The Jezebelian Resurgence

Your desire shall be to rule over your husband, and he shall rule over you. – Genesis 3:16

It is nothing new to see female teachers/leaders standing in places of authority; according to Isaiah 3:12 this is a mark of God’s judgment. It seems that throughout history, most female leaders were leaders of more liberal communities; there are precious few exceptions in history, and further research may reveal that they may not be exceptions, but to be fair, the Queen of Sheba and Queen Victoria seem to fall into the exceptional category.

The Southern Baptist Convention has been a standard-bearer on this topic in the past century. They have faithfully stood in alignment with the scriptures, and have ousted many churches that have called female hirelings to lead their flock. However, at least two dozen SBC churches currently have a woman as pastor and are still in good standing with the Convention. Percentage wise, the SBC is doing much better than most denominations.

It is easy to identify liberal churches that preach false gospels by their female leadership. They almost always support homosexuality and abortion. One would have to be very deluded (Romans 1:18,22) to attend one of these churches and think that they were being taught any semblance of biblical truth.

That’s where Jezebel comes in. The original Jezebel, of Elijah’s time, never claimed to be the leader of Israel, but masterfully ruled over her husband to work all manner of sin and destruction in Israel. “There was none who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the Lord like Ahab, whom Jezebel his wife incited (1 Kings 21:25).” She was dangerous because she feigned submission but worked iniquity throughout the land.

Enter Jezebel in the New Testament, written to the fruit bearing church at Thyatira, “I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols (Revelation 2:20).”  Historically, the SBC has been excellent, though not perfect, about identifying churches that sin openly in ordaining woman shepherds, and excommunicating them. But they tolerate antichristian woman leaders, like Beth Moore, to teach its members to sin. Beth Moore is not a pastor and would adamantly say she is not a pastor, just as Jezebel would say she was not the leader of Israel. But Beth Moore had no problem standing in front of at least 20,000 men at the Passion Conference and teaching them strange and unbiblical things. She has snuck in, and is masterfully inciting the SBC to sin in ways that would make Ahab blush; many women abound who teach and lead from a feigned position of submission; Jezebels.

But, dear reader, if you are reading this article because you personally know me, you know that I struggle mightily with calling myself a Southern Baptist. Once a bastion of truth and biblical sufficiency, the SBC is sliding quickly into apostasy; and I have a very difficult time identifying my association. Once I identified as Reformed, but learned quickly that I am not, I am a Baptist, but currently a Baptist without a denomination. We’re actually not a small group who find ourselves in this conundrum, so for sake of simplicity let’s use the moniker, “Reformed Baptist”, for this next point. I mean Reformed only in the sense that we’re TULIP and Sola believers.

The Reformed Baptist movement is safe from calling women teachers and giving them authority over men. Or is it? For several months now I have seen a resurgence in the danger of Jezebels in our midst, women who deny being pastors or teachers, but act as pastors and teachers; one says, "[Name deleted] is in no way asserting authority, or even posing as a teacher." These women are far from harmless, many lost their lives under the Queen Consort Jezebel, and under the Thyatiran Jezebel God made this threat, “she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, and I will strike her children dead (Revelation 2:21-23).” Damaged churches and people will be in the wake of Jezebel’s efforts, and many souls will be murdered.

Facebook, and other social media sites, have given an unprecedented opportunity for Jezebel to arise. Over the past months I have confronted several of these women, and, with the exception of one, they have all blocked me from viewing or rebuking their posts. One proved to be an Aryan, a denier of Christ’s divinity, another showed herself to be a lover of lies rather than a lover of truth, and one became abundantly clear to be caught up in Word of Faith teachings of the “Name-it & Claim-it” heresy. Each of these professed to be Reformed in their understanding of soteriology and ecclesiology.

Now, I have prayed over this for quite some time on the best way to handle this issue. I could name each woman by name, but I would never be able to name all of them. I could rebuke them individually, but they do not recognize my authority, nor could I ever confront all of them. I could contact their pastors or husbands and call them to confront the offender, but many of these Jezebels are not in churches, and if they are, they trample underfoot both their pastor and their husbands’ authority. So, dear reader, I have come to the conclusion that the best way to handle the current situation is for you to be able to identify these teachers on your own and confront them as you encounter them, praying that they come to repentance.

Markers That Identify Jezebel:

Superfluous material being posted to her Facebook page. Without exception every offender I’ve run into posts more than five times a day in a didactic fashion. Often these are reposts of others on Facebook, sometimes they are original.

Content will be excessively lopsided. Here is where the “Reformed” movement attracts its wolves; we accept someone if they’ll say amen to Romans 9 or Ephesians 1 or Psalm 5:5, but is that the test of salvation? We know Christians by their fruit, but a Jezebel will treat Christianity like a club, excessively focusing on one doctrine, such as election, or the evils of Roman Catholicism, or one accepted teacher or preacher, such as a Puritan or modern Calvinist, and rarely touch on other topics. The Apostle Paul said, “I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27).” Jezebel can never, and will never want to, say that she has declared the whole counsel of God; she focuses on one or two themes to the detriment of all others.

The vast majority of postings are legitimately helpful and true. Charles Spurgeon said so masterfully, “Discernment is not a matter of simply telling the difference between right and wrong; rather, it is telling the difference between right and almost right.” Postings of Bible verses, Puritan quotes, John MacArthur (and/or similar) sermons, and the like will be the vast majority of content.

The wrong postings are radically wrong. When a woman teacher comes out to post her own opinions and/or heresy, the line will be readily clear to believers. One began teaching, “you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy…greet only your brothers (Matthew 5:43,47)…” The Aryan mentioned above latched onto antiChristmas lies and would preach them loudly and frequently even when they obviously contradicted not only scripture, but other antiChristmas lies. I’ve yet to meet one like at Thyatira who was teaching sexual sin, but don’t forget that any sin can be counted adultery against God (2 Peter 2:14, Psalm 73:27), but I do not doubt one bit that there are really female teachers out there teaching real sexual sins. Flee from sexual immorality and people who teach such things.

Jezebel is hostile to rebuke. Ahab’s wife, when shown to be a sorceress and idolater by Elijah the prophet, sent to that prophet, “May the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of [the slain] by this time tomorrow  (1 Kings 19:2).” On Facebook Jezebel is quick to remove comments that damage or question her position, and to fence herself off from rebuke and those who would disagree with her. Her Facebook page may be deemed a “controversy free zone”; this means she refuses to be corrected. Verbatim, one says, "[Name deleted] will not entertain differing opinions on her threads, chats, or PMs[private messages]..." Don’t expect a long drawn out conversation, if this Jezebel had as much power as Ahab’s wife, you’d lose your life (1 Kings 18:4), but in our day and age, you’ll just be blocked on Facebook.

Jezebel is overly concerned with her reputation. She will remove any content that is not well received, Facebook "likes" are a measure of success for her. If you do damage her reputation, expect a serious backlash, such as a lawsuit or a call to her cult-following to post insidious and unchristian things to and about you. Expect, as Elijah, to be chased into the wilderness.

Claims to edify the church. A “Reformed” female false teacher will be very careful not to use words like teacher, didactic/didaskolos, pastor, or similar words to describe her role, but I’ve found a string of them using “edify” to describe their work. From one of their pages, "[this venue] is for edification and encouragement."

They legitimately think they are operating in a role that is needed in the church, and that they are performing a service. Jezebel thought so too, she swayed her husband to call Elijah the “Troubler of Israel (1 Kings 18:17).” The Word of God and history have shown Elijah to be the true prophet, and Jezebel to be the false teacher, but that is not the way it was perceived or expressed during Elijah’s time. Jezebel will shout loudly that she is in the right and those who stand against her stand against God.

Jezebel is a real danger to the church today, and the Reformed Baptist movement is not immune; in fact it seems to be most susceptible at this time. Watch out for these false teachers, these false prophetesses (preachers), these seductive leaders; God has promised exceeding great punishments for her and those who follow her, please don’t be among them. God says, “To the rest of you, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden. Only hold fast what you have until I come (Revelation 2:24-25).”

In conclusion, this does not refer to all female posters on Facebook, it is a small group and if I consider you to be one, I have already told you that I consider you to be one. If you are a female leader of females, then I applaud you in your necessary and vital role (Titus 2:3-5); if you constantly compile and post prayer requests for yourself and others, then I beg you to continue; if you post questions and/or things which have blessed you, then continue so we can fellowship together.

Not every woman who teaches something (either inadvertately or on purpose) has become a Jezebel. But, if your entire roll in life is to usurp the authority of men, then I implore you to test yourself to see if you are even in the faith, for you are still under the curse of the fall, and you will be thrown onto a sickbed, and your offspring, both physical and spiritual, will perish.

But for the one who will submit, who will repent, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, “cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree,” so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the nations (Galatians 3:13-14).