According to Ramsay, when qualified deacons could not be obtained it was the elders who discharged the duties of both offices. Looking back, that makes perfect sense because in the Jerusalem church of Acts 6 there were no deacons until the apostles realized they needed help. If all agree that the office of elder is one of spiritual authority, then it must follow that the ministry performed nowadays in most cases by deacons also involves some spiritual authority—the elders once did those things.

I remember four decades ago hearing one of the Presbyterian Church in America’s (PCA) courageous founders, Dr. Morton H. Smith, say that every generation has to contend for the truth of the Bible. As truthful as that statement was, it seems that sometimes contending for the Bible is required more than once in a generation. I recall a PCA General Assembly a decade ago when a speaker, in front of roughly one thousand commissioners, stated that he knew of churches in one presbytery where women were participating in the serving of communion and the laying on of hands—he may have said more but at that point I nearly fell out of my chair in disbelief. (If those practices are not authoritative by their nature, then I don’t know what is.) The speaker obviously approved of the activities he was sharing about. I gave myself 2-3 weeks to calm down and then called him on the phone. I asked, first, if I had heard him correctly. . . . Yes, I had. Then I asked if he would please inform me of the identity of the presbytery he had alluded to publicly at GA.

He declined. . . .

So here we are again on the question of the role of women in Christ’s visible church. Should they be allowed to be ordained, hold office, or not? Or, perhaps more precisely—and if one prefers the current terminology—are Functional Female Officers to be permitted in the PCA? The controversy has less to do with the clarity of the Bible and more to do with disruptive cultural influences and the fear of man—by the way, those are the very reasons that societies in the West have embraced the gods of diversity (biblical partiality in essence), trans madness (biblical immorality in essence), and so on. Rather than embracing Proverbs 29:25: “The fear of man brings a snare, but he who trusts in the LORD will be exalted.”

In today’s renewed debate about women’s proper roles, there are some conservatives (if you will) who surmise that the issue of women deacons or deaconesses is actually intended, in the long term, to lead to women elders. For the moment, let’s assume the best and put aside any such intent or possibility. In our case, let us assume both sides are in agreement on the plain meaning of 1 Timothy 2:12, “But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man [in the church]. . . .” Notice that the apostle says in the next verse, “For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve.” Paul argues from the order of creation that a woman is not to teach or exercise authority over a man in the church. (He has more to say, but that’s not required here.)

One relevant and often neglected aspect of the current discussion of women in the church is framed by the question: in a church without deacons, who does their work?

As always, history is helpful, although by no means determinative. In 1859, an essay in the Southern Presbyterian Review (on the PCA Historical Center’s website) entitled “The Deaconship,” speaks to our generation. Of course, this was long before anyone was pushing for female deacons, functional or otherwise, in the church. The writer, Rev. James B. Ramsay of Virginia, reasoned:

Now, we will not say that every church, in all circumstances, is bound to have deacons, for we do not believe it. No church is bound to elect men to an office, however important it may be, unless her Lord has given her men of suitable qualifications, and this is the case in very many of our smaller churches. A sufficient number of individuals cannot be obtained to fill the separate offices of elder and deacon; and in such cases it becomes necessary to have the duties of both offices discharged by the same individuals [emphasis added].

Clearly, according to Ramsay, when qualified deacons could not be obtained it was the elders who discharged the duties of both offices. Looking back, that makes perfect sense because in the Jerusalem church of Acts 6 there were no deacons until the apostles realized they needed help. If all agree that the office of elder is one of spiritual authority, then it must follow that the ministry performed nowadays in most cases by deacons also involves some spiritual authority—the elders once did those things.

In a taped address to a Deacons’ Conference in 2021, Pastor Harry Reeder (Briarwood PCA, Birmingham, Ala.) observed that when the apostles at Jerusalem selected the first deacons, they selected seven men on the basis of spiritual qualifications. Reeder asked, why? Because the deacons were to begin

doing what elders were doing. That’s why we ordain deacons [today]. We ordain them because they’re doing a classification of what was originally elder-work. Now, they’re doing it under the elders. . . . But that was elder-work. That’s why we [ordain]. That’s why it’s qualified men only. There is authority in that office.  

A century and a half ago, Ramsay emphasized the importance of caring for the church’s poor and needy, for, says our Lord, “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” Ramsay continued: “The full, earnest, hearty performance of this function is necessary . . . to its accomplishing the great end of [the church’s] existence,—the growth in grace of each of its members, and the conversion of the world to God.”

If ever there was a concise expression of the importance of the deacon’s work in Christ’s kingdom, Ramsay nailed it.

As James Ramsay implied, as Harry Reeder declared, and as Dr. Guy Waters says in a GRN article, the deacon’s ministry is one of “authoritative service.”

It flows from the eldership.

That’s why, per the Apostle Paul, only men may hold the office of deacon.

Forrest L. Marion is a ruling elder in the First Presbyterian Church (PCA), Crossville, Tennessee.