We ought not base our belief off of what the Bible does NOT say or what another person thinks was the reason why EGW did not advocate women being ordained. The ordination of men as pastors/elders was established in Scripture and has been followed up until the past few years.
I would also like to ask you, in light of the fact that the Bible says the following....
1 Timothy 3:2 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach;
1 Timothy 3:12 Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well.
Why do you think that these People back then needed to be told that they should be men who only have one wife? Didn't God tell them that way back in the beginning? Why then did they practice Polygamy in Old Testament times?
To me, people who try to use the passage 'Bishops should be husband of one wife' as 'proof' that ONLY MEN should be Ministers, is like someone who uses 'Jesus ate fish' to prove that we can eat meat TODAY. And well, no we should NOT do that, because we are better enlightened than they were in that day. Jesus merely went along with the customs of the times... because they were not ready for anything futher as of yet.
THE GREAT CONTROVERSY, PAGE 606
"Thus the message of the third angel will be proclaimed. As the time comes for it to be given with greatest power, the Lord will work through humble instruments, leading the minds of those who consecrate themselves to His service. The laborers will be qualified rather by the unction of His Spirit than by the training of literary institutions. Men of faith and prayer will be constrained to go forth with holy zeal, declaring the words which God gives them. The sins of Babylon will be laid open. The fearful results of enforcing the observances of the church by civil authority, the inroads of spiritualism, the stealthy but rapid progress of the papal power—all will be unmasked. By these solemn warnings the people will be stirred."
Ooops! Ellen White said 'MEN' of faith and prayer... I hope you don't take that to mean that ONLY Men will be doing this?
Now then look at the passage that says Women should be having that 'meek and quiet spirit'. I would hope that you don't actually believe that 'only' women need to have a meek and quiet spirit? Note that MINISTERS are supposed to have that meek and quiet spirit, so we are in trouble if we are so narrow minded to think it applies to only Women, as the Bible passage SEEMS to imply, on the surface...
EVANGELISM, PAGE 502
"True ministers know the value of the inward working of the Holy Spirit upon human hearts. They are content with simplicity in religious services. Instead of making much of popular singing, they give their principal attention to the study of the Word, and render praise to God from the heart. Above the outward adorning they regard the inward adorning, the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. In their mouths is found no guile."—Manuscript 21, 1891.
The passage people manage to come up with to claim that 'only men' can be Ministers, is where it says that 'a bishop should be man of only one wife'. This was back hundreds of years ago. They were still SO archaic then that they had to be told they must only have one wife, for Heaven's sake! This was based on CULTURE. If we were to take this literally we should have to then claim that these Men only MUST be married, then, and they MUST have children, because the passage also says they have to rule their house well and have their children in subjection, besides having one wife.
Sometimes. we need to learn how to step back and look at the bigger picture of things and think outside of the box.
Why do we know we are to be Vegetarians? It is because, as Ellen White said, God desires us to go BACK to the time BEFORE sin began. Think it through... Why only in THAT area? The ONLY reason that people come up with this idea that 'Men only' are to be Pastors, is because of SIN. Eve SINNED... and so the Bible says Women should be submitted to their own Husbands. It NEVER says in the Bible that Women should be submitted to every Man on the Planet. The ONLY thing people can come up with in regards to the Ministry is that the Bible says a Minister should be Husband of one wife. PERIOD. That is how archaic people were still, back when that was written. God had allowed His own People, to practice Polygamy in Old Testament times, because 'He winketh at sin' in times of ignorance, just as it says in the Book of Acts. Just in the same way that God has allowed His People to eat meat, in the past. The Bible never actually SAID do not eat any meat, did it? No. Just as it never actually said, It is alright for Women to be Pastors.
But the truth is that God wishes His People in the End Times to go BACK to the way that things were before sin. And the TRUTH is the Bible never even SAID 'Women shall not be Pastors'. Now, I understand this, but if I were to tell it to someone, they would have to understand themselves this principle of God leading His People into the light as in 'more and more unto the perfect day' [Proverbs 4:18] to be able to have 'ears to listen' to what I am saying. John the Baptist ate locust which is called 'St. John's bread'... its Vegetarian. But you aren't going to find the Bible outright TELLING you that 'I want My People in the Last Days to be Vegetarian, because that is what things were like before sin'. Just as you are not going to find where the Bible says NOT to officially have Women as Pastors in Ellen White's day, because of the fact that people were still so prejudiced against Women holding positions like that.
But we can SEE certain things that went on, and deduce from those things, using our common sense that God gave to us such as the fact that the Women at the Well did even better work than the Disciples, since she used her vision, which they did not...
CHRISTIAN SERVICE, PAGE 97
"The Samaritan woman who talked with Jesus at Jacob’s well had no sooner found the Saviour than she brought others to Him. She proved herself a more effective missionary than His own disciples. The disciples saw nothing in Samaria to indicate that it was an encouraging field. Their thoughts were fixed upon a great work to be done in the future. They did not see that right around them was a harvest to be gathered. But through the woman whom they despised a whole city full were brought to hear Jesus. She carried the light at once to her countrymen. This woman represents the working of a practical faith in Christ."—The Ministry of Healing, 102.
Now you might say 'but we aren't talking about Evangelists, we are talking about MINISTERS'.
And if you did say that this would demonstrate to me that you do not at all comprehend what TRUE Ministry IS. You think it means to officiate at Funerals. Jesus said let the dead bury the dead and come and work for ME... catching fish for the Kingdom. NO, true Ministry IS Evangelism.
Testimonies for the Church —6:330, 331 (1900).
An Invaluable Experience—"All who desire an opportunity for TRUE MINISTRY, and who will give themselves unreservedly to God, will find in the canvassing work opportunities to speak upon many things pertaining to the future, immortal life. The experience thus gained will be of the greatest value to those who are fitting themselves for the ministry. It is the accompaniment of the Holy Spirit of God that prepares workers, both men and women, to become pastors to the flock of God."
I believe that this is why our Church is in the condition that it is, because most Seventh Day Adventists, and even most of our Preachers stand there week after week delivering sermons to dead Church, and they just sit there listening. And that is all it amounts to. They are not teaching the People to go out and tell the World this Message. The Samaritan Woman understood what it meant to be a PREACHER.
People, we need the REAL Baptism... The Baptism of the SPIRIT. God has broken down that partition wall. There is no longer men verses women, in God's eyes for His People. Except where Husband and Wife are concerned. He gives His Spirit to ALL who will receive it, and that is what it takes to be a TRUE Minister.
Galatians 3:27-29
27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
Joel 2:27-29
27 And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed.
28 And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:
29 And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.
I am not talking about these Ministers who are under the Conference's thumb, and under THEIR control.... learning how to mimic the Catholic Jesuits. It amazes me that some of these so-called 'Conservatives' will almost fight to the death to raise their voices against Women's Ordination, when they well know the condition of the Church. It would have been wondrous if they would have made as big deal out of our Ministers being trained to be CATHOLICS, as they are about Women being ordained into the Ministry.... threatening to withdraw their tithe and even leave the Church over it. Why haven't they left ALREADY, if that's the case then? I mean, talk about having their priorities messed up!
And NO you are NOT going to find that 'magic' Bible verse that says, "I expect all of you to have common sense and to realize that in the Last Days that Women should be Ministers'. This is not going to be there. That was inconceivable back then. Because 'we see through a glass darkly'. Just like there NEVER WAS that 'magic' Bible verse that says 'I expect you to have Men, and only and ever Men as Ministers'. Because that verse just isn't there either, and it never WAS there. God worked with His people as they were, and that was why Jesus said to His Disciples, 'I have much to tell you, but you cannot bear it NOW'. And lucky for them He didn't flat out inform them that the Samaritan Woman was doing a better job at preaching than they themselves were. I imagine that they wouldn't have been able to bear that EITHER. At least not THEN, anyway.
Proverbs 4:18 But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.
And speaking again about Ellen White telling us that God is seeking to bring us all BACK to the original state of things, like being a Vegetarian, etc because it was His original plan for man before sin...
God Himself gave Adam a companion. He provided “an help meet for him”—a helper corresponding to him—one who was fitted to be his companion, and who could be one with him in love and sympathy. Eve was created from a rib taken from the side of Adam, signifying that she was not to control him as the head, nor to be trampled under his feet as an inferior, but to stand by his side as an equal, to be loved and protected by him. A part of man, bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh, she was his second self; showing the close union and the affectionate attachment that should exist in this relation. “For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it.” Ephesians 5:29.... -The Faith I Live By, p. 251
It was to be as if they were the same person. Equal, with no one trying to control the other.
(this first paragraph was written by Jerry Moon)
That Ellen White saw both women and men as potentially qualified for church leadership is shown by her statement that "it is not always men who are best adapted to the successful management of a church." The context is a scathing rebuke to a Brother Johnson who had "a disposition to dictate and control matters" in a certain local church, and who had only "sneers" for the work of women in the same church. "Jesus is ashamed of you," she wrote, and on the next page continued,
Ellen G. White to Brother Johnson, Letter 33, 1879, Manuscript Releases, 19:55-56.
"You are not in sympathy with the great Head of the church. . . . This contemptible picking, faultfinding, seeking spot and stain, ridiculing, gainsaying, that you with some others have indulged in, has grieved the Spirit of God and separated you from God.
It is not always men who are best adapted to the successful management of a church. If faithful women have more deep piety and true devotion than men, they could indeed by their prayers and their labors do more than men who are unconsecrated in heart and life."