AI excerpt from Mr. Camping's Open Forum program dates May 27, 2005.

Notice in the transcription below how Mr. Camping points out that women can prophesy – in other ways – that do not include teaching and usurping authority over men:

Caller: There was a woman in the Old Testament that ruled over Israel. How do I explain it?

Are you talking about the problem of women speaking in the church?

No, no, no.

The women teaching authority over the band.

Mr. Camping response:

Because there was an idea of the Old Testament that they ruled over Israel.

Well, if you're talking about the role of women during the church age that... You must remember that while ordinarily the men were the priests, the men were the Levites, the men did all the temple service, the men were the apostles, the men were the Pharisees. It was always men, and ordinarily it was the men who were the judges and the kings.

Now, there was three or four notable exceptions. There was Deborah of the Old Testament who was a prophetess. There was Hulda of the Old Testament who was a prophetess. There was Anna in the New Testament who went into the temple at the birth of Jesus, when

Jesus was brought into the temple and had things to say to everybody in the temple.

And so we read these exceptions and then we wonder what role then does a woman have insofar as the congregation is concerned and insofar as teaching men and so on.

And particularly since in Acts 2, God had declared that beginning with Pentecost of AD 33, that is, that was the beginning of the local congregations, every woman had a prophetic office.

That is, young women or women just as well as men were mandated and qualified by God to declare the Word of God.

And so, given these notable exceptions of Deborah and Anna and Hulda and one or two others, there are those who decided, "Oh, well, then we women have every right to speak in the congregation. We have every right to be a pastor, an elder, a deacon. We have every right to be a Bible teacher when men are present because we also have a prophetic office." But in order to face that question very plainly, God also made a very plain statement in 1 Corinthians chapter 14 verse 34.

In that context, He's speaking about the whole congregation coming together and he says that the women are to be silent.

And in 1 Timothy 2, He indicates that a woman is not to teach or have authority over men. That is, a woman does have a prophetic office. She can declare the Word of God all day long to her children, to her neighbor, to her children's class or whatever. But when Sunday came around and the whole congregation came together, she was not to speak in the congregation.

In that little narrow area of time, which is only a very tiny part of the whole week, she was to be silent. And if there was a class where men were present, she was not to be the Bible teacher. But outside of that, yes, she could stand on the street corner and pass out tracts.

She could be a witness in many other ways. But in those two areas, no, she is to be silent.

Now, we're living in a day when churches are not paying attention to what the Bible teaches.

They're paying attention to what we want, what we think makes sense, what we think is legitimate. And so all kinds of churches today allow women to preach, or to be elders and deacons and so on.

And that's only part of the rebellion of the local congregations that has brought the wrath of God upon them. So now they are under the judgment of God.

But thank you for calling and sharing.