The proximity of the Women Bishops legislation forces us to consider our response to this impending development, and makes us fear that it is already too late to avert what is proclaimed on all sides to be inevitable. But for a conservative Christian who knows that the appointment of women bishops in the Church of England would be a transgression against the explicit directions given to the church of Jesus Christ by Paul in 1 Timothy,

I do not permit a woman to teach, nor to exercise authority over a man, but to be in quietness [1 Timothy 2:12]

there is no reason to fear since we can have confidence that the Lord God Almighty Himself will assist us by His Holy Spirit in the contest, and even give us the victory if we will only believe that He is able to vanquish the forces of deception and unreason and worldliness and pride, and raise up a new generation of ministers who are steadfast in the proclamation of the glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and not ashamed to teach the sound doctrine that was delivered to us by the apostles. ‘Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you,’ Paul wrote to Timothy and so we must not forsake the plain teachings of holy scripture, but guard them with our very lives.

Hallelujah, the Spirit of the Lord is moving to preserve His word, and it is time to take a stand for truth and righteousness and holiness, and not be ashamed to be of a different opinion to the majority, whether in the church or in the world. How far we have fallen that men of the Church of England are pleading for obedience to the dictates of a worldly government, and how quickly are the standards of godliness and truth and sober judgement being removed in the rush to placate a hostile court of public opinion. To those who know the truth and are appalled by the rapidity of our descent into the darkness of unbelief and heresy, we say rise up and have faith in God, labour to expose false doctrine, and put your trust in God and in His mighty and awesome power. There is nothing God can not do in response to the fervent and believing prayers of the faithful, and it is unbelief to say that the passage of the proposed legislation is inevitable. How deeply we must be convicted to wake us out of our slumber, but this too is not too hard for a God who can raise the dead from the grave and pour water on the dry ground of our backslidden and decadent and lukewarm churches. Oh for another great revival in these lands, and can we not believe that the God who transformed Wales in a few short months can do the same and more in England if we will fast and pray for revival and seek His face for the way forward into victory.

Praise God for His holy word, and praise Him too for His Holy Spirit who is given to us to preach the gospel with power and with signs following the proclamation of the word. Women excel in faith, in praise and worship, and abound in gifts of healing and deliverance given for the sake of perishing sinners to convince them that God is real and that Jesus is the way to heaven. Hallelujah for there is no other name given under heaven by which men may be saved, and His Name is above all names and far above the principalities and powers that are masterminding the destruction of the once glorious church of England through deception and false teaching about the ministry of women within it.

To those who have been taken in by the false teachers and deceiving spirits, and who have come to believe that no restrictions are placed on the ministry of women because of their gender, we urge you to consider your ways and repent. The scriptures are clear and can not be gainsayed. How can you say that:

I do not permit a woman to teach, nor to exercise authority over a man

means that she is free to teach and to exercise authority over men? This is nonsense and you know it. I do not believe that there are more than one in a hundred pastors or teachers that really believe the far-fetched and barely comprehensible theories concocted by feminists to overturn the ordinances of God in this matter. How can they, since they make no intelligible sense?

For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. [1 Timothy 2:13-14]

The reasons Paul gives for the apostolic instructions are from the order of creation, and the circumstances of the Fall, so it is obvious that they apply generally and not just to a particular time and place. In any case, how would we know if our own set of conditions were sufficiently close to those of Ephesus to make the restrictions necessary, since we have such limited knowledge of what they were. Paul said in 1 Timothy 3:11 that he was writing these things:

so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

and not so that they would know how to conduct themselves in 1st century Ephesus. And what if similar or comparable conditions do in fact apply today in some parts of the world? Is the church there to impose the biblical restrictions on women’s ministry, while we in the West ignore them? How ridiculous this is that we should abandon two millenia of apostolic tradition on the basis of a lie that such tradition is to be abandoned after the passing of an unspecified period of time when unspecified changes have taken place in the church or the surrounding culture. Does not the whole world lie under the wicked one (1 John 5:19)? So are we to let satan govern the church of the Lord Jesus Christ by determining its order and practices? How outrageous this is, and to think that almost the whole of the charismatic evangelical wing of the Anglican church have departed from the tradition which Paul imparted to Timothy with the explicit instruction to commit it to ‘faithful men who would be able to teach others also’ (2 Timothy 2:2). ‘Stand fast and hold the traditions you were taught, whether by word or by epistle,’ Paul told the Thessalonians, not abandon them as if they were bathwater good only for the drain. How dare you say that you know better than Paul did, who was appointed by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself to be the teacher of the Gentiles, of which we are. Shame on you!

So let us pray and seek the Lord and enquire if there be any wicked way in us. The Lord is merciful and knows our weaknesses, and is quick to forgive when we repent and turn back to Him. Thank God for the blood of Jesus Christ which cleanses us and heals us and sanctifies us. Amen.