The Mailbag: Is it biblical for women to carry out The Great Commission? - by Michelle Lesley

Excerpted from here. Our comments in bold.

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It hasn't been that long since Ms. Lesley last appeared in our blog. As is typical, she seems unusually preoccupied with parsing, subdividing, and micro-analyzing 1 Timothy 2:12. However, in the below excerpt she doesn't quote it. In fact, she doesn't quote any Scriptures at all. 

We must consider this Bad Bible Teaching.

We shall quote it: 

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

From these nineteen words Ms. Lesley has in the past provided excruciating analyses about what a woman can or cannot do: Read the announcements in church, sing in the choir, teach Sunday school, give pro-life talks in church, administer communion, be a deacon (ess), teach the children's sermon during the service, and, teach the Bible in a nursing home. All this based on a single misinterpreted verse.

So, continuing in this vein she now wants to explain if women can evangelize or baptize. As mentioned, her explanation will not explain any Scripture. In fact, she will provide no evidence or documentation at all, nothing but bare assertions.

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Last week, I received some questions from a Facebook follower regarding my article Basic Training: The Great Commission. I thought they were very insightful and that other readers might have the same questions, so I’m sharing and expanding on my answers to her here. (I’ve edited/condensed the reader’s questions and comments for the sake of brevity.)

Given my understanding of what Jesus is commanding, and comparing it with other examples in the New Testament, it’s not for women to do the Great Commission. Our role is not to make disciples, teach, or baptize, but to keep the home, edify other women believers, etc. The Great Commission is for men, not women, to do because…

1. The Great Commission requires teaching and baptizing.

2. Jesus was speaking the Great Commission to His disciples, who were all male.

3. We don’t see any specific New Testament examples of women sharing the gospel with the lost through their own witness or example.

4. Because we don’t see any specific New Testament examples of women sharing the gospel or any explicit commands for women to share the gospel, it violates the regulative principle for women to share the gospel with the lost.

This reader’s questions really got me thinking and digging. I love questions that make me think hard and dig into Scripture and theology for answers!

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Now, let’s see if we can come to some biblical conclusions on her questions:

1. The Great Commission requires teaching and baptizing.

Teaching:

Often, when we’re looking at women’s roles in the church and being obedient to 1 Timothy 2:12, people conflate evangelism with teaching. Teaching Scripture to saved people inside the church gathering is not the same thing as sharing the gospel with lost people outside the church gathering. They are two separate, distinct things. (This is as much evidence as Ms. Lesley will provide - a summary denial. Rather than explain, she simply punts.)

First Timothy 2:12 (and other prohibitive passages) only prohibits the former, not the latter. The Great Commission, and the New Testament overall, commands the latter.

As Christian women we want to be sure we keep these two things straight and carry out The Great Commission in the way God has prescribed for women to carry it out. (How might women keep these things straight? Because Ms. Lesley says so?)

May we share the gospel with a lost man or woman “as we are going”? Yes. If that person is a man, once he is saved is it biblically appropriate for a woman to teach and disciple him? No. If he is saved, he is supposed to be joined to a local church. Once inside the church body, he is to be taught Scripture and discipled by men. (Notice that a woman may teach a man outside the church, but not inside during a church service. These mystery divisions and provisos are not found in the Bible, but instead are found in Ms. Lesley's imagination.)

Here are some resources which may be of further help:

Rock Your Role: Jill in the Pulpit

Rock Your Role FAQs (see #11 for using wisdom on sharing the gospel with men)

Basic Training: 7 Reasons Church is Not Optional and Non-Negotiable for Christians

Women Preaching the Gospel? at A Word Fitly Spoken (This is sort of the opposite {and unbiblical} argument: “Because the Bible says ‘preach the gospel’ -meaning, we’re to evangelize- that means women can preach in church, too!”. I thought you might find it interesting.)

Baptism:

When it comes to teaching inside the church, we have clear, prescriptive passages that specifically tell us what women are not to do. (Oh, really? What might those passages be, Ms. Lesley?)

With evangelism, we also have clear commands in The Great Commission, and elsewhere, that disciples of Christ are to share the gospel. (Interesting. Where might we find those commands, Ms. Lesley?)

But when it comes to baptism, we don’t have a clear “this or that person should or should not perform baptisms” passage, so we need to look at the principles and precedents surrounding baptism. (Will these principles involve the Bible, Ms. Lesley?)

The people specifically named as personally performing baptisms in the New Testament were John the Baptist (who baptized Jesus), the twelve apostles, Philip the Evangelist, Paul and/or Silas, and Paul. All of these were men, and all held pastoral or pastoral/elder-type formal leadership positions in the embryonic or infancy stages of the church. (When Peter called to the crowd to "repent and be baptized" [Acts 2:38], who baptized the 3,000? Were they all apostles or "leaders?" Were they all men?

When Paul "got up and was baptized," was Ananias an apostle or other "leader?" [Acts 9:18] 

Who did the baptizing at Cornelius' house? [Acts 10:48]

Who baptized Lydia and her household? [Acts 16:15]

Who baptized those Corinthians? [Acts 18:8]

Ms. Lesley' principal defense is the silence of Scripture. That is, she assumes that the only people who baptized are specifically mentioned as doing so. On this basis she thinks that no one else was baptizing because no one else is mentioned.)

All of them were commissioned, ordained, or set apart to their positions by God, Jesus, or the church. (This is obviously false, as we have shown in the above citations.)

We do not see any New Testament instances of random church members – male or female – performing baptisms, only those in positions of church leadership. (Again, this is obviously false, as we have shown in the above citations.)

Additionally, baptism is a formal, official, consecrated ordinance of the church, not a casual, personal, relational activity between individuals, friends, or loved ones. (More bare assertions. Where in the Bible does it describe this? Well, it doesn't.)

It should no more be administered by any church member who wants to do it than the Lord’s Supper should be. (This also is not described in the Bible.)

Both ordinances should be administered by an ordained pastor or elder of the church. (Sigh. She keeps piling on as if her word is enough.)

That leaves out women as well as most men. Does the responsibility of pastors to baptize (??? Where does the Bible say this???)

mean that men who aren’t pastors shouldn’t carry out the Great Commission? Of course not. We – men and women – share the gospel with someone, and if that person gets saved, part of our responsibility is to do what we can to get him plugged in to a local church where a pastor can baptize him. We don’t have to baptize him ourselves in order to be fulfilling The Great Commission. (Incredible nonsense spews from Ms. Lesley's word processor. Her entire presentation is nothing more than a "because I say so." This women should not be teaching anyone, let alone women.)

Basic Training: Baptism

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