For God neither made the sheep scarlet or purple, nor taught the juices of herbs and shellfish to dye and color wool. Neither did He arrange necklaces with stones set in gold, and with pearls woven together or clustered, wherewith you would hide the neck which He made.Has God willed that wounds should be made in the ears, so that innocent childhoodunconscious of worldly evilmay be put to pain, that subsequently from the scars and holes of the ears precious beads may hang, heavy, if not by their weight, still by the amount of their cost? These are things that sinning and apostate angels put forth by their arts, when, lowered to the contagions of earth, they forsook their heavenly vigor. These angels taught them also to paint the eyes with blackness drawn round them in a circle, and to stain the cheeks with a deceitful red, and to change the hair with false colors, and to change the reality of both facial features and the head, by assaulting them with changes.God says, Let us make man in our image and likeness, and does anyone dare to alter and to change what God has made?For the sake of the fear which faith suggests to me, for the sake of the love which brotherhood requires, I think that not virgins only and widows, but married women also, should be admonished that the work of God and His fashioning and formation ought in no manner to be adulterated. This should not happen either with the application of yellow color, or with black dust or rouge, or with any kind of makeup which can change the natural look. God says, Let us make man in our image and likeness, and does anyone dare to alter and to change what God has made? They are laying hands on God when they try to reform that which He formed, and to transfigure it, not knowing that everything which comes into being is Gods work, and everything that is changed is the devils.If any artist were to paint a beautiful portrait of anyone; and once finished another person were to lay hands on it, as if he, being more skilled, could amend it, a serious wrong and a just cause of indignation would seem natural to the former artist. And do you think you can commit such a wicked boldness without impunity, an offence to God the Maker? For although you may not be immodest among men, and are not unchaste with your seducing dyes, yet when those things which belong to God are degraded and violated, you are engaged in a worse adultery. That you think yourself to be adorned, that you think your hair to be dressed, is an assault upon the divine work, a distortion of the truth.The voice of the warning apostle is, Purge out the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened; for even Christ our passover is sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. But are sincerity and truth preserved, when what is genuine is polluted by adulterous colors, and what is true is changed into a lie by the deceitful dyes of makeup? Your Lord says, Thou canst not make one hair white or black, and you, in order to overcome the word of your Lord, will be more mighty than He, and stain your hair with a daring endeavor and with profane contempt.Are you not afraid, I entreat you, being such as you are, that when the day of resurrection comes, your Maker may not recognize you again, and may turn you away when you come to His rewards and promises, and may exclude you, rebuking you with the vigor of a Censor and Judge, and say: This is not my work, nor is this our image. You have polluted your skin with a false makeup, you have changed your hair with an adulterous color, your face is violently taken possession of by a lie, your figure is corrupted, your countenance is anothers. You cannot see God, since your eyes are not those which God made, but those which the devil has spoiled. You have followed him, you have imitated the red and painted eyes of the serpent. As you are adorned in the fashion of your enemy, with him also you shall burn by and by.Are not these, I beg, matters to be reflected on by Gods servants? Are they not always to be dreaded day and night? Let married women consider whether they are deceiving themselves concerning the solace of their husbands with the desire of pleasing them. While they put them forward indeed as their excuse, they make them partners in the association of guilty consent. Virginsto whom this address is intended to appealwho have adorned themselves with arts of this kind, I should think ought not to be counted among virgins, but, like infected sheep and diseased cattle be driven from the holy and pure flock of virginity, lest by living together they should pollute the rest with their contagion; lest they ruin others even as they have perished themselves.Since we are seeking the benefits of continency, let us also avoid everything that is pernicious and hostile to it.~
_________________SI Moderator - Greg Gordon
Sometimes words fail me.......
To me it is very interesting that the early church had a great aversion from being conformed to the world in anyway. As for us in our day we need to find the balance of taking this heart and applying it as the Spirit leads us in our day. We must be open to learn from the early church in this way, maybe not to fully endorse to copy some of their standards but to at least learn from their burdens and adjust partially in our lives.As Ravenhill has said too many times about the church in our day: "The world is too much with us..."
EverestoSama,Yes brother, sometimes words fail me as well. As most church history scholers would know, Cyprian helped build the foundations of the Roman Catholic Church and preached that there was no salvation outside of it. Oh how that cruel teaching caused untold misery down through the centuries. Cyprian was a wealthy man. This is important because when persecution came to the church in Africa, it was mostly the wealthy that " lapsed." They either sacrificed to idols or handed over their Scriptures to the authorities. Cyprian himself fled although he greatly critisised those who lasped, from afar. At this point we see the rise of the Novationsist and later the Donatists's.Novationists called themselves "Kathoroi," meaning Puritans, so we see that they were the earliest Puritans. They were declared heritics by Cyprian and the church of Rome, for they would not submit to the "Bishop of Rome." Total obedience was required by the Catholic Church. The Novationsists also denied " Absolution."For those interested , please find some quotes from Cyprian below...........brother FrankIn "De unitate ecclesiae," Cyptian writes " "He can no longer have God for His Father who has not the Church for his mother;....he who gathereth elsewhere than in the Church, scatters the Church of Christ; nor is there any home to believers but the one Church.""Our Lord, whose commands we ought to fear and observe, says in the Gospel, by way of assigning the episcopal dignity and settling the plan of His Church...[quotes Matthew 16:18f]...From that time the ordination of bishops and the plan of the Church flows on through the changes of times and successions; for the Church is founded upon the bishops, and every act of the Church is controlled by these same rulers. Since this has indeed been established by divine law, I marvel at the rash boldness of certain persons who have desired to write to me as if they were writing their letters in the name of the Church, 'since the Church is established upon the bishop and upon the clergy and upon all who stand firm in the faith.'" (Cyprian, Letter 33 (27), 1 to the Lapsed, c. AD 250)"They who have not peace themselves now offer peace to others. They who have withdrawn from the Church promise to lead back and to recall the lapsed to the Church. There is one God and one Christ, and one Church, and one Chair founded on Peter by the word of the Lord. It is not possible to set up another altar or for there to be another priesthood besides that one altar and that one priesthood. Whoever has gathered elsewehre is scattering." (Cyprian, Letter 43 (40), 5, c. AD 251)"With a false bishop appointed for themselves by heretics, they dare even to set sail and carry letters from schismatics and blasphemers to the chair of Peter and to the principal Church [at Rome], in which sacerdotal unity has its source; nor did they take thought that these are Romans, whose faith was praised by the preaching Apostle, and among whom it is not possible for perfidy to have entrance." (Cyprian, Letter 59 (55), 14 to Cornelius of Rome, c. AD 252)"There speaks Peter, upon whom the Church would be built, teaching in the name of the Church and showing that even if a stubborn and proud multitude withdraws because it does not wish to obey, yet the Church does not withdraw from Christ. The people joined to the priest and the flock clinging to their shepherd are the Church. You ought to know, then, that the bishop is in the Church and the Church in the bishop, and if someone is not with the bishop, he is not in the Church. They vainly flatter themselves who creep up, not having peace with the priests of God, believing that they are secretly in communion with certain individuals. For the Church, which is One and Catholic, is not split nor divided, but is indeed united and joined by the cement of priests who adhere one to another." (Cyprian, Letter 66 (69), 8 to Florentius Pupianus, c. AD 254)
We might protest Cyprian himself or some things written but the honest fact is the world is sinning the young sisters to itself. The fashions, ways of the world are winning them. They are desiring to look like fashion models and other worldly idols and examples and they are wearing makeup and dresses to make them look attractive and thereby attracting men of baser softs who defile them.fornication is rampant in the church in north america. We think it is normal now but it is a grief to the living God. The only way to steam and stop this is to take steps now to protect "Unmarried Sisters" in the church.I believe the heart that this article comes from is a heart to actually care and safe these dear sisters from much harm.Oh how we need such radical changes in the church. The church of our day has been defiled so much that we cannot tell what is holy or profane anymore.
Greg writes....."Oh how we need such radical changes in the church. The church of our day has been defiled so much that we cannot tell what is holy or profane anymore"And on this Greg, as I am sure you know ( per our many private conversations) we agree. Now, how to bring about this change? On that we definately disagree. Enforcing rules of dress code, making men swear absolute obedience to other men, hating money, none of these will bring about changes in a world that loves money, loves lording it over others it, hates Lordship and loves the attention of others. There is but one solution, the Lord Jesus Christ and a genuine conversion. When a man and a woman genuinly become new creatures in Christ, they are led by the Holy Spirt into truth. Its the Holy Spirit that leads and guides. For men to usurp the role of the Holy Spirit as laid down by Scripture, and then expect to see Holiness and virtuous living is like expecting blind men to lead other blind men and not fall down into a ditch. If you know the history of the Pharisitical movement, you will know that it started out with great intentions, shocked and dismayed at the behaviour of those coming out of exile and still living Babylonian lifestyles. We know the end results of that movement, driven by a love of rules and not of men and crucifying Jesus. Think about why the Lord Jesus performed so many miracles on the Sabbath, to expose the fact that the rulers of the day were more interested in their rules than people..........brother Frank
by appolus on 2011/10/4 5:45:28Greg writes....."Oh how we need such radical changes in the church. The church of our day has been defiled so much that we cannot tell what is holy or profane anymore"And on this Greg, as I am sure you know ( per our many private conversations) we agree. Now, how to bring about this change? On that we definately disagree. Enforcing rules of dress code, making men swear absolute obedience to other men, hating money, none of these will bring about changes in a world that loves money, loves lording it over others it, hates Lordship and loves the attention of others.There is but one solution, the Lord Jesus Christ and a genuine conversion. When a man and a woman genuinly become new creatures in Christ, they are led by the Holy Spirt into truth. Its the Holy Spirit that leads and guides. For men to usurp the role of the Holy Spirit as laid down by Scripture, and then expect to see Holiness and virtuous living is like expecting blind men to lead other blind men and not fall down into a ditch.If you know the history of the Pharisitical movement, you will know that it started out with great intentions, shocked and dismayed at the behaviour of those coming out of exile and still living Babylonian lifestyles. We know the end results of that movement, driven by a love of rules and not of men and crucifying Jesus. Think about why the Lord Jesus performed so many miracles on the Sabbath, to expose the fact that the rulers of the day were more interested in their rules than people..........brother Frank ___________I agree with what you shared here Frank. I have read this article over a few times now and was not really sure what to say about it. Thank you and God Blessmj
This is beautiful. Thank you for sharing this Greg.
I think the key here is to know whom the author is addressing . Is he addressing the unsaved world, or the church. I do not dare to think he is addressing the lost world. From the title, It seems he is addressing sisters( the church). When the church repents the world is saved.Both the leading of the Holy Spirit and the expounding of the Word are needed to bring the church to repentance. If the Holy Spirit alone was sufficient, then Paul the Apostle would not have needed to write to the church of Corinth who recieved the Holy Spirit or any church for that matter. And if the Word alone was sufficient, then the modern American church must be considered the most Holy church since it possesses the greatest amount of teaching and expounding of the Word than any other church in the international community.So, Greg is right in leading a move to prayer and seeking the Lord's face in revival and awakeing of the church, bringing down the Holy Spirit back to the church, along with expounding the Word to show her where she falls short in following the footsteps of saints of the past and the teachings of the Lord Jesus.
_________________Fifi
Hi Untobabes,Good post. I agree with expounding the Word and clearly the Corinthian church did not have 1st and 2nd Corinthians to read prior to it being written :) I am not sure if you can be part of bringing the Holy Spirit back to the church if you are a cessasionist, quite frankly that does not make sense. As for the author of the piece, my point was he was part of the Roman Catholic church, the kings of the legalists. There were voices in that time who spoke against these men, the Novationsists being one voice and the Donatists later being another. Greg and I have came to this point before, if the church is as bad as he says it is, and I believe that he is correct, then can that church be reformed? Should Luther have broken away from the Catholic church? Should he not just have prayed for a revival? Should the Novationsists have broken away? Should the Donatists have broken way? The Hussites, the Waldenisans, the Puritans, the ana-baptists, the Moravians, any of the countless break-aways from the Roman Catholic church or any other State church.What these guys of old had in common, was their passion for the cause of what they considered to be the actual Church. They were willing to make a stand and be seperate, we do not have such a generation right now. For to make a stand and be seperate and come out from amongst her, makes you no friends. You cannot have it all ways. And when one makes a stand against what is established, that very establishment will come after you with all their might because you threaten their very existence. This has been proven down through the centuries and it is from these ranks that we have our martyrs. Men who were willing to lay down their lives and everything they had, including their reputations, for the cause which burned in their bones. Most of these martyrs, were martyred by the church that Cyprian represented...........brother Frank
