Does the Bible Teach that Women Should Not Hold Political Office?

Does the Bible teach that women should not hold political office? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity.

And you can post your question on our Facebook or Instagram account, or email us with your question at questions at COREChristianity.com. Well, on November 3rd, Kate Rubins will be orbiting a cool 200 miles above the Earth, but she says that won't prevent her from voting in the presidential election. The NASA astronaut is planning to cast her ballot from the International Space Station this year after embarking on a six-month mission. Kate says, if we can vote from space, I believe folks can do it from the ground too. Her vote will operate similarly to an absentee ballot, but instead of being delivered via the United States Postal Service, it'll be cast electronically and forwarded from Mission Control to her local county clerk for tabulation. Adriel, that's pretty cool and a great challenge to all of us to do our civic duty and vote this year. To get out there and vote, yeah. You know, I think a lot of people are thinking, well, Kate is the lucky one. I wish I could get away from the planet during this time of the year and be floating around in space and get a little bit of rest. But good for her, and we should all get out and vote.

We want to go to the far side of the moon for the next couple of months. Oh, man. All right, let's get to our first question. This is an email we received from Omar, and he says, did the Pharisees reject Jesus because he did not meet what they were expecting or because they did not have the ability to see him as the Son of God?

Hey, Omar, you know, I think it's probably somewhat of a combination of the two. I'm thinking of John chapter five in verse 18. Jesus says something really interesting. He says, this was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own father, making himself equal with God.

So part of the problem seems like they, as you say, they didn't expect who he claimed to be. I mean, they took offense at the fact that he was making himself equal with God. And a little bit later in John chapter eight, actually, when they ask him that specific question, who do you make yourself out to be? If you're familiar with the Gospel of John, you know that that's where Jesus makes one of the strongest claims to divinity anywhere in the New Testament. He says, before Abraham was, I am any sort of echoing that text back in the book of Exodus, where God identified himself to Moses as as the great I am, I am who I am.

And Jesus is taking that title for himself. And so we read in John chapter eight that the Jews once again took up stones to stone him because of the claims that he was making about himself. There's also more going back to John chapter five, if you continue reading in verses 37 and following Jesus says this, and the Father who sent me has himself born witness about me, his voice, you have never heard his form you have never seen. And you do not have his word abiding in you, or you do not believe the one whom he has sent.

You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life. And it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. I do not receive glory from people, but I know that you do not have the love of God within you.

I have come in my Father's name and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? Omar, let me read that verse once again, because I think it's key in answering your question. Jesus said to the religious leaders, how can you believe when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?

John 544. He goes on, Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you, Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me.

But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words? You see, I think Jesus lays it out for us very clearly there. He laid it out for the religious leaders very clearly there. Their hearts were corrupt and unbelieving. They were so consumed with themselves that they couldn't see God right in front of them. I mean, literally, God is right there in their presence. And Jesus says, You don't seek the glory that comes from God.

You seek the glory that comes from others. And of course, Jesus rebuked them over and over again for this, right? They only cared about themselves. They were trying to make themselves out to be great in the eyes of others, but inside their hearts were corrupt. And so this self infatuation, we might even say this narcissism kept them from being able to see the Messiah, God right in front of them.

How can you believe when you seek glory from others, and not the glory that comes from God? And I wonder if in our own culture today, this sort of collective narcissism or our individual lust for glory, this love for self, this I have to be on top, I have to be the best that keeps us from seeing God at work around us and in us. And it was something that the Pharisees really were just headlong into.

And so, Omar, I think that that was the issue. Their hearts were corrupt. They were unbelieving. They lusted for the glory that came from others. They didn't care about God right in front of them.

When He was right there in front of them, they missed Him. Thanks for your question. You know, Adriel, I can't help but think of some of the parallels in today's world with social media and how so many people are just, Instagram is a great example of that. You've got your influencers. Talk about love of self. My goodness.

Yeah, you're right. I mean, it really is a serious danger, I think, for each and every one of us to consider. Are my eyes fixed on myself? And is everything about me and trying to get glory from others? Well, there's something blinding about that. It keeps us from being able to lift our eyes to the God who is at work in our midst.

And so we have to, many of us, we have to repent and we have to turn to the Lord and be very careful with how we use some of these tools. You're listening to CORE Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Our number is 1-833-843-2673. That's 833-the-core. Here's a call that came in from Shelby in Longview, Texas. Hi Adriel and Bill. I love CORE Christianity.

I listen to it every night delivering my papers to the community. The question that I have is, I was wondering, the tree of life that Adam and Eve ate from, what happened to it? I don't really see a reference to it. Was it when they ate from it? Did it die? Did it go away?

Or just something I was wondering about. Thank you again. I love spending time with you guys every night. God bless. Hey Shelby, thank you.

And I'm glad we're able to encourage you as you're out delivering papers. Keep listening and we love to hear your questions. So you had two trees in the Garden of Eden. You had the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life. And in terms of what happened to those trees, that's a really good question. The Bible doesn't really specify to us what they just sort of wither away. Did God uproot them and take them somewhere else?

We don't know. When it comes to the tree of life, we first hear about it in Genesis chapter 2. And it also makes an appearance at the very end of the Bible in Revelation chapter 22. So it's kind of this interesting bookends that we have there at the very beginning of the Bible and at the very end of the Bible you have the tree of life. Revelation 22 verse 2, it says, through the middle of the street of the city, also on either side of the river, the tree of life with its 12 kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month, the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

Doesn't that sound just absolutely beautiful? We don't know again what happened to the tree of life after the fall, but in the garden, it was a sign of the life that God held out to Adam and Eve. Now this life that God was holding out to Adam and Eve wasn't just the good life or a life that was a little bit better than what they were already experiencing there in the presence of God.

It was what we might call the glorified life, the life that actually we all hope for in Jesus Christ at the new creation, the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. And it's what Adam and Eve would have received had they passed the test, if you will, not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil as God commanded. So the tree of life was a reward of sorts, a reward that our first parents forfeited by their sin.

And you know what? In Adam, we're sinners too. Paul makes this point in Romans chapter five very clearly, all sinned in Adam, Romans chapter five, verse 12. We don't have any right to the tree of life.

You know who did? Jesus. Jesus came as the new Adam, and he perfectly obeyed the commandments of his father.

And then instead of eating from the tree of life, he got another tree, didn't he? The cross. And through Jesus and his blood, we are cleansed. I mean, really, the story of the Bible, the story of God, redemptive history is so absolutely beautiful.

You have all these themes sort of woven together. Jesus, the new Adam, who perfectly fulfills the commandments of his father, obeys, fulfills all righteousness. And then instead of getting the tree of life, what he earned, what he deserved, he gets the cursed tree of Calvary so that through him, we might have the right to the tree of life. And that's actually exactly what Revelation chapter 22 goes on to say in verse 14. John wrote, blessed are those who wash their robes so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates.

Isn't that so beautiful? Through Jesus, through his blood, we wash our robes, if you will, in the blood of the lamb. Jesus Christ, we're cleansed so that you and I have a right to the tree of life, not on the basis of our own perfect obedience, but on the basis of the perfect obedience of Jesus.

Who bore our curse on the tree of the cross. God bless you. Shelby, thank you so much for your call and for listening there in Longview, Texas. Great to hear from you. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez.

And with everything that is going on in our world right now, you may be feeling stressed or even depressed. And today we are offering a resource that we know you'll find helpful. It's a really helpful Bible study. It's a four week study called Why Is the World a Mess? Have you ever asked that question?

A lot of people are asking that question right now. And so you'll want to get a hold of this resource. It's not only going to take you through the reasons why suffering and evil exist, but also what God has done to deal with suffering and evil in the world today. You can find it on our website corechristianity.com and it's free when you sign up for our weekly newsletter. So head over to corechristianity.com forward slash offers to download Why Is the World a Mess? You can also call us for that resource or any one of our resources. Here's the number 833-843-2673.

That's 833 the core. All right, Adriel, here's an interesting question that came in from Adrian. He says, Can you go into more detail about Leviticus 19-28? I enjoy getting tattoos. Am I sinning? A. Adrian, no, I'm going to say you're not sinning. I mean, well, at least not necessarily by getting a tattoo. Leviticus 19-28 says, You shall not make any cuts on your body for the dead, or tattoo yourselves.

I am the Lord. In the context of Leviticus 19, God is forbidding his people from doing what the pagan nations around them would do. And these rituals were probably a part of the worship of the pagan nations, his cuttings or markings for the dead. It was just this religious ritual. And so obviously, God did not want his people participating in that and pagan idolatry. Now, whether or not there are some kinds of tattoos that you could get that it would be sinful to get why I think potentially, I mean, if it was something offensive or something, you know, that went against God's word, well, then certainly, you wouldn't want to do that. But, you know, you wanted to get a like a cool tiger or eagle or something. I mean, I don't know. You could go with something like that. And I know there are a lot of media, it's, you know, part of how sometimes people want to artistically express themselves.

And, and that's okay. I would say, though, you know, one of the things that we do want to fight against, and we're, you know, Bill mentioned it when he brought up the whole social media thing is, there is this temptation to really want to draw attention to ourselves. That is sort of narcissism in our culture that is really, really prevalent. And so I think, when we think about stuff like this, those are good questions to ask ourselves, you know, what is what is the reason why I'm doing this? Am I just trying to draw a bunch of attention to myself to make myself look a certain way so that people will think more of me or think that I'm really cool and really tough or whatever it is, and I'm not saying that about you, Adrian, but I think, you know, this is a gray area issue, you know, getting tattoos is not necessarily a sin. But I think we want to, with any decision that we make, and especially ones that have lifelong consequences, usually, is we want to we want to think through them. And we want to ask ourselves the questions, you know, what, why am I doing this?

Is this a wise decision? And, and can I do it and bring glory to the Lord? Or is it something that's going to be focusing the attention on me?

And so think through it in that way. But as far as Leviticus 19 is concerned, I don't think that you have to worry about that verse forbidding you getting tattoos. Well, Adrian, I should confess, I have a tattoo of the angel Gabriel on my bicep. When I flex, you know, he takes his flaming sword and he swings it.

So yeah, Bill, when you flex, he probably doesn't move very much, I would say. I know. Sorry, Bill. Well, actually, Bill, I mean, do you want to confess to everyone listening right now whether or not you have any tattoos? I don't. I'm clean, man.

I've never had a tattoo. Pure, you're pure. All right. All right, let's get on to our next question before we really get in deep here.

Dave posted this on our Twitter account. He says, in Isaiah 3 12, the Bible seems to say that God laments that women are ruling over Israel. If that's the case, does it mean that on the basis of gender alone, we should stand against the appointment of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court or Kamala Harris as the potential vice president? Yeah, Bill, right when you say, you know, we're not going to get into it anymore. We're going to get into trouble. You asked this question, you know, which is really getting into it. But it's an important one, isn't it?

And especially with, as you mentioned, you know, you have Amy Coney Barrett and the hearing and whatnot. And I'm going to say, no, we shouldn't stand against their appointments simply on the basis of gender. First, the verse that you brought up, Isaiah, chapter three, verse 12.

This is how the ESV, the English Standard Version reads. My people, infants are their oppressors and women rule over them. Oh, my people, your guides mislead you and they have swallowed up the course of your paths. Now, this chapter, Isaiah, chapter three is unpacking God's judgment against his people.

And part of that judgment was a total collapse in leadership. This is just really clear, especially in the first several verses in Isaiah, chapter three. If you just look at starting in verse one, look at what it says. For behold, the Lord God of hosts is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah, support and supply, all support of bread and all support of water, the mighty man and the soldier, the judge and the prophet, the diviner and the elder, the captain of 50 and the man of rank, the counselor and the skillful magician and the expert in charms. And I will make boys their princes and infants shall rule over them. And the people will oppress one another, everyone his fellow and everyone his neighbor. The youth will be insolent to the elder and the despised to the honorable.

I mean, this is absolutely heartbreaking. And this was a judgment that was coming upon the people of God because of their sins. So this is talking about a particular historical situation, Dave. I don't think we're intended to gather from this scene that women in positions of leadership say the Supreme Court is a bad thing. But one of the best judges in Israel, one of the best judges Israel ever had, according to the Old Testament, was a woman. Judges Chapter four talks about Deborah. And she was a prophet and a judge. We're told that the people of Israel would go to her for judgment because of her wisdom. I think also of a lot of other women who functioned as prophets throughout the Old Testament, who had a powerful and positive effect on Israel.

Second Kings Chapter 22 tells us the story of Huldah, who was in King Josiah's court. She was a prophet. And by the way, the prophets in Israel were really annexed to a part of the theocracy, the kingdom. That is, they served the king in Israel.

They were sort of like guides helping the kings to turn back to God's covenant. And that's precisely what Huldah did. I mean, she was used by God to do just that. She speaks words from the Lord to Josiah. And actually, her counsel results in a reformation of sorts.

You know, the abolishing of idolatry in a high view of God's word, embracing God's word. So there are clear biblical examples of God blessing his people through some of these female leaders. And I think that should call into question any theology that says all women leaders are the result of God's judgment or something like that.

We also have to realize that that our government isn't equal to God's kingdom. And so we can't draw a one to one correlation between Isaiah Chapter three, verse 12 in our in our present situation, whatever, whatever that is. And let me also say that there is another way of reading Isaiah Chapter three, verse 12 that removes the question of female leadership altogether. Because the word women in verse 12 is very similar to another Hebrew word, the word creditors. You think of those who demand payment.

And actually, this is an interesting point. The Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible was called the Septuagint. It was actually the translation that the disciples of Jesus and Jesus often quoted from that translation. When it translates Isaiah 312, it doesn't use the word women, it uses the word creditors. In other words, that's at least how the Septuagint understood that word.

And so the translation would be something like this. My people, your exactors are gathering you up and those who demand payback are lording it over you. Now, that actually seems to kind of make sense again, just with the context of Isaiah Chapter three, because in Chapter three, again, the verses I read a little bit earlier, verse four, it says, I will make boys their princes and infants shall rule over them. And the people will oppress one another, everyone his fellow and everyone his neighbor.

You think of oppressing each other with these heavy requirements is exacting payment. It sort of fits the context of Isaiah Chapter three. One thing we can conclude for sure, we shouldn't oppose or lament the appointment of certain officials simply because they're women to secular government. We should, on the basis of God's word and led by our conscience, consider what they stand for and whether or not they'll judge well, like Deborah did in Judges Chapter four. And let me just say one last thing, you know, sometimes people will look at those verses in the New Testament to talk about the structural leadership of the New Testament church, of the church today with elders. You know, they'll say, well, that's supposed to be applied to sort of broader society as well so that you shouldn't have women just in positions of leadership more generally, not just in the church is the thinking of some people, but also in politics and in the Supreme Court and so on and so forth. But I just think that that's that's taking passages of the Bible and applying them in a way that they weren't intended to be applied.

And so I know there's a lot there. And if you want to follow up, please feel free to God bless you. Another reminder to practice good hermeneutics when we're reading the Bible right to make sure we're interpreting it correctly and not jumping to conclusions or reading into it, which there are some people and even some denominations that have done that throughout the years. Yeah, you're absolutely right. And that's the goal that we have here on this program is we want to search the scriptures and understand them in their context and provide answers from God's Word.

So thanks. You're listening to Core Christianity. We have time for one more question, Adriel.

This one from Arthur, who posted on our website at corechristianity.com slash radio. He says the Bible seems to speak of the Sabbath being on the seventh day Saturday. So why do most Christians worship on Sunday?

Yeah, really good question. And Arthur, it happens to be a question that we get a lot on this program, isn't it, Bill, the sort of Sabbath question? Why is it that Christians worship on Sunday instead of on Saturday? And was that sort of this later church tradition that that crept in and that we shouldn't observe? Well, it really wasn't a later church tradition. Immediately in the Book of Acts, when you're reading the New Testament, you realize that the Christians were gathering together on the first day of the week on Sunday to do what? To break bread and to pray and to hear the word of God being proclaimed to collect an offering. And they were having their, quote unquote, church services on what we might call the Lord's Day on Sunday. Now, why is it called the Lord's Day? Well, what significant event in the history of redemption happened on Sunday? Well, death was conquered. Jesus Christ rose again from the dead. And so, Arthur, the answer to your questions is one word. Resurrection, the resurrection of Jesus Christ was this monumental event that transformed the history of the world and the history of worship, so that now, instead of worshipping on the last day of the week, resting on the last day of the week, we begin with worship as a sign of the fact that we have entered in Christ into the true Sabbath, Jesus. If you liked us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this podcast. And be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's Word together.