New Orleans, Louisiana, and the Bridge over the Mississippi River
The 2023 Southern Baptist Convention begins next week in New Orleans, Louisiana.
This SBC is shaping up to be remembered as the Convention where Saddleback Church and its founding pastor Rick Warren, are “kicked out” of the SBC for allowing women to teach the Scriptures to men during Sunday morning worship services.
Rick Warren attended Southcliff Baptist Church in Forth Worth during the late 1970s, the church my father pastored. I remember Rick leading music on a stool during the Sunday night services with a guitar and bare feet. Rick left Southwestern Seminary (and Southcliff) to begin Saddleback Church in California, a new SBC church plant that grew by 2022 to the largest SBC church in the country.
Rick Warren, Founding Pastor, Saddleback Church
Now, Rick’s SBC family is voting on whether or not to affirm the SBC Executive Committee’s decision to kick Saddleback out of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Rick’s crime is that the church he founded allows a woman to teach the Bible when men are present.
Some might object and say, “NO! The crime of Saddleback is that the woman teaching is ordained a pastor!”
Well, riddle me this: Is a pastor a noun of status or a verb of service?
If a pastor is supposed to serve through preaching, teaching, ministering, and serving God’s people, then the issue at Saddleback is that a female is preaching, teaching, and serving as she is gifted by the Holy Spirit.
Truth be known, the reason so many men are upset in the SBC is that too many SBC men falsely believe the Bible teaches only men can have spiritual authority over people.
Their concept of spiritual authority is what I call Fraudulent Authority.
When “authority” is the ideal, man’s religion is the focus. When service is the ideal, Christ’s Kingdom is the focus.
AL MOHLER AND WOMEN TEACHING
Al Mohler’s Induction as Southern Seminary President, 1993
Dr. Al Mohler, President of Southern Seminary, is a wonderful individual. He’s astute, biblically grounded, and a leader in the Southern Baptist Convention.
I appreciate Dr. Mohler and his love for Christ and His Kingdom. Al Mohler used to believe women could teach men the Scriptures. He often wrote papers defending gifted women serving in Christ’s church.
But at the age of 33, when the SBC came calling for Dr. Mohler to become President of Southern Seminary, old values became forsaken virtues.
I find it amazing how politics and power push biblical principles aside.
I, like most Southern Baptists, believe the Bible is God’s infallible and inerrant Word. I’ve published commentaries on the Hebrew Scriptures from the original Hebrew and written many theological books. I learned Greek from Spiros Zodiates, pastored Southern Baptist churches for over four decades, and I do all I can to encourage people in their walk with Christ.
I take offense at no one, but sometimes my writing offends. Thus, my motto in ministry:
“Sometimes offends, never offended.”
What I’ve discovered during my leadership within the Southern Baptist Convention is that there are some men in SBC leadership who like to tell you what the Bible means and don’t like for you to disagree.
Listen carefully: There’s nothing wrong with a pastor giving other people his interpretation of God’s Word. Christians do that all the time. It’s called exegesis, or “giving a critical explanation or interpretation of a text in Scripture.”
However, the Southern Baptist Convention invites trouble when there is a demand for conformity on tertiary matters of theology instead of a decision for cooperation around the primary message of the Gospel.
There’s a huge difference between believing the Bible is God’s Word and interpreting the Bible as God’s Word.
God doesn’t stutter when He speaks, but we’re often at a loss when we listen.
“He that has ears to hear let him hear,” Jesus said. The problem is us, not God.
If I don’t think I can make a mistake in interpreting God’s Word, then I have a problem with pride. I’ve placed myself in the position of God, telling you that you better believe what I say. God doesn’t like pride, and pride will always lead to a personal fall.
That’s why we all better be humble about telling others what God is saying. We may actually be misunderstanding God’s Word. To believe God’s Word is infallible is a confession of faith in God and God’s Word. But to believe my interpretation of God’s Word is infallible is a confession of faith in myself and my abilities.
So Christians have a simple job as fallible people who follow Jesus Christ.
We are to always make sure we don’t confuse our interpretation with God’s inspiration.
That’s why I went to the microphone to ask Dr. Mohler a question at the Southern Baptist Convention.
Al Mohler has “changed his mind,” and no longer a woman can teach pastors the Bible.
In Southern Seminary’s School of Theology, there are 35 professors, 34 white men and 1 black man, Southern who teach and train Southern Baptist preachers.
Not one of them is a woman.
Al Mohler represents a belief about women in ministry that goes like this: “No woman shall ever teach a man or have a position of authority over a man (e.g. especially as pastors).”
I disagree with Dr. Mohler.
God commissions His people to serve His Kingdom based on their giftings and not their gender.
None of the gifts of the Spirit are gender qualified.
Male SBC pastors who wish to have “spiritual authority” over people are practicing Fraudulent Authority in Christ’s Kingdom.
Taking spiritual authority over anyone in Christ’s church is contrary to the teachings of Jesus. The idea that male pastors have some kind of “special authority” is the result of a misinterpretation of just one or two passages from the New Testament.
Yet SBC pastors pontificate on pastoral power as if this pagan principle is actually a Papal bull! (As you might tell, I love alliteration!)
Fraudulent Authority is why female Hebrew professors of Hebrew have been wrongly fired from seminaries in the SBC. Fraudulent Authority is why male students leave class when a female seminary student exegetes the Scripture. Fraudulent Authority why no females are in leadership in the Southern Baptist Convention?
So, in light of the above, I stepped to the microphone at the Southern Baptist Convention to ask Dr. Al Mohler a question.
MY QUESTION TO DR. MOHLER
“Dr. Mohler, I want to thank you and the other seminary Presidents for your leadership and your reports. I’ve sat through many years of annual meetings, and the reports from our seminary Presidents this year constitute the best I’ve heard. Thank you all for your transparency, theological acumen, and love for Christ’s Kingdom.
In light of several Southern Baptist women writing to me and telling me that Southern Baptist male divinity students are encouraged by seminary professors to walk out when female students fulfilling M.Div. requirements exegete the Scriptures out loud, and personally knowing that there have been unjust terminations of Hebrew and Old Testament professors in our Southern Baptist seminaries because they are females, and observing the lack of competent, gifted women in leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention, I have a specific question that I’d like to ask you.
In 1863, Joanna P. Moore (-1916) was appointed the first female Baptist missionary to the Home Mission Field by the American Baptist Convention, an original member of the Triennial Convention (1814), the forerunner of the Southern Baptist Convention (1845).
According to the Home Mission Monthly Magazine, Joanna Moore arrived for her first mission assignment on Island #10 in the Mississippi River. She ministered among former African American slaves who were now being protected by the Union Army. These former slaves had their own male pastors, mostly illiterate men who faithfully shepherded their fellow Christians in the plantations of the south.
These African American plantation preachers had never heard or thought it was wrong to get drunk occasionally until Joanna P. Moore arrived. She faithfully taught these pastors the Scriptures, especially expounding I Timothy 3:3 and the biblical prohibition against drunkenness. The pastors reformed their conduct, ceasing their occasional habit of getting drunk, and were better pastors due to the influence of Joanna P. Moore.
So here’s my question:
“Was it sinful for Joanna P. Moore to teach those male pastors the Word of God, and should she have remained silent and let those pastors continue in their drunkenness?”
After some laughter from the crowd, Dr. Mohler gave his response to my question.
Dr. Mohler is sharp. He thinks quickly on his feet. Just one listen to an episode of his podcast will convince you of Dr. Mohler’s ability to multi-task intellectually.
But Dr. Mohler was trapped. It was either a good thing for Joanna Moore to teach preachers the Word of God, or it was not. If it wasn’t, the ministry of drunk preachers would have continued on Island #10 to the detriment of Christ’s Kingdom.
Dr. Mohler, for the first time in a long time, mumbled an answer that made no sense.
That’s not because he’s not sharp. It’s because his position is unbiblical and unprincipled. By the way, for your information, I’m not attempting to convince anyone of the error of Dr. Mohler’s interpretation (though I believe it is an egregious error).
All I’m asking is for humility in the SBC to let churches discover the truth on their own.
Demand for conformity is the daughter of tyranny when governing.
Delight in cooperation is the daughter of trust in God.
My goal with this post is to encourage Southern Baptists to be critical thinkers. Male authority in the church is a false interpretation of the biblical text that prevents Spirit-gifted women from teaching men or pastors the Holy Scriptures.
Never give in to demands for conformity on a specific interpretation of Scripture when your Master is Jesus Christ, and His Word alone is infallible.
Search the Scriptures for yourself and draw your own conclusions.
And I believe my interpretation of the sacred biblical text advances the Kingdom.
For more information on Baptist evangelist Joanna P. Moore, watch this short video.
And if you are voting at the 2023 Southern Baptist Convention, I’d suggest a little humility – and a prayer – before you vote.
Always remember, pride (in your interpretation of the Scripture) comes before the fall.
Wade, thank you for speaking up about the dignity of the human person as made in the image of God.
It seems misogyny is one of the most egregious results of the sin of pride. Misogyny in all of its forms have reduced the willing perpetrators of that sin to appear as in need of ‘putting down’ other human persons in order to stand ‘above them’,
but it doesn’t work that way in the Kingdom of Our Lord. It never did.
It takes strength to speak up for those who are being persecuted. I think the Southern Baptist people deserve to know that the dignity of the human person is derived from the Creator Who made each person and Who endows them with a soul. A woman is a full human person made in the image of God. To deny this, is to deny our own humanity as derived from the Creator who made us all.
Thank you, Wade, for your witness in this matter.
Wade,
Preach on, brother, preach on! I’ve said it before that Billy Graham said his daughter was the best preacher in his family.
I’ve forgotten the occasion but many years ago, she was speaking, and all the men turned their chairs around and faced the back.
Rex,
Ruth Graham Lotz knows how to share the Good News!
FYI
https://int.nyt.com/data/documenttools/trump-indictment-document/967835b8a14a6b03/full.pdf
Wade,
The machine won’t let me reply to Christiane.
Wade,
of her 16 pages, there were 63 errors on the first page.
Wade, I think the ‘machine’ won’t allow the word that starts with P.
Rex,
I’m not sure what’s happening with “the machine.” 🙂
Dear people,
I did not comment. But I think it is better to see ‘source’ material rather than to just depend on the comments of many different commentators, so that people can make up their own minds about what they are viewing. If I have upset anyone, that was not intended. Sorry to be trouble, please forgive.
Wade,
One word is President.
Hey, I was wrong.
Maybe: LBJ
Machine did not let me print three letters of a President.
Wade,
The Zapruder film shows Kennedy’s head is knocked forward by a bullet, and then his head is knocked backward by a bullet at 12:00 P.M. People heard these two shots as one shot. Oswald’s bolt-action rifle could not be fired twice in one and a half seconds as shown by the Zapruder film. Also, a rifle fired from one position would not knock Kennedy’s head forward and then backward.
Over 1700 words written and not one verse of Scripture quoted, let alone explained? If the debate is truly over the proper interpretation of Scripture, shouldn’t we at a bare minimum attempt to address the evidence for both sides of the argument? But then, if no one can be confident of any interpretation of Scripture, I guess nothing really matters then, so maybe it’s okay.
Mike Holmes – Read the book for free. It’s called Fraudulent Authority. It contains thousands of Scripture references. Even better, buy the book. 🙂 Blessings to you!
Wade,
Marrion Baker was a motorcycle policeman. After hearing the first shot, he saw pigeons fly off the roof and thought someone was shooting from the rooftop. He ran into the building and met Roy Truly who was the Depository Superintendent. On the second floor, Baker pulled his gun on a man in the lunch room, and asked Truly if he knew who he was. Truly said, “He is Lee Oswald and he works here.”
A time test of 90 seconds was done from when Baker heard the first shot until he met Oswald in the lunch room. That amount of time made it impossible for Oswald to shoot JFK from the six-floor and be on the first floor in 90 seconds where Baker confronted him.
Wade,
The best way to prove Oswald innocent would be to prove who the killer was. We need the Shadow (“Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?) Remember that radio program? If James Tague hadn’t died, he could help a lot.
Wade,
Better yet would let the world know Malcolm Wallace’s fingerprints were found in the ‘sniper’s nest’. He was a friend of LBJ.
Wade,
What got Malcolm Wallace killed was he wanted more money and bragging he’d killed 17 people for LBJ.
Who had the most to gain by JFK’s death? Instead of going to prison, he became President.
Wade,
I’ve got more to tell, but the machine must have woken up.
Wade
My comment was about what the Russian KGB said.
Wade
My comment was about what the Russian KGB said. It said LBJ was behind the
blank of JFK.
HEY! It’s hard to have a conversation when no one wants to talk about what I want to talk about. smile
The man that was my ‘best man’ when Judy and I were married, called today. I asked him who was responsible for the death of you know who, and he said the name I believe.
I think the ‘machine’ has made Wade’s blog like having a trial where witnesses are not allowed to give names.
Many years ago, my wife Belle taught second grade. Two students were a Mexican boy and a Black girl. They delighted in calling each other names. She would call him a wet-back, and he would call her Nigger.
She told them the next one to call the other a bad name, she would send them to the office.
A few days later at recess, the girl told her the boy had called her a bad name.
“What did he call you?”
“I can’t say.”
“Unless you tell me, I can’t send him to the office.”
“He called me what I is.”
So sad, this story.
Excellent blog post Wade! I thoroughly enjoyed it! It is healing to me in the same way that your book Fraudulent Authority is healing. Even though in the past I have been made to feel like I sinned and did something horribly wrong for sharing scripture in the presence of men, your book and blog help me to see that I did nothing wrong by sharing scripture. I know in my heart that the Holy Spirit was prompting me to share what I shared and when I shared it. I wasn’t expecting the harsh treatment I received from 2 pastors for sharing God’s Word in the presence of men. It was so hurtful. Please keep up this incredible work you are doing. You have no idea how healing it is to know it is OK for me to share God’s Word with those He puts in my path. Thank you for all you do.