Do You Believe In Women Preachers?

[bishoph]

Please let me preface this post and the rest that will follow with regard to this thread and my discussion with you EB. I enjoy a healthy debate of scripture, my posts are not intended to demean you or any other poster in a personal fashion. Having said that, please do not resort to your usual rhetoric and placing people in the "you can believe a lie and be lost" category just because they disagree with you. I will respect your opinion and attempt to disprove it where applicable. Above all else let us be civil in this discourse or I will end it immediately from my side.

Incidentally this is not an bishoph/EB only debate all others may still participate. With any luck we might be able to rescue our dear EB and bring him into the ark of safety. lol J/K

Alright EB, I realize that this will be a futile attempt to enlighten you by rightly dividing the Word, as I believe your mind is already made up and I am not sure if you even desire to know the truth as much as you desire to argue your viewpoint.

But here goes a point by point dismantling of your tirade. I am starting with this latest post because it starts at the second mention of prophetess in the Bible, thus we need to establish from here the role of this woman which by the law of first mention (as it relates to her role) we can establish a Biblical precedent. (BTW the first mention is Miriam and she sings a song to Israel. When you study the songs they sang you find that they were really sermons/testimonies about God which were sung in responsive poses, she definitely was speaking to men and women.)

You stated:

[QUOTE=Evang.Benincasa;292772]
Jdg 4:6-10

"And she sent and called Barak the son of Abinoam out of Kedeshnaphtali, and said unto him, Hath not the LORD God of Israel commanded, saying, Go and draw toward mount Tabor, and take with thee ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun? And I will draw unto thee to the river Kishon Sisera, the captain of Jabin's army, with his chariots and his multitude; and I will deliver him into thine hand. And Barak said unto her, If thou wilt go with me, then I will go: but if thou wilt not go with me, then I will not go. And she said, I will surely go with thee: notwithstanding the journey that thou takest shall not be for thine honour; for the LORD shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. And Deborah arose, and went with Barak to Kedesh. And Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh; and he went up with ten thousand men at his feet: and Deborah went up with him."

First thing that happens is that Deborah reminds Barak that the Lord had spoken to him prior to Deborah speaking to him.

This is incorrect! Deborah does not remind him of something God said to him before she began prophesying to him. let us go back and look at the first part of the chapter.

Judges 4:1-9 (KJV)
1And the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD, when Ehud was dead. 2And the LORD sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, that reigned in Hazor; the captain of whose host was Sisera, which dwelt in Harosheth of the Gentiles. 3And the children of Israel cried unto the LORD: for he had nine hundred chariots of iron; and twenty years he mightily oppressed the children of Israel. 4And Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that time. 5And she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in mount Ephraim: and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment. 6And she sent and called Barak the son of Abinoam out of Kedeshnaphtali, and said unto him, Hath not the LORD God of Israel commanded, saying, Go and draw toward mount Tabor, and take with thee ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun?

Let us look at it from the NLT
Judges 4:1-9 (NLT)
1 After Ehud’s death, the Israelites again did evil in the Lord’s sight. 2 So the Lord turned them over to King Jabin of Hazor, a Canaanite king. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth-haggoyim. 3 Sisera, who had 900 iron chariots, ruthlessly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years. Then the people of Israel cried out to the Lord for help. 4 Deborah, the wife of Lappidoth, was a prophet who was judging Israel at that time. 5 She would sit under the Palm of Deborah, between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites would go to her for judgment. 6 One day she sent for Barak son of Abinoam, who lived in Kedesh in the land of Naphtali. She said to him, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, commands you: Call out 10,000 warriors from the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun at Mount Tabor.

First, it is very evident that Deborah was definitely a leader both politically and spiritually. To say otherwise would be to disregard the order of scripture. Notice that verse 4 defines Deborah's office first as a prophetess and secondly as the judge of Israel. When we look at the role of the judges, they were both spiritual and political leaders. Please note verse 5 which states that the "children of Israel" came to her for judgment (Men and women alike, and it could easily be argued that she judged men more than women because of the societal hierarchy of the day.) (And please do not attempt to argue that there is no mention of her spiritual leadership.) If we rightly divide the Word, we understand from studying the book of the Judges, that each judge was the spiritual and political leader of Israel, thus Deborah was no exception.

Secondly when you look at other translations you understand that the Word of the Lord to Barak, came through Deborah, after all in those days the word did not come by any other than the "judge/prophet" which God had appointed, and it would appear that Deborah had been a judge/female prophet for quite some time, possibly as much as 20 years.