In this issue:

• Before the Last Flood — By Norbert Lieth
• Gaza Flotilla: Aggression or Self-Defense? — By Arno Froese
• Far East AsiaTrendsToday – Part III:Geo-prophecy or Geopolitics? — By Wilfred Hahn

 

In this issue:

• The Myth of the Al-Aqsa Mosque: Part 1 — By Herbert Novitsky
• ON THE HORIZON:
• Obama Honors Jewish Heritage Month
• Building an Electronic Human Brain
• ‘Iran Critics Must Get Rid of Nukes,’ Says Turkish PM
• Israel Joins Prestigious OECD Club
• Israel Accepted after Unanimous Vote
• Spy Satellite Successfully Launched

Godly Attire

Dear Mr. Froese,

Greetings in that most precious name, the name of Jesus. We appreciate the Midnight Call and believe we are truly living in the last of the last times.

Concerning your response to the question on the outward appearance, the light we shine is His Light. I agree to your answer that this Light comes from within: yes, from a heart after God. From a pure, cleansed, and sanctified heart. Praise His Name.

However, you wrote that “the moment we begin to preach on how to appear outwardly, we are establishing laws and it will lead to hypocrisy to no end.”

Now suppose I am expounding on 1 Peter 3: when I come to verse 3, shall I skip over that verse because it speaks of the outward appearance?

Am I not to preach on the outward appearance or make any practical, present day application?

How about 1 Corinthians 11:14, where it says, “If a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him”? Outward appearance? And 1 Timothy 2:9—all these beautiful verses have to do with outward appearance.

If we couple the beauty of a clean heart by the blood of Jesus and the power of the Holy Ghost with godly attire, we have a wonderful testimony for Jesus. Praise His Name.

There are other verses dealing with outward appearance, but let these suffice.

I really believe you owe your readers an explanation on this answer that you gave. You are certainly right that much hypocrisy and dead formalism can hide under outward appearance, but the misuse of any good thing does not argue for its non-use.

Let us not grow weary in well doing, for in due time we shall reap (if we faint not).

-L. Martin, PA

Answer: You have my wholehearted Amen. The only apparent conflict is how to determine proper outward appearance. The Reformers, for example, beginning with Martin Luther, would today be defined as longhaired hippies. The most conservatively dressed sisters of 2010 would be chided by even the liberal-minded Christian a couple of hundred years ago.  First Timothy 2:9 identifies modest apparel in conjunction with “shamefacedness and sobriety.” That means modesty and sanity. The same verse lists the things which do not qualify as “modest apparel,” but are not actually condemned. Verse 10 names “good works” as an ingredient of modest apparel. First Peter 3:1-6 gives additional information. The “ornament” of the woman is expressed in her subjection unto her husband: “a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price” (verse 4).

The fact that today Christian sisters dress in a provocative manner is primarily due to the failure of presenting the full Gospel to the Church. The change must come from within. When it becomes law, then it is from without. Such will lead to hypocrisy to no end.

 

Midnight Call Magazine’s #1 Feature!
Letters to the Editor

Readers have enjoyed the opportunity of writing in and posing various questions and concerns relative to the Body of Christ. They have benefited from the author’s concise scriptural responses on topics such as the Rapture of the Church, globalism, the Ecumenical Movement, false religions, eschatology, general Scripture explanations and much more.

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