I saw an article today from J. Lee Grady asking if we will ever stop arguing over women being allowed to pastor and preach over men. While I share his frustration the answer is never as long as people like Eddie Hyatt insist on mangling the Word of God to push Christo-feminism upon the body of Christ. Hyatt has literally written books on this subject where he packages all of same old tired and unbiblical arguments to convince women to disobey the word of God. This subject is not nearly as controversial as people like Grady and Hyatt make it out to be. On one side are clear directive scriptures that even provide God's reasoning for why He has ordained that women are not to exercise authority over men in teaching and preaching. These are the Scriptures:

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)

As in all the churches of the saints, the women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says. If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church. -- 1Corinthians 14:33-35 (ESV)

These are not ambiguous beloved. I do not permit seems pretty straightforward. On the other side of the argument you have forces aligned to discard these clear directive scriptures in favor of absolute nonsense. First, they try and say that Paul was a misogynist; completely forgetting that God wrote the bible, not Paul. Then they try to muddy the waters by reading into the roles other women had in bible history. Suddenly people who are referred to once as a "helper" are elevated to a position of "deaconess", a word which would be created for another thousand years. Men such as Junias suddenly become a woman, Junia. Or they will insist that in this one spot in the bible we must apply cultural arguments and assume that Paul was only speaking to the church at Ephesus, which of course ignores the Corinthians verses and his insistence that this applies to "all the churches of the saints." I thought I had saw everything until I saw the final desperation Hail Mary play today from Hyatt. Now he is claiming God told him to affirm women pastors. What a transparent sham. The idea of course is that once you claim the direct revelation card you elevate your own wickedness to the same level as scripture. We of course know this is absurd for one simple reason. God would never violate His own word. Never. So, let us reason once more through the depraved mind of Eddie Hyatt:

"It was a Saturday evening, and I was prayerfully preparing to speak the following morning at a church that had been founded, and pastored for many years, by a woman. I had ministered there before, and it seemed like a very successful church that loved and respected its female pastor.

For years, I had studied the issue of women in leadership and had become convinced that God calls women to preach, pastor and do all the things He calls men to do in the church. However, as I considered a topic for my message, I said to myself, "I don't need to address the 'woman issue' and show the biblical basis for women in leadership. Gloria is respected and loved by her congregation, so there is no need for me to go there." Despite my prayers and preparation, I went to bed without a sense of direction, but having decided I would not address the issue of women pastors and leaders." -- Eddie Hyatt

You can see this set up coming, can't you? Let us deal with the fact that some churches have female pastors and I am sure their congregations love them mightily. Does that change what God has said? No, it does not. There are also "successful" churches that women lead. Does that change what God has said? No, it does not. Can women be gifted orators and deliver powerful sermons? Of course they can but that also does not change what God has said. Are you sensing a theme here? So, Hyatt admits here he was feeling conflicted about not bringing a word to this church about his conclusions regarding women in pastoral roles. Gee, I wonder what he would dream about that night?

"I am not one given to visions and dreams, but that night, I had a very vivid dream. Amazingly, it was not skewed in any way, but everything was exactly as it is in real life. In the dream, I was sitting in the pastor's office the next morning with Gloria and two of her associates. We were in our Sunday best with the men, including myself, wearing jackets and ties. As the worship team led the congregation in the final song, we all stood to go on the platform where, in a few minutes, I would be introduced and preach the message for that Sunday morning. As we stood, I looked down and was shocked to see that my feet were bare. I could hardly believe my eyes. Here I was, all dressed up with a suit and tie, but with no shoes. I hurried out the door to the parking lot to see if I had taken off my shoes during the 45-minute drive to the church. I searched frantically under and around the seats, but there were no shoes to be found. I then stood by my van and looked at my watch, wondering if I had time to rush home and get my shoes. It was obvious I didn't! The pastor would be turning the service to me in just a few minutes. I then thought, "Maybe I can make some sort of joke about my bare feet," but decided that would not go over with this congregation. I stood by my van feeling so distressed and wondering, "How could I do this? "How could I get all dressed up and go out without my shoes!" At that point, I woke up." -- Eddie Hyatt

Wow, sounds like someone had some bad pizza the night before. Seriously, without having read ahead yet I am frightened how Hyatt is going to turn this silliness into a prophetic dream where God is telling him to affirm women pastors. Beloved we only get to this point by first abusing the concept of prophecy. Throughout the bible it is clear that prophecy is God speaking to man to bring His word to His people. As such, that word is always 100% accurate. One deviation and you are a false prophet -- period. Today prophecy is taught like a parlor trick. An exercise in clairvoyance where a 65% accuracy rate is deemed strong. False prophets are taught that anything that pops into their heads must be a word from the Lord. Anything they dream is now considered prophetic. They forget the cardinal rule of accuracy however. They do not bother to check if it violates the word God has already spoken through the bible. Instead they elevate the false word to the same level of verity and assume it must be true because to them -- God said it. this is the wickedly deceitful heart that Jeremiah warns us about. This is not new beloved. The key verses are from 600 years before Christ walked the earth and God was having the same problem then. False prophets who see false visions, divining lies. They say thus says the Lord when the Lord has spoken no such thing. That is Eddie Hyatt and his shoeless dream.

"A New Understanding of the 'Gospel of Peace.' I knew God was speaking, and the first Scripture that came to mind was Ephesians 6:15 (NASB), which reads, "and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace." I had always thought of the word "peace" in this passage as referring to that nice internal sense of tranquility and well-being. However, as I took a fresh look at the verse, I realized that Paul was talking about the kind of peace that occurs when different parties that have been at odds and separated, lay down their hostilities and are reconciled in peace. It is the kind of peace that occurs when warring nations lay down their weapons, and there is a signing of "peace." I then saw that the "gospel of peace" is the good news of what Jesus has done to remove the racial, social and gender animosity that has divided the human race since the fall." -- Eddie Hyatt

What? Are you following this? Hyatt goes to bed conflicted about deciding to not preach his heresy and has a dream where he forgets his shoes and somehow this reveals to him that the Gospel of Peace is the good news of what Jesus has done to remove racial, social, and gender animosity? I would laugh but this is too serious. The Gospel of Peace has nothing to do with social justice issues. The Good News is eternal -- about His Kingdom. To lower it to relieve carnal injustices is to truly denigrate what Jesus died for. A simple Google search reveals that barefoot dreams indicate you are lowering your guard. Now, I do not know if that is true, but it makes more sense than redesigning what the Good News means.

"Walls of Separation Have Been Removed 'in Christ.' The second passage that came to mind was Ephesians 2:14 (MEV), which reads, "For He is our peace, who has made both groups one and has broken down the barrier of the dividing wall." Paul is specifically addressing, in this passage, the racial separation of Jews and Gentiles. He says that Christ is our peace--the point of reconciliation--and that He has broken down the middle wall of separation between Jew and Gentile. In the Jerusalem temple of Paul's day, there was an actual wall that kept Gentiles separated from Jews. There were signs posted on this wall warning Gentiles not to proceed any further on the threat of death. During one of Paul's visits to Jerusalem, the Jews tried to kill him because they thought he had taken a Gentile--an Ephesian--past this dividing wall (Acts 21:27-29). There was also a wall that separated the women so that the only individuals who had free access to the sanctuary were Jewish males. These walls divided the people according to both race and gender. Paul now says to the Ephesian believers that in Christ, these dividing walls have been removed. This is what he is referring to in Galatians 3:28 where he says, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, and there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." Paul is saying that the old value system wherein people were judged, valued and divided according their race, sex or class have been removed in Christ. Jesus broke down these walls of separation and discrimination so that all may now move freely in His presence and in obedience to Him." -- Eddie Hyatt

Let us first deal with the ongoing "prophecy" nonsense. This is what happens when you think whatever pops into your heart, or sleeping mind, is from God. The dream was simple. Somehow, he forgot his shoes. I can think of ten interpretations off the top of my head that do not make God a liar and reduce the Gospel to the carnality of social justice. The first one that comes to my mind would be that since our feet are supposed to be shod with the Gospel of Peace, God is showing Eddie that he does not preach the true Gospel by showing him that his feet are actually bare when he is ready to preach. Or it could be the bad pizza theory. Either way, to make the leaps of illogic Hyatt makes here to end up right where he wanted to be -- defending the unbiblical -- is truly sad. As for the Galatians reference, Hyatt also does not get it. God is saying that as sons of God there are no man-made barriers between us. The ground is level at the foot of the cross. That does not mean that God no longer has roles for us to play beloved. No one is suggesting that men are superior to women or should lord themselves over women. On the other side you cannot pretend that Galatians 3 eviscerates the differences between men and women. Are men no longer meant to be the headship of the family? I mean after all there are no more man and women in Christ. This is where this disturbing theology built on fleshly dreams ends up.

"The Good News of Reconciliation. I now saw clearly that the gospel of peace is the good news of what Jesus has done to reconcile fragmented humanity to Himself and then to one another. It is the good news that the walls of separation and discrimination based on sex, race and class have been broken down. I saw as never before that excluding women from leadership based on their sex is not a part of the gospel. It is, in fact, a truncated gospel. How dare anyone build walls of exclusion and separation in the one community (the church) where they have been eliminated through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ! I now saw that to have one's feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace means that we stand ready, at a moment's notice, to declare that in Christ those dividing wall are gone and everyone has free access to His presence and are free to obey Him." -- Eddie Hyatt

Wow, breathtakingly bad theology. Beloved, everyone already has free access to the presence of God and are free to obey Him. God simply put one restriction on roles women can serve in His church. It is not a "wall of exclusion" or a "truncated gospel." I am not saying we should run around insisting that the Gospel is denying women leadership positions. The importance of the subject is obedience and when we start making excuses to be disobedient in one area, the leaven always spreads. How dare anyone mangle the bible as Eddie Hyatt does here in an effort to convince women to be disobedient to the word of God! Stop minimizing the Gospel! The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ was about our reconciliation to the Father through the forgiveness of our sins! Not women's lib or equal rights.

"Do You Have Your Shoes On? As I reflected on my dream and the new understanding of Paul's admonition to have "your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace," I heard the Holy Spirit say: "Don't ever go anywhere without your shoes on. Don't ever go anywhere without being ready to declare that 'in Me' the walls of separation, discrimination and marginalization have been broken down and removed." What about you? Do you have your shoes on? Are you prepared to declare the gospel of peace?" -- Eddie Hyatt

Wow again. Do you see where our corrupt flesh and deceitful heart take us? Eddie Hyatt went to bed feeling guilty that he was not going to speak about women preaching. He claims to have had a dream where he was not wearing shoes. He awoke to find any correlation he could to make it feel to him that God was telling him to preach what is a direct violation to His word. What is worse however is in having to reach these conclusions Eddie Hyatt transformed the Gospel of Peace into the end of some carnal sense of perceived gender discrimination. As if that was why Jesus went to the cross. Listen, arguing this topic does get old. This is not a point of joy for myself or anyone I know who simply refuses to allow people to abuse the word of God. I get the frustration of people like J. Lee Grady. As long as people like Hyatt however are going pollute the Gospel to push this agenda, I am afraid the argument endures.

Reverend Anthony Wade -- June 14, 2019