"' - Charisma News
This is usually the first play for those desperate to change what the word of God says. Knowing they cannot defend the indefensible scriptures found here in 1Timothy and confirmed in one of the letters to the Corinthians, Wood and Warren instead find trojan horses and back doors to get around the word. The first such is the notion that Paul did not lead as these verses reflect and therefore we must somehow ignore or dismiss the key verses. Is that the way that hermeneutics is supposed to work? We have a clear and directive scripture but we ignore that in favor of our personal understanding of a concept found elsewhere in the bible? That is beyond reckless.
"When it comes to spiritual gifts, there is a myriad list that you see showing up through the New Testament. In particular, there were five spiritual gifts that the apostle Paul talks about in the book of Ephesians that are equipping gifts," Wood says. "Paul is speaking in chapter 4, verse 11 when he says 'Christ gave some to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers; He gave them to equip His people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.' ... - Charisma News
What Wood is trying to do here is move the goalposts. Faced with directive and definitive scriptures as above, he instead wants to make this a discussion on spiritual gifts, which has a lower bar to meet, and then reapply it back to church leadership. The bible does not work that way beloved. No one is arguing that women cannot be prophets or evangelists. Depending on the situation, teaching is not ruled out. One can easily argue that this subject is presented as being more flexible but that does to change the clear and directive scriptures above.
'"You see it through the book of Acts. The question to wrestle through is in the New Testament is, were there both men and women who had the apostleship gift, the pastoral gift, evangelist, shepherd, teacher. Undoubtedly, when you study the New Testament, almost every theologian would argue yes, there are men who are apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers. The question that is oftentimes in controversy is, do women have those spiritual gifts or are they commissioned by God to be functioning in those particular areas of the local church." - Charisma News
The point of switching the focus off of definitive scriptures onto a more malleable subject is the controversy. The point is the confusion. The point made here is correct however. One might feel called or even possess the ability of the office or task but that does not mean they have been commissioned to do so. The key verses assure us they have not been called to teach or preach with authority over men within the church. Now Wood switches to the tired old arguments that this woman or that one did something so we can throw away the key scriptures. He will remain however, wrong.
"What we would say to that is all throughout the New Testament, both in Paul's teaching and in Jesus' teaching, we see apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers. In Romans 16:7, there is a woman by the name of Junia who was commissioned as an apostle. In fact, Paul said she was known as an apostle. When it comes to prophets, we see Phillip, in Acts chapter 2, he had four daughters who were prophets. When it comes to evangelists, In John chapter 20 verses 16 through 18, the first evangelists after the Resurrection were women. When it comes to shepherds, in 1 Corinthians chapter 16 verse 19, we see very clearly that Aquilla and Priscilla were shepherds that were in a local church and they were shepherding people. When it comes to teachers, in Romans Chapter 16 verse 1 and 2 in particular, Paul commends a woman by the name of Phoebe as a teacher." - Charisma News
Let's go through these one by one because it is important to see the lengths people will go to in order to be disobedient to God's Word. First let's address the purposeful muddying of the waters. No one ever said women could not be prophets or evangelists, so the discussion of Phillip's daughters is not needed. The example of John 20 is an absurdity used by those defending women in leadership. This is the story of the women going to prepare the body for burial after the crucifixion. Having not found the body, Christ appeared to them and instructed them to let the others know and that He would appear to them later. To pretend this is evangelism is ridiculous. They were not the first carriers of the gospel either. Just stop. That said, there is no prohibition against women serving as evangelists. Now, let us deal with some of the more deceptive examples provided:
