A Slippery Slope
The Mid-America Union, a conference of the Seventh-day
Adventist Church, met on March 8th, 2012; yet, this meeting did not go as planned. While discussing a topic, someone remarked
that the problem would only be solved by the ordination of women. Note, however, that the Seventh-day Adventist
world church as a whole has never sanctioned women’s ordination. Despite this fact, and although the topic of
women’s ordination was not even on the agenda, the Mid-America Union put it to
a vote. As a result of this motion,
Lemon (2012), the president of the Mid-America Union, reported, “It is voted to
support the ordination of women in the Mid-America Union” (as cited by Dwyer,
2012, para. 5).
What
is going to happen because of this decision?
Some may feel that it is helping lead away from the twisted ideas of
male chauvinism and the oppression of women, but they must not realize just
what is at stake in taking this step.
Taylor (1997), a delegate for the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, stated
the following at the annual assembly with the Christian Reformed Church: “It would be naïve for us to think the issue
is women in office. The issue is also the authority of Scripture,
homosexuality, and Creation and evolution” (as cited in Christianity Today, 1997, p. 55). The ordination of women can lead to women
neglecting their God-given roles, to the authority of God’s Word being
questioned, and the creeping in of compromise.
Ever since the beginning of time, women have been given a
role in their homes and among their families.
As First Timothy 2:4, 5 states, “Admonish the
young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be… homemakers,
good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be
blasphemed.” Notice the following ideas
in those verses: Loving and being
obedient to their husbands, loving their children, and being homemakers. This is where a true wife and mother’s
ministry lies. Perhaps some feel that a
woman can lead a congregation and still devote herself to her family. However, the role of a pastor or leader in
the church is one that requires much time, energy, and devotion. Likewise, the role of a wife and mother is a
full-time job. Either one or the other
responsibility will suffer if one woman tries to take them both on. Which role is truly more important?
Not only is the well-being of husbands and children at
stake, but if women are ordained the authority of the Bible is also called into
question. Agouridis (2002), a professor
of New Testament, Theological Faculty, at the University of Athens wrote an
article on the roles of women in the New Testament. She had an excellent viewpoint about women
playing an important role in the Bible, and about how Christ loved and
protected women. Her intent was to show
that women were leaders of the early
church, but she could produce no Biblical evidence that the women in the New
Testament had positions of bishops or elders in authority over men. Indeed, Agouridis showed very accurately that
women ministered to the needy—even ministering to Christ Himself—that they
prophesied, and that they led other women
in matters of religion; but they did not
lead men.
What
about Agouridis’s mention of Jezebel, though?
Revelation 2:20 talks about a woman named Jezebel who was teaching the
people of Thyatira. Agouridis used this
verse to prove that there was a woman leader in the Biblical New Testament
church. Perhaps Jezebel was a “pastor,”
but this was not condoned by the true followers of Jesus. In fact, Christ, speaking through the writer
of the book of Revelation, condemns the people of Thyatira for allowing a
woman, Jezebel, to teach them.
According
to Agouridis, however, this was not because Jezebel was teaching, but because “Jezebel's
teaching and policy were of a compromising kind” (p. 514). Agouridis must have failed to read on through
the rest of the letter to Thyatira. Christ
was not just condemning what Jezebel
was teaching; He was condemning the fact
that Jezebel was teaching! At the ending of the letter to the church at
Thyatira, he made the following statement:
Now
to you I say, and to the rest in Thyatira, as many as do not have this
doctrine, who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say, I will put on
you no other burden. And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to
him I will give power over the nations—He shall rule them with a rod of iron.
(Revelation 2:24-27)
In the verse above, Christ is
alluding to a promise that those who overcame and did not conform to the
doctrines that Jezebel taught, and undoubtedly to the fact she was teaching in
the first place, would be given “power over the nations” to “rule them with a
rod of iron” (verses 26 & 27). Those
who were to rule were referred to in the masculine gender, not feminine. This is surely the case, as the quote “He
shall rule them with a rod of iron” comes from Psalms 2:9 in actual reference
to Christ, the Bridegroom, ruling over his people, the Bride. Thus we see that women leaders were never
accepted by the true Christians in the Bible.
Calahan (2006), a pastor at the Berean Bible Church, summed up this
concept very well in the following statement:
“From the time of Christ, the church has consistently affirmed the role
of women to include a broad variety of ministries with the exception of pastor,
elder and the public teaching of adult men” (para. 11).
If
the concept of ordaining women is not Biblical, then why should professed
Christians be practicing it? According
to Christian Century (1993), a survey
done by the Barna Research Group of Glendale, California, revealed that, “76
percent of all American adults are comfortable with women ministers, with only
one category—the most conservative Christians—showing a slight majority against
women pastors” (p. 1,045). The article
in Christian Century went on to say
the following:
“The
Barna survey found the strongest supporters of women pastors to be the
unchurched…. Other categories of
respondents answered affirmatively at the following levels: all Americans, 76 percent; college graduates,
81 percent; Catholic, 76 percent; Protestant, 75 percent; ‘born again’
Christians, 67 percent; ‘evangelical’ Christians, 45 percent. (p. 1,045)
Why
are so many people, Christians included, vying for something contrary to God’s
Word? In answer to this question,
Calahan (2006) remarked that the reason for the growth of supporters of women’s
ordination is because “the teaching of the Word of God is being ignored. In
some cases the Bible is being reinterpreted so that it accommodates our cultural
perspective” (para. 13). Unfortunately,
these seemingly small steps that trod down clear Biblical teachings are paving
the road for more trampling of God’s principles.
When
God’s Word is not upheld in the decision to ordain women, more and more
compromise will creep in. Women’s
ordination is just a step away from the ordination of homosexuals. God’s Word paints a clear picture of the
relationship between Christ and His church:
A marriage relationship. The book
of Revelation depicts God’s people and His church as a bride adorned for
Christ, Who is pictured as the Husband (Revelation 21:2, 9). True church leaders are to be representatives
of Christ in loving and caring for their “flock.” Springer (2005) is an Associate Dean and
Director of Field Education of the Rabbinical School at the Jewish Theological
Seminary and an advocate of ordaining homosexuals. Yet she herself admitted that “It makes
perfect sense to me that it is not enough for us just to ordain women.
Ordaining women and not gays and lesbians leaves us living with the same
dissonance” (p. 207 & 208). That
dissonance is created when a woman takes the position of a leader or pastor, the
representative of Christ—the Husband—to the church—the bride. In so doing, she is establishing a
“homosexual” relationship between her and that congregation. When that step of compromise has been taken, it
is really not very difficult to take the next step of ordaining homosexuals.
The
man who was quoted as having said, “Today women, tomorrow homosexuals” (as
cited in Springer, 2005, p. 207) was quite right! Much is at stake with women’s ordination. The wives and mothers’ ministries in their
homes will be neglected, the authority of the Scriptures will be questioned,
and that will lead to more and more compromise creeping in subtly. Those who support women’s ordination may not understand
the dire effects of their decision.
However, sooner or later they will realize that they have stepped onto a
slippery slope. By then it may be too
late!
References:
Agouridis, S. (2002). Women in the work of the Church:
An exegetical contribution to the New Testament. Anglican Theological Review, 84(3), 507-517.
Calahan, J. (July 2006). Rise of women pastors. Retrieved from http://www.neverthirsty.org/pp/feature-articles/200607/rise-of-women-pastors.html
Dwyer, B. (March 2012). The Mid-America Union votes to support the ordination of women. Retrieved
from http://spectrummagazine.org/blog/2012/03/09/mid-america-union-votes-support-ordination-women#comment-126358
Presbyterian groups sever CRC ties. (1997, August 11th).
Christianity Today, p. 55.
SBC: Ordaining women up to local churches. (1993,
October 27th). The Christian
Century, p. 1,045.
Springer, M. B. (2005). Courageous innovation. Judaism, 54(3), 207-211.
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