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Preaching Ladies By: General James Green {POINTED/ACCRUED STUDY EDITION}
MY THREE MAIN TEXTS TODAY ARE: 1 Corinthians 14:34+35, 1 Timothy 2:12 , 1 John 2:27 The Situation NOW THOSE are the three I’m going to be talking about mostly in these messages; but there are a lot of things connected with this. 1 Corinthians 14 and 1 Timothy 2 are the only ones you find in your New Testament that supposedly condemn women ministers, and I want to examine those. There are huge blocks of Christians, and denominations, that hang on to these two who do not believe that women have a right to teach or preach. And they're everywhere, including the Baptist denomination which is notorious over silencing the women. But, let’s just read those to get started:
1st Corinthians 14:34+35: KING JAMES VERSION: “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 saith the law. And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.” AMPLIFIED BIBLE: “The women should keep quiet in the churches, for they are not authorized to speak, but should take a secondary and subordinate place, just as the Law also says. But if there is anything they want to learn, they should ask their own husbands at home, for it is disgraceful for a woman to talk in church [for her to usurp and exercise authority over men in the church].” Ok, we know Paul wrote to the Corinthian Church. These Corinthians were pagans before they became Christians: idolaters, homosexuals, thieves, liars, and you name it; they were all of those things. If you start reading in chapter 12, it deals with the gifts of the Spirit, and then chapters 13 and 14 deal with love being the greatest gift. It’s awful funny that he talks about all these gifts, and how love should be connected to them, and then you have this thrown right in the middle of the whole thing.
1 Timothy 2:12 KING JAMES VERSION: “But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.” AMPLIFIED BIBLE: “I allow no woman to teach or to have authority over men; she is to remain in quietness and keep silence [in religious assemblies].” It says very shortly: “Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection...” and then it says in verse 12: “But I suffer...” Now that’s an old archaic word—suffer. When you hear the word “suffer,” you think someone’s got pain. Suffer meant, in those days: “to let.” So: “I don’t,” or, “I will not let a woman teach nor to usurp authority over the man but to be in silence...” and then it goes in about Adam etc.
1st John 2:27: KING JAMES VERSION: “But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.” AMPLIFIED BIBLE: “But as for you, the anointing (the sacred appointment, the unction) which you received from Him abides [permanently] in you; [so] then you have no need that anyone should instruct you. But just as His anointing teaches you concerning everything and is true and is no falsehood, so you must abide in (live in, never depart from) Him [being rooted in Him, knit to Him], just as [His anointing] has taught you [to do].” “The anointing which you have received of Him abideth in you.” Now, was he just talking to the men? “...AND YE NEED NOT THAT ANY MAN TEACH YOU...” I’m yet to find a preacher who is against women preachers who brings THIS Scripture up. How come?... It IS there! John is saying: “I don’t need a man to teach you.” But these opponents are saying: “I don’t need/we don’t want women to teach us.” Is that a big, huge contradiction? “But” he says, “But as the same anointing teaches you of all things and is truth, and is not lie, and even as it hath taught you, you shall abide in Him.” Ok, so we have ‘no women should teach us’ and we also have ‘no men should teach us’. I guess we’re not going to be taught at all? But, John is making this clear when he says: “I don’t need a man to teach you.”
Full Context IF YOU REALLY want to examine the word “man,” there are 14 words it goes back to. The word “man” is found in 2,426 King James verses, and the word “male” is found in 45 King James verses. Most Bible researchers use the HGC study method to thoroughly understand the true and complete meaning of Biblical words.
Describing the HGC Study Method: “H” MEANS “HISTORICAL SETTING”: * What did it mean for the Jews in their own culture? * What did it mean when Paul and John penned it? * What was the historical setting of the day when it was written?...It was not modern-day America back then. “G” TALKS ABOUT THE “GRAMMAR STRUCTURE” The Grammar Structure is extremely important: * What grammar did they use back then?...Did they use Hebrew, did they use Greek, did they use Aramaic? * What was the grammar?...that’s important because grammar in certain places means different things than it means in other cultures. ~Example: The word “gay” now means “queer.” “Gay” used to mean “happy and lighthearted,” but now it means “queer,” so that meaning has drastically changed. So many words change. * Biblical application: The word “suffer” is a word that no one even uses anymore. However, the Bible says: “I suffer not a women to teach.” This word in this context is now archaic [WordWeb definition: ‘So extremely old as seeming to belong to an earlier period’], or even obsolete. Today we would say: “I don’t want a woman to teach,” or: “We permit not a woman to teach.” * Each culture has its own language, and we must go by that language...if it was written in Greek, we must go back to the original Greek word to find out the meaning. “C” MEANS “CONTEXT” * Compare Scripture with Scripture. * Pulling one Scripture out of a chapter may make it the opposite of contextual. *Proof texts must be weighed with surrounding verses, chapters, and even the whole book. It says “teach,” not “preach” NOW I WANT you to notice, first of all, that in 1st Corinthians, that it doesn’t even mention that a woman is not to teach or preach...we just read it. Then why do they throw that at us? It doesn’t say that, it is saying that they want women to remain silent in the Church. Now, Paul wrote in 1st Timothy: “I suffer a woman not to teach,” but in Corinthians that’s not there. Notice it doesn’t even mention the word “preach” in either one. Check it out: it never mentions that a woman shouldn’t preach. It always uses the word “teach.” My wife and I do not go out and teach the pagans about the things of God because they’re not saved. YOU’VE GOT TO GET THEM SAVED BY PREACHING THE GOSPEL TO THEM. And like Paul says, if someone doesn’t preach, people can’t hear, and they can’t respond. He was making a point that we should preach to the pagans to get them saved.
WE’RE NOT EVEN A CHURCH HERE; WE’RE A MISSIONARY ORGANIZATION. OK, LET’S GET DOWN to the root of this thing: are women supposed to preach or not? Do we have preaching ladies, or are they just supposed to remain silent forever? For number one, WE ARE NOT A CHURCH. It doesn’t say anything about preaching to the pagans. If you want to believe that’s what it says, then keep it in the context of the setting—in Church. And if you want to believe a woman can’t teach and preach in a Church, but they’re supposed to remain silent, be it Baptist, Pentecostal, or any other denomination, keep it in that setting because that’s what the Bible says. It does not say anything about what women can do out of the Church; it says in it. So, we are not in a Church, we are in a prayer booth where we pray for people (for free), and we preach to the pagans/the unsaved. Preaching is for the unsaved, teaching is for the saved. Teaching and preaching: you preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that means you witness to the pagans about their need for salvation, and about their destination of Hell if they don’t repent. That’s what she does—preach to the lost. We don’t claim to be a Church, we are not [do not have] a denomination, we’re not a 501c3, we’re not under anybody’s covering, be it governmental or religious. So, we have all the right to be preaching the Gospel of Jesus to the pagans in the open air. Mission History WE FIRST STARTED going to Africa back in the early 1980's. Of course we didn’t usually go to ‘a Church,’ we being missionaries. We’d go, of course when Churches would invite us, or just individuals. But, some of our settings where we preached would be these bush arbors. They’d build these little fences in a circle out in the middle of nowhere, and the village people would come in the circle of the compound thing that they would set up, and we would preach out there. It was a mixture of pagans and Christians already, but it was an outdoor thing, it wasn’t a Church thing.
Soul-less People? AND WHEN we started doing this, we noticed that the children were not allowed to come in, as well as that a lot of women were not there. We noticed mostly men there and thought: “Now, what’s going on here?” Well, we found out later that the men did not believe that women and children had souls, and they told us that. This was in the 1980's. We were shocked: “What do you mean?...Your wife does not have a soul?...or your children?” Even our host that invited us there claimed that his wife and kids did not have souls. And of course, in a lot of the third world that we encountered we found the same thing: women always sit off by themselves, and the children, and the men were always in another place. Under the Judaic law, women were not allowed to teach or preach, because Judaism was a male thing. There was never a woman high priest, or lower priest. And even in the days of Jesus, did you notice that Jesus never assigned the role of one of His original apostles to a woman? Why? Because He was still under the law which forbid women to teach and preach. Some of them were not even allowed to hear what was being taught in the synagogues, if they did, there was a wall of partition and they were standing on the outside, not on the inside where all the men were, and they could maybe listen. But they were never allowed among the men, they had separate places. We have seen this all over the third world—the women would be over in a huddle, and the men would be in another huddle. This mentality is just like Judaism all over again—separating the sexes...it is absurd! Well, they went so far as to say that women and children didn’t have souls. Well we have taught and taught for years now, CORRECTING THEM on that subject. Now, there are a lot of African countries promoting women, and we have women preachers all over the place, and many of the men agree that they were totally wrong in that teaching. A lot of things have changed by being persistent in this teaching.
The Challenge “We don’t need a man to teach us.” That must cramp their style big time. I’ve never heard one of these men ever bring that Scripture up. Why not? Some way they just forget about that 1st John 2:27 passage being there. They think: “Well, let’s just erase THAT out of the Bible.”
New Dispensation IN THE NEW TESTAMENT, things have totally changed. A revolution took place. After He was resurrected and He ascended, the Holy Spirit established new ministries. In Eph. 4:8 and 11 it says: “Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men...And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers...” And then 1st Corinthians 12 it talks about the ministry gifts themselves. Then there are the 9 gifts of the Spirit; all of which happened after the Old Testament ended. “For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues...” (1 Cor. 12:8-10). Jesus broke down the middle wall of partition between the genders.
Neither Jew... NOW LET’S take a look at Galatians 3:28, starting in verse 27, it says: “For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ...” that’s not talking about being baptized of water, but baptized in Christ. In other words, you’re into Him by salvation, and “Have put on Christ...” Now, notice: “There is neither Jew nor Greek.” Now we’re dealing with the CULTURE. The Greeks were what we would call “Gentiles,” and the Jews were special—God’s chosen people. The Jews are not special anymore, they disobeyed me, and I cut them off, and engrafted the Gentiles in, so they’re now included. The Jews that accept Jesus are included in the New Israel.” This is called ‘Replacement Theology,’ which is something that many of our critics hate. So, Paul is dealing with three particular classes: Jew/Greek, bond/free, and male/female. Now I have a commentary that says: “Paul removes all ethnic, racial, national, social, and sexual distinctions.” Paul wrote Galatians under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, with regard to one spiritual relationship with Jesus Christ. So, God doesn’t see the maleness—the man only, He doesn’t even see the woman only, He sees those that are IN CHRIST. He doesn’t see Jew only, or Gentile only, He sees who is in Christ, not out of what culture you come from. And then it says: “On one hand, within the context of spiritual equality, men remain men, and women remain women.” I agree with that. But just because it says there is neither male nor female in Christ, it doesn’t say your gender is going to disappear. We are not homosexuals/transgenders, and God does not accept that sin. I am a male, and my wife is a female. But, in Christ, God doesn’t see me as a male, and He doesn’t see her as a female when it comes to the things of the Gospel. She can preach, and I can preach as well. God doesn’t make a distinction between what gender can preach the Gospel, or teach in an assembly. That’s what Galatians is all about here: neither male nor female. In God-assigned marriage it is the same way—a man may be called to preach, and a woman may not be called to preach. GOD CALLS WHO HE WILL, AND GOD BESTOWS THE GIFTS UPON PEOPLE AS HE WILLS. It also says that whoever He wants to give a gift to, He does it—whether they be a male or female. Males and females receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit as well as receiving the gift of tongues. And it was also that way at the day of Pentecost, it wasn’t just the men. So, why are people holding on to this hierarchy of only males? Why are we saying that God can’t use women to preach, but only men can preach and teach? Where do they come up with this idea that these are things that women can’t do, when there are so many other Scriptures contending with that? Remember BIBLICAL CONTEXT?
Contextual: (Relating to or determined by or in context)
~ find out what the context is talking about, ~ compare Scriptures with Scriptures, ~ consider the historical background, ~ and so on, etc.
Well, we know that the historical background of Judaism was a male vs. a female. We’re not deceived about that, but that ended with the death of Christ, as well as the social and racial stigmas. Why carry it on? In 1st Corinthians, chapter 14, let’s go back and examine that more. Firstly, verse 26 says: “How is it then, brethren? when ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying.” So, if all of you great spiritual giants have all these heavy reavies [profound revelations], there needs to be some order to it: he’s dealing with that.
Their Name Adam I’M NOT GOING to get into proving tongues is either right or wrong now, I’m just going to look into verse 28: “But if there be no interpreter, let him...” Now, the words “him,” and “his,” are terms that if you look up, you will find that they sometimes strictly mean “man,” or “male,” but they can also mean “man” and “woman” together. When God created Adam, He “called THEIR NAME Adam” (Gen. 5:2). Well, Adam is also the name of the particular male, man, with a male reproductive part. However, He called ‘their name Adam’ so a woman can be called Adam. And in Bible language, when you hear the word ‘him’ or ‘her’, sometimes it means the maleness, the femaleness, or both of them together. It doesn’t always mean just the male gender. To learn more on this subject, there are numerous booklets we have put together studying the etymology and all those other things including the 14 words describing the word man and how it’s used in context. And this makes the feminists mad and they say: “I’m not going to take this any more...I’m going to tear this Bible up because it’s just a male thing.” It’s not just a male thing. You wouldn’t get on a high horse ladies (and lesbian Virginia Mollenkott), if you knew that it’s not just a male thing in the New Testament: it makes a distinction in context. Adam is the name of the first man, or the first male, but God says that the woman was called Adam too.
Out of place! SO, IN CORINTHIANS, it is talking about having an interpreter and how to be orderly involving these gifts, including prophecy. Was it just male prophets? And then it says: “Let your women keep silent in the Churches.” That seems completely out of place!!! Where did that come from when it’s been telling us for two full chapters (1st Cor. 11 and 12) about males and females: a woman can pray, she can prophecy, she has the gifts, God bestowed these upon women as much as men. And then all of a sudden...women in Church can’t say a stinking word! Where did that come from?!? You say “Paul wrote it.” Is that right—Paul wrote that?: “for it is not permitted unto them to speak.” Well, where are they to speak? Hey ladies, where are you supposed to pray? Where are you supposed to prophesy? I though prophecy was for the edification of the body of Christ. Are you supposed to go out under a tree and prophecy to a tree? Where are you supposed to prophecy? Some women say: “Well, we do have a place, I can teach Sunday School, I can teach the children, and we can sing.” If you’re going to stick with this Scripture- SILENCE. The Greek verb “silence” (G4601, sigao) means: “1. to keep silence, hold one's peace 2. to be kept in silence, be concealed.” Do you know what that means in modern language? ZIP THE LIP. A woman, if this Scripture does have its encased meaning, is not supposed to open her mouth whatsoever, even: to sing, to testify, to preach, to teach, to pray, or to correct their children in an assembly. They’re not supposed to say even one word! “Be quiet, be silent”...that’s what it teaches. IS PAUL TEACHING THAT? Well, if he did, he was out of his mind because he just gave us two full chapters about how they were supposed to operate in the assembly.
As For the New Testament “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 saith the law” what law? Give me a New Testament law where it says that women cannot open their mouth in an assembly? Jesus did away with that separation. This is a New Testament Church; not a synagogue. This is not Judaism, this is Christianity. Ok, here’s some things to consider when we look at this: WHO said women must be silent? Number one, who’s the author? Yes, Paul wrote that, but did Paul make that statement? Ok, consider that. Number two, “And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church”...Why can’t they speak, and why is it shameful? What law in the New Testament says that? And, must they be silent only in Church, and if so, why? Should they be silent at all times, or only on special occasions? Does this include praying, singing, praising, or prophesying? If you are going to pray, sing, praise or prophesy, you are going to have to open your mouth in the assembly, because that’s where you do it. Now these are things you’ll find in those little magazines I’ve worked for years to put together. In the previous chapters, Paul already laid out the order for men and women. When he used the word ‘prophets’ with a small ‘p’, he included both males and females that had the gift of prophecy, the gift of tongues, the gift of interpreting those tongues, miracles, healings, etc...those things were gifts.
“The Law” WHEN YOU TALK about this law of the Old Testament, this includes the 613 laws that the people then were supposed to obey. Now, consider that THE NEW TESTAMENT DOES HAVE LAWS too, but they’re of a different caliber. Now, they are recording the decisions of the big council meeting that they had in the book of Acts when they settled the issues about certain Church matters, and about the Gentiles. And they said: “You’re supposed to abstain from things strangled, fornication etc.” and “You don’t have to circumcise,” but there’s not a restriction anywhere found when they settled that council on women preaching. Preaching ladies were not even mentioned there, so it was not a big issue among the New Testament Church. So why is it brought up only in Corinthians and Timothy? Paul is not saying for a woman to keep silent whatsoever, he is only quoting what someone(s) had written to him. He was reading what had been written about women shutting their mouth in Church, not laying a law down for women to do so. He was telling us that someone was saying: “women should remain silent.” And guess who they were? The JEWS. Do you think the Judaizers were in a big huff because they didn’t want women to preach and teach in Church? Do you think they were behind that statement? The Judaizers tried to segregate in the New Testament, but Paul was always rebuking them—those Jews that supposedly got saved, but wanted to keep the law. They wanted to bring the LAW into the New Testament Church. THEIR HUSBAND? ANOTHER QUESTION that I want to ask about the ladies: “If you want to learn anything, ask your husband.” What about the ladies that weren’t married? Were they allowed to preach and teach being unmarried? What if they never got married and were old maids? Is it legal for them? In Corinthians, Paul must be talking only to ladies that have husbands.
PEOPLE CAN READ ANYTHING IN THERE THEY WANT, BUT THE TEXT SPECIFICALLY STATES THAT ONLY FEMALES THAT HAD HUSBANDS WERE TO "REMAIN SILENT." It does not mention anything about other females, including: Young girls, Virgins, Unmarried women, Women that had been divorced, Widows. So, there is a whole segment left here that should have the total right, according to this Scripture, to teach, preach, prophesy, sing, and open their mouths in the assemblies. It was only the women that were married who were to shut up and ask their husbands at home. This is how to study the Bible—you can’t just put a blanket over everything: it says only women with husbands. And then in 1st Corinthians 7:7 and 8 he talks about women and marriage. He recommended to marry instead of burning with lust. He’s dealing with all of that, so you have to go back and get some background. The big question here that we have to ask is: Why did Paul write his 1st and 2nd Corinthians letters? What was the essence of them? This is all important when studying the Bible. You can’t just isolate these two things and shut women up forever. What are you going to do with all the women that helped Paul in the Gospel, and were working with him in the ministry? Priscilla expounded on the Word, and Junia was a woman apostle; what are you going to do with all those ladies that followed Paul around and helped him in the GOSPEL work? Some say: “Well, that was outside of the church.” We’re not a Church, and we don’t go to a church, so then why do people rebuke my wife and I on this point? They are being stricter than the Bible. What do you do with missionary work? Some even go so far as to say that people aren’t supposed to be preaching outside of the Church. There’s no restrictions on that...none. Corinthians was in a state of disorder—out of order—just like today. They had big problems...and the Gnostics, and the Judaizers were causing most of the trouble. Paul had fathered that particular Corinthian Church, so it was his responsibility to manage it. Ye wrote OK, THEN it says in 7:1, as we start unfolding the mystery: “Now concerning the things whereof YE WROTE UNTO ME...” Paul is now dealing with a letter he had received from somebody that didn’t like what was going on in the Church. Now, this is common: this was common in their days, it’s common even now. So, when I am going to print a letter, in one of our publications, that a critic writes to us, I will republish all of that letter to let people see what the person is saying. Then I stop, and go on to answer the critic. This is common, and that same thing is what Paul was doing. It’s common to say/write what was said/written to you, and go on to answer. So he’s going about that. A person obviously wrote: “It is good for a man not to touch a woman” number one on the list. “Nevertheless,” Paul’s answering: “Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband...” and then it goes on to talk about all that. He’s just quoting what the person had written. So they are telling him, if I can be frank with you, that a man is not supposed to have sex with a woman. It even could have been the Essenes that wrote that, because that was their basic mindset. But if you read all the way through that, he starts to reply and address each of his questions separately. Now, number two, in verse 7:1, 25 it says:“Now concerning the virgins...” So, obviously there was something dealing with the virgins: “I have no commandment of the Lord: yet I give my judgment...” and then he goes into all that. So he was dealing with that involving the virgin and marriage etc. Then we go to verse 8:1: “Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth...” Here he deals with the issue of eating food offered unto idols. These are replies to questions that were written to him. It tells you very plainly in 7:1: “Now concerning the things YOU WROTE.” He is answering a letter that was written to him. Then you go on over to 12:1, it says: “Now concerning spiritual gifts I would not have you ignorant,” so he’s dealing with people (like some today) that literally HATE the spiritual gifts. They say they’re demonic, tongues is of the devil, blah, blah, blah. “Now concerning...” he says in both 12:1, and in 16:1, means that these are all things that he’s dealing with. But the main issue is, when you get to chapter 14, that we’ve been studying right there in verses 34 and 35, when he starts out there saying:“Let your women keep silence in the churches: for they are not permitted to speak, but let them be subject...” that’s what was written to Paul, and then he goes about answering that. 14:34 and 35 is what was written to him! This is what the person or persons had written, then Paul answers with this emphatic in big, bold letters “WHAT” with a QUESTION (?) MARK. Is he contradicting himself? is he going to correct himself? He’s saying “What?” “Came the word of God out from you?” From who? From the people that were writing to him
“DO YOU HAVE the word of God on this about the law, and women, and the virgins, and everything else that I just talked about? Do you ONLY have the word of God?” This is his reply to the Corinthians, which is very plain to see. Or, “Is this a revelation to you only, and not to me, and us?” It is very plain that he’s writing what they wrote to him—he’s replying to them. There is absolutely no reason why that emphatic “What?” with a question mark should even be put there unless he is SHOCKED about what they’re trying to push for the New Testament Church! Now he says: “If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I WRITE unto you are the commandments of the Lord.” WHAT DID PAUL WRITE? Read it for yourself.
Preachers AND I WOULD like to end today’s message with the following: I do not believe all women should be behind the pulpit. I do not believe all women are anointed. I do not believe all women have the right to teach. Some of them are nothing but lesbians, Jezebels, feminists, kooks, and crazies that work witchcraft. Ok, and I will say, some of you men are nothing but a bunch of Ahabs, scoundrel, money-begging thieves, liars, frauds, adulterers, and homosexuals that shouldn’t be preaching the Word of God either! I am not one to believe that ALL women should teach and preach, but I am not going to limit that just because the Judaizers, the Gnostics, and probably some of the Essenes didn’t like the idea of Judaism being destroyed and Christianity taking over. In Christianity, women have the right to teach, to preach, to prophesy, to pray, to sing, and to do whatever God wants them to do: they have the total right under the power of God and the Holy Spirit to do that. The Jews didn’t like that. They were trying their best to get circumcision back into practice, as well as slip a few other laws back in where they could still retain some of the old law that separated the men and women. They even wanted to separate them in the assemblies after that in the New Testament: “You women sit over here, and you men sit over here.” That teaching is still found all over the world to this day. _______________________________________________________________________________________ |