Pastor Gabe's Old Blog

I'm presently working on manuscript for a book entitled Jesus Called (and Here is What He Said) . As you can probably tell by the title, the book is in response to the bestselling devotional Jesus Calling by Sarah Young. But more than being a criticism, I want to teach people what Christ has actually said in His word, the Bible. That's how Jesus speaks -- not in your head or through strange women who claim God has personally addressed them. In case you're not familiar with it, Jesus Calling is written from the first-person perspective of Jesus, as though Jesus actually said the things Young wrote in her book. If that were true, then Jesus Calling is Scripture.  Young has said that she was inspired by another book entitled God Calling by Two Listeners , an admission that her publisher, Thomas Nelson, appears to be trying to conceal . Both Jesus Calling and God Calling were written by way of a new-age spiritual technique called "automatic writing." It i...

On Monday, John Piper responded to  a question at Desiring God  regarding women as seminary professors. Since the Bible says that only men are permitted to serve as pastors and elders in the church (1 Timothy 2:11-12, 1 Corinthians 14:34-35), should women be teaching at theological seminaries where men, training to become pastors, would be sitting under their instruction? Piper's answer can be summarized in this statement: "If it's unbiblical to have women as pastors, how can it be biblical to have women who function in formal teaching and mentoring capacities to train and fit pastors for the very calling from which the mentors themselves are excluded?" In fewer words, no, women should not be professors at seminaries. I agree with Piper. Needless to say, the response has been uproarious. "Women are just as capable of being seminary professors as men!" the opposition argues. "Women can be just as gifted in teaching, leadership, and even preaching!...

Yesterday, the state of Hawaii fell into a state of panic. At 8:05 a.m, the state's 1.4 million residents and hundreds of thousands of visitors received on their cell phones the following alert: "BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL." The alert also blared on Hawaiian television stations. People took screen shots of their phones and starting posting the pictures on social media. Islanders starting tweeting and texting their goodbyes. Parents lowered their children into storm drains. Friends and even complete strangers hugged in the streets and cried tears together. Within twelve minutes of the alert, Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard posted online that it was a false alarm. But it would take 38 minutes for another push-button notification to be sent out to everyone's cell phones informing islanders of the false alarm, and that there was no real danger. What could possibly have been the cause of such a message? Very...

In 1 Timothy 2:11-12, the Apostle Paul wrote, "Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet." The context here is church leadership, an instruction that continues into chapter 3. A woman is not permitted to be a pastor in a church (elder, bishop, overseer, etc.). Only a man can be a pastor. This instruction is not limited to the time-period in which Paul was writing. It applies to all people in every place at every point in the history of the church. How do we know this? Because Paul goes all the way back to Genesis with his explanation: "For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor" (verses 13-14). So the first reason the role of pastor is to be filled by a man is because Adam was formed first, and Eve was formed from Adam as his help-meet. The differences between the sexes and the ...