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Is It Okay for a Church (like the COG) to Change Beliefs on Holiness over Time?
If a certain group of Christians used to believe certain things 50 years ago, that doesn’t make those things right, even if that group was our group, my group, or your group. The question is whether those ideas are Biblical. Lets take wearing pants for example. I’ve heard that pants started out as women’s wear in the east (think “I Dream of Jeni” type clothing maybe. The Bible doesn’t say ‘women shall not wear trousers.’ Fashions also change over time. There is no reason to think that early 1900’s Anglo-American clothing standards are God’s eternal standards for clothing. In the Bible we read about tunics, robes, and such things.
Some Holiness churches have had some very detailed rules, that aren’t specifically mentioned in the Bible.
If some old group in the past’s standards have to be right because we are all supposed to ‘speak the same thing’, why not the Amish? If an Amish person saw people in old time Holiness dress, he could point at the gaudy ‘immodest’ buttons and colors. Where is the modest black? And where is the plain bonnet on the women?
If we read Romans 14, we see that, even though elsewhere Paul says to speak the same thing, there are issues of conscience. One person may not be able to do things others do not because of sin. We need to keep that in mind to have a balanced view of all speaking the same thing.
And some ‘old time Holiness’ teaching flat out contradicts the Bible. The Bible is not a tee-totaler book. It warns against the dangers of excess of wine, desiring wine, etc. But one of the tithes involved buying the food, wine, or strong drink the individual wanted and consuming it before the Lord. Jesus turned water into wine. We know that the Lord did not sin and did not drink to excess, but still His enemies accused him of being a winebibber for eating and drinking with sinners. Wine was to be used in the Lord’s supper. God gave wine to give men a merry heart and oil to make man’s face shine. Wine is a good thing, but needs to be used properly. Paul even told Timothy to take a little wine for his stomach’s sake.
One of the big problems with ‘old time Holiness’ is if it is mixed with a judgmental attitude. Some of the old timey Pentecostals have this. One could be a ‘regular evangelical’ and have a judgmental attitude about other things. Jesus loved people and was able to win tax collectors and other sinners because He would talk to them and teach them the word of God. There are some people who know that sin is sin, but they aren’t judgmental and condemning to sinners and drive them away. Evangelicals who wear makeup or dare go into a mall that has a movie theater could be condemning toward prostitutes, tell the young pregnant woman she is a harlot and send her off instead of leading her to Christ, for example. When you mix the judgmental attitude with a list of rules about dress and other things, then you end up with people who drive others off rather easily.
If an idea is ‘old time’ that doesn’t prove it’s right.
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