Originally Posted by Praxeas (Post 33693)

No eye brows?

Originally Posted by chosenbyone (Post 33716)

Just the one.

Originally Posted by Brother Price (Post 33713)

I feel facial hair is like any other standard. If it is not clearly defined in the Bible, but your pastor feels led to preach that standard, I would rather side with my pastor. If he says I must be clean shaven, then I must be clean shaven. It is not a big deal to me, one way or the other.

Originally Posted by Eliseus (Post 33732)

I think there ought to be a standard against nose hairs poking out into public view.

Originally Posted by Digging4Truth (Post 33739)

And at the same time tout the label "The Berean Generation"?

Originally Posted by Coonskinner (Post 33751)

Digger, where is the contradiction?

He didn't say he thought it was a sin.

He just said he would rather submit than contend for his own way in something that doesn't really matter much anyway.

Originally Posted by Coonskinner (Post 33751)

I have never told anyone that facial hair was a sin.

I have never preached about it where I pastor, or anywhere else for that matter.

My position is this--I am going to be in fellowship with God's Church. I want to look like the Church, talk like the Church, act like the Church.

Originally Posted by Coonskinner (Post 33751)

Let's say that the consciences of some brethren are "weak," just for the sake of argument...

If a piddly, inconsequential thing like facial hair would keep me from being able to minister to them, why in the world would having my way in this matter be worth the alienation of good men?

Originally Posted by Digging4Truth (Post 33765)

If one doesn't study these things whether they be true when there is no biblical evidence to substantiate this "standard" whatsoever (and there even appears to be biblical evidence to the contrary) then when exactly IS he going to be like the Berean's?



Ahhhh... therein lies the rub. When we compare ourselves among ourselves then we are not wise. We should NEVER want to be like the church. That is tantamount to setting our goal to be like each other. When I want to look, talk and act like the church then the mark I press toward is faulty. Instead... our true mark.. the lofty mark... would be for the church to be like HIM.

You said you have never preached it but I would venture to guess that if a bearded gentleman were to come to your church and receive the Holy Ghost then he would feel some unspoken pressure to shave it off. And... if/when he did shave it off that unspoken pressure would be reinforced by much oooohhing and aaaaahhhing over how much better he looks now. It is called peer pressure and positive reinforcement of an unspoken norm.



In this scenario you have only chosen which weak ones to save and which ones to lose.

If a brother is "weak" in that he knows the word of God doesn't speak against this and he has a hard time following a pastor who will stand for something that is so blatanlty not in the word of God then that brother will not be made allowance for because of the other "weak" brethren who would fall at the sight of a beard.

The brethren you speak of are only weak because their pastor has built them on a weak foundation. The foundation of opinion which is not based on the word of God. Their weakness could be cured by the pastor stating openly that he no longer sees where this is a sin or wrong. The pastor would then have removed the weakness that he himself, possibly, had instilled in them and then both sides would have had their weaknesses healed by honesty and shorn up by standing upon His word and His word alone.

Originally Posted by Coonskinner (Post 33751)

Digger, where is the contradiction?

He didn't say he thought it was a sin.

He just said he would rather submit than contend for his own way in something that doesn't really matter much anyway.

I have never

If a piddly, inconsequential thing like facial hair would keep me from being able to minister to them, why in the world would having my way in this matter be worth the alienation of good men?