Question About Submission

[Abiding Now]

Originally Posted by bishoph

As to the bold section......Pure RUBBISH! Respectfully Sis. Renee I must disagree. I can without hesitation state that I am not under any peer pressure, wife pressure, or any other manmade pressure, and I BELIEVE in standards. The problem we (especially in Apostolicism/Pentecostalism) have is that standards, for the most part, are taught as holiness which is NOT what holiness is.

Standards are part/parcel to sanctification. In the OT the nation of Israel was to be sanctified from the world and unto God. Signs of their sanctification were standards concerning dress, diet, and worship/ceremony. One can argue about the ridiculous standards they had, but God set them in place regardless of how silly they seemed to them or us. For example. they could not wear clothes that were made of mixed fabric (i.e. cotton/wool or cotton/silk). Why? (I think it would be safe to say that nearly all of us would be lost (law breakers) today if this law was to be enforced today. Just look at your tags....nearly everything we wear is a mixture of materials.) The only thing we can see as the reason WHY God made this rule was so that when people looked at an Israelite they knew....those people are different....much like the Amish of today. The list can go on and on....603 of them to be exact, many of which have no reasonable explanation other than that God wanted His people to be different than those around them.

Standards are NOT what saves us, nor do they make us holy. We all know people who abide by "the standards" who are vile and wicked in their attitude and spirit bearing ungodly fruit in their lives/actions. They are "set apart" in appearance but do not possess an ounce of holiness. The truth is that even the "liberal" among us have some "standards." The challenge is who's standard do we abide by? Personally I believe there are absolute biblical standards which apply universally. Then there are standards which may be a personal "setting apart" unto God. And IMO standards are not limited to dress. There are standards of conduct and worship that make us different as well.

IMO the biggest problem we have with modesty and other biblical standards, is that we are too caught up in adapting to the culture and practices of the country we are passing through instead of the country we are citizens of.