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The Place of Women in the Church
A burning question for many today is whether or not women
may be ordained to the ministry of the church. It is often
stated that any denial of such a right is demeaning to women
and denies their equality with men in Christ. Requiring an
all-male ministry and eldership is portrayed as sexism at
its worst. More and more churches are sweeping away all
restrictions on a woman exercising any part of the ministry
of the church, whether in a preaching or a pastoral (including
governmental) role. The Free Presbyterian Church takes the
biblical position of historic Christianity on this issue and is
therefore at variance with the modern trend.
The New Testament shows that women participated
in the public prayer meetings of the church (Acts 1:14). As
well as praying, they also prophesied. We are expressly told
that Philip’s four daughters did so (Acts 21:9). Paul tells the
Corinthians that any woman praying or prophesying with her
head uncovered dishonors her head (1 Cor. 11:5). Yet in the very
same epistle Paul goes on to make this emphatic statement:
“Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not
permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to
be under obedience, as also saith the law….It is a shame for
women to speak in the church” (1 Cor. 14:34, 35.).
There are those who do not scruple to say that Paul here
contradicts himself. Such people deny the basis for Christianity.
If we cannot trust an inspired apostle of Christ at this point,
how can we trust him in any other statement of doctrine or
practice? Paul made no mistake on this issue. Clearly, from
all he says, there are times and places in which a woman may
speak and others in which she may not. In 1 Timothy 2:12 he
makes it clear what should govern the decision as to when
and where it is proper or improper for a woman to speak: “I
suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the
man, but to be in silence.” Here is the key. A woman is not
permitted a pastoral or governmental position over men in a
New Testament church. No ministry that places her in such a
position is open to her. There is no question but that a woman
may be every bit as spiritual and spiritually gifted as any
man. That is not the point. The place of public ministry and
pastoral government is not open to her, “not turned over to”
her by the Lord, as the literal force of 1 Corinthians 14:34 has
it. The Lord will give her fitting opportunities to exercise her
gifts. She has a special role in the teaching of other women
and the young (Titus 2:4; 2 Tim. 1:5; 3:15). She may be a
Priscilla and use her home as a pulpit to teach needy people
the gospel (Acts 18:26). She may be so beneficial to the work
of the church as to earn the title Phoebe earned, “the servant
(or, deaconess) of the church” (Rom. 16:1). Here there is no
hint that the word deaconess has reference to any elected
office, but to Phoebe’s selfless service to the church.
To sum up: “If woman is not assigned a different position,
this is done, not by God, but by man, and by man in
contradiction to God….Whatever sphere we may assign to
woman in our church practice today dare not contravene her
divinely ordained subjection and obedience, for this would
conflict with God’s own order” (R. C. H. Lenski). Thus the
Free Presbyterian Church, gladly affirming the rich ministry
of godly women in the church throughout history, nonetheless
maintains that no woman may scripturally be elected or
ordained to any preaching, pastoral, or governmental office
in the church.
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