Women's Rights.
Turn on the television, pick up a newspaper or magazine and listen to the radio and what do we so often, in today's society hear. One of the most commonly used words are 'Right' - Animal 'Rights', Workers 'Rights', Drivers 'Rights', Children's 'Rights', Human 'Right’s Women's 'Rights' Etc. My question has to be what therefore, as a Christian and as a woman, are my 'Rights'. What does the Bible say about my 'Rights' and position in His church and body in today's society? My intention here is to show that a Christian, man or woman, has' No-Right'. All we actually have is the Authority, which is given to us by the Grace of God. This begs the question what does this God-given Authority entail? Firstly it means that we have to completely die to self, letting go of all our own preconceived ideas, and ideals and also letting go of our "so-called" 'Rights'. Then secondly it entails being subject to His will alone, doing His bidding as and when He tells us, in accordance with His Word, for God never acts contrary to what is laid down in Scripture. Jesus is our example of this, He prayed in Gethsemane, "Not my will, but thine be done". (John 14:15) (All quotes are taken from the King James Version [AV} - unless otherwise stated) Paul also tells us in his epistle to the Romans in Chapter 6 Verse 13, "Yield yourselves unto God": verse 16 "Yield yourselves servants to obey" and again in verse 19 "Yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness". In the same book to the Roman Paul in Chapter 12 Verse 1 tells us to present our bodies a living sacrifice, why? Because we have been "bought with a price" (1 Corinthians 6: 20) and it is our reasonable service. (Romans 12:1) Once again we read this time in James 4:7 to submit ourselves to God,
Today we live in an age when the Word of God is undermined, I personally take a High-View of the Scriptures, * in that the Bible Is the inerrant Word of God [2 Timothy 3:16]. "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” This means that it is relevant to each and every situation we are in. We have absolutely no business in removing any part of it, Just because it doesn't fit in with our own thinking. If we don't accept its relevance, uniqueness and authority it really doesn't matter, because we don't accept it anyway and might as well throw the whole thing into the nearest dustbin. It's simple with the bible it's all or nothing, no halfway measures, accepting parts and refusing other parts. If we cannot accept the whole of the Bible as the Word of God, then we have no part in His Kingdom.
What disturbs me is that a number of women today believe that it is their 'Right' to hold each and every position within the church. Is it God's will or God's Order of things for women to hold this belief of any order or any ministry within the church is their by God given right? Therefore, in the light of 1 Timothy 2: 11 & 12 where the Apostle Paul is writing to Timothy and states "Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence".

Whilst today, many women (as well as men) would see these verses as irrelevant or lacking authority, if we accept this view, then as I previously said we may as well throw the whole Bible into the nearest dustbin. For if one verse is irrelevant in my opinion it makes the whole of the Bible irrelevant- If we are unable to accept the whole Bible, why should we even think we can accept any of it. What makes one verse relevant and another irrelevant? It has to be all or nothing.
Coming back to what Paul wrote to Timothy let the woman learn in silence - does this then mean that under no circumstances is she allowed to take part in any part of the service? The question that is asked raises a number of difficulties and cannot be answered in a straight yes or no. For a surface reading would simply seem to be a straight yes, however this answer would bring confusion and conflict with other parts of the Bible. W. Hendriksen translates verses 11 & 12, of 1 Timothy 2, as "let a woman learn in silence, with complete submissiveness. But to teach I do not permit a woman, nor to exercise authority over a man, but to remain silent". Whilst these words might appear unfriendly in actual fact they are expressive of a feeling of tender sympathy and basic understanding. "Let not a woman yearn to exercise authority over a man, by lecturing him in public worship. For the sake of both herself and of the spiritual welfare of the church, such unholy tampering with divine authority is forbidden". Hendriksen goes on to state "Paul cannot permit it (1 Corinthians 14:34) Moreover he further goes on to state that "to teach, that is to preach in an official manner, ... public worship to exercise authority over a man, to dominate him, is wrong for a woman.... ”In Genesis, we read man was first created and then God created woman, but woman was made for man and not man for woman. The very fact that woman was taken from the side of man demonstrates her equality with man. She was not taken from his head to be over him, neither was she created as man's inferior thus under his feet and should never be considered as such. But without any reasonable doubt she is plainly and simply mans helpmate. In other words the woman's role is to be supportive of her husband's duties in whatever role or capacity they maybe, whether in secular or religious life.
There is a new tendency that has crept into the church, which is that because a woman's husband is the pastor this automatically makes his wife a pastor too. This is contrary to scripture for the call of God is to an individual, while it is not impossible that sometimes God may call the wife also into the ministry. It is NOT an automatic right for a woman just to assume that she is pastor just because her husband is one. In secular life the same would apply if for example the woman's husband were the vice chancellor of a university, the wife cannot assume an equal academic position. Although at times she may do so, this would be solely on her own academic record of achievements and not simply on her husbands. Therefore, the wife's role is to stay close to her husband and be supportive of him under his authority and under his arm of protection, in other words by his side and both together under God. It was never God's intention that woman go it alone, but always to be under man's protection. It is when a woman moves out from God's order that things go wrong. This is illustrated in the incident of the fall.

From the account in Genesis 3, we read that the serpent tempted Eve, this was only possible because we see her taking the lead and leaving her natural place beside her husband and going off on her own. Instead of resisting Satan's advances and calling on the protection of her husband she acted in total independence and was deceived by the devil into disobedience of God's commands. Adam was not deceived, like the woman, he sinned his eyes were open he was more guilty than his wife. The reason being is that his sin was not an act of deception but of deliberate disobedience. It seems that when women leave their God given position of protection they become easy prey for Satan. 2 Timothy 3:6 talks of silly women led captive by evil men in the perilous times of the last days. Just a quick look at recent history shows us how many women have been involved in deception. The majority of mediums are women, modern spiritism began with the Fox sisters, Seventh Day Adventism was started by Mrs. White. The holiness preacher who went into trances and gave false prophecies was a woman - Maria Woodworth-Etter. Amy Semple McPherson who led a trouble and tempestuous life, Kathryn Kuhlman who held healing crusades, but not even one case of physical healing could actually be documented, verified, or authenticated. Men too have fallen into error; this is not to be denied; however, for the sake of this paper I want to keep the focus upon women rather than men.
I believe that Paul was not attempting to put women down. What he did say was "I do not permit a woman to teach - not that a woman did not have the ability to teach. In these days it is often presumed that women in the days when the New Testament was written were not afforded an education, in actual fact this is pure fallacy. The only women (girls) that were excluded were those from the poorest of families, otherwise both men and women (boys and girls) were taught to read and study the scriptures. Examples of this are found in Acts (18:18-21) where Pricilla explained to Apollous or tutored him in the scriptures concerning the Lord Jesus Christ and the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. We also find that both the mother and grandmother of Timothy had taught him the scriptures from and extremely early age. Thus, the apostle Paul sees the importance of the woman in the education of their children and visitors to the homes.

Paul writing in 1 Cor. 14:33 - 35 gives instructions concerning a woman praying or prophesying. Some would argue that the role of women in the church is to remain totally silent and this applies solely to women in their homes. Others would argue a totally opposite view stating that it was rather a woman preaching which is not permitted but praying and prophesying within the church is permitted if it is under the direction and control of God the Holy Spirit and the Pastor. Moreover there are those who would argue that women are allowed to teach of preach the word of God providing they do not usurp the authority within the church. As Usurp is not a word that is commonly used today I looked it up. To Usurp actually means, the wrongful seizure of power or authority - to encroach, impinge, invade, overstep, infringe, intrude, steal or trespass. To take unlawfully - either with/without or by violent means against someone's will. Not something that only a woman can do, a man too can usurp the authority of another and it is equally wrong. On a personal note, one weekend whilst my husband was staying with his parents, he telephoned me on the Sunday afternoon. He was excited about a testimony that had been given in the church that morning. The visiting speaker, a well-known evangelist, had asked his wife to relate an experience that they had recently had. To justify her position over a strange phenomenon she had used a particular scripture. After this talk with my husband, I was uneasy about what had been related to me. I got out my bible looked up the scripture in question and no-matter how I read it I could not see the connection that this lady had made; I went on and read the whole chapter. What this woman had done was to quote a scripture completely out of context. I consulted a number of commentaries that are in the house; studied them to make sure it wasn't me who was reading things wrongly. After having, my worst fears confirmed I wrote down my own thought plus a few quotations from the commentaries. On my husbands return I showed him what I had discovered from the scriptures and this led to a friendly discussion. He has thrilled and totally agreed with my findings. Sometime later a friend came to visit us and my husband had started to relate to him what had been stated that Sunday morning - he then turned to me saying "you did the research, you explain it". What he did that day was to give me his authority to go on and "teach" what I had discovered. I went on to explain to our friend, a man, who also agreed with my findings, and had no problems with me telling him - this is because I was given the authority of my husband to do so. I did not usurp his authority; he gave it to me. For anyone, women included, to teach or to usurp authority is to disrupt God's order. So here we see that a man, husband, father, pastor can give a woman his authority, under his jurisdiction and control and under his protection.
The reasoning behind Paul writing about women usurping authority it has been suggested, was that he was writing to a young pastor where it is possible that busy-body women within the church were under mining Timothy's authority. For Paul the role of women in his advice to Timothy is that they should continue in faith, charity, and holiness with sobriety. Although he frequently addresses the church as "brethren" Paul often directed himself expressly to the women as well, an example of this is the large place women take up in the list of greetings in Romans 16. In verse 1 there is Phoebe who is described as a servant [of the Lord - The Greek word for servant in this instance, could also be translated deacon] In the same chapter Paul also mentions other women who have shown him kindness in his ministry.

Paul lays down the institution of the offices; he shows that elders, deacons and women who render service must be spiritually and morally qualified in order to perform their God given task. Whatever task God the Holy Spirit leads us into, it is not ours by right, but is given by His Grace, Authority, and Ordination. Therefore we have no rights on God's ministry but as already noted what God requires from each one of us is submission and obedience to whatever He is calling us, into. Education itself does not necessarily imply that God the Holy Spirit is calling us to a specific task o ministry. Our office therefore is from God in order to bring glory to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and His church. Ideally the ministry should be male dominated, though there are times when for various reasons God will lay His hand on that of a female to take responsibility for the work. Just as under the old covenant women were called to the prophetic office in order to lead the nation of Israel.
2667 words.
* HIGH VIEW of SCRIPTURE - means that we live our lives according to the Bible. I believe that spiritual strength and insight finds its center in the Word. A high view of Scripture is necessary to build an unshakable foundation for a strong and growing church, and in our own personal lives. In affirming a high view of Scripture, I believe that it is a foundational truth for living. In a church culture that increasingly marginalises the authority of Scripture and is becoming increasingly biblically illiterate, this view offers a secure foothold for a sound theology. The Bible, God's Inerrant Word is our supreme and final authority in education as well as in all other matters of faith and life. The Bible is fully inspired of God/ so that, even though it was given through human authors, it is entirely free from error- This high view of scripture is the foundation to all Christian experience; II Timothy 3:16, II Peter 1:20-21.
Sue Malin. January 2002.