THE PUBLIC PREACHING /
TEACHING
OF WOMEN
AND THE UNORDAINED
Rev. Mike Ericson, Pastor
Countryside PCA,
Cameron, North Carolina
The recent failure of the 27th General Assembly to warn against the
unbiblical practice of women preaching would seem to indicate that the leaven
of those who ignore the clear teaching of God's Word in order to adhere to
worldly egalitarian traditions is now working its way through the PCA. At the
very least, we would have to say that it certainly appears that a majority of
voting commissioners at this Assembly was thus affected. The commissioners
voted to deny an overture from Western Carolina Presbytery asking the Assembly
to "advise Sessions and Presbyteries not to allow this practice to
continue," on the grounds that "while the GA does stand against the
preaching of women as referred to in 1 Timothy 2:12, violations of the
Standards should first be addressed by the lower courts" (As the Assembly
did, perhaps, with its stands on abortion and homosexuality?). And another
overture, concerning having only men read the Scriptures in public worship, was
answered in the negative on the grounds that "sufficent exegetical basis
is not provided." This sort of reasoning represents the sophistry typical
of denominations in doctrinal decline.
Technical difficulties and loopholes aside, it is clear that the issue
centers around who may preach/teach and ultimately focuses on the sufficiency
of Scripture. The debate is not about the worth of women or their salvation in
Christ. The discussion concerns whether Scripture limits who may preach/teach
the Word of God and whether or not Scripture is sufficiently clear on this, or,
for that matter, any subject. This certainly is not a new controversy. The
specter of women and other unordained persons preaching has long haunted the
Church, substantially pre-dating the liberal drift of Presbyterian
denominations in this century. Jonathan Edwards, over two hundred years ago,
confronted the issue of lay-exhorters, speaking out and writing against the
practice of anyone presuming to take up the function of preaching without
having been ordained to the office. In a letter written to one he believed had
committed the sin of circumventing the ordained office by exhorting a
congregation as a layman, Edwards offered this correction: "the Head of
the church is wiser than we, and knew how to regulate things in his
church."1
The dispute had become even more pronounced in R. L. Dabney's day. His
article "Lay Preaching" appeared in the Southern Presbyterian Review
in April, 1876. And, "The Public Preaching of Women," appearing a few
years later in the same journal, sounds a rather contemporary note:
A few years ago the public preaching of women was universally
condemned among all conservative denominations of Christians, and, indeed,
within their bounds, was totally unknown. Now the innovation is brought face to
face even with the Southern churches, and female preachers are knocking at our
doors. We are told that already public opinion is so truckling before the
boldness and plausibility of their claims that ministers of our own communion
begin to hesitate, and men hardly know whether they have the moral courage to
adhere to the right.2
The practice of women preaching from the pulpits today raises the same
issues. Does Scripture regulate who may preach? If so, are only women forbidden
or does it preclude those not ordained to the office? Is the office of
pastor/teacher regulated by positive warrant, or are we left to do what we
think best? Is Scripture sufficient to answer such questions? Will we have the
"moral courage" to declare the truth of God? In seeking to answer
these questions, we will first offer a summary of the doctrine of preaching and
teaching as set forth in Scripture and then, we will posit what we believe to
be the causes for the abuse.
The Power of Preaching
There is a divinely ordained power, the power of order, involved in the
preaching/teaching the Word of God. Therefore, the issues surrounding women
preaching/teaching are more than just the narrow question of whether a woman
may preach. To address women preaching we must first look at the office of
pastor/teacher3 as
it relates to the government of the Church under its Head, Jesus Christ. Next,
we must look at the activity of preaching/teaching and, in turn, observe the
relation of the office of pastor/teacher to preaching/teaching. Only then can
we clearly ascertain what it means when Paul says "let your women keep
silent in the churches" (1 Cor 14:34, NKJV),4 or "I do not permit a woman
to teach" (1 Tim 2:12).
The office of pastor/teacher stands in direct relation to the Office Giver
in the Church, the Head of the Church, the King over His kingdom, the Lord
Jesus Christ. As Head and Governor of His Church (Eph 1:20-23), Christ is the
one who establishes her offices by positive divine law (Eph 3:7-11; Matt
16:19). The Church is the "pillar and ground of the truth" (1 Tim
3:15) because it is founded by, and upon, the One who is the Truth. He, in
turn, builds His Church through His agents (Eph 2:20; 4:12).
The activity of preaching/teaching is proclaiming Christ, His Gospel and
Kingdom, expounding these truths as revealed in the Scriptures, and exhorting
Christ's Church, as well as those Christ would call into His Church, to heed
Christ and His Word. Two things need to be noted here.
First, the New Testament writers make no distinction between assemblies of
the church that are formal and assemblies that are informal as to who may
undertake the preaching/teaching. The reference to "in the churches"
(1 Cor 14:34) and related terminology have nothing to do with times or
buildings but, rather, refer to public assemblies (Matt 18:20), wherever they
may be held, as opposed to private family gatherings (en oiko, 1 Cor 14:35).
Public preaching/teaching occurs when two or three assemble as the particular
church and one, or more, is there to exhort from the Scriptures. There a
difference between a public assembly for worship and a public assembly for
purposes of teaching, etc. However, in terms of the issue of who may
preach/teach the Word, both are considered public assemblies.
We see this understanding clearly displayed in the Directory for
Family Worship, approved by the Scottish General Assembly of
1647. Throughout the Directory care is taken to
insure that people comprehend that the ministry of the Word in public assembly
is "a part of the ministerial calling" (sec. III). Family worship is
private and each family is to "keep by themselves" (VI). The
gathering of several families meeting together in the homes, on the other hand,
was considered a public meeting. Furthermore, precaution is taken in the
Directory to safeguard that these times do not become
occasions for someone from outside the family to teach the Word, perhaps
"tainted with errors" (V). If the head of the household is unable to
perform the duty then his replacement must be one who is "constantly
residing in the family" and "approved by the minister and
session" (IV). Thus, the Directory sought to be
faithful to the biblical distinction between public exhortation in the churches
(1 Cor 14:34) and private exhrtation in the family or household (1 Cor 14:35).
The second aspect to note is that 'preach' (katangello,
kerusso), 'teach' (didasko), 'proclaim the gospel'
(euangelizo), 'admonish' (noutheteo), and 'exhort'
(parakaleo) are, though with somewhat different emphases, all of the
same cloth. For example, in Acts 4:2 "teach" and "preach"
are parallel descriptions of the activity of the apostles; likewise with Paul
and Barnabas' "teaching" and "proclaiming the gospel" in
Acts 15:35. Paul speaks of his "preaching" as "admonishing"
and "teaching" (Col 1:28). "Exhorting" is also an aspect of
"teaching" (1 Tim 6:2). As one examines every usage of these terms in
applicable contexts we see that they have as their activity proclaiming Christ,
expositing the Truth as revealed in the Scriptures, and exhorting Christ's
Church, and those whom Christ would call, to heed Christ and His Word (2 Tim
4:2).
We may now look further into the relation of the office of pastor/teacher to
the activity of preaching/teaching. The present confusion and misunderstanding
concerning this relation is amply illustrated by General Assembly's handling of
the personal resolution from the presbyter from Eastern Carolina. The MNA
Permanent Committee was asked to investigate the validity of a report that
"a women did engage in exhortation to the church planters and/or in
application of Scripture." The Assembly implicitly found the report to be
true but concluded that it "did not violate the grounds given by the 25th
GA." They further beclouded the relation of the office of pastor/teacher
and the activity of preaching/teaching by approving a study of "women for
such ministry" and "women's ministry in a public context."
The reasoning of the commissioners seems to have been that it is biblical
for a woman to teach and exhort in application of the Scriptures as long as she
is not doing it as an ordained officer from the pulpit during a worship
service. However, as we have seen, the Word of God does not permit such a
distinction. Again we ask, does the Head of the Church through the revelation
of His Word regulate who may preach/teach to His Church?
The function of the pastor/teacher is to preach/teach. This may sound all
too simple, but it is at the heart of answering the question of who may
preach/teach in the Church. There is a relation of the office of pastor/teacher
to preaching/teaching. The Head of the Church in giving the office also
regulates the activity. The activity is not now a charismatic function that
occurs outside the order of the office. Thus, those who teach are called
"teachers" (Eph 4:11; 1 Tim 2:7) and those who preach are termed
"preachers" (1 Tim 2:7; 2 Tim 1:11). As Paul makes plain in 2 Tim
2:2, the teacher teaches.
The correlation of the activity of preaching/teaching to the office is
certainly an old concept in our Presbyterian heritage. In speaking of the power
of the keys dispensed by the Head of the Church (Matt 16:18-19; 18:19-20),
various ministers around the time of the Westminster Assembly comment:
The power of the keys contains both authority and exercise; power
being given to that end that it may be exercised for the benefit of the
Church.... By induction of particulars, it is evident, that the community
cannot execute the power of the keys by any divine warrant. 1. They cannot
preach: for, "how shall they preach, except they be sent?" Rom. x.
15; but the community cannot be sent, many of them being incapable of the
office, . . . Now only officers are sent to preach.5
The members of the Westminster Assembly, with similar reasoning, in the
Directory for Public Worship regulated who may read
the Word of God and preach in public worship. The public ministry of the Word
in reading the Scriptures, they state, is to be "performed by pastors and
teachers." Preaching, "according to the rules of ordination," is
to be performed by a "minister of Christ." Those who "intend the
ministry" and "allowed by the presbytery" may read and preach
"occasionally." This provides the context for the doctrine in the
Westminster Larger Catechism where it is avowed that "all are not to be
permitted to read the word publicly" (WLC, 156). Furthermore, "the
word of God is to be preached only by such as are sufficiently gifted, and also
duly approved and called to that office" (WLC, 158). Note well that
preaching/teaching is limited by the term only, as in only those who are
gifted, duly approved, and called; no others may do so. Our constitution could
not be any clearer.
The PCA in its Book of Church Order recognizes this power of order exercised
in preaching, etc., as resting in its officers (BCO, 3-2). Of the teaching
elder we read, "it belongs to his order . . . to feed the flock by
reading, expounding and preaching the Word of God" (BCO, 8-5).
The Admonition to Keep Silent in the Churches
Having taken a brief look at the office of pastor/teacher as it relates to
the government of the Church, the activity of preaching/teaching, and then the
relation of the office of pastor/teacher to preaching/teaching, we may now have
a better context for ascertaining the meaning of "let your women keep
silent in the churches" (1 Cor 14:34), "in silence" (1 Tim 2:11,
12), and "I do not permit a women to teach" (1 Tim 2:12). We will
focus on the fact that in both instances Scripture commands silence (see Calvin
or Warfield for a fuller discussion). We do not need to wrangle over all the
possible ways in which speaking may be interpreted, such as speaking with
authority, etc. No speaking covers it all.
In 1 Corinthians 14:34 the imperative "to be silent"
(sigatosan) is juxtaposed with "to speak" (lalein).
While some may go into fanciful flights of historical imagination to define
what "speak" may mean here, clearly, in Paul's mind, "not
permitted to speak" means "be silent." The immediate context of
v. 35 reinforces this when woman are told to ask their husbands at home,
because it is shameful for a women to speak in church. The silence that the
apostle speaks of is the same silence he enjoins on those speaking in tongues
who have no interpreter in v. 28. They are both to be silent, not speak.
We see the same type of construction in 1 Timothy 2:11-12. The prohibition
on teaching is understood by the references, both in vv. 11 and 12, to
'silence' (hesuchia). There are those who attempt to link the only
form of prohibited teaching to that which is associated to exercising
authority, say as an elder. However, as in 1 Corinthians, to understand the
prohibition to teach one need look no further than the command to "learn
in silence" (v. 11). The terms for silence used in both cases,
(sigao in 1 Cor; hesuchia in 1 Tim), when contrasted to terms
for, or activity of speech, refer to no verbal communication going forth (cf.
Lk 20:26; Acts 15:12; 22:2).
Because the teaching office is withheld from women so is the teaching
activity. It is a double violation for her to teach, since she is unordained
and her creation as a woman prohibits her from filling the office. Both
passages under consideration reinforce the command for silence with one of
submission. Paul uses an imperative to submit in 1 Cor 14:34
(hupotassesthosan), adding "as the law says." In 1 Tim 2:11
submission (hupotage) comes prior to the prohibition of preaching and
the creation structure substantiating it follows (2:13ff).
The prohibitions to teach are in no way contradicted, or undermined, by the
exhortation for older women to be "teachers of good things" (the
compound noun kalodidaskalous) in Titus 2:3. What this means should be
interpreted by the following admonition that they "train," or
"admonish" (sophronizosin; Tit 2:4), the younger women. This
is born out by the activities listed for the godly women in 1 Timothy 5:9-14.
The exhortation to train younger women in the domestic arts is not granting
older women authority to teach groups of women the Word of God.
This lack of authority to preach/teach in the churches is common to all
those who do not carry the authority of the office, which by nature a women
cannot attain to and most men do not possess through lack of approved
appointment. Thus, we are not surprised to see teaching linked with authority,
as in 1 Tim 2:11-12, with its chiastic structure formed by 'silence'
(hesuchia), 'teach' (didaskein), 'excerising authority'
(authentein), and the repetition of 'silence' (hesuchia). In
fact, the only place we can find in the New Testament where someone other than
an office holder is called on to teach and exhort is found in the corporate
exercise of congregational singing, in which case the inspired, or spiritual
(pneumatikais), Word is being proclaimed by the body whole (Col 3:16).
Are women called to preach/teach? If she appoints herself, since she cannot
be appointed by any court, is the church that has invited her to preach
recognizing her now as a lawful gospel preacher? Would she need to be licensed
to preach if she were to preach on a semi-regular basis? Would this need change
if she were to be an itinerant preacher? The answer to the first of these
questions -- a clear and resounding, No! -- renders the others moot.
As we have seen, the office of pastor/teacher is established by Christ in
the government of His Church. He regulates the activity of preaching/teaching,
which, with the relation of the office of pastor/teacher to preaching/teaching,
debars women from the activity.
At the Heart of the Abuse
Before we come to a close, we need to comment on what we believe are the
causes for the abuse: that is, permitting women to preach and the support of
this practise. Underlying this, are two more serious problems. The first is a
devaluation of the ministerial office in the thinking of many, if not most, in
the Church. The second is that people are growing more skeptical about the
sufficiency of Scripture.
There is a critical degradation of the function of the teaching office in
the ministry of the Word in the PCA. When one examines the activity of teaching
as it is regulated by the Head of the Church in the Scriptures and observes
these principles worked out by our Presbyterian forefathers, we see just how
far we have drifted. In the PCA pastor/teachers preach and teach, but so does
anyone with the desire to exhort, or who is of theopinion that he has been so
charismatically gifted, or who is possessed of the belief that he has a message
to "share." While the Word of God is exclusive as to who may engage
in the activity of preaching/teaching, we are very inclusive. We hold the
teaching office as just one way among many that God would have His Word to be
proclaimed.
The reason we are so inclusive is that many of us have a low view of the
Church, its officers, and their God-ordained role. As Dabney comments,
. . .lay-preaching implies broad-churchism. The church which
accepts it as a customary ordinance must, in consistency, fling down her
doctrinal standards, and open her doors to latitudinarian doctrine, with all
its fearful consequences. Let all Presbyterians, then, bear in mind, as one
"fixed fact," that the recognition of lay-preaching means
broad-churchism.6
The second serious problem we see behind the acceptance of women preaching,
and one which underlies the first, is a diminishing of our confidence as to the
sufficiency of Scripture. We are dealing with much more than just the simple
question of women preaching. The debate in the Assembly hinged, and still
hinges, upon the words, "hath God said?" These words from the serpent
to Adam and Eve are the hallmark cry of those who continually try to
"skirt" the issue by saying "the Scriptures aren't clear on this
matter."
At the very least, the Reformed doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture is
on the line, and perhaps more. As Dabney so clearly put it long ago,
"women's preaching . . . cannot be candidly upheld without attacking the
inspiration and authority of the Scriptures."7
The failure of the General Assembly to speak clearly and forthrightly
against the preaching of women is a watershed vote. While we have been
seriously adrift, we, by this failure, have taken an even sharper turn off
course.
The false teaching that allows and supports women/lay preaching is leaven,
the type that Christ has warned us to "beware of" (Matt 16:6ff). And
the question at this point is if it is even possible, any more, to isolate the
leaven of false teaching that has permeated the dough?
"Hath God said?"
Will we waffle, look down and kick the dust with our feet?
Or will we stand up, look the world in the eye, and proclaim with the
prophets of old, "Thus saith the LORD!" If we do not, then we will
watch the PCA drift further down the stream of liberalism.
1 As found in
John Gerstner, The Rational Biblical Theology of Jonathan Edwards,
Vol. III (Orlando: Ligonier Ministries, 1993), 414.
2 Robert L.
Dabney, "The Public Preaching of Women," Southern Presbyterian
Review, (October, 1879), in Discussions: Evangelical and Theological,
vol. 2 (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1982 [18911]), 96.
3 For the sake of
uniformity, I will use pastor(poimen)/teacher to correlate the
particular activity of preaching/teaching to the office, rather than
preacher(kerux)/teacher.
4 All quotations
are from the New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1994).
5 Sundry
Ministers of Christ, The Divine Right of Church Government (New York: R.
Martin, 1843 [16461]), 99-100.
6 Robert L.
Dabney, "Lay Preaching," Southern Presbyterian Review (April, 1876),
in Discussions: Evangelical and Theological, vol. 2 (Edinburgh: The
Banner of Truth Trust, 1982 [18911]), 80.
7 Dabney,
"The Public Preaching of Women," op. cit., 117.
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