First of all, like you, I am not meaning to offend. I am just sharing my thoughts and feelings. I mean no disrespect to you or your book....
I have a question, not really a question I guess, a statement about the sentence on Page 4. It states that "This book is about a standard of holiness that predates every other standard."
I agree that beards are fine, but still don't see a "standard of holiness" for what is on the outside, unless we want to become pharisees. If God had "holiness standards for dress" then I think he would have CLEARLY outlined them like all the other important things for us to follow.
I think it is terrible that churches would preach against a beard and I think it would be terrible to preach that one is needed. Please pastors, preach what Jesus preached. HE is our authority. Don't play God and tell people about man made Heaven and hell issues.
If you want to preach standards that you feel are pleasing to God, fine. Be an example of Love as Jesus said and they will likely want to be like you. Just don't make heaven and hell issues out of them, because eventually someone is going to read the Bible without your personal interpretation and then they will not trust you and possible other Godly men and leave God altogether.
To me, this is just another book that wants us to focus on something that Jesus did not focus on. HE knew the future, He knew all along that the Bible would be put together and He knew what books would be included etc.
I believe HE would have made sure the outward "standard of holiness" would have been clearly outlined so that WE would not end up in hell.
I love history and I think we can learn a lot from history. I do NOT think that I should do something to keep out of hell, nor do I think it pleases God, to do something just because "they did it back then." What pleases God are the things HE
said pleases HIM, not what we make up that we
think pleases Him from all our studies and personal interpretations.
By the way, I did not end up reading it to the end word for word. Do you end up saying that Women should not shave their underarms or legs? If a woman has beard hair, is it okay for them to shave? Really curious, I am not being sarcastic.