Short Take #1: What Rick Warren Got Wrong about Female Pastors

Here is another short take from The Christian Worldview with David Wheaton. We titled last week's program, Why Rick Warren Ordaining Three Female Pastors Assures Evangelicalism's Doom. No doubt many other evangelical churches will now follow suit. This weekend, we'll finish laying the foundation for the differing roles God established for men and women in the church and the home. Then, Pastor Travis Allen of Grace Church in Greeley, Colorado will join us to answer what roles women can serve in the church and what leads to Christian leaders compromising on the clear, historic, and orthodox teaching of Scripture. We're not going to have time to review what we covered last week, so if you missed it, be sure to go to our website, thechristianworldview.org.

We're going to start where we left off last week and then get to the interview with Pastor Travis Allen. 1 Corinthians 14, now Paul is writing to the Corinthians, their church, and he says when you assemble as a church, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. We won't get into tongues right now. Verse 34, here's what it says about women in the church. The women are to keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak, but are to subject themselves, just as the law also says. If they desire to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home, for it is improper for a woman to speak in church. Was it from you if the word of God first went forth, or has it come to you only?

In other words, don't make this up. You didn't design the word of God. The word of God comes from God.

It's His word. It talks about a woman speaking in church. That means a woman preaching or teaching over men in church. There are roles for women to teach other women in church or teach children in church, but not men, not to exercise authority over men.

So what do we make of this? Well, first of all, women as pastors and teachers of men has nothing to do with the worth of a woman or the capability of a woman in comparison to men. And it's also not a male versus female issue, but it's rather, as Moeller said, it's a biblical interpretation or authority issue. I mean, there are some men out there that are in favor of women becoming pastors in churches, and there are some women, I'm sure some are listening today, who are agreeing with everything that's being read from Scripture. Some women are against it.

This is not a male versus female issue. It has everything to do with what God has clearly stated in His word. It's the same old issue from the very beginning of time, when Satan tempted Eve in the garden. Has God really said?

That's really what's going on here. God has really said that men should be pastors in churches and leaders in the home. That's what God has really said.

And now people like Rick Warren and many others are challenging that. It really is the word of God versus the word of man. God established roles for each gender in the home and the church so that they would function in an orderly and God-honoring way. Now, no surprise that on the website gotquestions.org, which is a website that answers people's questions about Christianity and other religious topics, there have been something like over 500,000 questions asked on this website. And you know what the number one question is? The number one question of all the questions is, what does the Bible say about women pastors?

That's the number one question on gotquestions.org of all the hundreds of thousands of questions. It goes right back to Genesis 3, where God says to Eve, your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you. Right there from the very beginning, the consequence of their sin was that there would be a desire for a wife to rule over her husband.

And in return, the husband would often rule in a way that was over-authoritarian. The conflict from the very beginning is the number one question on gotquestions.org. So in their answer to this question, they answer some of the common challenges to the issue of men only being pastors of churches and holding authority in the church and the home.

And the first one is just the why question. Why shouldn't women teach in the church? I mean, aren't men and women the same? Why shouldn't they teach?

Here's their answer. Why should women not teach or have authority over men? Because Adam was created first, then Eve, and Adam was not the one deceived.

It was the woman who was deceived. Verses 13 through 14. God created Adam first and then created Eve to be a helper for Adam. The order of creation has universal application in the family and in the church. So this isn't a cultural contextual issue of the day that women weren't educated at the time, and now they are. And so we live in a different time. And Paul was writing to Timothy at an age where it's very different from today. And now we're more sophisticated, we're advanced, we've evolved, and therefore, women can be pastors and teachers of men in churches. That is not at all what the interpretation, the proper grammatical historical interpretation of scripture is in this passage. Paul takes it not back to the context of that day in Ephesus, but he goes right back to the very beginning of time that God created Adam first and then Eve. And the second reason is that Eve was the one who was tempted and fell into transgression first. That is the basis that God gives for why men only should be leaders in the church and the home. This has been a short take from The Christian Worldview with David Wheaton. To find out more about The Christian Worldview, order resources, make a donation, become a monthly partner or contact us, visit thechristianworldview.org. You can also call us at toll-free 1-888-646-2233 or write to us at Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota 55331. That's Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota 55331.