WOMEN AND THE EKKLESIA
GENEOLOGY OF YESHUA
There are 42 generations described in Matthews which include five women who all have unflattering history behind them. Tamar seduced her own father-in-law to keep the line of Judah otherwise Yeshua the Lion of the Tribe of Judah could not have been born (Gen. 38). Rahab was a regular prostitute (Joshua 2:6). Ruth was a widowed Moabite who went to meet Obed in the field in the night as instructed by her mother-in-law, Naomi (Ruth 4). David committed adultery with Bathsheba (2Sam. 11). Mary the betrothed virgin had extra-marital pregnancy (Matt. 1:1-16). No wonder he did not condemn the woman caught in the act of adultery but dismissed the murderous crowd with just one obscure verse from the Scripture, “He who is sinless must cast the first stone.” (Deut. 17:7; John 8:7). Yeshua Himself always empowered women. He told Martha that He is the resurrection and life (John 11:25;26). He told the Samaritan woman that He is the Messiah (John 4:26). He was supported from their own resources by Mary Magdalene, Joanna and Susanna (Luke 8:1-3). He appointed Mary Magdalene from who seven demons had been removed as first evangelist to share the good news of His resurrection (John 20:17).
WHY DID YESHUA NOT CHOOSE A WOMAN DISCIPLE?
Many believe this to be a cultural issue, but Yeshua was never daunted by Jewish culture. He talked to a Samaritan woman and later stayed in her village. Yeshua allowed a prostitute to kiss His feet in the house of Pharisee. He let a menstruating woman to touch His garment. Right inside a synagogue where women were allocated back benches behind a curtain, He made a bent woman to stand straight in front of everyone. All these were against Jewish culture. By not choosing a woman disciple, Yeshua was simply modeling “same-sex disciple-making”. Paul followed the same principle when he gave clear instructions to older women to equip younger women (Titus 2:3-5). We can avoid a lot of chemistry problems and sex scandals in the church, if we adhere to this model.
WOMEN, THE ORIGINAL EKKLESIA PLANTERS
Both men and women suffered persecution, sometimes inhuman atrocities for their newfound faith (Acts 8:3). The women were also set on fire by the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. Since then, they have played a critical role in the growth of Ekklesia. The women were the first ones to open their houses for gatherings.
All the house Ekklesias in the NT have the name of the housewife mentioned. Examples include Mary, the mother of Mark (Acts 12:5, 12), Lydia (Acts 16:14,15, 40), Apphia (Philem. 2), Nympha (Col. 4:15) and Priscilla (Rom. 16:3). The 16th chapter of Romans has names of nine women who facilitated gatherings in their homes.
The role of women as hospitality provider was important, because believers did not gather for traditional weekly “service”, but for breaking bread from house to house. Women are designed by God to be homemakers, so there is no earthly reason for which they cannot be makers of “Households of God”.
MEN TURN LIVING ORGANISMS INTO A DEAD ORGANIZATIONS
When family based Ekklesias shifted to sacred buildings, men took over, giving them an anti-woman, obscurantist image that wrecked the church by institutionalizing the Bride. Yeshua never compared His Ekklesia to a groom, but a Bride.
Our national constitution enshrines equal right to women for nation building, which is based on the NT equality of all before God. Church leaders practice blatant hypocrisy when they do not allow women to speak in church but will gladly go to hear a female political leader speak and vote for her to become their spokesperson.
WOMEN CONTRIBUTE THEIR NURTURING GIFTS
Women’s contribution in missions throughout the history of the church has been significant. They have special qualities including that of mothering, which is very essential for the Household of God to grow in an environment of love and care. Whilst Martha was concerned about hospitality, Mary sat at the feet of Yeshua carefully listening to His teachings. The Samaritan woman went from house to house. When persecution broke out, women went to prison (Acts 8:3) and were devoured by wild beasts. They also opened their homes for all night prayer vigils (Acts 12:12-13).
COVER YOUR HEAD OR ELSE SHAVE AND SHUT UP
The instruction given to the women of Corinth to cover their head was specific to them because of some special circumstances prevailing there. Corinth was a port city serving the merchant ships of the Aegean Sea to the east and the Adriatic Sea to the west, abounding in sailors, slaves, sex, alcohol, idolatry and filth. Ships were loading and unloading at all hours of day and night at Cenchrea, the harbor of Corinth. Merchants were buying and selling, masters were yelling and whipping their slaves. Temples were full of smells and bells with cacophony of many languages.
The city name Corinth came from corai entha, meaning “here are girls, or whores”. There were thousands of temple prostitutes in the huge temple dedicated to Aphrodite (Roman Venus), the Greek goddess of fertility. This temple was famous for its erotic female statues and sex-related worship. Many of these ritual prostitutes with shaven heads came to faith in Messiah and so let their hair grow as a mark of their transformation.
Paul was not talking about men or women covering their head with a piece of cloth. As a Jew, Paul had his consecrated head covered all the time with a cap called Kippah all the time. Jewish women covered their heads, even at home. Rebecca the Bride, when she saw her husband Isaac for the first time, immediately covered her head (Gen 24:64). Yeshua, a Jew, never had long hair as shown in Western paintings. Jewish men always had their hair cut short except for long sidelocks called ‘payot’. They covered their heads during prayers with Tallit, the prayer shawl. A long-haired Yeshua with uncovered head would not be allowed to read the Torah in the synagogues (Ezek. 44:20).
Paul was talking about shaven women growing and covering their heads with hair (1 Cor. 11:15). This situation of shaven women was not customary in other Ekklesias, and Paul clearly said that he was not setting any such tradition for other Ekklesias: “If a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given to her for a covering. If anyone is inclined to be contentious, we have no such practice, nor do the Ekklesias of God” (1 Cor 11:16). In violation of this clear teaching by Paul, male chauvinist churches continue to misinterpret and subjugate women. In the new covenant, the length of hair of a man or of a woman has nothing to do with their salvation.
BABBLING BANNED IN THE EKKLESIA
There was another special situation in Corinth. The powerful high priestess of the famous temple of Delphi used to be possessed by spirits, go into a trance and speak in an incoherent language, which was considered by devotees as oracles. She advised citizens about their fate, and once warned Oedipus about the dangers of murdering his father and marrying his own mother.
Researcher John Hale, from Louisville University, thinks that there was a geological fault from which noxious gases leaked into the temple, intoxicating the woman, making her to babble. There was also a spring of water from which the high priestess drank with devotees as part of ritual bonding. Paul used this metaphor, “We have all been made to drink into one Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:13). Paul used the Greek word lalein for babbling or making incoherent sounds. He told the women of Corinth not to babble, but did not stop them praying, prophesying or teaching (1 Cor. 11:5; 14:26-40).
PROPHETS AND MEN ALSO NOT ALLOWED TO BABBLE
Paul used the words lalein and sigato when he instructed men not to speak in unknown tongues in the Ekklesia, unless there was an interpreter. This was to make sure that whoever was speaking, whether a man or a woman, was doing so by the Holy Spirit. He gave this injunction to the prophets so that their prophecies could be cross-examined by others (1 Cor. 14:23, 29, 32). Men were also told to refrain from “babbling”, but no one mutes men from speaking in the church. In muting women’s voices, gender-biased churches have choked their own clearest voices.
PEACE IS NOT SILENCE
Astonishingly, in the decadent environment of Corinth and Cenchrea, a most successful Ekklesia took root. This was a major miracle, for many heathens joined the church from am idolatrous and demonized background. Because they were used to frenzied pagan worship, Paul was particularly anxious to make sure that there was no confusion (v. 33). He was not asking men and women to remain mute spectators (v. 39) but instructing them for their proceedings to be kept peaceful and orderly, so that the Ekklesia could be edified. Otherwise, everyone had full freedom to express themselves (vv. 31, 40).
NO WASHING OF DIRTY LINEN IN PUBLIC
Did Paul expressly stop women from teaching doctrines in the Ekklesia? “I suffer not a ‘woman’ to teach nor to usurp authority over the ‘man’ but to be in silence” (1 Tim. 2:12). Paul used the Greek word guné for a woman, which in this context means “wife.” Similarly, the Greek word aner for man in this context means “husband.” Paul is telling married women not to teach their husbands in public. Again, the Greek word hesuchia for silence to avoid argument, remain quiet, peaceable. When Paul wrote, “I do not permit a ‘wife’ to teach or to have authority over her ‘husband’ but to be peaceful,” he was counseling wives not to teach their husbands in public, thereby belittling them and usurping their authority as priests and rulers of their family. He told them to discuss contentious issues at home, rather than in public. Perfectly sound advice (1 Cor. 14:34-35; Eph. 5:22-32).
SUBMIT TO HUSBANDS ONLY
Both Paul and Peter advised wives to remain submissive to their husbands, just as husbands were asked to love and honor their wives, lest their prayers be hindered (1 Tim. 2:11; 1 Pet. 3:1, 7). Submission does not mean subordination but willing respect for each other’s role. This does not exclude full participation of women in the Ekklesia, for it is not for other men, including Pastors, to make somebody else’s wife submissive to their diktat. Paul clearly mentions that he has no specific instruction from the Lord for unmarried women, which means they retain their full freedom to participate in the Ekklesia (1 Cor. 7:25). While there is a clear line of submission, Messiah to God, a wife to her husband and a husband to Messiah. When Eve acted without the covering of her husband, she messed up everything and everybody.
In the NT times, women led in prayer and prophesied (1 Cor. 11:35, 16). It is neither the length of her hair nor the size of her head scarf that matters, but obedience and submitting to the Lord. In many cultures, married women normally wear a head covering. Regrettably, church leaders impose their non-existent authority over other men’s wives by not allowing their full participation.
WOMEN TEACHERS, PROPHETESSES AND DISCIPLES IN THE NT
Christianity loudly proclaims justice, honor and dignity for women, even whilst its “high priests” have made it a bastion of male supremacy. We must stop parroting boasts of gender justice, must openly challenge outdated practices, and must workout deliverables of true biblical Christianity. In the early Ekklesia, women could teach others because they were primarily family gatherings. Paul put some restrictions on married women teaching their husbands in the formal assembly, whilst they remained free to teach informally.
Women taught sound advice (Tit. 2:3-4). Priscilla coached Apollos, a mighty expositor of the Scriptures, explaining to him the “Way of God” more accurately but made sure that her husband Aquilla was with her (Acts 18:24-26). Obviously, Priscilla was the more dynamic teacher, for otherwise her name would not have been mentioned seven times in the NT, five times before that of her husband Aquila. Tabitha, deacon, served the poor and was called a disciple (Acts 9:36). Philip’s four virgin daughters were prophetesses. They did not prophesy in private but in public before men and women in the Ekklesia (Acts 21:8-9).
PHOEBE TEACHES DOCTRINES
In AD 1400, a monk rearranged Paul’s letters, putting in chapters and verses, not in the chronological order in which they were written, but according to their physical length and the complexity of their doctrines. Although the letter to the Galatians was written first, and then Thessalonians and Corinthians, he decided to put the letter to the Romans first, because it had more of doctrines, and Philemon last. Because Paul needed a smart person who could handle the Christians of Rome, the capital city of the world, to go and teach the doctrines in the letter to the Romans, he chose Phoebe (whose name means “delightful”), a multinational businesswoman from Cenchrea, the harbor city of Corinth. She had learnt her doctrines under Paul, Barnabas, Silas, Timothy, Titus and many others who, after getting off their ship, had been guests at her house. They would then walk the five miles to Corinth. Although the modern church would like us to believe that she was only a dumb deaconess, Paul had asked the Ekklesia of Rome to receive her with full honor and respect. This does not mean that they were waiting with garlands, but they certainly expected her to teach them doctrines from the Book of Romans (Rom. 16:1-2).
BRETHREN INCLUDE SISTERS
The Greek word for “brethren”, adelphoi, does not mean just brothers, but “fraternity, community, siblings.” When Peter addressed the 120 in the upper room, where women, including Mary, the mother of Yeshua, were present, he called them “men and brethren” (Acts 1:14-16). The singular form, delphys, literally means “from the same womb.” This shows the remarkably close relationship that Christians had with each other. At the Jerusalem convention, called to sort out Jewish traditions for Gentiles, Peter got up and addressed them as “men and brethren” and a little later James said the same. There are 130 references in the NT referring to brethren, meaning brothers and sisters, who led the NT Ekklesia. The male Pastor is a ‘Johnny-come-lately’ that was born circa AD 1600, courtesy of Martin Luther. Though modern variants such as “Shepherd” are now in use, the word ‘Pastor’ exists only once the English NT. The Greek poimén and Hebrew word raah for pastor mean “a wandering herdsman” (Acts 15:6-7, 13; Eph. 4:11; Jer. 17:16).
JUNIA, A WOMAN APOSTLE, UNDERWENT A “SEX- CHANGE”
Yeshua gives the fivefold ministry gifts to His Ekklesia. These are not gender specific and include apostleship for women (Eph. 4:11). Paul commends Junia, a woman of the Roman Ekklesia, as “outstanding among the apostles,” probably one of the founders of the Ekklesia in Rome along with Andronicus, perhaps her husband (Rom. 16:7). John Chrysostom, the Bishop of Constantinople (AD 347-407), wrote “O how great is the devotion of this woman that she should be counted worthy of the appellation of apostle.” Junia continued to be a female apostle in the Scriptures until the 11th century when she underwent “sex change surgery” at the hands of monks suffering from “misogyny” (male chauvinism), who altered her name from Junia, to Julias or Julian, a man’s name, as they could not palate the apostleship of a woman.
They did the same to Nympha or Nymph (a feminine noun meaning “a sea goddess or a maiden”) into Nymphas (a noun of indeterminate gender) at Colossians 4: 15. We find that such attitudes and practices have been all too common. Nympha suffered persecution, imprisonment and finally martyrdom at the hands of Emperor Nero. Let us not forget what early Christians, under the iron fist of pagan Rome, had to suffer for proclaiming Messiah Yeshua as Lord. For Junia and Nympha, being apostles was not a matter of privilege, but of prison and death. We know that the Roman Ekklesia was already well established before Paul traveled there, and Junia had become a Christian before Paul did (Rom. 1:7-13; 16:7). It makes sense that men who object to the full participation of women in the church should reboot their theology. Despite the claims of the Roman Catholic Church, Peter never went to Rome. He rests peacefully in his grave at Capernaum, his hometown.
WOMAN FACILITATED HOUSE EKKLESIA MEETINGS
What do we know about the apostles? According to the NT, apostles are ordained by God (John 15:16, Luke 11:49; 1 Cor. 12:28; Eph. 4:11). They are workers of miracles (2 Cor. 12:12; Acts 2:43), witnesses who proclaim the resurrection of Yeshua (Acts 4:33), founders and leaders of Assemblies (Acts 4:37; 15:4; 1 Cor. 12:28), preachers (1 Tim. 2:7; II Tim. 1:11), teachers (II Pet. 3:2; Jude:17; Acts 2:42), disciplers (Eph. 4:12,13), and finance managers of the Ekklesia (Acts 4:34-37). While not every apostle was necessarily involved in all these activities, there is no reason to suppose that a recognized apostle like Junia, Lydia, Pricilla, Phoebe and others were barred from any of them.
NOT APPOINTING WOMEN ELDERS IS PLAIN BIGOTRY
In the OT, Miriam, Deborah, and Hulda are mentioned as prophetesses. In the NT, Anna and Philip’s four daughters are recognized as prophetesses. Priscilla was certainly another female apostle, who traveled with Paul along with her husband. The names of several women are mentioned throughout the epistles. Unless women played a dominant role, Jews would never mention their name. The Greek word presbuteros is translated “elder” for men but for some strange reason, presbuteras, the feminine form, has been translated as “older women”. It can just as easily be translated as “woman elder”, as “elderess” or even as “wife of an elder” (1 Tim. 5:2). Obviously, this was done deliberately to avoid appointing women as elders in the male dominated churches.
Just like today, in the early Ekklesia, the majority consisted of women who exerted considerable influence. The main qualifications required of an elder was that he or she should be of good character, married to one spouse, hospitable, able to manage their house well, and, of course, be able to make disciples (Tit. 1:5-9; 1 Tim. 3:4).
Since many women amply qualified for this post, it was natural to have women elders. This is Scriptural because “women are also a chosen generation, a holy nation and royal priests.” Women have full rights to function as priests, which includes worshipping, disciple-making, baptizing, teaching, sharing the Lord’s Supper, etc. They also prayed for the sick and delivered the demonized (2 John: 1; 1 Pet. 2:9). All these activities led to the strengthening of faith and to rapid multiplication of the Households of God.
IN THE EKKLESIA, EVERYONE CAN TEACH
In house Ekklesias, everyone, including women, actively participated. “Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, and has an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up” (1 Cor 14:26). Paul further states that everyone could prophesy, which presumably includes women (v. 31). He clarifies that “one who prophesies speaks to the people for their edification, encouragement, and consolation” (1 Cor. 14:3). He told Timothy, “You have heard from me through many witnesses entrust to faithful men (anthrōpoi = both men and women) who will be able to teach others as well.” Women were taking part in all these functions including teaching in the Ekklesia (2 Tim. 2:2).
CAN WOMEN BAPTIZE?
Baptism slowly became a preserve of the clergy, although there is no biblical warrant for doing so. There is nothing in the Bible that militates against women baptizing. In fact, the Great Commission is not gender specific and expressively commissions every single believer to go make disciples and baptize them (Matt. 28:19). Women are blood-bought priests and kings (Rev. 5:10). One of the basic functions of a New Testament priest is to baptize new believers. Historically, it is well known that on the Day of Pentecost, Jewish women, following their tradition, went to mikve (pools) and baptized each other. The Lord baptized many women with the Holy Spirit and fire. (Matt. 3:11)
The death of Lord Yeshua rent the temple veil in two, disenfranchising the Levitical Priesthood, enfranchising all believers as royal priests. Unfortunately, the contemporary church is always trying to draw the veil again on women. In many cultures especially, daughters of Ishmael cannot be baptized by men. Thousands are ready to be baptized immediately by their sisters in the faith. If they were to be baptized by men, permission would be needed from their husbands or fathers, and that is not always forthcoming. So, it is only logical that, if women can pray, heal the sick and deliver the demonized, then they can certainly dunk them in water.
PIMPS, WHORES AND EUNUCHS ARE HEADED FOR THE KINGDOM
Pimps and prostitutes joining the Ekklesia of Corinth was too shocking for sober, orthodox Jews. It seemed to destroy everything that they held sacred, since they had to sit and worship as equals, and even eat food together. The baptism of the Ethiopian eunuch required a huge paradigm shift, for eunuchs were not allowed near the temple (Deut. 23:1). God promised that His house would be called a house of prayer for all nations, including eunuchs, “I will give a better name and place to them (eunuchs) than that of sons and daughters” (Isa. 56:3-7).
The Western church is now divided into two major denominations, Gays and Straights. Gender confusion and deviant sexual culture has now overtaken Sodom and Gomorrah. Billy Graham’s wife Ruth once said, “Billy, if God doesn’t come soon and bring judgment upon the United States, He’s going to have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah!” If eunuchs and harlots could join the Ekklesia (1 Cor. 11:5-16), then we must expect a mighty harvest of gays, transgenders, lesbians, and others who are prepared to make themselves eunuchs for Messiah (Matt. 19:12). It does not matter how far out you have drifted; the Lord can find you and forgive you. He died to do so. He did not condemn the woman caught in adultery instead warned her, “Sin no more” (John 8:11). The Ekklesia of Yeshua is a counterculture that is shockingly different from highly sanitized versions of the modern church. It is where the scum of the earth can find love, forgiveness, and eternal life (1 Cor. 1:26-31; 4:13).
ARE YOUR BABYSITTERS PROPHESYING?
At the time of Yeshua, women had zero identity. They could be bought or sold. They were treated as sex slaves by the rich and even in the pagan temples. They could be divorced or disposed at the whim of men. Women and their daughters and even slave girls’ entry into the Ekklesia as equals was giant leap forward at the time. Even in the Synagogues they were herded at the back, behind the veil to avoid eye contact with men. God had promised that in the last days, He will pour out His Spirit on all flesh. While oldies are dreaming dreams and seeing visions, their sons, daughters and servants should be prophesying and bringing others into the Faith (Joel 2:28). This happened on day one of the birth of the church as Peter announced this in his maiden speech at the Pentecost (Acts 2:17;18).
SLOWLY BUT SURELY WOMEN ARE TRANSFORMING THE WORLD
Thousands of house gatherings are sprouting up throughout the world, especially in the 10/40 Window countries. For example, the largest church in the world, led by Paul (David) Yonggi Cho in South Korea, has over 100,000 cell churches. Eighty percent of these cells were started by ordinary women. Today, the center of gravity of Christianity has already shifted from the West to the East. Over 70 percent of the believers are now in the 10/40 countries. Participation of women in general, and of ordinary housewives in particular, is the main reason for this remarkable shift.
WOMEN ARE THE KEY TO CLOSED COMMUNITIES
The zenana and the harem are a secluded area for Hindu and Muslim women in the Indian subcontinent. In Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and in the Arab world, worship groups are being birthed mostly by women. In some Muslim countries, where even owning a Bible is a crime, praise God that through TV, radio, social media and the internet, the digital media, amazing numbers of descendants of Ishmael are now turning to Isa al Masih (Yeshua the Messiah). However, the media lacks relationship and only women can enter behind the veil and provide fellowship to hapless sisters.
THE CHURCH NEEDS FRUIT GATHERING WOMEN
Much of world does not know that today, a great army of women is going out with tears and bringing in the sheaves of a harvest of souls (Psa. 126:5-6). Although many are illiterate, they are effectively communicating their faith and turning their world upside down. They have very few resources but are bathed in prayer, resonating with the will of God. If Lydia, Priscilla, Apphia, Mary and many others turned their homes into “Houses of transformation”, and if a despised Samaritan woman brought her whole village to Yeshua’s feet, then why don’t we, who have so many resources?
Tragically, many privileged women are sitting in the pews as dumb dolls, all decked up but with nowhere to go. God has commanded, “Women of ease and your complacent daughters, put on sackcloth and pray until the Spirit of God is poured out and the lawless city becomes a place of justice, virtue, peace, and blessing” (Isa. 32:918). Our deprived sisters are not feminist activists, fighting for their right to put on dog collar and penguin gown to preach from a pulpit, but are visiting house to house, gathering eternal fruit (Matt. 19:30).
THE ABUSED GENDER
Every year nearly four million women and children are trafficked and sold and forced into flesh trade worldwide. Another two million young girls undergo genital mutilation in Africa and the Middle East. Millions of female babies end up in abortion buckets. Some 5,000 brides are burnt to death because they are unable to pay a dowry in India. Domestic violence is common where the woman is the family bread winner and an alcoholic husband beats and robs her. Womenfolk generally suffer from health, financial, emotional, and spiritual problems, whilst being exploited, even by well-off families and friends.
The vast majority are illiterate, and their knowledge about God is shallow and distorted. They need less preaching and more compassion. Shackling the mighty evangelistic force of women reveals outright stupidity. Women in general are relational and function best in small groups. Not surprisingly, they prove a runaway success in making and multiplying disciples in most nations.
THE ROYAL LAW
Our love for the Lord with all our heart, soul and strength must be proved in the crucible of loving our neighbor as ourselves. The Lord Yeshua did not preach about love or admonish to love, as much as he showed His love and compassion to every oppressed woman who came to Him, whether the demon-possessed Mary Magdalene, whether Mary and Martha whose brother had died, whether the woman suffering from an issue of blood for twelve years, or the Samaritan woman, or the Syro-Phoenician woman, or even the woman caught in adultery. All these hurting women required love and encouragement. After an encounter with Yeshua, they all walked straight into the kingdom.
THE CHURCH NEEDS WOMEN SKILLED IN MOURNING
In rice paddy fields, most of the workers are women, either planting sprouts or reaping the harvest. Most of these women are illiterate, untouchable low castes, poor and hurting (John 4:35). God is looking for “women skilled in mourning to teach mourning for the forsaken land to their daughters and lamentation for their neighbors… Unless this happens death will enter our homes through the windows and kill our children” (Jer. 9:17-21). Meanwhile, TV and computer cables are entering our homes through the windows with seduction, sorcery and porn, killing our teenagers.
The churches are full of women who are unskilled in mourning for others, resulting in their own families being destroyed. Women who are ever learning and never doing anything are called weak, foolish and mean (2 Tim. 3:6-7). The church urgently needs women “who go out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, tenderly introduce Yeshua to the hurting women of this world and return home with shouts of joy, bringing their sheaves with them” (Psa. 126:5-6).
JEWS WERE MALE CHAUVINISTS
Jews only counted the men on the day Yeshua fed five thousand of them (Matt. 14:21). After Pentecost, another five thousand “men” were added (Acts 4:4). This probably means that five thousand Households were baptized. Since some Jews had two or three wives, and each woman had several children, their families tended to be large. Presumably, several thousand people were baptized on these occasions. Grudgingly, they had to acknowledge the presence of women in the multitudes, some of whom were quite influential (Acts 4:32; 5:28; 5:14; 17:4, 12).
THE FEMALE POPE
Sometime during AD 855-858, Pope John went into labor during a public function, produced a baby boy, and instantly became Ms. Pope Joan. Thereafter, a special chair, with a hole in the middle was designed, to palpate the crotch of newly elected candidates before announcing them Pope. The veracity of this story is in some doubt, but the legend refuses to die. However, it is historically true that some Popes begat Popes through their concubines. So much for celibacy and infallibility of the Popes! If there can be a Papa in the church, there is no valid reason why, once in a while, we cannot have a Mama, especially since the apostle Julia was a founding member of the Ekklesia at Rome, long before Papa Popes got there (Rom. 16:7).
YESHUA SENDS WOMEN TO GO AND TELL THE BROTHERS
Yeshua appeared to Mary Magdalene near His tomb and instructed her, “Go tell My brethren…” (brethren = adelphus= womb) (John 20:17). Millions of women since then have gone out in obedience to the will of the Father to tell the brethren (men and women) about the resurrected Yeshua. Like men, He has purchased women with His precious blood, and commissioned them to go fulfill The Great Commission. The church needs to take a giant leap forward from her male dominated bastion and empower women to do what their sisters did in the New Testament times.
THE MAN FROM MACEDONIA IS A WOMAN
Throughout the centuries, despite the explosion of scholarship, Paul has been much misquoted. While at Troas, Paul had seen “a man” from Macedonia in a vision call for help. This man turned out to be a woman named Lydia, who got baptized in the river Gangites, like our holy river Ganges. Troas is the famous site where the Trojan War was fought over a glamorous woman called Helen of Troy. Though a thousand ships were launched, the invaders were losing, so they built a huge wooden horse in which they smuggled soldiers into the city and captured it.
Centuries later, Paul and his party launched out from here to go plant the first Ekklesia of Europe in the house of a woman, Lydia who became the leader of that Ekklesia (Acts 16:9-15). Tragically, the hills of Philippi were later taken over by religious monks with polluted minds who built monasteries. For a thousand years, they banned entry of both human and animal females. Later still, the male-dominated European church subjugated women, and influenced the rest of the world to do the same. What a travesty of Paul’s teachings and practices!
DECORATE THE BRIDE
“Submit to each other” not only means women submitting to men but also vice-versa (Eph. 5:19). While some insecure men impose their diktat on women in the church, quoting mistranslated Scriptures to maintain their hegemony, we thank God that thousands of women are launching out every day to seek and to save their long-lost sisters of this world. While the world remains obsessed with glamorous models dressed in scanty clothes, these humble women are lovingly decorating the Bride of Messiah in pure white linen, restoring a loving relationship with Yeshua.
GEMS:
- Your primary nuclear Ekklesia is where you spend most of your time. Your home, your neighborhood or your workplace where you are accountable for their souls (Ezek. 3:18).
- A Shepherd will not be known by his great sermons as much as by his ability to make his flock fertile, fruit bearing and profitable for the Kingdom (Matt. 7:20).
- Yeshua wants, “to present the Ekklesia to Himself a glorious Bride, not having spot or wrinkle; but that she should be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:27).
- The beautiful feet of the Bride belong to those who preach the gospel of peace, bringing glad tidings of good things to the lost world (Rom. 10:15).
- Mary Magdalene was the first evangelist to proclaim the good news of resurrection of Yeshua to the disciples and to the world. By disenfranchising women, the church has disabled 50 percent of its evangelistic work force.
- Throughout the centuries, women went out to the ends of the earth, birthing millions of disciples and nurturing thousands of Ekklesias.
- Now a mighty force of first-generation semiliterate women in the 10/40 Window nations are outperforming their male counterparts everywhere.
- The NT enshrines women to be intentional in their faith pursuits, and no one has the right to abrogate, abridge, stifle or infringe upon that right. All men and women are equal in the sight of God (Gen. 5:2; Gal. 3:27-29).
- Male chauvinist Ekklesias need an urgent gender audit, as Yeshua will not allow gender benders in His Ekklesia. He was a gender blender.
- Cowards (Christians who are afraid of sharing their faith even with their families, friends and colleagues) will be leading the pack of, “unbelieving, the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, who will have their part in the Lake burning with fire and brimstone, which is the second death” (Rev.21:8).
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