This past week, I was blessed in being able to attend Lads to Leaders along with 1900 other people. There, my friend and I did debate. This competition was not for a trophy or recognition, but for us to learn more about the topic and get practice on being able to get on our feet and immediately defend our position on topics of faith.
This year, the debate resolution was as follows:
The New Testament only authorizes males to preach in mixed-gender assemblies of the New Testament church.
To break that down in much simpler terms, we had to figure out whether women could be preachers in front of both men and women, or not. In a debate, you have two teams of two with both a positive and affirmative side (each team has to do a round as both). I wanted to share my research with you, but keep in mind some of this is written to be a speech and I combined both mine and my teammate's speeches, then I included some rebuttals or things people may say against the resolution.
The New Testament clearly shows that males are the only gender allowed to preach while in a mixed-gender assembly.
Biblical commands are given throughout the New Testament telling us that men are the only authorized people to be teaching both male and female in one place.
[34] Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says.
[35] And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for women to speak in church. - 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 NKJV
1 Corinthians 14:34-35 very explicitly state that women are not permitted to speak in church, because it is shameful. In 1 Timothy 2:12 Paul also tells us that it is not permitted for “a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence.” This makes it unbiblical for a woman to preach because a mixed gender assembly would include men, which a woman is prohibited to teach.
[11] Let a woman learn in silence with all submission.
[12] And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence.
[13] For Adam was formed first, then Eve.
[14] And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression. - 1 Timothy 2:11-14 NKJV
Throughout history of the New Testament, males are the only examples given of preaching in mixed-gender gatherings. One example of this was when Aquila and Priscilla spoke to Apollos after he spoke in the synagogue (which was a mixed gender assembly, considering that both Aquila and Priscilla were in the crowd listening).
"..and they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately" (Acts 18:24-26). In 1 Corinthians 14: 34-35, it gives a reason as to why Priscilla did not just speak up in the assembly. It says, “let your women keep silent in the church, for they are not permitted to speak.”
The command for women not to preach to men (which is found multiple times in the New Testament) is simple. God is not the author of confusion. We need to accept the way God has set up worship. God punished angels who rebelled against their prescribed role in 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 6, so we can only assume he would do the same to women who rebel against his order of conduct in worship. Women have leadership roles in the church, but these do not include preaching in mixed gender assemblies.
[4] For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment;
[5] and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly;
[6] and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly;
[7] and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked
[8] (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)--
[9] then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment,
[10] and especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority. They are presumptuous, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries, - 2 Peter 2:4-10 NKJV
[3] But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. - 1 Corinthians 11:3 NKJV
This shows that God's word comes over man's, so if a man were to allow a woman to preach, it would still be wrong.
Some will say that 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 was talking only specifically to those women in Corinth. This is wrong. We know that these verses were not only to those women because of how Paul wrote these verses. In both the KJV and NKJV, the verses 33 and 34 are separate, but that is not how Paul wrote it. The translators felt possibly awkward for using "churches" twice in one sentence,, but for whatever reason, they changed how Paul originally wrote the verses in Greek. When Paul wrote them, he made verse 33 say "For God is not a God of confusion, but of peace." PERIOD. That's the end of that verse. He ended that verse, and began a new set of verses. He wrote verse 34 to say "As in all the churches of the saints, let the women keep silent in the churches, for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law." Paul by no means wanted that to be separate from when he said for women to keep silent. This shows that this rule applies to ALL the churches of the saints (including us today).
[33] For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.
[34] Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak ; but they are commanded to be under obedience , as also saith the law. - 1 Corinthians 14:33-34 KJV
vs. how it should have been translated
[33] For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace.
[34] As in all churches of the saints, let your women keep silence in the churches:
for it is not permitted unto them to speak ; but they are commanded to be under
obedience, as also saith the law.
Another argument people make is that there are many verses able women preaching such as the women in Acts 21:9 who prophesied. Let me be the one to tell you that any verse which allows women to prophesy does not permit them to preach, because they are not the same thing! According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, to preach is to make a speech about religion in a church or other public place or to deliver a sermon. But, to prophesy is to state that something will happen in the future. My friends, telling someone I will have a burger tomorrow for lunch is not preaching. You cannot use the verses about women prophesying to allow preaching from women. These are two separate things.
In conclusion, exclusive male leadership in mixed-gender assemblies of the LORD's church is not a tradition; it is the God-ordained principle established throughout the New Testament. By keeping silent, Christian women show - in any time, place or culture - acknowledgement of God's role for men and women in worship.