Should Women Be Ordained to Ministry? Part 1

 

“The Protestant Reformation, for all its opposition to Romanism, never questioned the practice of ordaining men only.  Now, if this practice has continued from the time of Abraham down to 1960 or thereabouts, those who are innovators surely must bear the burden of proof.  The Westminster Confession indeed says, ‘All Synods . . may err, and many have erred.’  Therefore, it is theoretically possible that the Reformed Presbyterian Church is in error.  But when the agreement is worldwide over 4,000 years, it is, I repeat, extremely improbable.” 

Dr. Gordon H. Clark, “The Ordination of Women.”  PCA History.org.

 

Should Women Be Ordained to Ministry?  Deacons or Otherwise?  Part 1

 

The infallible and inerrant Word of God should be the basis for dogmatic doctrine and for the praxis or practice of the visible churches.  Although there is wiggle room for the form of church polity to be adopted by different denominations, is the same true in regards to the ordination of women?  What was God’s original plan in creation?  What do we observe in the Old Testament?  And how is that played out in the New Testament.  These questions are related not only to covenant theology, but also to the doctrine of the federal headship of Adam and the federal headship of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

This series of blog posts will examine the controversy and address the issue from a biblical and confession stand point.  The doctrine of Sola Scriptura, being the primary and first doctrine of the Westminster Confession of Faith, will be the guiding principle throughout.

The old debate between complementarian views and egalitarian views of women in the church and in the nuclear family rages on.  However, the Bible should be the guiding authority on all matters of faith and practice.  Either the Bible is the written and God-breathed word of God or it is just a book of advice or inspired stories.  The Christian worldview is that the Holy Scriptures are special revelation directly from God in written form.  Although it has a host of human writers or authors, every single word written in the Bible is the same word that God breathed out.  In short, God is the ultimate Author of the Bible.  (2 Timothy 3:16; 1 Peter 1:19-21; John 10:35; Isaiah 8:20; Proverbs 30:5 Psalm 12:6).

I left the Pentecostal/Charismatic movement around 1995 or 1996 because of the outright heresies which are rampant in the movement.  Even the more conservative Pentecostals have heterodox doctrines.  Moreover, the classical Pentecostal movement has been overshadowed and taken over by the third and fourth wave Charismatic movement because the measure of success of a movement is how fast the church grows.  Unfortunately, part of every Pentecostal/Charismatic doctrinal emphasis has been the ordination of women to the offices of pastor/teacher, evangelist and even apostle.  The five-fold ministry, according to Pentecostals is apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and  teachers: 

And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; (Eph. 4:11 KJV)

This is really not much different from Anabaptist emphasis on ongoing spiritual revelations to individuals.  I am now a cessationist.  However, during my time at Southeastern College of the Assemblies of God, Lakeland, Florida, (name changed to Southeastern University), I had a class in American history.  The professor at that time was David Alexander.  During one of his lectures, Alexander suggested that Pentecostalism had more in common with the Anabaptist movement than with the Wesleyan holiness movement.  This was an eye-opener for me because I was familiar with the special leadings of Anabaptists, especially Anne Hutchinson of colonial times.  Hutchinson claimed to have direct revelations from God.  Her downfall was trying to exercise authority over men in the church, and when she was called before a council at the Massachusetts Bay Colony she was condemned and exiled in 1637.  The council was led by governor John Winthrop and Rev. Cotton Mather, both Puritans.  In 1643, after homesteading at what is now New York City, Anne Hutchinson along with fifteen others was murdered by warriors of the Siwanoy tribe of Native Americans.

The other reason that Pentecostals tended to ordain women was the fact that John Wesley’s influence in the American colonies led to the ordination of women early on in the Methodist Episcopal Church and the later 19^th century Wesleyan holiness movement.  Wesley himself licensed or authorized several women ministers in the 17^th century, including Sarah Crosby.  (See:  Ordination of Women in Methodism).  Of course, this carried over into the Pentecostal movement of the 19^th century.

Unfortunately, this is now carrying over into the Presbyterian denominations which claim to be conservative and Evangelical.  I am not surprised that liberal mainline or nominal Presbyterian denominations have crossed over into the ordination of women.  The Presbyterian Church USA left behind their doctrinal commitments long ago, and the Westminster Standards are just a distant memory for them.  However, it is surprising that what begins as a minor compromise often leads to a downgrade that leads to other compromises.  The initial compromise is most often the ordination of deaconesses to a non-official position rather than to an official church office.  The Reformed Episcopal Church did this some years ago, although it is not actually a Calvinist denomination or presbyterian in polity. 

The Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church officially ordains women as deacons on equal par with male deacons who are ordained as deacons according to the prescription of qualifications in 1 Timothy 3:8-13.  Verse 12 clearly says that the deacon is to be the husband of one wife, the same qualification given for the office of a teaching elder.  (1 Timothy 3:12; 1 Timothy 3:2).  There is a convoluted argument from obscure passages of Scripture used by moderates and liberals in the ARPC to justify this blatant disregard of at least two references upholding male leadership in church offices.

In my next post I will examine a few passages of the Old Testament to show how God viewed the roles of males and females in the family and the congregation of Israel, although this can be complicated.  There are influences from the Ancient Near Eastern semitic cultures of that time period as well as what happens under the Mosaic covenant.