“Is it okay for women to study theology?”

Steve Brown:
“Is it okay for women to study theology?” The answer to that and other questions, on this edition of Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
If you think laughter isn’t spiritual, or that faithfulness to God means conformity to Christian stereotypes, then this program probably isn’t for you. But, if you’re looking for honest, Biblical answers to honest questions, welcome to Key Life. Here’s our host, author, and seminary professor, Steve Brown, along with Pete Alwinson from ForgeBibleStudy.com.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. Hi Pete.

Pete Alwinson:
Hey man. Good to see you.

Steve Brown:
How you doing?

Pete Alwinson:
I’m doing good. I’m glad we get to do questions and answers again.

Steve Brown:
You guys who are listening, you need to know a little bit of background. We just had everything in this studio go dead on us. And we decided it was because we were going to be teaching something that was, we weren’t sure what, but something that was really profound and Satan didn’t like it. And so, he turned off all of this fancy equipment that we sit behind and deal with. So, I just wanted you to know that if we sound a little bit shaky, we’re just kind of worried that this thing is going to break down in the middle of doing this. But Pete, I can’t think of anybody I would rather be with, if this thing breaks down, than you. Hey, by the way, if you haven’t read Like Father Like Son, you ought to. And if you haven’t gone to ForgeTruth.com you ought to do that too. That manifests a lot of great teaching that Pete gives at FORGE. And if you live in the, if you’re a guy and you live in the Central Florida area, check ForgeTruth.com for a group that meets near you and become involved. You’ll be glad I told you about it. By the way, we have been answering questions for a lot of years on Friday and we love your questions. You can ask a question by calling 1-800-KEY-LIFE, 24 7, and we record your questions and sometimes put them on the air. Or you can send your questions to

Key Life Network
P.O. Box 5000
Maitland, Florida 32794

Key Life Canada
P.O. Box 28060
Waterloo, Ontario N2L 6J8

Or you can e-mail your question to [email protected] and if you can help us financially, please do. We’re a member of ECFA in the States and CCCC in Canada. Both of those organizations oversee our financial books to make sure we’re ethical. But we were ethical before they even came along. So, you can rest assured at any rate. So be generous if you can. If you can’t, we understand. Say a prayer for this ministry. And Pete, would you lead us in prayer? And we’ll get to some of these questions.

Pete Alwinson:
Let’s do that. Our Great God, we do come into your presence today just so grateful that we belong to you. And we honor you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You are almighty. You are gracious. You are loving. You are all knowing. You forgive us because of the work of Jesus. And Lord, thank you so much that even at the end of this week, when sometimes we don’t feel great about ourselves, we can remember that we are truly the deeply beloved, redeemed daughters and sons of the most high God. And we rest in that identity. Thank you that we don’t have to figure out our identity that you tell us. And that we’re firm in you. And so, this week-end, we pray that you’d be with our leaders. We pray for them, our pastors, priests, teachers, leaders, worship directors. Lord, all those who are preparing the service that will draw us into the presence of the living God. Give them wisdom. Give us the ability to hear your voice and to serve you. Lord, we love you. And we give this time of Q&A to you as we pray all these things in Jesus strong name. Amen.

Steve Brown:
Amen. Pete, let’s go to our phone lines.

Caller 1:
Is it appropriate for the women of Christ to study demonology and exorcism

Steve Brown:
Well, and what you want to say is, but of course.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah.

Steve Brown:
It’s appropriate for women to study theology and to study those areas too. I think when you study demonology, you need to be fortified and recognize that there’s some dangers in that for all of us, men or women.

Pete Alwinson:
Right. Right.

Steve Brown:
But God doesn’t prevent. You used to do when you were my pastor, you used to do a special class for women on theology because most of them had never read a theology book nor wanted to.

Pete Alwinson:
Right. Right.

Steve Brown:
And so, you affirmed it. And there were a lot of women took those courses.

Pete Alwinson:
Absolutely. And then Jennifer, who used to work here at Key Life came over and she started teaching that theology class. So, it was, you’re right. I mean, is there any subject that a woman can’t study? No, of course not. And we have the same Bible and we need women that are aware of the spiritual powers and the forces.

Steve Brown:
I agree with you. You know, that brings us into the area of women’s ordination, and Pete and I both belong to a denomination that does not ordain women and we affirm that. But we recognize that there are different views to that from Bible believers who believe that the Scripture teaches the opposite, and we understand that. It’s just one of those areas where we can agree to disagree and still walk with Christ together.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right. But we would always affirm that women ought to be as excellent at understanding the word of God as men.

Steve Brown:
Oh, absolutely. In fact, I think the issue is authority and not gift. But we won’t get into that because then it will generate more questions and more e-mails. And we just told you everything we know about that, this is an e-mail, Pete. Does God still heal today?

Pete Alwinson:
Yes, of course he does. You know, it’s amazing. Sometimes we downplay God’s healing in the processes that he built into our bodies, that the reality is he heals through a lot of the natural processes of the ability that he gave us to begin with, and he gets the credit for all of that.

Steve Brown:
And sometimes he intervenes. You and I both know of a number of situations where that is. The question could be, does God still answer prayer today? Yeah, of course

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
He answers prayer. Do you, when you were a pastor, did the elders anoint with oil and pray for the sick?

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah, and we did that a lot.

Steve Brown:
And we did that. We used to have healing services every month.

Pete Alwinson:
Isn’t that amazing?

Steve Brown:
Oh man. That drove a lot of people crazy I mean, they don’t, that’s not what Presbyterians did. And all the charismatics in our city would come out for that, just to see a Presbyterian. We don’t dance, we don’t laugh, and we don’t do healing services, alright. Yes, God of course, heals today. This is an e-mail too, Pete. How should I as an individual handle problems within the church? What issues go into consideration in leaving a particular church?

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah, that’s put very, very well. And we do need to think more about that rather than just jump off out of anger, jumping down the throats of other people and all that. As individuals, if there are problems, first thing if you’re in a particular ministry, I would go to the leader of that ministry and instead of talking behind the scenes and saying, I’m having some problems, I have some concerns, I could be off, but this is what I’m thinking. Tell me what, how you would respond to it.

Steve Brown:
I agree with you. In fact, you got that from Jesus. It’s probably a good resource.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah, probably.

Steve Brown:
He said, if you’ve got a problem with a brother, you go to him.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right. Matthew 18. So, you go right to the source, and you’ve got to stop this tendency to talk about it behind the scenes. And so, that’s one way, what issues go into consideration of leaving a particular church?

Steve Brown:
The obvious things.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah. Like what? What do you?

Steve Brown:
Well, if the Scriptures are not taught or believed, if, if doctrines are involved that are plainly anti-Christian, if the church no longer worships at the proper altar, I think that’s no longer a church, and you ought to find another place. So, those are obvious reasons. But sometimes, you know, and this happened with Paul and Barnabas in Acts. It wasn’t that either one of them were wrong, but they had a big fight, and they couldn’t work together.

Pete Alwinson:
It was really on the philosophy of ministry. It’s how are we going to do this missionary journey? And Paul had one philosophy, and Barnabas had another, and they had to divide, and the church benefited from that.

Steve Brown:
And so, maybe your church would benefit by you leaving.

Pete Alwinson:
Ha, ha, ha, could be.

Steve Brown:
Sometimes it works that way.

Pete Alwinson:
It does.

Steve Brown:
And we need to be honest about that. I don’t feel comfortable. This is not a good place for me. It’s not good for me to be here, when you say to your pastor, for you or for me. So, I want you to know I’m going to be praying for you and want you to pray for me too because I’m looking for another church.

Pete Alwinson:
You know, and that’s a good way of saying it. I think sometimes, Christians do grow in their theological knowledge or their positions on certain issues that really are the reason why we have different denominations. And so, they say, you know, my view on this has changed. And so, I really probably need to be in a church that is more in alignment with that view. And that’s a legitimate reason too.

Steve Brown:
Of course it is. But the problem is, you know, when we are going to leave, we got to justify ourself. We got a yell and scream and spit and as a result you have church divisions over that.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
You know, we left our church that we’ve been a part of for 25 years and that was a very hard thing to do. And it wasn’t over doctrinal things, it was just like and I cried and I said I just can’t, this is not working and I hate it and I did. What a lot of people don’t know is that God caused the pandemic and killed all those people cause he likes me. They didn’t know I was gone for a year and by then it was pretty cool.

Pete Alwinson:
Steve, now that’s just plain heresy.

Steve Brown:
It really is. What is a cult?

Pete Alwinson:
Good question. A cult is really, and there’s a lot of ways to approach it, but a cult is really a sub Christian, a Christian cult is a sub Christian organization that claims to be Christian but has moved away from Biblical roots.

Steve Brown:
That’s true.

Pete Alwinson:
Now, there are other cults, that have control dynamics and some of these Christian cults have the same kind of thing.

Steve Brown:
Oh, I know. And I’ve seen it.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah.

Steve Brown:
In fact, I’ve been reading about that recently, and it’s pretty scary.

Pete Alwinson:
It is.

Steve Brown:
You know, Satan will use 99% of the truth to float one lie, and that will be a big lie, and that’s why it’s very important that you be careful.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
The things you join with.

Pete Alwinson:
A lot of times personalities drive those cults as well, and so when human personalities are central, we get in trouble.

Steve Brown:
That’s true. And there’s no authority structure.

Pete Alwinson:
Right.

Steve Brown:
Not places where people can appeal.

Pete Alwinson:
Right.

Steve Brown:
Hey guys, we’ve done all we can, and it’s time for us to go. But first, Key Life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network.