Dear John MacArthur: Reading the Whole Bible and Understanding What It is Saying Positively

*Trigger warnings for language*

“I do not permit a woman to teach….”

from 1 Timothy 2:12

DISCLAIMER: Using this post as a springboard to launch into a diatribe that remotely has any hating of one sex or the other, one person or another, or one preacher or another, will not be tolerated.

That said, I can already see peeps sharpening their doctrinal torches and pitchforks. So, at the outset, let me say this.

I already know this is going to stir up a lot of strong and entrenched feelings from a lot of quarters, so, as you read this, consider and measure your response, then go back an measure it again, and post about 10 percent of what you want to say in response. And do what you can to limit flippant accusations of sexism and chauvanism from your response. If you are going to say someone responds in a sexist/chauvanistic fashion, make sure your thoughts, and your mind, heart, and kidneys/adrenals have been deliberately weighed before the Lord before you speak. For I have spoken without discernment, as I am sure many of you have.

To be sure, we rarely regret saying too little in a matter, and then adding to the little with which we started, but if we say too much, the hasty word becomes exceptionally difficult to reel that word back in.

Several thoughts come up all at once.

Item 1: THE PURPOSE OF 1 TIMOTHY 2:11-12 AND WHAT IT REALLY SAYS

The text up above, from Paul, reads “I do not permit a woman to teach”. It does not read “God does not permit a woman to teach.” This was Paul’s judgment to the Ephesian church, given a crazy amount of fracas occurring among the church leadership there. It was not necessarily something that the Lord told Paul. Usually when God means to communicate something directly, “Thus saith the Lord” will preface the message.

And while the counsel to men and women might have been wise, it does not appear to me necessary to say this applies to all church situations in all cases everywhere.

Taking the case a little farther, it is not my POV or interpretation that this was a code for church leadership, on the whole. Taken with Colossians 3:18-19, Titus 2:1-5, Ephesians 5:22-33, and a couple of others, this most consistently seems to be a Domestic Code. It is the counsel of home life.

Further, if we took “I do not permit a woman to teach” to its logical end after this mode of interpretation, then nurseries, Sunday School classes, Education systems, and other areas where women teach would be in wholesale disobedience to the express writ of God.

In another vein, namely church vs. family dynamics, I don’t necessarily say this counsel applies everywhere to all women, but there are some useful principles here.

Item 2: The Problem With Johnny Mac and Beth Moore…

The problem in the exchange where Dr. MacArthur said “Go Home” in response to Beth Moore was only exacerbated by the fact of his predictable response.

That people were shocked by his response shows they were not paying attention.

Similarly, the response of people toward Chick-Fil-A’s Dan Cathy on the issue of homosex and gay marriage came in TWHO THOUSAND TWELVE, SIXTY-SIX FREAKING YEARS AFTER TRUETT CATHY FOUNDED HIS RESTAURANT ON CONSERVATIVE EVANGELICAL, CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES!

Why someone did not get the memo or could not see the implications of CFA’s stances on the Bible, and the implications for how they might respond to the issue of gay marriage shows an incredible presence of myopia.

The thing that started this problem is that the conference platform group decided to play a little game at this conference where MacArthur was present, where the speaker was asked to give a two word response to a two word statement. They had prepped “Beth Moore” as the phrase posed to John MacArthur, KNOWING full-well he was going to respond in some variation with a snarky response, and now that he did, we feigned outrage.

John MacArthur has a long track record of glib remarks and humor for his detractors. Two words: Strange Fire.

Good-old-boy backslapping aside, this gave us a new reason to respond the way we responded.

The problem was not solely John’s fault (which, we knew his views anyway). Rather, the problem was also the fault of whomever decided this would be a good discussion (it turned out to be a radically-defiling conversation for a whole segment of the church to have).

We have not figured out that there are certain conversations that are going to devolve into foolish and stupid arguments that increase the ungodliness, that we simply should not be asking of other preachers with a proven track record of complementarianism (the theological idea that men should lead in both pulpit and home).

Paul warned Timothy later to avoid profane and vain babbling, or foolish and stupid conversations.

Yet, because we want to act like this is good discernment, we insist on asking the same questions or having the same conversations a second, fourth, or eighty-fifth time just to be sure that we know where someone stands. It is as if we looked at someone as with a mirror, and then turned away and decided we had to look again (an OCD reaction) just because we forgot what they looked like.

Guys, and gals, MacArthur is in his 70’s or 80’s; he is not reevaluating his position, heretical as it is, on women in ministry, any time soon.

And when we look at the life of Christ, there are a couple of things we should recognized.

1. He operated within the matrix the culture provided him. Meaning, he did not choose official female apostles, likely because he knew that the then-current First Century Jewish society would not have received the package. The way the Eleven responded to the women throws this into sharp relief.
2. He still honored women, and commanded them to share the good news anyway. He will give a woman of God a message (Acts 2, or Joel 2, take your pick) and appoint them as a messenger, with regularity. Some of my women readers are designed to pastor. My co-editor walks in that office of Pastor.
3. He transformed everyone, both male and female, and used both male and female, to reach all sorts of people.
4. The church that puts either its men or its women into some sort of prepackaged box is the church that begins to die. Our job as the body is to equip and release. Loose those men and those women in accordance with their unique design, and let them go.

Evidently, the lives of Huldah, Deborah, Phoebe, Priscilla, et al. are not enough evidence for these biblicists. If he has called you to preach and you are female, then do not let that hinder you from doing what you were made to do.

Some people act like God anoints a person to preach just because they have b***s and a d**k. This is ludicrous.

Richard A. Nussel

The above quote is from my pastor from Florida, who was an ORU grad and pastors in the Methodist Church. He is one of the few men of God that I completely respect for his desire for people to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit and follow that leading.

It is crass, but the point is established without exception. God is no respecter of sexual equipment. If He is calling you, he is calling you. Get over yourself, your wounding, your lack of appropriate anatomy, and your excuses, and….

GET INTO THE CAR AND DRIVE OFF INTO ALL GOD HAS FOR YOU!!!

Your capacity to preach is not limited to your anatomy or any other physical designations.

And no, Deborah was not scared and she did not say what she said in order to yield to a man just because he was a man. Deborah was the one who initiated with Barak.

And Martha, the Giver, who likely owned the home she lived in, had a whole lot to say to Jesus. As did a whole lot of women.

And let us not forget that it was the Giver Lydia that was Paul’s first convert after the Lord showed him the vision of a MAN to provoke him into coming to Laodecia.

So, this thing with John MacArthur, is not solely his fault, nor should it surprise us. Rather, we should be provoked by this ludicrous exchange to be transformed in the way we think about how God accomplishes what He wants to accomplish.

And recall that, in response to Joyce Meyer when she asked God why He called her, God said, “the last two MEN said no to my calling.”

The calling God ultimately gave to Joyce was a calling that He intended to give to two men, who both said “no”.

So, think about it, ladies. God might be calling you because some dude rejected his calling.

Just some thoughts to consider.