Who Decides What is a Rebellious Act...or Not?

Originally Posted by MissBrattified

Rebellion is disobedience...disobedience to God, disobedience to authority, disobedience to parents...etc.

I think, simplistically speaking, that when a woman believes that her hair shouldn't be cut, and she backslides and cuts it, that is an act of rebellion against God, because she is going against her own commitments to God and her professed conviction on that issue.

However, a person can change their mind, or be convinced or persuaded to a different point of view without it being "rebellion" or even backsliding.

Also, if a person never held the view to begin with, and were only abiding by the church rules, then it is not rebellion against God (from their perspective), but rather a rebellion (or at the very least a statement) against the church they are/were attending.

We attended a very strict church for awhile, and they didn't believe in women wearing denim, bows in their hair, or married women wearing their hair down. After we left the church (that assembly...not the church in general), I immediately went back to wearing my hair down, wearing my comfy denim and putting the occasional pretty clip or scarf in my hair. Was that rebellion? Of course not! We no longer attended the church, so whose authority would I be rebelling against? Certainly not God's, since there's no scripture against any of those things. And since we had a different pastor who didn't hold those sentiments, we weren't rebelling against our pastor either.

Now...that said...I think some people DO cut their hair, put on makeup, grow their hair long, put on jewelry, wear shorts, put on tank tops, and do everything else they can think of to flout the rules because they are rebellious. That is especially the case if they disobey the rules while still attending or belonging to a particular assembly.

If a person leaves the church or leaves the assembly, they have removed themselves from the authority of the pastor and church (in my opinion), and if there's any rebellion to pinpoint it would only be in reference to God Himself.

You brought up hair in particular, and here's my take: I have friends who keep their hair long, but they still trim the ends. However, their conviction based on scripture is that they should have long hair, (as opposed to uncut hair), and they are abiding by their convictions. I respect them for it, and I don't pick at their beliefs. To me, that's equivalent to one person believing skirts should be below the knees and another believing they ought to be at least to the calves.

Great post. . .
The bolded part brings up something I remember from when I was younger and questioned the 'hair issue'. . .how long is long? It was explained to me this way: One person's interpretation of long hair/how long can be very different from the next. As long as hair was uncut, then it's long. . .however long it grows on its own w/out having been cut.