Woman Priestesses is Apostasy

What it comes down to is in the spiritual world, is a someone married—-if a woman priestess performed the marriage? Will someone who thinks they are married before God by a woman priestess find out they are living in sin? How certain can one be that a God who created all by His Word only--will be amused when we deliberately disregard His Word regarding His priests?

It is not a matter of being against women priests. It's a matter of it being impossible for a woman to become one. I note that Orthodox Judaism also does not permit women to become Rabbis. Remember, it was God Himself who limited the priesthood to only males of the tribe of Levi.

We rely on what Jesus instructed us to do by written and oral (apostolic tradition) teaching. If the Church were to try to make a woman a priest, she still would not be one. It is not like a job, that all you need is the right talents for. It's a Sacrament. And Sacraments, the outward signs of God’s grace, have a Spiritual effect in both this world and the next. Are you willing to take that chance?

No matter what you think about the Catholic Church, all the early Church Fathers were Catholic (or universally united as one). And we know that the early Church bishops walked with, listened to, and were taught by the Apostles. From this we get our "Apostolic Tradition"). And also from this we know that all the early church fathers were against woman priestesses... Often, an issue versus interpretation of Scripture can be solved by just looking at what the early bishops (who were taught by the Apostles) taught on a subject.

One early church father was Irenaeus. Irenaeus was born sometime between 130 and 140 AD in Smyrna. Irenaeus learned the key components of the Christian faith under Polycarp (a Bishop), who had been taught by the apostle John and others who had seen Christ. Irenaeus believed there was an unbroken line of tradition from the apostles, to those they mentored, and eventually down to himself and other Christian leaders.

This faith, according to Irenaeus, is found in the Scriptures and summarized in the Rule of Faith. The proof that this is the true faith is that the "Great Church" could point to a visible succession of teachers, presbyters, and bishops who taught the same things throughout the world: This is the teaching common to all apostles and the churches founded by them. The leaders of many of these churches had been taught by the apostles themselves, or disciples of the apostles, and they "neither taught nor knew of anything like what these [heretics] rave about." Reference: Christian History & Biography, Fall 2007, page 32

As hard as it is to take, the fact of the matter is that early Church Fathers rejected female ordination, not because it wasn’t compatible with Christian culture, but because they knew it was incompatible with Christian faith. This was believed by the apostles, and the early apostolic church without question. It was also believed in medieval times, and all the way up to the apostasy of churches breaking from this teaching in recent years.

It is clear from scripture what God's plan is vis-à-vis men and women, and husbands and wives. It is good that women are able to get educations, live on their own, and are thinking for themselves. But in the end, will we find that it was best not to ignore God's stated plan. For instance, God told us not to kill. Do we know with any certainty that a woman's "legal" act of murdering her own baby for reasons such as better home, or a better car, a better education, or a better job/career will not be an unrepentant woman's one-way ticket to Hell?

"Liberal church elites, presiding over dwindling congregations are making decisions without regard for historic Christian teaching or a wider consensus among the church's membership – Christianity rejects the suggestion that sexual identity is merely a state of mind, or a preference. Gender and physicality in Christians and Jewish teaching are intrinsically linked to God's order of creation. … Gender is not a choice but a reality."

What if we as a society had stuck to God's plan as outlined in Scripture? What if women did not have sex before marriage, and they had long courtships, and waited till they found the right man they could respect and honor? Perhaps things may have turned out differently. Instead of doing an unnatural act such as killing her baby, that same woman may instead be living in a happy marriage now. Much what is wrong with society today has to do with women falling for the lies that the feminists, abortionists and New Agers had brought on society in the 1970's. It was always God's plan for the single head of the family to be the man; and also for his priests to be men. God has His own reasons, and He does not always state His reasons. If you accept Scripture as God's Word to us, then you need to admit that God has made it quite clear that woman priestesses are not acceptable. You can't pick and choose here.

Woman who become priestesses, and women who kill their babies, are basically rebelling against God. God foretold of this "end time" rebellion, when He inspired Paul to write: "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;.." It is impossible for someone who is in rebellion against God and His Word, including homosexuals, to truly serve God.

Does this preclude good Christian women from witnessing and teaching, including theology? Certainly not! I think the Scripture below (Let your women keep silence in the churches) is directly related to teaching inside a Church or within a Church or Worship service itself. The Lord Jesus Christ is using countless women today via prophecies, visions, book writing and instruction. Jesus uses all kinds of people to do His work.

Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. Genesis 3:16

But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God. 1 Corinthians 11:3

Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. Colossians 3:18

Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Ephesians 5:22-23

The Church Fathers based prohibition against woman priestesses not only on the earliest Jewish and Christian traditions, but also by scriptural dictates.

The prohibition against women preaching can be found in 1 Timothy 2:12 (KJV):

"But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence”.

This prohibition is also found in 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 (KJV):

34:
"Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law.

35:
“And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church”.

We must first recognize “that in human beings the difference of sex exercises an important influence, much deeper than, for example, ethnic differences: The latter do not affect the human person as intimately as the difference of sex, which is directly ordained for the communion of persons and for the generation of human beings. In biblical Revelation this difference is the effect of God’s will from the beginning: ‘male and female he created them’” (Genesis 1:27). RE: Catholic Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF)

While women could publicly pray and prophesy in church (1 Cor. 11:1–16), they could not teach or have authority over a man (1 Timothy 2:11–14), since these were two essential functions of the clergy. Nor could women publicly question or challenge the teaching of the clergy (1 Corinthians 14:34–38).

During the days that the Lord taught in Israel, women were not allowed to speak in the synagogue. It is important to remember that Jesus was one who was not afraid to correct any impropriety in God's eyes. And Jesus was not afraid to establish something new. Remember, Jesus thoroughly trashed the hypocrisies of the Jewish religious establishment. Even though Mary Magdalene and other women were great followers of Jesus, He chose only men as his apostles. Yet Jesus never spoke against this male only priesthood.

Nowhere in the Gospel do we find evidence of Jesus giving "orders" to women to baptize, to anoint the sick, to confect the holy Eucharist, or to forgive sins as He did to the Apostles. Remember, during the time of Jesus' earthly ministry most of the other religions of that time had priestesses themselves. At all times, the Lord Jesus acted in a way that was independent and sovereign. It is therefore not credible to believe that Christ didn't call women to be his apostles only because of the social conventions of the time. In fact, Jesus was very quick to break social conventions. For instance, he healed a woman on the Sabbath. He spoke with the Samaritan woman, which was forbidden to Jews. He dined with tax collectors. He welcomed a prostitute (Mary Magdalene) as one of his best followers and revealed his risen body to her first, He freed the woman caught in adultery from being stoned, He said the Roman soldier (a gentile) was more faithful than anyone among the people of Judea, and so on. So Jesus was clearly not afraid to break the conventions of his time. In fact, he was crucified because of that.

There have never been woman priests in the Church founded by Christ until recent times because all Christians understood the scriptural prohibitions clearly.

There were priestesses in the pagan religions which abounded at the time of Christ. The lands around the Mediterranean teemed with religions with priestesses. The famed Vestal Virgins of Rome were priestesses. There was a priestess functioning at Delphi. The Sybil was a priestess and the many temple prostitutes were priestesses. A few heretical sects in the first centuries, especially Gnostic ones, entrusted the exercise of the priestly ministry to women. This innovation was immediately noted and condemned by the Fathers who considered it as unacceptable in the Church. Of these Tertullian writes:

"And the heretical women themselves, how shameless are they! They make bold to teach, to debate, to work exorcisms, to undertake cures, and perhaps even to baptize. Their ordinations are casual, capricious, and changeable." (Demurrer Against the Heretics, 41,5-6, A.D. 200).

In 215AD Hippolytus wrote; "When a widow is to be appointed, she is not to be ordained, but is designated by being named a widow. Hands are not to be imposed on her, because she does not offer the oblation and she does not conduct the liturgy.² Similarly the Council of Laodicea in 360 A.D. clearly stated that: "The so called *presbyteresses are not to be ordained."

Pope Gelasius (492-496 A.D.) in his Epistle 14: 26, March 11, 494 AD Pope Gelasius addresses a very specific area, Lucania, Bruttium, and Sicilia, which clearly demonstrates the limited nature of this abuse at that time. In his Epistle, Gelasius condemned the evil practice which had been introduced of women serving the priest at the celebration of Mass. Galasius even cites earlier magisterial declarations against women at the altar. This Pope condemns very harshly the conduct of bishops who went against certain church canons by conferring priestly ordination on some women. He is probably referring to canons from four councils which took place within a 100 year span starting in the second half of the 4th century; the councils of Nicaea, Laodicea, Nimes and the first council of Orange (441). These church councils prohibited women from participating in the liturgical service in any way, or from being members of the clergy. In Pope Gelasius' own words he says; ""Nevertheless we have heard to our annoyance that divine
affairs have come to such a low state that women are encouraged to officiate at the sacred altars, and to take part in all matters imputed to the offices of the male sex, to which they do not belong."

Also, since this abuse had spread to the Greeks, Innocent IV strictly forbade it in his letter to the bishop of Tusculum: "Women should not dare to serve at the altar; they should be altogether refused this ministry." We too have forbidden this practice in the same words in Our oft-repeated constitution Etsi Pastoralis, sect. 6, no. 21

In 1994 Pope John Paul II in Ordinatio Sacredotalis restated that this teaching is not just a matter of discipline, neither is it a matter open to debate, when he stated "I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful." This has been the teaching of the Church for 2000 years.

Firmilian, in Epistle 75. 1-5 to Cyprian, tells of a woman who went into an ecstasy and came out a prophetess. "That woman who first through marvels or deceptions of the demons did many things to deceive the faithful, among other things... she dared to do this, namely that by an impressive invocation she feigned she was sanctifying bread, and offering a sacrifice to the Lord."

John Chrysostom, in On the Priesthood 2. 2 points out that Jesus said "Feed my sheep" only to Peter. "Many of the subjects could easily do the things I have mentioned, not only men, but also women. But when there is question of the headship of the church... let the entire female sex retire." And in 3. 9 St. John wrote: "Divine law has excluded women from the sanctuary, but they try to thrust themselves into it."

Augustine, On heresies 27 also speaks of the Pepuzians mentioned by Epiphanius. "They give such principality to women that they even honor them with priesthood."

Epiphanius, Against Heresies 79. 304 wrote: "If women were ordained to be priests for God or to do anything canonical in the church, it should rather have been given to Mary... . She was not even entrusted with baptizing... Although there is an order of deaconesses in the church, yet they are not appointed to function as priests, or for any administration of this kind, but so that provision may be made for the propriety of the female sex [at nude baptisms]. Whence comes the recent myth? Whence comes the pride of women or rather, the woman's insanity?" In 49. 2-3 St. Epiphanius tells of the Cataphrygians, a heretical sect related to the Montanists. The Cataphrygians pretended that a woman named Quintillia or Priscilla had seen Christ visiting her in a dream at Pepuza, and sharing her bed. He took the appearance of a woman and was dressed in white."Among them women are bishops and priests and they say nothing makes a difference' For in Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female, '' [Gal. 3:"28]

It is not a matter of women being equal to a man or not. We all know that in the eyes of God, all are equal. The Apostle Paul knew better then anybody in antiquity that male and female were equal in Christ Jesus. It was he, after all, who said, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3:28). Paul saw nothing inferior about women's dignity.

There is a place for women in the Church, but no matter what she calls herself, it cannot be a priest of Jesus Christ. Anybody can do pastoral, teaching, preaching, or administrative work. But that is not the essence of the priesthood.

The issue really is the nature of the Sacrament, just as it is the nature of following God's Word; no matter how mystical it may be.

What is a Sacrament? It is a thing that not only does what it symbolizes but symbolizes what it does. It is a saving act by Jesus Christ. In the mid 4th century, Pope Leo the Great' nicely summed it up this way; "Since the Lord is no longer visible among us, everything of him that was visible has passed into the sacraments."

In baptism the obvious symbol of cleansing, drowning, and new life is water, not wine. And so wine, for all its admirable qualities, is not the right "matter" for the Sacrament of baptism. Likewise water can never be the correct matter for communion, where wine symbolizes and actually becomes in a mystical way, the blood of Christ. In bringing His divine presence into the world, in relating himself to us human beings, Jesus took human elements — bread and wine — to be a vehicle of his grace. He used these to create His presence from them. What appears as food for the body is now food for the soul. So much did he love us, that God respected our human condition.

The Christian priesthood is of a sacramental nature: the priest is a sign, the supernatural effectiveness of which comes from the ordination received; and gender is important here. A sign must be perceptible and which the faithful must be able to recognize with ease.

'"Sacramental signs," says St Thomas, "represent what they signify by natural resemblance." The same natural resemblance is required for persons as for things; when Christ's role in the Eucharist is to be expressed sacra mentally, there would not be this natural resemblance which must exist between Christ and his minister if the role of Christ were not taken by a man: in such a case it would be difficult to see in the minister the image of Christ. For Christ himself was and remains a man'.

Remember, Christ is, as He himself teaches, the Bridegroom to the Church (the Bride) in the great eschatological marriage feast of the Kingdom. Gender has, in Christ's teaching, a real meaning and is not simply an accident of nature. And he ought to know, since he designed the human person and made it a participant in the mystery of male and femaleness. The ministerial priest is the sacramental sign of Christ the Head. The sexes, though absolutely equal, are simply not interchangeable. In no way can a transsexual be other than what they were born as, in the eyes of God.

Should we dishonor the teachings of Jesus in the name of civil rights or political correctness. Will Jesus honor us if we allow His Words to be ignored?

Once God’s stated desire for male priests only is ignored, will it be very long before a transsexual in drag honors us with its presence on the alter of Jesus?

Catholic women who become "ordained" are purposely breaking Canon Law #1024. That law says that only baptized men can be ordained as priests. Church leaders view the women as heretics or, perhaps worse, as mere impersonators. “For an analogy in the secular sphere you might imagine that I could get a friend to swear me in as governor of New York,” said Cardinal Avery Dulles, a professor at Fordham University in New York City. “Would that make me governor?”

There is nothing in the nature of the office of deacon that precludes women from serving. And, there is ample evidence from the Scriptures and early church history that women actually did serve as deacons. But whether their function was that of a priest, abbess, or the pastoral care of women and the sick is unknown. The letters of Paul speak again and again of how Christian communities were led by women who were referred to by the title of diakonos, or, deacon. Paul himself had a deaconess names Phoebe or Phebe. Her role within the church was so important that the apostle Paul called for all of the Church in Rome to lend her assistance. It is clear that she had a mission and Saint Paul granted his authority to complete that mission.

One such deaconess was Athanasia who lived in Delphi during the fifth century AD. She was ordained by a Bishop Pantamianos.

Athanasia's tomb stone carries a curse: "May anyone who disturbs the tomb in which this honored and blameless deaconess lies buried, receive the fate of Judas who betrayed our Lord Jesus Christ."

Another deaconess - Theodora of Gaul (now France) carries this Latin inscription on her tomb: "Here rests in peace and of good remembrance Theodora the deaconess who lived about 48 years and died on 22 July 539."

In the Christian document called the Syrian Didascalia (from the late 3rd century) deaconesses are specifically mentioned as an office of the church. The functions of women deacons are summarized as: "assisting at the baptism of women, going into the houses of the heathen where there are believing women, and to visit those who are sick, and to minister to them in the area of their need, and to bathe those who have begun to recover from sickness."

Read about this female Christian "Witch Doctor's" Ministry that God is mightily using:

This is what it's coming to folks. Hello Ms Redding? Islam lies and says Jesus did not even die on a cross... Islam says God cannot have a Son. If so. Won't we die in our own sins?