Prologue

Recently, I thought I would see if there might be a half-decent church among the twenty or so that are in my locality (which covers about 2.6 square miles). Well, I discovered that there was one which calls itself “evangelical and reformed”. Sounds good, I thought. No gimmicks. That would make a change! So, one Sunday morning I got together enough intrepidity to go into a church for the first time in a while, sincerely hoping to be pleasantly surprised. Lo and behold, the service was being led almost in totality by a woman from behind a guitar (with a man sheepishly accompanying her). The guitar I don’t mind so much. But when a woman is leading an entire service, doing all the praying, leading the music, apart from a brief sermon by the pastor who sits throughout in the congregation, that just does not sit right in my soul. Not one bit. (Incidentally, I am not casting aspersions on the salvation status of those in this church. Not at all. They all seemed like sincere believers. It is the model of service to which I am referring).

So here are some questions… Is this just my own personal proclivities coming into play? Am I projecting my own ‘misogyny’ onto church life today? Am I simply a modern-day Pharisee? Should I just “soak it up” and stop being so faultfinding? Not at all. I am following apostolic direction from the Bible. But before I deal with the common modern practice of having a woman leading in churches, I just want to say something about this whole ‘grand music show’ style of performance masquerading as ‘worship’.

Whatever Happened to ‘Word-of-God Services”?

In the early church, meetings for disciples were not built around extravagant music performances like they are today. As I showed in my recent article about early church worship:

“Ralph Martin also states that in the early church the reading and exposition of the Scriptures is ‘an inheritance we have received, through the early church, from the worship of Judaism, and which makes the model Christian service a Word-of-God service’. This is immensely significant for our study here. From the outset, church worship was a ‘Word-of-God service’. Emblazon that in your hearts and minds! The truths of the Bible were at the heart of worship”. [The quotation in italics is from R.P. Martin, Worship in the Early Church, (Marshall, Morgan & Scott), 1964, p.69. I was quoting it in my little free book, “O Lord, Open Our Lips: Church Hymnody and Worship in History and Today; Including an Exposé of the Hidden Agenda Behind the New Style of Worship”. I hope you will be able to read it. You can find it here: https://diakrisis-project.com/2023/11/07/o-lord-open-our-lips-church-hymnody-and-worship-in-history-and-today-including-an-expose-of-the-hidden-agenda-behind-the-new-style-of-worship/ ].

But in most of today’s churches, we do not have what are primarily “Word-of-God services”. The “deep truths of the Bible” are not at the heart of worship in most churches. Instead, we have what are predominantly music performances, where the time spent singing and listening to music is massively longer than any attempt at Bible exposition (if indeed there is any attempt at all). Why should this be? Are you ready to hear this?

Firstly,such a huge use of the kind of music predominating today puts the congregation in a state of extreme suggestibility by rendering it in an altered state of consciousness — especially when so many soppy choruses are endlessly repeated — plus there is generated in everyone a massive injection of endorphins which creates a non-spiritual feel-good factor making the “worshipper” imagine that he or she has come ‘into the presence of God’. This is all based on the subjective feelings of the singer rather than the objective truth of the Word.

The Strange Rise of the So-Called ‘Worship-Leader’

But secondly, this state of affairs has arisen as a result of appointing “worship leaders”, many of whom are women. Thus, an increasing number of women are leading churches by the back door. One does not find “worship leaders” in early New Testament churches. They were wholly unnecessary and should also be today. No one needs to lead you by the nose into worshipping God — especially when it involves telling you to leave your mind at the door (reference further below)! A genuine disciple of Christ very naturally knows how to worship God because he or she practises it not merely on a Sunday morning but 24/7/365! And when you have a number of such worshipful people coming together in a meeting, they do not need to be led by the nose into worship by some big performance ritual — they are already doing it before they arrive.

‘Worship-Leaders’ Mostly Function as Ecclesiastical Drug Dealers

These days, a so-called “worship leader” in a great many churches is simply an ecclesiastical drug dealer who knows how to lead people into an altered state of consciousness, with the audience imagining that to be ‘worship’. You can sense the success of this when the music slows down and goes quieter at the end of an extended chorus ‘sing-in’. The musicians maintain a quiet drone and the audience (better description here than ‘congregation’) is left whispering things like “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus” with eyes closed, in a state of trance, and many will be muttering in pagan “tongues”. That is NOT Christian worship, but it is what most Christians now think of as worship. If the truth be told, it is the kind of altered state of consciousness which has always predominated in pagan settings rather than in the early church.

Singing in an early church meeting used to be a cappella, which has come to mean ‘without instruments’, voices only. The literal meaning of a cappella (from the Latin via Italian) is “in the style of the chapel”, because all church music was without instruments. That is the way it should really be. I acknowledge that many are today not well-acquainted with singing and so a single instrument (usually just a low-key keyboard) can be a helpful way of leading people with the tune. But it should be very much a humble secondary accompaniment rather than a Las Vegas style cabaret act. The multi-instrumentalism and entertainment style of presentation today in so many churches is totally alien both to Scripture and the early church foundations. And so is the office of “worship-leader”! Personally, I much prefer a cappellarather than all that razzmatazz and I think it is more biblical.

You may say, “Well, there were instruments in the Old Testament”, to which I reply, “Wrong covenant, mate”. If want to go with that, then you will also have to go with incense, sacrifices, and all the rest of that. It was all part of a whole thing which is now surpassed and redundant. New Testament worship is rooted in synagogue worship, which was centred on the Word of God rather than extravagant music performances.

“Leave Your Mind at the Door”

I remember hearing a charismatic ‘worship leader’ saying to an incoming congregation, “Leave your mind at the door”. The fatal flaw in that advice is that the mind should be a major part of what is involved in worship. For the transformed mind of the disciple of Christ is what is used to understand what we can know about God. The Christian mind is not a hindrance to something like worship but is a wonderful boon because it is a transformed mind (Romans 12:2). Only a pagan mentality would regard the mind of the believer as a hindrance to worship or to the appreciation of God.

When one enters an altered state of consciousness, blanking out the mind as part of alleged worship, one is simply worshipping oneself. In order to worship, one does not need to lose one’s mind. That is a pagan concept because the divine is seen by them as something to be discovered within oneself. Therefore, the pagan idea is that in order to get in sync with the “god within” one has to lose one’s personal identity by being ‘blissed-out’ and thereby bypassing the mind. In this way, so many professing Christians have been brainwashed to believe that Divine worship = going into a blissed-out trance. But they have simply been deceived into exercising what is essentially pagan practice. That is a real ‘bullseye’ for Satan who has managed to superimpose pagan religion onto Christian worship. What an absolute farce and something of a tragedy!

Now let us transition from this background information about worship-leaders and women fronting worship to some exposition concerning women teaching in churches today.

A Woman is not Permitted to Teach or Lead in Church Assemblies

Much of this has been facilitated in the last couple of decades by so-called ‘worship leaders’ — an alien breed of church leader, of which a great many seem to be women. Now, you may say to me, “What’s wrong with that? You are being a misogynistic chauvinist”. I’ll tell you what’s wrong with that and it has nothing to do with misogyny or chauvinism. The Apostle Paul plainly said that a woman should not be in a leadership role in the church: “I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man” (1 Timothy 2:12). In fact, he also says there that “A woman must learn in quietness and full submissiveness” (1 Timothy 2:11). What reasons does Paul give for all this? Is it just his own rabbinic whim? Was he making something up which only applies to the first century? Not at all. For the reasons he gives are that “Adam was formed first, and then Eve” and “it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman who was deceived and fell into transgression” (1 Timothy 2:13-14). In other words, this authoritative apostolic decree is rooted in the creation and the reality of the Fall — hardly Paul’s rabbinic whims or merely a first-century practice.

Many women have apoplexy when they read these words of Paul about not being able to teach or be in authority over a man and needing to be in quietness. But that is indicative of a sinful response to a most wise directive. I think that John Gill (1697-1771) explains this verse very well in his commentary:

“It is not permitted unto them to speak. That is, in public assemblies, in the church of God, they might not speak with tongues, nor prophesy, or preach, or teach the word. All speaking is not prohibited; they might speak their experiences to the church, or give an account of the work of God upon their souls; they might speak to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; or speak as an evidence in any case at a church meeting; but not in such sort as carried in it direction, instruction, government, and authority. It was not allowed by God that they should speak in any authoritative manner in the church; nor was it suffered in the churches of Christ”.

John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible”, writing on 1 Corinthians 14:34

I have added the bold emphasis there because that sums up what lies behind these apostolic directives. Women can speak, contribute to the experience of the assembly, only if it is not to give direction, instruction, teaching, or exercising authority in the ekklesia. That still leaves a massive amount of scope for other forms of verbalization. Teaching essentially involves the authoritative, public presentation concerning the person and work of Jesus Christ in particular and the whole teaching of the Scriptures in general (see, e.g., Ephesians 4:11-14; 1 Timothy 2:7; 2 Timothy 3:16). That is a man’s work, by apostolic decree.

Women Have a Weakness for ‘Woo-Woo’

Paul’s observation that it was Eve who was deceived by Satan is most pertinent. For Adam was deceived by Eve, whereas she was directly deceived by Satan. This is an archetypal reason why women should not be leading and should be in submission to men. It is in this connection that women in the secular scene have so often had a tendency to be witches. They operate by nature on a plane which can be their salvation or their downfall. They are easily attracted to, and have a weakness for, what one can call ‘woo-woo’ (dictionary definition of ‘woo-woo’: “Pseudoscientific, supernatural or emotion-based beliefs with little or no scientific or logical basis”). That is why the New Age scene is so dominated by women with wiccan tendencies. Women can be extremely unstable, making decisions based on subjective emotion rather than fact, especially if they are not grounded in the fullness of faith. Such a character is not what is required for good leadership and authority. It is hardly surprising that so many woman today regard this reference to Eve as being a religious plot to put them down (see, for example, the quote from the Columbian singer, Shakira, in the image below).

However, that nature in a woman will be to her advantage if she submits to God and becomes a disciple of Christ. For when a woman’s spiritual energy is put into godly pursuits instead of satanic ones, there is nothing more beautiful than that. In any intimate relationship, a woman can be a kind of spiritual lightning conductor for a man, whose consciousness operates in a very different manner (though complimentary to hers). That ‘lightning conductor’ ability — when operating in the Light of Christ rather than as a messenger from Satan — is potently and abundantly wonderful. If a man can find a woman like that he is the most fortunate of all men!

The Amelioration of the Curse in the Fall for a Woman

In fact, Paul specifically states that rather than engaging in teaching or exercising authority over men, women “will be saved through childbearing, if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control” (1 Timothy 2:15). Remember how part of the curse of the Fall was the pain involved in women childbearing, as well as being in submission to the man. As God said to Eve: “I will sharply increase your pain in childbirth; in pain you will bring forth children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you” (Genesis 3:16). So Paul in his words to Timothy is essentially saying to the women,

“I know that the Fall means you will be in submission to your husband and having great pain in childbearing (which would also include having to witness the sickness and deaths of their children), but all of that will be ameliorated if you willingly submit to the authority of the man and if you continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control”.

Thus, the woman comes into a life of freedom and joy NOT by rebelling against her husband and deliberately eschewing having children but by embracing those things in all submission and humility. To do so is the only way to bring spiritual and life fulfilment.

Now, you may say, but what about women who do not or cannot have children or do not marry? In fact, Paul does say, “Now to the unmarried and widows I say this: It is good for them to remain unmarried, as I am” (1 Corinthians 7:8). Throughout that chapter Paul is plainly revealing that the celibate, unmarried life was preferable spiritually (obviously, less distractions) but each had to act according to his or her own conscience (1 Corinthians 7:7-9). And always the need to be in submission — both of them in submission to God and the woman in submission to the man.

Understanding and Practising the (Lost) Art of Submission (God’s Plan)

For those of you who are now jumping up and down saying, “But aren’t men also supposed to be submitting to women?” or “Hey, what about a man being in submission to the woman?” (typical comebacks from rebellious folks trying to score a point), it is true that the Scripture says that disciples of Christ are all to be in subjection to one another. “Be submitting yourselves to one another in reverence of Christ” (Ephesians 5:21). But the text then goes on to explain exactly how that works. The Greek word translated as “submitting” there is ὑποτάσσω, hupotassó. As “Helps Word-Studies” states, this word is derived

“from ὑπό, hupó, ‘under’, and τάσσω, tássō, ‘arrange’ — properly, ‘under God’s arrangement’, i.e. submitting to the Lord (His plan)”.

That is what biblical submission is really all about. So, if we are to be properly submitting to one another, i.e. living under God’s arrangement rather than operating according to our own desires, the order is plainly spelled out in the text in Ephesians 5:21-30 (please read it). Thus, both men and women should be in submission to God and His great plan (in other words, consciously living under His arrangement). Women should be in submission to men in the same way that Christ’s Church is in submission to Him. Men should love and cherish their wives to the same degree that Christ loves His Church. It is in that way that we are all subject to one another, i.e. operating under God’s arrangement. That is His plan. When we all live our lives according to that plan, everything works harmoniously. But as soon as we step outside that plan, chaos and heartache ensue. There is no oppression involved in that plan. It is wholly voluntary. Men do not force their wives to submit. Wives do not have to pressurise their husbands to love and cherish them. It all happens naturally when all concerned are genuine disciples of Christ.

Similarly, when Paul says that “a woman must learn in quietness and full submissiveness” (1 Timothy 2:11), rather than setting herself up as a teacher or putting herself in authority over a man, the woman who is a genuine disciple of Christ does not have to be strongarmed into that quietness and submission. It all happens naturally and beautifully.

The big problem in the “Christian” scene is that so many are not truly “born from above”. So there is always this struggle in them against the idea of submission. But the truly ‘born-from-above’ person has no struggle with that whatsoever. Submission never has to be inculcated into a person who has truly come to Christ. It all happens naturally and willingly once it has been revealed to him or her from the Scriptures; and it is seen as a great and positive thing rather than a burdensome one. Christian submission, when seen it its true perspective, is a most beautiful and fruitful mindset. The woman submits to the man; the man cherishes her. It is a symbiotic relationship which, when working correctly, is the ultimate fulfilment. No one is downtrodden or subjugated in God’s precious arrangement. It is all voluntary and harmoniously complementary.

Worship-Leaders Are Teachers in Disguise

All of the above has repercussions for those women who set themselves up as teachers in churches and who usurp the authority of the men. Now, you may say that ‘worship leaders’ are not teaching. Oh, but they are! Hymns ‘teach and admonish’ (see Colossians 3:16). Prayers teach too. Public addressing as a leader of any kind also teaches. If a woman is choosing songs, performing public prayer at the head of a congregation, and generally leading from the front, she is teaching as well as setting herself up as being in authority over all the men present. It is not quite as direct as actual preaching or leading a Bible study, but they teach nevertheless by inference and influence. Hymns have always been ‘teachers of faith’, although many of the modern choruses are so superficial and “me-centered’ as to be laughable — therefore all one is teaching with them is trite shallowness, which is the very opposite of what a true believer should be, for he or she loves the ‘deep things of God’ (1 Corinthians 2:10). To lead a whole service from the front is an authority position and it should not be occupied by a woman. This not me making up the rules. It is by apostolic decree.

Are There Circumstances in Which a Woman Can Teach?

However, all the above having been said, there are circumstances in which a woman can teach. Obviously, as has been said, she cannot teach publicly in a local church congregational setting, for that is a position of open authority. As Paul says: “Women are to be silent in the churches. They are not permitted to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says” (1 Corinthians 14:34). However, privately a woman can teach. For example, in Acts 18 we find a Jew called Apollos who was teaching publicly though his understanding was in some ways inadequate. Later on, he was taken to one side by the husband and wife team of Aquila and Priscilla who “explained to him the way of God more accurately” (v.26). Obviously, Priscilla was acting under the authority of her husband but she was nevertheless part of the team which taught Apollos a more accurate understanding of Scripture.

Can we take this a little further? What if a mature Christian woman was walking down the street and heard a public preacher presenting the Gospel in a less than accurate manner so that there was a flaw in his presentation? Would she be justified in humbly taking him to one side privately and gently showing him from Scripture where that inadequacy was in his teaching? Or should she leave this alone which would then mean that people were, in some way, being misled? Obviously, if it was needed immediately and if she had no man to do it through, then I believe that justice would be served in her doing so. If she was mature and humble enough and he was equally humble, he would be grateful for the adjustment in his public proclamation. The spirit in which such things are done is all-important.

Let it also be said that the more mature women are encouraged to teach not only their children but also to teach the younger women how to be better women, wives and mothers, and therefore how to be more spiritually-minded (Titus 2:4). We do not see enough of this in churches today. But this is a role to which the more mature women are called.

Naturally, in case you are wondering, all women can evangelize to unbelievers, for we are all called to do so (see Matthew 28:18–20; with Acts 1:8; 1 Peter 3:15). It is only teaching and the exercise of authority which is prohibited.

The Disease of the ‘Spirit of Jezebel’

Now, despite all the above scriptural input, women are running around finding no problem with teaching and leading as a public ministry for themselves. Why do you think this should be? Firstly, many churches have imbibed the doctrine of ‘wokeism’ and feminist ideology, especially the mainstream denominations, but many evanjellycal churches too these days. Secondly, in the rebellious milieu of today so many newly (allegedly) converted females refuse to be under the authority and teaching of a man in real life (claiming that the Holy Spirit will give them special revelation) and they also have no problem whatsoever setting themselves up as teachers on social media (even though they have only been Christians for five minutes), despite Paul saying that even elders (those who DO have authority) should not be recent converts (1 Timothy 3:6). It is also stated in Scripture that not many should seek to be teachers because they will be subjected to a stricter judgement (James 3:1), yet these rebellious women can hardly contain their desire to set themselves up as teachers. That prescription of James should stop them dead in their tracks! On two different occasions at the ordainment services for two pastors I have witnessed the jealousy of their wives who publicly claimed that it should have been them in the pulpit instead of their husbands! There’s a lot of it about.

All this is a disease that I call the ‘spirit of Jezebel’ and it is rampant both in the world and in the churches. These folks with the ‘spirit of Jezebel’ seem to have no problem whatsoever ignoring the fact that pastors and teachers (elders) in the church should be male. They want the limelight and they want it now. But why should all this be happening at this point in history? There are solid reasons. As I wrote in my most recent article about the solar eclipse:

The Women Leader/Teacher bandwagon is not some isolated development which has happened in a vacuum. It is all part of the gathering apostasy which was prophesied by the Apostle, Paul, and includes a multitude of other delusional, trendy bandwagons which have hit the church by way of impostorship and counterfeit during the last century and a half and are now considered to be normative”. [Title: “The Total Eclipse of Common Sense & Christian Stability”, which you can find here: https://diakrisis-project.com/2024/04/09/the-total-eclipse-of-common-sense-christian-stability/%5D.

I listed many of those bandwagons in that article. But they are not normative at all. They are all wayward aberrations which will be dealt with in a tsunami of judgement at the end of this evil age.

Epilogue

I hope that I have convinced you that this is not about me projecting my own personal proclivities into the situation — that I am not laying my own ‘misogyny’ onto church life today — that I am not a modern-day Pharisee, and that I should not just “soak it up” and stop being so faultfinding! These are ecclesiastical and biblical realities.

However, I think that many of those who call themselves “Christians” are too embarrassed to stand by these principles and they consider them outmoded. They cannot accept Paul placing them in the context of the creation and the Fall. Surely this is because a great many “Christians” do not truly believe the biblical account of the creation and do not really believe in the fullness of the Fall. They also imagine that we have “progressed” since Paul’s time and do not need to adhere to the ‘immature’ principles of a bygone era.

But living according to God’s plan and within His arrangement is timeless. The truly miraculous thing is that when one lives within a framework of biblical submission, none of it seems out of place, oppressive or unjust (as many unbelieving minds would think of it).It just seems beautifully natural, harmonious and perfect — the epitome of freedom, in fact. Whereas living in a state of rebellion, defiance and disobedience — although appealing to the ego — will always result in chaos, conflict and anomie.

Therefore, understanding the true meaning of biblical submission is paramount for anyone who is a disciple of Christ. Most especially, it needs to be understood within the churches, and then practised accordingly.

Always remember, God’s order is not despotic and oppressive but is exotic and impressive. To follow it brings great blessing.

.

.

.

.

© Copyright, Alan Morrison, 2023
[The copyright on my works is merely to protect them from any wanton plagiarism which could result in undesirable changes (as has actually happened!). Readers are free to reproduce my work, so long as it is in the same format and with the exact same content and its origin is acknowledged]