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Women Priests?
The Bible answer to the current debate
PROMINENT among the many changes in society that have taken place in the modern world has been the increasing number of women taking on jobs that were previously the sole domain of men. There are women in most of the major professions; women doctors, lawyers, and engineers. Women can be found in important positions in industry and commerce, and running large companies. Women are involved in politics, and a number of countries have a woman as their head of government. With this emphasis on equality of opportunity in so many spheres of life have come calls for the greater involvement of women in the religious world, specifically to take up a place alongside men as priests.
This suggestion, though warmly welcomed in some quarters, has roused strong and passionate feelings. The adherents of widely differing views staunchly defend them by stating that theirs is the only position that can be tolerated. But this only serves to provide greater confusion. Who is right? Those who say it is wrong for women to act as priests, or those who say it is only prejudice that is keeping them out of these positions? What makes the problem even worse is that churchmen themselves cannot agree. They all claim to speak authoritatively, yet they cannot come to a common view, or even accept a common basis from which a position can be determined. If there is such disagreement in the ranks of churchmen, no wonder so many people feel perplexed and bewildered by the subject and become disillusioned with religion altogether. Where can the real answer be found? Is there a voice of authority we can listen to?
A source of authority
The Bible deals with religious matters, and is the only source of Christian knowledge. It is the written word of God and provides details of how men and women should act in order to be pleasing in His sight. If we look to God’s word to provide the answer to this perplexing problem we know that it will be authoritative. Although some churchmen have used Bible teaching in support of their views, very few have claimed to rest them solely upon it. Significantly, the Bible has not been widely quoted in recent debates about who can be priests. It is commonly believed that the church has the authority to make new rules, not necessarily consistent with scripture. Some church leaders claim that the Holy Spirit is an active force in the modern church and is leading us to a new appreciation of aspects of life not foreseen when the Bible was being written. The difficulty arises when every churchman, whatever position he holds regarding the possibility of women being priests, uses the alleged working of the Holy Spirit within the church to support his particular point of view.
Can the Holy Spirit say one thing to one man and something completely different to another? The Bible itself was produced through the agency of the Holy Spirit, for “men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God” (2 Peter 1:21). Can the Spirit which produced the Bible reveal one teaching upon this subject, and yet give a different message to someone who then claims to speak on God’s behalf? This would be confusion worse confounded! Yet “God is not a God of confusion but of peace” (1 Corinthians 14:33). He has declared a simple rule to test the pronouncements of men who say they are speaking for Him. Through the prophet Isaiah, He said, “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (8:20, AV).
Put simply, this means that there is only one authoritative source of information on matters relating to God and salvation. The Bible, God’s revealed word, is as able to guide His people today as it was when it was first written. Furthermore, His message is simple, clear and logical. Anyone can understand it, so long as the Bible is approached genuinely with a desire to learn what it teaches.
The organisation of the church
After the death, resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ, his apostles were given the task of continuing his mission by preaching the Gospel of the kingdom of God and establishing congregations of believers in different places. Quite soon, and as numbers began to grow, it was necessary to give advice on how these groups should organise themselves and run their affairs without the need for constant visits from the apostles.
If God intended the followers of Christ to appoint priests to rule and guide his church, we should expect to find instructions about this in some of the New Testament letters. Specifically, if there needs to be a distinction between believers, as there is between the priesthood and the lay members in most churches, this would have been foreseen and explained by the apostles. They had the Holy Spirit gifts to use for the purpose of establishing the early believers in the Christian faith and were therefore able to speak and write with authority.
But we find no such advice in the Bible. Instead, the Christian church is described as a body, made up of separate individuals each bringing his or her own unique talents to provide for the well-being of the whole community. No task can be assumed to be pre-eminent; indeed the humblest tasks can have an importance completely out of proportion to their content. God ordained it this way, “that there may be no discord in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another” (1 Corinthians 12:25).
There were, of course, to be different jobs for different people, but the prime objective for all is that of service to the whole community of believers to bring honour to God’s Name. Even the “head” of the body, the Lord Jesus Christ, said: “I am among you as one who serves” (Luke 22:27), and set an example for all his followers to apply in their own lives.
Even though some of the specific tasks in the community’s organisation are mentioned in the apostles’ writings (bishops, deacons, elders, etc.), there is no indication that the believers who fill these roles have any right to assume that the work they do marks them out as different from or superior to their fellows. Every believer has to “work out (his) own salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12). He can only do this by a devotion to what God has revealed, attempting to mould his life in conformity to these divine principles.
One mediator
It is commonly believed that priests are able to act on behalf of God, speaking for Him and for Christ, and mediating on the believers’ behalf. But the Bible clearly declares that: “there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all” (1 Timothy 2:5,6). All true believers can approach the Father through him. The Bible does not recognise the need, or make provision for a human priest to intercede on the behalf of others. The old Jewish priesthood was no longer needed once Jesus had offered “once for all”, the righteous for the unrighteous (Hebrews 10:10).
The Apostle Paul expressed God’s desire that everybody should benefit from this salvation, made possible through the work of Christ:
“First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, godly and respectable in every way. This is good, and it is acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:1-4)
God wishes all men to be saved. This does not of course mean that He is unconcerned with women! The word translated “men” twice in this passage really means ‘mankind’, and encompasses both men and women. God wants all men and women to be saved. Paul had mentioned earlier when writing to the believers in Galatia that the effect of Christ’s saving work has no barriers:
“In Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:26-28)
