Anonymous asked:

What do you think about a lady wearing black fingernail polish but dresses normal(not goth)? I was just discussing this with someone and we had differing views and am curious as to your opinion

Answer:

The short answer is: I don’t like it. I wouldn’t let my daughter or wife do it. Why? Sometimes, we have to set boundaries based on other principles in the Word of God. In this case, you pointed out that she would otherwise dress normally or not look like a Goth. Why would you associate the two? You point that out because you already know there is a tie between black nail polish, dark or black makeup, dark or black clothing and a certain segment of the population. That segment of the population is Goth and we know that segment of the population tends strongly toward Satanism. When I see someone who is wearing black nail polish, I think Goth. Sure, I may be wrong, but that is what I think. At the very least, I think they don’t know what they are symbolizing.

2Co 6:14-18 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? (15) And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? (16) And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. (17) Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, (18) And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

God is teaching us that there should be a clear line of separation between Christians and the worldly. We should look completely different, act different, talk different, etc. If one is wearing something that could associate them with the Goth culture, they are not very separate.
 

When dealing with teens, there is often the problem of music to deal with as well. When we consider music in the light of separation, we see that all this contemporary mess doesn't fit! No, it may not be the same hymns and songs they had 200 years ago, but I believe the Spirit-filled believer from 200 years ago would not be so concerned about the music in our churches as they would be the absence of real preaching. 

Throughout the country, men stand behind the holy desk and look over various crowds of people. When they do, are they addressing the problem at hand or are they offering a salve to hide the stench of sin? I am sick of people looking at only one aspect of Jesus. Yes, Jesus is the epitome of love, but He is also the very standard of justice and of righteousness. People today are saying that Jesus would never preach hard. Remember: Jesus said that if one would offend a child, it would be better that a millstone be tied around his neck and he be cast into the sea. Wow. Sounds like some hard preaching. Jesus walked into the temple and drove the merchants out at the end of a whip. That does not sound like the preaching most people get today.

Yes, preachers, we need more preaching on sin. Why is our country in the state it is in? Why are countries sending missionaries to the United States? BECAUSE PREACHERS AREN'T PREACHING!!! Come on men, be MEN and PPPPRRRRREEEEEEEAAAAACCCCCCHHHHHH! If you need to, go by Wal-Mart and get a back-bone (I know ... many of you had your back-bones removed at your local Bible College). Get out your Bible and PREACH! Throw these pansy, don't want to offend anyone, easy-sleazy, feel good messages away and get out the SWORD ... Let's do some HOLY GHOST SURGERY. We need the men of God to preach the Word of God. Yes, that means we need to call sin by it's name. If you have brain cancer, you don't want the doctor to tell you what a lovely head of hair you have - you want him to CUT IT OUT!!!

If we, as preachers, would preach the whole counsel of the Word of God, that would include preaching on sin.

2Tim 4:2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.

Yes, we are to exhort or lift people up, but we are also to preach on sin. We are to reprove and rebuke. The apostles showed the love of God but they PREACHED that men needed to REPENT!!! We need preachers that expose the cancer of sin, not pink-pantie wearing "pasthors" who are afraid of losing their retirement if they make momma know-nothing mad.

Question:

Ok ... so I go to this church that is supposed to be all old-fashioned and everything. The preacher always preaches against contemporary music and that kind of stuff. So whatever. Should a woman lead a choir? should a woman lead a youth choir? should a woman preach? should a woman teach a class of teen guys and girls? when is it ok for a woman to teach? To preach? to lead choirs?

Answer:

That is a great set of questions! Of course, the Bible has the answer!

It seems that more and more churches are compromising on simple Bible truths such as this.

1Ti 2:11 Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. (12) But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.

1Co 14:34 Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law.

So, the Bible is clear. A woman is to learn in silence in the church. She is not to teach a man and she is not to usurp, or take the authority away from a man. So, how do we define a man? A boy physically becomes a man somewhere between eleven and thirteen. In the Hebrew tradition, a boy is declared to be a man at the age of thirteen. So, to be safe, a woman should not teach any boy over the age of ten.

Likewise, a woman should not lead a choir where there are choir members who are young men (see above) and she certainly should not be preaching.
Too many of our churches, even our conservative churches, are losing sight of the fundamentals. This may not be one of the foundational doctrines of the faith, but it is important. This is a “thus saith the Lord” precept that a church simply cannot ignore and expect to be blessed. God does not want women leading or teaching men.
For a church to allow such a thing to go on is a crying shame. It marks this church as far from old-fashioned and Bible-believing. In fact, I would go so far as to propose that this may be blasphemous. Consider this passage:

Tit 2:3-5 The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; (4) That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, (5) To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.

It is impossible for a woman who is standing in front of a choir, a class or a congregation to be discreet! The passage above is telling the older women to teach the younger women to be all these things so that the Word of God will not be blasphemed. Is God saying that a women who is not discreet is blasphemous? God certainly puts a strong emphasis on the confusing of the genders. This is definitely a woman doing what God intended a man to do.

There is much being made over some of fundamentalism's various views of the Word of God. I have listened for most of my life at good men argue over basic fundamental truths. I do not claim to have all the answers, nor do I consider myself the final authority on these matters, but I have carefully examined my faith to make sure that what I believe is what God's Word teaches and is what our fathers have passed on to us.

One of the main points of controversy for many years is the issue of the Bible, it's inspiration, preservation, and particularly, the King James Bible and whether or not we have the true Word of God. Let me say as one man said long ago, there is a "ditch on both sides of the road." I have listened intently to one arguement many years ago that divided Ind. Baptist. It was dealing with the KJB and whether or not it is God's Word. Of course there was a crowd in Florida that took it so far that they preached somewhat of a "double Inspiration" and said that even the King James Bible corrected the original manuscripts. Of course that is incorrect.

Any Bible student understands that God inspired the writers of the Bible and they were "moved by the Holy Ghost" to write its pages. Inspiration took place that day when God moved upon those men. The very God of glory "breathed" those words and we have his Word to us on the pages of the Bible. Now the problem and controversy comes when men deal with the various translations. I am not going to go into detail here, but I believe that the King James Bible is the Bible for the english speaking people and has been for 400 years. It was translated from the Textus Receptus which has been established as the text that is accurate and is the true Word of God. But many say that they only believes that inspiration applies only to the original manuscripts. I heard that in Bible College almost daily. It was some kind of "badge" that all the scholars wore. They quickly wanted everyone to know that "inspiration" was only in connection with the original texts. But what many fail to deal with is the next issue which is preservation. I understand that God only inspired those men once to write the Bible. I do understand that the King James translators were not "inspired" as they translated the Scriptures. That would be double inspiration. But I do believe that God is Sovereign and God's Word did promise that He would preserve his Word to every generation, even forever. With that being said, a true Bible Believing Fundamentalist has to consider that in the equation. If God preserved His Word, then he preserved it as His Inspired Word. I believe preservation applies to inspiration. Just as God preserves His Word, he preserves the fact of His inspired Word and the very words that God breathed, he preserves them to every generation.

If God does not preserve His inspired Word, then we have a Word that is not trustworthy, or is corrupted and that is not true. I believe God "superintended" thru the ages the translation of the Scriptures, including the King James Scholars, and they were given the ability to give us a copy of the true, inspired, infallible, inspired Word of God. To believe any less than that not only gives us a Bible we cannot fully trust, but also a God that is not true to His promises. If he cannot keep the Word preserved as He gave it in the beginning, then He is not truly involved in the affairs of men and cannot be trusted for matters of life and faith. WE talk about God intervening in the lives of men, and guiding and leading us as Christians, but cannot believe Him to direct the hearts of Scholars to work together to provide comman man with a copy of God's true inspired preserved Word.
The real problem comes here when men of respect and renown begin to say things like some have said recently and it causes people to doubt and look for something they can trust. If the King James Bible is not the inspired Word of God, then where is it? If we don't have it, then God lied to us. He promised He would preserve it. If we don't have a Bible that is true without error, then we are preaching out of a corrupted book and the messages we preach are tainted.

What good is accomplished by leaders who speak such controversial words? Does it make them look smarter? Does it edify the body of Christ? Does it exalt the Savior to say the Bible is not inspired? To cast doubt on the book that for 400 years has been used as the authority of the Church does not produce good results. It is confusing, controversial, and most of all destructive to the body of Christ and the Ind. Baptist movement.

I as a Independent Baptist, and a Fundamentalist believe that God inspired the Word of God when he led men to write the pages of the Bible. I believe also that God has preserved the Inspired Word thru the translation of the King James Bible. I believe that those 1611 translators were lead and superintended by the Holy Ghost to carefully give us an accurate copy of God's Word. I believe that we have the true Inspired, preserved Word of God. I can hold up my Bible and proclaim that God and his people are not without God's Divinely inspired text. It is not hidden in heaven for only heavens' residents to see. God has given it to us in this life through the preservation of the Word. Any thing less than that stand causes our congregations to be confused. It also creates doubt within the minds of our young preachers who then begin to lean toward "higher criticism" and come to the conclusion that they somehow are made better and given greater respect if they too get into their pulpits and tell their people that this Bible has problems, but i can tell you what it should say and this would be better if it said this, and then try to convince our people that they need to build their lives on a Book that has problems and mistakes. It just wont' work!
God help us to take a stand for the sake of our families, congreations and the generation to come. Quit trying to impress people and gain the favor of the world. They have always attacked the Bible and will til the end of time. But you so called fundamentalist who claim to be our leaders, stop sending wrong signals and sounding "unclear" trumpets. You are not only dividing our ranks, but you are tearing apart the body of Christ, doing damage to the church, and causing Satan to rejoice because he too was the first one who said" ye hath God said." When you challenge what God said, you are doing the work of Satan.

I have decided to continue on in my fundamentalist stand of the Scriptures and the King James Bible. I believe when I hold up my KJB, I hold the INSPIRED, INFALLIBLE, INERRENT, PRESERVED WORD OF GOD WITHOUT APOLOGY!!!! Don't tell me that I am uneducated. I have sat in your classrooms. I have taught those classes myself but never in my 34 years of preaching have I ever been guilty of casting doubt on this book and by the grace of God never will! You that do, don't expect me to remain quiet. I will continue to stand for this Book til He comes. When you face Him, I will be there. I want to hear what you will have to say when Jesus Christ corrects you for all the times you cast doubt on His Book. I want to hear what you will say in that day when He asks you why you could not clearly with conviction defend the Word of God that he brought to us through the blood shed of our fathers who paid a great price so we could have in our hands a copy of His preserved inspired Word. I want to hear what you say in that day. I don't think you will refer to the original autographs that day. I don't think you will quote from one of your hero scholars. He is the Word of God and He will be there to hear your reply. God raised up you as a preached to proclaim his Word, not destroy it. To preach his Word, not cast doubt on it. To defend His Word, not rewrite it. To love his Word, not correct it. We have a Bible. For us English Speaking people, it is the King James Bible. It has no errors or mistakes. It is God's preserved Word. And the Inspiration that was a reality that day had been preserved for us today. He inspired it , he preserved it, we have it. Period~!!!!!!!!! Don't be afriad to believe and proclaim it. And quit trying to make it better. Just accept it and preach it as it is to people as they are!

David Harrison

Voice of Hope Ministries

http://vhopeministries.org

(used with permission)