Published on Apr 8, 2015

The Seventh-day Adventist church is now at the crossroads of what may prove to be the biggest crisis of unity and mission in our 150 year history. 
This crisis is more than a question of women pastors but really a question of how we will read and follow the Bible in the future. 
It is not surprising that thinking Christians would wonder why talented, God-fearing women would not be permitted to serve as ordained pastors. 
In a culture where the media scoffs at organized religion and celebrates same sex marriage we should not be surprised if the lines of gender differences and biblical authority seem fuzzy. 
If a woman feels called to serve as an ordained minister, why should a church block her chosen career path? 
Without Biblical authority and a divine precedent, there would be no logical reason to prevent women from being ordained to as ministers, for that matter neither would there be any reason to keep the seventh day of the week holy. 
However, as historic defenders of Biblical truth, Seventh-Day Adventists must not allow culture to shape our doctrinal stand on issues such as creation, abortion, same sex relationships or women’s ordination. 
It is interesting to consider that after 6,000 years of human history some Christians are now seeking to change the Divine plan in this area. 
The Bible has always been God’s agency to transform society; it shouldn't be the other way around. So the question remains…Is the spiritual headship for females scriptural? 
Note some basic Biblical facts regarding male headship: 
1. Adam was formed first from the dust of the ground. Genesis clearly shows Adam as the one who was to care for the garden, identifies the animals, and names his wife. 
2. After Adam and Eve sinned it was Adam, not Eve that the Lord called to account for the sin. Even though Eve was the first to sin. This is why Jesus came as the Second Adam, to win back the lost dominion and headship Adam had surrendered to Satan through disobedience. 
3. Only men are ever recorded in the Bible as officiating in the offering of sacrifices or call to priestly ministry. 
4. The founders of the 12 tribes of Israel were all men. 
5. Although the Lord called on the entire nation of Israel to be a kingdom of priests, only men were appointed to offer the Passover lamb and to later server as priests. 
6. The 12 rulers appointed by Moses, in the wilderness under God’s direction, were only men. 
7. The seventy elders appointed by Moses were all male. 
8. Only men were anointed by God to serve as Kings of Israel and Judah. 
9. All Patriarchal blessings were passed down from father to son. 
10. The Old and New Testaments trace the genealogy of Jesus through the male lineage. 
11.There are seven examples in Scripture of women giving birth in connection with a miracle; all these miracle babies that typified Christ were male children. 
12. Although Jesus desired that women share the good news of salvation, He only called me to serve in the capacity of apostles. 
13. Both men and women were baptized, but only by men. 
14. The first seven deacons chosen to administrate the early Christian church were all men. 
15. Paul, who said that in Christ there is neither male or female in Christ, went from town to town only ordaining men. 
We must keep in mind that it was Jesus who created Adam and established male headship in a perfect, pre-fall world. This reveals the eternal nature of this divine arrangement. 
Any compromise of the foundational principles found in Genesis paves the way for a future compromise on issues like the Sabbath, same sex marriage and evolution. 
The controversy over headship first began in heaven, with Lucifer questioning the divine order in the Godhead. Lucifer resented and eventually rejected the headship of Christ, which thrust the universe into a crisis over this very question. 
Did Eve have equal headship with Adam at creation? If the answer is no, it should remain so forever. Any attempt to change this order would be similar to Lucifer’s attempt to grasp equal authority with Christ. 
God set up spiritual headship in Adam and He follows the same creation pattern down through time—priesthood, kingship, apostleship, eldership…All male. 
Jesus never established a gender-equal priesthood, or established female apostleship for His new church body.
When the sacrificial system was swept away and all that pertained to it, Jesus still established male headship to run church. Interesting. 
Had Jesus established women as apostles and leaders of spiritual Israel, no one would be questioning women’s ordination today. 
The apostle Paul said that “in Christ there is neither male or female.” If this means that women should be ordained to spiritual headship, it must always have been true, even from creation! But is that what the Biblical record shows?