House Church Talk - There can not be male and female1

[Bruce Woodford]

Hi Mike,
You referred to Miriam and Deborah as leaders of men, but this is not so! 
Miriam was a prophetess and Deborah was a prophetess and a judge.

You seem to have used Micah 6:4 as the basis of your theory that Miriam was 
a leader of men. But Exodus 15:20  demonstrates that she lead women and not 
men! " And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in  
her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with 
dances."

I had  suggested that if you were going to use old covenant examples (Miriam 
and Deborah) to attempt to teach female leadership of men under the new 
covenant, you should also be consistent and use old covenant priesthood and 
sanctified buildings to teach new covenant clerisy and the use of church 
buildings!

You responded:"The priesthood was established after the people rejected God, 
and requested a mediator between them and God other then God Himself as the 
only mediator. Let's not get side tracked by the things nether of us support 
or know is God's true will for us. I use the Old as well as New Testament 
verses to show that it is God who chooses, His authority not that of men or 
woman. He chooses the vessels, that meet His criteria, and we should not 
fight against Him choosing the vessels He will choose."

Dear Mike, I fail to see in scripture what you have suggested. Can you tell 
us when the people rejected God and requested a mediator?  Can you also tell 
us when God established priesthood???

When I wrote:"Priests under the old covenant were all males of the tribe of 
Levi, but  under the new covenant, all believers are priests regardless of 
gender.", you responded:"Yes, God desires all as priests regardless of 
gender, I couldn't agree more. He also desires all to be performing priestly 
duties, a priest is for priestly duties. Your not really a priest if you are 
not performing priestly duties."

But Mike, priestly duties have nothing to do with leadership! Priests' main 
function is to minister to the Lord! (Exodus 28:1,3,4 and 41) In the new 
covenant language of I Peter 2:5 and 9, priests'
responsibilities are to:"offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by 
Jesus Christ" and to "shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out 
of darkness into his marvellous light:"
Such ministry is the opportunity and responsibility of every new covenant 
priest, whether male or female!  No priest (male or female) has to be a 
leader or office holder to function as a priest.

I hope this helps to clarify a few points of our discussion.

Your brother in Christ,
Bruce

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