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Transcript 113D — The Role of Women in the Church Assembly
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: I have a question about women being silent. I found two places in the Bible where it talks about women prophetesses. I'm talking about Luke, where it talks about Anna. Because I'm studying for my ministry, and I'm a woman. And I'm trying to understand. In one part of the Bible it does speak of the fact that women should be silent. And then in another part it speaks of women being prophets. And I'm quite baffled.
HC: Well, let me see if I can help you a little bit. First of all, the Bible teaches that every born again believer, particularly beginning with Pentecost, is a prophet. We all are qualified by God, by being filled with the Holy Spirit from the moment we are saved, to be a witness. And so a woman can be a witness just as quickly as a man.
Now Anna was a prophetess in the Old Testament because she was on that side of the cross. She was not a priest, however. She was not one of the rulers in the synagogue. She was simply a prophetess. She had occasionally something to say that came from God, even as a woman or a child, or anyone at all who is a born again believer, can declare God's Word to his neighbor or to anyone who will listen.
Now that's fine, that's fine. A woman in the New Testament days today can be a witness. You can witness to your neighbors, you can teach a Sunday School of women, or teach a Sunday School of children. But when it comes to the assembly, when it comes to the congregation, the Bible says the woman is not to rule or have authority That's where the line is drawn.
A woman may be a missionary, for example. And so she witnesses to the natives in the jungle village. But when the church is formed, when they become an organized body, she is not to be the preacher in that church. A man is going to have to come forth to be the preacher in that church. And she is not to rule in that church. She is still a missionary, just helping where she can and witnessing wherever she can.
CALLER: What my problem is, and I'm trying to understand it, is that you said when it came to the church itself, a woman could not have any authority. But I don't consider myself as ruling in the situation. I feel as though I'm ministering to the congregation, the same as though I were a doctor ministering to the sick or the ill.
HC: You see, your debate really cannot be with me. Your debate is with God. God has declared in I Corinthians 14:34 that the women are to be silent. God has declared in I Timothy 2:12: "I permit no woman to teach or have authority over men." Now God has laid these rules down. I did not write the rule book. God did.
And so you have to make your debate with God. Why does God do this? Well, I don't know why God does it. But God does what is perfect and what is right. The question we have to ask ourselves is: If I find it in the Bible, what is my posture going to be? Am I going to rationalize and try to find a way around it? And people do this all the time. They want to follow a particular line of action. They want to follow a particular practice. And so they struggle with the Word of God. And they look for a way around. They try to see if they can't read something more into the verse, or whatever.
Well, that's a hard way to live. It's a lot better if, when we read it in the Bible and there it is, we say, "Lord, I believe. Help Thou my unbelief. And now give me the faith, the trust, that I will walk that way also." Then we know that we're on very safe and solid ground, even though it may not agree with what we think may be the best.
We must remember that in our own actions we are tainted by sin. We are terribly influenced by the world in which we live. And so we can't trust our own thinking. We can't trust our own actions. We can't trust our own wisdom at all. It is so faulty. But when we follow God's rule book, when we do it God's way, we can rest assured that we know we're on a good and wonderful path. We can know that it's not going to lead us the wrong way.
CALLER: I'm aware of that. I'm not trying to get around it or to find an easy way out, or something like that, because if I can clearly understand that it's definitely wrong for me to stand in the pulpit and to minister to the congregation, that's all right. I can understand it. Then I would step down. I don't feel as though I am in authority.
HC: What you're really, I'm afraid, trying to say is that you read this in the Bible, and in your old nature, and we all have an old nature. I can speak very candidly about this, because I have found things in my life where it's been exactly the same situation. In my old nature I don't like what I read. I'd love to find a different kind of an answer. And so the first thing I say to myself is, "Maybe I didn't read correctly. Maybe there is more to it than what appears on the surface. Maybe if I could do a very serious investigation into this problem, I could find an answer that is (now I'm going to speak very candidly) more acceptable to what I really want to find in the Bible."
Many times I've seen this happen in denominations, where there are those who want to change practices within the denomination to suit what they feel would be acceptable. And so at important turning points in the denominational history they legislate for study committees. It always amuses me. What is the purpose of this study committee? Is it really to investigate the Scriptures? Or is it to figure out how to write a document that is very learned and beautifully spelled out, which will allow those who want it to do their own thing, regardless of what the Bible says? Because normally, in many of these areas, the Bible is rather plain. But it takes some real careful deliberation and very careful language to draw up a paper that will permit us to get around the Word of God.
Now I've seen this happen again and again and again, in the church, and I've seen it in my own life from time to time, where I might tend to be guilty this way.
CALLER: Thank you very much.
HC: Good night.