--Clippings From My Notebook
--By: Corrie ten Boom~ --
--Should Women Preach?--Corrie was interviewed once on the subject of women who preach. The following is a portion of that interview.-Question: Have you ever had the difficulty that some people do not like women to speak in public?
-Answer: No, because I have never been where they do not allow me to go.
-Question: But do you not have the feeling that you are being disobedient? Paul says in 1 Timothy 2:11,12 and 1 Corinthians 14:34,35 that women must be silent.
-Answer: Yes, that is so, but we must know what these words mean and what they do not mean. We must find their meaning for the present age. Peter gave us a sketch of the present age in the words of Joel,
"I will pour forth my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and daughters shall prophesy..." (Acts 2:17 KJV). Now, what is prophecy? First Corinthians 14:3 says, "edification, exhortation, and comfort."-Question? But did Peter not mean that these things happened at the first Pentecost (See Acts 2:16-21)?
-Answer: Yes, they partly happened then, but in carrying on with the quotation he talked of things which were not then happening.
"Blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke" (Acts 2:19) have not yet come to pass, nor the sun being "turned into darkness" and the "moon into blood" (Acts. 2:20). We know from other Scriptures that this will happpen before the return of the Lord Jesus (see Matthew 24:29; Revelation 6:12). We live in days past the beginning of the prophecy and before the end of it.
Acts 2:18 quotes Joel, "Upon my male and female slaves [the literal meaning] will I pour forth of my Spirit and they shall prophesy." There is no distinction of race in this verse; the power is to any devoted servant of Christ, Jew or Gentile, male or female.
The one hundred twenty on the first Pentecost included certain women, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and all spoke languages they had never learned (see Acts 1:13-15; 2:1-11).In 1 Corinthians 11:5 we find that women prophesied in the assembly, and this was not forbidden by Paul but merely regulated--the covering of the head being commanded. This verse also tells that women prayed in the church.
In Acts 21:9 it is told that Philip's four daughters prophesied, not because it was rare for women to prophesy, but that it was unusual for four women in one family to do so.-Question: But what about 1 Corinthians 14:34 and 35, where it is clearly said that women must keep silent in the churches?
-Answer: I believe that this must be interpreted in the light of these other Scriptures and not in conflict with them. Here is meant silence while another is speaking.
("Let them ask their own husbands at home"--1 Corinthias 14:35). I believe that Miriam, Deborah, and Anna (who were prophetesses) are good company for me. And Psalm 68:11, in the original, gives them and me the encouragement,
"The women who proclaim the good tidings are a great host..." (NASB). There is one thing that neither man nor woman can be without--the anointing of the Holy Spirit which equips us to speak for God (see Acts 2:18). ***** 
"From that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the women who testified..." (John 4:39).
---The battle is not ours, but God's. ~~~~
