To Beard or Not to Beard, That is The Question

[TK Burk]

Originally Posted by votivesoul

There are parts I agree with, overall, and parts I do not. Something I do not agree with is:

How is an extra-Biblical standard going to help a church deal with a problem they are having that an actual Biblical standard isn't going to already solve?

The capacity to solve a problem without creating innumerable other problems is a very difficult thing. You add to that mix an extra-Biblical mandate and enforce it as a standard of the church, that the members are required to obey in order to be in good standing, regardless of the expected benefit, is just asking for trouble.

No matter how much one or a few people in leadership think their extra-Biblical mandate is going to make things better, the chances of that happening across the board and also not making anything worse is pretty slim. This is the slippery slope I mentioned. Add just one extra-Biblical thing, and the temptation to add another will inevitably show up. Count on it.

And then what? Who determines what really is and isn't a problem in the church? What if all members don't see it that way? Who gets to make the call? Why them and not others? And how can anyone know for sure that the problem can only and should only be solved with an extra-Biblical standard?

I remember reading on this very forum how several years ago, due to some famous preacher's end-time teaching, people were not getting married or if married, not having children, because of what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 7 (his desire to remain as he was, and the present distress that was coming).

Now, this preacher may not have mandated such a choice for his audience, but the end result was the same. An intended solution to a perceived to be, but wasn't actually real, problem, didn't help anyone in the long run, it just messed with people's lives unnecessarily.

The fact is, you become beholden to obey whatever it is you practice. Any extra-Biblical standard that gets instituted into a church eventually becomes an institution in and of itself. You might hope that the problem you thought you were solving will eventually be revisited and everyone will be on board for making changes as the situation on the ground changes, but that's a pipedream. This beard, shave or no shave issue proves this is so. We're more than 40 years in and the issue is spiritually deadly in its level of contentiousness.

Had those brothers from long ago never made it an issue, it wouldn't be an issue now, and who would be the worse off? Likely no one. But instead, we've got a mountain of a problem out of a molehill of a "solution". All because some leaders went extra-Biblical on the church.

If you're writing the above with my study in mind I believe you missed an important point--I never said the saints not wearing related gang colors was a Heaven or Hell issue. I said it was to help the saints with their witness to each other and to those outside their fellowship, and it was to protect them from being misidentified and possibly physically harmed or killed. But, as I indicated, this would be a known problem that the Church body could easily understand needed to be remedied.

This type of teaching was necessary to aid the Early Church spread the gospel throughout the various cultures of their world, and this same type of teaching is needed for the Church to do the same work today.