Quote:
Originally Posted by Jito463
I never really got that doctrine. Don't get me wrong, I grew up in a church where men were all cleanshaven, so I prefer to be so (even though I'm lazy and only shave once every 2-3 weeks), but the Bible doesn't give any indication that we shouldn't grow one, and we know for a fact that Jesus had a beard.
Coksiw beat me to it, but can you point even to an underlying principle that bans or forbids it? Consider the old standard of "no TV". While the Scripture doesn't explicitly come out and say "Thou shalt not watch TV", the concept was based on the Biblical principle of not putting unclean things before your eyes. Point me to the principle that forbids having a beard.
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Command, approved example, necessary inference.
Command:
Leviticus 19:27 KJV
Ye shall not round the corners of your heads,
neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard.
(Brenton transl. of Greek LXX: Ye shall not make a round cutting of the hair of your head,
nor disfigure your beard.)
Approved examples:
Ex 1: When half the beard was shaved off as an insult, the response of David (who knew, honoured, and sought to follow all of God's instructions) was to order the half-shaved men to wait until the shaved half grew back, and NOT rather to shave the whole face so as to secure uniformity. Obviously, what was important was the beard rather than just looking presentable. It was better to grow the beard back than to be cleanshaven -
2 Samuel 10:4-5 KJV
Wherefore Hanun took David's servants, and shaved off the one half of their beards, and cut off their garments in the middle, even to their buttocks, and sent them away. [5] When they told it unto David, he sent to meet them, because the men were greatly ashamed: and the king said,
Tarry at Jericho until your beards be grown, and then return.
Ex 2: Messiah was to have a beard, and the enemies of Messiah sought to remove His beard -
Isaiah 50:6 KJV
I gave my back to the smiters,
and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.
Necessary inference:
Since only men normally grow beards, and since the appearance of the beard marks the boy's entry into manhood, and since God commands numerous distinctions of gender to be observed and maintained both in clothing, temperament, mannerism, and even hair length, it follows that to shave the beard for any reason other than an exceptional reason violates God's prescribed order of male-female differentiation. In other words,
it is a type of gender-bending trannyism akin to cross dressing or men having long flowing womanly hair or men being effeminate or sodomites.
* Note: the Divine command for men not to mar their beards (ie to maintain a full beard) DOES have certain Divinely prescribed exceptions, as in the completion of a Nazarite vow, in regards to the treatment of leprosies, etc. But as is usually the case, "the exception proves the rule."
* Note: The command does not specify the LENGTH of the beard, only that the "corners" not be disfigured. That is, the BORDER or "hairline" is to be kept naturally. Thus partial beards like goatees etc are expressly prohibited.
* Note: Since sin is transgression of the law, and since the law prohibits the shaving of the beard except in certain exceptional cases, it is a SIN for a man to shave the beard except in those exceptional cases. This should come as no surprise. After all, how many assert it is a sin for a woman to cut her hair (even though technically there is no actual command in the law prohibiting a woman cutting her hair)? Well, there IS a direct command FROM GOD ALMIGHTY commanding men to maintain a natural beard.
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