Egalitarianism and the PCA’s Debate over the Role of Women in the Ministry in the Church

The discussion of the role of women in the ministry of the church dominated much of the proceedings of the Presbyterian Church of America’s 2017 General Assembly. Despite numerous disputes over the findings and recommendations in the report from the GA’s committee on this issue, it was ultimately adopted. The details of these recommendations and the debate have been widely covered. Less attention, however, has been paid to the context of the debate.

The PCA’s debate over this issue comes in the midst of a cultural war, a war that has existed since the fall but has become highly visible of late in the United States. By focusing more on the details of the report rather than on the war setting in which the debate was taking place, the GA seems to have lost sight of the forest for the trees. Pondering issues like how to “affirm and include underprivileged and underrepresented women in the PCA” in the midst of the cultural and ecumenical collapse on sex and the distinctions between men and women places the PCA in a situation where it is unlikely to be able to discern the scriptural role of women in the ministry of the church, much less be able to speak prophetically into the world on this subject.

I am not claiming that what Scripture says on this issue in unimportant; it is at the center of our understanding on this issue and everything else. Neither am I saying that we should adapt how we interpret Scripture based on what the culture thinks it should say. In fact, I am saying just the opposite. My point is that that the PCA is succumbing to cultural pressure and human tradition and thus is unknowingly incorrectly exegeting Scripture in its work on this issue. While the enemies of God are surrounding us in their attacks on the culture and the church and picking us off one at a time, we debate Phoebe’s role in the early church.

This is the way it has been from the beginning. The enemies of God do not directly attack God Himself, but instead attack His subjects, using deceit to misdirect us and convince us that Scripture is not true, that God is not who He says He is. They do this in order to foment our rebellion against Him. Satan sought to convince Eve that God was not good and that He was a liar (Genesis 3:1-7). The medieval Catholic Church sought to convince people that salvation rests not in God but in the church. The Deists of the 17th and 18th centuries sought to convince people that God was a benevolent but distant creator who has left us to fend for ourselves. All of this was geared toward making humans believe, like Eve, we can be like Him.

More recently, the enemies of God have become bolder by proclaiming that God does not exist at all. Now, humans don’t need to strive to be like God; since He doesn’t exist, we can strive to be Him.

Of course, the problem with convincing people that God doesn’t exist is that the evidence of God’s existence—creation—surrounds us (Romans 1:19-20). In an attempt to counter the evidence, then, His enemies make up stories under the guise of science that eliminate the need for God the Creator. Two prime examples are the multiverse and evolutionary hypotheses; if an inert world can spawn itself from nothing (the multiverse) and subsequently spawn life from its inertness (evolution), then there is no need for a creator to account for creation (Genesis 1:1-26).

Yet there is another problem for those who would suppress the truth of God’s existence. His eternal power and divine nature are clearly perceived not only in creation because it exists, but also in creation’s functionality—who but God could design such a complex and well-functioning world! And about the most fundamental aspect of creation’s functionality is that related to men and women, in particular the distinction between them: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). The problem for the enemies of God here is twofold: in order to eliminate the evidence of God the Creator with respect to the functionality of men and women, they not only have to eliminate the spiritual distinction between them, but must also eliminate the physical distinction as well.

Thus we have the nations raging and the people plotting in vain (Psalm 2:1) against God by turning to egalitarianism: there must be no distinction between men and women (except when distinction is convenient). Women can be men in the pulpit and boardroom, men can be women in the bedroom and locker room. Or, better yet, by visiting the doctor men can actually become women and women can become men. “See, there is no distinction,” they say. “And thus no God.”

So as the church takes up the issue of what roles women have in our worship, ministries, operations, and community, we must do so in the context that we are in the midst of a spiritual battle, with the world using egalitarianism in its attempt to eliminate any of the God-designed distinction between men and women. We also undertake this in the context of the church being prone to being taken “captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world” (Colossians 2:8), rather than being salt and light to the world (Matthew 5:13-16).

We see this even today as egalitarianism has for some time been creeping into the church. Thus we have a spectrum of different approaches among which we have to discern even in worship: many denominations today allow the ordination of women so that they may lead worship; PCA churches don’t go that far but allow women to read Scripture and/or lead prayers in worship; some churches split the difference by allowing only ordained men to participate in either of those; and many other churches still allow men—but not women—to read and teach.

So how do we deal with all these varying and conflicting practices, and to the issue in general? The answer is much clearer than many would think when we believe what the Bible says. And it becomes even clearer by putting this conversation in the context of the assault on God and His people and the church’s tendency to succumb to the spirits of the world. This war is not about the “relegation of women to a secondary place” in the church or about whether women have been “marginalized, causing their efforts to be trivialized.” Instead it is about the culture and some in our denomination dismembering bit by bit the Scriptural understanding of women as helpers, excellent wives, those whose hands hold the spindle, and those whose minds understand the deceit of charm and the vanity of beauty.

The citizens of the world hate clarity; those of us in the PCA must overcome our natural tendencies and strive for Scriptural clarity not only about men and women but also about the war in which we are engaged if we hope to avoid the fate of our predecessor denomination.

This article first appeared on the Aquilla Report.