Lucy Burns was a suffragist. She was arrested, beaten, and thrown in jail without cause by police. Her crime? She was a woman with a message the powers that be did not like. She broke no legal laws, only the social mores of her time. While we may not hear much of her in history class, Lucy Burns was a history maker.
Are you aware that Christian women have the call to be just that – to be history makers? God has awesome plans for the women who faithfully follow Him. We know this because we have a phenomenal history of women behind us. God didn’t just raise them to fill a role, but make history.
I would venture it’s safe to say many Christian women are out of touch with their awesome history. Contrary to what might be conventional thought, women have fulfilled various roles throughout history alongside men and those of other genders. Even now, there are many churches who deceive others about the vital role women play in Christianity today and have played throughout history.
The result is a “gap” in Christian women’s history: Christian women are not aware that women have gone before them in the faith, and trod ground much like the women today do. This defies the notion that women in ministry is a new thing.
In honor of Mother’s Day, I thought it would be great to honor the mothers of our faith – the history makers – who have gone before us as part of our great cloud of witnesses.
Biblical women were history makers!
Army leaders. Queens who worked against genocide. Female apostles. Workers in the faith alongside Paul. Battle winners. Believe it or not, the Bible is full of women: strong, courageous, bold, and godly women who aren’t much different from the women you may know or the woman you may be. This may be surprising, as we often hear negative ideas about Bible women. Sure, we hear
about the sins of Jezebel, but how often do we hear about the awesome work of Deborah, a Judge and Prophetess who led an army to victory in Judges 4 and 5? What about Jael, the woman who used skill and clever thought to assist that victory? What about the work of Mary Magdalene, the first to see the resurrected Christ? She was sent to tell the men of all she saw! Or what about
the Apostle Junia, a female apostle mentioned in Romans 16? (Translators changed her name, hoping no one would know a woman was an apostle.)
It benefits us to get into Scripture and see the women of the Scriptures for themselves. They were not ultra-holy figureheads, but real people, with real stories, and real lives. We have these records because God’s women didn’t do what everyone else wanted them to do: they did what God called them to do. They were women who went against the conventions of their age and did something
radical and awesome for the Almighty. Being so radical for our Lord merits a record that lasts down the generations, memorable as a testimony to the greatness of our God and His faithful ability to use all of us, regardless of gender.
Women advocating for reform
When it comes to the reformation, we hear about John Calvin, Martin Luther, and Ulrich Zwingli. Are you aware there were many women who played an active role in the reformation? Believe it or not, the reformation wasn’t just a man’s game.
Jeanne d’Albret
Jeanne d’Albret (1528-1572) was the daughter of Henry d’Albret and Marguerite de Navarre. She was a woman of royal blood – one with influence and power. Jeanne d’Albret stood for church reformation and independence in a time when doing so meant danger for political heads of state. Becoming a leader of the Huguenot Party risked her status. After the death of her husband, Jeanne
was so emboldened she pronounced Calvinism the state religion of Bearn. She saw battle, disagreement, and lived through an attempted kidnapping, but she continued in pursuit of what she believed as can be seen in her statement: “Nothing is impossible to a valiant heart.”
Anne Marbury Hutchinson
Anne Marbury Hutchinson (1591-1643) was a strong English woman among the first to settle in the United States. This great woman could rightly be considered the first American feminist. Home
schooled and strongly influenced by her father’s strength and outspokenness, Anne adhered to a simple yet threatening approach to faith. Despite repeated criticism and condemnation, Anne Hutchinson began a woman’s club to study the Scriptures, hear sermons, and pray in the world of male-centered Puritanism.
Her teachings gained the attention of women and men alike. Magistrates, governors, and powers were taken with the teaching of this strong woman. Her belief in the total equality of men and women and against slavery deemed her a threat. She was exiled from Puritanism and went on to continue with her group of followers. A statue of this remarkable woman stands in front of the state
house in Boston, Massachusetts; the Hutchinson River in New York State is named in her honor (it is the only river in the United States named after a woman); and the New York State Hutchinson
Parkway also stands as a testament to this great woman of faith.
Women advocating holiness and spiritual movement
The Holiness and Pentecostal Movements were a very active time for Christian women in ministry. Both these movements, which overlapped in many ways, offered a powerful witness to the work
God can and does do through women who choose Him.
Susanna Wesley
Susanna Wesley (1669-1742) was a strong woman best known as the mother of Charles and John Wesley. She, with very little help from her husband (who was at times both a poor provider
and an abusive and angry man) raised and home-schooled her seven children with rigorous discipline. They were engaged to help her run the household as well as educating them in valuable matters of faith. It was she, despite all her hardships, who said: “When I had forgotten God, yet I then found He had not forgotten me. Even then He did by His Spirit apply the merits of great atonement to my soul, by telling me that Christ died for me.”
Hannah Whitehall Smith
Hannah Whitehall Smith (1832-1911) was a Quaker heavily influenced by the Holiness Movement. Her simple, powerful words of faith have influenced Christians for over a hundred years. Living through the loss of a child and personal and spiritual struggles, she never wavered in her staunch faith in God: “And remember, there are two things that are more utterly incompatible than even oil and water, and these two are trust and worry…And can you call it trust, when you have given the saving and keeping of your soul into the hands of the Lord, if day after day, and night after night you are spending hours of anxious thought and questionings about the matter? When a believer really trusts anything, he ceases to worry about that thing which he has trusted. And when he worries, it is plain proof that he does not trust.”
Thank God for her words which are continuing to touch us and inspire us, even now!
Maria Woodworth Etter
Maria Woodworth Etter (1844-1924) was a woman who lived typical of her time in history until God gave her a vision, calling her into ministry at 35. She became one of the best-known preachers in both the Holiness and Pentecostal Movements. Never doubting her call despite a husband who was totally uninterested in ministry, Maria traveled from coast to coast preaching, three times by 1894.
Pentecostal even prior to the movement, Maria preached salvation, the spiritual gifts, healing, the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and the imminent return of Christ. It was only natural that she became a leading activist in the Pentecostal Movement of the early 1900s. It’s been reported she saw at least 500 genuine and lasting conversions to Christ per week in her ministry. She was founder of Lakeview Temple in Indianapolis, Indiana. She preached right up until her death in 1924, espousing a powerful spiritual outlook until the end: “While we stood between the living and the dead, preaching the Gospel on the apostolic line, earnestly contending for the faith once delivered to the saints, proving to the people that Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, according to the Lord’s promise. He was with us, confirming His Word with mighty signs and wonders following.”
Maria Woodworth Etter was a woman who walked so powerfully in the abundant life; may we all see and hear our own calls of God in her story!
Women working for equality
Are you aware that the Feminist Movement is Christian in origin? The movement started with Christian women who were rooted enough in Christ to see the sexism of their day for what it was: a teaching of man rather than one of God. Such Christian women worked and labored – and paid the price – that women today might not have to battle some of the obstacles present in their times.
Julia Evelina Smith
Julia Evelina Smith (1792-1888) was a nineteenth-century women’s rights activist, feminist, and Christian. She was the first woman to completely and independently translate the Bible into English. Twenty-one years after authoring the work she sought publication. Along with her sister, Abby Smith, she paid for the cost of publication.
Seeking great literalism, the Bible translation was regarded as too “literal” and fell into obscurity. Julia Smith, however, will remain on the books for the whole of her activist life motivated by faith,
brilliant intelligence (she kept a journal for over 32 years in French) and literal truth: “Over 20 years ago, when I had four sisters, a friend met with us weekly to search the Scriptures, we being desirous to learn the exact meaning of every Greek and Hebrew word… It was the literal meaning we were seeking.”
Her work, though rare today, is a major accomplishment both for herself and a marvelous stand that women truly are gifted intellectually and spiritually by God.
Susan B. Anthony
Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) is probably one of the best-known leaders of the nineteenth century women’s rights movement. Susan B. Anthony worked tirelessly throughout her life for justice
and equality. A feminist and abolitionist, she spent time in and out of prison for the mere suggestion that blacks were equal to whites and women were equal to men. While she did not
live to see the nineteenth amendment signed into law, she never compromised her ideals: “Who can measure the advantages that would result if the magnificent abilities of these women could be devoted to the needs of government, society, and home, instead of being consumed in the struggle to obtain their birthright of individual freedom? Until this be gained we can never know, we can not even prophesy the capacity and power of women for the uplifting of humanity.”
Accepting the call
What I present here is a sample of courageous women we count as a part of Christian women’s history. We can see women who were preachers, teachers, activists, feminists, mothers, politicians, military leaders, prophetesses, Bible translators, authors, wives, and laborers in God’s harvest. God clearly has such an awesome plan for women who make the choice to make a difference for Him. We can see from looking at these women, all of whom had very different circumstances and lived in different times, that God does not call women to a uniform position. We’ve already accepted this fact for men, but it is true for women as well. We each have a unique calling from God and an awesome plan for our lives that only we can answer.
God doesn’t make a mistake when He calls us. God knows who we are, He knows that we are women, and our call from Him isn’t second best. Women aren’t God’s second string that He calls
in when the men get bored. If He calls us to do a job, it is because no one, including a man, can do what He has for us better than we can. When God addresses us, He doesn’t address us as subordinates, but rather, Hail, thou art highly favored, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women! (Luke 1:28, KJV) How awesome it is to realize this and accept God’s call on all our lives!
Surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses
Our ultimate goal in studying the lives of women in our faith history is to find inspiration to be history makers in our time. There is still so much work that needs to be done. We are here to do it! God is calling Christian women to stand up in our faith and, in looking back at women of the past, look forward as well. It’s tempting to lose heart when we are rejected or turned away because we are
women, but let us remember the words of Hebrews 12:1 all the more as we press on toward the prize:
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. (NIV)
Whatever we go through, Jesus has already bore; some one else has already experienced; and we can throw off all that hinders us, and run the race with joy as the great cloud of witnesses cheers us on to a greater victory than even they imagined.
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