Can a woman be the head pastor of a church?  In the Bible, it says just the man.=

Sincerely,
His And Her Roles

Dear His And Her Roles,

No.  Pastors (Eph 4:11) – also known as elders or bishops (Tit 1:5-7) – are always men.  The qualifications for pastors are given in 1 Tim 3:1-7 and Tit 1:5-9.  One of those qualifications is that he must be “a husband of one wife” (1 Tim 3:2, Tit 1:6) – that clearly rules out females from becoming pastors.

Furthermore, the Lord never designed the church to be led by one man… there is no such thing as a “head pastor” in the Bible.  In every New Testament congregation, the church is led by a plurality of elders (also known as pastors).  Pastors lead the church together.  Paul wrote to the elders in Philippi (Php 1:1).  He met with the elders in Ephesus (Acts 20:17).  Every congregation had elders to lead them (Acts 14:23).  There is no example of a single elder/pastor leading the church.  Multiple pastors shepherding the church avoids all the power being placed in the hands of one man.

If someone is filled with the Holy Ghost and turns back on God in anger, transgresses, and falls back into a life of sin, do they have to be baptized again?

Sincerely,
Double Take

Dear Double Take,

We are only commanded to be baptized once because baptism is a burial with Christ (Rom 6:3-4).  After baptism, we must learn to walk in our new life.  You don’t need to be baptized again, but you do need to confess your sins to God (1 Jn 1:9) and repent of them (Acts 8:22).  When a member of the Corinthian church fell away and later repented, the church was simply told to once again embrace him as a brother (2 Cor 2:6-8).  There are no cases in the New Testament of re-baptism for those who have fallen away.

Is an adulterer able remarry after divorce, or are they to remain unmarried?

Sincerely,
Quizzical

Dear Quizzical,

Your question is an important one and is one that many christians wrestle with because of the high divorce rate in American society.  Adultery is wrong, and every divorce is caused because of sin.  God hates divorce (Mal 2:16), and His desire has always been for men and women to remain married for a lifetime (Matt 19:4-6).

Because of the complexities of this issue and because every circumstance is unique, we recommend that people with questions on this subject listen to the sermon series “Marriage, Divorce, and Remarriage”, compare the sermons to Scripture, and then faithfully examine themselves to see whether they are living as God intended (Php 2:12).

Does Romans 7:1-3 imply divorce or a polygamist state when the woman marries another man?  Furthermore, if the verse implies divorce, does the wording of the verse convey that the woman will be in a continuous state of adultery? Since it would not be a one-time wrong against her husband, she would be in a continual state of adultery giving her the title of ‘adulteress’.

Sincerely,
Annulled And Void?

Dear Annulled And Void,

Romans 7:1-3 doesn’t state that she will be in a continuous state of adultery (none of the verb tenses specify continuous action), but it doesn’t necessarily state that she wouldn’t be.  Romans 7:1-3 isn’t really even focused on addressing marriage and divorce – it is using a simple truth (that marriage is intended to be for a lifetime) to illustrate that the Old Law had to pass away in order for the New Law to take over (Rom 7:4-6).  The verse doesn’t specifically imply divorce.  It simply says, “if she be joined to another man” (Rom 15:3)… that doesn’t mean she divorced her husband.  It is possible for someone to be joined to another without divorce – it is called ‘fornication’.  In short, all the verse is saying is that once you are married, you are bound to that spouse for life.  That is the normal circumstance of all marriages.  Other verses (such as Matthew 19:9 and 1 Cor 7:12-15) deal with abnormal marital circumstances.  If you would like more information on the topic of marriage, divorce, and remarriage, we recommend you listen to a series of lessons one of our AYP writers preached on the topic.  That series can be downloaded from here.

What is blasphemy?  I really don't understand it and would like an explanation.

Sincerely,
Boggled About Blasphemy

Dear Boggled About Blasphemy,

All cursing is corrupt speech, but using the Lord’s name in vain is corrupt speech and blasphemy.  Eph 4:29 tells us to avoid all corrupt speech.  We need to avoid any and all language that sounds filthy or derogatory – this would include all swear words.  However, using the Lord’s name in vain is corrupt and irreverent.  God tells us to revere Him (Heb 12:28).  All sin will equally send you to hell (Rom 6:23), but there is an attitude of disrespect behind using the Lord’s name in vain that is especially troublesome.  The word ‘blasphemy’ means ‘to speak evil of’; any language that speaks poorly of God is blasphemy.  When we use God’s name as a cuss word or exclamatory term, we demote Him in our minds from the lofty position He deserves.  All our speech needs to be both clean and reverent, so God’s name is spoken well of amongst His people (1 Tim 6:1).