Discerning Presbyterians Vindicated After Aimee Byrd Preaches Sermon, Gives Church Benediction
Former professing complementarian Aimee Byrd has not only preached another sermon at a Presbyterian church, but she also gave the closing benediction. This is something she would have been forbidden from doing in her former denomination, highlighting the downgrade she’s been plying and vindicating many who have been warning about her drift for years.
Once part of The Mortification of Spin, a podcast she co-hosted with Carl Trueman and Todd Pruitt, she was sent packing and expunged from the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals due to dissatisfaction with her polemical publications, particularly after her views of complementarian went from hard, to soft, to non-existent, which is merely another example of how ‘soft-complementarianism’ is just another word for “egalitarianism.”
For years the Orthodox Presbyterian Church’s version of Beth Moore rebuffed any notion or concerns that she was on a progressive trajectory- a claim she categorically denied and then became upset that it was even suggested in the first place, despite ample evidence to the contrary. In fact, we noted our concerns with her four years ago, after we removed her book from our recommended reading list, two years before she was relieved of her duties on the show.
Byrd used to be far more conservative in her beliefs, hiding behind her denomination until she left it last year. During her discourses and online skirmishes, she would frequently point out her membership creds in the OPC as proof positive she’s sound in her beliefs. Then five months ago, she preached a very strange sermon to a mixed crowd during the Sunday morning service – something her former denomination expressly prohibited.
Now, she has preached another sermon- this time at The Crossing church in Columbia, MO, which is associated with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. This denomination is nowhere as liberal as the heretical PCUSA is, but they have compromised on several points, particularly on their acceptance of the ordination of women, believing it to be a “non-essential matter” that is left to individual churches to decide. If the church is fine with it, they can ordain whoever they want.
To add fuel to the fire, she also gave the closing benediction, something further prohibited by her former denomination. Byrd clearly has no issue with women preaching and closing out the service, much to the vindication of discerning conservative stalwarts of the OPC, such as the Genevan Commons. The latter were blasted and excoriated for warning about Byrd’s theological drift years ago, with big names within their denomination taking them to task for their lack of kindness and charity in how they treated her. What some OPC leaders failed to realize is that those sounding the clarion call weren’t being cruel, but rather saw a threat and had to fling it out by the scruff of it’s neck, understanding the destruction a little leaven can bring. It looked mean at the time, but was in reality a mercy.
Time has proven them, and us right.
Bonus. Byrd giving the benediction.
“Now may the God of Zion bless you and keep you, and we pray that his face would shine upon you this week. Have a good day. “
About Author
The “big C” Complementarianism outlined by CBMW just doesn’t produce good fruit.
It’s a bad compromise between feminism and tHe PaTrIaRcHy that, for all practical purposes, gives women the privileges of egalitarianism with none of the responsibilities. Consequently, it gives men all the responsibilities of traditional conservatism with none of the authority (yes, I said *authority*).
I know that two of the most prominent proponents of big-C Complementarianism (Piper and Grudem) are/were well respected in the conservative evangelical community and I would agree with 95% of their contributions they have made to the modern Christian church. However, they seem to go out of their way to make the functional differences between men and women as arbitrary as possible. At one level, it should be enough to say “because the Bible says so” and that would be the end of the argument. But it seems like Complementarians go out of their way to avoid any *practical* differences between men and women. Complementarians seem to completely ignore the differences between men’s and women’s temperaments, sensibilities, and predispositions and make it seem like mEn AnD wOmEn ArE eXaCtLy ThE sAmE aPaRt FoR ThEiR pLuMbiNg. According to a Complementarian, there’s no *practical* reason why women shouldn’t be church leaders, it’s only because “Adam was created first” and outside the church (i.e. government), that concept has absolutely no application.
Ultimately, the biggest problem with Complementarianism isn’t what it says, but rather how it’s proponents say it. A lot of Christians like the way Piper/Grudem present Complementarianism because they both come off as kind/mild men. In a lot of ways, the way they communicate their beliefs comes off as a mere suggestion or even apologetic (i.e. women are just as capable as men but they’re not allowed to lead or teach because of arbitrary Bible reasons that we can’t understand).
Remember back in 2019 when John MacArthur said that Beth Moore should “Go home” and all the tradcons chastised him, not for what he said, but because of his “tone”. In other words, he said something that tradcons agreed with on paper, but the fact that he presented it in a blunt, masculine way upset them because he presented it as an imperative instead of phrasing it in a way that would make it sound like it’s not “ideal” to have a woman preacher or if women don’t preach it’s because they chose not to.
John MacArthur is an asshole.
Piper and Grudem are nuts on MANY levels, unstable, and should be avoided.
Oh look…little boys whining again about female preachers. Get over it! Women are leading and.preaching in the Church and there’s nothing you can do about it!
Oh look, a heathen masquerading as a believer. Wendy, again, you should repent and believe the gospel of Christ before it is too late.
We humans may not be able to do anything about it … but God will.