What does the Bible say about women pastors?

Now, those of my readers who took pains to notice the conduct of the Holy Ghost regarding ministry, as it is shown in the Acts and in the Epistles, must have observed that not one instance is recorded of a woman having been either an evangelist, a pastor, or a teacher. Such an omission is certainly very significant, and I do wonder that Christian women are not more careful in avoiding, in the nineteenth century, what the Holy Ghost did not introduce in the first! Should this word meet their eye, may they ponder it. The Lord will not tolerate lawlessness.

But there is not only negative evidence against the ungodliness of women assuming the place of God's gifts for the church (pastors and teachers) or for the world (evangelists), but positive testimony is also against it.

Bishops, deacons, and elders were appointed in the early Church and described in I Timothy and in Titus. They were all men; no woman was among the number. We read of no woman evangelist, pastor, or teacher in a public sense in the New Testament. No woman is named as performing a public miracle. There are two witnesses in Revelation 11. They are prophets, not prophetesses or a prophet and a prophetess; both are men.

Now, the positive teaching of Scripture regarding the woman is that "she is to be in subjection," to "learn in silence with all subjection;" "not to speak in the assembly." "For I suffer not a woman to teach nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence (compare 1 Cor. 14:34-35; 1 Tim. 2:11).

From these Scriptures, then, it is very evident that (1) If the assembly be gathered as an assembly, in which teachers may teach, or exhorters may exhort, women are NOT to speak; (2) Whereas a teacher may invite saints to a meeting over which he may assume responsibility, and may instruct them as an authoritative teacher — the woman is not allowed to take such a place; and (3) It is equally contrary to the mind of the Lord for the woman to appear before the world as an authoritative evangelist.

These verses apply to a wider sphere than that of the gathered Assembly. They speak of proper conduct as between man and woman and would include any public testimony where both sexes are present. They refer to public teaching of mixed audiences, for exercising authority over man is spoken of. Woman is never to set herself up as a teacher or to teach in meetings of mixed sexes, for then man is at her feet as a learner, which is reversing God's order.

Man was first formed and is God's representative and head and should maintain his rightful position as leader and teacher. Because Eve took the lead in transgressing and was deceived by Satan (manifesting that she was a poor leader), in God's government women are barred from taking the place of authority and teaching. They are to learn in silence and subjection. A woman, then, is never to take a public place as a recognized teacher of God's Word or to teach in the Assembly or anywhere in mixed audiences where she takes a place of equality with or is set over men, for then she is usurping authority over man.

The apostle Paul was led by God's Spirit to write: "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" (1.Tim.2:11-12). Thus for a woman to teach in God's Assembly is definitely contrary to God's Word, not only in the days of Thyatira, but in the present day. The evil results of a woman teaching in Thyatira were manifest in her leading astray servants of the Lord into the worst evils. As Eve was deceived by Satan and led Adam into sin, so Satan has often worked since. When the woman gets out of her ordained sphere and takes the place of a teacher, she is often deceived by Satan and leads others into evil teachings of which he is the father. Many of the false and unscriptural religious cults of our day were started by women.

During a women's meeting, it is customary for some women to speak. Since the topics are related to faith and often involve discussing Bible verses, there is, at least in essence, a form of "preaching." And if they discuss certain biblical verses, there is, at least in essence, teaching. However, these "teachings" do not have the approval of the Word of God. On the contrary, God does not permit women to teach (1 Timothy 2:12).

If we understand that the woman is called to illustrate the place and characteristics of the Assembly (Ephesians 5:22-33), we will easily grasp the distinction we are trying to explain: just as the Assembly does not teach (it is taught, see 1 Corinthians 14:36-37) but is "the pillar and support of the truth" (1 Timothy 3:15), so the woman has not received from God the role of teaching (doctrinal teaching) the Word (regardless of the composition of the audience) but is called to be its living manifestation.

The Christian woman must bear a testimony in an outward manner that she is separated from these things. Then he gives the charge about the teaching authority of women. "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." This is and belongs to the wholesome, sound doctrine. Woman has her sphere of service, of laboring in the gospel and also teaching the truth, among her own sex and children. But the place of authority does not belong to her; she is not to usurp authority, nor to exercise it. This is the divine order, that the authority to teach is vested in the man. (See 1 Corinthians 11 and 14). "For Adam was first formed, then Eve." This is creation's order, which must be maintained on the ground of redemption.

And the fall teaches another lesson. "And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression." The able expositor Bengel wrote on this: "More easily deceived, she more easily deceives." When she leaves the place given her according to this apostolic charge, she is easily deceived, and then in turn easily deceives others. The second epistle speaks of "silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts." Women rejecting sound doctrine, usurping authority, have become instruments of the enemy, by inventing Satanic doctrines and perverting the truth of God.

“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. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.” (1 Tim. 2:11-14).

Here the instructions are not confined to the assembly, and forbid women to teach men in religious matters. It does not hinder their speaking to their own sex, and what happy, useful work women have done in this way.

The prohibition of the public spiritual ministration of women to men is given under two heads. First, the order of creation. Adam was first formed. Man is the head of the woman. Second, woman was first in the transgression.

1 Corinthians 14 is clear that the woman is not to speak at all in the assembly. In our present chapter it is shown that teaching is not for her, whether in the assembly or elsewhere, if any public character of things is involved. At least, if men are present, it is not the woman's place to teach. The instructing of women or of children in less public circumstances could hardly come under the same restriction, but the woman must be careful that her teaching in any case does not put her in a place of any kind of prominence. It is in fact her glory to be in quietness. The reason for this given here is to be closely observed! Adam was first formed, then Eve. It is-simply order in God's creation, with no question of moral superiority or inferiority involved at all, nor any question of ability. It is God's order, and any infraction thereof is disorder.