THE NEW TESTAMENT DOES SPEAK OF A FEMALE

PREACHER IN A LOCAL CHURCH

The church at Thyatira was charitable, diligent, in service, patient in trial, and well established in the faith of the gospel. But it was a church in rebellion to God and in danger of divine judgment because of compromise in the toleration of a female preacher (Rev. 2:20). The church there tolerated "that woman Jezebel".

A woman in the church claimed to be called and gifted of God as a preacher. Our Lord calls her Jezebel after Ahab's wife, because she was a deceiver. The church at Thyatira, like many today, courted the wrath of God by daring to defy his Word. Though the Bible forbids the ordination of women and the tolerance of women as preachers and teachers in the house of God (I Tim. 2:11-12), this church allowed this Jezebel to teach and to seduce the people with her doctrine.

The church at Thyatira, like the vast majority of churches today, choose to compromise the Word of God in the names of unity, brotherhood, and christian love. But that religious "love" that leads churches and church leaders to compromise the Scriptures is the most villainous thing in the world. It teaches eternity bound sinners to hope for mercy while living in willful rebellion to God! Compromise always leads to total apostasy, unless arrested and corrected. It begins with ignoring the details of Holy Scripture. It ends in a total denial of the gospel of God's free grace in Christ. Beware of compromise in the things of God!

Donald S. Fortner, Pastor

GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH OF DANVILLE

2734 Old Stanford Road

Danville, Kentucky 40422

236-8235