Search The Scriptures: March 4, 2001
WOMAN’S ROLE IN THE CHURCH - 1
INTRODUCTION:
A. Good morning my friends and welcome to Search the Scriptures. As you noted by the
opening announcements, this program is brought to you by the Danville church of Christ,
which meets for worship at 2849 East Main Street in Danville, Indiana. I am delighted you
have joined us for this morning’s broadcast. Today I am going to begin a series addressing the
role of a woman in the twenty-first century church. Let me state in the very beginning the reason
for this study. Whenever there is a social movement that brings about considerable societal
changes, then it won’t be long until those changes are seen and felt in the church. As everyone
knows who has studied the letters to the seven churches of Asia Minor in Rev. 2-3, this was
precisely what happened in each of the churches that received condemnation from the Lord. For
example, in Rev. 3:1 Jesus writes to the church in Sardis I know your works, that you have a
name that you are alive, but you are dead. The church had let down its guard and as a result of
its complacency it developed breaches in its defenses. At the time Jesus commissioned John to
write, the church was dead. This same complacency was also seen first in the city itself on at
least two occasions. The city was situated on a plateau 1500 feet high. Three sides were thought
to be impregnable because the rock walls were so steep. This left one way to be defended. The
city twice was conquered because of its failure to watch the rock walls. The church at Sardis died
because it failed to watch its defenses and it developed breaches. I mention this to simply point
out to you that societal attitudes can and often do make their way into the church. As a matter of
fact, one writer noted that the morals of the church usually rises and dips according to the ebbing
of societies mores - staying only a little above the status quo. That is, whatever society decides is
acceptable - it isn’t long before the church also accepts it. The reason there is any debate in the
religious world about the role of women in the church is not because the bible has suddenly
changed. It isn’t because the teachers of the bible have all of a sudden garnered a better
understanding of women’s role. It isn’t because we have unexpectedly discovered that we have
been holding to male-dominated traditional teaching. No, my friends, the reason there is a raging
debate in churches over the role of women is because of the influence of our society.
B. Ladies and gentlemen, admittedly there is a dichotomy that exists when you discuss the
equality of blessings between men and women, and then shift to begin discussing the different
roles given to men and women in the bible. That is, men and women are equal in the sight of
God - yet God has given each entirely different roles to fulfill both in and out of the church. Paul
discusses this equality in passages such as Gal. 3:27-28 when he wrote: For as many of you as
were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither
slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Without a
doubt - it must be agreed that in so far as spiritual blessings in Christ are concerned, there is total
equality between the genders. However, the bible also clearly teaches a distinction of the roles of
men and women. The same apostle Paul wrote in 1 Cor. 14:34, let your women keep silent in
the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also
says. I believe it’s wrong to reject this passage as non-applicable because you think it was
written addressing a unique Corinthian situation. Later in this series I will specifically address
whether this passage needs to be consigned only to the first century. But for now, let’s note that
as far as this text shows there is a distinction of roles even though there is equality of blessings.
Men and women have equal blessing in Christ yet they have different roles to fill. Also, 1 Cor.
14:34-35 teach us there is a consistency in the role of men and women both in the Law of Moses
and in the church. Remember Paul said, as the law also says. That is, a woman is to be
submissive as the law also says. My friends, the covenants have changed but the relationship
between men and women are still the same. Now, this will prove to be an important point to
remember so be sure you note this. The covenants have changed but the relationship between
men and women are still the same. Furthermore, the reason this dictate has been given in - both
in the Law and the gospel is because of what Paul said in 1 Tim. 2:11-14 when he wrote let a
woman learn in silence with all submission. And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have
authority over a man, but to be in silence. [Now listen as he explains why] For Adam was
formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into
transgression. Now, my friends, stay with me on this. Paul is saying that the contrast of roles
between men and women are based upon God’s choice of creation. That is, God chose to make
men and women different and they have different responsibilities as they work together to serve
God. In this brief passage Paul offers two reasons for the submissive role delegated to women.
First, he said that Adam was formed first, then Eve. Ladies and gentlemen, the issue pertaining
to the role of women is neither a Jewish issue, nor a cultural issue, and it certainly is not a male
domination issue, but it is an issue connected with the creation of man. And, as result of this
being a creation issue it is not subject to change based upon the capricious whims of society.
Think about it like this. The role of man’s leadership is similar to the role of the firstborn son in
the Old Testament. Man as the first-created had the responsibility of leadership thrust upon him
by God. Also, the second reason limiting a woman’s role in the church is this. And Adam was
not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression. Regardless of whether we
agree with it, the bible says Satan tempted and overcame Eve, and as a result God said to her,
your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you, according to Gen. 3:16.
Before going any farther in this study, let’s summerize what we have seen thus far. Men and
women are equals before God, but women’s role in the physical family and in the spiritual
family has been decided by God, and it is different from that of men.
I. This is not difficult to comprehend. Yet, today, we are seeing the roles of men and women
blurred. The world is determined to become gender less. That is, our culture has been, for some
time, trying to obscure any distinctions between men and women. Today, women hold jobs that
were once only held by men. Today women are soldiers and sailors fighting along side of men.
Our daughters and granddaughters are being taught that nothing is closed to them because of
their gender. Consequently, equality has come to mean that no distinctions of roles exist. What
began in society at large finally made its way into religion. And, in religion it began in the
denominational world. That is, for many years the denominational churches eliminated any
gender dissimilarities. That is, for a long time now many denominations placed women in roles
of leadership, such as ministers, pastors, bishops and priests. Insofar as many mainstream
denominations are concerned sameness of blessings’ means sameness of roles. However, this is
no longer confined to society and to denominations, but now it is also affecting churches of
Christ. Now, just in case you think I might be overstating it a little, let me read to you some
things you will find both illuminating and disturbing. In Houston, Texas the Bering Drive
Church of Christ gave a Report on Women’s Participation in Public Worship on April 4, 1989
that read: “On July 31, 1988, the elders presented a statement to the Bering family concerning
the use of spiritual gifts by both men and women, expressing our conviction that it is scriptural
and appropriate for sisters as well as brothers to serve in Sunday morning worship roles of
ushering, greeting visitors, receiving the offering, reading Scriptures, leading prayers, leading
singing, and serving communion.” My friends, this was nearly twelve years ago that a local
eldership mandated upon a congregation their conclusion that sisters as well as brothers [are] to
serve in Sunday morning worship roles of ushering, greeting visitors, receiving the offering,
reading Scriptures, leading prayers, leading singing, and serving communion. I can hear it now,
someone will say, “Well, what’s wrong with it?” And under the banner of not seeing anything
wrong with it, the lines are being blurred; roles are shrouded. One of the elders of the Bering
Drive Church, who made this decision, and the preacher of the Brookline, Massachusetts Church
of Christ, appeared together on a Preachers and Church Workers Forum at Freed-Hardeman
University in 1990 in which they defended the increased use of women in public worship
assemblies. At that time, the question was asked, Can women serve as elders today? The
Brookline preacher responded, I have no problem with women serving as elders today. And, the
Bering Drive elder stated, I wouldn't take any exception to what my brother said. It might seem
to be a giant step from women ushers to women elders, but it’s a step being made. In Columbus,
Ohio a church started for the sole purpose that women could be used freely in public worship.
And, listen to this, the Southern Hills Church of Christ in Tulsa, Oklahoma, took a survey of its
members and determined that 46% believed women should lead singing, 50% believed they
should lead prayers, and 46% believed they should read Scriptures in public worship. Half the
membership believed the roles of men and women should be blurred. Half the members believed
the different roles outlined in the bible should be obscured. I wonder what kind of preaching
these people have been hearing. Also, the elders of the Cahaba Valley Church of Christ in
Birmingham, Alabama, sent a nineteen-page letter to its members in January 1990, reviewing the
congregation's comprehensive study of the role of women and informing them that women’s
roles would be expanded, and plans were announced to appoint deacons for the church on
Pentecost Sunday, 1990. It was decided that deacons will be both male and female. Also, the
elders announced that by 1994 women would be used to read Scriptures, serve communion, lead
prayer, preside at the Lord’s table, preach, and lead singing. Ladies and gentlemen, the winds of
change are indeed blowing in many local churches. What’s behind these changes? Why are
churches of Christ suddenly willing to abandon what has been believed and taught throughout
the years in favor of these changes? I’ll tell you what has not changed. The bible has not
changed! Nor has God given new revelation in which he amended what the bible says. And, new
information has not suddenly been discovered in the bible that renders our past understanding of
it invalid. My friends, the changes that are occurring in many churches of Christ are a direct
result of the influence of the feminist movement in our society. We have been so inundated with
feminist propaganda that we allow it to influence the way we read and understand the scriptures,
and men and women’s respective roles. But this is no accident - it is by design.
II. In order to fully understand this, we first must learn something of the history of the feminist
movement. The feminist movement is more than a debate about equality! It is more than a
discussion about equal pay for equal work. Feminism is about establishing a gender less society.
Feminism has been one of the most successful movements in our nation’s history. Although, I do
believe, there have been some legitimate goals, the movement is designed, however, to
influence our culture to ignore the fact that there is a difference in the roles of men and women.
Once the basic beliefs of feminism are accepted (that there are no differences between men and
women) then the bible must be reinterpreted to harmonize with this basic foundation. That is, if
there are no differences in the roles of men and women, then the bible verses that say so, must be
restudied and reinterpreted. This is exactly what’s happening in the area of science. Before
Charles Darwin, no one ever thought that the bible taught any evolutionary origins of life. But
after Evolution became accepted by many in society, religion tried to mold the bible to fit
evolution rather than allow the bible to mean what it says. The same thing has happened with the
roles of men and women. Much of what is being promoted today does not come from a careful
reading of the bible, instead it is an effort to make the bible fit the views of the culture in which
we live. Let’s take a moment, this morning, to discuss the history of feminism. I do this because
I am convinced that it is the result of feminism’s influence that is causing churches to rethink
their understanding of certain bible passages discussing the distinct roles of men and women.
There have been two phases of feminism. The first movement began in July 1848, at a woman’s
convention held in the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in Seneca Falls, New York. About 300
attended. Elizabeth Stanton wrote the Declaration on Women's Rights, and it was signed by 68
women and 32 men. The Declaration began as a parody of the Declaration of Independence and
said, We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal. Much of
the Declaration was a listing of the ways the current laws were different for men and women,
and they were. Two weeks later, a second convention was held in Rochester, New York, at
which time the movement began to become more formally organized. The third meeting was in
1850 at Worcester, Massachusetts. It was the first to claim to be a national woman’s rights
convention, having delegates from nine states. In 1852, Elizabeth Stanton and Susan B.
Anthony joined forces. They remained a team for nearly fifty years, with Anthony managing the
business affairs and Stanton doing most of the writing. Now, my friends, this is not merely an
exercise in American History. This has a direct bearing upon what we are facing in the church
today. The early feminists viewed the bible to be degrading to women because of what it teaches
concerning the sin of Eve and the role assigned to women in both the Old and New Testaments.
In their response to the bible, three different views developed. There was the Moderate View,
which did not consider the problem to be the bible itself, but concluded the problem was the
acceptance of perverted and sexist interpretations of the bible. These feminists believed that if
the bible is properly interpreted, it can be seen as not being hostile to women. Many who took
this view were adherents of metaphysical or “New Thought” religions (such as Mary Baker
Eddy’s Christian Science.), which believed that the bible must be interpreted symbolically or
mystically. These agreed that the bible is harmful to women if taken literally, but when
understood according to its inner or mystical meaning it affirms the equality of women with
men. Next there was the Liberal View held by feminists of the nineteenth century who believed
that the theory of evolution was the answer of culture and religion. The Liberal View considered
the bible to be a purely human book which records the history of one of the world’s many
religious traditions, and which has no special divine authority and no more relevance for today
than other such books. And as such, the bible should just be ignored. The third view was the
Radical View. These feminists agreed with the liberal’s that the bible was purely a human book
with no divine authority, but it did not agree that it could simply be ignored. They felt, as long as
the bible is being distributed in mass quantities, and large numbers of people still believe that it
is God's inspired word, then they will believe that it contains divinely given mandates to keep
women in subjection. Therefore, these radicals believed some positive action with regard to the
bible must be taken. Whether it is just a matter of wrong interpretation or a false view of its
nature, either way, the influence of the bible must be halted. This was Elizabeth Stanton’s view.
She believed the bible must be destroyed if women were to be free. In order to neutralize the
influence of the bible, Elizabeth Stanton and other feminists wrote The Woman's Bible to
show the world what the bible is really like. She wrote, “In plain English, the Bible itself is
simply degrading to women. No mystical symbolism can enable one to twist out of the Old or
New Testaments a message of justice, liberty or equality from God to the women of the
nineteenth century.” Actually Elizabeth Stanton’s Woman’s Bible is a commentary instead of
a translation. And it is not even a commentary on the whole bible, but only on texts referring to
women. Some of Stanton’s comments are being parroted today. To show you what I mean, let
me read to you a few quotations from the Woman’s Bible. Instead of saying quote each time, I
will mention each quotation by number. One: From the inauguration of the movement for
woman's emancipation the Bible has been used to hold her in the divinely ordained sphere,
prescribed in the Old and New Testaments. The wonder is that women . . . make a fetish of the
very book which is responsible for their civil and social degradation. Two: The Bible always has
been, and is at present, one of the greatest obstacles in the way of the emancipation and the
advancement of the sex . . . This book has been of more injury to [woman] than has any other
which has ever been written in the history of the world. Three: The real difficulty in woman's
case is that the whole foundation of the Christian religion rests on her temptation and man’s fall,
hence the necessity of a Redeemer and a plan of salvation. As the chief cause of this dire
calamity, woman’s degradation and subordination were made a necessity. If, however, we
accept the Darwinian theory, that the race has been a gradual growth from the lower to a higher
form of life, and that the story of the fall is a myth, we can exonerate the snake, emancipate the
woman, and reconstruct a more rational religion for the nineteenth century, and thus escape all
the perplexities of the Jewish mythology as of no more importance than those of the Greek,
Persian and Egyptian. Feminism was built upon the belief that the bible had to be changed at
best or discarded at worst. The first wave of feminism ended in 1920 with the ratification of the
nineteenth amendment of the Constitution, which recognized the right of women to vote. But
remember this, while it was clothed in the garment of equality feminism all along intended to
make the bible a book of myths.
III. The next push for feminism began in the 1960's and continues today. Two of the most
influential leaders of this new movement are Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem. Betty Friedan
has been called the “Mother Superior to Women’s Lib.” She is credited with launching the
women’s liberation movement with the publication of her book, The Feminine Mystique, in
1963. She also founded the National Organization for Women, on June 29, 1966. She was its
first president. She was also a signer of the Humanist Manifesto II in 1973. If you have never
heard of the Humanist Manifesto, you need to be aware of the agenda of its signers. Let me read
to you a few excerpts. About religion it says, We believe, however, that traditional dogmatic or
authoritarian religions that place revelation, God, ritual, or creed above human needs and
experience do a disservice to the human species . . . But we can discover no divine purpose or
providence for the human species. While there is much that we do not know, humans are
responsible for what we are or will become. No deity will save us; we must save ourselves.
Promises of immortal salvation or fear of eternal damnation are both illusory and harmful. They
distract humans from present concerns, from self-actualization, and from rectifying social
injustices. And about the individual it says, In the area of sexuality, we believe that intolerant
attitudes, often cultivated by orthodox religions and puritanical cultures, unduly repress sexual
conduct. The right to birth control, abortion, and divorce should be recognized. This should help
us to understand the agenda of the National Organization for Woman. This was signed and
endorsed by Betty Friedan. My friends, feminism has never only been about equal pay for equal
work. This is the Trojan horse in which it was delivered. But, you might be asking, what does all
this information have to do with a woman’s role in the church. The truth is, I don’t believe we
can understand the present debate about women’s role in the church without understanding
feminism’s influence upon society and its stated objectives. Ladies and gentlemen, the reason we
are having a debate on changing roles of women. The reason women are being considered for
and appointed as elders and deacons. The reason there are women preachers. The reason women
are being used to teach over and usurp authority over men is a direct result of the influence of the
feminist movement upon men and women in the church. Instead of speaking as the oracles of
God, preachers are spouting feminist propaganda. Instead of standing upon the teaching of Jesus
Christ, many preachers are carrying water for the National Organization for Women, and
church members are sitting idly by - accepting whatever is taught. If these changes continue, you
would not recognize the church as it enters the twenty-second century, because with the
feminization of America, we see a feminization of the church. From women attending business
meetings - to - being appointed elders, all gender issues being confronted in churches of Christ
results from the influence of feminism. This is so, in regard to roles and relationships within the
home. The reason we now have stay - at - home dads is because of feminism’s influence. The
reason husbands cannot or will not assume headship is because of feminism’s influence. The
reason women have difficulties with being submissive and obedient is because of the things
learned from feminism. The feminist movement is almost altogether the product of women [and
men] who reject the divine origin and absolute authority of the bible, and usually the very
existence of the God who reveals himself in the bible. Now, I am not accusing all feminists of
accepting the radical positions of the leaders. But I do believe all have been influenced by
feminism to one degree or the other. Perhaps we would never accept the premises of Steinem or
Elizabeth Stanton or Susan B. Anthony. But because of their influences - efforts are underway
to blend the goals of feminism (the elimination of the roles of the sexes) with the bible. This will
not work. The bible teaches that God made men and women equal. As long as we recognize that
both are in the image of God, both have dominion over the earth, and both share in the
inheritance in Christ, there is no conflict. But, when feminists want to eliminate all roles the
bible gives for men and women, there can be no harmonizing of feminism and the bible. Many
who claim to believe the bible have tried to make the bible fit the teachings of the feminists.
Women preachers are becoming more common. Women are taking leadership positions more
than ever. This cannot be harmonized with the teaching of the bible. Regardless of the persuasive
influences of feminism, the bible still says, in 1 Tim. 2:11-15, let a woman learn in silence with
all submission. And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to
be in silence. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the
woman being deceived, fell into transgression. Nevertheless she will be saved in childbearing
if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control. It still reads the same in 1 Cor.
14:34-35 let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but
they are to be submissive, as the law also says. And if they want to learn something, let them
ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for women to speak in church. It still says
to women in Eph. 5:22, wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
CONCLUSION:
A. In our next study we will begin to examine what the bible says about a woman and her role,
both in the Old and New Testaments. But for now our time is up. Stay tuned for some important
closing announcements, and be sure to be with us next Sunday morning at 7:00 A.M. as we
again Search the Scriptures. Until then, this is J.R. Bronger saying goodbye for now.