Junia, the Female Apostle: She Was There All The Time

SHE WAS ALWAYS THERE SHE WAS ALWAYS THERE A Three-Hour Pulpit Teaching on the Buried Witness of Junia and the Restoration of All Truth Rev. John Shane Vaughn — Founding Apostolic Overseer First Harvest Ministries International Preaching note: This manuscript is built for three hours of pulpit delivery in three movements. Sacred Names are kept throughout. The preacher may expand the calls-and-responses and the pauses as the Spirit leads. Scripture is read aloud from the KJV unless noted. — 1 — SHE WAS ALWAYS THERE HOUR ONE — THE BURIAL ► SLIDE 1 — TITLE: She Was Always There / Hour One ► SLIDE 2 — “watch a woman vanish” I. THE EXHIBIT — WATCH A WOMAN VANISH Turn with me, FHaMIly. Before I preach a single word — before I pray, before I lay one stone of this teaching — I want you to see something with your own eyes. I don't want you to take my word for it. I want you to see it. Because what I am about to show you, most of the people of YAHWEH have never once been told. I am holding two Bibles. In my right hand is the King James Version — the 1611 — the Bible your grandmother carried, the Bible that was read in the assemblies for four hundred years. And in my left hand is the Revised Standard Version — a Bible many of you were handed in the twentieth century, a Bible that sat in the pew racks of the churches you grew up in. Same verse. Romans, chapter sixteen, verse seven. The same Apostle Paul, writing the same letter, to the same church at Rome. Listen to the King James: "Salute Andronicus and Junia... who are of note among the apostles." Junia. Say that name with me. Junia. That is a woman's name. It was a woman's name in Rome, it was a woman's name in Paul's day, it is a woman's name in the King James Bible. Paul greets her. Paul honors her. Paul says she is of note among the apostles. ► SLIDE 3 — TWO-BIBLE EXHIBIT — KJV vs RSV side by side — 2 — SHE WAS ALWAYS THERE Now listen — listen — to the very same verse in the Revised Standard: "Greet Andronicus and Junias... they are men of note among the apostles." Did you hear it? Did you hear what just happened? In the first Bible she is Junia — a woman. In the second Bible she has become Junias — a man. And then they went one step further, church. They added a word. They wrote the word "men" — "they are men of note" — and I want you to hear me very carefully: that word is not in the Greek. It is not there. The Holy Spirit did not put it there. Paul did not write it. Somebody added it, to nail the coffin shut on a woman who was never supposed to be in that grave. Now let me tell you what you just witnessed. ► SLIDE 4 — “sex changed in the Word of YAHWEH” You just watched a woman get her sex changed in the Word of YAHWEH. II. THE FIRST TRANSGENDERISM So let me say it plainly, and let the shock land where it falls: ► SLIDE 5 — “the first transgenderism in church history” I just showed you the first account of transgenderism in church history. ► SLIDE 6 — “not a clinic — a pen” It was not performed in a clinic. It was performed with a pen. Somebody looked at the Word of YAHWEH, looked at a woman named Junia standing right there in the text, and decided she could not be what the Scripture plainly said she was. So they changed her. With one little accent mark over one little Greek letter, and a quiet footnote nobody would check, they took Junia the woman and they made her Junias the man — a man, beloved, who never existed. A man who never drew a breath. — 3 — SHE WAS ALWAYS THERE A man whose name appears nowhere — nowhere — in all of the ancient world. They invented a man and buried a woman inside him. ► SLIDE 7 — THE IRONY — what they condemn in flesh, performed on the page And here is the part that ought to make every honest soul in this room sit up straight. The same religious spirit that stands up today and thunders against the changing of one's God-given sex — the same spirit — was the first one in history to do it. They didn't do it to themselves. Oh no. They did it to a woman who could not defend herself, a woman who had been silent in her grave for two thousand years, a woman who could not stand up off the page and say, "Stop — that's not my name." What they condemn in the flesh, they performed on the page. And they have been getting away with it for a thousand years. But not tonight. Because the prophet Jeremiah saw this coming. Hear the word of YAHWEH: ► SLIDE 8 — SCRIPTURE — Jeremiah 8:8 (the lying pen) "How can you say, 'We are wise, for we have the Law of YAHWEH,' when actually the lying pen of the scribes has handled it falsely?" — Jeremiah 8:8 The lying pen. Write that down. The lying pen of the scribes. There is a pen that lies, and that pen has been busy in the house of YAHWEH, and one of the things it lied about — one of the truths it buried — was a woman named Junia. Her name is Junia. And tonight, in this house, she is going to speak again. ► SLIDE 9 — “Why is she speaking NOW?” — 4 — SHE WAS ALWAYS THERE III. WHY THIS HOUR — THE RESTORATION OF ALL THINGS Let me tell you why she is speaking now. Why this teaching, in this hour, in this generation. Because the timing is not an accident, beloved. Nothing about this is an accident. We are living in the days of restoration. The Apostle Peter, standing in Solomon's porch, looked down the long corridor of time and he saw a season coming — a specific season — and he gave it a name. He called it: ► SLIDE 10 — SCRIPTURE — Acts 3:21 (restitution of all things) "...the restitution of all things, which YAHWEH hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began." — Acts 3:21 The restitution of all things. The restoration of all things. Before the King comes back, before YAHSHUA returns to this earth to reign, the heavens must receive Him until — until what? — until the times of the restoration of all things. There is a season at the end of the age when everything that was lost gets found. Everything that was buried gets unearthed. Everything that was stolen gets returned. Every truth the lying pen wrote over is going to be uncovered and read aloud again. ► SLIDE 11 — “He restored the Sabbath / Feasts / Name / Kingdom...” And church, we are in that season. We are living in the days when the Spirit of YAHWEH is restoring truth after truth after truth that the traditions of men had buried. He restored the Sabbath. He restored the Feasts. He restored the Name. He restored the understanding of the Kingdom. And in this hour — in our hour — He is reaching down into a verse the scribes vandalized, and He is restoring the voice of a silenced daughter. Because here is the ancient promise, spoken by the prophet Joel, quoted by Peter on the day the Spirit fell: — 5 — SHE WAS ALWAYS THERE ► SLIDE 12 — SCRIPTURE — Acts 2:17 (sons AND daughters shall prophesy) "And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith YAHWEH, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy." — Acts 2:17 Your sons and your daughters. Not only your sons. Say it with me — and your daughters shall prophesy. The same Spirit that fell at Pentecost is falling again, and the same promise that launched the church is being fulfilled afresh: the daughters are going to prophesy. The buried voice is being unsealed in this generation. And a name that was silenced for a thousand years is being shouted again from the housetops. This is not a novelty, FHaMIly. Hear me. This is not me bending to the spirit of the age. This is older than the lie that replaced it. This is the old path — the road the assembly walked for a thousand years before the lying pen turned the people aside. We are not inventing something new. We are digging up something ancient. ► SLIDE 13 — “I came the opposite way” (Confession) IV. MY CONFESSION — HOW I CAME TO THIS Now I have to stop and tell you the truth about myself, because if I don't, I have no business preaching the rest of this. I did not come to this teaching looking to set women free. I came to it the opposite way. I'm going to tell you something that's hard for a man like me to say from a pulpit. For years — for years — I stood with those who said a woman could not stand where I stand. I preached it. I believed it. And I did not believe it out of hatred, and I did not believe it out of malice. I believed it because it was handed to me. It was the tradition I inherited. It was what my fathers taught me, and what their fathers taught them, and I never once put that tradition on trial against the full counsel of the — 6 — SHE WAS ALWAYS THERE Word of YAHWEH. I just carried it. And that, beloved — listen to me — that is the most dangerous kind of error there is. It is not the error of a wicked man. It is the error of a sincere man who has never re-examined what he was handed. So one day I set out to do what I thought was the work of YAHWEH. I set out to prove — airtight, locked down, case closed — that a woman could not pastor. I was going to build the wall so high and so strong that no one could ever climb it. I was going to settle the question for good. And in the building of that wall, I ran headlong into a woman named Junia. ► SLIDE 14 — “I set out to prove she was a man” And I want you to know — I did not welcome her. I tried to make her disappear. The very first thing I did, the very first thing, was set out to prove that this person was a man. I studied night and day. I chased down every source I could find. I pulled every lexicon off the shelf. I hunted through every argument that might let me turn Junia into Junias and make her vanish. And every corner I turned — I hit a wall of truth. The name would not become a man. The Greek would not give him to me. The history would not give him to me. There was no man named Junias anywhere in the ancient world, and I could not manufacture one no matter how hard I tried. So I retreated. I went to my second line of defense. I thought, all right — if I cannot make her a man, then maybe I can prove this verse is a forgery. Maybe the translators slipped it in. Maybe I can throw the whole thing out on textual grounds. And church — I failed there too. ► SLIDE 15 — “the voice would not be silent” The manuscripts would not give me my forgery any more than the lexicons would give me my man. I failed around every corner I turned. I went hunting to silence a woman, and the voice of this female apostle would not be silent. The harder I — 7 — SHE WAS ALWAYS THERE pressed to bury her, the louder she testified. The more I dug to cover her up, the more she rose. ► SLIDE 16 — “It was SHE who overturned ME” And in the end — hear me — in the end it was not I who overturned her. It was she who overturned me. And let me tell you what I learned on my face before YAHWEH: when a man sets out to disprove a thing with all his strength, and studies night and day to tear it down, and cannot — he had better stop and ask himself whether the thing he has been fighting was the truth of YAHWEH all along. It was. So I laid down my case against her. And I took up hers instead. That is how I got here. And that is why I can stand before you tonight with a clean conscience, because I am not a man who went looking for the answer he wanted. I am a man who fought the answer with everything he had and lost — lost to the Word, lost to the truth, lost to the voice of a woman who would not stay buried. V. THE COURT IS CALLED — THE LAW OF WITNESSES So now I am going to do something. I am going to reopen the case. I am going to put this whole question on trial, right here, in front of you — and I am going to do it the way YAHWEH commands every honest judge to do it. I am not going to settle this on my feelings. I am not going to settle it on one verse ripped out of context. I am not going to settle it on the tradition I inherited. I am going to do what the Law of YAHWEH says: ► SLIDE 17 — SCRIPTURE — Deuteronomy 19:15 (two or three witnesses) "At the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established." — Deuteronomy 19:15 — 8 — SHE WAS ALWAYS THERE Two or three witnesses. That is the evidentiary law of the Kingdom. That is how YAHWEH says you establish a matter. And it is not a small thing — YAHSHUA Himself affirmed it in Matthew 18, and the Apostle Paul invoked it in Second Corinthians 13. By the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word is established. So here is what I am going to do tonight, and over these three hours. I am going to call three witnesses into the court of the Word. Three witnesses to answer one question. And I am going to let each one testify — fully, plainly, under cross- examination — and at the end, you are going to render the verdict. Not me. You. At the mouth of two or three, as the Law requires. ► SLIDE 18 — THE QUESTION ON TRIAL (card) And here is the question on trial. Hear it clearly, because the whole case turns on getting the question right: Does the Word of YAHWEH establish a universal prohibition — a wall that bars a woman from the pastoral office, simply because she is a woman — even when she is called, and gifted, and examined, and qualified? That is the question. Not whether a woman can minister — the witnesses are going to bury that question all by themselves. The only question is whether the Scripture slams a door against a daughter that it does not slam against a son. Now before I call the first witness, I have to clear away one piece of confusion, because the enemy of this truth will use it to trip you every time. ► SLIDE 19 — “A GIFT is not an OFFICE” Hear me carefully. This teaching does not say that every woman with a gift automatically holds an office. She does not — and neither does every man! A gift is not an office. A man may prophesy and never be made a pastor. A man may teach a class and never be ordained an elder. Having a gift has never, for either sex, been the same thing as being appointed to a — 9 — SHE WAS ALWAYS THERE settled seat of oversight. So keep that distinction in your hand and do not drop it, because the prosecution is going to try to knock it loose all night long. Are you ready? Then let the first witness be called. ► SLIDE 20 — FIRST WITNESS — JUNIA VI. THE FIRST WITNESS — THE LIVING APOSTLE I call to the stand a woman who has been waiting two thousand years to testify. I call Junia. She has been waiting in the pages of the Book. She has been waiting under a false name they nailed over her real one. She has been waiting for an hour honest enough to read her name out loud again. And tonight is that hour. Junia, take the stand. Here is her verse, the King James, the way the church read it for centuries: ► SLIDE 21 — SCRIPTURE — Romans 16:7 (her verse, KJV) "Salute Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen, and my fellowprisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Messiah before me." — Romans 16:7 Look at how much Paul packs into one greeting. My kinsmen — my own people. My fellowprisoners — they did time for the Gospel; they wore the chains I wore. In Messiah before me — they were in YAHSHUA before Paul was, which means these are some of the earliest believers in the entire faith. And then the crown of it: of note among the apostles. Distinguished. Outstanding. Marked out. Among the apostles. Now the prosecution is going to come at this witness, and it is going to try to silence her two ways before she can even speak. Let's hear them both, because she answers them both. ► SLIDE 22 — ATTACK #1 — “She was a man” — 10 — SHE WAS ALWAYS THERE The First Attempt to Silence Her: "She Was a Man" The first attack — and it is the weakest one they've got, which is why the smart ones don't lean on it anymore — is to say, "That's not Junia. That's Junias. That's a man." Let's put it in the ground. First — the grammar does not decide it, and they know it. In the Greek, the way the name sits in the sentence — the accusative, because she's the object of Paul's greeting — the man's form and the woman's form look almost identical. The only difference is one little accent mark. And here is what they will not tell you from their pulpits: the oldest Greek manuscripts had no accent marks at all. None. So the bare text cannot, by itself, tell you the gender. Anybody who stands up and says "the Greek just says Iounian, so we can't know if it's a man or a woman" — they have told you a half- truth and then stopped talking exactly at the place where the truth gets inconvenient. So we go to the record. And the record is devastating for the prosecution. ► SLIDE 23 — 250 vs 0 — the name in the record The name Junia — the woman's name — shows up over two hundred and fifty times in the inscriptions of the ancient world. Two hundred and fifty times! It was one of the most common women's names in Rome. And the man's name, Junias — the one they need, the one they built their doctrine on — shows up zero times. Not once. Scholars who went hunting for it call it a name that was "postulated but unrecorded" — which is a polite, academic way of saying they made him up. To turn Junia into a man, you have to invent a man's name that no Roman ever wore, and then staple it onto a woman whose real, common name is sitting right there in front of you. And when the scribes finally did start adding those accent marks, centuries later — which way did they accent it? Feminine. The great textual scholar Eldon Epp went through them: not one Greek minuscule manuscript carries the — 11 — SHE WAS ALWAYS THERE masculine accent, and at least twenty carry the feminine. The old Latin Vulgate? Feminine ending. Everywhere the witnesses actually speak, they say the same thing: woman. ► SLIDE 24 — 1611 vs 1881 — English Bibles timeline And here — oh, here is the part that ought to settle it for every King James believer in this room. Hear me. Your own English Bibles testify. Wycliffe, in 1382 — "Junia," a woman. Tyndale, 1525 — "Junia," a woman. The Coverdale Bible. The Geneva Bible. The Bishops' Bible of 1568. And the King James Version of 1611 itself — every single one of them printed "Junia," a woman! The man — "Junias" — does not show up in a major English Bible until 1881. Eighteen eighty-one! And then it got hardened into place in 1952 by the Revised Standard — the very Bible I showed you at the start of this hour, the one that not only changed her name but added the word "men" that isn't even in the Greek. So let me ask you a question, FHaMIly. If "Junias the man" is the true, original, ancient reading — then why did it take until 1881 to show up? Why did the church read "Junia the woman" for eighteen hundred years first? You know the answer. The masculine reading is not the old path. The masculine reading is the innovation. It is the new thing. It was born in the exact decades when the world was fighting hardest to keep women out of public life. As one historian put it so plainly: Junia became Junias because modern men assumed that only a man could be an apostle. They didn't find a man in the text. They needed one — so they put him there. ► SLIDE 25 — “Junia was a woman” — verdict on Attack #1 So let the verdict on this first attack be entered, and let me be honest with you about how strong it is, because I will not overstate a thing in this pulpit: this is settled. This is about as certain as anything in contested Scripture ever gets — ninety- five percent and then some. Junia was a woman. The first attempt to silence the witness has failed. — 12 — SHE WAS ALWAYS THERE ► SLIDE 26 — ATTACK #2 — “Not really an apostle” The Second Attempt to Silence Her: "She Wasn't Really an Apostle" So they retreat. When they can't change her sex anymore, they fall back to her title. And now — I have to be the honest preacher and not the cheerleader — now we are at the real fight. This is the hill the serious scholars actually defend, and I am not going to lie to you and tell you it's easy, because a doctrine built on exaggeration falls down the minute somebody pushes on it. The phrase is, "of note among the apostles." And there are two ways to read it. One way — the way the church read it for a thousand years — is "outstanding among the apostles," meaning she's one of them. She is in the group. That's called the inclusive reading. The other way — the way that shows up in some modern translations like the ESV — is "well known to the apostles," meaning the apostles thought highly of her, but she wasn't one of them herself. That's the exclusive reading. And I want you to notice something the prosecution would rather you not notice: the men who argue that position have already surrendered the first one. They've given up trying to make her a man. They agree she's a woman now. They've just retreated to the next trench. So which reading is right? The inclusive one is stronger, and here's why. The little Greek construction Paul uses — "among" — is normally inclusive. You've got a Bible example you already know: Bethlehem. The prophet says, "thou Bethlehem... though thou be little among the thousands of Judah." Bethlehem isn't little to the rulers of Judah, like an outsider they've heard of. Bethlehem is little among them — counted as one of them. Same construction. So when Paul says Junia is "of note among the apostles," the plain force of the Greek puts her inside the apostolic company, not standing outside it being admired. — 13 — SHE WAS ALWAYS THERE And on top of the grammar — the early church Fathers, men who spoke Greek as their own mother tongue, men who had every cultural reason in the world to read it the other way — they read her as an apostle. Chrysostom, the golden-mouthed preacher of the fourth century, a man who held a low view of women in public — even he looked at this verse and could not get around it. He said — and I'm telling you this is a hostile witness conceding the point — "how great the devotion of this woman, that she should be counted worthy of the appellation of apostle." When your opponent's own star witness testifies for you, the case is strong. Now here is where I draw a line and I beg you not to cross it, because if you cross it you'll get embarrassed in the marketplace. Do not go out of here saying "the Greek proves she held the office." It does not prove it — it strongly favors it. Even the scholars on our side admit both readings are grammatically possible. So you say it like this, and you cannot be moved: the weight of the grammar, the witness of the early church, and the testimony of the Greek Fathers all favor reading Junia as an apostle — and the opposite reading only showed up in force when the church got uncomfortable with a woman holding the title. Stand right there. That's a wall they can't knock down. What Her Testimony Means: The Master-Builder But somebody in the back is going to try one more thing. They're going to say, "Fine. Apostle. But 'apostle' just means 'one who is sent.' She was a messenger. A delivery girl. Not a leader." And I'm going to answer that one — not with my words, but with Paul's words, about Paul's own office. Ask the question the dodge never asks: sent to do what? A mailman is sent. A courier is sent and comes right back. But hear what Paul says an apostle is sent for: ► SLIDE 27 — SCRIPTURE — 1 Corinthians 3:10 (masterbuilder) "According to the grace of YAHWEH which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the — 14 — SHE WAS ALWAYS THERE foundation, and another buildeth thereon." — 1 Corinthians 3:10 ► SLIDE 28 — THE APOSTLE BUILDS — master-builder / Eph 2:20 / feast May 17 Masterbuilder. The Greek word is architektōn — architect. The chief apostle, defining his own apostleship, does not call himself a messenger boy. He calls himself a master-builder. The apostle is the one who lays the foundation. And what is that foundation made of? Not brick. Not stone. Doctrine. Listen: "...built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, YAHSHUA Messiah himself being the chief corner stone." — Ephesians 2:20 This is the work no other office does the same way. The evangelist gathers the crowd. The pastor feeds the sheep. The teacher opens the book. But the apostle builds. The apostle plants the assembly, orders it, sets it on its foundation, structures the people of YAHWEH around sound doctrine. Master-builders. So when Paul numbers Junia among the apostles, he numbers her among the foundation-layers. The master-builders. And do you know how the early church actually remembered her? They remembered that she and Andronicus traveled, and preached, and saw pagan temples shut down, and planted assemblies where the idols used to stand. That's not a courier's résumé, beloved. That is master-builder work — the very thing Paul says the office is for. And the Eastern church — hear this, this is a witness that has nothing to do with any grammar argument — the Eastern church canonized her. They made her a saint. They keep her feast day to this very hour, the seventeenth of May. They built a church in her honor in Constantinople. The old record praises Junia for her "godly preaching." For over a thousand — 15 — SHE WAS ALWAYS THERE years, the living worship of the church called her what she was: a woman, and an apostle. ► SLIDE 29 — “A woman among the master-builders — she was always there” So the First Witness has testified, and her testimony stands: a woman was numbered among the master-builders of the assembly of YAHWEH. She was always there. They just taught you not to see her. Let her stand. We have two more witnesses to call — but that is Hour Two. ► SLIDE 30 — END OF HOUR ONE — two witnesses remain — 16 — SHE WAS ALWAYS THERE HOUR TWO — THE WITNESSES RISE ► SLIDE 31 — TITLE: The Witnesses Rise / Hour Two ► SLIDE 32 — RECAP — where we stood (Hour One) VII. WHERE WE STOOD WHEN WE LAST GATHERED Welcome back, FHaMIly. Let me set the table again, because everything we build this hour stands on what we laid down in the last one. We put a question on trial. One question. Does the Word of YAHWEH bar a woman from the pastoral office, simply because she is a woman? And I told you I would answer it the way YAHWEH commands every honest judge to answer — not on my feelings, not on one verse, but at the mouth of two or three witnesses. And the first witness has already testified. Junia. A woman — settled, ninety-five percent and beyond, a woman. Numbered among the apostles. Numbered among the master-builders of the assembly. The Eastern church kept her feast for a thousand years. She was always there — they just taught you not to see her. That is one witness. The Law says two or three. So tonight I am calling two more. And I want to tell you something before I call them: the first witness was the hardest one. Junia had to be dug out from under a false name. But these next two? These two have been standing in the open the whole time, in verses you have read a hundred times and walked right past. You are going to wonder how you ever missed them. Let the second witness be called. ► SLIDE 33 — SECOND WITNESS — THE TORAH — 17 — SHE WAS ALWAYS THERE VIII. THE SECOND WITNESS — THE TORAH I call to the stand the highest authority this court can summon. I call the Law of YAHWEH itself. I call the Torah. And hear me — the Torah is not just a witness in this case. The Torah is the witness that governs every other. Nothing in this courtroom may stand against it. So I am going to put to the Torah the prosecution's whole foundation. They say the silencing of women, the barring of women from leadership, is the ancient and divine order of things. So I ask the Torah one question, and I ask it plainly: Law of YAHWEH — where do You command a woman to be silent? Where do You forbid her to lead? Where do You bar her from speaking Your word to Your people? ► SLIDE 34 — “Where do You command a woman to be silent? — Nowhere” And the Torah answers: Nowhere. Search it. Genesis to Deuteronomy. Every commandment, every statute, every ordinance. There is no command in the Law of YAHWEH that silences a woman. It is not there. They have been preaching a law that does not exist. But the Torah does not stop at silence. Oh no. The Torah does the opposite of silence. The Torah stands up in this court and it enthrones women. Let me show you three. Deborah — A Judge Over the Whole Nation The first is Deborah. ► SLIDE 35 — SCRIPTURE — Judges 4:4 (Deborah judged Israel) "And Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that time." — Judges 4:4 ► SLIDE 36 — DEBORAH — a judge over the nation Not a footnote. Not a helper in the background. A judge over the nation. The men of Israel came up to her for judgment. She rendered the word of YAHWEH. And when the time came to — 18 — SHE WAS ALWAYS THERE go to war, the general himself — a man named Barak — would not go into battle unless Deborah went with him. Listen to what he said: "If thou wilt go with me, then I will go: but if thou wilt not go with me, then I will not go." — Judges 4:8 A grown man, a military commander, says I will not march unless this woman marches with me. And do you know what happened? YAHWEH gave the victory — and the honor of the day went to a woman. And here is the lesson I want you to hold all the way to the end of this teaching: Deborah did not seize Barak's place. Barak abandoned it. And when a man lays down the mantle YAHWEH handed him, YAHWEH does not let the work fall to the ground. He hands it to whoever will carry it. That day, it was a woman. And her rule was not a curse on the nation — it was the deliverance of the nation. Israel had rest forty years. Huldah — The Prophetess the High Priest Consulted The second is Huldah. Here is a moment that ought to end the argument by itself. The Book of the Law had been lost — lost — in the house of YAHWEH, and then it was found again in the days of King Josiah. And when they found it, the king tore his clothes, because he realized how far the nation had drifted. So he sent his highest officials to inquire of YAHWEH. He sent the High Priest himself — Hilkiah. He sent the king's own scribe and servants. And where did the High Priest of Israel go to get the word of YAHWEH? Listen: ► SLIDE 37 — SCRIPTURE — 2 Kings 22:14 (Huldah) "So Hilkiah the priest... went unto Huldah the prophetess... and they communed with her." — 2 Kings 22:14 — 19 — SHE WAS ALWAYS THERE ► SLIDE 38 — HULDAH — the High Priest came to HER To a woman. The High Priest of Israel, holding the rediscovered Law in his hands, walked past every man in Jerusalem and went to a prophetess named Huldah to hear what YAHWEH was saying. And church — Jeremiah was alive in those days. Zephaniah was alive in those days. There were prophets — male prophets — they could have consulted. And they came to her. And she spoke, "Thus saith YAHWEH," and the king received it as the word of YAHWEH and reformed the entire nation on the strength of what a woman told him. Miriam — Named by YAHWEH Himself as a Leader And the third is Miriam. And this one is not my word — it is YAHWEH's own mouth. When YAHWEH lists the leaders He set over Israel in the Exodus, hear who He names: ► SLIDE 39 — SCRIPTURE — Micah 6:4 (Miriam) "For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt... and I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam." — Micah 6:4 ► SLIDE 40 — MIRIAM — YAHWEH names a woman in the leadership I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. YAHWEH Himself puts a woman's name in the leadership of the nation, right alongside the lawgiver and the high priest. He did not say "Moses and Aaron, and also some women helped." He said I sent Miriam. She is named by the mouth of YAHWEH as one of the three He sent. The Second Witness Has Testified ► SLIDE 41 — VERDICT — the Law never silenced a daughter So let the second witness be entered into the record, and let it stand: the Law of YAHWEH never silenced a daughter. It raised her up to judge, to prophesy, and to lead. — 20 — SHE WAS ALWAYS THERE And remember this — because we are going to need it in Hour Three. The Torah is the witness that governs. So when the prosecution stands up later and waves a verse that says "let the women keep silence, as also saith the law" — we are going to turn to this witness, already sworn, and ask: which law? Because the Torah just told you, under oath, that it never wrote such a thing. Two witnesses now agree. The Law says two or three. Let me call the third. ► SLIDE 42 — THIRD WITNESS — THE CLOUD IX. THE THIRD WITNESS — THE CLOUD The third witness I call is not one voice. It is a cloud. A great cloud of witnesses, stretching from the day of Pentecost down through the centuries, every one of them confirming the first two. The Law allows three witnesses — and this third one brings a multitude inside it. Let them come. Phoebe — The Deacon Who Carried Romans The first to step out of the cloud is Phoebe. ► SLIDE 43 — SCRIPTURE — Romans 16:1–2 (Phoebe) "I commend unto you Phebe our sister, which is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea... for she hath been a succourer of many, and of myself also." — Romans 16:1–2 ► SLIDE 44 — PHOEBE — deacon, patron, carried Romans Now the English hides what the Greek shouts. That word "servant" — it is the word diakonos. And it is not the soft, watered-down "deaconess." It is the full masculine form of the office word — the same word Paul uses of himself, the same word he uses of Timothy. Paul ranks Phoebe with the language he reserves for ministers of the Gospel. — 21 — SHE WAS ALWAYS THERE And that word "succourer" — that is prostatis. That is not a woman who brings the refreshments. Prostatis means a patron, a protector, one who stands before others on their behalf — a position of real authority. And Paul says she was prostatis — patron — "of many, and of myself also." Hear that. The apostle Paul places himself among the people over whom Phoebe held that standing. But here is what the church has walked past for two thousand years. Phoebe carried the letter. The book of Romans — the greatest doctrinal treatise in the New Testament, the book that lit the Reformation — was placed into the hands of a woman to carry to Rome. And by the universal custom of that age, the one who carried a letter was the one who read it aloud to the assembly and answered their questions about what the writer meant. Do you understand what that means? The first human being ever to stand before a congregation and read the book of Romans, and explain it — was a woman. Priscilla — Who Taught the Great Apollos The next to step out of the cloud is Priscilla. There was a preacher named Apollos. The Scripture says he was "an eloquent man, and mighty in the scriptures." A gifted man. A powerful man. But his doctrine was incomplete. So who corrected him? Who took this mighty preacher aside and taught him the way of YAHWEH "more perfectly"? ► SLIDE 45 — SCRIPTURE — Acts 18:26 (Priscilla taught Apollos) "...they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of YAHWEH more perfectly." — Acts 18:26 ► SLIDE 46 — PRISCILLA — taught the great Apollos They. Priscilla and her husband Aquila. And here is the detail you cannot miss: in most of the manuscripts, Priscilla is named first. Before her husband. In that culture, the one named first is the more prominent one. A woman helped instruct one of the most gifted preachers of the entire apostolic age in sound doctrine. So the next time someone — 22 — SHE WAS ALWAYS THERE tells you a woman may never teach a man — ask them what they do with Priscilla, who taught Apollos. The Daughters of Philip — The Chain Ran Through Them And then a whole household steps out of the cloud — the four daughters of Philip. ► SLIDE 47 — SCRIPTURE — Acts 21:9 (Philip’s daughters) "And the same man had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy." — Acts 21:9 ► SLIDE 48 — PHILIP’S DAUGHTERS — the chain ran THROUGH them Four prophesying daughters. And this is not just a verse — it is history. The early church historian Eusebius records that these women were sought out, that they were honored as standing among the "successors of the apostles," and that the great bishop Papias — a man who sat under the Apostle John himself — received apostolic tradition directly from these women. Do you hear that? The chain of witness, the passing down of the faith in Asia Minor, did not run around these women. It ran through them. The Charter of the Age — Your Daughters Shall Prophesy And all of this — every bit of it — was promised before it ever happened. When the Spirit fell at Pentecost and the church was born, Peter stood up and told the crowd what they were seeing. And he did it by quoting the prophet Joel: ► SLIDE 49 — SCRIPTURE — Acts 2:17 (sons AND daughters) "And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith YAHWEH, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy." — Acts 2:17 Your sons AND your daughters. The age of the Spirit was inaugurated — launched, christened, set in motion — with a — 23 — SHE WAS ALWAYS THERE promise that the daughters would prophesy. Philip's daughters were the living proof. Junia was the apostolic seal. Phoebe carried the doctrine. Priscilla taught it. This is not somebody bending the Bible to the spirit of the age. This is the Bible declaring, in its very first sermon, what it always intended to do. The Witness of the Fathers ► SLIDE 50 — THE FATHERS — a woman, an apostle, for 1,200 years And the cloud reaches even past the pages of Scripture, into the memory of the early church. For the first twelve hundred years, nobody fought about whether Junia was a woman or an apostle. Origen. Jerome. Chrysostom. Theodoret — who wrote that she was of note "not among the pupils, but among the teachers — among the apostles." John of Damascus. Theophylact, who wrote, plainly, "and such a woman is Junia." Over a dozen of the great early voices, all reading the same thing: a woman, an apostle. No commentator turned her into a man until almost the year thirteen hundred. The Third Witness Has Testified So let the third witness be entered, and let it stand: from the day of Pentecost forward — through Phoebe, through Priscilla, through Philip's daughters, through the unbroken memory of the church — the ministry of women is woven into the very foundation of the faith. ► SLIDE 51 — THE THREE WITNESSES AGREE — matter established X. THE THREE WITNESSES AGREE Now stand back with me, FHaMIly, and look at what we have. The Law of YAHWEH says a matter is established at the mouth of two or three witnesses. I have called three. The first witness — the Living Apostle — testified: a woman, Junia, was numbered among the master-builders. — 24 — SHE WAS ALWAYS THERE The second witness — the Torah — testified: the Law never silenced a woman; it enthroned Deborah, and Huldah, and Miriam. The third witness — the great Cloud — testified: from Pentecost forward the daughters prophesied, the daughters taught, the daughters carried the doctrine and stood in the apostolic succession — and the church remembered it for a thousand years. Three witnesses. One testimony. They do not contradict. They agree. And by the Law of YAHWEH — Deuteronomy 19:15 — the matter is established. But I am an honest judge, and I will not close this case until the other side has been fully heard. The prosecution has its verses. It has its exhibits. And in the next hour, I am going to call them up, every one, and cross-examine them in the open — not hide from them, not skip them, but face them. And you are going to watch what happens when a man-made tradition is forced to stand in the same room as the Word of YAHWEH. That is Hour Three. Rest your minds. The witnesses have spoken. The verdict is coming. ► SLIDE 52 — END OF HOUR TWO — the verdict is coming — 25 — SHE WAS ALWAYS THERE HOUR THREE — THE VERDICT AND THE RELEASE ► SLIDE 53 — TITLE: The Verdict and the Release / Hour Three ► SLIDE 54 — THE COURT RECONVENES — recap, three exhibits ahead XI. THE COURT RECONVENES We are back, FHaMIly, and we are close now. Let me remind you where we are. Three witnesses have testified. Junia — a woman among the master-builders. The Torah — which never silenced a daughter but enthroned Deborah and Huldah and Miriam. And the great Cloud — Phoebe, Priscilla, the daughters of Philip, the whole company of the early church. Three witnesses, and they agree. By the Law of YAHWEH, the matter is established. But I told you I am an honest judge. And an honest judge does not render his verdict until the other side has been fully heard. So before I close this case, I am going to do what the defenders of the old tradition almost never do for us — I am going to call the prosecution's own evidence up to the stand, in the open, and let it speak. Every verse they throw at us. I am not going to hide from a single one. The prosecution has three exhibits. Let's hear them. ► SLIDE 55 — EXHIBIT ONE — “Let the women keep silence” XII. EXHIBIT ONE — "LET THE WOMEN KEEP SILENCE" Here is the prosecution's favorite. First Corinthians, chapter fourteen: "Let your women keep silence in the churches... but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also — 26 — SHE WAS ALWAYS THERE saith the law. 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." There it is. "Let the women keep silence." For two thousand years this one verse has been the wall. And I am not going to play games with it. I am not going to tell you it isn't in the Bible, or that some scribe slipped it in, and try to cut it out. No. We hold a high view of the Word in this house. The man who lightly cuts a verse he doesn't like has just handed his enemy the knife to cut the verses we live by. I will not do it. I am going to defeat this exhibit the same way I prove everything else — by the witnesses already sworn. ► SLIDE 56 — “...as also saith the law.” — Which law? Look at four words. "As also saith the law." Right there. The whole authority of this command hangs on those four words — "as saith the law." The silence is commanded because the law says so. So I am going to take this exhibit and turn to the Second Witness — the Torah, already under oath in this courtroom — and I am going to ask it one question: Law of YAHWEH — did You ever command this silence? And you already know what the Torah says, because it testified last hour. It says: No. There is no command in the Law of YAHWEH that silences a woman. None. I challenged you to find it and it is not there. So watch what just happened. The exhibit appeals to "the law." And the law it appeals to refuses to back it up. The exhibit cites the Torah — and the Torah denies the citation! So I ask the obvious question: if it's not the Torah, then what law is Paul talking about? ► SLIDE 57 — It was the TRADITION — not the Torah (+ guardrail) And here is the answer. It is the law that actually governed the synagogues of the first century — the oral tradition of the elders. The man-made rules the Pharisees lived under. And — 27 — SHE WAS ALWAYS THERE that tradition is not my invention — the rule is on record. The rabbinic writings preserve the ruling that a woman should not read the Torah aloud in the assembly, and they ground it — listen — not in any command of YAHWEH, but in "the honor of the congregation." A man-made reason. The sages had to reach for a human rationale because the Torah gave them none. Now hear me carefully, because this is where you must be precise, and I will say it the way that protects you in any room: Paul did not quote the Talmud. The Talmud was written down centuries after Paul died. What Paul referenced was the oral tradition that the Talmud would later record. Say it that way, and no scholar on earth can touch you. Say "Paul quoted the Talmud," and you'll be undone on the calendar. So we say it right: the silence came from the tradition of the elders, not from the Torah. And now the verdict on Exhibit One writes itself. This exhibit pits a man-made tradition against the commandment of YAHWEH. And when the tradition of men stands against the Word of YAHWEH, there is no contest — YAHSHUA Himself already ruled on it: ► SLIDE 58 — SCRIPTURE — Matthew 15:6 (tradition vs. the Word) "Thus have ye made the commandment of YAHWEH of none effect by your tradition." — Matthew 15:6 Paul was a Nazarene. Paul carried the same banner as YAHSHUA against the rabbinic system of man-made rules. Do you really think Paul was enforcing the tradition of the elders over the Torah? No. The faithful reading is that he was confronting it — quoting their rule back at them and answering it. And one more nail. Three chapters earlier — in this same letter — Paul gives instructions for how a woman is to pray and prophesy out loud in the assembly (First Corinthians 11, verse 5). He regulates it! He tells her how to do it! A man does not write the rules for women speaking in chapter eleven and — 28 — SHE WAS ALWAYS THERE then ban all women from speaking in chapter fourteen — unless chapter fourteen is dealing with a specific disorder, a specific disruption, and not the voice itself. The exhibit collapses under the weight of its own letter. ► SLIDE 59 — “Exhibit One does not stand” Exhibit One does not stand. ► SLIDE 60 — EXHIBIT TWO — “usurp authority” (1 Tim 2:12) XIII. EXHIBIT TWO — "I SUFFER NOT A WOMAN TO USURP AUTHORITY" The prosecution's second exhibit. First Timothy, chapter two: "But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence." Now this one we have to read against the crisis the letter itself names — there was false teaching loose in Ephesus, and Paul wrote Timothy to put it down. ► SLIDE 61 — “Usurp” = authentein But look at the word the King James gives you. "Usurp authority." The Greek word is authentein — and here is what you need to know: it appears nowhere else in the entire New Testament. Not once. When Paul means ordinary, legitimate authority, he uses other words entirely. But this word — authentein — carries a darker sense. It means to seize, to dominate, to usurp — to take by force what is not rightly yours. Your King James translators caught it exactly: usurp. So hear what Paul is actually forbidding. He is not forbidding a qualified woman from teaching sound doctrine. He is forbidding the domineering, self-appointed seizure of authority by women in Ephesus who were spreading error and were not yet grounded in the truth. ► SLIDE 62 — SEIZED is usurpation / GRANTED is ordination — 29 — SHE WAS ALWAYS THERE And now — watch this — the hinge of the whole trial swings shut. The prosecution charges the woman pastor with usurping authority. But this verse — their strongest verse — condemns usurping, which means seizing what was never given. It says nothing — nothing — against authority that is rightly granted. ► SLIDE 63 — THE CALLING FORMULA — YAHWEH calls / Spirit gifts... This is the difference between the rebel and the ordained. A woman who climbs over the wall to seize a pulpit nobody gave her — Paul forbids that, and so do I, and it would be forbidden to a man who did the same thing! But a woman called by YAHWEH, examined by her elders, recognized by her covering, set in place by the order of the house — she has seized nothing. Her authority is not stolen. It is granted. And here is how authority rightly comes in the Kingdom — say it with me: YAHWEH calls. The Spirit gifts. The elders examine. The covering recognizes. The assembly receives. The covering does not manufacture her authority. It recognizes what YAHWEH already gave. Authentein condemns the thief. It has nothing to say against the steward. ► SLIDE 64 — TWO JURISDICTIONS — marriage vs. assembly Two Jurisdictions — Not One But there is a deeper trick buried in this exhibit, and I have to drag it into the light, because this is the sleight of hand the whole tradition is built on. They take a verse about one relationship and they smuggle it into another. Hear me. There are two different covenants. Two different jurisdictions. The first is the marriage covenant — the order between a wife and her own husband. In that covenant, the husband is the head of his own wife. That is a household order. The second is the order of the assembly — the relationship between a pastor and the flock, a congregation made of many households, many men and women who are not the pastor's spouse. — 30 — SHE WAS ALWAYS THERE These are not the same relationship! And the Greek proves it: the words Paul uses — anēr and gunē — mean both "man and woman" and "husband and wife." Same words. Only the context tells you which. And the context of this exhibit is soaked in marriage and household language — Adam and Eve, the creation order, childbearing. It points to the order of a wife to her own husband, not to the public assembly. At the very least — and this alone defeats the prosecution — they cannot prove the sweeping "every woman over every man everywhere" reading their whole doctrine requires. So a woman can be the pastor — the spiritual head — of an assembly that includes men, and at the very same time be a faithful, submitted wife to her own husband at home. There is no contradiction, because these are two different covenants. ► SLIDE 65 — QUEEN ELIZABETH — throne room ≠ living room The Queen on the Throne And the whole world has already seen this. A queen may hold lawful authority over a realm full of men — her ministers, her generals, her own husband bowing in her court — while still honoring the order of her own home, where her husband is the head. Queen Elizabeth reigned over an empire for seventy years, and yet by her own deliberate choice she called her husband the head of their family. Head of state in the realm. Submitted wife in the home. The same woman. If the world can understand that the throne room and the living room are not the same kingdom — surely the assembly of YAHWEH can understand it too. ► SLIDE 66 — “Exhibit Two does not stand” Exhibit Two does not stand. ► SLIDE 67 — EXHIBIT THREE — “women shall rule” (Isaiah 3:12) — 31 — SHE WAS ALWAYS THERE XIV. EXHIBIT THREE — "WOMEN SHALL RULE OVER THEM" The prosecution has one exhibit left, and they reach back into the prophets for it. Isaiah, chapter three: "As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them." — Isaiah 3:12 There, they say. YAHWEH Himself calls women ruling a curse upon the nation! If a woman in authority is a sign of judgment, how can a woman in the pulpit be the will of YAHWEH? It is their most emotional exhibit. It is also the easiest to overturn — the moment you read it in context instead of ripping it out. ► SLIDE 68 — A JUDGMENT, not a law — the kill-shot (paired with children) First — this verse describes a curse; it does not prescribe an order. Read the whole chapter. It is a judgment oracle against Judah for her rebellion. And the mechanism of the judgment is spelled out a few verses up: YAHWEH says He will take away the mighty man, the man of war, the judge, the elder — the capable leaders — as punishment. So Isaiah 3:12 is not a law about who may lead. It is a photograph of what a society looks like after YAHWEH has stripped away its qualified leaders in judgment. You cannot build the doctrine "a woman may not pastor" on it any more than you could build "a house may not stand" on a prophet describing a city burning down. Second — and this is the part that destroys the exhibit — it pairs women with children. Read it again: "children are their oppressors, AND women rule over them." The two stand side by side, for the same reason. So apply the prosecution's own logic honestly. If this verse proves a woman is categorically forbidden to lead — then by the very same words it proves a child is categorically forbidden to lead. But they don't believe that! They know YAHWEH put the boy Josiah on the throne at eight years old and called him righteous! The moment they admit it's not a blanket ban on children, they have admitted — 32 — SHE WAS ALWAYS THERE it's not a blanket ban on women — because the verse treats them exactly the same. What the verse condemns is not womanhood, and not youth. It is weak, unfit, unprepared leadership — a nation so far under judgment that the unqualified are left holding the power. Third — and here is where last hour's testimony comes back — this exhibit collides head-on with the Second Witness. The Torah already testified that YAHWEH raised up Deborah to rule and judge the whole nation — and her rule was not a curse, it was the nation's deliverance! So make them choose: if Isaiah 3:12 means "a woman ruling is the mark of YAHWEH's judgment," then YAHWEH cursed His own people through Deborah and blessed them by it at the same time! That is impossible. The two passages reconcile only one way — the way the Torah already showed us: YAHWEH never barred women from leadership. What He judged was unfit leadership, of either sex. Deborah, godly and called, was a blessing. The unfit rulers of Isaiah's Judah were a judgment. Sex was never the issue. Fitness and calling were. ► SLIDE 69 — “The problem was that the unqualified ruled” Exhibit Three does not stand. In fact, cross-examined, it testifies for us: the problem was never that a woman led — the problem was that, under judgment, the unqualified ruled. ► SLIDE 70 — FROM GIFT TO OFFICE — the universal ban is disproven XV. FROM GIFT TO OFFICE — DOES THIS REACH THE PASTORATE? Now I have to answer the sharpest question of all. A careful man in the back is thinking it right now: "All right, preacher. Junia was an apostle. Phoebe carried Romans. Priscilla taught Apollos. Deborah judged Israel. But none of that proves a woman can hold the settled office of pastor over a local church. You've proven women ministered. You haven't proven a woman can be the pastor." That is a fair challenge. And I will not dodge it. I'll answer it head-on. — 33 — SHE WAS ALWAYS THERE First, hear what I am not saying. I am not saying that every woman with a gift automatically holds an office. She does not — and neither does every man! A man can prophesy and never be a pastor. Gift is not office. Possessing a gift has never, for either sex, been the same as being appointed to a settled seat of oversight. So the real question was never "can a woman do the work?" — the witnesses buried that. The only question left is this: does the Word of YAHWEH establish a universal prohibition that bars a woman — because she is a woman — from the office of shepherd, when she is otherwise called and qualified? And here is the key that turns the lock. A universal prohibition can be broken by a single exception. Just one. And the Scriptures are full of them. If YAHWEH ever — even once — placed a woman in spiritual authority over His people with His blessing, then the universal ban does not exist, and the wall has a hole in it that cannot be patched. And He did it openly, over and over: Deborah ruling the nation. Huldah delivering the word to the High Priest. Junia among the apostles. The daughters prophesying by the Spirit's own outpouring. The universal ban is not weak — it is disproven, contradicted by YAHWEH's own hand. And once the universal ban collapses, listen — the question is no longer sex at all. It is calling, qualification, examination, covering, and appointment — the identical tests every man must pass. The pastorate was never given to a man because he was male. It was given because he was called, gifted, proven, and set in place by the order of YAHWEH. Take away the false barrier of sex, and a woman stands before the very same gate, under the very same tests. If she is called by YAHWEH, gifted by the Spirit, examined and found sound, recognized by her covering, and received by the assembly — then nothing remains to forbid her the office, because the only thing that ever stood in the way was a prohibition that does not exist. That is how the witnesses reach the pastorate. They do not make womanhood a qualification. They prove womanhood is not a disqualification. And once it is no longer a — 34 — SHE WAS ALWAYS THERE disqualification, a called and qualified woman may hold the office of pastor on exactly the same ground a man does — neither more, nor less. ► SLIDE 71 — WHAT THIS VERDICT DOES NOT MEAN — five boundaries XVI. WHAT THIS VERDICT DOES NOT MEAN Now before I render the verdict, I am going to fence it. Because a truth left unguarded becomes a weapon in careless hands, and I will not loose one error tonight only to license another. Hear plainly what this teaching does not say. It does not mean a woman may seize authority. The calling comes from YAHWEH and is confirmed by His order. A woman who grabs at office out of ambition, who appoints herself, who climbs over the appointed order — she is a usurper, and usurpation is sin in anyone, man or woman. It does not mean a woman may despise male headship. The order of headship in the home and the assembly is YAHWEH's preferred pattern, and this verdict does not abolish it. A woman walking in her calling does not trample the order — she honors it even as she serves within it. It does not mean a woman may bypass examination, ordination, or covering. Nobody — man or woman — enters the office by self-will. The gate is the same for all. It does not mean a woman's gift automatically makes her a pastor. Gift is not office. A gifted woman, like a gifted man, must still be called and set in place through the proper order. And it does not mean a man's sex automatically qualifies him to lead. This cuts both ways! If sex does not disqualify a woman, then sex does not qualify a man. The office was never a male birthright. It was always a stewardship, granted by YAHWEH to those He calls and equips. Hold those five boundaries, and this doctrine will bless the house. Ignore them, and it will be abused — by rebels who want a title without a calling, and by tyrants who want to lock a door YAHWEH has opened. — 35 — SHE WAS ALWAYS THERE ► SLIDE 72 — THE ORDER AND THE OVERRIDE — the balance XVII. THE ORDER AND THE OVERRIDE And let me give you the balance, because the balance is everything. I am not tearing down order tonight. I am defending it. There is an order. YAHWEH's preferred pattern runs from Him, through the man, to the woman, to the children — each honored in their place. Where a fit, willing, anointed man stands and serves faithfully, that order is good, and the woman who honors it is not diminished by it. She is adorned by it. That is the pattern. But the order is a preferred order — not an absolute one. Because YAHWEH reserves the right to override it, and He has done it in plain sight. When Barak would not march unless Deborah marched with him, YAHWEH raised up Deborah, gave her the victory, and let the honor fall to a woman — as a rebuke to the man who shrank back. And mark the lesson: the woman did not seize Barak's place. Barak abandoned it, and YAHWEH filled it. Many times in this fallen age there is no fit, willing, anointed man standing in the gap — and YAHWEH, who will not leave His people without a shepherd, anoints a daughter and sends her. And when He does, no man may bar the door. To forbid the woman YAHWEH has plainly called is to play Barak — to refuse the march and despise the Spirit's own choosing. And one more distinction seals it, so nobody stumbles. Somebody will say, "But Junia and Phoebe ministered in a church full of able men — where was the male failure that required them?" And the answer is that two different things are in view. Governmental headship — the settled office of oversight — follows the order, with the Deborah override. But gifting — prophecy, the apostolic anointing, the prophesying of the daughters — that the Spirit distributes as He wills, to whom He wills, whether a man failed or stands faithful right beside her. The Spirit gave Philip four prophesying daughters not because four men fell, but because "your sons and your — 36 — SHE WAS ALWAYS THERE daughters shall prophesy" is the charter of this whole age. Gift and office are not the same thing. Distinguish them, and both stand in peace. So here is the whole counsel of it: The order is YAHWEH's preference. The anointing is YAHWEH's prerogative. The gift is YAHWEH's free gift. And rebellion belongs to none of the three. ► SLIDE 73 — THE VERDICT (declaration) XVIII. THE VERDICT So I come back to the bench where, years ago, I once ruled wrongly. And tonight, before this house and before YAHWEH, I reverse my judgment. Three witnesses were called, as the Law requires. The Living Apostle, the Torah, and the great Cloud — and all three agreed. The prosecution's three exhibits were heard in full, cross-examined, and found wanting — a man-made tradition set against the commandment of YAHWEH, a charge of usurpation against a woman who seized nothing, and a judgment-oracle twisted into a law it never was. By the mouth of two or three witnesses, the matter is established, and the verdict is plain: The daughters of YAHWEH may lead, and teach, and prophesy, and shepherd in His assembly. The Law never forbade it. The Spirit was poured out for it. The apostles practiced it. And the church remembered it for a thousand years before the tradition of men buried it. I was wrong. And I was not wrong because the culture changed my mind — I care nothing for the culture's permission. I was wrong because I weighed an inherited tradition against the Word of YAHWEH, and the tradition was found wanting at the mouth of three witnesses. ► SLIDE 74 — THE CHARGE — to the daughters and the sons — 37 — SHE WAS ALWAYS THERE XIX. THE CHARGE And so I have a word for the daughters, and a word for the sons. To the women of this house whom I — or any man — discouraged, hindered, or held back from the call of YAHWEH on your life: I ask your forgiveness. The error was ours. It was not the Word's, and it was not yours. Walk in your calling — under the order, by the anointing, never by rebellion — and YAHWEH will honor you as He honored Deborah. And to the men of YAHWEH, hear an equal word, because this verdict is no license for you to retreat. Deborah does not exist to shame women into silence — she exists also to shame Barak out of his cowardice! If YAHWEH has called you to stand, then stand. Lead. Shepherd. Carry the weight He laid on you. Do not abandon the field and then grumble when YAHWEH sends a daughter to do the work you refused. Let no man use this teaching as a pillow for his sloth. The Kingdom has need of every faithful son and every faithful daughter, each in the place and the calling YAHWEH appointed. XX. SHE WAS ALWAYS THERE So we end where we began — with a buried name unsealed. Junia was never lost. She was always there, sleeping in the pages of the Book, waiting for an hour honest enough to read her name again. The scribes covered her over; they did not erase her. The tradition of men silenced her voice; it did not destroy it. And now, in the season of the restoration of all things, the stone is rolled away from the mouth of the grave the scribes dug — and the silenced witness walks out into the light. This is what the last hour does. It restores. It gives back the voice that was stolen, it unearths the truth that was buried, and it fulfills the ancient word — your sons AND your daughters shall prophesy. And Junia is only the firstfruits. Behind her stand Phoebe and Priscilla and the prophesying daughters of Philip, Deborah — 38 — SHE WAS ALWAYS THERE and Huldah and Miriam — a whole company of silenced witnesses, called back to testify in the assemblies of YAHWEH. The hour of their burial is over. The hour of their restoration has come. To every daughter who was told her voice did not belong in the house of YAHWEH — it was a lie of the scribes, and the Spirit of truth is overturning it in your lifetime. And to every son — do not stand where the lying pen once stood. Do not guard a grave the Spirit has opened. She was always there. Now let the assembly hear her — and all her daughters after her — speak. ► SLIDE 75 — SCRIPTURE — Joel 2:25–26 (the restoration) "I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten... and ye shall praise the name of YAHWEH your Elohim, that hath dealt wondrously with you." — Joel 2:25–26 ► SLIDE 76 — CLOSE — “She was always there. Let the daughters rise.” The court is adjourned. Let the daughters rise. Rev. John Shane Vaughn Founding Apostolic Overseer First Harvest Ministries International HisComingKingdom.com | TheTruthTv.tv — 39 —