In the Evangelical world, the battle against egalitarianism in the church is once more returning to a full boil as it did decades ago. Egalitarianism, in this context, believes that men and women are interchangeable in all ministerial functions. We saw this a few weeks ago with John MacArthur’s “Go home” comments directed at Beth Moore. The egalitarians, who are really feminists, launched all sorts of unwarranted attacks in defense of Beth Moore. But all of them are premised under the impression that she’s a legitimate teacher. If she is a teacher, full of the Spirit and obedient in the Word, then MacArthur’s words are harsh. If there is any doubt, then “go home” was quite cordial. But let’s first answer the question of women preaching from the pulpit to men.
12But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. 13For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve. 14And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.
1 Timothy 2:12 NASB
1 Timothy 3 is the passage for ministerial standards in the church. For overseers, the standards of ministry are elevated that even most men struggle to qualify, especially in this day and age. Overseer, often translated as Bishop, is a man of high standards. Now the 1 Timothy 2:12 dispels the notion of a woman being an overseer. The text gives the explanation that Eve fell prey to Satan’s first deception. To elaborate, when men are weak, women are deceived. Therefore men are charged with the duty to be strong and protect women and children. Masculinity is exemplified in the ecclesiastical offices of overseers and deacons. That is why men are to preach from the pulpit.
Testing Scripture
1 Timothy 2:12 is a passage that ought to be tested. Can a church disobey 1 Timothy 2:12 and not be similarly deceived?
Despite violating the passage, Beth Moore is passive aggressive about her egalitarianism. The fruit is ambiguous. She is a proxy for almost every propagator of the woke Social Justice Gospel to combat orthodoxy in the church. Her positions on key biblical proxy issues are intentionally ambiguous. She might not be fully deceived yet, but the trajectory looks bad since she’s already going woke and has long associated with false teachers. (evidence in Beth Moore link above). But she is one of the only female preachers that feigns to be theologically conservative (orthodox).
A more recent example is Jory Micah, a feminist preacher and Democrat activist. Her life journey begins with wanting to be a female preacher. She did but what she preaches is not biblical. She openly denies the inerrancy and authority of scripture. She claims that Jesus was only male while on earth (otherwise genderless), in a major Christological heresy.
Rachel Held Evans, a late pioneer of the new theologically progressive onslaught, was wrong on almost every biblical issue.
Let’s look at Katherine Ragsdale. This lesbian preacher is now the head of the National Abortion Federation. Is there any reason to suspect that she otherwise preaches the gospel? No. Yet she is very big in what’s left of the Episcopalian Church in America.
With individuals we see that bending on one issue the Bible is clear on leads to the “bending” on other issues the Bible is clear on. This is perhaps a gradual process in most cases but ultimately inevitable.
Testing Institutions
With church denominations we see a larger picture of the results of embracing egalitarianism. It’s no secret in the Evangelical world that “mainline” AKA apostate Protestant churches are shrinking. These churches were early adopters of egalitarianism. The Social Justice Gospel that comes with egalitarianism devours churches that embrace it.
The United Methodist Church is the largest denomination in the world that ordains women, according to them, and likely the most theologically conservative if you grade on a curve. The UMC’s rebuttal on their website to the 1 Timothy 2 explains:
One reference from Paul may appear to rule out the ordination of women, but United Methodists also take into account other scriptural references as well as our tradition, experience and reason.
They do not go on to cite scripture. But in this lapse of Sola Scriptura, the United Methodist Church needed its African delegations to prevent it from allowing homosexuals into ministry positions. It’s probably safe to assume that the African congregations are less egalitarian than their American counterparts. Indeed they are the only source of growth for the church. But this comes after a long history of the UMC embracing homosexuality and the Social Justice Gospel.
Church denominations that embrace egalitarianism are shown to rapidly embrace other unbiblical positions and before you know it the church is hosting a drag queen story hour.
Conclusions
It’s a highway to hell and a stairway to Heaven. Deliberately and unrepentantly deviating from scripture is an onramp to the highway from which one does not simply slow down. The road to apostasy has a long history of being paved with egalitarianism.
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