sunnylin
maybe i can offer you some insight into this.
1 tim 2.9-15
in verse 9
it is the extravaganse of ornaments and costly garments that paul rebukes. the passage is not condemning any one style, ornament, or garment, but demanding moderation in dress, and behavoir in general as women proffessing godliness. when either man or woman live primarily for outword show it is wrong. the O.T. references to people wereing jewelry and such is evidence that God generally has no problem with wearing gold, or dressing up, in themselves.
in verse 11 it says for women to learn in silence with all subjection.
and verse 12 says he didnt allow a woman to teach nor dictate authority over men.
1 cor 14.34-35
says that the women were to keep silence in the churches, and werent allowed to speak. and if they were to learn anything, they had to wait untill they were at home and ask their husbands.
i think understanding of this can be found by realising that
it was a custom of the day in that time, for men to ask questions and to even interrupt the speaker if he did not understand. and this right was not given to women.
this is the meaning of women must keep silence in the church.
it says they must LEARN IN SILENCE....
not that they cannot pray outloud, preach, prophecy, or testify.
the problem was that they did not allow women to interrupt the flow of service, as they allowed men to do. pauls reason for this was the woman being the one that was deceived by satan.
it was much the culture of the day, not that it was simply the way of god.
paul taught more than one thing based on the culture of the day.
like women not cutting their hair, and the beleif that hair is a womans glory and that a man must not have long hair, and a woman is shamed if it is cut.
he said nature taught this, but if anyone had a problem with it in light of new testament freedom that the church had no such law.
women were allowed to prophecy and pray in the church, becuase we have more than on incident of them doing so.
(1 cor 11.5,13 acts 2.16-21, 21.9 joel 2.28-32)
1 tim 2.15
many have taken this verse to teach that womens only purpose is child birth, and doing so saves them.
it is simply saying that if women remain godly, they will be saved from death during child birth. child birth has never saved the soul, and it does not. the fact still remains that only faith saves the soul.
i beleive women have all liberty to be preachers, pastors, teachers, youth pastors etc.
1 cor 11.5,13
v5
says that when women PRAY or PROPHECY they had have their heads covered.
prophecy means to preach. this is proof that women did pray and preach in the church.
acts 2.16-21
speaks of sons and DAUGHTERS prophecying.
the word prophecy their is translated = to fortell events, or also to simply speak under the inspiration of god.
8 reasons for women preachers.
1. in the gospels we read of several women messengers who proclaimed "good news".
(matthew 28.1-10, luke 24.9-11, john 4.28-30. 20.16-18)
2. in acts.2.14-21, joel 2.28-31 god promises and predicted that he himself would pour out his spirit upon women and they would prophecy. to "prophecy" means to "speak to men to edification, to exhortation, and comfort" (1 cor 14.3)
not simply telling of the future. but this is also preaching.
3. in acts 21.8-9 it is clear that phillips 4 daughters were prophetesses, that is they were evangelists like their father.
4. in romans 16 we have a record of a number of women servants of the lord in various churches.
Phede. (v1-2) Priscilla (v3-5) Mary, Tryphena, Tryphosa, Persis, and Julia (v 6-15) are mentioned as labourers in the lord.
5. in Phillipians 4.2 Euodias and Syntyche are mentioned as being leaders in the church in phillipi.
they were perhaps deaconesses, we do not know, but they differed on some unknown point, and he told them to have the same mind. but it is clear they held some sort of leadership position. as is clear from verse 3 also, labouring with him.
6. corinthian women prophesied and prayed in church ( 1 cor 11.4-5). so the scripture in 1 cor 14.34-35 that has been used to condemn women preachers does not refer to preaching, but to refer to church disturbances. such as asking or talking out in church.
even so, 1 tim 2.11-15
paul is not condemning women preachers as long as they keep their place and did not dictate authority over the man.
both men and women were permitted to pray and prophesy, but were regulated by fixed laws in doing so.
these were the customary laws of the time.
7. in 1 cor 12. paul compares the church to a human body and mentions 9 gifts of the spirit, including the gift of prophecy, for all the members of the body of christ.
8. Women were used of God in O.T. days as prophetesses (ex 15.20, judges 4.4, 2 kings 22.14, 2 Chr 34.22, Neh 6.14, Isa 8.3, luke 1.39-56. 2.36)
god has used a ROD (ex 4.2,17) donkey (num 22.28) rams horn (josh 6.5) ox goad, nail, barely cake, pitchers, jawbones, milstones, mantles, ditches, empty vessels, cruise of oil, ravens, worm, wind, fish, gourd, [bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse], and many other seemingly weak things to confound the mighty. is it not possible then that he can use a woman?
that was not stated in argument toward anyones previous post.
just stating some facts that might lend some light on this issue.
i think it is aparent the power, authority and blessing of god that women preachers can have. women like juanita bynum, jill anthony, kathyrin kulhman, etc. have done great and mighty exploits for God.
if women could be prophetesses to the nations in the old testament, why not preachers to the nations now?
one principle the bible teaches is that there is no man, woman, gentile or jew in his sight. in regard to his blessing and possibilities, all have the same potential and he doesnt regard any type of person higher than another.
if god will go to such extreme cases "using rocks, bones, and bears" to fullfill his will, why would he hold a woman so low as to have things he would not allow her to do?
to me, (stone me if you will)
but it must have been pauls reasoning and custom that women could not be in authority (if thats what he meant), not neccesarily the unchanging law of God.