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| Q: | We know from God's word that women should not be pastors, and my wife and I believe this, always have. My question is "if a woman who is a pastor, christens someone, marries a couple etc. are these legitimate? Is he or she really baptised/married?" | ||||||
| A: | There is no question about the validity of a baptism performed by a woman. We would, for instance, accept the baptism performed by a midwife or the mother in a case of emergency. The same is true of marriage, which is a civil estate. Perhaps greater questions have been raised concerning the Lord's Supper, which under normal circumstances is celebrated only by the pastor as the called minister of the congregation. In all these cases, however, we must distinguish between validity and legitimacy. Valid means that a real sacrament or sacred act has taken place. The validity of a sacrament does not depend on the character of the officiant but upon whether Christ's institution was properly followed. Legitimate means that the sacrament or sacred act was performed in a way which was God-pleasing, proper, and orderly. For a woman to take up the office of pastor is not God-pleasing or proper, in that sense, not legitimate. We should not use the ministrations of such a pastor any more than we should use the ministrations of a male pastor who is an adherent of false teaching. | ||||||
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