The Biblical qualifications for civil office require civil leaders to be men. Every time the Scripture speaks to the subject of the necessary qualifications for those who will bear rule in the civil sphere, it always speaks in terms of men and never in terms of women. God set forth the essential qualifications for civil magistrates for all people and for all time when He spoke through Jethro to Moses to “provide out of all the people able men” (Ex. 18:21). And Moses himself said to the people as they were about to choose their civil magistrates, “Take you wise men . . .” (Deut. 1:13). Importantly, the word for “men” chosen by the Holy Spirit in both of these texts is the Hebrew, gender specific word for a man, i.e., a male as opposed to a female. The directions that God gives concerning the establishment of a king in Israel requires that a man, and not a woman, be chosen (Deut. 17:14-20). The king was to be a “brother,” and he was not to “multiply wives to himself.” In every other passage of Scripture dealing with the civil magistrate and his qualifications and duties, men are in view (2 Sam. 23:3; Neh. 7:2; Prov. 16:10; 20:8, 28; 29:14; 31:4-5; Rom. 13:1-6; etc.). The standard of God’s law that men be our civil rulers upholds the order of creation. Since God is both Creator and Lawgiver there is never any contradiction between the created order and the law of God.
- William Einwechter, Should Christians Support a Woman for the Office of Civil Magistrate? (July 8, 2004), at http://www.visionforumministries.org/issues/ballot_box/should_christians_support_a_wo.aspx.
