Why Rick Warren Ordaining Three Female Pastors Assures Evangelicalism’s Doom

Why Rick Warren Ordaining Three Female Pastors Assures Evangelicalism's Doom Well, in case you didn't hear, Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Southern California, one of the largest and most influential evangelical churches in the world, just did something he and the church he leads hadn't done before. They ordained three women to be pastors. And then his wife Kaye Warren preached at the church on Mother's Day. Now, female pastors are nothing new, at least in the mainline Protestant denominations.

So what's the big deal with Saddleback and many other Southern Baptist denomination churches as well, promoting women to be pastors and teachers of men? We're going to answer that question today here on The Christian Worldview. We're also going to hear part two of the interview with Mike Gendrim, the director and evangelist of Proclaiming the Gospel Ministry. He will tell us how Pope Francis's Jesuit background and worldview shape his doctrine and his policy initiatives. Mike will also discuss how to have hope in these spiritually darkening times. We're going to play one of his answers from last week as review and then get into new material.

Here's part two with Mike Gendrim. Much of your ministry focuses on outreach to Roman Catholics, of which you were a Roman Catholic, I think, for the first 35 or 40 years of your life. And you write that Pope Francis, the current pope, the first Jesuit pope, continues his globalist agenda with a conference on global health in this month of May. Jesuit-trained, listen to this, Dr. Anthony Fauci, along with Chelsea Clinton and the CEOs of pharmaceutical manufacturers Moderna and Pfizer, will be among the speakers. Both Pope Francis and Fauci are disciples of the Jesuits and collaborate with other major players such as Jesuit Dr. Robert Redfield, former head of the CDC, and ecumenist Dr. Francis Collins, who is head of the National Institute of Health. The conference may need to address the Vatican's statement that it is, quote, morally acceptable to receive COVID-19 vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted fetuses in their research and production process, unquote.

More than 100 speakers, some of whom hold views diametrically opposed to church teachings, will speak, including New Age guru Deepak Chopra. Now whenever we talk about Roman Catholic doctrines and teachings and so forth, I like to make a distinction between that there are many well-meaning, very nice Roman Catholics out there who just probably don't understand or haven't been exposed to the unbiblical doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church and its leadership. So Mike, remind us about what the Jesuits actually believe and how this pope is part of a global Marxist agenda. Well, sure, the Jesuits were formed in the 16th century at the Counter-Reformation. They were considered the secret police of the papacy, and their stated objective was to destroy all opposition to the papacy and to the Roman Catholic Church. And so you had a lot of the Reformation people were put to death by the Jesuits.

In fact, one of the most terrifying times was the St. Bartholomew Day Massacre, when the streets of Paris were angled deep with the blood of the French Huguenots, who were born-again Christians, and the Catholic Church had them put to death. For those who put people to death, put Christians to death, they were given a plenary indulgence by the papacy for murdering born-again Christians. And so they have a history of putting to death anything that opposes the Roman Catholic Church and the papacy. And so now you see that the pope is a Jesuit for the first time in papal history. And you also mentioned that we have Fauci as a Jesuit who is working hand-in-hand with the pope to bring about a global health organization.

In fact, they're having a conference this month. And Pope Francis has a philosophy of progressivism, which implies human progress will lead to paradise on earth and the perfection of man. You see, David, the Roman Catholic Church view of eschatology is that Jesus will not return to the earth until the whole world is Roman Catholic. And so that's why you see the pope pushing this ecumenical agenda and this global religion and a global government. And so his recent letter, Humana Commutas, has stated that there is a obedience that is demanded by the pope through conversion of thought. And this involves changing what the reader knows in exchange for what Rome tells you to believe, regardless of reality.

I mean, doesn't that sound like where we are today? The motive for our common responsibility is for the common good, where all rights, including property, are placed second to the interest of the papal see. And so this is the papal agenda.

It is social Marxism. And we have a lot of willing pawns that are going along with this agenda. You mentioned Redfield and Tony Fauci.

We also have Governor Cuomo and Governor Newsom. They're all Jesuit-trained. And so this was one of the strategies of the Jesuits to take over the world through education.

And they've been very good at that, establishing a lot of high schools and colleges and universities, but also establishing hospitals throughout the world. So we can see their agenda has really come to fruition and that this global agenda now is in place for the Jesuits to take over. Just one more question about the pope, because he has been, I think, even by many conservative Catholics estimation, a very liberal leader of that particular entity. Pope Francis, you say in your newsletter, has become the most controversial pope in the last 300 years. He has made numerous contentious and disputable statements that not only go against historic Roman Catholicism, but they also violate the infallible word of God.

Tragically, his fatal lies often go unchecked and are leading millions of people down the wide road to destruction. You go on to say, we must warn Catholics with the sobering words of Christ to beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. And you give some examples here, which I think are really notable to read, Mike, about some of the things this pope has said. You say during a message in St. Peter's Square, he said, quote, God wants his children to overcome all particularism in order to be open to the universality of salvation. That was said in November of 2019. Years earlier, Pope Francis declared, quote, the Lord has redeemed all of us with the blood of Christ.

All of us, not just Catholics, everyone, even atheists, everyone. The blood of Christ has redeemed us all. That was said in 2013.

One more quote. There is no hell where sinners suffer for eternity. After death, those who do not repent cannot be pardoned and they disappear. And then recently, Pope Francis has endorsed same sex or homosexual unions. So what is your message, Mike, to Roman Catholics listening today, or maybe anyone else listening today, about some of these things the pope has said, and how they are contrary to what the Bible teaches, let's say specifically about the issue of there's one way of salvation through Jesus Christ? Yeah, this is, I think, a great example of those who exchange the truth of God for a lie, because the pope either doesn't know what the Bible teaches or he knows it and he's deliberately going against it, because the Lord Jesus spoke of hell more than he did about heaven. For the pope to deny that hell exists, he's calling Jesus a liar. And we know that Jesus is the one and only head of the church, but yet the pope takes that title away from him, stating that he is the head of the church.

We also know that there's only one Holy Father, but yet the pope wears that title as well. And so what we want to tell Roman Catholics is that you need to come out from under this church that is teaching nothing but deception and lies. There is a very narrow road that leads to heaven, and Jesus said there is a wide road that leads to destruction, and many are on it. And so we need to point Catholics to the narrow road, and that is by salvation through Christ alone. The Reformers who rebelled against the Roman Catholic Church after reading the scriptures, the Catholic Church taught that you were saved by grace plus merit, and faith plus works, and Christ plus other mediators, and the Word of God plus sacred tradition was their authority. And so the Reformers said, No, no, no, we're saved by grace alone through faith alone and Christ alone, according to Scripture alone, all for the glory of God alone.

So there is one gospel that saves, and the Catholic Church has a false and fatal gospel, and Catholics don't even know that they're being deceived, because the very nature of deception is that people do not know they're deceived until they're confronted with the truth. And David, that's what happened to me when I picked up the Bible for the first time at age 35. I was confronted with the truth of God's Word, and I had a choice. Should I trust Christ and His Word for my salvation or the teachings and traditions of my religion? And God granted me repentance. He gave me eyes to see and turned my life upside down.

I've never been the same. But I have a great passion to share the truth of God's Word with Roman Catholics who don't even know they're deceived. We need to tell them that every sin that's ever been punished by every man and woman that's ever lived will be punished by a holy and righteous God. And there's only one of two places that He will punish sin and satisfy divine justice, either at the cross of Christ, where Catholics can put their trust in Him as their all-sufficient Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, where He satisfies divine justice, sins are forgiven, and the wrath of God has been dismissed because Christ bore it all. Or they can say, No, thank you, Jesus, but one day they will meet Him at the great white throne judgment, and divine justice will be satisfied there when God's wrath is poured out on the sinner who refused to trust Jesus as their substitute, taking the wrath of God in their place.

It's a very simple gospel. God is a holy and righteous judge that must punish sin. Man is a sinner. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

There is none righteous, but God didn't leave us in that hopeless and helpless condition. He gave us the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And the great news is that anyone who repents and believes the gospel, that Jesus took the wrath of God that sinners deserved and forgave their sins, if they will simply repent and believe the gospel, they will be forgiven and have the gift of eternal life. This is the glorious news of the gospel that Roman Catholics need to turn away from their false teachings and believe the true gospel of Christ.

So well said, Mike, thank you for explaining the good news of Jesus Christ. And it's based on God's grace. It's not something we can earn through doing religious deeds. If we could work for it, then God would owe us something. You've worked for this, therefore I owe you. It's like working for a job.

You spend your time, you labor, you work, and then the boss pays you. That's not how it works in God's economy. In God's economy, he says, you could never do enough good work to offset all the sin you've already done.

But here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to graciously, undeserved favor, unmerited favor towards you, I'm going to offer you my son, the gift of my son, to pay the penalty you deserve to pay for your sins on that cross. And all you must do is repent of your sin and receive this gift by faith alone in what Christ did alone. And God promises to forgive us, to deal with that sin, to put it away from us as far as the east is from the west, to account his son's righteousness to us so that he can welcome us into heaven someday. What a glorious gospel, Mike.

And thank you for explaining that today. Mike Gendron with us today here on The Christian Worldview. If anyone's listening who has never put their trust and faith in Christ, both of us just urge you in the strongest way we can to do that today. Now is the appointed time of salvation. Today is the day. Don't put it off. We don't know when we're going to die. We only have the opportunity to receive this gift while we are yet breathing. And so make that choice to receive Christ as your Savior and Lord today.

Mike, couple more questions for you. And this one comes from a report out of the United Kingdom, Britain, London, from the website Christian Headlines. It was in many media outlets around the world. It said, last week, late in April, a pastor was arrested in London after he delivered a public sermon on the biblical definition of marriage out of Genesis chapter 1. John Sherwood, who is 71 and the pastor of a North London church, was arrested April 23 in the center of Uxbridge, London, under the Public Order Act for making quote allegedly homophobic comments unquote, according to the Daily Mail. A video shows him standing on top of a stepstool before being handcuffed and led away by police as a crowd watched.

One person can be heard gasping in shock. Quote, for a man preaching about Christianity unquote, a woman says in the video, critical of police action. He was later released, and he said this, quote, I wasn't making any homophobic comments.

I was just defining marriage as a relationship between one man and one woman, he said, according to the Daily Mail. I was only saying what the Bible says, wasn't wanting to hurt anyone or cause offense. I was doing what my job description says, which is to preach the gospel in open air, as well as in a church building. When the police approached me, I explained that I was exercising my religious liberty and my conscience. I was forcibly pulled down from the steps and suffered some injury to my wrist and to my elbow. I do believe I was treated shamefully.

It should never have happened unquote. The Christian worldview with David Wheaton returns in just a moment. Courtney was 17 weeks pregnant when she and her husband Greg learned that their son Shepherd had a heart condition that would require multiple surgeries and were uncertain about his future. But Samaritan Ministries connected them with other Samaritan members who began to pray and share the financial needs of the pregnancy and the medical care Shepherd needed. I don't know how Samaritan could have answered any differently and done any better.

I don't know. And just to hear the confidence on the other end of the phone of this is not something that you need to be concerned about at all. You focus on the health of your family, the health of your baby, and we will walk with you every step of the way. Thankfully, through God's faithfulness and provision, Shepherd is surpassing all of the doctor's expectations. To read more about this family's journey and about how you can join a community of believers like them, visit SamaritanMinistries.org slash TCW. I struggled with my identity all the way through my life.

Lived eight years as Lord Jensen until I found the Lord Jesus Christ. The issues are unavoidable. They're on the news. The White House in rainbow colors. They're in our legislation. The Texas bathroom bill. In our schools.

Drag queen story out. They're even reaching into our churches. Let us be the church together. We're not just talking about issues.

We're talking about people. The proceeding is from In His Image, a one hundred and three minute documentary film that biblically and compassionately addresses the issue of transgenderism. You can order the DVD for a donation of any amount to the Christian worldview. Call one triple eight six four six twenty two thirty three or write to Box four zero one Excelsior, Minnesota, five five three three one or visit the Christian worldview dot org. That's one triple eight six four six twenty two thirty three or the Christian worldview dot org. Welcome back to the Christian worldview. Be sure to visit our website, the Christian worldview dot org, where you can subscribe to our free weekly email and annual print newsletter, order resources for adults and children and support the ministry. Now back to today's program with host David Wheaton. Mike, I can actually see you when I read that story. I can see you as that man in that stepstool preaching the gospel boldly on the street like that.

And so I wanted to ask you this question. How are street evangelists like that, like this man, John Sherwood? And to a lesser degree, pastors, because they're inside churches and that's more tolerated.

How are street evangelists, specifically the canaries in the coal mine of a society about where a culture is and about the freedoms of speech and conscience and religion? We know from the word of God that the end times will be marked by great apostasy. There will be a falling away from the faith.

And it's because people are no longer willing to stand for the truth. And more than ever, I think we need to be bold and courageous, such as this street preacher, and be fearless. We need to recognize that the gospel is the only thing that can set people free from the bondage of religious deception. And so we need to proclaim it loudly and clearly.

And we need to be fearless. My recent book, Contending for the Gospel, deals with this because there is such a compromise of the gospel going on today, such that people, like you mentioned, are the focal point of the persecution, because so many pastors today have taken the offense out of the gospel. They're drawing people with a seeker-friendly gospel that has no call to repentance, no call to turn from sin, just quote-unquote, accept Jesus and continue on the way you're living.

So this is where the church age has become, and we shouldn't be surprised because the Bible tells us there will be a period of time, the Laocidean age, where the church will be lukewarm and Jesus will be outside the church. So David, I think more than ever, we need to stand boldly for the truth of the gospel. You know, the offense of the gospel is that it's exclusive.

It's a narrow way, and you have to come to God His way, and the only way is through Christ with empty hands of faith. The only thing we can bring is our sin. And so I would hope that your listeners would recognize that it's only going to get worse for Christians, and we have to make a decision now. Are we going to live for Christ and stand for the truth, or are we going to compromise and protect ourselves? Unfortunately, the gospel will be compromised if people do that. So thank you for a ministry like your own that does have a strong and bold stand for the truth, because there are very few like yours out there right now. Well, to God be the glory.

Amen. For anything we are, we do. And we think the same about proclaiming the gospel as well.

Proclaimingthegospel.org is the website. Just have one more question for you. You had referenced this earlier in our interview today about Romans 828. Sometimes it gets a little overused and maybe misinterpreted, but the truth of that passage, I think, gives Christians and believers great hope in days like this for when things seem out of control, seem like they're darkening, getting worse. You say in your newsletter, while being banned from future flights on American Airlines—you talked about that earlier—will have an adverse effect on my future travel, I am comforted in knowing that God sovereignly controls all things. There is a peace that surpasses all understanding, knowing that this injustice is for His glory and my good.

And you reference Romans 828, which is, and God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. I have already experienced some good from this story going viral throughout the world. You mentioned this missionary in Italy who had never heard of the ministry. He went to our website and asked if he could translate our gospel tracts into Italian.

You say also a missionary in Croatia put me in touch with an attorney for legal advice, a missionary in Northern Ireland, encouraged me to expose this miscarriage of justice through radio and TV programs. The director of a worldwide ministry in Australia asked for all of his subscribers to pray for us, which we're going to ask Christian Real View listeners to do for you as well, Mike. Be assured, you say, that we will rest in His perfect will. So Mike, as we close today, how to encourage people that in this darkening time, politically darkening time, morally, in the church, as you've talked about, that God is working together all things for good, for His glory and our good. Well, we know that God is sovereign.

He has sovereign control over all things that take place, not only on this earth, but also in His universe. And so we know that His plan of redemption is working out according to His perfect plan. And so He will continue to use those who have been called according to His purpose to share the gospel, to draw His elect out of the world for His future glory. And so we have to be about the Lord's business in these last days, and I really do believe we're in the last days before the Lord comes. And so more than ever, we have to go out and make sure we're doing the Lord's work, we're proclaiming His gospel with clarity, with boldness, and also we're calling people to repent and believe the gospel, because there are so many unbiblical means of evangelism today by well-meaning evangelists that are asking people to, quote-unquote, accept Jesus rather than believe in Him, trust in Him, have faith in Him, and they're asking people to repeat a sinner's prayer rather than repent and believe the gospel. We just need to be careful that if we give the gospel with clarity and with completeness, we need to ask people to repent of any false way that they're trusting and put all of their trust in an all-sufficient Savior who finished the work of redemption, and then He cried out in victory, it is finished. And that is the gospel we need to proclaim, and there's only one saving response, and that is to repent and believe it.

So well said, Mike. Thank you for coming on the Christian Reel of Your Radio program today. Thank you for the God-glorifying, Christ-proclaiming work that you do at proclaiming the gospel. All of God's best and grace to you. Well, thank you, David. Always a pleasure to be on your show.

Keep looking up. Our redemption is nigh. If you just joined us, that was an interview with Mike Gendron, the founder and evangelist at Proclaiming the Gospel Ministry. That was part two of our interview with him. We did part one last week. If you missed either one, you can go to our website, thechristianreelview.org.

All of our programs are archived there. And again, the encouragement is to sign up for Mike Gendron's e-newsletter just by going to their website, pro-gospel.org. Well, let's change gears here now to a topic we previewed at the beginning of the program today about Rick Warren and Saddleback Church, the church he leads, ordaining three female pastors. And there are lots of headline news stories going on right now, the massive immigration taking place at America's southern border, vaccines for COVID-19, the potential danger of them, the mandates going on with them, the outright bribery going on with them. I read a story this week about the Ohio governor is literally offering those who get vaccinated the ability to go into a lottery that someone's going to be given a million dollars, a new person awarded each week a million dollars for the next four or five weeks, but only people who get the vaccines can be entered in this lottery.

Just truly, you couldn't even make this up. Other news stories, just the push to socialism, socialistic policies in this country, things like critical race theory, taking over corporations and public schools. We saw a hacking of a gas company this week, an oil company where there's fuel shortages on the east coast. And of course, what's going on in Israel and Palestine right now, a flare up, another military conflict between those two entities. Considering all of those things, I would suggest that the most critical issue to discuss for us is the evangelical church's downgrade at this point. The Southern Baptist Convention, which is the largest Protestant denomination in America, is on a path toward, I think it can't be described any other way, but to liberalism.

They toyed with this back in the, I think it was the late 70s, early 80s. And there was a conservative resurgence with, I'm going to read a column from Al Mohler today coming up that he talks about this. And the three issues that they are in some other denominations, as well, who have been historically more conservative. The three issues are the issues of social justice and critical race theory, that's a big one, focusing on social issues, racial issues, instead of the priority of the gospel, the Great Commission. The second issue is dealing with the issue of homosexuality and transgenderism. That's a major one making inroads into evangelical churches. And the third one that we're going to discuss now for the rest of the program is women becoming pastors and teachers over men in churches. Now, these are the same issues which have cratered other mainline denominations into nothing more than social clubs full of false doctrine, liberal politically, and so forth.

And this has a major impact on society. And that's why I say it's probably more important than some of the major headline news going on right now, because when the church is not salt and light anymore, what it's called to be, society follows and goes downhill, because people in society aren't being saved, they're not being renewed by the Word of God, there's not a reverence for God and His Word. And it just follows when the church is weak, that society becomes further away from God as well. Just consider nations where biblical Christianity has little presence, like maybe nations like Russia or China or Iran.

These are tyrannical places, there's no freedoms, they have worshiped false gods, the oppressive big government. They're just terrible places because there's no influence of Bible-believing churches. Now, yes, Christians tend to be very committed to the truth in these places, because there's a great cost to becoming a believer, and they have counted that cost.

So there's not a lot of lukewarm Christians, because why suffer for something you really don't believe? So there are many strong Christians, but there's not lots of them to really have a big influence on society as a whole. That's not the goal, by the way, of biblical Christianity, is a better nation. But what I am saying is that that's a practical result of a church in a nation that has prominence and power, because it's holding to sound doctrine and proclaiming the gospel.

That is a nice benefit, that there is influence in society. That's how it was earlier in a time in America, when there was more of a general reverence for God and his word. Even Western Europe, which was once Christian, back in the time of the Reformation, many of the nations had strong Christian populations, is now very weak. Churches are dying, these nations jettisoned biblical truth long ago, now are just a mess of chaotic morality, spirituality, even militarily. They can't even defend themselves if it weren't for the United States. What would a country like France or Germany or England do?

Yes, they have militaries, but if there were a major conflict, they'd come knocking at the door of the United States, because they just don't have any sort of strength in their society anymore. I think that goes straight back to the fact that there's no spiritual strength there anymore. Enter Rick Warren, the author of The Purpose Driven Life, a best-selling book, and also the pastor of Saddleback Church in Southern California. This is one of the largest and most influential evangelical churches in the country, and Rick Warren is one of the most influential pastors. Around Mother's Day this year, Rick Warren and Saddleback Church ordained for the first time in its history female pastors, three of them. Now, Rick Warren has been in ministry for years. This is a smart man. He's well educated. He knows very well what the church's historic stance on the issue of women in ministry or becoming pastors.

He knows what that stance is. It's been the same for millennia, since the time of the first century church, which is for men to be pastors and teachers at church and also leaders in the home. The Christian Worldview with David Wheaton returns in just a moment. With a growing and aggressive segment of our society in full-throated opposition to God and biblical Christianity, the question has become, how can Christians stand firm and raise their children to do the same? Ken Ham, the founder and president of Answers in Genesis, recently released a compelling book titled Will They Stand?

Parenting Kids to Face the Giants. Ken's life in ministry is a model of standing firm on the authority of God's Word and the Gospel, and he shares personal experiences and biblical principles that have shaped him. For a limited time, we are offering Will They Stand? for a donation of any amount to the Christian Worldview. The book is 312 pages, hardcover, and retails for $19.99. To order, go to thechristianworldview.org or call 1-888-646-2233 or write to Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota, 55331. Be sure to take advantage of two free resources that will keep you informed and sharpen your worldview. The first is the Christian Worldview weekly email, which comes to your inbox each Friday. It contains a preview of the upcoming radio program, along with need-to-read articles, featured resources, special events, and audio of the previous program. The second is the Christian Worldview annual print letter, which is delivered to your mailbox in November. It contains a year-end letter from host David Wheaton and a listing of our store items, including DVDs, books, children's materials, and more. You can sign up for the weekly email and annual print letter by visiting thechristianworldview.org or calling 1-888-646-2233.

Your email and mailing address will never be shared, and you can unsubscribe at any time. Call 1-888-646-2233 or visit thechristianworldview.org. Thanks for joining us on The Christian Worldview. Just a reminder that today's program and past programs are archived at our website, thechristianworldview.org.

Short takes are also available and be sure to share with others. Now, back to today's program with host David Wheaton. So Saddleback made this announcement on their social media platform saying, quote, yesterday was a historic night for Saddleback Church in many ways. We ordained our first three women pastors, Liz Puffer, Cynthia Petty, and Katie Edwards, unquote. I was able to find some of the audio of Pastor Rick Warren in his lead up to this ordination of three female pastors. And here's what Rick Warren had to say.

All right, take out your message notes. Tonight is a historic night. We're going to ordain our first three women pastors.

That says something telling right there that people are cheering in the audience when he brings up the fact that they're going to ordain three female pastors. But we don't do anything without a biblical basis. So I'm going to run through this really quickly.

You know that I'm going to speed through this when I have already filled in the blanks on some of it. We don't base our practices on popular opinion or what culture tells us to do. Doesn't really matter what any other church does, what any other organization does. The Bible says the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. The Bible says do not copy or conform to the pattern of this world.

We don't base our practices on man-made traditions. Jesus said, it's useless to worship me if you replace what God commands with your own made-up rules, Matthew 15.9. When I heard him say this, that we don't do anything if there's not a biblical basis for it and we don't do things like the world, my mouth is just hanging open. That is exactly what he's doing. They're doing something completely unbiblical and completely typical of the human reasoning that is so pervasive in liberal churches. It's like you tell a lie and you tell a big lie right to people and then they believe it.

And you tell the lie really fast. Notice how he said, we're not going to spend a whole lot of time on this. The blanks are already filled in in your sermon notes there.

It's like, we're going to get through this fast and move on to other things more important. You mean like violating the word of God for the first time in the church's history and trying to kind of roll through it? Jesus commanded that the church leadership is to be different from the world's view of leadership. Matthew 20. In this world, leaders act like powerful rulers, but among you it is to be completely different.

Whoever wants to be a leader among you must become the servant of all. So we base, not just on leadership, but we base everything we do, all of our practices on the authority of Scripture. All Scripture is inspired by God, and it is useful for teaching the truth, for rebuking error, for correcting faults, for giving instruction for right living so that we who serve God will be fully qualified. Again, he just said we base all of our practices on the authority of Scripture, and he's going directly against Scripture in ordaining three female pastors for his church. We'll get into the biblical basis for it in a minute, but it's just astounding to even listen to him try to act like what he's doing, that there's some great biblical basis for it, because there is not. He doesn't even mention the passages in Scripture that deal with who should be elders and pastors and have authority in the church, like 1 Timothy 2 and 1 Corinthians 14. He completely ignores those, improves texts or just pulls a passage that is not relevant to women becoming pastors in church and uses that as the basis for why he's doing this.

There is 2,000 years of church history where no Orthodox church ever does this, and the nerve to couch it as, we don't do anything that's not in the Bible. There is an online interview with one of the female pastors who was ordained named Cynthia Petty at Saddleback, and here is what she said. The question was, how did you learn that you would be appointed one of the first female pastors for Saddleback Church? And she said, quote, it was a very typical Monday morning on November 2, 2020.

COVID had its impact on our Saddleback staff because we were not able to all be together in the offices. On this day, a short staff meeting was called by Pastor Rick at 1 p.m. That usually meant there was a new development and I was hoping it meant we were going to hear the news that we were able to get back to church in the office. Out of the blue, I received a call and it was from Pastor Rick.

Honestly, my heart skipped a beat because I thought he was going to ask me to speak at the staff meeting. He explained that he and the elders had been discussing for many months the possibility to ordain women as pastors at Saddleback Church. He told me that the elders unanimously voted to appoint me one of the first three women pastors at Saddleback Church, and that it would be announced in the staff meeting that afternoon. He affirmed my leadership and my calling to ministry, and it was a conversation I will not forget. This is, again, Cynthia Petty, one of the women who was ordained as a pastor at Saddleback Church. She goes on to say, I had always been involved in churches where women could lead under the authority of a male pastor. So this change in philosophy for women in ministry was revolutionary.

I was honored and felt extremely humbled. And the thing I believe meant the most to me was how this would be groundbreaking for all the younger women ministers on staff who really did have the desire or dream to be a pastor one day. There's what's to come, more of the same, more of this.

This is just the start. She goes on to say, in the past decade, the role of women in the church has evolved. But let me add, the Bible has not evolved. Much study in Scripture about women in ministry has become clearer, and women have also realized, as I did, that they have gifts that can be used in the church alongside our male counterparts.

Any time you're talking about the evolution of Scripture or the evolution of understanding of Scripture, you are getting into a place you shouldn't go. She goes on to say, as I mentioned previously, my desire to have the title of pastor was never anything I pursued. However, as I see young women in the church begin to learn more about their own giftedness, their desire to lead and be used to the fullest extent has been greatly enhanced by opening these new opportunities as pastor. This is a new day, she says, for women in ministry, and I am honored and blessed to help carry this mantle of being a pastor and have the title as next-gen ministries pastor at Saddleback Church.

What is there to say to that? It's just human reasoning, Scripture is not the authority, and things have evolved, and now this is going to be the inspiration for even more younger women to become pastors of churches. This is why the program is named so apocalyptically today, why Rick Warren, ordaining three female pastors, assures evangelicalism's doom. Now, Albert Mohler, the president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, a very prominent evangelical himself, wrote an article about this just recently with regard to Rick Warren and the situation of Saddleback, but also what's going on in the denomination that he is a prominent leader of.

And by the way, Saddleback Church is a Southern Baptist convention church. Mohler writes, Behold, a little cloud like a man's hand is rising from the sea. He says this was the message that the prophet Elijah heard from his servant. Then, in a little while, while the heavens grew black with clouds and wind, there was a great rain. That's the way issues often arise, Mohler writes.

At first, there is only a small cloud. Soon thereafter, here comes the downpour. Well, here it comes. The issue of women serving as pastors and preachers in churches roiled the Southern Baptist Convention from the 1970s until the conservative resurgence in the convention clarified the question conclusively in the Baptist Faith and Message Revision of the year 2000. There never was a moment when more than a handful of women served as pastors of SBC churches, Southern Baptist Convention. But the mainline Protestant denominations were rushing headlong into the ordination of women as pastors and episcopal priests, driven by two major energies.

Listen to this. First, the demands of second-wave feminism, and second, the impulses unleashed by liberation theology. In both cases, the main obstacle was the Bible, but already compromised by theological liberalism, these denominations deployed revisionist arguments to defuse any argument from Scripture. The strategies of biblical subversion also took two basic forms. The argument was proffered that either the Bible was misread by Christians for nearly 2,000 years, or the Bible is just hopelessly mired in patriarchy and oppression and the biblical authors were flat wrong. Usually, these arguments went together. Mulder goes on to say in this column, Liberal theology is the kiss of death for any church or denomination. Little remains but social justice, activism, and deferred maintenance. In truth, the issue of women serving as pastors fueled a conservative resurgence in the SBC.

The question was instantly clarifying. The divide over women serving in the pastorate served as a signal of the deeper divide over the authority and interpretation of the Bible. That's what this is all about. Who or what is the authority? Is it God's word or is it man's reason?

That's what this issue is about. Simply put, the only way to affirm women serving in the pastoral role is to reject the authority and sufficiency of biblical texts such as 1 Corinthians 14 and 1 Timothy 2, which we're going to read in a minute. There is more to the picture, but not less. Furthermore, the Christian church in virtually every tradition through nearly two millennia in almost every place on earth has understood these texts clearly. In most churches around the world, there is no question about these texts even now. Furthermore, there is the testimony of God-given differences in the roles of men and women in the church and in the home throughout the Bible.

The pattern of revealed truth is not hard to follow. That from Albert Mohler, who, by the way, while he writes very well on this topic, he as the leader of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary could have done much more and should be doing much more to weed out and eliminate all kinds of the professors at his seminary that are soft on or actually promoting of critical race theory. But he hasn't done that. So I think it's a little hard for him to take this stance on women becoming pastors when he's allowed, I believe, quite a bit of drift in his own seminary on the issue of critical race theory. He says he's personally against it, but he hasn't done anything to remove those teachers in his seminary that teach things contrary to Scripture.

So let's get to this pattern of revealed truth he's talking about. First Timothy chapter 2, Paul writing to Timothy, who was a younger man in the faith who was pastoring a church in the city of Ephesus at this particular time when he wrote to him. Here's what Paul says to Timothy. I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair, in gold or pearls or costly garments, but rather by means of good works as is proper for women making a claim to godliness. And then here in verse 11, a woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness.

But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. I'll read the verse again. First Timothy 2, verse 12, but I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet.

For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve. And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived fell into transgression. But women, verse 15, will be preserved through the bearing of children if they continue in faith, in love, in sanctity, with self-restraint. And that last verse, verse 15, talks about the fact that women being preserved means that their influence is preserved because they are the primary influencers in the bearing of children, even more than fathers are.

But back to the point here. I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. And the two reasons given are in verse 13 and verse 14. For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve.

This is not a cultural thing of that day. Paul goes right back to the very beginning of time, of creation, where the basis for this is. Adam was first created, and then Eve.

Therefore, there's the standard, God's standard, for the authority in the church and in the home. Verse 14, a second reason. And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived fell into transgression.

Now, does that mean that women are more gullible or they're more easily deceived? Perhaps, but we really don't even really need to know what God means by this. It's just clear that the way God has established the issue of authority in the church and in the home. Men are to be in leadership in the church and in the home, but that doesn't mean that women can't have leadership roles in certain capacities in the church, which we'll get into that in a minute. Further proof that Scripture only has men to be pastors and teachers of other men in the church. 1 Timothy 3, the very next chapter, talks about who an overseer or elder, who a pastor should be, and it's always described as being a male.

It is a trustworthy statement, Paul writes. If any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do. An overseer, then, or pastor, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife. There it is, the male description.

Not the wife of one husband, the husband of one wife. Temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach. That's the qualification of an elder. They must be able to teach the Word of God.

Not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money. He, not she, must be one who manages his own, not her own, household well, keeping his children, not her children, under control with all dignity. But if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God? And he should not be a new convert so that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil. And he, again, not she, must have a good reputation with those outside the church so that he will not fall into reproach in the snare of the devil. So you can look at chapter 2 of 1 Timothy, and it describes very clearly that a woman should not teach or exercise authority over a man. Again, that's in the church and in the home. And the next chapter shows exactly what that pastor should be like. And the qualification is that you see all throughout it, all these different character qualities, it's he, he, he, all the way through.

It's to be a man. Now, one more passage from 1 Corinthians 14, setting the basis, the foundation. This is not made up by the Christian worldview or me. This is right from the inspired, inerrant, infallible, all-sufficient Word of God that never fails. That is the truth, as Jesus described it.

Sanctify them in your word. Your word is truth. Let God be found true, though every man be found a liar. I love that verse. It's from Romans 3-4.

But I'm just realizing that we are running out of time on today's program. So we're going to pick this up next week, because this is a super important critical topic that biblical Christians cannot get weak knees about. Again, it's not a men are better than women issue at all. It's a this is what God has said issue, and therefore we need to obey. God's ways are higher than our ways, and his thoughts are higher than our thoughts. This is a thus sayeth the Lord issue. We must obey what sayeth the Lord.

God has good purposes for it, for our good and for his glory. And therefore we must follow his will, and this is a doctrinal hill to die on, an issue of first priority. Because we live in a world-worthy church, so easily compromises the truth of scripture. But Christian, there is one thing we must always look to and trust in. Jesus Christ and his word are the same yesterday and today and forever. Until next time, think biblically, live accordingly and stand firm. See you next time. Until next time, think biblically and live accordingly.