Prove All Things:
A Response to Women In Ministry
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Answers To Questions About Women's Ordination
(First published in [Adventists] Affirm, Spring 1987)
Some Fundamental Questions
Why is the issue of the ordination of women as elders or pastors of such crucial importance for the Seventh-day Adventist church at this time?
What is at stake is the authority of the Bible for defining SDA beliefs and practices. The New Testament expresses its teaching on the role of women in the church in theological terms, basing it on interpretation of earlier Bible passages. It is presented as part of God's "law" and as "a command of the Lord" (1 Cor. 14:34, 37). If such a Biblical teaching is regarded as limited to the culture of Paul's time, the same could be said of Biblical teachings regarding creation, Sabbath keeping, clean and unclean meats, footwashing, tithing, etc. The authority of Scripture as a whole would thus be undermined and discredited. The issue is important enough that it is scheduled for consideration and resolution at the 1990 General Conference.
Is the authority of the Bible really such an important issue for Seventh-day Adventists?
What issue is more important to Seventh-day Adventists than the authority of the Bible? Our entire belief structure, our reason for existence and our mission to the world are based on the authority of the Bible.
What does the Bible teach regarding the role of women in the church?
The Bible presents women as full participants with men in the religious and social life of the church. In the fifth year of Jeremiah's prophetic ministry, the priests went to Huldah the prophetess for counsel (2 Kings 22:13-14). Women served as musicians and attendants at the tabernacle and temple (1 Sam. 2:22, 1 Chron. 25:5-6, Ps. 68:24-25). Women prayed aloud and prophesied in the church (1 Cor. 11:5). They labored side by side with Paul and other workers in the gospel (Phil. 4:3). In the closing chapter of Romans, Paul begins his greetings and commendations with women, and he includes several other women subsequently in the chapter (16:1-5, 6, 12, 13, 15). Widows (Acts 9:39) may have been an organized body for service in the New Testament church. But women did not serve as priests in the Old Testament (Ex. 28:1, Num. 3:1-13) nor did they serve in the leadership/teaching role of elder or pastor in the New Testament (1 Tim. 2:11-14; 3:1-7; Titus 1:5-9; 1 Cor. 14:33-36).
What does the New Testament actually say about women in elder-pastor leadership roles?
"I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over men; she is to keep silent" (1 Tim. 2:12). "If anyone aspires to the office of bishop, he desires a noble task. Now a bishop must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, . . . an apt teacher" (1 Tim. 3:1-2). "This is why I left you in Crete, that you might amend what was defective, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you, if any man is blameless, the husband of one wife. . ." (Titus 1:5-6). "As in all the churches of the saints, the women should keep silence in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate, as even the law says. . . . If any one thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that what I am writing to you is a command of the Lord" (1 Cor. 14:33-37). There are more New Testament directives on this subject than there are about tithing or footwashing or the Sabbath. These New Testament passages are examined in this issue.
Was the Biblical exclusion of women from elder-pastor roles a consequence of a prevailing patriarchal, "male-chauvinist" culture and mentality?
No. The culture of the time permitted women to serve as priests. Many religions included women in their priesthood. By contrast, the inspired writers of both the Old Testament and the New Testament maintained the role distinctions as assigned by God to men and women from the beginning.
Why should the Seventh-day Adventist church resist pressure from humanistic-feminist ideologies which are bent on eliminating role distinctions between men and women?
"Role-interchangeability," which eliminates role distinctions, should concern Seventh-day Adventists because we are committed to belief in the creation as it is presented in Scripture. Contrary to Christians who interpret the creation story as a poetic description of the evolutionary process, Adventists accept as factual the account of the six days of creation. Because we accept the doctrine of creation, we accept the order of creation. But if Adventists accept the humanistic notion that the roles of men and women are completely interchangeable, we will undermine our belief in the doctrine of creation, on which the Sabbath commandment is based. Also, in terms of day-to-day living, eliminating the clear role distinctions between men and women accelerates the breakdown of the family, leads to confusion of identity among children, and may contribute to acceptance of homosexuality as a legitimate lifestyle.
What has been the experience of churches that have ordained women as priests or pastors?
Some denominations have endured quarrels and divisions over appointing women ministers. For some this has involved forming new churches or even denominations. However, some other denominations feel that their new women ministers have been a real help to them.
So what shall we conclude from the experience of the various denominations? Seventh-day Adventists don't arrive at truth by asking, "Do Baptists get spiritual help from attending church on Sunday?" We don't ask, "Do Pentecostals feel close to God when they talk in tongues?" We don't ask if Catholics find it meaningful to have a Pope and a Virgin Mary.
Seventh-day Adventists ask, "What does the Bible say?" We believe God's best blessings fall on people who choose to obey His revealed will.
What is Ellen G. White's relationship to this issue? Was she ever ordained?
Ellen White was never ordained. After more than 25 years of her prophetic ministry, the church voted her the credentials of an ordained minister, but she indicated in 1909 (when she was in her eighties) that she had never been ordained (Arthur L. White, Spectrum, 4/2 [Spring, 1972]: 8). Nor did she ever exercise the special functions of an ordained minister, such as performing marriages, baptizing, and organizing local churches. As are all church members, she too was ordained of God to work for Him and was given a special work to do. But she was never ordained by human hands.
Didn't Ellen White have a position of authority in the church?
Her authority was in the messages God gave her rather than in any position the church gave her. She specifically rejected the idea of a leadership position in the church. "It is not right for you to suppose that I am striving to be first, striving for leadership. . . . I want it to be understood that I have no ambition to have the name of leader, or any other name that may be given me, except that of a messenger of God. I claim no other name or position" (Letter 320, 1905; Manuscript Release #340). "I am not to appear before the people as holding any other position than that of a messenger with a message" (Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, p. 237).
Did Ellen White urge the church to ordain women?
To the gospel ministry and as elders? No. She urged that certain women who were "willing to consecrate some of their time to the service of the Lord should be appointed to visit the sick, look after the young, and minister to the necessities of the poor. They should be set apart to this work by prayer and laying on of hands" (Review and Herald, July 9, 1895). It was "to this work," a personal work of visitation and mercy, that they were to be set apart. This is not the same as the role of church leadership entrusted to the pastor or elder.
Didn't Mrs. White encourage women to participate in the work of the church?
Yes, she did. Noting a "sphere" in which God had called and equipped women to work (see Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 59), she called for greater involvement. She urged women especially to engage in personal work for women and families. A clear example of this may be found in her article, "Women to Be Gospel Workers" (Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, pp. 114-118). Among other things, she says there that women "can do in families a work that men cannot do, a work that reaches the inner life. They can come close to the hearts of those whom men cannot reach. Their labor is needed" (Ibid., pp. 117-118). "Sisters, God calls you to work in the harvest field and to help gather in the sheaves. . . . In the various lines of home missionary work the modest, intelligent woman may use her powers to the very highest account" (Welfare Ministry, p. 160).
Does Ellen White warn against seeking a role or "sphere" different from the one we're assigned by God?
Yes. Referring to Eve, she writes: "She was perfectly happy in her Eden home by her husband's side; but like restless modern Eves, she was flattered that there was a higher sphere than that which God had assigned her. But in attempting to climb higher than her original position, she fell far below it. This will most assuredly be the result with the Eves of the present generation if they neglect to cheerfully take up their daily duty in accordance with God's plan. . . .
"A neglect on the part of woman to follow God's plan in her creation, an effort to reach for important positions which He has not qualified her to fill, leaves vacant the position that she could fill to acceptance. In getting out of her sphere, she loses true womanly dignity and nobility" (Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, pp. 483-484).
Because our women haven't been ordained, has our church undervalued their work and treated them unfairly?
Our church has not handled the pay and hiring issues fairly. Mrs. White protested such unfairness in her own time. But her remedy was not to ordain women, but to treat them justly, as we see in the following example: "And if the Lord gives the wife as well as the husband the burden of labor, and if she devotes her time and her strength to visiting from family to family, opening the Scriptures to them, although the hands of ordination have not been laid upon her, she is accomplishing a work that is in the line of ministry. Should her labors be counted as nought, and her husband's salary be no more than that of the servant of God whose wife does not give herself to the work, but remains at home to care for her family?" (Manuscript Release #330, emphasis supplied). Again, "This question [appropriate pay for women workers] is not for men to settle. The Lord has settled it. You are to do your duty to the women who labor in the gospel, whose work testifies that they are essential to carrying the truth into families" (Evangelism, p. 493).
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