Whenever the disciples of Jesus Christ executed their God-ordained duties as servants or ministers of the Kingdom, they neither sought nor received any assistance from women. Whether the task was to serve five or seven thousand men, in addition to the large numbers of women and children who were ever present, they received no assistance from any women in this service.
And whether the task was the collection of left-over food, to fill seven or twelve baskets, the disciples of Jesus Christ did not get assistance from their women-folk present.
The Master did not endorse women participation in the ministry he established for his genuine and loyal disciples. And therefore, he, never superintended over any assignments of his followers, which had women play roles (no matter how menial) in the ministry he ordained for them (his followers).
My dear man of God, who are you then, to bring women into the church of Jesus Christ, as leaders in place of and on behalf of men? Do you have the mandate of God to do so? No you do not. May God, be merciful to us in this error.
We are now living in the era of Grace. So let us look at the New Testament to find out what the Word of God teaches, concerning the leadership roles of men in the church. The New Testament is very clear concerning the God-ordained role of men over women in the running of the church. And so, all professing Christians must subscribe to this fact; of a men-only leadership in the church of Jesus Christ.
First, let us look at First Corinthians 14: 34-38. These verses are very clear in what they mean. They are also so strong that nobody can bend them. They clearly establish the leadership role of man over the woman in the running of the church. For easy reference, let us quote these verses right here:
“Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also the law. And if they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church. What? came the word of God from you? or came it unto you only? If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord. But if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant.” (First Corinthians 14: 34-38, KJV).
I do not know what Paul would do to the many men of our day, who willfully disobey this instruction of the Lord, if he were here present on earth with us. So-called men of God find nothing wrong with electing, schooling, ordaining, and anointing women, in their own ways and manner, claiming to have made them suitable and empowered for leadership roles in the church.
Many of such so-called men of God, have the audacity to anoint their own wives, sisters, daughters, nieces and female friends, claiming to have thus made them become eligible to lead in the affairs of the church.
These men claim God called them, but cannot wait for the same God to call these female relations of theirs – if He ever will. Because they suffer from impatience and possibly arrogance, they claim to have been authorized by God, whose so-called authorization makes them worthy to call females of their choice into His service.
I wonder of what spiritual use, groupings (churches?) with such leaders who claim to have the mandate of God to call women into leadership roles, are to the Kingdom of God. Such groupings are not part of the Body of Christ – the church. These are man-made businesses, established as dynasties, whose sole intent is to make money out of their ignorant followers.
My prayer to God for you, my dear reader, is that you will begin to see so-called men of God, who clad themselves with powers they claim to have been given by God to elect, train and ordain their wives as leaders of their churches they founded, as not true disciples of Jesus Christ.
Let us also look at the substance of First Timothy 2: 11-14. These verses stand out so clear in meaning that, they hardly need any exposition. Again, let us quote them here for ease of reference:
“Let the women learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.” (First Timothy 2: 11-14, KJV).
From these verses, we have the reason from God’s own mouth, why He does not choose women for His work. One reason is as stated earlier-on in this article: Adam begat Eve out of his bones and flesh, and therefore she must be subject to him forever.
The second reason is traced back to the events that led to the Fall of Man in the Garden of Eden. Because of the role the woman (Eve) played in the Fall of Man in the Garden of Eden, God does not permit her to play any leadership roles in His business.
God has given His reasons why woman cannot be entrusted with any leadership roles in His business. I wonder which mortal beings can have the courage and audacity to think otherwise. For God, the issue of woman’s ineligibility to play any leadership roles in His business is forever settled. No person can fight God over this, or be able to reverse His rule.
In First Timothy 3: 2, 12 and Titus 1: 6, the Word of God further establishes His choice of man over woman, in leading His business. Again it will be easy to follow the discourse, if we quote these verses here.
“A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach; Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well.” (cf. First Timothy 3: 2, 12, KJV).
These verses are clear in what they mean. It is only men with single wives, children and homes, who qualify to be bishops and deacons. No law exists, that states that, women who have single husbands, children and their own houses, can be eligible for the functions of a bishop or deacon.
That would be a ridiculous law. But many so-called men of God have managed to select, teach and ordain women for the functions of bishops and deacons. In their confusion, they call such women, deaconesses – a man-made word (alien to the entire Bible revelation), which is coined to try to fit it into their understanding of the Word of God. How sad that men could behave in such foolhardiness and ignorance.
Let me say that, any person, casually familiar with the prose or the letter of the Holy Bible, will realize in it, the use of certain words in the masculine gender sense only. These words are never used in any way close to the feminine gender sense. In fact, they defy any feminine gender connotations. These words are: apostle, bishop, elder, evangelist, deacon, pastor, priest and teacher.
Of course, the masculine-gendered word ‘priest’ might seem to have a feminine counterpart: ‘priestess’. But that is only so outside the context of both the Old and New Testaments and of Israel, (the true jurisdiction of these testaments). That is why this word ‘priestess’ is never used in description of any woman in Judaism and of Israel.
Another male-gendered word, ‘deacon’, rooted in the Bible, has also been wrongly given a feminine gender counterpart in the word ‘deaconess’. Even though the word ‘deaconess’ has never been used by God and the holy men He inspired to write the Bible, it has been forced into Bible interpretation, in reference to today’s women-leaders in church settings, as being counterparts to deacons.
Whoever courageously came up with the word ‘deaconess’, to fit into his views in Bible-interpretation, should have in the same vain, done more work in giving mankind, feminine forms to such typically masculine-gendered words as: apostle, bishop, elder, pastor, and teacher. Maybe, he should have taught us that, apostleess, bishopess, elderess, evangelistess, pastoress and teacheress, are the respective feminine-gendered forms of these words. And I wonder how many people would have been thrilled and appreciative of his ingenuity in such a feat.
The Book of Titus, chapter one, verse five to nine, also reveals the qualities of an elder in the church of Jesus Christ. Here too, the elder is a man, who must be the husband of one wife, among other credentials. So whenever we met any bishop, deacon or elder of the Christian Faith of the first century, he was always a man married to one woman.
During the days when the disciples of Jesus Christ – who talked, walked and ate with him – were in-charge of running the church, all his bishops, deacons and elders, were men married to one wife, had children begotten out of their loins, and lived in homes where the presence and influence of God permeated all their endeavors.
Who or what has taken the church of Jesus Christ from his first century character and principles, with regards his leadership purity, can only be told by the pagan Roman-Christianity of the second century. Today’s ubiquitous celibate-bishop is the creation of pagan Rome’s brand of Christianity.
For a long time, many people have been deceived to accept pagan-Rome’s brand of Christianity, in her creation of a celibate-leadership, as being better than the God-ordained leadership, in which married men, who were able to manage their families and homes well, were sought after and ordained to manage the House of God.
Today, it is impossible for a married man, with children, and a home of his own, to be considered eligible to be a bishop, in many so-called churches, which in fact are the dying relics of the pagan Roman-Christianity of the second century.
We shall soon go back to our studies of Genesis, but let us go a little further in our study of the New Testament position on the leadership status of man over woman. We go to First Corinthians 11: 3, 7-9, which I quote here to make reference to these verses easy.
“But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God. For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man. For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.” (cf. First Corinthians 11: 3, 7-9, KJV).
From these verses, we see a God-ordained ladder of leadership to be accepted by all. This hierarchy has God at the top; then Christ; then man; and finally, woman. Who can arrange this hierarchy in some wiser order?
And who can doubt the fact that woman was created by God for the man; or who can ever change or re-do what God has established? May, mankind accept forever that, man is forever the spiritual leader of the woman. (---concluding part to this article is in Part Six).
The writer is a Bible-expositor and author of the book: “BEWARE OF THIS FALSE DOCTRINE of reciting the Sinners’ Prayer for salvation”. His email is: chrisbapuohyele@yahoo.com.
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