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This post will be a simulated interview with the Apostle Paul taken from the position of what he might say if we could transport Paul from the New Testament account through a time tunnel into our present day.\u00a0 We are interested in asking Paul his reasons for what he wrote about women and what he thinks about the present day church regarding women\u2019s ministries.\u00a0 However the interviewer that gets first \u201ccrack\u201d at Paul will be a complementarian Christian who strongly believes that women are restricted from teaching men in the church.\u00a0 The interviewer\u2019s name will be \u201cDoug\u201d.<\/p>\n
Doug:<\/span><\/strong> Hello Apostle Paul.\u00a0 I am delighted in having the opportunity to meet you.\u00a0 I am also delighted that you have agreed to this interview.<\/p>\n Paul:<\/span> <\/strong> Please just call me brother Paul, after all we are all brothers in Christ.<\/p>\n Doug:<\/span><\/strong> Well, yes, we are all brothers in Christ, but you<\/strong><\/em> are special since the Holy Spirit used you to write the scriptures.<\/p>\n Paul:<\/span><\/strong> Ah yes, the Holy Spirit was gracious to use me to speak forth His words.\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t make me a more special sinner than you are, but I am truly grateful to God because He is a gracious Potter who saw fit to use this mere piece of clay for His glory.\u00a0 I am amazed to be here in the year 2009 and to see the body of Christ from the standpoint of the future.\u00a0 So much of what I wrote in scripture was with the future church in mind.\u00a0 I was in your church yesterday and I was amazed to see such a disproportionate amount of men doing the ministry work.\u00a0 Where are your women?<\/p>\n Doug:<\/span><\/strong> Well brother Paul, you know where they are.\u00a0 They are set in their place just like you instructed.\u00a0 They don\u2019t minister in public.\u00a0 If you went to the children\u2019s quarters you would find many of the women there.\u00a0 But we know from your writings that women are to be silent in church and they are not to teach men.\u00a0 We are very proud that we have resisted the way of the world and we have kept your law.<\/p>\n Paul:<\/span><\/strong> What!\u00a0 Where did I give you a law that commanded women to be kept \u201cin their place\u201d?\u00a0 I have always been a strong advocate of women.\u00a0 Didn\u2019t you read about Priscilla and Phoebe and all the other women that I commended?\u00a0 Do you think I kept them in the children\u2019s quarters and didn\u2019t release them for service to the full body of Christ?<\/p>\n Doug:<\/span><\/strong> But brother Paul, you only allowed these women to minister to other women.\u00a0 You never commended women for doing men\u2019s<\/strong><\/span> work.<\/p>\n Paul:<\/span><\/strong> There is no such thing as \u201cmen\u2019s work\u201d or \u201cwomen\u2019s work\u201d in the Kingdom of God.\u00a0 Where do you get such an idea?\u00a0 Didn\u2019t you read the book of Romans?\u00a0 In Romans 16:1, 2 I said:<\/p>\n Rom 16:1\u00a0 I commend unto you Phoebe our sister, who is a servant of the church that is at Cenchreae:<\/p>\n Rom 16:2\u00a0 Welcome her in the Lord as is appropriate for saints, and provide her with anything she may need from you, for she has assisted many people, including me<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Doug:<\/span><\/strong> (sputtering) But Paul, Phoebe wasn\u2019t a real Deacon, she was just a Deaconess who worked with the women.\u00a0 You commended her for her women\u2019s work.<\/p>\n Paul:<\/span><\/strong> Nonsense!\u00a0 Phoebe was a servant of the church.\u00a0 If I meant that she was a servant \u201cof the women\u201d I would have stated that.\u00a0 She served many very well including myself.\u00a0 Am I a woman?\u00a0 How could you understand Romans 16:2 to be anything other than that Phoebe assisted both men and women?<\/p>\n Doug:<\/span><\/strong> But she certainly didn\u2019t teach men!\u00a0 That of course is forbidden.<\/p>\n Paul:<\/span><\/strong> Where did the Holy Spirit ever forbid women from teaching men?\u00a0 What has happened to the church that you are now forbidding parts of the body of Christ from using their spiritual gifts for the common good?<\/p>\n Doug:<\/span><\/strong> But it was YOU who forbid it!<\/p>\n Paul:<\/span><\/strong> I bear you witness that I never forbid such a thing.\u00a0 Where are you reading that women in the body of Christ are not allowed to teach their brothers in Christ?<\/p>\n Doug:<\/span><\/strong> You said it very clearly in 1 Timothy 2:12.<\/p>\n Paul:<\/span><\/strong> Doug, my brother, that was written to Timothy concerning a problem situation that I was helping Timothy deal with.\u00a0 I left Timothy behind in Ephesus to deal with some specific problems regarding false teachers and false doctrines.\u00a0 Why would you take this verse to mean that it is applicable to all godly women?<\/p>\n Doug:<\/span><\/strong> It cannot be taken any other way!<\/p>\n Paul: <\/span><\/strong>On the contrary, 1 Timothy 2:12 cannot<\/span> be taken as a general law regarding all women.\u00a0 Think about it carefully.\u00a0 Did the Holy Spirit ever restrict women from teaching men before<\/strong> I came on the scene?<\/p>\n Doug:<\/span><\/strong> Well, no.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know any Old Testament scripture that\u00a0 forbid women from teaching men, but your<\/strong> law is good enough, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n Paul: <\/span><\/strong>If it was a valid and documented law of God, that would be right.\u00a0 But is what I said qualified to be a valid and documented law of God restricting only<\/strong><\/em> the women who happen to be alive after<\/strong><\/em> I became an apostle?\u00a0 How unlucky for those women, don\u2019t you think?\u00a0 Let us reason this through.\u00a0 I want to help you to be a Berean.\u00a0 We have established by your own admission that there was no such law before my writing that restricted all women.\u00a0 Good.\u00a0 Now here is a test for you.\u00a0 Do you remember the Bereans?<\/p>\n Doug:<\/span><\/strong> Of course I do.\u00a0 They were commended by you for testing your teaching by the Old Testament scriptures.<\/p>\n Paul: <\/span><\/strong>Good, good\u2026so,\u00a0 how would they have tested a \u201claw\u201d that had no connection at all to the Old Testament?<\/p>\n Doug:<\/span><\/strong> (Silence)\u2026.I never thought of that.\u00a0 How would they have tested that law?<\/p>\n Paul: <\/span><\/strong>The test was always against what God had already written.\u00a0 It is time to think and to think clearly<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 Believers in 2009 should not be any less careful than our noble brothers in Berea.\u00a0 Doug please tell me, what are the qualifications for a judicial ruling against a person?<\/p>\n Doug:<\/span><\/strong> What do you mean?<\/p>\n Paul: <\/span><\/strong>Come on now, this isn\u2019t too hard.\u00a0 What was required to find a person guilty of an offense?<\/p>\n Doug:<\/span><\/strong> Okay, I get you now.\u00a0 You are talking about two or three witnesses aren\u2019t you?<\/p>\n Paul: <\/span><\/strong>Absolutely!<\/p>\n Doug:<\/span><\/strong> Brother Paul, what is your point?<\/p>\n Paul: <\/span><\/strong>Where is the documented second witness for the \u201claw\u201d that takes all women who are unfortunate to be born after I became an apostle and forbids them from teaching the truth of God\u2019s word to men?<\/p>\n Doug:<\/span><\/strong> But doesn\u2019t God only need to say things once?<\/p>\n Paul: <\/span><\/strong>God has sovereignly chosen to command that every documented judicial matter must have a second or third witness.\u00a0 He has done this for our good and I heartily agree.\u00a0 Brother Doug, even Jesus submitted<\/strong><\/em> himself to the necessity of having a second or third witness.\u00a0 In John 5:31, 32 Jesus said that His testimony alone<\/strong><\/em> would be considered untrue without a second witness.\u00a0 So now, brother Doug, please tell me why my testimony<\/strong><\/em> would not have to have a second witness if even the testimony of Jesus required a second witness?<\/p>\n Doug:<\/span><\/strong> But\u2026but\u2026.<\/p>\n Paul: <\/span><\/strong>No \u201cbuts\u201d about it \u2013 every single law of God has the required second or third witness.\u00a0 God was very consistent.\u00a0 Didn\u2019t you think that it was odd that I wrote a \u201claw\u201d regarding all women and placed such an important universal law only<\/strong><\/em> in a one<\/strong><\/em> letter written specifically to one<\/strong><\/em> person?\u00a0 Didn\u2019t you think that it was odd that I didn\u2019t tell any other church that women could not teach men?<\/p>\n Doug:<\/span><\/strong> Well, no.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t think it was odd.\u00a0 I agreed with your law.\u00a0 I think women should let us men do all the teaching to the brothers.\u00a0 It makes me feel kind of special.<\/p>\n Paul: <\/span><\/strong>(Sigh!)\u00a0 You are<\/strong><\/em> special, brother Doug.\u00a0 But you are no more special than our sisters in Christ.\u00a0 God would never create a law that restricted all of his women \u201csons\u201d and not give the required validating witness.\u00a0\u00a0 I myself thought so highly of the need for a second or third witness that I practiced it continually in my letters.\u00a0 Don\u2019t you remember what I wrote to the Philippians?\u00a0 I wrote in chapter 3 verse one:<\/p>\n Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things<\/strong> again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard<\/strong> for you<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Does that sound like I practiced saying important matters only once<\/span>?<\/p>\n Doug:<\/span><\/strong> Well, no, it doesn\u2019t.\u00a0 But what about 1 Corinthians 14:34, 35?\u00a0 You wrote that women were to be silent in the church.\u00a0 I realize that you didn\u2019t write that women cannot teach men in that passage, but silence is silence, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 And didn\u2019t you write 1 Corinthians to an entire church?<\/p>\n Paul: <\/span><\/strong>There are some important things in my letter that I will highlight for you so you can understand that passage.\u00a0 But I must run for now.\u00a0 I will be back again for another interview shortly, God-willing.\u00a0 I am off to inspect this 2009 culture that seems so strange to me.\u00a0 I received an invitation to stand behind the \u201cpulpit\u201d of John MacArthur\u2019s church.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know what a \u201cpulpit\u201d is or why a church is named after a \u201cJohnny Mac\u201d. \u00a0 Someone also told me I should check out their new \u201chard drive\u201d on their \u201chot computer\u201d that allows them to minister to the lost all the way to Australia and South America.\u00a0 Hard drive??\u00a0 Hot computer?? Australia??\u00a0 South America????\u00a0 I am totally lost\u2026(turns to leave muttering to himself)\u2026.(turns around and lifts his hand in blessing) but grace and peace to you from our Lord Jesus.\u00a0 Until we meet again.<\/p>\n {Note:\u00a0 Does anyone have any questions for brother Paul that Doug could ask him about the women\u2019s issue?\u00a0 Feel free to record your questions or comments in the comment section.}<\/p>\n\n