Women in the Ministry ^#10

General James Green

PRAISE GOD! WE’RE CONTINUING with an intense study on “Women in the Ministry.” In the last message we were teaching out of 1 Timothy chapter 2, so open your Bible and we are going to pick up where we left off.

     If you don’t really study the background of Paul’s epistles and the cultural circumstances surrounding them, you won’t really understand what he’s trying to say. A good example would be if you took a letter written 200 years ago in America and read it today: many things would seem out of place. The point is that it is important to keep in mind the circumstances or context surrounding the writing of these letters. It is good to study background and history so that when you encounter general statements you will be able to branch out into the exceptions and explanations regarding those statements.

     “In a like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; but (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works. Let the woman 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” (1 Timothy 2:9-12).

BREAKING THROUGH THE LIES & MISCONCEPTIONS

DURING THIS entire series on “Women In The Ministry,” we’ve been trying to break through some of the basic lies and misconceptions that are being taught by a large number of professing Christians today, such as the idea that women are supposed to keep their mouths shut in church—they are not allowed to speak, to teach, or to assert any authority. They are supposed to wait until they get home and ask their husbands if they have any questions. The bottom line is that they are treated like lesser persons because they are women, and they [the men] use certain Scriptures, 1 Timothy being one, to justify this evil doctrine. Many pastors and ministers will tell you that women are nothing but baby machines who are supposed to stay home, cook, raise the kids and keep their husbands satisfied. We have encountered this teaching in every part of the world where we have traveled, and GOD IS WANTING TO BREAK THROUGH THIS MISCONCEPTION, THIS FALSE TEACHING, AND RAISE UP A MIGHTY ARMY OF WOMEN WHO ARE BONDSLAVES TO JESUS CHRIST AND HIM ONLY.

TRUE LIBERATION = FREEDOM FROM DEMONS

GOD DESIRES to use many women, and He has a call on many women, yet they’ve been denied the fulfillment of their calling because of the false teachings of men.

     When we gain a clear understanding of what Paul was really saying, we begin to see that he was struggling with these same spirits, and they are still around in the 21^st century. The names, faces and places may have changed, but the spirits, the demons behind it all, are still the same. They are still oppressing the opposite sex, they are still keeping women from fulfilling their calling in God. We are working to liberate women in the spirit; but I want to make it clear that we are NOT a part of what they call the “Women’s Liberation Movement” you will find in many countries today. The Women’s Liberation Movement of this century is a manmade movement that is SATANICALLY INSPIRED to bring women into even greater bondage than they are already in. The modern “feminists” are usurping authority in the true sense because Jesus Christ is not their Head; they are ruled by lesbian spirits and driven by a passionate hatred for men. In this teaching, we are dealing with Christian men and women primarily, not the unsaved. Theoretically, the same principles do apply to all women, although it is impossible to implement them unless they are Christians.

     Let’s pick up the story in 1 Timothy. Paul was writing Timothy in order to instruct him on rebuking those who were teaching heresies and false doctrines. One of the subtle doctrines that was creeping into the early Church was gnosticism, which was a mixture of divine truth with myths and fables designed to pervert the Gospel into some “mystical secret knowledge” that only a selected few could know. Of course the myths, fables and mysteries of gnosticism were all from the demonic realm, and as they were gradually mixed with the pure truth, what you came up with was a confused mess. And this is what Paul was dealing with in his letters to Timothy—confusion in the churches.

FALSE DOCTRINES STILL AROUND TODAY

AND WE’RE dealing with the same false doctrines today; nothing has changed. We’re trying to shine the clear light on the subject of women in the ministry. They [women] can teach, they can preach, they can pray and prophesy. God can use them. He has used them and He is going to use them. And like I said, if we were to take the things that Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14:34-35—“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”—and 1 Timothy 2:11—“Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection”—at face value, without branching out into the exceptions and explanations, then we would bring ourselves into bondage, which is where so many Christians are today. So many rigidly [ignorantly!] interpret what Paul had to say and yet neglect to recognize that when Jesus was risen and came out of the tomb, the first person He spoke to was a woman, and He told her to GO AND TELL THE OTHER DISCIPLES THAT HE HAD RISEN. He used a woman to go tell the men that He had risen! God used a woman to be the FIRST to carry the GOOD NEWS that He had risen from the dead. This is something we definitely need to take into consideration when we are evaluating the position that women hold in the ministry.

ORIGINS = JEWISH AND GNOSTIC

AS WE study this subject we need to realize that we are dealing with something that the Jews and the gnostics had brought into the young churches in order to create confusion and gain control. We’re dealing with heresies and the demonic spirit of Jezebel that Jesus spoke against in the book of Revelations. He tells us in Revelations 2:20 about that woman Jezebel, “...which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.” Jesus didn’t rebuke the church for its good works, patience and faith; He rebuked the lady for WHAT she was teaching (not THAT she was teaching!). Yet those who teach that women have no place in the ministry take this [Scripture] and apply it to all women as if all women were committing the same sins as Jezebel. This is not what God intended, because if you look at the context it is obvious that they had women teachers, and Jesus didn’t say that women couldn’t teach in general. He was personally rebuking the woman Jezebel for her immorality and wickedness. And on the same token, let it be known that there were plenty of men in the early Church who were caught in immorality, not just the women. In fact, Paul turned one over to satan because of his incest and sexual sins (1 Corinthians 5:5)—“To deliver such a one unto satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” So you can’t single out women and say they are the cause of all the problems.

     Back to 1 Timothy chapter 2. I want to sum up what I was teaching on in the last message dealing with “professing godliness.” In verse 9 it says, “In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel...” The context of this text revolves around the way women were dressed, which has a direct bearing on their morality or lack of it. All of this relates back to the spirit of Jezebel which we have already mentioned, and how that spirit had entered in to the Body and was teaching converts, both male and female, to commit fornication and adultery. To many of the early Christians, these kinds of teachings were easy to fall into because of their past pagan background. And you can find this same tendency among new converts even today, if someone was heavily involved in other religions prior to becoming a Christian, usually they tend to transfer some of their past beliefs into their new life with Christ and end up with a confused mess of half-truths and false doctrines.

JEZEBEL AT WORK TODAY

WE HAVE seen many instances of this Jezebel spirit working in the Body of Christ today. We’ve seen “Charismatic” churches teaching what they call “channeling.” It’s a salacious thing where members of the opposite sex dance together, and as they “stare into each others eyes” they receive “messages” that they should have sex with each other. And to top it all off, they say they are “hearing from God” and that it’s “clean and pure”! They call this “channeling,” and it’s nothing but the same old Jezebel spirits teaching God’s people to commit fornication and adultery. This kind of teaching is growing in the Church today in many different forms, yet always under the guise of legitimate doctrine. [Clearly,] Christians are going back into paganism again because they’ve allowed the spirit of Jezebel to teach them. And I’m not just picking on the women, because there are plenty of men who have Jezebel spirits just like the women. It’s demons we’re talking about, if you want to get to the root of it; we’re dealing with demons, spirit beings, doctrines of devils.

     Jesus Christ is the truth, and He does NOT put His stamp of approval on any sexual activity outside of marriage. I don’t care whose eyes you stare into, I don’t care if it’s Pastor Big Bucks with the biggest church in America: if he is leading God’s people into fornication and adultery, THAT MAN IS A HERETIC.

     Going on to 1 Timothy 2:10, it says, “...but (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works. Let the woman 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.” During the next two messages I want to cover two points: the first is, “women professing godliness”; the second is dealing with “usurping authority” and what that really means. As I’ve been studying these messages, I’m amazed at what I’ve been learning.

MEANINGS OF WORDS EVOLVE

ONE IMPORTANT point I’ve picked up on during these messages is that the meanings of words can evolve and change over time. A good example is the word “gay.” [Seventy-five] years ago in America, the word “gay” meant “happy.” But in our day and age, that same word has taken on an entirely new meaning. Now when someone says the word “gay,” everyone immediately thinks of a homosexual; it doesn’t have anything to do with being “happy” anymore [actually, they’re quite DEPRESSED, DEJECTED, and DISEASED!! ].

     Then I began to think about how it is just going to be a matter of time before the word “gay” changes again to mean “DEATH,” because the homosexuals are all dying from AIDS [they don’t like to talk about this anymore!]. The reason I’m mentioning this is because I’m going to take you back in time and show you how this same type of “evolution of meaning” occurred with another word that directly affects this message. This same principle [of meanings changing] applies to many of the Hebrew and Greek words that form the original texts of the Bible. The meanings of many words have changed over time and through translation, and that is why we need to study the original texts to discover what was really being said as opposed to what we think was being said.

STUDY YOUR GREEK!

HOMOLOGEO — So let me quickly read something that another author has written on [pertaining to] the subject of “professing godliness” (with my emph.). To start with, he says, “The common Greek word for confession or profession is homologeo.” Remember, we’re dealing with the subject of women “professing godliness.” Keep that in mind and the meaning will become clearer. Continuing on with the quote: “In Hebrews chapter 3 verse 1 it says, ‘Christ is the high priest of our confession,’ with the word homologias being used here. It is a word meaning: to say the same thing as or to agree with. But the word Paul used in 1 Timothy 2:10 is a totally different word in both its uses and its meanings. The word in Timothy is a combination of the Greek prefix epa meaning to or upon and the verb angello which means I bring a message to, and is related to the noun angellos from which we get the word angel or messenger.”

EPAGGELLOMA — The word Paul used was epaggelloma. Instead of using a common word that you would find throughout the Scriptures, he uses this particular word, and it is only found one time in the Bible, right here in 1 Timothy. The point I’m trying to make is that Paul could have used another word, but instead, he chose to use epaggelloma, which has a very specific meaning. Paul was a Greek scholar, and he knew exactly the type of word he wanted, to fit into the meaning and usage of the day. This happens in our own language all the time—there are times when you could easily use a common word to describe or explain something, but to really get specific, we would choose a word that is much more descriptive and which fits our needs.

     What are we getting at here? The point we’re making is that the word epaggelloma was a special word—which was also used as a political term in the sense of “describing someone who was speaking, or professing, to gain supporters.” Paul was very familiar with politics: Greek politics, Roman politics—he knew about them. This same word can also mean, “to promise.” What do politicians do? They promise you something to get your support. To get into greater detail, this word was commonly applied to candidates in municipal situations who announced, or professed, what they intended to do for the general public. In essence, Paul was describing women who were professing or promising (epaggelloma) godliness in order to gain support or win converts to themselves. Is this beginning to make sense now?

     The gnostic women of Paul’s time considered themselves to be mediators. Remember, the word gnostic means “to have secret revelations or knowledge,” and if they have secret revelations, then they must be close to God; therefore they set themselves up as mediators between God and man. They were very religious and spoke in all the divine terms, but they were not really in tune with God, they were demonic. Verse 10 [of 2 Timothy] tells us that they were promoting or promising godliness to those of their hearers who would follow their gnostic teachings. Do we see that same spirit working today? If you think about it, the “prosperity message” or the doctrine of “abundant life” is a gnostic teaching. The teachers of prosperity tell us that if we support their ministry, that in turn, “God will open the windows of heaven and rain down blessings upon us.” They’re just like politicians who promise you something if you will support them. It’s that same spirit.

GNOSTIC DOCTRINES PROMISE GODLINESS

NOW PAUL’S restriction against women teachers is beginning to make sense. The women who were professing godliness were actually teaching false doctrine, promising and promoting “secret revelations” in order to gain supporters and eventually gain control of the Church. Paul did not forbid the [gnostic] women to learn like the Jews did [who forbade women to learn at all], and the reason he said to let them learn is because they needed to know the truth [since what they knew was only gnosticism].

     So, these gnostic teachers were saying, “Follow me, and in turn I will promise you godliness.” Paul was dealing with spirits that were trying to deceive and lead the young Christians astray. He was not laying down some “blanket rule” that women could never teach or speak in the assembly until the end of the ages. He was saying that women who “profess godliness,” or in other words, teach false doctrine, should not be allowed to continue.

     The Spirit of God will move through any vessel He desires, whether male or female, and this makes it impossible for us to have some steadfast rule banning women forever from the ministry. Women belong in the ministry as much as men do, but false doctrine does not.

“USURPING AUTHORITY”

MOVING ON, I want to spend some time on the subject of “usurping authority,” because this is the Scripture so many men use to keep women in bondage. But one question we need to ask is: Does the word “usurp” mean “to dominate”? Most men don’t like women to dominate them, and an aggressive woman minister under the anointing of God is quite a threat to most Christian men; so to counter this threat they use 1 Timothy 2:12—“But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence”—as a club to beat the women back into their so-called “rightful place.” The entire mess stems back to the heresy that since God created Adam first and Eve second, this gave man the rightful position as the “head.” Well, we studied this in the previous messages in great detail and found out that that doctrine just isn’t true at all. God made women as the “helpmeet” for man, EQUAL with man; man was not superior by any means. Yet the Disobedience, the Fall, the Curse, all that brought in chaos, upheaval and imbalance; and as a result, women became dominated over. That was part of the Curse. If you want to read more about this, you can refer to the earlier parts of this series.

     Concerning this Curse, I’m telling you that God never intended it to be this way. We do not have to live under this Curse if we are able to receive the truth on it. It would be like if all you knew to eat were apples, and everybody was telling you all there is to eat is apples, then that’s all you’re going to eat—apples, apples, apples. But if someone came along and pointed out that there was a peach tree in the yard, then you would be able to eat apples and peaches. It works this way in the spirit. What I’m telling women is that they don’t have to be under oppressive male authority. Note: I’m not saying they don’t have to be under authority, because everyone [male and female] has to submit to someone in the Lord at some point in time. But I am declaring that women don’t have to be OPPRESSED by men who use the Scriptures as a club to beat them down. I’m not belittling authority by any means. I totally believe in God-anointed, God-appointed authority over both men and women in leadership. But the concept I’m dealing with here, as far as human beings go, is that men were not made superior to women, and they don’t have a “green light” from God to oppress women just because they are men. The reason men have the upper hand over women is because of the Curse, because things are out-of-balance, because our rebellion has brought us under the influence of the devil.

JESUS CHRIST BREAKS THE CURSE

AS HUMAN beings we don’t have a chance in sin. Before we are born again in Jesus, we are under the influence of wicked demons all the time, doing just what they want us to. All this is supposed to change when Christ comes into our lives and breaks the curse. Yet if we allow them, those same demons will continue to rule us, even though Christ has broken their authority.

     But because we have studied and God has given us the knowledge of DELIVERANCE and DOMINION, we know we have the authority to throw off the oppression of the enemy because we belong to Christ. But if we don’t stand in our authority, those demons can and most likely will still rule us.

IN CLOSING

BACK TO the subject of “usurping authority.” I will mention in closing that we find the same peculiar circumstance concerning the word translated “usurp authority” as we found with the word “professing.” Both words are used only one time in the Bible, right here in 1 Timothy.

     Again, I want to remind us that Paul was an educated man who knew several languages, and he chose to use this particular word, instead of a more common word, for a reason. In the next message we will give examples of the different words Paul could have used as opposed to the word he chose to use. As we study these topics in greater detail, we will gain new perspectives on what these most difficult passages in Timothy are really saying to us. If you are interested in becoming an ACTIVE LEADER in the Women’s Vanguard, contact General Deborah and join us in the war to save souls.

“WAKE UP DEBORAH” MOVEMENT IN BRAZIL

IN A movement of Brazilian women called “Wake Up Deborah,” led by Ana Maria Pereira, 15,000 women pined together to pray the prayer of Hannah (1 Sam 1:11)—“And she vowed a vow, and said, O LORD of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the LORD all the days of his life...” They prayed and dedicated their children to serve the Lord as missionaries, to places in the world which have no Christian witness.

     The movement rapidly spread across all social lines, and participating women met monthly in over 600 churches from small villages to large cities. “No one prays for a child like a mom,’‘ said Pereira, and she encouraged moms to “present your children to God—they are His, not yours!”

     Ana Maria calls women everywhere to accept the challenge of the Great Commission: “We (women) don’t have a second-hand calling. We nave a personal calling. The stones are crying out! Multitudes are walking toward hell. Our prayers can change the world!”