The Latter Day Rise of the Deaconess There is absolutely no authority for the Deaconess in the New Testament although many men and women were servants in one way or another. However, Scripture recognizes a work for elders who are the only Pastor-Teachers of the flock and Deacons whose definition includes ministering or teaching. The preacher will continue to seek concensus until he gets his way: after all, he is "picked and trained by the sovereign grace of God." And "trouble in river city" is part of the planned "navigating the winds of change."
Twenty Five Thesis by EX members NAILED TO DOOR of Richland Hills church of Christ.
"Ah consensus... the process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values and policies in search of something in which no one believes, but to which no one objects; the process of avoiding the very issues that have to be solved, merely because you cannot get agreement on the way ahead. What great cause would have been fought and won under the banner 'I stand for consensus'?" Margaret Thatcher
See Rick Atchley - The usual mantra condemning non- instrumentalists for not bowing to what Luther said, in effect, the MARK OF BAAL. "Unity" forum with Christian Churches.
See other views from our look at the "creed" of Richland Hills Church of Christ in Fort Worth.
Reaping the Harvest of Shame when the Elders Demanded "Set a king over us."
As part of Post Modernism the rise of mega-churches or Temple Building has demanded that we fire God and demand a human king to help us win battles over the enemies (church across the street) and build a temple out of personal or civic pride to flaunt the phallic power of the leadership. This demands a pyramidal ministry system which was the curse God pronounced over Israel's elders for demanding a king.
This quite naturally brought about civil war and God dispersing the people.
Christ ordained those who would "go into all the world" but the elders as senior males are the only Pastor teachers over the local congregation.
Therefore, for those with eyes and ears and "keeping their clothes with them" have for 2,000 years warned against the local clergy as the dominant leadership or who "thinks" for the leadership.
Seminary training, it has been noted, rarely develops a preacher who believes that which his 'employers' use him as a hired hand. Therefore, he has to dodge and weave in order to keep his job.
Here are some resources to show that have a preacher as the CENTER of watching, listening and admiring is a violation of the will of God and the Christian Mind. Adding personal friends, male and female, as part of the paid staff creates an incestuous and dangerous formula for spiritual disaster. By adding "youngers" to preside over the youth and then "female youngers" has brought the church in many places to a disaster which is God pouring out His wrath which is defined by the musical performance and the buffonery.
You must understand that the urge to effeminize the church with leadership and music flows from a band of men who are Post Modern. This means that they are post-biblical and post-Christian era. They give themselves the authority to narrate the old "uninspired" Bible to make it say whatever they want to say. Therefore, the attack against the Bible is based on Narrative Theology.
And here is the formulation of the "Core Gospel" which drives your preacher.
Wisdom of Solomon 11
14 - For though they had mockingly rejected him who long before had been cast out and exposed, at the end of the events they marveled at him,
for their thirst was not like that of the righteous.
15 - In return for their foolish and wicked thoughts, which led them astray to worship irrational serpents and worthless animals,
thou didst send upon them a multitude of irrational creatures to punish them,
16 - that they might learn that one is punished by the very things by which he sins. (Revelation 18)
And, here is the wrath of God being poured out where "wrath" means to make men into buffoons. See the urge to dance on the rim. The arrow points to the Judas Bag:
The little arrow points to a supernatural sign to the theatrical performers:It is the glory of God to conceal a matter and the glory of Kings to search out a matter. Prov 25:2
The urge for the deaconess arises out of the effeminization of the church (feminine or effeminate). Part of this rises out of the very nature of dominant clergy, some out of the repudiation of the Bible and the imperative to get paid while teaching atheisism and part of it from the calculated reliance on the NIV which has been stripped of all of its masculine gender. The NIV is the "manual" of groups such as Willow Creek where, one way or another, you will sign a covenant affirming your agreement to obey elderesses and deaconesses. However, If you are going to use Catholic authority and;
If you become a priest (preacher), elder or deacon before you marry then you can not marry. However, only virgins qualify. Ooops!
If you are married you may become an elder or preacher (priest) or deacon but you have to let the church take care of your wife as a nun or let her serve as a deaconess to earn her bread. NO conjugal visits, please.
Canon XLVIII.
The wife of him who is advanced to the Episcopal dignity, shall be separated from her husband by their mutual consent,
and after his ordination and consecration to the episcopate (eldership)
she shall enter a monastery situated at a distance from the abode of the bishop, and there let her enjoy the bishop's provision.
And if she is deemed worthy she may be advanced to the dignity of a deaconess.
If you are a widow over 60 (or 40) you may serve as a Widow Indeed (biblical title) although we may call you deaconess.
If you get married then you will be anathematized.
If you are a virgin you may become a nun although we will call you a deaconess.
If as Deaconess you get married you will be anathematized. A monk or dedicated virgin who marries, is to be excommunicated.
If the preacher's or elder's wife is over 60 (or 40) she may become a deaconess. However, she will not be able to live with him. And she will gain no authority over the church.
If your wife dies you will never be able to marry because using the Catholic authority "the husband of one wife" is a once-married man. No MDRM here!
If your wife died and you remarried and then became an "officer" you must resign or get rid of that woman who is not your wife.
If you were not a virgin before taking holy offices then you are self condemned by using Catholic authority:
It is evident that those from the priesthood are chiefly taken from the order of virgins, or if not from virgins, at least from monks; or if not from the order of monks,
then they are wont to be made priests who keep themselves from their wives, or who are widows after a single marriage.
But he that has been entangled by a second marriage is not admitted to priesthood in the Church, even if he be continent from his wife, or be a widower.
Anyone of this sort is rejected from the grade of bishop, presbyter, deacon, or subdeacon.
Nay, moreover, he that still uses marriage, and begets children, even though the husband of but one wife, is by no means admitted by the Church to the order of deacon, presbyter, bishop, or subdeacon. But for all this, he who shall have kept himself from the commerce of his one wife
If you are going to sow discord among brethren because you have been convinced that God sent you to practice "navigating the winds of change" then here is what you should do or shoot yourself to get off the dole of those you are spiritually abusing.
If you appoint a Deaconess you do so with absolutely no Biblical or historical authority that a Deaconess is just a Deacon of the female persuasion.
If you need no Biblical authority then Jesus would label you a devil because "you speak on your own" and need no Biblical authority. However, if you do not believe the Bible and still insist on the "wages" from the widows and orphans provided only to the evangelist then you are a thief as surely as if you robbed a bank.
In many ancient traditions, those who fall actually lust for company and make their total occupation the destruction of the faith of others. Jesus knew that there still lived sons of fallen angel or dens of vipers. You need to very carefully evaluate your own standing as a professional before trying to Heavily Laden the church down with more programs trying to do the social gospel thing to keep from going out in the cold of the mission field.
A Fundamental Question is Do Elders Rule with Power to Appoint SUPERIORslaves?
No, sweetheart, elders and preachers are not celestial beings like Moses or Christ.
Biblical Examples
- Miriam Prophetess or Musical Praise Leader?
- Deborah Military Leader: Her song was chanted at the Oasis
- Huldah - Prophetess - Librarian?
- Ezekiel 13 - Women in Ministry - Rubel Shelly
- First Corinthians 14: Women Silent in Corinth
- 1 Timothy 3:11 - Deaconesses
- Women in Worship - Deaconesses - Lifting Holy Hands
Major Reason for the Rise of The Deaconess in 270 A.D. Malchion reported on the trial of Paul of Samosata who, without authority, had taken "virgin sisters" to be the "housekeepers" or Agapetae of Bishops, Elders and Deacons. It is no secret that there was often a demand for nuns to keep the "officials" off the wives and daughters. However, the more orderly demanded that deaconesses as assistants to the officials be vowed virgins or widows over the age of 60. That should remove the temptation for a too-close relationship which would have been automatic if male and female preachers, elders and deacons see the need to huddle and plan and travel too much.
The first mention of deaconesses in the West occurs in 394 A.D., when a local synod (Nimes) forbade further ordination of them; possibly the order had recently been introduced into Gaul from the East.
The office of deaconess in the Western Catholic church was based on the widow in deed supported by the church and the perpetual virgin or nun. Authority for the deaconess from these sources proves more than the moden innovator wants to prove about his own "office":
Church Councils and Creeds
Women Deacons (Deaconesses) - Didascalia (Apostolic Constitutions)
Apostolic Constitutions Book 1-VI--Book VII--Book VIII
Apostolic Constitutions on Music and Musicians!
Apostolic Constitutions on Law and GraceDeaconesses in the Council of Nicea A.D. 325 Nicaea, 325 A.D. The clergy of the heretical Paulianist sect returning to the Catholic fold were required by the council to be rebaptized and reordained. The same rule was to be observed concerning deaconesses, who were specially mentioned since some of them wearing the habit had not received the laying on of hands and therefore were to be considered laity (canon XIX).10
Deaconess at the Council of Laodicea 364 A.D. Women were forbidden from the priesthood. They also were prohibited from presiding over churches. They decided that "One ought not to establish in the church the women called overseers (presbutidas)....women must not approach the altar."
Fourth Synod of Carthage 398 A.D. "A woman, however learned and holy, may not presume to teach men in an assembly...A woman may not baptize."
The Council of Chalcedon off site 451 A.D.
Deaconess Council in Trullo Trullo, 692 A.D. (Called "Quinisext" as being supplemental to the fourth and fifth councils, which were occupied wholly with the matters of faith.) This council speaks of the ordination of deaconesses in two canons (XIV and XLVIII) using the word cheirotoneisthai. While Pope Sergius did not approve six of the canons of this council, the canons on deaconesses were accepted.
Deaconesses were in Rome in the eighth century, if not before. We find a votive tablet erected to the deaconess Anna by her twin brother Dometius, deacon and treasurer of the Holy See.
- Church Fathers
- Catholic Encyclopedia
- Restoration Movement
- Women and Children Rule when Males Fail (The Deborah Complex)
- The Public Preaching of Women: Dabney Presbyteriann
- The Restoration Movement Leaders Rubel Shelly
- A Small band of Preacher and Professors
Sowing Discord as Deliberately "navigating the winds of change.
Richland Hills Church of Christ and the Deaconess
Those who lust to add to the already overburdened and unauthorized clergy or minister role have no Biblical authority. And they have no scholarly authority. The adaptation of the Greek word "deaconess" which did not exist originally still never permitted the church to see the work as a female version of the male deacon.
The proof text for deliberately sowing discord by fulfilling their own prophecy of "providing a wider role for women and introducing instruments" is based on their belief that they are latter day prophets or apostles. However, God warnd:
I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed. Jer 23:25
How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart; Jer 23: 26
Which think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams, which they tell every man to his neighbour, as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal. Jer 23: 27
The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell (celebrate) a dream; and he that hath my word (dabar), let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord. Jer 23: 28
Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? Jer 23: 29
Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that steal my words every one from his neighbour. Jer 23: 30
Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that use their tongues, and say, He saith. Jer 23: 31
Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the Lord, and do tell (celebrate) them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness (frivolity) ; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the Lord. Jer 23:32
And when this people, or the prophet, or a priest, shall ask thee, saying, What is the burden (singing) of the Lord? thou shalt then say unto them, What burden? I will even forsake you, saith the Lord. Jer 23: 33
And as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people, that shall say, The burden of the Lord, I will even punish that man and his house. Jer 23: 34
Thus shall ye say every one to his neighbour, and every one to his brother, What hath the Lord answered? and, What hath the Lord spoken? Jer 23: 35
And the burden (song) of the Lord shall ye mention no more; for every mans word shall be his burden (song):
for ye have perverted the words of the living God, of the Lord of hosts our God. Jer 23: 36
Thus shalt thou say to the prophet, What hath the Lord answered thee? and, What hath the Lord spoken? Jer 23: 37
And they "use" women to hunt souls to make them fly so that they can get a reward.
Kenneth Sublett: Teacher in Exile
Rubel Shelly Index
Musical Worship Index
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