Parking Lot Hysteria
(Two women struggle to understand a difficult passage of the Bible.)
One quiet afternoon the phone rang and a very upset woman said she wanted to talk to me. "Is it true that you are preaching at the Radville Seventh-day Adventist church this Sabbath?" she asked.
"Yes, God willing." I said cheerfully. I wondered if she was reaching out to me for some kind of spiritual help, which I was more than happy to give.
"Well, you don’t know me, but my name is Pam. . ."
"Hi, Pam." I chirped. Then the bomb dropped.
". . .and I want to ask you. . . what gives you the authority to speak in church?"
That was an unusual question, I thought. Not knowing exactly where she was coming from, I said very little. Actually throughout the whole conversation I said little because as it turned out, Pam did not want to hear from me, she wanted me to hear from her.
I found out during the course of the monologue that Pam was from a very fundamental church and had become disillusioned with the fact that they did not keep the biblical Sabbath. She visited the Radville Seventh-day Adventist church in hopes of finding a congregation that would meet all her expectations. Everything had gone well for her at Radville until she heard that a woman was going to be preaching. This she believed to be in contradiction to 1st Corinthians 14:34 and 35, which she read to me in a commanding tone:
"Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak: but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also the law says. And if they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for a woman to speak in church."
She had her finger on another text that says about the same thing in 1st Timothy 2: 11 and 12:
"Let women learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence."
Pam scolded me for defying the word of God, then went on to tell me that she was disappointed in the church for allowing such an abomination.
I didn’t say much. I could tell that her mind was made up, and I knew that my thoughts and words would be lost on her. She closed the conversation by telling me that she would not be attending church that Sabbath because she did not want to be part of a service in which such a horrible act of rebellion was carried out.
I have admit I was a little shaken up. Emotional people do that to me.
Better to Scream Than to Preach?
After the sermon that Sabbath, Pam came barreling into the parking lot just as I was walking out to my car. I stood there with my friend Carol as Pam jumped out of her car and began to yell,
"It is a sin! It is a sin for a woman to speak in church!" she was waving a small track as she yelled. Apparently, she had gone back to her old pastor and gotten the information she needed to condemn me once and for all.
"Pam, you’re so angry," I said.
She turned to my friend and asked, "Oh, is this the prophetess???"
"Uh, this is Jennifer." Carol said with a nervous grin. She was trying to maintain some civility by giving me a formal introduction.
"Well," Pam hissed, handing the track to Carol, "read this!"
A tirade followed in which Pam’s pointed red fingernails stabbed in my direction as her red-painted mouth spewed out anathemas. I guess you could say she had missed the point about womanly submission. I thought it was funny that she didn’t see the irony- according to her ideas, I wasn’t supposed to preach about Jesus Christ in the pulpit but she could scream like the devil in the parking lot.
The Edge on Correct Interpretation
But the whole incident got me thinking- it was a verse of scripture from God’s holy word that she had quoted. I couldn’t discredit the verse itself, I could only avoid the spirit it was interpreted in. I asked myself; could it be that one of the most important prerequisites for sound biblical exegesis is having the Spirit of God before you try to understand the Word of God? The Bible teaches this. Jesus said, "If any man is willing to do His will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it is of God, or whether I speak from Myself" John 7:17 NASB. Jesus was telling us that people who are united with God in heart are the ones who will have the edge on correct interpretation. And the reverse would be true then- people who are alienated from God in heart are probably going to be wrong in their interpretations. Both of them will be quoting the Bible, but only one of them will be right.
Do you realize what this means? Don’t miss this! It’s possible to teach error from the Bible! I don’t like how that sounds either, but it’s true.
FACT-Focus, Ask, Compare, Think
Pam is still out there somewhere, and she needs our love and compassion. I felt badly that our views were so diametrically opposed, but I know that God is willing and wanting to lead both of us into a perfect understanding of truth. My experience with her led me to refine my own procedure of interpreting the Bible. Procedure can determine whether we get the facts from the Word, or merely isogetical fiction based on our own presuppositions. Here are four guidelines I work with:
1. FOCUS- We go to the Bible with the motive of fellowship with Jesus Christ. If we go in order to stockpile arguments and build a case for our favorite hobby horse, our selfish motives will eclipse our view of Him. Jesus made this clear when the He told the religious leaders; "You search the scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that bear witness of Me" John 5:39.
It was in Jesus that "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God" was seen, (2nd Corinthians 4:6). Glory is from a Greek word that means "recognition." In the Word of Christ, we recognize the character of God. If we don’t recognize the character of God in the Word, we must not be getting the message.
2. ASK- The Word of God is understood through the Spirit of God, and so we ask for it. This is why Ellen White said, "Never should the Bible be studied without prayer" Steps To Christ, p. 91.
Just before my confrontation with Pam that day a disciple of the Shepherd’s Rod cult had approached me with their argument. She started to open her Bible when I said, "I don’t study the Bible in order to argue. You can send me something written if you like."
This has become my personal policy. I won’t open the Bible to share my views with another person unless we have prayed for Jesus to melt our hearts and remove the blinders from our eyes. Truth is revealed to hearts that are subdued by the Spirit of Truth. This can’t happen while people are yelling and waving the Bible around as if they were in a boxing ring.
3. COMPARE- A correct interpretation will be in agreement with the whole Bible. Pam’s interpretation of the verses that seem to prohibit women speaking in church were not in agreement with other passages that endorse women speaking in church. 1st Corinthians 11:5 talks favorably of women "praying or prophesying" in church. There are numerous other passages that convey female participation in the worship of God, including the Old Testament examples of Deborah and Miriam. Pam interpreted the verses she quoted to mean that not one word should come forth from a woman during the worship service. This does not harmonize with the "big picture" that the Bible presents, so I must reject that interpretation. I have come to understand that "Some portions of Scripture are indeed too plain to be misunderstood; but there are others whose meaning does not lie on the surface, to be seen at a glance. Scripture must be compared with scripture." Steps to Christ p. 90.
4. THINK- The gray matter in your cranium does not add to your good looks- God gave it to you to use. Very few of us fulfill our intellectual potential, mainly because we are a culture that thrives on media entertainment rather than study. But Bible study will change all that, for the Lord has told us that, "There is nothing more calculated to strengthen the intellect than the study of the Scriptures" Steps to Christ p. 90. When we study the Word, our brain is maxed out to it’s highest potential, for our minds come in contact with the Divine Mind, as God said, "Come, let us reason together" Isaiah 1:18.
It is a sin for us to exalt human reason over God’s word, but it is equally wrong to assume there is no reason for what He says, and that He is merely throwing His weight around as a divine arbitrator. God does not ask us to submit to His Word like mindless beasts, but to seek to see the beautiful picture of Jesus that sometimes hides behind a verbal veil. Then we will yield an intelligent submission based upon an appreciation of His love and sacrifice. True obedience comes from smartening up, and not dumbing down.
Reaching Beyond the Baggage
Pam was searching in her own explosive way. She later apologized to some of the Radville members for her rude behavior before she finally moved away to another state. I believe she had been abused in some way that had preempted her reaction to me. What it was that drove her, I don’t know, I am not her psychiatrist. But Jesus is, and He can heal her mind.
The good news to us today is that God is willing, wanting, longing to reveal Himself to us through His Word. He can reach beyond the emotional baggage we all carry and reveal to us the truth as it is in Jesus. If we study in order to see Jesus, ask for His Spirit, compare scripture with scripture, and then think it all through by reasoning with God, I don’t see how we can go wrong.
Both Pam and Radville are pseudonyms.
All scriptural quotations are from the New American Standard Bible.