In this episode of A Reasonable Response, Robert Bosely, with clarity and care, walks through seven popular egalitarian arguments—touching on creation, the fall, spiritual gifts, and Galatians 3—and responds from a confessional Reformed Baptist position. Bosley shows how Scripture affirms both the dignity of women and the distinct roles God has designed within the church. Whether you’re curious, conflicted, or confident on the issue, this episode offers a respectful and biblically grounded defense of male eldership.

Does anyone find that format of video helpful, interesting, and just goodness? Welcome to A Reasonable Response. I'm Robert Bosley, and the purpose of this show is to give a reasoned response to issues related to the Christian faith from a Reformed Baptist perspective, and hopefully have a little bit of fun along the way. Each episode will contain what we call the breakdown, where I will interact and respond to a video pertaining to the topic at hand, which today is the issue of women pastors. But before we get to that, my producer Cameron has selected some videos that he's going to torture me with to get my response and reaction to from a bunch of lady pastors off of TikTok.

I have no words. It's kind of terrifying. Just a reminder, a woman who preaches the gospel is more pleasing to the Lord than a man who says nothing. That's why we don't get our theology from puppets. Hi Barbie.

Hi Ken. Hi Barbie. Hi Barbie. Hi Barbie. Hi Barbie.

Hi Barbie. Hi Barbie. And also how you know that your church will not survive very long. I wasn't sure where that was going, but it actually seems like it was going in a good direction there at the end. Of course, the great irony is she's complaining about women usurping their husbands while He's a woman pastor.

Oh my goodness. I don't even know. I don't know what to say to this. What do I even say to this? Oh man.

Okay, that's enough of that. Let's move into the breakdown and we're going to be responding to a video that argues for women pastors Now the particular video that we're looking at comes from the YouTube channel geeky Christian by dr. Sean Nelson to be fair I don't know anything about this man. I've never watched any of his videos before. We selected this video not to attack him personally, but because this video provided a really good opportunity to quickly and concisely examine the main arguments used by egalitarians to promote their perspective.

Number one, Adam and Eve were created as equals. They both together made up the image of God. Both were given dominion over creation. We see this in Genesis 1 where God said, let us make mankind in our image so that they may rule. In the image of God, He created them.

Male and female, He created them. That's true to an extent. Yes, God made the first man and woman equal, but That's an equality of nature, not necessarily an equality of function. Just because two people are the same in their dignity and value doesn't mean they have the same roles or fulfill the same purposes in their relationship with one another. And we'll see that a little bit more in his next point.

Number two, the fall resulted in disorder. Women weren't subordinated to men until after the curse when God said to Eve, your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you. Not exactly. There is the statement that the man will rule over the wife. That seems to be actually a corruption of the intended order, a domineering rule.

But clearly the creation order is one of hierarchy. Hierarchy itself doesn't necessarily mean there's an inferiority of value or worth of the subordinate. When God made Adam, it says that he gave Adam the commands. God doesn't speak to Eve. God said that he was going to create Eve to be a helper comparable or a helper suited to Adam.

She's this helping role, not an equally authoritative or ruling role per se. And we see in the New Testament, 1 Timothy 2, Paul grounds male headship in even the order of creation. One of the reasons why a woman is not to have authority over the men is because the man, Adam, was made first. Male headship and female subordination is not a result of the fall. Number three, Jesus undid the fall by saving us.

When he brought salvation, he brought back male and female equality that existed before the curse. First John 3 says the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. The Holy Spirit being poured out on men and women in Acts 2 confirms that both are equal again. The Bible says in Galatians 3, there's no male, no female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And again, that equality is one of nature, dignity, value, having the image of God, not an equality of role, not an equality in hierarchy.

That same verse in Galatians also says there's no Jew or Gentile. Are we saying that those distinctions have been done away with? No. Obviously what Paul is saying there in Galatians is that in regards to salvation and the promises given in the gospel, there's complete equality. We all receive the same salvation regardless of our background, but it doesn't mean the Church needs to obliterate all distinctions, particularly creational male-female distinctions.

We're not to be androgynous. We're to embrace the sex God made us to the glory of God. Number four, every male and female believer is given at least one spiritual gift and there's no indication that gender is a factor in who receives what gifts. Instead, the Bible seems to say that the Holy Spirit gives freely to each one individually as He wills. Of course, every Christian gets their gift and God is sovereign and dispersing His gifts.

But the question is, when and where do you exercise those gifts? No one says, no complementarian, no patriarchalist is arguing that women don't have the gift of teaching. The question is, when and where do those women who are gifted as teachers exercise that gift? Just because a woman has the gift of teaching, that doesn't mean then that she is able to exercise the role of an elder or pastor. Number five, There are even examples of women prophesying in the Bible.

For example, the book of Acts says Philip had four unmarried daughters who prophesied. Paul talks about wives who prophesy in 1 Corinthians. So what prevents women from having other spiritual gifts like teaching or leadership? Again, it's not a question of what gift does the woman have, but what rather what role or office is she called to take or not take. Women who were prophets or prophetesses, that's fine.

We clearly see that, but they never served as elders. That's just not what we see in scripture. A prophetess is not an elder. Number six, there's at least one biblical example of women teaching men in the church. The book of Acts says that both Priscilla and Aquila, who were married, took Apollos aside to explain to him the way of God more accurately.

Priscilla was the woman, and she's listed before her husband Aquila. This is because she was probably the more dominant personality. At the end is a little bit of a weird thing. As far as the dominant personalities, the Proverbs have a lot to say about women with so-called dominant personalities. It's not usually very kind, but Again, another confusion of categories.

Yes, Priscilla and Aquila took Apollos aside and instructed him more thoroughly, but it wasn't in the church. He said in the church, but it's not in the church in the sense of a gathered body of believers. We can talk about the church in the universal mystical sense, but that's not what we're talking about when we talk about offices. Elders are elders of local churches. Priscilla and Aquila were not taking Apollos aside in a local church.

He was evangelizing in a synagogue and it says they brought him aside and instructed him more clearly. Again, it's complete confusion of categories to now say that because Priscilla instructed someone in a private conversation with her husband, that now women can be elders. Doesn't follow at all. Number seven. There's a rich history of women being involved in God's service.

Israel had female leaders like Miriam and Deborah. Esther, Ruth, and Naomi were godly examples for everyone to follow, even the men. Jesus's and Paul's ministry were both supported by many women. So why can't God use women in the church today? These seven arguments convince egalitarians that women should be pastors in the church.

Again, it's a different category. We're not saying that women can't support the ministry. Churches would fail without godly women supporting the ministry. But that doesn't mean that they are able to take the role or the office of an elder. We praise God for the godly women who serve the church and serve the families, but that doesn't mean they get to fulfill that office that Paul does explicitly say is reserved for men.

So in summary, what am I saying? Well what I'm saying is that the arguments for women pastors or women elders rely on a confusion of categories, misinterpretation of scripture, and are really just bad arguments. If we really believe that scripture is sufficient, we will go to that sufficient scripture and see what it positively teaches about who should take on the role and responsibilities of the eldership. And when we do that, we will see that the Bible only allows us to ordain and call qualified men to be our elders and our pastors. Well, that's all the time we have for today.

If you would like to connect with me personally, I'm on X at rbosley1689. If you want to find out more information about church and family life, please go to churchandfamilylife.com. See you next time.