowed to preach.”

A misogynistic Christian website that reported on the conference, praised Mr. MacArthur with these words:

"Beth Moore is a feminist who is in grave rebellion against God. She travels the country preaching to mixed audiences when the Scriptures are clear, women can’t preach. In classic John MacArthur fashion, MacArthur pulls no punches and tells her to “go home.”

But John MacArthur and other frenemies of the faith need to be corrected about their wrong presuppositions regarding women and preaching.

The Scriptures and Our Savior Both Command Women to Preach

The word "preach" means "to proclaim." It is the Greek word kerusso ("I preach") and originates from ancient farmers noticing the sound roosters made at the rising of the sun. The roosters crowed (kerusso). 

Kerusso is to crow about the risen Son.

Not only are women allowed to proclaim that the Son has risen, they are commanded by Christ to proclaim to others all that the risen Son has taught. Jesus said,

"Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you." (Matthew 28:19-20)

Women are to teach others about Christ. Women are to make disciples of Christ. Women are to baptize those they reach with the Good News of Jesus Christ.

The Great Commission is for men and women.

When I served on the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention from 2005-2008, I got into a heated dispute with mysogynistic male ministers who served with me on the board.

It seems that we had Christian women missionaries in the Far East who were leading men and women to faith in Jesus Christ and the new Christian converts were ready to be baptized.  It was made known to the IMB trustees that there was nobody to baptize the recent Chinese converts.

Not knowing any better, I raised my hand and asked a question of my fellow trustees:

"Why don't the Christian women missionaries who taught these new converts about Jesus and led them to faith in the Him be the ones to baptize them to fulfill the command of Jesus in the Great Commission."

Crickets.

Without responding to my question, the chairman of the subgroup determined we would pay $3,000 to fly a male Baptist pastor to a foreign country to baptize the men and women that had been led to faith in Jesus Christ by our female missionaries on the field.

My courteous but firm opposition to the IMB's unbiblical patriarchal policies led to a protracted battle between the world's largest missionary sending organization and its trustee from Oklahoma.

I learned fifteen years ago that if a man says, "the Bible forbids a woman from preaching," more than likely that man has never been humbled to see that his interpretation of the Bible is not on par with the inspiration of the Bible.

The New Testament Evidence that Women Are Free to Proclaim Christ (Preach)

In all four of the Gospel accounts, the risen Jesus Christ first appears women first, and commissions them to "go and proclaim to others" of Christ’s victory over death. See Matthew 28:5-7; Mark 16:6-7; Luke 24:1-10; John 20:10-18.

Peter uses the prophecy of Joel 2:28-32 to establish the preaching agenda for the new community of Christ called the Church. The heart of Peter's message is twice repeated in his affirmation of men and women proclaiming the Good News:

 “In the last days, God says, I will pour out My spirit on ALL people and your sons and daughters will prophesy… Even on My servants, both men and women, I will pour out My Spirit in those days—and they will prophesy” (Acts 2:17-18).

Philip, one of the early followers of Jesus, had four Christian daughters "who all prophesied" (Acts 21:9).

Throughout the New Testament there is an equality of genders when it comes to proclaiming the risen Christ. Revelation 19:10 says: “For it is the Spirit of prophecy that gives testimony to Jesus”

Preaching Jesus is determined by the gift of the Spirit not the gender of the speaker. 

In the New Testament church, there is to be a mutuality of service (diachonia) pervading the body of Christ.

“As each has received a gift, employ [diachonoutes] it for another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace” (1 Peter 4:10).

Romans 16 is a key chapter on women’s roles in the New Testament Church. Paul sends greetings to the leaders and key teachers of the “house churches” of Rome. In this list, Christian women are both preeminent and prominent in the proclamation of the truth of Jesus Christ.

The first mentioned is Phoebe (Romans 16:1-2). She is a “servant” of the church in Cenchrea, the term Paul uses to describe himself in Ephesians 3:7 and Colossians 1:23, 25, as well as the word Paul uses to describe his fellow ministers of the Word in Ephesians 6:21; Colossians 1:7; 4:7). In addition, verse 2 describes her as a “helper” (NASB) or “benefactor”(TNIV). The Greek word prostates, from which helper or benefactor is translated, means “one who stands before, front-rank man, leader, chief, protector, champion.”

This not only affirms Phoebes' ministry role, but her leadership of men as well.

In Romans 16:3 Paul greets a wife/husband team, giving preeminence to Priscilla, then affirms they are both “my fellow workers,” a term Paul especially applies to "those who share in teaching the Gospel." This role of Priscilla "teaching the Gospel" to men is confirmed by Acts 18:26 where both Priscilla and Aquila teach Apollos, an evangelist, the clear and full message of the Gospel. In 1 Corinthians 16:19 Paul again mentions this couple as the leaders of a “church in their house.”

Priscilla is functioning as a teacher and leader within a “church” community.

In Romans 16:7 Paul speaks of Andronicus (male) and Junia (female) “who are outstanding among the apostles.” In this instance, a woman, Junia, seems in the role of an apostle (see Ephesians 4:11-12). Apostles specifically had the task of the equipping (teaching) in the church. See also Romans 16:12, which identifies two other female workers in the church as “workers in the Lord,” a phrase that usually applies to those who "teach the Gospel."

In Philippians 4:2-3 Paul affirms Euodia and Syntyche as two women who had “contended at my side in the cause of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers.” The whole context puts them on a par with others who labor in sharing the Gospel. See also Colossians 4:15.

In I Corinthians 11:2-16, the Bible presupposes Christian women to be leading corporate worship services through both prayer and prophesying. 

Summary: The overwhelming teaching of the New Testament is that men and women are to teach, preach, lead, and serve as the Spirit gifts us, independent of our specific gender.

"There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:28).

Two Passages That Seem to Teach Christian Women Are To Be Silent

There are only two passages that might, at first glance, seem to teach that a woman is "to be silent" around men; or, as John MacArthur would say, "Go home."

If these two passages are truly teaching a woman is to be silent and not teach or preach, then they would be contradicting all the other passages of the New Testament that teach just the opposite (see above). I believe that it is the faulty interpretations of these two passages by ministers that leads to pastors saying to women "Go home." Their misinterpretations of the Word leads them to misogyny of the women.

Rather than delve into the two passages now, I'd like to give you a couple of relevant links for each passage to show you what they teach in the context of the day in which they were written. When properly interpreted, the principles contained in these two passages are consistent with the rest of Scriptural teachings on the New Testament equality of men and women.

I Timothy 2:9-15 -  see Artemis and the End of Us: Evangelical Errors Regarding Women.

I Corinthians 14:34-35 - see Giftedness vs. Gender.

My friend, Dr. Todd Still, Dean and Professor at Baylor University and Truett Seminary, not to mention one of the great New Testament scholars of our day, has also spoken out against MacArthur's remark toward Beth Moore.

Dr. Still writes:

"George W. Truett Theological Seminary will host a National Preaching Conference at the historic First Baptist Church of Waco. In addition to the likes of Alistair Begg, Tony Evans, Joel Gregory, Jimmy Mellado, and Ralph West, Mary Hulst and yes, Beth Moore will be preaching. Then and there, Beth will be warmly welcomed into our hearts and home as we listen to her expound upon God’s Word. John MacArthur is also welcome, but he will need to remain silent."

Touché

More to come...