The article discusses the misinterpretations of 1 Timothy 2:11-12 regarding women’s roles in the church. It critiques arguments allowing women to teach or preach under male authority, emphasizing adherence to biblical authority and order. The essay cites theologians like John Piper and John MacArthur, reinforcing traditional views on gender roles in ministry.
Beth Moore is preaching at Duke University chapel today. She is named as a preacher, welcomed as a preacher, and her sycophants are trumpeting their (seeming) victory of women as preacher, preaching.
The Baptists and the Anglicans are hosting the Sinning Jezebel after she finishes, sinning er, preaching.
Do they not know how Romans 1 ends? —>
and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them. underline mine.
Obviously, the women do not think they are sinning by preaching in church. They do not think they are sinning by applauding women who preach. They are also experts at twisting God’s word. The very first words from satan in the Bible were an undermining of what God had said, by asking: ‘was that really what God said?’ and the second words were a flat contradiction of what God had said. (Genesis 3:1-4)
I remember waaaay back on, oh, lemme see, it was the Spring of ’19 when Beth Moore let slip that she was preaching er, speaking er, doing Mother’s day at a church. Things were more coy then. Now they just say the sinning part out loud.
Just four years ago word manipulation was necessary. Moore used to say she was “speaking” at a pulpit.
How to subvert God’s word: 4 steps to female preachers
1. First, ask if God really said what He said. Did God really say that women may not preach?
To install a woman at the pulpit, one must subvert traditional interpretations of what God hath said. To wit: when the serpent asked Eve if God really said what He said, Eve answered the serpent correctly, mostly, but he no doubt noticed Eve had added a Law to what God had said. She repeated God’s command not to eat the fruit, but added to it- “nor touch it.” Since the interpretation varied from Adam to Eve, the serpent took that crack in the wall and ran with it.
Next, simply ignore thousands of years of settled interpretation with a snap of the fingers, by mirroring satan’s contradiction of the plain command. This implies that interpretations are never settled. No, God didn’t say THAT, did he? No you will not die. Yes you can preach.
They say they will review the verse to understand the interpretation. They look at word studies, (and cherry pick their preferred definition), and review previous interpreters (cherry picked, of course). They do this with an agenda, not looking for exegesis, drawing meaning out of what is there, but for ways around it. Here’s how-
The people who harp on women belonging in the pulpit say that the phrase in 1 Timothy 2:12 But I do not allow a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet, doesn’t mean what it appears to mean.
The word at issue with the ‘let’s all interpret this differently’ crowd is authentein.
This ‘reverend’ below is in the comments where it was announced Moore’s preaching at Duke, and applauding it. He says to study authentein.
This ‘word study’ involves re-interpreting the verse to say that as long as a woman doesn’t become a tyrant at the pulpit, it is OK to preach. They say that since the word in one of its usages means domineering, if a woman preaches humbly, it’s OK.
I’m not kidding. This “teaching” is what Beth herself taught in her 1995 book “To Live is Christ: Joining Paul’s Journey of Faith“. It’s an overview of Paul’s life and teaching. Here is how Beth Moore interpreted authentein, what follows are Beth Moore’s words, with a discernment mini-lesson for each paragraph from me:
“If you glance through the Book of 1 Timothy, you will notice a continuing exhortation for order in the churches. Paul wrote about servants (deacons), overseers, widows, elders, and slaves. In stressing order in the church, he made some statements about women that raise controversy. Although these statements are not my focus, I do not want to be charged with cowardice by omitting any mention of them. We are wise to view Paul’s exhortations in context. He used far more ink to address deacons and overseers.” ~Beth Moore
[My note: the verse wasn’t “controversial” for 2000 years. By her dubbing the verse “controversial” it slyly insinuates there is something wrong with it.]
“In 1 Timothy 2:11–12, Paul wrote, “A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent.” When he said, “A woman should learn in quietness” and “be silent,” he did not use a Greek word that meant “complete silence or no talking. [He used a word] used elsewhere to mean settled down, undisturbed, not unruly.” Remember, Paul’s primary ministry was geared toward Gentiles who had never been trained to have respect and reverence in worship. Paul encouraged women to observe traditional customs lest the young churches suffer a bad reputation.” ~Beth Moore
[My note: It was cultural, Beth Moore says. Nope, it was a command.]
“Consider a traditional Jewish worship service. Men sat on the lower floor of the synagogue while women sat in the balcony or at the back of the room. Women were not allowed to utter a word; they merely listened. Contrast this picture with a Christian worship service in the New Testament world. The men and women were together in a private home. The worship centered around praising God, singing, fellowshipping, eating together, sharing testimonies, and receiving instruction in their new faith. Women were included as never before. Talk about a radical idea!” ~Beth Moore
[My note: This is true. Truth is often mixed in with false teachers’ lessons, in order to confuse the undiscerning.]
“The Christian movement was new and fragile. Any taint of adverse publicity could greatly hinder the mission of the church and mean persecution for believers. Women had to restrain their new freedom in Christ (Gal. 3:28) so as not to impede the progress of the gospel. Paul’s “weaker brother” principle (1 Cor. 8:9) applies. He said, “Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak.” Thus, women were to learn quietly, without calling attention to themselves.” ~Beth Moore
[My note: The faith was never “fragile”. We don’t need to delicately walk on eggshells lest it all collapse. Women didn’t have to ‘restrain their freedom.’ In the paragraph above, Moore lauds their new freedom! Now suddenly women are unhappily restricted. Genesis 3:5, ‘God’s holding out on you!’]
“In regard to instructing women not to teach men, you must understand that most women in Paul’s day were illiterate. They were not taught in synagogue schools or trained by a rabbi. Paul goes on to say in verse 12 that women should not usurp authority over men. The Greek word authenteo, “one who claims authority,” is used only this one time in the Greek translation of the Bible. This word refers to an autocrat or dictator. Paul says women were not to come in and take over!” ~Beth Moore
[My note: Lydia, Priscilla, Lois, Eunice and other women were lauded as teachers and disciples of the word. Moore is stretching things now. But yes, women were not allowed to come in and take over… THE PULPIT. Why? God doesn’t want them preaching there.]
“We cannot regard verses 11 and 12 as a prohibition against women opening their mouths in church or men learning anything biblical from women. Paul gave instructions for how women are to pray and prophesy (1 Cor. 11:5). He was fully aware of Priscilla’s role in teaching Apollos in Ephesus (Acts 18:26). Paul issued differing instructions for churches based on their cultural settings and his desire for order in the church.” ~Beth Moore.
[My Note: Priscilla’s “role” was not a role, as in, an office of teacher in the church. She didn’t teach in church. The verse explicitly says she and her husband took Apollos aside. Priscilla is mentioned 6X in scripture and every time, with her husband.]
But a careful study of that word [authentein] means, leads us to understand that it means to take authority, period. It has nothing to do with abusive authority. In fact, if he was talking about abusive authority he wouldn’t be just talking about women; he’d also be talking about what? Men, because it would be just as much a sin for them as for women.
Remember, the false teachers like Beth Moore are wordsmiths. They know what to write to create doubt, they make allusive remarks, and they reinterpret traditionally interpreted verses to match their own agenda. Usurp means usurp. Take authority over means to take authority over.
3.After causing one to doubt that God actually said, then reinterpreting the verse, the next step is to designate the unwanted verses as Clobber Verses. In this, one must diminish the verse’s importance by saying it’s numerically insignificant compared to ‘the rest of the Bible’ or, by its nuance etc. AKA, it’s a “Clobber Verse”. Here’s Beth again on 1 Timothy 2:12 from the same book, this time, the introduction:
“Having admired the apostle Paul for years, I was somewhat surprised by a few comments made by people who learned I was writing a Bible study on his life. I received questions like, “How can you, a woman, write a Bible study about a man who obviously had no tolerance for women in ministry?” Sadly, the controversy surrounding small bits of the apostle’s teaching has often kept students from delving into the heart and liberating theology of the whole man.”
Wordsmithing: Moore said “no tolerance for women in ministry“. No, Paul (via the Spirit) had no tolerance for women in preaching. He welcomed Prisca, Phoebe, Susannah, Lydia and many other women in their ministries. Just not preaching. Clobber verse: Moore said, “small bits of the apostle’s teaching“. Small bits? Like those verses don’t matter? No, all scripture is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness; (2 Timothy 3:16). How many times does God have to say it before it isn’t a “small bit” any more?
4.Next on the agenda for feminists to get women behind the pulpit is to pretend there’s “tension” between what ‘Paul has said’ and ‘what Christ has said’. Drive a wedge between them, like satan did with Eve and Adam. Once Eve ate the fruit and handed it to Adam, he had a choice to make. We know what he chose.
4a.Include other verses that SEEM to affirm your position (but don’t really.) This is another masquerade at seeming pious and theological. Currently Psalm 68:11 is being used to support women preaching. Duke Chapel did in the photo screen shot at top, and many others did in Moore’s Twitter comment stream.
The Lord gives the command; The women who proclaim good news are a great army: (Ps 68:11)
No tension exists. That would be saying that there is tension between the Holy Spirit in one book and the Holy Spirit in another book. But the idea is to appear pious, eagerly and sincerely delving into the word of God so as to rightly divide it. Appearances are everything to a false teacher.
No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds. (2 Corinthians 11:14-15).
Tim Bates at Things Above Us parsed Moore’s statement of alleged ‘tension’ in his article –
Beth Moore, a teacher who is tossed about by every wind of doctrine, recently cited “tension” between the books of the New Testament that—through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit—recorded Jesus’ earthly ministry (Matthew-John) and the epistles that were also inspired by the Holy Spirit. In the context in which she jumped headlong into inevitable heresy (i.e. Jesus and Paul disagree or, better stated, the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit disagree) it was appropriate to call out her use of the word tension. There are not irreconcilable tensions about gender roles anywhere in the New Testament. The Bible has no contradictions because God cannot lie.
LOL, that was just the first paragraph. I love it.
Armin J. Panning, a Lutheran professor and Seminary president (passed on now) published a well-written, clear, 4 page word study of the word authentein, here, if you are interested. He rebuts the modern interpretation soundly and theologically.
Conclusion
Steps to get women preaching:
1.Hath God said? Pious doubt. 2.Contradict God’s word. 3.Declare your hated verse a ‘clobber verse’ and dilute its importance by burying it in a numerical pile under other verses. 4.Mourn an alleged ‘tension’ in God’s word between the hated verse and more preferred verses, driving a wedge between them. 4a.Misuse other verses to continue to appear pious and theological. 5.Emerge with a new interpretation, and stick to it.
Beth Moore ended her introduction to her book on Paul’s life this way:
Our focus today is on Paul’s personal exhortations to Timothy, his son in the faith. Midway through my preparation for this study, I began to realize that one of God’s priority goals is to raise up and encourage passionate, persevering servants who are completely abandoned to His will. Paul’s exhortations to Timothy stand as timeless words of advice to every servant of the living God, regardless of generation or gender.
I published this in 2018 and I updated and added to it today because of a confirmation of a tweet I saw Sharon Hodde Miller express on Twitter recently. Moore took hold of the goat and brought it into into church where it lurked in corners and tried to be inconspicuous. Now these women settle the goat onto a pew and treat the goat as a sheep. Jesus said in Revelation 2:20-23 that he is against false female preachers/teachers/prophets, especially ones who preach falsely!
But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray so that they commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. 21I gave her time to repent, and she does not want to repent of her sexual immorality. 22Behold, I will throw her on a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her deeds. 23And I will kill her children with plague, and all the churches will know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts; and I will give to each one of you according to your deeds.
This passage SHOULD strike deadly fear into these women who boast of their sin.
It was a given that for more than 2000 years women are not to be teachers or preachers of men. We women can and do teach, we minister, and we evangelize. We discuss, we help, we clarify in a private setting, but we are not to have biblical authority over men in church expository situations.
“I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.” (1 Timothy 2:12)
How is a women preaching to men a sinister situation? It’s sin. As RC Sproul said, sin is cosmic treason!
Ask the metaphorical Jezebel of Revelation 2:20 who was teaching things God did not say. Jesus promised to kill her and her followers. Inserting words into God’s mouth is sin.
What God says to do or not do matters. We don’t need 50,000 verses. One is enough. Women are not allowed to teach the Bible to men.
But Beth Moore does.
She has been doing it for 35 years.
Woe to Beth Moore.
A generation is about 25 years. Therefore, it’s woe to the generation of women coming up in Christian circles who have for the entire time been seeing Moore’s preaching to men as normal, even with her former pastor’s overt blessing, or the tacit blessing of her former denomination the Southern Baptist Convention and its arm, Lifeway.
For years Moore taught Bible to a co-ed Sunday School class of 600-700 people as you read in that link above and later up to 900 people as stated in this link from her own former SBC church:
At that time, God began to do a new thing, stirring the heart of Beth to move to a new meeting place, meeting time, change the name of the class, and allow men to attend.
Is it God ‘stirring the heart’ of a woman to disobey scripture and to teach men? I think not. In Revelation 2:23 it’s noted that Jesus will strike Jezebel’s children dead. These are not Jezebel’s biological children, but the spiritual daughters she is raising up in her polluted, sinful likeness who preach and prophesy.
Being a woman called to leadership within and simultaneously beyond those walls [of an SBC church] was complicated to say the least but I worked within the system. After all, I had no personal aspirations to preach nor was it my aim to teach men. If men showed up in my class, I did not throw them out. I taught. ~Beth Moore
Abuse of the word “called” here is especially egregious, because it intimates that God assigned her to preach, which is in effect, co-opting God into her own sin, and using Him as the excuse. God will address this abuse on the Day.
Secondly, it does not matter if you “had personal aspirations to preach” to men or not. Your opinion does not matter, only the Bible’s statutes. If you do preach, you’re sinning. If you fail to stop it, you’re sinning.
Other women elsewhere began copying Moore’s excuses and language. “I’m called to do this”. “I have no desire to preach but it happened anyway”, “I want to step into the gifts God has given me to teach [men]” and the like.
Moore eventually founded Living Proof Ministry in 1994. By 2003 her Living Proof Live conferences had gone beyond the confines of her church and beyond the Texas border. A national magazine took notice. Their opening sentence called her a minister.
“Once a victim of abuse, Beth Moore is one of America’s most popular ministers today.”
The article went on to note that men attended her Sunday School class. It was popular, so crowded with both sexes that attendees were asked to car pool because the parking lot was so jammed.
An obedient teacher says “My love is for Christ and His word, and I asked the pastor to restrict the class to women only.” But as Beth Moore said above, “I didn’t throw them out. I taught.” She purposely sought bigger rooms to accommodate them all.
The leaders of her church allowed it, encouraged it. About this time, her pastor also asked Beth to preach the Sunday Night service, too. Woe!
She has been a usurper from the beginning. And she keeps on teaching. And the women were watching. Like hawks.
In 2010 when her fame was rising, Christianity Today did a 6-page cover story on her. The article cites the following:
Before she begins, she addresses the few men in the crowd. A Southern Baptist, Moore emphasizes that her ministry is intended for women. “The gentlemen who had such courage to come into this place tonight, into this estrogen fest if you will ever find one in your entire life: we are so blessed to have you,” Moore says. “I do not desire to have any kind of authority over you.”
It’s laughable to pronounce a blessing on the men in attendance, welcome them, preach the Bible to them, and then meekly deny any authority over them. Is her teaching from the Word authoritative over the women but not the men sitting next to them? Or do the women reject her authority to teach and they’re just coming, say, for the music? You see the illogic. If she teaches the Bible, she is teaching authoritatively, and it’s authoritative to all in the hearing of it.
As far as Moore’s coyness that she does not desire to be authoritative over them, this is false. Genesis 3:16 tells us it is IN us to want to usurp male authority. It doesn’t matter if you desire to break God’s command or not, if you DO, you’re sinning. Try telling the traffic policeman that “I did not desire to speed on the highway” and see if he lets you go.
The Christianity Today story is behind a paywall now. However, the link is here if you want to see the source.
Moore’s occasional weak protest, that men attend her classes and conferences on their own volition so it isn’t really her fault, doesn’t hold water. She taught men in her SS class for 20 years. By 2012, she was personally asked to substitute for pastor Louie Giglio preaching the Sunday Service at Louie Giglio’s Passion City Church, and she accepted. It was Holy Week, and she preached John 19 to a very, VERY large crowd of congregants. Now the “secret” was out and widely public. ‘Women, even SBC women, can preach! No one will stop us!’
Screen grabs from videos like this in 2012 harm women when they see a female on stage preaching from the Bible shoulder to shoulder with men. It’s visual egalitarianism. Photos like this are damaging. L-R, Lecrae, Moore, Chan, Giglio, Piper preaching at Passion Conference in 2012:
Now the POINT: (I know, I know, this blog is like a pastor giving a 30-minute sermon intro in a 40-minute sermon session,)
Moore is personally the transition linchpin for this new future of women preachers:
Moore is one of the evangelical leaders today who represent the future of the global church, in which people outside Europe and the United States will be dominant. … Moore represents this transition, which is shaping even the most conservative corners of evangelicalism.
There is the danger. After so many decades of preaching and teaching, with little to no pushback from her leadership in the denomination, Moore has mirrored the metaphorical Jezebel Jesus threatened death with in Revelation 2:20-23. He threatened death to her and also the women the Jezebel had raised up by her sinful example.
Imagine, within one generation a woman whose former claim to fame was the latest aerobics moves climbed steadily up to being seriously considered for president of the world’s largest denomination, a conservative one, at that. One generation, after 2000 years of holding fast to scripture on this issue. Sin is amazing in its power.
Yet the LORD our God is still on His throne and He still maintains a hard line on the roles women and men are to operate within in His church. That is a given.
For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. As in all churches of the saints, the women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the law also says. If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church. (1Corinthians 14: 33-35).
In Genesis 3, Eve chose a path that defied her God and ignored her husband’s teaching. Adam’s passivity as a leader was part of that event. As a result, God cursed the ground the man worked, (Genesis 3:17-18). Remember, man’s original charge was to work the Garden, Genesis 2:17). He told the woman her pains in childbirth will be greatly multiplied. Additionally, God said that the woman’s desire will be for her husband and he will rule over her.
Thus, the harmonious, companionable relationship established in Genesis 2, was corrupted by the woman’s quest for self-fulfillment instead of obedience, by man’s failure to lead, (“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife”), mankind fell into sin and separation from God.
In the latter part of chapter 3 of Genesis, God pronounces the results of the wife’s rebellion and the husband’s passivity. Of the woman, God said that she will desire her husband. Desire is the same word as in Genesis 4 where God told Cain sin is crouching at the door ‘desiring’ to have you. It means an inward inclination. A wife’s inward inclination will be to usurp her husband. She will always strive to take control. If a secular wife, this causes either heartache and strife, made worse for both if the husband remains passive. In Christian marriages, God was merciful to tell us ahead of time, so we can work at slaying this tendency to want to usurp the husband.
“For Eve listened to a creature instead of the Creator, followed her impressions against her instructions, and made self-fulfillment her goal. This prospect of material, aesthetic, and mental enrichment (6a) seemed to add up to life itself; the world still offers it. But man’s lifeline is spiritual, namely God’s word and the response of faith (Dt 8:3, Hab 2:4); to break it is death.” Source: Derek Kidner, “Genesis- An introduction and commentary”).
It should be noted that the woman when confronted by God, did not humble herself. Nor did she repent. She instead cast blame and attempted to justify her disobedient actions. We see this all too frequently in rebellious “Christian-professing” wives today! Pink says,
“She did not humble herself before the Lord, gave no sign of repentance, made no broken-hearted confession. Instead, she vainly attempted to vindicate herself by casting the blame on the serpent. It was a weak excuse, for God had capacitated her with understanding to perceive his lies, and with rectitude of nature, to reject them with horror.” (AW Pink, Gleanings from the Scriptures).
“If men don’t stand up and lead the women will fill that vacuum.” Josh Buice
As for the husbands, “We also need to be mindful of the fact that not every man is this this just roaring bold personality. Sometimes a more passive man marries a more bold woman. In that case he’s going to have to work extra. He has to be taking his leadership responsibilities in his home seriously“. (Buice, ibid).
When I was married I was not a Christian. I did want my husband to lead, but he was very passive (and lazy). In practical matters like managing the home, like cleaning, organizing, and repairmen appointments, I just took up the slack, figuring it was my job anyway. But in marriage matters and in big decision matters, his vacuum left me in a quandary. There was strife, resentment, and eventually bitterness. I’m glad I have Christ now. Though I’m not married any more, I know to submit to my elders and the Bible provides the template on how and why. I was a lot like post-Fall Eve, instantly blaming and being defensive, justifying myself. It’s what sinners do!
If you, dear sisters, have a personality that is more bold, the reverse is true of the passive man, we need to work extra to adhere to biblical precepts so that the home will run smoothly. Marriage is hard, really hard. Two sinners living together in mutual harmony seems almost impossible but it is possible. Why? because there are two sinners and One Sinless, as this article from the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood describes:
We believe in the power of the Holy Spirit—the power that brought about resurrection life, softened hearts of stone, and gave eyes of faith when we were blinded by sin. Yet sometimes in marriage, in the dismal moments of anger, hostility, or painful hurt, we forget that we’re not doing this alone. Sometimes in our sin and failures, we forget that the power and help of the Holy Spirit is ever present, ever helping, ever convicting, guiding, prompting and empowering us to do what is right.
Praise the Lord for His wonderful mind, that sympathizes with us, gave us all the helps, and will bring us to blissful heaven in His time! Meanwhile, ladies, don’t be tempted to fill that vacuum…or to go beyond our role in marriage. It’s easy to do, but Jesus will forgive if we repent. The wedding over, marriage begins the long work of sanctification.
The Bible is clear that there is an order to the church. Certain things are to be done a certain way. No New Testament believer can be so unobservant of the Old Testament that they fail to see the specificity with which God expects worship. Though New Testament believers are not beholden to the OT ceremonial laws and bloody sacrifices (because Christ has come!) we are still cognizant of the fact that God is still God. He does not accept any old worship. Just ask Ananias and Sapphira.
One way that Jesus has ordered His church is that He is its head. (Ephesians 5:23). Then, under their submission to Jesus, some men are called to lead. (1 Timothy 3:2-7; 1 Timothy 5:17). Then, the rest of the men, women and children submit to their leaders. (Hebrews 13:17).
Women are not to be in authority over men in the church. 1 Timothy 2:12 says, “But I do not allow a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet.“
I’m usually amazed at the genius of how some people can expertly twist plain verses into meaning something they do not mean. The depraved mind is cunning. After all, their father the devil is the most crafty creature of all. (Genesis 3:1). The verse also uses the word subtle. This is how satan deceives, makes the lie sound almost like the truth, subtly.
I came across this Twitter exposition of the issue of women teaching men, 1 Timothy 2:12 as I posted above. Stephen Michael Feinstein (@Ptr_StephenFein) wrote a thread a few years ago that has been unearthed and retweeted. It’s good. He goes through how people with an unholy agenda can exposit the plain meaning into a different meaning, subtly. Here is his exposition:
1/ A plain reading of 1 Timothy 2:12 seems to clearly favor the complementarian position. “I do not allow a woman to teach or to exercise authority.” In this thread, I will quickly break this down so that anyone can see the “exegesis” of both positions.
2/ Kostenberger demonstrates its grammatic structure as follows:
a negated finite verb (I do not permit)
governing an infinitive (to teach)
connected by the coordinating conjunction (or)
with a second infinitive (to exercise authority).
Pretty straightforward and simple.
3/Paul doesn’t permit women to do the infinitives, which are connected by the conjunction “or” οὐδὲ. Paul’s word choice for teach (διδάσκειν) is his normal word for good or faithful teaching. So one can’t say he is merely forbidding a type of false teaching (ἑτεροδιδασκαλεῖν)
4/ So a plain reading has women in the church being restricted from teaching or exercising authority. So how do egalitarians “exegete” the passage to show it to mean something different? Well, first, they insist on a definition for the word “exercise authority” (αὐθεντέω),
5/ thus claiming it can only mean to “wrongly domineer or usurp.” If they are right, the text would still at this point forbid women from teaching. So what they do is they remove the coordinating conjunction (οὐδὲ) and read it as an adverbial clause. This now makes it modify
6/ the infinitive “to teach.” See below:
a negated finite verb (I do not permit)
governing an infinitive (to teach)
remove the coordinating conjunction (or)
change the second infinitive into an adverbial clause (in a domineering way).
7/ So they would translate the verse as, “I do not permit a woman to teach a man in a domineering way.” But think about it. In order to get this rendering, they had to remove a Greek word (οὐδὲ/or), and they had to change the second infinitive into an adverbial clause.
8/ Exegetically, this is unjustified. If Paul meant it to be adverbial, he would use a preposition rather than a conjunction. The fact is the text as it stands has a conjunction that connects two infinitives. So it means what the complementarians say it means. Also, the narrow
9/ egalitarian definition of “exercise authority” is hardly proven. So again, the grammar makes it clear Paul forbids two things, not one, and those two thing are women teaching and having authority over men in the church. Our culture may shriek, but that’s irrelevant.
10/ Egalitarians then appeal to an invented historical background dealing with church women smuggling in the pagan theology of the cult of Artemis, and this is all Paul is forbidding. Yet, there is not a single clue anywhere in 1 Timothy that this was an issue in the church. If
11/ anything, he dealt with Jewish myths, not pagan ones. So let me summarize. The egalitarian position requires the exegetical butchering of the words that are actually in the text, and then it requires an invented occasion of crisis that just happens to not even be hinted in
12/ the text, and on this basis they radically reinterpret the verse in a narrow sense to render it inapplicable in the 21st century. Let me just state plainly, it is obvious that no one would arrive at this position by an unbiased translation and study of the text. They instead
13/ must already possess an ideological bend that forces them to reject the clear complementarian nature of the text. Therefore, they change the text and the historical context to fit their a priori ideological bend. My friends, that is not exegesis. That is not even Christian.
–end Pastor Feinstein–
It’s clear that women usurping and failing to remain silent in the churches (not on blogs, radio, podcasts, or real life!) is a huge issue these days in Christian life. Women teaching men and preaching in church is not a secondary or tertiary issue, because it deals with creation order, the orderliness of the church, and the sin of disobedience. The persistence and strength with which satan disrupts this Godly template in marriage and in church (two of the three spheres God has ordained for restraining sin) is proof that it’s something satan fervently doesn’t want.
If you, ladies, have an urge to teach, this is admirable. There are many wonderful women teachers out there edifying us and ministering in Godly (and appropriate) ways. These Godly female teachers submit to God’s word and do not have a craving to usurp. They do not teach men in church or preach. Godly female teachers possess an understanding that worshiping God means adhering to His orderliness in all spheres of life.
If you have an urge to teach men or to preach in church, then check yourself, please. There is a vast difference between standing at a pulpit on a Saturday afternoon and teaching a Ladies Conference, than there is standing at the pulpit on a Sunday morning and preaching to the congregation, explaining and exegeting God’s word. That difference is the gulf between obedience and sin.
Don’t be fooled by the subtle word tricks of satan, and don’t convince yourself on the back of word play that it is OK to preach. It is not.
Sometimes the pot warms its water so slowly even the most discerning frog swimming in it doesn’t realize the change in temperature in his environment until it’s too late. Even though this isn’t scientifically true, “the story is often used as a metaphor for the inability or unwillingness of people to react to or be aware of sinister threats that arise gradually rather than suddenly,” as Wikipedia explains.
It was a given that for more than 2000 years women are not to be teachers or preachers of men. We women can and do teach, we minister, and we evangelize. We discuss, we help, we clarify perhaps in a private setting, but we are not to have biblical authority over men in church expository situations.
“I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.” (1 Timothy 2:12)
How is a women preaching to men a sinister situation? It’s sin. As RC Sproul said, sin is cosmic treason!
Ask the metaphorical Jezebel of Revelation 2:20 who was teaching things God did not say. Jesus promised to kill her and her followers. Inserting words into God’s mouth is sin.
Look at the Garden. One certain fruit was eaten against God’s command, and the entire race of humankind was polluted with sin. Ignoring what God said is sin.
What God says to do or not do matters. We don’t need 50,000 verses. One is enough. Women are not allowed to teach the Bible to men.
But Beth Moore does.
She has been doing it for 30 years.
Woe to Beth Moore.
A female generation is about 25 years. Therefore, it’s woe to the generation of women coming up in Christian circles who have for the entire time been seeing Moore’s preaching to men as normal, even with her pastor’s overt blessing, or the tacit blessing of her denomination the Southern Baptist Convention and its arm, Lifeway.
For years Moore taught Bible to a co-ed Sunday School class of 600-700 people as you read in that link above and later up to 900 people as stated in this link:
At that time, God began to do a new thing, stirring the heart of Beth to move to a new meeting place, meeting time, change the name of the class, and allow men to attend.
Is it God stirring the heart of a woman to disobey scripture and to teach men? I think not. In Revelation 2:23 it’s noted that Jesus will strike Jezebel’s children dead. These are not Jezebel’s biological children, but the spiritual daughters she is raising up in her polluted, sinful likeness.
The 1 Timothy scripture seems not to bother Moore. She has not repented of this cosmic treason. She describes her origins as a Bible teacher. Her Sunday School class began in 1985 and she was still teaching it in 2005. Her class almost from the beginning had a mixed audience.
Being a woman called to leadership within and simultaneously beyond those walls [of an SBC church] was complicated to say the least but I worked within the system. After all, I had no personal aspirations to preach nor was it my aim to teach men. If men showed up in my class, I did not throw them out. I taught. ~Beth Moore
It does not matter if you “had personal aspirations to preach” to men or not. If you do, you’re sinning. If you fail to stop it, you’re sinning.
How did this begin? Moore began teaching an aerobics class in Texas in the 80s at her church. It gravitated somehow (don’t ask me how, that’s a leap I can’t figure) to a Bible class in 1985. That soon turned to a co-ed class, then a 600-700 member coed class.
Moore eventually founded Living Proof Ministry in 1994. By 2003 her Living Proof Live conferences had gone beyond the confines of her church and beyond the Texas border. A national magazine took notice. Their opening sentence called her a minister.
“Once a victim of abuse, Beth Moore is one of America’s most popular ministers today.”
The article went on to note that men attended her Sunday School class. It was popular, so crowded with both sexes that attendees were asked to car pool because the parking lot was so jammed.
But the crowded conditions don’t seem to deter them. Not even the men, who came for a while in large numbers, were put off–until the ministry limited them by asking them to sit in the back, and if necessary, give up their seats to women. It is a women’s Bible study, after all. And though men are not restricted from attending, they aren’t encouraged, either. The selectivity has nothing to do with the location. With her pastor’s sanction, Beth teaches a co-ed Sunday school class of 600 to 700 in the same Southern Baptist church each week. But her ministry “really is to women,” she says. “My love is women in the body of Christ.” [emphasis mine]
An obedient teacher says “My love is for Christ and His word, and I asked the pastor to restrict the class to women only.” But as Beth Moore said above, “I didn’t throw them out. I taught.” She sought bigger rooms to accommodate them all.
The ‘aw, shucks, I’m really just a women’s teacher’ won’t cut it when pleading for mercy in front of the throne. Failure to obey the Word is failure to obey. She has been a usurper from the beginning.
And she keeps on teaching.
In 2010 when her fame was rising, Christianity Today did a 6-page cover story on her. The article cites the following:
Before she begins, she addresses the few men in the crowd. A Southern Baptist, Moore emphasizes that her ministry is intended for women. “The gentlemen who had such courage to come into this place tonight, into this estrogen fest if you will ever find one in your entire life: we are so blessed to have you,” Moore says. “I do not desire to have any kind of authority over you.”
It’s laughable to pronounce a blessing on the men in attendance, welcome them, preach the Bible to them, and then meekly deny any authority over them. Is her teaching from the Word authoritative over the women but not the men sitting next to them? Or do the women reject her authority to teach and they’re just coming, say, for the music? You see the illogic. If she teaches authoritatively, she teaches authoritatively to all in the hearing of it.
As far as Moore’s coyness that she does not desire to be authoritative over them, this is false. Genesis 3:16 tells us it is IN us to want to usurp male authority. It doesn’t matter if you desire to break God’s command or not, if you DO, you’re sinning. Try telling the traffic policeman that “I did not desire to speed on the highway” and see if he lets you go.
The Christianity Today story is page not found anymore. However, the link is here in the web archive split into 6 pages if you want to see the source.
Moore’s occasional weak protest, that men attend her classes and conferences on their own volition so it isn’t really her fault, doesn’t hold water. She taught men in her SS class for 20 years. By 2012, she was personally asked to substitute for pastor Louie Giglio preaching the Sunday Service at Louie Giglio’s Passion City Church, and she accepted. It was Holy Week, and she preached John 19 to a very, VERY large crowd of congregants. Some of these people, men included, lined up two hours early just to hear her.
Brian Dodd was one of those men. He attended Passion City Church that weekend and wrote a recap of her sermon. Gushing about how Moore is “a church leader” and how excited he was that he showed up hours early.
Moore affirmed on her blog that she was asked to preach at Giglio’s church and that she accepted.
Screen grabs from videos like this in 2012 harm women when they see a female on stage preaching from the Bible shoulder to shoulder with men. It’s visual egalitarianism. Photos like this are damaging. L-R, Lecrae, Moore, Chan, Giglio, Piper preaching at Passion Conference in 2012:
In addition to Moore’s actual preaching to men, a sin, she sins by failing to separate from other women who preach and call themselves pastors. She encourages women in their preaching to men.
We must separate from false teachers and heretics. Moore does not do that, and by her continued support of these people, and they of her, more confusion is added to the body of believers, particularly younger women. Women are the weaker vessel, (1 Peter 3:7), gullible to false teaching if we are unrepentant (2 Timothy 3:6), and our flesh wants to usurp the husband (Genesis 3:16). It is unwise to partner with heretics and to encourage them. By partnering with them, Moore proves her allegiance.
After decades of teaching men and preaching to men, any declarations otherwise are only lip service.
If a woman publicly preaches to men for decades, is seemingly accepted in this role, and even promoted in it, the cumulative damage to the greater body of women is great. In June 2018, the Washington Post published an incredible article about Moore. The title was,
She has her audience laughing, tearing up and clapping, much like they would listening to any great preacher.
The article’s author notes that the Southern Baptist Convention doesn’t allow female preachers, and then went on for a paragraph describing how Moore gets around it by using tweets, books, and speaking engagements as her pulpit. The article also describes how Moore is the face of global evangelism and is personally the transition linchpin for this new future:
Moore is one of the evangelical leaders today who represent the future of the global church, in which people outside Europe and the United States will be dominant. … Moore represents this transition, which is shaping even the most conservative corners of evangelicalism.
There is the danger. After so many decades of preaching and teaching, Moore has warmed the pot and the girl froglets see women preaching to men from pulpits, in churches, at conferences, or other settings, as normal. Desirable. Meanwhile, despite the Bible’s instruction to women to be gentle, meek, quiet, and industrious, tending to their homes and children, Moore has become culturally confrontational. Political. As the lengthy article about Moore last month in The Atlantic reveals,
“Privately, however, Moore has never cared much for the delicate norms of Christian femininity.”
We know. If she did, she would not preach to men. The pot is boiling now. Is this what we want for our young women? Women who are confrontational, rebellious, vocal, political, taking on the culture, preaching to men, partnering with other rebellious preacher women and ignoring her home duties?
Though she often performs domestic femininity for her audience, in her own life she has balanced motherhood with demanding professional ambitions. She traveled every other weekend while her two daughters were growing up—they told me they ate a lot of takeout. Source The Atlantic
Writers like J. Lee Grady would love to see more women preach like Moore does. He writes in Ministry Today Magazine that it’s finally about time that women take the reins in the pulpit.
What is baffling about this whole experience is that there are large numbers of Christians today who don’t believe Beth Moore should be preaching to [mixed gender] audiences like the one in Orlando. In fact, some fundamentalists have launched attacks on her because she preaches authoritatively from pulpits.
We need an army of women like Beth Moore, and my prayer is that more women will seek the Lord and dig into His Word with the same passion that Moore has. I believe she is a forerunner for a new generation of both men and women who will carry a holy Pentecostal fire that cannot be restricted by gender.
The Washington Post predicts that, as well. Grady’s desire may yet come true. There was talk this summer of Moore being nominated for president of the Southern Baptist Convention. Her virtue signalling tweets, politically charged ‘Open Letters‘ on social media and timely hopping onto cultural topics such as social justice are akin to a Senator’s moves before a presidential run.
Imagine, within one generation a woman whose former claim to fame was the latest aerobics moves climbed steadily up to being seriously considered for president of the world’s largest denomination, a conservative one, at that. One generation, after 2000 years of holding fast to scripture on this issue. Sin is amazing in its power.
I began this essay chronicling Moore’s journey to normalizing women’s usurpation of men from the pulpit by saying ‘It was a given that for more than 2000 years women are not given to be teachers or preachers of men.’ It was. It WAS. Past tense.
Yet the LORD our God is still on His throne and He still maintains a hard line on the roles women and men are to operate within in His church. That is a given.
For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. As in all churches of the saints, the women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the law also says. If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church. (1Corinthians 14: 33-35).
and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. (1 John 4:3)
There are only two kinds of people. There are those with the Holy Spirit in them, given because in God’s grace, someone whom the Spirit had drawn to Jesus repented of their sins and confessed Jesus is Lord.
All other people who have not confessed Jesus as Lord are operating under the lordship of satan, with the antichrist spirit in them. Satan said he wants to be like the Most High, usurp Him from His throne and sit there instead. (Isaiah 14:13-15). All people under satan living in their flesh want to do the same.
the-end-time.org 