Preface to the Preface....March 19....The topic of the following post is certainly controversial....but it is not negotiable. This is not something such as whether we baptize infants or only adults upon confession of faith. This is part of the essential doctrine of the faith....but not of salvation. I know multiple people who have not only missed this.....but are part of the abuse of scripture. I'll only point to two particular....women....that I know very well. They are mature Christians! I talk to them all the time and this issue never comes up....(more accurately....hardly ever comes up). This is because the fellowship is so strong....I'm not looking at someone here whose faith is in jeopardy at all....so I do not bring it up.....but....they have missed discernment on other important matters....and this may very well be the primary reason. Bringing this up only invites criticism....and endangers friendships and fellowship....but it has to be seriously addressed. These two friends of mine....and others obviously....the entire church really....has to make an informed and decisive and overt decision on this....and not back into it by avoiding the issue. There will be a winnowing....but that winnowing is coming anyway in this modern church that has lost the essence and efficacy of the gospel....this issue being both a symptom....and a cause....of that loss.
Preface: We hear the phrase literally all the time....we just no longer take note of it. Just watch ten minutes of the local news....someone will be interviewed....and in the course of the interview exclaim something like....'Oh my God.....there was this noise!' Sit around the dinner table with extended family and you will hear it. Watch a sitcom and it will be there. Right now....OMG means absolutely nothing...it's just an exclamation....."Oh my God....I'm so excited!" This will change in a single day. We have had over three years now....where had we any discernment whatsoever....we would instead have been crying out....'O God....have mercy upon us.' Men in our pulpits would have been shedding literal...wet...salty tears. A pandemic wasn't nearly enough to wake us up. We blew that off like Pharoah blew off the blood and the frogs and the gnats and everything else. The post below points to just one example where....in the church today....concerning God's word to us....there is no....'work out you own salvation with fear and trembling'....but rather....'OMG....this is so exciting!'
"Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light." Ephesians 5:14
"Wake up..." Revelation 3:2
"So then let us not sleep. as others do, but let us keep" awake and be sober." 1 Thess. 5:6
The Southern Baptist Convention is in the news again....this time because it ejected five churches that hired female pastors. Why on earth am I bringing this up? It can only cause more people to be upset with me because of what I write. There are churches all over America ordaining 'gay' pastors. Probably three-quarters of all the churches in America haven't even a faint clue as to the gospel of Jesus Christ. So why the women in the pulpit thing?
Well for one thing....if the reader should consider this....and come to see that women are not to be pastors....and not only see this but come to wonder how they could ever have gotten this wrong to begin with....for it is so scripturally obvious....then they might just then get a real glimpse of the trouble that the American church is in. If the church gets it wrong on a simple 1+1=2 equation....what else could it be wrong on? The answer would be....all kinds of things.
"Still....Special Dog....you are barely hanging on. Your friends don't even want to talk to you anymore? Give it a break. Lay off this one....but OK....if you are going to do it....then go ahead and start off with your biblical evidence. Where does it say that women cannot be pastors.....or where does it say that only men can be pastors?"
I'm not trying to change your mind on this one. If you cannot see this....it's not because of lack of scriptural evidence....it is because of personal bias....or pride. This is somewhat similar to some who on the topic of 'the Lord's Day' demand to know where the Bible specifically says that the first day of the week is now the sabbath day. They are not giving up their Sundays....and unless you can show them chapter/verse....'the Sabbath is now the first day of the week'....they will continue to believe what they have wanted to believe all along. There are Christians who may not even believe in demons....that are everywhere in the Bible....but they believe in UFOs....that God's Word gives no possibility to at all. There are clear warnings on men with men and women with women....but if the personal bias is there....scripture verses mean nothing.
This issue of the pulpit has feminism written all over it. This is a 'progressivism' issue folks! It is also a 'woke' issue. The 'woke' evangelical demands that women can be pastors. We are also seeing....'wokeness'....in our politics.....'masks are bad for our children's psyche'....that's 'woke'....tell this complaint to the parents in the Ukraine or Syria or Armenia....and see how much sympathy you get.
The men in our pulpits are our weak link today. They comfort....and give no warnings....as women have been a strength in the church for many years now....and it is time for these men in our pulpits to do what they were called to do....feed the sheep....protect the sheep from wolves....warn the church of coming judgment....a judgment of which we all share culpability....take us off the pedestal and lead us through example on rejoicing in the glory that is Christ's alone....relying only upon Him....and not politics....trusting only in Him....and looking to His return.....saying as will the angels around the throne...."Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen." Revelation 7:12
