I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. (1 Timothy 2:12)

If You Truly Love Jesus Then You Will Do What God Says

Apprising Ministries has been reminding you about an important upcoming “gathering” in the egregiously ecumenical Emerging Church aka Emergent Church—morphing into Emergence Christianity—(EC). As AM already told you in Christianity 21: Emerging Voices Of A Pseudo-Christian Faith, through their JoPa Productions company Tony Jones, an influential EC theologian, along with his quasi-universalist pastor Doug Pagitt, are putting on something they call Christianity 21 (C21).

C21 will feature all women speakers, whom the dubious duo of Jones and Pagitt believe to be:

21 of the most important voices for the future of Christianity—21 voices for the 21st century—to speak into our future as people of faith in this age. They represent a diverse array of backgrounds, interests, and passions, and they will provide a wide range of innovative and challenging presentations. (Online source)

One of these “most important voices for the future of Christianity” who’ll “speak into our future” in order to “shape the future of our faith” is Nadia Bolz-Weber aka the Sarcastic Lutheran who’ll be speaking on “Authority; Authenticity and A**holes.” Very nice; apparently she speaks firsthand. As in humble reverance she prays:

Dear God, help me not f*ck this up. That’d be great. Thanks (Online source)

But Bolz-Weber is included at C21 1) because she is a woman “pastor”, and 2) because she is—to use her words—“queer inclusive.” Both of these are pet issues in the EC, along with its highly subjective [i.e. existential] Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism. Since it’s not the point of this post I’ll simply make a point in passing concerning many in EC. So often we hear they’ve had bad experiences in fundamentalist-type churches; and for that reason, we do have sympathy for them because they’ve had difficulties in their lives.

However, to quote Bruce Springsteen, that revered pop philosopher from New Jersey: “Show me somebody who ain’t.” No one should be surprised that there are hypocrites in the church; but the fact is, there are hypocrites in the world as well. At its rotten core the EC is—plain and simple—a rebellion against Sola Scriptura. Just the same as the agnostic, these “postmodern” [read: relativist] people know that once you kick out the final authority of the Bible, you’re then in the position to teach/believe anything—or—not.

The tragedy is, once we remove the certainty of God’s absolute—and unchanging—truths, there isn’t anything left in this cursed creation that we can actually trust in. Despite all the EC hot-air eshewing systematic theology, the fact still remains; they have one as well. And it basically centers around how they do despise those of us who believe the Bible while adhering to the hisotric orthodox Christian faith. But sadly, the joke’s really on them; while they don’t like us because we’re supposedly “too critical/judgemental” etc. etc. blah, blah, the EC is doing precisely the same things of which they accuse us. 

Nah, just disagree with one these tolerant ones who revel in nebulous mystery and suddenly they become quite sure; you are wrong. That said, “pastors” like Bolz-Weber, who believe having sexual relations with another of the same sex i.e. homosexuality is also a viable lifestyle for the Christian, will play pivotal roles in forging the EC’s inclusive agenda. This now brings us to the heart of this article, which is a thorough Biblical case below for male only leadership within the church by Chris Rosebrough—a Lutheran himself—of Pirate Christian Radio. The case in point, for this particular AM piece, being “pastor” Nadia Bolz-Weber.

What follows first is an excerpt from Episode #34 Nadia Bolz-Weber of Praxis Podcast. Now it turns out the hosts of this particular episode, DG Hollums and his wife Tiffany, are on staff as pastors at the Florence United Methodist Church in Florence, KY. There we find Tiffany is listed as “Associate Pastor” while DG carries the label “Cultural Architect” ala “distinguished futurist” Erwin McManus of the Southern Baptist Emerging Church Mosiac. So we find it no suprise that the quite liberal UMC also ordains women as pastors in violation of Scripture.

Below Bolz-Weber will tell us that she’s an “ordained Lutheran pastor”; but it’s important to note, she is actually with the nearly completely apostate “Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.” A main reason for their impending death as a Christian denominartion is precisely because it’s “the only Lutheran denomination in the States that ordains women.” Well the sad truth happens to be that the ELCA is as much Lutheran as Martin Luther himself was an advocate for the Roman Catholic Church; which he said was “not Christ’s church but the synagogue of Satan.”

So contra Bolz-Weber, for example, in Martin Luther Says No…To Women Pastors we pointed out Luther said of the pastorate:

In summary, it must be a competent and chosen man. Children, women, and other persons are not qualified for this office,… Moses says in Genesis 3, ‘You shall be subject to man.’ The Gospel, however, does not abrogate this natural law, but confirms it as the ordinance and creation of God.” (Online source)

Quite obviously, in the real world, this is decidedly not someone like Nadia Bolz-Weber. And then in John T. Pless: Martin Luther’s Rejection Of Homosexuality AM showed you, via a professor at Concordia Theological Seminary (LCMS), that Luther’s position concerning the deviant lifestyle of homosexuality was also the polar opposite of gay affirming “Lutheran pastor” Bolz-Weber’s view:

Luther seldom mentions homosexual behavior. But when he does, his evaluation is always negative… Luther’s rejection of homosexual activity is not merely a matter of aesthetic preference but rather a theological judgment rooted in the reality of the way the wrath of God is revealed against all ungodliness that will not acknowledge God to be the Creator and Lord that He is. For Luther, homosexuality is a form of idolatry, of false worship as we see in his lectures on Romans. (Online source)

Being Lutheran While Living And Teaching In Direct Contradiction To Martin Luther

But such as it is with these postmodern posers in the EC; words/subjects are simply treated as Play-Doh, which they then bend into whatever shape they wish a given word/subject to be. However, the incontrovertible fact is, the actual Church Reformer Martin Luther would have had nothing to do with homopressive women “pastors” such as Bolz-Weber and other rebels against Sola Scriptura like DG Hollums and his wife Tiffany: 

DG:  Tiffany it’s a privilege and a honor to have you here; uh…plus once you found out who we are interviewing you’re like, “Oh, I want to be there!” So, uh…anyway…it’s actually really interesting Tiffany this is just kind of a side note, I’m putting Nadia on hold real quick) uh…we were just talking about how there needs to be more women – and especially a woman’s voice – within the Emerging and the Emergent Church; and um…and Erin and umm…myself and Kevin and everybody else and I don’t know who we were talking to…I think we were talking to Jonathan Wilson Hartgrove, but we were just begging women, “Please, you know,  tell us what you need, tell us how we can be able to empower or just get out of the way or just anything we can possibly do to be able to make your voice louder.”  Because, I know you’re here, and I think what we decided was all the men want to talk about it; all the women are actually doing it.  

TIFFANY: (Laughs) 

DG: So we hope and pray that there are women that are listening that do listen to Praxis podcast, that do care about the church and the future of the church and its so much enough to be able to make their voice be heard and so I’m thrilled that you’re here and maybe we can make this a more common occurrence whenever anybody else cancels or we’ll push them to the side and say, “Tiffany’s taking over.” 

TIFFANY: (Laughs) 

DG: That’s cool. So, thanks for coming, Tiffany. 

TIFFANY:  Thanks for having me. 

DG: Awesome….all right, can you tell that I love my wife, everybody? (Laughing) I think it’s pretty obvious.  Well, we do have just an amazing, awesome, author and uh…would you call yourself a vicar, Nadia? 

NADIA: No, actually I’m a pastor.

DG:  Oh, you are a pastor…okay, all right. And a pastor, Nadia Bolz-Weber, who has written a book called: Salvation on the Small Screen and all kinds of other stuff, but I just want to say, “Thanks, Nadia for being a part of the Praxis podcast and uh…we’re just thrilled to have you.” 

NADIA: Oh, thanks DG…I was so happy that you asked me. 

DG: Well….really? (Laughing) Like…aww crap, another fricken’ podcast I have to do with somebody. 

NADIA: No, I mean…I think…you know there might be up to three dozen people now who’ve bought my book, you know, because of things like this; so.

DG: (Laughing) Well, I actually bought…how many…I think I’ve bought like seven or eight and gave it to all my normal friends, which is uh…the term for “Non-Christians”. 

NADIA: (Laughing) 

DG: And, I gave it to all my normal friends and so far I’ve had TONS of phenomenal feedback saying this book is hilarious… 

TIFFANY: It is so funny. 

DG: …thank you so much and that kind of stuff like that. So, I’m at least seven…I bought seven at least. 

NADIA: So you’re doing your part. 

DG: That’s right! I’m definitely putting it in there. Well Nadia, for those people who might be living under a rock and have no idea who you are could you just give us a little summary of who you are, where you came from, and where you’re at now…we’d love to know a little more about you. 

NADIA: You bet! I am an ordained Lutheran pastor in my denomination as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which is the biggest Lutheran denomination in the States; uh…also the only Lutheran denomination in the States that ordains women. Umm… 

DG: Nice….lucky for you…that’s a good one to be in. 

NADIA: Yeah, exactly. People are like, “You’re a Lutheran pastor, are you Missouri Synod? And I look at them like, “What the hell planet are you from?” Anyway… 

DG: (Laughing) 

NADIA:  Though…uh…I was not raised Lutheran…I was raised Church of Christ, which if you don’t know is like Baptist plus, and uh…very, very, very conservative form of Christianity in which women weren’t even allowed to pray out loud if men were present…

DG: Wow.

NADIA: …so…couldn’t even be ushers. 

DG: Wow. 

NADIA: It was very, very conservative…so I left that church when I was 16 in favor of a really bad drug and alcohol problem. So, given the two choices I chose that instead of the church. 

DG: (Laughing) 

NADIA: So…uh…and I’ve had an interesting…somewhat difficult, h…history, but I’ve been clean for 17 years; and uh, when I got clean, I was trying to be Unitarian and I couldn’t pull it off and uh…because the only explanation I had for the fact that I had gotten sober was that God just interrupted my life; just completely interrupted…took me off one path towards basically destroying myself and put me on another path and the only explanation I had was that this was the grace of God. And so – um…it’s a long story – but I ended up coming to the Lutheran church and it felt like this beautiful homecoming because the theology was one that I’d already experienced to be true; namely that God’s grace is a gift that’s freely given to us, we don’t actually deserve it or earn it in any way… 

DG: Yeah. 

NADIA: …but then our life just becomes a response to that grace. 

DG: Mmm. 

NADIA: So, here was a…here was a um…here was a theology that I didn’t have to remove half of my brain to make…to convince myself to believe it. (Online source)

Below Chris Rosebrough now sets out the Biblical case as to why, according to God’s created order, women cannot be ordained as pastors.

See also:

NADIA BOLZ-WEBER: SERMON ON JUDAS AND GRACE GONE WILD

CHRISTIANITY 21: EMERGING VOICES OF A PSEUDO-CHRISTIAN FAITH

THE NEW CHRISTIANS WITH CHRISTIANITY WORTH BELIEVING—NO SOLA SCRIPTURA: YES, WOMEN PASTORS AND QUEER CHRISTIANS

TURNING GOD’S GRACE INTO AN IDOL

THOUGHTS ON WOMEN PASTORS

HOMOPRESSIVE AS JAY BAKKER

THE SIN OF HOMOSEXUALITY IS DIFFERENT