Eddie Hyatt is back again to butcher the bible to convince women to be disobedient to scripture...

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For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. - Isaiah 55:8-9 (ESV)

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Here it is again. One of my least favorite topics to write about but perhaps the one with the most clarity in scripture. As long as people like Eddie Hyatt continue to mangle the word of God in their pursuit of women serving in authoritative positions over men in God's church, I will provide the correction. Not because it is a crucial salvation matter of doctrine but because it is a core mater of obedience and the Hyatt's of the world do not mind if they lead countless numbers of people into disobedience. Additionally, if you train yourself to treat God's word so haphazardly on this subject that can only lead to further sloppy usage of the holy scripture. Beloved, we all have things in the bible that may not make total sense to us within this mortal frame. How quickly we forget the key verses today because we are inundated with cheap preaching that tries to bring God down to our level or lift us up to His. He is the creator of the entire universe! He does not think as we do! As the heavens are higher than the earth so are His ways higher than ours! You think you can figure out an infinite God? There are powerful verses in the Book of Job that ask if we are so arrogant that we think we can lie to Him as we lie to each other! With that as the backdrop let us turn to the above link from Eddie Hyatt who seemingly writes about two subjects, neither one correctly. One is his dominionist bent on insisting that this country is actually under covenant with God. Spoiler alert! It isn't. The other subject he routinely butchers is women in leadership within the church. He and his wife have written books on these subjects because of their obsession with disobedience. So, let us reason once more together.

"Lifeway Research recently released the results of a survey involving 1000 Protestant pastors concerning the level of their acceptance of women in leadership. They found that most would accept women leading Bible studies, but only 44% of evangelical pastors and 14% of Baptist pastors answered in the affirmative when asked if their church permitted women to serve as "senior pastors." "Senior pastor" is not a Biblical term, but for many Protestant pastors, it is the highest position of authority in the local church. Since "authority" is the central issue for them, they exclude women from that position. For other churches it may be the position of "elder" that is off limits to women, but the issue is the same""authority." One influential mega church, for example, allows women pastors, but only men can be elders. They explain that the governing body for their church is their board of elders, and since, in their opinion, women cannot exercise governing authority, all elders must be men." - Eddie Hyatt

As Eddie will soon be forced to admit, the reason why "authority" is the issue is that God said so in 1Timothy when he specifically stated that He does not permit women to teach of have authority over men. As if this was not plain enough, God even goes as far as to tell us why He deems it so. This is because Adam was formed first and the women is who was deceived in the garden and became a sinner. I know this flies in the face of what a lot of feminist Christians think but it is truth. It does not matter what Lifeway Research discovers. It does not matter what Protestant churches do. It only matters what the word of God says and it says - I do not permit. Period, full stop. No matter what linguistic or historical hoops Eddie Hyatt wants to jump through, he cannot escape these clear, directive scriptures.

"The truth is that neither Paul nor any New Testament writer ever made "authority" the issue when it comes to women serving in leadership roles in the church. The Greek word for "authority" in the New Testament is exousia, and it is found 102 times in the Greek New Testament, and numerous other times in its verb and other cognate forms. Not once is a woman told she cannot exercise exousia. How then are we to understand 1 Timothy 2:12, where Paul writes, I do not permit a woman to teach or have authority over a man? To understand correctly what Paul meant in this passage, it is necessary to examine his word choice. It is of utmost importance to note that the Greek word translated "authority" here is not exousia. Instead of exousia, Paul uses the word authentein, and this is the only place it is found in the entire New Testament. This should immediately raise a red flag for the Bible exegete, for if he were addressing the normal exercise of authority in the church we would expect him to use the normal word for authority that he and all other Biblical writers use. That he uses a strange Greek word that neither he nor any New Testament writer ever uses, is a clear indication that he is addressing a unique situation that exists with Timothy and the church in Ephesus where Timothy is ministering. The historical context in which Paul writes this letter to Timothy must, therefore, be taken into serious consideration." - Eddie Hyatt

Let the word linguistic games begin! I want you to follow along here in the twisted logic of Eddie Hyatt. Let's stipulate that the choice of using authentein instead of exousia is correct as Eddie has laid out. It is because of this fact however that he leaves the world of logic. His assertion that the usage of the "strange word" indicates that he is talking specifically about a unique situation that exists at Ephesus. Why did Eddie jump to this absurd conclusion? Because it fits the narrative he wants to support! There is nothing in the text that indicates this! Paul may have used a special word so that people would take heed of the importance of women not serving in authority in God's church over men! It is just a plausible. As an exegete, it always raises a red flag for me when someone adds personal bias to their conclusions. Let us never lose sight also of one of the primary arguments against this rationale from Hyatt and that is called divine inspiration. We believe that God divinely inspired the writers of all the books of the bible. This means God wrote these verses, not Paul. All scripture is God breathed and useful for all things, not just in Ephesus at the time of this writing. There is another verse later that states that Paul's writings were already considered scripture! Even if all of this leaves you unconvinced, look at the context!

I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. - 1Timothy 2:12-14 (ESV)

If this was just meant for the church at Ephesus why would God explain to the detail that He did? What would be the point of verses 13 and 14? Beloved, it is quite obvious that God intended exactly what He said and provided eternal reasoning for it. Eddie Hyatt unfortunately, is far from done:

"We know from 1 Timothy 1:3 that Timothy is in Ephesus at Paul's urging to confront false teaching that is affecting the Christians in Ephesus. It is also obvious from the letter that this false teaching is having a particular effect on the women. Paul's admonition in 2:11-12 must be understood in this context. Those who read 1 Timothy as a manual for church order are completely missing Paul's point." - Eddie Hyatt

Are we Eddie? Perhaps you are so concerned about Paul's point that you have not considered God's point. This is not how we exegete the bible. Consider with me for a moment the letter to the church at Galatia. Now, the Galatian Church was infiltrated by a false teaching sect known as the Judaizers who believed you must be circumcised in order to be saved, in addition to saving faith in Christ. To a large part, that was why Paul wrote the letter. God however used this writing to outline many, many truths for us to learn as disciples of Jesus Christ. It does not matter what the Judaizers were doing per se except to teach us what we ought not do. They were trying to mix law and grace and Paul goes to great lengths to show why this is wrong. To use Eddie's logic, we should dismiss the entire Book of Galatians because Paul was addressing a specific problem, germane to Galatia alone. This is ludicrous of course as God will use any issue as a teachable moment. Paul had reasons for every letter he wrote. He had zero knowledge that his writings would become the bible hundreds of years later. Only God knew!

"Based on the use of authentein in the Greco-Roman world, we know that it had very negative connotations meaning "to domineer" or "to usurp authority." In the ancient world, it was used, at least once, in reference to a murder. The murderer was said to have committed authentein. The religious and cultural milieu of Ephesus, and the fact that he and Timothy are confronting false doctrine in that city, offer the key for understanding why Paul would use authentein in this letter. In Ephesus, where the culture was dominated by worship of the female goddess, Artemis, female primacy prevailed. Artemis was a fertility goddess, totally independent and able to reproduce offspring without the help of a male cohort. According to one ancient legend, the female warriors, known as the Amazons, came out of Ephesus and their role model was Artemis." - Eddie Hyatt

It is amazing to watch someone pursue only their bias while exploring scripture because the truth cannot be contained. Eddie Hyatt just cannot see that when Paul uses the word authentein he is in fact talking about usurping authority and to be domineering. As for Artemis, is Hyatt serious? The Pagan world was rife with mythological worship. Corinth worshipped Poseidon and Philippi is said to be the birthplace of Pan. What does this have to do with this discussion? Absolutely nothing. Just consider the lunacy of Hyatt's thought process here. If this was the real reason behind the verse regarding females in authority, why wouldn't Paul say so! The lengths Hyatt will go to in order to insist he is right is breathtaking. We have a clear and directive scripture that he tells all women to ignore in favor of this wild-eyed theory about Artemis worship in Ephesus. He dismisses divine inspiration to pretend that this sole portion of scripture can be ignored because Paul was only talking to the folks in this ancient town and not God talking to His followers.

'Modern archaeology has uncovered ancient documents that confirm the sort of heresy Paul and Timothy were probably confronting in Ephesus. In these gnostic writings it obvious that myths of Artemis have become entangled with the Genesis account of creation. In these accounts, Eve is the dominate character and the one who gives life to Adam. One document reads:

"The spirit-filled woman came to him and spoke with him saying, 'Arise Adam.' And when he saw her, he said, 'You are the one who has given me life. You will be called 'the mother of the living,' because she is my mother, she is the female healer, and the wife and the one who gave birth' . . . For Eve is the first virgin, the one who had no husband and yet gave birth. She is the one who acted as a physical midwife to herself."' - Eddie Hyatt

Has it come to this Eddie? Faced with clear, directive scripture, you turn to gnostic writings to impose upon the biblical text things that are obviously not there? It is also suspicious that Hyatt provides no source for the material he cites but either way beloved - it is not in the biblical text! We can see clearly what Eddie Hyatt is doing. He does not like what the text plainly says. He disagrees, as does his wife. So, he sets out to find anything he can throw at the wall to convince people to disobey the scriptures. He reads into why Paul chose to use the words he did and concludes that he must therefore be right. He consults gnostic writings to assume that there was a specific controversy Paul was addressing so therefore we do not have to obey. This is a very dangerous road to go down. We do not get to add to scripture, impose history, culture or personal motives upon biblical figures in order to change what scripture says. We just don't spit on the word of God like this.

'Based on Paul's admonitions throughout this epistle, it seems that this was the sort of thinking that was infiltrating the church in Ephesus and provoking domineering, inappropriate behavior that would be described as authentein. Dr. David Scholer, late Professor of New Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary, agrees and says that by the use of the word authentein, Paul is denouncing violent, inappropriate behavior. He is persuaded that the text is not prescribing a universal norm of male leadership and female subservience. Rather, he concludes that the data supports the view that the passage is opposing the negative behavior of certain women, "probably the women mentioned in 1 Timothy 5:15 who follow and represent the false teachers that 1 and 2 Timothy are dedicated to opposing" (Hyatt, In the Spirit We're Equal (2nd Edition), 418). In her just released 500-page treatise, In the Spirit We're Equal (2nd Edition), Dr. Sue Hyatt demonstrates that women in the early church functioned as teachers, pastors, evangelists and apostles (Hyatt, In the Spirit We're Equal (2nd Edition), 126-34). Couple that knowledge with this breakthrough understanding of 1 Timothy 2:11-12, and it is obvious that women are not excluded from any leadership role in the church, including "senior pastor."' - Eddie Hyatt

Here are two of Hyatt's favorite tactics. The first is to quote someone more rabid a defender of this false teaching than he is. A simple Google search reveals that Dr. Scholer dedicated his life to advocating for disobedience to 1Timothy 2:12. Worse than this tactic however is Hyatt's insistence on quoting himself as a source, or his wife. Quoting a book, you have written does not make your case more academic. Scholer and Eddie's wife are just as wrong as Eddie of course. The women referred to in the fifth chapter of 1Timothy have nothing to do with the command given in the second chapter. Even though there were no chapters at the time of the writing, there is just too much in between these two points. Why would Paul write about specific women, then get into the qualifications for elders and deacons, then give Timothy specific instructions for him as a pastor, and then go back to these women in chapter five? Dr. Sue Hyatt has not shown what God has not written. Do not believe it for a second. Junia was not an apostle. Phoebe was not a pastor. These are the old tired arguments made by people who will not stop until every women believer is as disobedient as they are. Do not follow them down the rabbit hole beloved. The scripture is clear. The scripture is directive. The scripture even provides God's reason for decreeing it so. What more do we need?

Reverend Anthony Wade - September 6, 2022

Authors Bio:
Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.