To Beard or Not to Beard, That is The Question

[votivesoul]

Originally Posted by Apostolic1ness

So leadership has no authority to introduce ANY rules or regulations in the church not found in the scripture?

Correct. Introducing any rules or regulations in the church not found in the scripture is the slippery slope to popish catholicism. The issue with a slippery slope, why they are so dangerous, is not the slide down to whatever level. It's that once you've slid down, you can't get back up the slope to where you started once you've realized your error.

Introduce just one, even small or seemingly insignificant extra-Biblical rule or regulation and see where it takes you. Rome and the Vatican are the shining examples of that fallout. You might not think it matters, but the church is to be glorious, without even a spot or mere wrinkle in her garments when she is presented to the Lord.

Imagine being presented to a king and he dismisses you from his presence because he detects the very hint of something wrong with just a tiny part of your clothing. Those are the spots and blemishes from which the church must be washed.

Jude calls people who continue to introduce such things as "spots on your feasts of charity" (Jude 1:12). Simon refers to such men like so, that they "...shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you..." (2 Peter 2:13). These uses of the word "spot" in such instances are either related to, or are the exact same word as used by Paul in Ephesians 5:27.

Therefore anyone who would bring spots upon the church in the name of ecclesiastical authority is by Biblical definition those who sport themselves with their own deceivings, that is, they are false.

And one aspect of those personal deceivings is believing you can add to, and mingle with, the Word of God the commandments of men and think you're going to be okay with the Most High. Such mingling is the very literal definition of the word confusion, which, from Latin, means to "to mix with" (con = with, fuse = mix, as in to "fuse" together). God is not the author of man-made ideas and doctrines being mixed into His Holy Word. We are.

Should a man preach in your church wearing shorts and a sleeveless shirt?

I personally wouldn't much care. But then again, we have no platforms, no extra-Biblical mandates, like someone standing on a platform preaching to a passive audience of spectators, either.

How about a man in leadership that uses smokeless tobacco? Is there a verse about that in the scriptures?

What is leadership? We are all priests of the Most High God. Everyone is called to serve and be an example, to represent Jesus Christ to the absolute fullest sense, however much anyone is able at any given time. If that isn't leadership, what is?

But apart from that, as a man sows, that shall he also reap. If he wants mouth and tongue cancer and likes the idea of dying young in that regard, to his own master he rises or falls. While I find smokeless tobacco unpalatable, even gross, I wouldn't judge the man or write him off. The content of his words, the spirit, and manner of their expression, and how much they line up with the Truth matter more to me than whether or not he might occasionally have a wad of tabacky in his gob.

And precisely because there is no verse of Scripture condemning him for such use. Find me a verse of Scripture that condemns smokeless tobacco and I will condemn it, too. But if not, then not.