This is a hot topic with many christians, but, let me preface everything that will be stated here with this caveat: it doesn’t really matter what happens in “churches” regarding this issue, for christianity is not the true faith, but a counterfeit of it. Therefore, the foundations of christianity being flawed, one more false doctrine does not alter the fact that it is a false belief system to begin with.
Now, where women preachers/pastors are concerned, most who defend it conflate two different things to justify it: worth and role. They falsely use verses that speak to the equality of humans in salvation as if that means that all believers are inherently qualified to fill all roles or offices within the ekklesia (assembly).
Those who try to justify this false teaching usually quote Paul in Galatians 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Messiah Yahoshua,” and falsely contend that he was saying there are no distinctions to be made in the roles and duties based on any of those physical attributes. Such an assertion is both false and illogical.
Paul is not speaking in that verse about offices within the assembly, but in the fact that salvation is available to anybody regardless of any physical or status distinctions. It would be ludicrous to state that there is no longer such a thing as males and females after the covenant was poured out on all mankind (available to all humans) on the Feast of Weeks (Acts 2).
There are still offices of authority that legitimately exist—there are still bosses and employees, there are still governmental authorities who oversee municipalities, and, obviously, there are still males and females (although, there is a political agenda to erase those distinctions).
In a modern school setting, are principals more valuable as humans than teachers are? Of course not! But, principals have a different role than teachers do, and part of that hierarchy is that teachers are to submit to the leadership role of the principal.
There are many such instances in any culture, but the ordained role of men gives them no higher value as humans than that of women. There are simply distinctions in roles and responsibilities.
As for women pastors/preachers, Paul made it clear in passages like 1 Timothy 2:12 that women are not to be in positions of teaching/preaching to men, or of having any authority over men WITHIN THE ASSEMBLY (ekklesia). It is not speaking of secular settings, like judges, politicians, or teachers. Paul is speaking of things pertaining to the ekklesia itself.
The false teachers who pervert the scriptures on this often point to women like Deborah in the OT, who was a judge. That was not a spiritual office, but a governmental one. Where the spiritual offices are concerned, one must look to the temple and the priesthood. There were certainly women who worked at the temple, but the priests were only men. There were no women priests in the temple.
It was only pagan religions that had priestesses (which clarifies the actual origin of women pastors in “churches”), and scriptural references to prophetesses merely refer to women who spoke under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. They were not in any hierarchical position of spiritual authority over men.
“I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.” Now, where this English translation uses the phrase “to remain quiet,” it is not speaking of “holding one’s tongue.” In the Greek, it is ἡσυχία (hēsuchia), and it denotes having a quiet spirit—not being one who is officiously meddlesome in the affairs of others.
To be “officious” is to be objectionably aggressive in offering one’s unrequested and unwanted services, help, or advice; meddlesome. Paul is exhorting women not to be busybodies and gossips, and not to exert opinions and personal preferences over the spiritual affairs of the assembly. He is not telling women just to keep quiet as a member of the congregation, but that women are to manifest a stillness of spirit—a modest character.
Additionally, in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, Paul gives qualifications for pastors/overseers, and he says they are to be the husband of one wife. There is no woman who can fill that role, for a husband is, by definition, a man, and a wife is, by definition, a woman.
Now, some christians contend that Paul is speaking only from a cultural perspective, but in 1 Timothy 2, after stating that women are not to teach or preach to men, he immediately explains why, and it is not a cultural matter at all. He states the order of creation as the reason—man was created first, and then woman was created as man’s helpmeet.
That same principle is delineated in the marriage relationship—the man as the leader, and the woman in submission to him. Again, that has nothing to do with the worth of either the man or the woman, it’s just a distinction of roles. Just as children are exhorted throughout scripture to submit to the authority of their parents, wives are admonished to submit to the role of their husbands. It is a duty of respect for the office (role) that Yah created the man for.
Children have no less human value than their parents, just as wives have no less human value than their husbands. The order of roles was determined at creation, and that is what Paul points out concerning women in the ekklesia.
It must be understood that, prior to the pouring out of the spiritual covenant, the physical Jews were a foreshadow of what would be revealed on the Feast of Weeks in Acts 2, thus, the Holy Spirit, as covenant, now being made available to all mankind, there were no longer any spiritual distinctions between physical Jews and physical Gentiles (Galatians 3:28-29).
The physical Jews were only presented as a picture of the spiritual real substance that would be later revealed, just like physical lambs were used to foreshadow the Perfect Lamb of Yah who would be sacrificed (crucified) on Passover.
What Paul DID NOT say was that women could not teach or preach. He merely stated that they are not to teach or preach to MEN. That certainly does not preclude women from assuming positions of preaching to and teaching other women and children. The only legitimate teaching or preaching role for women within the assembly is with other women or with children. A woman can teach other women and children within the ekklesia (and they are told to do so), but a woman cannot be the husband of one wife, and therefore, cannot hold the office of pastor.
Now, as was prefaced here, this issue is actually irrelevant in the “church,” for christianity was invented as a counterfeit of the true faith by stripping away the Father’s traditions, and creating a false path to salvation based on man’s decision and declaration. So, women pastors are just a symptom of the fallacy of the entire belief system.
Please understand that I’m not saying there is NO truth in christianity, for all religions contain some elements of truth (that’s how Satan uses them to deceive). But, for christianity as a whole, where false doctrines are taught daily, the false teaching that women can be pastors or teach men is but one of the false traditions of men that is part of a much larger false belief system.
There is no spiritually true rationale for women pastors, or women being spiritual teachers of men, but there is also no spiritual justification for the many other false teachings within the “church.”
For more information: Messiah’s Bride Is Not the “Church”