Cheryl Schatz

I should clarify as well.  I am not saying that 1 Timothy or all the other letters written by Paul to specific individuals are not valuable to the church.  They are very valuable, very insightful and they are the inspired word of God.  The important point that I was trying to get at is that they need to pay attention to the context and who the letters were written to.  If we want to ignore the specific problems mentioned by Paul in 1 Timothy and take the temporary prohibition to “a woman” in 1 Timothy 2:12 as a universal prohibition for all women and for all of church history, we are going to have a problem.  The big problem is that we do not have anything to verify that Paul was making a universal prohibition.  Since Paul said “I want…” and told his wants to Timothy in a personal letter about specific problems in one congregation, and this “I want…” is never confirmed as a prohibition given to every situation in every congregation, when men stop women from teaching because of one verse taken out of its context, they become accountable to God for making an improper application.  No woman was ever stopped from teaching God’s word in the Old Testament and for men to stop women in the church age from teaching God’s word, this should be a huge red flag that we need to rethink our doctrine on universal laws.  If this “case” were sent to a judicial court, it would be thrown out for lack of evidence.

God has never before lacked evidence on sin issues.  If this is the only “case” where evidence is lacking and no second witness is available in the entire 66 books of the bible, those who are real truth lovers must stop and ask themselves what is going on.  Have we misunderstood Paul’s letter to Timothy?  Why have we forged ahead and forbidden women to teach the bible in the congregation without a true biblical “case”?  There is much to think about for those who sincerely want to follow God’s way.