Should Churches Ordain Women?

Should churches ordain women as well as men to pastoral ministry? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Hi, this is Bill Meyer along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. For the next 25 minutes or so with your question, here's the phone number.

You might want to jot this down for future reference. It's 833-THE-CORE. If you want to spell it out, 833-THE-CORE or 1-833-843-2673. Of course, you can also post your question on one of our social media accounts, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. You can watch us on YouTube, and you can email us your question at questionsatcorechristianity.com.

First up today, let's go to Doug in Kansas City, Missouri. Doug, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Hi, yeah, I suffer from alcoholism, and I was curious as to, is there certain books in the Bible I should read to help me with this, or is it just in specific, like what sections of the Bible should I focus on to try to get help with this? Hey, Doug, thank you for that question, and I want to encourage you with God's word. You know, when we think about addiction, alcoholism in particular, we're talking about one sin. I mean, drunkenness in Scripture is called a sin, but we're also talking about disease and the way in which our bodies can fall into these sort of patterns of struggle.

It's a sickness, and so you have both sin and sickness, and this is the result of the fall. Sin has entered into the world, death, sin, and because of that, we have these certain propensities, proclivities, and so with regard to the sin, the first thing I would want to make sure is, one, you're a Christian, you believe in Jesus Christ, you're in Christ, your sins have been washed away. And if that's the case, the apostle Paul said in Romans 8, beginning in verse 9, you, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you.

Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him, but if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness, if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh, that is in drunkenness, in immorality, those are the things that the apostle Paul is thinking of there, for if you live according to the flesh, you will die, but if by the Spirit, you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. The question is, do we have the Spirit of God, are we in Christ, if we are in Christ, you have a new identity, Doug, you belong to Jesus, you're no longer characterized by or defined by those struggles, even though you can still have them, those addictions, what you're marked by is baptism and faith in Jesus Christ, you belong to him. Now by the Spirit, we are called, you're called, to put to death the sinful deeds of the body, and again, with regard to sin and in particular with regard to addiction, this is something you can't do by yourself.

One of the things that is absolutely clear in scripture, Doug, is that in this fight, this fight against sin, this struggle against addiction, we're meant to struggle in the context of the community of faith. You need the church to support you and to surround you. The other thing that you may need is professional help, brother. There's nothing wrong with seeking out a counselor who specializes in addiction, in addictive behavior.

That can also be really, really helpful. Other organizations like Celebrate Recovery, I think it's important to get accountability and a team of people around you who are going to be able to encourage you in this fight. So two questions for you, Doug. Do you have a church? Are you a Christian? Do you believe in Jesus? Do you have a church? And do you have that kind of a support structure? Yes, it is available to me.

It just reopened back up after the pandemic and everything. And let me just say, brother, I know for so many who battle with addiction, the struggle is to feel totally discouraged, like, you know, I'm never going to be free of this. And am I even a Christian?

Does God love me? Because I go back to this behavior. I fail, I fall. Again, you have to know, if you are in Christ, if you believe in Jesus Christ, you have a new identity. You've been buried with Jesus through baptism by faith. You're going to rise again. One day, the struggles that we experience in the flesh, that battle against sin and addiction, one day, the Lord is going to take those away. He's going to restore our broken bodies.

He's going to relieve us of our sins. And so that's a hope that you have. And in the meantime, as I said, you get the accountability, you know, pursue that. I'm glad to hear that the church community you're a part of, they just opened up. I would say pursue the accountability there that you need.

And even taking it a step further, maybe getting together with others who are also looking for that kind of accountability through a program like Celebrate Recovery, and maybe even pursuing some more professional help, I think can be really helpful. And so that's my encouragement for you. Let me just say a prayer for you, Doug, right now as well. Dear Heavenly Father, we lift our brother up to you. I thank you, Lord, that he is longing for help, looking for help. And Lord God, I thank you that when we come to you with our struggles, with our sins, with our addictions, that you don't turn us away, that you don't cast us out. Jesus, that you said, come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart. Let, Doug, experience that rest, Lord Jesus, that is in you, the forgiveness of his sins by faith in your name. And I pray that by the Spirit, Lord, you would sanctify him.

You would be at work in his life. You would surround him with godly brothers and sisters who can encourage him in this fight. And Lord, that you would fill him with your spirit now so that he might have the joy and the peace that you give. Be with him today and bless him, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen. And we'll be praying for you, Doug. Thank you so much for listening and for your honesty, for your transparency in calling us. Idril, I'm so glad you mentioned Celebrate Recovery. What a great organization that is.

I've known so many people that have gone through that and have found it tremendously helpful. And I would say to Doug, if they don't offer that at your church, there are probably churches in your area that do. And I think their national website actually will give you the names of the churches locally where you can find a group.

Yeah. You know, Bill, one of the things we need to recover in the church is what an old Lutheran pastor called the fellowship of sinners. You know, a lot of times it's really hard for us to talk about our struggles, to talk about our addictions, to talk about our sins, because we think, oh, the church is just for people who have everything together. And we all sort of pretend in the context of the church community.

We all are wearing our best smile and our best clothes, that kind of a thing. It's what this Lutheran pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his little book, Life Together, called the Fellowship of the Pious, where everybody looks really good and people are unthinkably horrified when a real sinner is found in their midst. And he says, you know, what we really need and what the gospel gives to us is fellowship with one another as sinners. We can be honest about the fact that we're broken, honest about the fact that we failed, not because it's OK, not because sin is OK, but because there is a savior who is strong enough to redeem us and who is redeeming us day by day, sanctifying us. And so we got to have that kind of transparency, and that's why I really appreciated Doug's question there and him just reaching out. And it's so important that we do that and that we have the confidence in the gospel that allows us to be honest about our sins. Amen. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez.

If you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life, we would love to hear from you. Here's the phone number to call. It's 1-833-843-2673. Our phone lines will be open for the next 15 minutes or so.

You can call us 833-THE-CORE if you want to spell it out. Let's go to Pat in El Paso, Texas. Pat, welcome to the program. Hi. Hi, Pat. How are you? I'm good and yourself? I'm doing well. Thank you so much, sister.

What's your question? Well, I have a question on cremation. Is it something that is against God's belief, or is it a sin to be cremated and not buried? I don't believe that it's a sin to be cremated and not buried. The reality is the Bible doesn't, I think, speak to this specifically, and we've received this question a few times on the broadcast, Pat.

Sometimes people are concerned. If I'm cremated, will my body be resurrected on the final day? Throughout the Bible, we have this hope of the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Jesus rose again so that we might have that hope.

The apostle Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians 15. So the question is, well, if my body is not intact, if it's not put into a grave, am I going to experience the resurrection? Well, we're raised not because of the way in which we were buried. We're raised by the power of God and through the grace of Jesus Christ.

So the question is not, how were you buried? That doesn't determine whether or not you're going to be resurrected or whether or not you're saved. The question is, do you believe in Jesus? Do you trust in him? Are you in Christ? Do you have a relationship with Christ? That's the main question, and so I think that cremation or a more traditional burial, that really has no bearing on your eternal salvation.

It's a matter of personal conscience, and so there's freedom here for the believer for you as you think about these things. Thank you for your question. Thank you, Pat, so much for being one of our regular listeners.

Great question. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. One of the ways that you can leave a question is by calling our voicemail 24 hours a day and just leaving your message there, 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Let's go to a voicemail we received yesterday. Hi, Pastor.

I had a question. Where in the New Testament does it say we no longer have to follow the laws of the Old Testament? Does Jesus specifically say that somewhere, or should we really be more like Messianic Jews where we adhere to some of the original laws while still believing in Jesus that he died for our sins?

Thank you. Hey, thank you for that question. I actually wrote an article some time ago over at corechristianity.com. I think it's called Why You Don't Have to Obey All the Laws in the Bible or something like that, kind of a provocative title. The point was, why is it that Christians don't observe some of the ceremonial laws in the Old Testament? You think about the sacrificial system or even the dietary laws that we see. The Hebrew people weren't supposed to eat shellfish or pork, that kind of a thing. Well, are we picking and choosing? Sometimes, people will even use this as an argument against Christianity. They'll say, you guys reject one thing over here, but then you accept another thing.

You guys are just inconsistent. It's really important for us to parse this out. You have in Scripture essentially the moral law. Summarized, I believe, in the Ten Commandments, what God calls his people to.

I would say that moral law is always standing. It's summarized also basically in what Jesus said, to love God perfectly and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Jesus didn't come to abolish the law. He tells us in Matthew 5, verse 17, he came to fulfill the law. In Christ, the law is perfectly fulfilled. Now, some of the laws in the Old Testament, the ceremonial laws in particular, pointed to a greater reality. They were finally fulfilled in Jesus. I'm thinking in particular about the sacrifices in the temple or even some of the dietary restrictions that you had under the Old Covenant. The reason we don't observe those things anymore is because Jesus has come. Two books of the Bible in the New Testament that I think really helped to explain this are the book of Galatians and the book of Hebrews. In both of those books, you had Christian communities that were being tempted to go back to the Old Covenant system, the Old Covenant way of doing things, observing Old Testament laws.

The author to the Hebrews and Paul in the book of Galatians says, you don't have to do that. Jesus has fulfilled these things. He's the reality.

We have the reality now, the substance. All of these other things were signs that pointed to Jesus. Don't go back to the signs. I've taken my kids to Disneyland on a couple of occasions out here in Southern California. As you're getting closer and closer to the park, you have these signs like Disneyland, this way, several leading into the park. Could you imagine if we showed up to Disneyland and we're having a good time there in the park as we do when we go?

Halfway through the day, I say to my kids, you know what? Let's go back to the sign that was leading us here. Let's hang out there. When we got off the freeway and we saw that sign, you'd just be like, that's crazy.

Why would you do that? You're there. You're in the park. That's what the author to the Hebrews says. That's what Paul says in Galatians. We've arrived to Jesus, the reality.

Let's not go back to that. We don't go back to the ceremonial law of the Old Testament, signs pointing forward to Jesus, or even some of the political laws associated with Israel as a national body under the old covenant, the civil laws. Those are not binding in the same way upon believers today, upon the church today.

That's how we parse those things out. Thank you so much for that really important question. By the way, we have a core question on this topic. It's called How Do Christians Relate to the Law? You can find that by going to corechristianity.com slash questions.

Again, it's called How Do Christians Relate to the Law? Just one of our many core questions that we answer. Well, let's talk about something that we have for new listeners. If you have just joined Core Christianity recently and you're new to the program, we would love to send you a free what we call our core kit. Yes, the core kit offers our listeners just a number of different resources. It's jam-packed with a DVD, Finding Yourself in God's Story, answers to the top three questions we get asked on the show, a printed copy of our most read article over at corechristianity.com, our Bible reading plan to help you get into the word more frequently, and a lot of other really neat material. The core kit is just that, a kit that introduces you to the best content and items we have at Core Christianity. We've heard from a lot of people about how these resources have helped them and encouraged them in their Christian faith. We wanted to collect them into one place and give it away for free.

Go ahead and tell them, Bill. Sure. Here's how you get it. You go to corechristianity.com forward slash kit. Again, corechristianity.com forward slash kit to get yours. Again, it's absolutely free. We'd love to send that to you.

By the way, you can get that resource or any one of our resources also by calling us at 833-THE-CORE. Well, let's go to an email question we received yesterday, and this person says, I recently saw that one of the biggest churches in America ordained three women to pastoral ministry. This is the first time that this church has done this. Did the church leaders just change their mind, or do you think this is a practice that more churches should begin doing?

Yeah, I think I'm familiar with the situation that you're talking about. I don't know a ton about the church in particular, but it sounds to me like there must have been a shift if this was something new that they've decided to do. And your question is, is this something that I think that more churches should start doing?

Personally, no. The way I understand essentially ordination in the New Testament and the calling on elders, on pastors in particular, is that that's an office that's reserved for men. Paul talks about this in 1 Timothy 3 and in Titus 1. I also think of what the apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 14. He says, as in all the churches of the saints, the women should keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the law also says.

Now, I know that sort of sounds like, well, what is Paul getting at there? But in the context, he had just talked about essentially what the elders in the church do related to judging prophets who would speak. We know that in the New Testament church, there were male and female prophets who would speak. And he's talking in particular here about, back in verse 29 of chapter 14, about what the elders in the church would do, judging or weighing that which was said.

It was this sort of authoritative function that I think in the New Testament it seems like is reserved for the pastor or the male elders in the church. And so my position is that, and it's, I think, historically what the church has embraced. I know that this is not, I don't believe that this is one of those gospel issues that should cause us to think, oh, that other church over there, they must not really be Christians, that kind of a thing. It's not, I would say, a gospel issue, but it is an issue that's important for us to talk about, and it's in the Bible. Now, let me say this, because I think we have this discussion. We say, well, we believe that pastors should be men or elders should be men in the church.

And then we sort of don't really go any further than that. And I think that there are a lot of women who are wondering, well, what is it that God has called me to do in the life of the church? Does this mean that I'm studying theology and understanding the Bible? That's something for men, and we have to focus on just serving in the nursery or that kind of a thing for the women of the church. But you look at the New Testament, and it's amazing how God used women for the advancement of his kingdom. I love this story in the book of Acts, in Acts chapter 18.

Listen to this, verse 24. Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. Here you have this mighty teacher of the scriptures, Apollos, he's gifted, and yet he's confused about some things according to the scriptures.

And so who helps him out? Priscilla and Aquila, they come alongside of him, and they explain to him the way of God more accurately. Friends, men and women, you should know the scriptures, theology, sound doctrine well enough so that you can do this very thing, so you can have this kind of conversation. Priscilla and Aquila were actually described by Paul in Romans chapter 16 verse 3 as co-workers in the gospel. And as I already mentioned, in the New Testament church, you had men and women who were prophesying and praying, female prophets in particular, in places like Acts chapter 29 verse 9. This was something that was indicated way back in the Old Testament. Joel the prophet prophesied that God was going to pour out his spirit on all flesh, men and women, sons and daughters, prophesying, being used by the Lord. And so I think it's so important that we understand that, that men and women are gospel laborers together, side by side. Paul talked about that in the book of Philippians, Philippians chapter 4 verse 3. And so I would say, in the structure of God's church, in terms of how it's supposed to be structured, it seems to me like men are called to, some men in the church who are qualified are called to serve as elders.

That's an office reserved for them, but that doesn't mean that women aren't co-laboring with them. That it isn't important for us to listen to and learn from the entire body of Christ and be encouraged by the gifts that God has given to everyone. And so I want to encourage the women to be Priscillas, to be those who know the word of God so well that you're able to explain it and help others in the way of God more accurately.

Thanks for that question. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adrian Sanchez. Let's go to Paul in Sioux City, Iowa. Paul, what's your question for Pastor Adrian? Hi, Pastor. I notice that a lot of people in your program talk about cremating versus burying, but would it be okay if we donate our bodies to science?

Hey, Paul. I mean, I think I would just say that this also is a question of Christian liberty. I think it would be okay, yes. I mean, I think if the intention is to help others, that seems to me like a noble thing. You also think about just donating your organs if you were ever in some kind of an accident or something like that, and I think that that's a good thing. It's not something that you have to do, but I think that believers are free to do it, and I don't think that they should worry about, you know, is this something wrong or am I sinning by doing this? It's not going to keep you from being resurrected. Again, it's the power of the Holy Spirit that raises us on the final day, and so an issue of Christian liberty and freedom there. This is Core Christianity.

We have a YouTube question that came in. Michael is watching our YouTube stream right now, and he says, Augustine and Luther taught that God regenerates via water baptism and that this can be lost. Is this true? Yeah, there have been a lot of great theologians in the history of the church who have believed this. A lot of the church has embraced this view in the history of the Christian church, and the idea is just that once a person is baptized, when they're baptized, they're undoubtedly regenerated. That is that through the water baptism, they are born again.

That is not my view. I think regeneration is a work of the Holy Spirit. I think an individual can be regenerated at their baptism. God could work in an individual at a very young age, but that doesn't necessarily mean that just because someone is baptized, they are saved.

Experience shows us otherwise. There are many people who have been baptized who don't trust in Jesus, who aren't born again. So the question is, has the Spirit of God worked in you to regenerate you? And that's what we look to as the work of the Spirit. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program. And be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's Word together.