THE SOUND OF THE TRUMPET
DO YOU HEAR HIM CALLING
FOURTH EDITION
GODS WORD CONCERNING CHURCH LEADERSHIP
By Pastor Thomas Boris Kingdom Life Chapel
THIS TEACHING WILL BE ON ORDAINING WOMEN AS PASTORS OR ELDERS
More recently this has become a much discussed topic in the churches today because more women have been set into that position. In order to give the correct answer to whether or not they should hold that position in the church, we must let the word of God be the Judge of that. As in all matters concerning the church, we must always be obedient to the word or suffer the consequences of our decision. Read for yourselves Jeremiah chapter 23 especially verses 1-8 and Ezekiel chapter 34 especially verses 1-10. People can sit inside buildings and still be scattered from the truth of God’s word and the shepherd will think because the building is full God is in the midst. But remember one thing, God does not measure spiritual well-being by the number sitting in the pews on Sunday mornings. Today everyone measures by MEGA but God measures buy REMENANT.
When having this discussion about women pastors we have found that over 90% of the answers we receive are either from Galatians 3:28 or Judges 4:4 which are miss interpreted. There are other answers such as; there are not enough men so women have to take their place or that she can really preach and she really loves God. These are just some of the excuses that are used to try to make what is happening in Gods church seem right. I have not found any of those answers in God’s word, have you? So if you think at this point I seem to be judging concerning church leadership I will refer you to the words Jesus spoke concerning judging. John 12:47-48 if anyone hears My sayings and does not keep them, I DO NOT JUDGE HIM; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. He who rejects Me and DOES NOT RECEIVE MY SAYINGS, HAS ONE WHO JUDGES HIM: THE WORD I SPOKE IS WHAT WILL JUDGE HIM at the last day. So concerning the matter of women pastors we will allow the WORD WHICH IS JESUS to determine the truth.
We must never forget the fact that there were and still are prominent women in Gods church. To name a few we can remember Deborah who was judge over all of Israel, which was strictly a position of political influence and authority in the same manner that we have women judges in our political system today which was separate from her call as a prophetess in which she would bring wisdom from God for the people of Israel. These were two separate ministries. One as judge dealing with the nation and the other as prophetess dealing with the church. What about Esther who God used in a very profound way to aid in delivering His people. In Romans 16:1-2 we read of Paul’s acknowledgement of the importance of women in God’s church. I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea; that you receive her in a manner worthy of the saints, and that you help her in whatever matter she may have need of you; for she herself has been a helper of many, and of myself as well. So we too acknowledge women to minister in the church according to God’s plan for them.
So let’s get to the matter at hand! Women Pastors! Let’s first discuss the scripture most people use to argue the point that it is okay for women to be pastors. Galatians 3:28 “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. First let me remind you that you are never to build a doctrine on just one verse of scripture. Let God’s word do the interpreting. We must always see the whole picture that is being taught. What exactly is Paul trying to teach here. This verse would have been confusing to those who were listening to Paul at that time because there were probably Jews, Greeks, men & women, those who were free and those who were slaves. Try to tell the slave he is free! What is my point? My point is covered in the verses preceding verse 28. They explain what Paul is trying to convey to them whom he is addressing. That is everyone in verse 28. Go back and read verses 10 thru 22 where we find Paul teaching about the difference between the law and being justified by faith. I want to start at verse 23 But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. Therefore the law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified.(meaning being in right standing with God thru faith in Him but it is not our salvation or our born again experience) verse 25 Now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. Praise God!! Paul is stating that God’s salvation through His Son Jesus is in no way affected by Gender (male or female) by whether you are sitting behind bars in prison or walking around as a free man or whatever nationality you were born into. We are all seen in the eyes of God as His Sons (neither Jew nor Greek, neither a slave nor a freeman, neither male nor female), as stated in verse 26. You cannot take Paul’s teaching about the law and justification by faith and try to apply it to fit Paul’s teaching concerning church leadership by adding this scripture in order to allow women to be ordained as Pastors in God’s church. Here is an excuse we often hear. There are not enough men to ordain as pastors!! Do you really believe that we can use that as an excuse to change Gods word as found in Timothy & Titus? Remember when Saul could not wait for Samuel and he took it upon himself to make the sacrificial offering on Gods altar. I Samuel 10:8 and you shall go down before me to Gilgal; and behold, I will come down to you to offer burnt offerings. You shall wait seven days until I come to you and show you what you should do. (Now, that is Gods anointed word, not to be altered in any way). Did Saul obey God’s word or did he because of the circumstances surrounding him disobey God’s word? So what happened? I Samuel 13:7-14 when the men of Israel saw that they were in a strait (where the people were hard-pressed), and the people hid themselves in caves, in thickets, in cliffs, and sellers, and in pits. Also some of the Hebrews crossed the Jordan into the land of Gad and Gilead. But as for Saul, he was still in Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling. Now he waited seven days, according to the appointed time set by Samuel, Samuel did not come to Gilgal; and the people were scattering from him. So Saul said, “bring to me the burnt offering and the peace offering.” And he offered the burnt offering. It came about as soon as he finished offering the burnt offering, that behold, Samuel came; and Saul went out to meet him and to greet him. Samuel said, what have you done? And Saul said, because I saw that the people were scattering from me, and that you did not come within the appointed days, and that the Philistines were assembling at Michmash, therefore I said, now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not asked the favor of the Lord. So I force myself and offered the burnt offering. Samuel said to Saul, you have acted foolishly; you have not kept the commandments of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, for now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not endure. The Lord has sought out for Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has appointed him as ruler over His people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you. So just as Samuel instructed Saul, the apostle Paul instructed the church on the matter of appointing the leadership within the church.
Now let’s take a look at what Paul teaches concerning church leadership. First let’s go to 1 Timothy 3:1-7 It is a trustworthy statement: if any MAN aspires to the office of overseer, (interchangeable with Bishop, Pastor, Elder, Shepherd) (You will find that the Greek word for this office in the church is POIMEN which grammatically is masculine with no feminine equivalent). We shouldn’t have to look any further, but we will not draw any conclusions yet. We will let Gods word judge as Jesus said. Continue with verse 1 it is a fine work HE desires. An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the HUSBAND of one WIFE (not one at a time) temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money. He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity (but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the Church of God?) (so why do we permit divorced men to hold the office as pastor), And not a new convert, so that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil. They must have a good reputation with those outside the church, so that he will not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. So far we have not found in Paul’s teaching concerning church leadership the mention of a woman in the position of Bishop, Pastor, Elder, Shepherd. Since these positions in the church require the leader to take authority over all who are in the church. However, Paul does mention in 1st Timothy chapter 2 verse 12 the following statement. But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. Please do not misinterpret what Paul is saying here. Paul is not saying here that women are not able to speak in church. It is simply stating that the woman when it comes to exercising authority in the church she must remain still. If Paul meant that women cannot speak in the church he would have been a hypocrite when he instructed both Timothy and Titus. Why? Because he recognized the importance of the women in the church that helped him in the churches he mentioned in the book of Acts and other Scriptures. They simply could not hold the position of authority. God’s word also backs up Paul’s teaching in Titus chapter 1:6-9 with his letter to Titus. You may read this for yourself. Just a few other Scriptures concerning church leadership. First Peter 5:1-3 therefore, I exhort the elders among you, as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed, Shepherd (not shepherdess) the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness; nor yet does lording over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock. We must remember that we cannot add to or take away from the word of God. Proverbs 30:6 do not add to His words or He will reprove you, and you will be proved a liar. Hosea 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being My priest. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. So we see that there are consequences to be paid when we violate the Constitution of God, which is His written word. We are a people who are more concerned about the violations of the Constitution of the United States than we are of God’s Constitution for His kingdom. We need to wake up church because Jesus is coming back soon and His first stop will be in the churches to confront the false teachers and the false prophets.
Now let’s talk about some of the roles and positions that women hold in the church that are equally as important to the spiritual growth of the church. Now as we have learned there are two positions of authority in the church and they are the apostle and the pastor that are grammatically male gender only. Remember the Greek word poimen. The other three ministries in the church are either masculine or feminine. They are evangelist, teacher, prophet or prophetess. Let’s look at the ministry of evangelist and teacher. Turn to Acts 18:24 – 26 now a Jew named Apollo’s, an Alexandrian by birth, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus; and he was mighty in the Scriptures. This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he was speaking and teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus, being acquainted only with the baptism of John; and he began to speak out boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and the Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explain to him the way of God more accurately. Here we find both husband and wife teaching Apollo’s. Priscilla was able to help teach Apollo’s a more excellent way because her husband Aquila was her covering. What about the ministry of prophetess? We have both Miriam and Deborah who were prophetess in the Old Testament. In the gospel of Luke chapter 2:36 – 38 we find the prophetess Anna. And there was a prophetess, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years and had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then as a widow to the age of 84. She never left the temple, serving night and day with fasting and prayers. At that very moment she came up and began giving thanks to God, and continue to speak of him to all those who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem. What a ministry in the house of God to be continually fasting and praying for the redemption of Jerusalem. We need women like Anna who are called to be a prophetess to pray, fast, and exhort God’s children to continue in the faith and be strengthened by their example of following God. They also can minister in the office of teacher or evangelist. So for anyone to say that there is no place in God’s church for women, it is absolutely false. We need to stop being politically and socially correct when it concerns the matters in God’s house. Is it any wonder why when the church is ordaining women as pastors and even Apostles in God’s house that there is so much confusion in this nation today? When the church sets itself in order as prescribed by the word of God we will find that this nation will again be convicted of her sins and turn back to God. But until then it will remain in a moral meltdown. Until the church restores its true identity according to Ephesians 4:11 – 16 and he gave some as apostles and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of the service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, (Not unity of denominations) and of the knowledge of the son of God, to a mature man, to the major of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result we are no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects on to him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. Until this happens there will be great confusion and division as we see now. Multiple denominations and doctrines which is another teaching.
God called us more than 20 years ago and commanded us according to Joel 2:1 – 2 blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming; surely it is near, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness. As the dawn is spread over the mountains, so there is a great and mighty people; there has never been anything like it: nor will there be again after it to the years of many generations. We did not seek or ask for this call on our lives, but when God spoke to my wife in a vision and she shared that with me, we prayed and fasted and through the Holy Spirit we had to be obedient even after counting the cost that would come with it. His word tells us that obedience is better than sacrifice, so we are willing to pay the price of blowing the trumpet and sounding the alarm in God’s church. May the Holy Spirit lead and guide you into all truth; for to know the truth is to be set free. Many who are sitting in churches today know Jesus just simply as the way. By knowing Jesus simply as the way brings about no-cost to a person, which brings about no spiritual growth. Knowing Jesus as the truth begins to bring a person closer to Him as the sheep are being separated from the goats and at this point some simply turn away because the truth begins to add a cost in our decision making. Then those who find him as the truth continue on their journey to find Jesus the life. At this point you become willing to count it all joy when you suffer for the sake of His word. Many are called but few are chosen. The way to destruction is short and wide and many go that way, but the way into His Kingdom is long and narrow and few pass that way.
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May the Lord keep in bless you in all things.
