Egalitarians Actually Hold a Low View of Women and Scripture

After I published Examining a False Claim regarding Female Leadership, a reader I'll call Ron wrote expressing concern that my complementarian beliefs offered a low view of women as if women have less intelligence and ability than men. He also questioned how I could hold the complementarian view and have a blog, book, and YouTube channel if I felt teaching men was wrong.

Great questions. 

 

I'll be answering the one about my personal ministry in a future post, but I'd like to point out that egalitarians actually hold a lower view of women than complementarians. 

For example, egalitarians believe that Paul prohibited women from church leadership in Ephesus (1 Timothy 2) because Artemis worship had created a woman-dominated culture. In addition, some egalitarians claim that Paul restricted female leadership because they weren't as educated as the men at that time. Therefore, they believe that this Scriptural command against female leadership was simply a temporary command for the Ephesians.

I encourage you to read my post linked above. It shows that the Artemis excuse seems to be manufactured by egalitarians. While Artemis worship was led by females, secular articles describe the culture of Ephesus as male dominated with women serving in the home and husbands making decisions and serving in leadership roles in the community. 

But let's assume that egalitarians got it right, and history experts got it wrong. And let's assume that egalitarians are right about the command applying only to women in Ephesian churches.

If that's true, that means if people are raised in pagan cultures, it's not enough to be born again and have God's Spirit guide them. And it's not enough to study Scripture. They also need to be placed under restrictions that aren't biblical to reform them. 

 

If that was true, modern Christians would need scores of restrictions because our culture is filled with ungodly practices.

But wait, the egalitarians only think these additional restrictions apply to women. Men raised in pagan cultures don't need any restrictions. 

And if this restriction was based on education, most of the disciples would have been disqualified. 

Egalitarians actually hold a lower view of women than complementarians because we believe God's command for male leadership has nothing to do with a woman's education nor do we believe women have inferior faith. We believe male and female roles are part of God's beautiful design which we can fully trust even if we don't fully understand it.

 

The pagan Ephesian culture negatively affected every area of life, but egalitarians believe only the women needed extra-biblical restrictions, not the men. And they must also believe that the worst sin promoted in the culture was female leadership. 

This view is illogical and is based on a low view of women. Perhaps that's why some egalitarians claim that Paul was the problem. Instead of using the Artemis excuse, they claim Paul was sinfully influenced by culture so he gave women this restriction for reasons that weren't biblical. And to believe this excuse, you must believe that Scripture is not divinely inspired, but simply the words of men. 

 

I hope you will wait until you hear all of my devotions about male leadership before rejecting the commands in Scripture, and I pray you will view things biblically, logically, and honestly. 

 

Let's correctly handle the commands in Bible passages about male leadership (2 Timothy 2:15). Let's trust God's Word to give us the answers (2 Timothy 3:16-17). And let's not be taken in by arguments based on human wisdom instead of Scripture (Colossians 2:8).                                    

I appreciate Ron's questions and I'm glad to address any other questions readers have as we discover what the Bible actually teaches and what it means for us today.

To read the rest of the series:

Part 1: Think God Needs "Updating"? Think Again!

Part 2: Women in Church Leadership: Complementarian or Egalitarian? 

Part 3: When Leadership in the Church is Misused   

Part 4:  My Response to Male Leadership in the Church 

Part 5:  Egalitarians Actually Hold a Low View of Women and Scripture. Answering a reader's questions from Part 4.

Part 6: Examining a False Claim Regarding Female Leadership

Part 7: Women's Roles: The Message of 1 Timothy 2