United Methodist Megachurch Pastor Says Apostle Paul Was Wrong, 3rd Century Gnostic Gospels Were Right
Adam Hamilton is the senior impastor Church of the Resurrection, a multi-site United Methodist megachurch with nine locations with over 24,000 active members, making them the biggest UMC church in the country and one of the largest Methodist churches in the world.
We’ve covered them previously after Hamilton claimed that there are hundreds of mistakes in the bible.
UMC impastor Adam Hamilton argues that there are hundreds of mistakes in the bible pic.twitter.com/g0Mt0Msrb6
— Protestia (@Protestia) November 27, 2024
During a recent sermon series on The Chosen, Hamilton preached a sermon about Mary Magdalene, arguing that the apostle Paul was wrong about the issues of women and ministry. Instead, he insists that we should trust what 2nd and 3rd-century gnostic and pseudepigraphical texts say about her and the elevated role she had, even over some of the disciples, saying:
In the second and third century, there are a lot of documents, gospels, they don’t make it into the Bible, but these are sort of pseudo-gospels that are telling stories, filling in the gaps. And in at least five of them Mary is shown to be one who has authority that even the disciples don’t have. (Editor’s Note; he is likely referring to the Gospel of Mary, the Dialogue of the Savior, The Gospel of Thomas, the Pistis Sophia, and the Gospel of Philip.
He later concludes:
Within a few minutes of this place where I’m standing right now, there are churches that will not allow women to be ordained as priests or as pastors. Women can’t preach or teach from the pulpits. Women sometimes, in some churches ,can’t serve in leadership, in the congregation and key executive or senior leadership roles in the congregation, because they’ve turned to Paul’s writings, and I love the Apostle Paul, but they’ve turned to Paul who’s trying to address first century Christianity and its relationship with Judaism, as opposed to looking at what Jesus actually did with Mary Magdalene, sending her out to proclaim the news that Christ was risen.
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At least it’s a clear admission that Paul’s writings forbid women from these ministries.
Remember that an estimate of when the author wrote is not the same as when the manuscripts we have were written. A noncanonical gospel may be estimated to have been written in the 3rd century and yet our manuscripts are from the 13th. So LOL.