My Apology to Christian Women

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By Pastor Rick Warren, Saddleback Church

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My biggest regret in 53 years of ministry is that I didn't do my own personal exegesis sooner on the 4 passages used to restrict women. Shame on me. I wasted those 4 years of Greek in college and seminary. When I finally did my proper "due diligence", laying aside 50 years of bias, I was shocked, chagrined, and embarassed.

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So many hermeneutical rules were being violated including: Never build doctrine on a single word that is used only once in Scripture! There's nothing to compare it to (correlation). Do your own study of authentein in ancient Greek and you'll be shocked too.

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I think maybe it was because I didn't WANT to know anything that might challenge the view I WANTED to believe for 50 years. But eventually, integrity required that I read over 70 commentaries by INERRANTIST scholars that blew apart my comfortable, traditional, and culture-based interpretation. No seminary told me that those commentaries even existed and Baptist Bookstores refused to carry them. (My mother managed a Baptist Bookstore.) So I accepted the interpretation that was most comfortable for me as a man with my background.

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Then reading over 100 books on the early church and the history of the Great Commission (for FTT) demanded my repentance. That journey was both painful and humbling.

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I don't expect to win in New Orleans and I certainly don't expect to change the mind of any angry fundamentalist. They are responsible to God, not to me. I'm doing this as an act of obedience to the Holy Spirit.

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But I DO want to do this: I PUBLICLY APOLOGIZE to every good woman in my life, church, and ministry that I failed to speak up for in my years of ignorance. What grieves me is that I hindered them in obeying the Great Commission command (And Acts 2:17-18) that EVERYONE is to TEACH in the church.

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I held them back from using their spiritual gifts and leadership skills that the Holy Spirit had sovereignly placed in them. That breaks my heart now, and I am truly repentant and sorry for my sin. I wish I could do it all over. Christian women, will you please forgive me?

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Regardless of the attacks and the vote result, I want a clear conscience before my Master ... that I repented, and that this sinner did what He asked me to do. With that I am completely content to let Him be the judge and evaluator of my life and ministry.

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We must live for an audience of One.

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This letter has been transcribed from Rick Warren's original post on X dated June 10, 2023, to make it easily accessible to everyone.