PERSONAL MODESTY & CHRISTIAN DEMEANOR

Personal Modesty and Christian Demeanor

By Robert E. Patenaude, Th.D.

© Copyrighted 2002, 2006, by Robert Edgar Patenaude, as per United States Code, Title 17, Chapter 2, §201(a), §401(a-d) and H.R. 2589.EH, H.R. 2589.RFS

Introduction

This wicked world, including the nation wherein God has seen fit to place you, needs to see an awakening and jarring testimony.  Our modern [1]pluralistic societies have little, if any, less worldliness than our modern churches.   The professing churches of God (those of Christendom in general, as well as those of professing fundamentalists) now mock and criticize holy living, calling it "legalism" and "pharisee-ism."  While many religious [2]movements with damnable doctrines can, at least, garner the respect and admiration of (and ensnare into conversion) their neighbors by their separation and outward appearance of holiness, professing Bible-believers nowadays are not even noticed. Fundamentalist [3]Baptists, for example, have no impact by stand or testimony, whatsoever, on the surrounding cultural environment.

Does the Bible and the work of the Holy Spirit really produce no change in our outward appearance and demeanor?  Without apology, no preacher that I know is any more careful and cautious about the use of Scriptures such as 2 Corinthians 5:17 than is this author.  We have taken great pains in our preaching and teaching (we believe properly) to keep the correct interpretive position of that particular text by cross-referencing Ephesians 2:15 and Galatians 6:15.  We have handled 2 Corinthians 5:17 throughout our ministry in such a way as to delineate the work of God in creating one new man-the new creature; Jew and Gentile in one body.  While many Baptist preachers represent the text to primarily mean a new suit of clothes, a man getting his hair cut, the giving up of certain worldly habits and entertainments, new friends and churchy activities, we have insisted on emphasizing the spiritual core in the text, that is, what God has made us in Christ.   These things involve the doctrine of the mystery of this current dispensation and the now revealed body, the church (Ephesians 1:17-23; 2:10-22; 3:1-12; Colossians 2:10-17 particularly).

Does this mean, however, that what God has made us in Christ has no practical, may we say, no testimonial effect working to the outside of us while here on earth?  Is there no principle of "walking after the Spirit" or the "Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" that shows up on the visual surface of our existence as God's children?

        Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is henceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.

        Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

        Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

        Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Matthew 5:13-16

Salt and Light!  Salt has the effect of purging uncleanness.  While it does so, it also has the tendency to irritate and smart.  The Christian in this world has an irritating function.  The uncleanness of the surrounding world should be dealt a setback to some degree, just as bacteria in a laboratory dish should retreat by the placement of grains of sea salt in the culture.  And since the culture of mankind is made up of complex organisms that have souls and consciences, the tendency of the Christian's salt is to cause offensive irritation and smarting. To the saved, the salty Christian is "the savour of life unto life." But unto them that perish, the salty Christian is "the savour of death unto death." See 2 Corinthians 2:14-16. Now, that leaves us the question: To those professing Christians who have no saltiness, what kind of savour is the salty Christian?

True light does not call attention to self-righteousness or sanctimoniousness, but to God's holiness.  Let's not kid ourselves-the surrounding culture will never think, or mouth, the words, "Oh, that Christian looks and acts that way because God is holy, and it is God who lives within him."  To manifest and demonstrate God's holiness in this wicked world is, nevertheless, the great purpose of practical holiness (1 Peter 1:14-16). This holiness has a restraining influence on wickedness that contributes to the work of God by giving a little  space and time before the God-haters shut us down (see 1 Timothy 2:2-4).

        For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:

        (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;)

        Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.

Ephesians 5:8-10

We are on a two-lane highway (Matthew 7:13,14).  One lane is very broad and headed for Hell.  The other lane is for traffic headed the opposite direction by God's grace and is very narrow. The traffic in the broad lane has no headlights or taillights.  The drivers are drunken with this world and they are swerving all over their lane out of control.  The narrow lane traffic, in these days, is so afraid that someone may cross the double yellow line and crash head-on, that it has responded by turning off the headlights and moving over to creep slowly up the shoulder.  The narrow lane drivers have matched light intensity with the broad lane drivers-darkness-for (they think) self-preservation ("just getting along").  There is no impact of a head-on collision because there is no impact at all!  At any point along the road, a broad-lane driver might turn (repent) and get in the other lane by faith in Jesus Christ and His merits.  But there are no lights illuminating the roadway for the drivers to see.  Christians should be headed up the road with headlights, flashers, spotlights and irritating high beams.  Instead, they have switched off the lights and creep along on the dusty shoulder so slowly that they don't even stir up the dust.  Their family members or employers, or government or school officials might be speeding along in the opposite lane and they fear head-on collisions!  Christians will look and entertain themselves just like the world.  Life is so much less complicated if the Christian camouflages him or her self in the world's clothes, trends and amusements.

This booklet, therefore, is both an apologetic and an appeal for practical holiness, separation and godly demeanor among God's people.  It is written after watching professing Christians live their existences in the materialistic United States, Maoist Communist and mystic China, Orthodox Catholic & Criminal Russia and the Roman Catholic Philippines.  It takes into account the applications of real practical Christianity in nations that purport to be free, as well as in nations that have been under the bondage of communism and dictatorship.  The author has lived and labored in the Gospel, church planting, preacher training and Christian growth in all of these settings.  The author has observed that Christians living in countries that are relatively free politically, use their (Christian) liberty for an occasion to the flesh (Galatians 5:13) more often than not.  Christians living in communist countries tend to use what little liberty they might have to serve one another to a greater degree, and are much more conscious of the need for light in the darkness that the atheistic communist world order has produced.  They are more separated, circumspect and more distrustful of modern trends, fashions and amusements.

This work takes a stab at what is known by many as the principle approach to learning a subject.  First, salient Scripture references are given. The King James Bible is our sole and final Authority. We will quote from no other version, for there is no need to do so.  Then definitions of principal and most useful words in those Scriptures are researched.  If words within definitions are vague or unfamiliar, they are also more particularly defined. We have taken the time and space to provide some definitions from outstanding authorities:  (1.) Noah Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828, and the (2.) Webster's New International Dictionary, 1913 (noted separately when used herein).  (3.)  To illustrate how that King James Bible words are still used in modern American jurisprudence, I have included a couple of references from Black's Law Dictionary, Fourth Edition, 1951. (4.) A reference or two is cited from [4]Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition, 1993, 1998 (for words in my own commentary which may be unfamiliar to some readers).  Another authority we would like to have used is the unabridged Oxford International Dictionary of the English Language, but we have no access to it here on the mission field.  Please don't remain unlearned about the meaning of the pure English words in your King James Bible.  Once new words are learned (God uses words!) the student is asked to go back again to where the words are used in the Scriptures and meditate upon them.

Just before the completion of the main body of this work we were introduced to a syllabus called The Virtuous Woman distributed by The Christian Fellowship of Long Branch, Texas, USA.  We have taken a few quotes and remarks from the syllabus and credited it in the footnotes. Please understand that we are not personally familiar with this particular ministry, nor may we herein endorse its overall work.  It may be very sound, we just don't know.  The syllabus does have some very useful, practical application regarding the subjects which make up the scope of this booklet, so we have made use of it.

Finally, as you've surely already discerned, this is the work of a Baptist missionary, writing from the perspective of having served, and continuing to serve on the mission field in Asia, and in the Philippines Islands.  The author and his wife have seven children (including one now deceased, a son, who went to be with the Lord while serving in China). One son was born in China. One daughter was born in Russia, and one in the Philippines. Three of their children are adults.  Their eldest son is married, has two sons and one daughter at this writing, and he and his family are missionaries serving in Mongolia.  When the author and his family first went to China, their eldest child was twelve years old and their youngest was four years old.  Their current youngest (seventh), born in the Philippines, is now almost five years old.  These details are mentioned only so that the reader may understand that the author has dealt with real issues and real situations regarding biblical separation and Christian modesty and demeanor in cultures other than that of western [5]"Judeo-Christian" America.  They have seen true Christianity work, as it must work by God's design, in the hearts and practical lives of believers in China, Russia and the Philippines.  They have also suffered much discouragement from false Christianity around them and the refusal of many professing Christians (even in Baptist churches) to obey or even consider biblical principles for their walk in this world.  They have watched as people who profess adherence to fundamental Christianity and the final Authority of the Bible turn from Bible truth so that they would not offend the Pagan culture of their own people and land, though it be wicked, bring reproach upon Christ, and marginalize or destroy their Christian testimony.  They have listened as Bible-believing missionaries, who love the Lord Jesus, are called "arrogant" and termed "international policemen" by [6]national pastors when the missionaries are merely obeying their calling to preach the whole counsel of God (Missionaries are not called to preach the perpetuation of Pagan culture for the purpose of attracting Pagans to the churches).

The heart's desire of the author is to "let [his] speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, so that [he] may know how [he] ought to answer every man." (Colossians 4:6).  Most readers of this text will taste more salt than they are expecting, until they learn to think scripturally instead of culturally.

We are praying for the fruitfulness of your study of the Scriptures as they speak to the issues which form the scope of this work.  God bless you.

The Scriptures-Our Final Authority; Our First Consideration

        But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.

Matthew 5:28

        Let us walk honestly, as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.

        But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.

Romans 13:13,14

        What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

        For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

1 Corinthians 6:19,20 (&cp. 2 Corinthians 6:16)

        For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:

        That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;...

1 Thessalonians 4:3,4; see context through verse 7

        In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array.

        But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works.

1 Timothy 2:9,10

        As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:

        But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;

        Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.

1 Peter 1:14-16

        ...ye wives...

        While [disobedient husbands] behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear

        Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel;

        But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.

        For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands:

        Even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement.

1 Peter 3:1-6

        The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are an abomination unto the LORD thy God.

Deuteronomy 22:5

        The aged women likewise, that they be in behavior as becometh holiness,...

        ...That they may teach the young women...

        To be discreet, chaste...

Titus 2:3-5

        I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?

Job 31:1

        And, behold, there met [a simple one] a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart.

        (She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house:...

Proverbs 7:10,11

        None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness: I am the LORD.

        The nakedness of thy father, or the nakedness of thy mother, shalt thou not uncover: she is thy mother; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness.

        The nakedness of thy father's wife shalt thou not uncover: it is thy father's nakedness.

        The nakedness of thy sister, the daughter of thy father, or daughter of thy mother, whether she be born at home, or born abroad, even their nakedness shalt thou not uncover.

        The nakedness of thy son's daughter, or of thy daughter's daughter, even their nakedness shalt thou not uncover: for theirs is thine own nakedness.

        The nakedness of thy father's wife's daughter, begotten of thy father, she is thy sister, thou shalt not uncover her nakedness.

        Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father's sister: she is thy father's near kinswoman.

        Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mother's sister: for she is thy mother's near kinswoman.

        Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father's brother, thou shalt not approach to his wife: she is thine aunt.

        Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy daughter in law: she is thy son's wife; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness.

        Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy brother's wife: it is thy brother's nakedness.

        Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter, neither shalt thou take her son's daughter, or her daughter's daughter, to uncover her nakedness; for they are her near kinswomen: it is wickedness.

Leviticus 18:6-17 (& see 20:17,19)

        Take the millstones, and grind meal; uncover thy locks, make bare the leg, uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers.

        Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and I will not meet thee as a man.

Isaiah 47:2 (see context)

Please also carefully study the following Scriptures concerning the part the immodest and worldly attire and demeanor of women had in the judgments upon the Nation of Israel:

Isaiah 3:16-24; Jeremiah 4:30,31

Definitions

MODEST,  a. [Fr. modeste ;  L. modestus, from modus, a limit.]

1. Properly, restrained by a sense of propriety {what is proper}; hence, not forward or bold ; not presumptuous or arrogant ;  not boastful ; as a modest youth ; a modest man.

2. Not bold or forward ; as a modest maid.  The word may be thus used without reference to chastity.

The blushing beauties of a modest maid.              Dryden.

3. Not loose ; not lewd.

Mrs. Ford, the honest woman, the modest wife.          Shak.

4. Moderate ; not excessive or extreme ; not extravagant ; as a modest request ; modest joy ; a modest computation.       Addison.

                                                                                {...} This author's explanation

MODESTY, n. [L. modestia]

That lowly temper which accompanies a moderate estimate of one's own worth and importance.  This temper when natural, springs in some measure from timidity, and in young and inexperienced persons, is allied to bashfulness and diffidence.  In persons who have seen the world, and lost their natural timidity, [7]modesty springs no less from principle than from feeling, and is manifested by retiring , unobtrusive manners, assuming less of itself than others are willing to yield, and conceding to others all due honor and respect, or even more than they expect or require.

2. Modesty, as an act or series of acts, consists in humble, unobtrusive deportment, as opposed to extreme boldness, forwardness, arrogance, presumption, audacity, or impudence.  Thus we say, the petitioner urged his claims with modesty ; the speaker addressed the audience with modesty.

3. Moderation ; decency.                                          Shak.

4. In females, modesty has the like character as in males ; but the word is used also as synonymous with chastity, or purity of manners.  In this sense, modesty results from purity of mind, or from the fear of disgrace and ignominy fortified by education and principle.  [8]Unaffected modesty is the sweetest charm of female excellence, the richest gem in the diadem of their honor.

Observing the proprieties of sex ; not unwomanly in act or bearing ; free from undue familiarity, indecency, or lewdness ; decent in speech and demeanor ; - said also of men ; of apparel, decent ; seemly.

Webster's New International, 1913, 4^th definition

HOLINESS, n [from holy.]

The state of being holy ; purity or integrity of moral character ; freedom from sin ; sanctity. Applied to the Supreme Being, holiness denotes perfect purity or integrity of moral character, one of his essential attributes.

            Who is like thee, glorious in holiness ?     Ex. xv.

2. Applied to human beings, holiness is purity of heart or dispositions ; sanctified effections ; piety ; moral goodness, but not perfect.

            We see piety and holiness ridiculed as morose singularities.     Rogers.

3. Sacredness ; the state of anything hallowed, or consecrated to God or to his worship ; applied to churches or temples.

4. That which is separated to the service of God.

Israel was holiness unto the Lord.                         Jer. Ii

5. A title of the pope, and formerly of the Greek emperors.                      Encyc.

HOLY,  a. [Sax. Halig ; G.D. heilig ; Sw. helig ; Dan. Hellig ; from the root of heal, hold, whole, and all ; Sax. Hal, G. heil, D. heel, Sw. hel, Dan. Heel, whole.  See Heal and Hold, and Class Gl. No. 31,35.42.  The sense is whole, entire, complete, sound, unimpaired.]

1. Properly, whole, entire or perfect, in a moral sense.  Hence, pure in heart, temper or dispositions; free from sin and sinful affections.  Applied to the Supreme Being, holy, signifies perfectly pure, immaculate and complete in moral character ; and man is more or less holy, as his heart is more or less sanctified, or purified from evil dispositions.  We call a man holy, when his heart is conformed in some degree to the image of God, and his life is regulated by divine precepts.  Hence, holy is used as nearly synonymous with good, pious, godly.

            Be ye holy ; for I am holy.        1 Pet. i     

2. Hallowed ; consecrated or set  apart to a sacred use, or to the service or worship of God ; a sense frequent in Scripture ; as the holy sabbath ; holy oil ; holy vessels ; a holy nation ; the holy temple ; a holy priesthood.

3. Proceeding from pious purposes ; as holy zeal.

4. Perfectly just and good; as the holy law of God.

5. Sacred ; as a holy witness.                                            Shak.

Spiritually whole or sound ;  of unimpaired innocence and virtue ; free from sinful affections ; pure in heart ; godly ; pious ; acceptable to God.

CHAMBERING, n  Wanton, lewd, immodest behavior.          Rom. xiii.

CHAMBER, v.

To reside in or occupy as in a chamber.

2. To be wanton ; to indulge in lewd or immodest behavior.      Rom. xiii.

To practice lasciviousness or licentiousness.   Obs. or Archaic.           Rom. xiii.13.

Webster's New International, 1913, 2^nd definition

GLORIFY, v.t.  [Fr. glorifier ; L. gloria and facio, to make.]

1. To praise ; to magnify and honor in worship ; to ascribe honor to, in thought or words.  Ps. Lxxxvi.9

   God is glorified, when such his excellency, above all things, is with due admiration acknowledged.                                                                   Hooker.

2. To make glorious ; to exalt to glory, or to celestial happiness.

    Whom he justified, them he also glorified.                        Rom. viii.

   The God of  our fathers hath glorified his son Jesus.         Acts iii.

3. To praise ; to honor ; to extol.

    Whomsoever they find to be most licentious of life-him they set up and glorify.    Spencer.

4. To procure honor or praise to.                                  Shak.

SANCTIFICATION, n. [Fr. from Low L. sanctificatio, from sanctifico. See Sanctify.]

1. The act of making holy.  In the evangelical sense, the act of God's grace by which the affections of men are purified or alienated from sin and the world, and exalted to a supreme love of God.

            God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation, through  sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth.                      2 Thess ii.                            1 Pet. i.

2. The act of consecrating or of setting apart for a sacred purpose ; consecration.                                                                 Stilling fleet.

SANCTIFY, v.t. [Fr. sanctifier ; It. santificare ;  Sp. santificar ; Low L. sanctifico ; from sanctus, holy, and facio, to make.]

1. In a general sense, to cleanse, purify or make holy.                               Addison.

2. To separate, set  apart  or appoint to a holy, sacred or religious use.

          God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it..          Gen. ii.

So under the Jewish dispensation, to sanctify the altar, the temple, the priests, &c.

3. To purify ; to prepare for divine service, and for partaking of holy things.  Ex. xix.

4. To separate, ordain and appoint to the work of redemption and the government of the church.                   John x.

• 5. To cleanse from corruption ; to purify from sin ; to make holy by attaching the affections from the world and its defilements, and exalting them to a supreme love of God.

Sanctify them through thy truth ; thy word is truth.                             John xvii. Eph. v.

6. To make the means of holiness ; to render productive of holiness or piety.

Those judgments of God are the more welcome, as a means which his mercy hath sanctified so to me, as to make me repent of that unjust act.                   K. Charles.

7. To make free from guilt.

          That holy man, amaz'd at what he saw,

        Made haste to sanctify the bliss by law.                     Dryden.

8. To secure from violation.

        Truth guards the poet, sanctifies the line.                  Pope.

To sanctify God, to praise and celebrate him as a holy being ; to acknowledge and honor his holy majesty, and to reverence his character and laws. Is. viii.

God sanctifies himself or his name, by vindicating his honor from the reproaches of the wicked, and manifesting his glory.         Ezek. xxxvi.

SHAMEFACEDNESS, n.

Bashfulness ; excess of modesty.                              Dryden.

Easily confused or put out of countenance ;  diffident ;  bashful ;  modest.

        Your shamefaced virtue shunned the people's praise.                          Dryden.

Webster's New International, 1913

DIFFIDENT, a.

Distrustful, wanting confidence ; doubting of another's power, disposition, sincerity or intention.

        Be not diffident of wisdom.                       Milton.

        Be diffident in dealing with strangers.        Anon.

2. Distrustful  of one's self ; not confident ; doubtful of one's own power or competency.

        Distress makes the humble heart diffident.                Clarissa.

3. Reserved ; modest ; timid ; as a diffident youth.

CHASTE, a. [Fr. chaste ; Arm. chast ; It. Sp. Port. Casto ; from L. castus. Sax. cusc, D. kuisch, G. keusch, Sw. kysk, Russ. chistei, are probably from the same root.  Qu. Ir. caidh.  I suppose the primary sense to be, separate, from the oriental practice of sequestering females. If so, castus accords with the root of castle, W. câs ; and at any rate the word denotes purity, a sense taken from separation.]

1. Pure from all unlawful commerce of sexes. Applied to persons before marriage, it signifies pure from all sexual commerce, undefiled ; applied to married persons, true to the marriage bed.

2. Free from obscenity.

While they behold your chaste conversation.  1 Peter iii.

3. In language, pure ; genuine ; uncorrupt ; free from barbarous words and phrases, and from quaint, affected, extravagant expressions.

3. Pure in thought and act ; free from lewdness and obscenity, or indecency ; modest ; decent ; as, chaste words.

4. Chastened ; free from excess.

5. Pure in design and expression ; chastened ; free from barbarisms or vulgarisms, or meretricious* features ; refined ; simple ; as, a chaste style in composition or art.

Webster's New International, 1913, definitions 3, 4, 5

*meretricious, a. [L. meretricious, from meretrix, a prostitute.]

        1. originally, of, like, or characteristic of a prostitute.

        2. alluring by false, showy charms; speciously attractive; fleshly; tawdry.

Webster's Unabridged, Encyclopedic, 1977

Never voluntarily having had unlawful sexual intercourse.  Merchand v. State, 113 Neb. 87, 201 N.W. 890, 891.  An unmarried woman who has had no carnal knowledge of men.  New v. State, 141, Tex.Cr.R. 536, 148 S.W.2d 1099, 1101

CHASTE CHARACTER.  Denoting purity of mind and innocence of heart;-not limited merely to unlawful sexual intercourse.  State v. Wilcoxen, 200 Iowa, 1250, 206 N.W. 260, 261

Black's Law Dictionary, Fourth Edition, 1951

DISCREET, a. [Fr. discret, Sp. discreto ; It. id ; L. discretus, the participle assigned to discerno, dis and cerno, but probably from the root of riddle, W. rhidyll, from rhidiaw, to secrete, as screen is from the root of secerno, or excerno, Gr. (font not available), L. cerno ; Gr. (font not available). Class Rd. It is sometimes written discrete ; the distinction between discreet and discrete is arbitrary, but perhaps not entirely useless.  The literal sense is, separate, reserved, wary, hence discerning.]

1. Prudent ; wise in avoiding errors or evil, and in selecting the best means to accomplish a purpose ; circumspect ; cautious ; wary ; not rash.

It is the discreet man, not the witty, nor the learned, nor the brave, who guides the conversation, and gives  measures to society.                               Addison.

Let Pharaoh look out a man discreet and wise.                                Gen. xli.

Possessed of or manifesting discernment, esp. in avoiding error or evil, or their appearance, and in the adaptation of means to ends ; prudent ; circumspect ; sagacious ; judicious ; not rash or heedless ;  specif., guarded in speaking or writing what is better left unsaid

Webster's New International, 1913

Sagacious

• 1. Of quick sense perceptions ; esp. keen-scented ; skilled in following a trail ; -often with of.
• 2. Hence, having or indicating quick intellectual perception ; of keen penetration and judgment ; discerning and judicious ; knowing ; farsighted ; shrewd ; sage ; wise ; as, a sagacious man ; a sagacious remark.

Webster's New International, 1913

DISCREETLY.   Prudently; judiciously; with discernment.  Parks v. City of Des Moines, 195 Iowa, 972, 191 N.W. 728, 731

Black's Law Dictionary, Fourth Edition, 1951

CONVERSATION, n. General course of manners ; behavior ; deportment ; especially as it respects morals.

          Let your conversation be as becometh the Gospel.  Phil. i.

          Be ye holy in all manner of conversation.  1 Peter i.

• 1. State or act of living with others ; an abiding. Obs.

For  our conversation is in heaven.   Phil. iii.20.

• 2. Manner of living ; conduct ; behavior. [9]Archaic.

Be ye holy in all manner of conversation.  1 Peter i:15.

                                                 Webster's New International, 1913

Manner of living; habits of life; conduct; as in the phrase "chaste life and conversation."  Bradshaw v. People, 153 Ill. 156, 38 N.E. 652.  Criminal conversation means seduction of another man's wife, considered as an actionable injury to the husband.  Prettyman v. Williamson, 1 Pennewill (Del.) 224, 39 A. 731; Crocker v. Crocker, C.C.Mass., 98 F. 702.

Black's Law Dictionary, Fourth Edition, 1951

Our Commentary on the Scriptures and Consequent View of Christian Modesty and Demeanor

We trust, first of all, that you have taken the time and have used a worshipful attitude to pray and ask the God of the Scriptures to teach you by His Holy Spirit.  You should read the scriptures carefully, and more, you should examine the contexts of each one.  It is a first lesson in circumspection to look at the context in which a passage of Scripture resides.  Ask: what is taking place that the penman of the passage is moved of the Holy Ghost to write what you are reading?

Some readers need words in the text defined in the English language.  Forget the Greek!  Forget the Hebrew!  Every word in the King James Bible is pure, and if we learn the English words of the King James Bible well, we can know our Bible. Most Christians wouldn't have time to learn the Greek or Hebrew, and if they did study it honestly, they would discover the superiority of the preserved text of the King James Bible.  They would find themselves going back to good authorities for definition within the English language.

Therefore, we have taken the time and space to provide some definitions from outstanding authorities: Noah Webster's, 1828 and the Webster's New International, 1913 (noted separately when used herein).  To illustrate how that King James Bible words are still used in modern American jurisprudence, we added a couple of interesting references from Black's Law Dictionary, Fourth Edition, 1951. We also added the definition of meretricious from the Webster's Unabridged Encyclopedic, 1904-1977.  There are just a couple of citations from the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition, 1993, 1998 for definition of words we have used in our own commentary. Please don't remain unlearned about the meaning of the pure English words in your King James Bible.

After studying the definitions, we recommend that you go back and read the Scriptures again, prayerfully.

Using the words of Scripture as the final Authority, we shall endeavor now to comment on them with reference to Christian modesty, demeanor and the Christian's dress or apparel standards.

Matthew 5:28

      But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.

Is it really possible for a man to commit adultery with his eyes and in his heart without actually touching a woman's flesh?  Does God really so account that looking to lust is so offensive to His holiness?  The answer to these questions is YES!  Are we making our sons to understand this?  "I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?" (Job 31:1) And are we so training our daughters in shamefacedness (excess modesty under authority) so that they do not contribute to the sins of men by drawing men's eyes to their bodies?

There are readers who would detract from the straightforward nature and seriousness of this subject by insisting that some men will lust after our daughters even if we dress them in diving bells and suits of armor.  The detractors would say, "Our daughters can't help being peered at by the lustful eyes of men, and so we just shouldn't worry that much about it."  We would agree that wicked, perverted men lust after and illicitly desire the most modest of women.  "Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children:..." (2 Peter 2:14)  Those who believe that our conclusions are too strict, however, are not circumspect.  They can't see the borderline (and often outright) attire of harlots being worn by young women in churches nowadays. Neither can they see the desperate danger in which their own children walk in this "modern" world of utter pornographic and sodomite perversion.

Let us offer an example. In the late 1980s we visited an independent Baptist church near Morriston, Florida that had virtually no standards of modesty or separation from worldliness.  To suggest Biblical holiness in the pulpit there would bring charges of "legalism" and "Pharisee-ism."  We walked in on a Wednesday evening just 20 minutes before the beginning of the service, and found empty pew space on the third row from the front.  We noticed a woman with a wrap-around dress, not carefully or modestly wrapped around.  She was sitting in the front row of the choir; there was no [10]modesty rail.  This woman didn't mind showing off her bosom and her thighs while she flailed her arms and turned herself freely in exuberant conversation with those beside and behind her (not exactly "the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit.")  It would be humorous, if it wasn't so sad, that when she became aware of our presence, she pulled herself together, ceased her unbecoming behavior and "[11]body language," and clutched the edges of her wrap-around dress, attempting some pathetic display of modesty in the presence of missionaries.

The immodest woman in the choir prompted us to look about, and we noticed that this church-packed with people-was full of the appearance of worldliness.  It was very interesting that at the invitation at the close of the message, the altars were filled up with people praying and crying.  Revival?  Not hardly!  Neo-evangelical and Charismatic movement-style emotionalism? Yes.  Many of the women at the altar were kneeling with their posteriors sticking up in the air while wearing tight knit slacks: hot pink, hot yellow.  Every pound was on open display; every undergarment was pronounced.

Romans 13:13

Let us walk...not in chambering...

We don't leave our chamber (bed chamber; bedroom) in any attire that would be unsuitable for public display.  When we leave the bedroom on any day, at any time, we're ready for worship in the assembly of God's people.  That is, if someone (even unexpectedly) approaches the entrance to my house at the same time I am leaving my bedroom door, and we meet in surprise, my attire would not detract from my Christian testimony, nor would it cause a godly visitor to blush or suffer embarrassment.  Without necessarily having to change my apparel, I could accompany my visitor or companion to a prayer meeting, worship service, or to some act of ministering to another.

In the apparel you wear when you leave your bedroom each morning, would you attend church meetings wearing the same?  We are not saying that you would necessarily want to attend a church meeting in just any item of clothing you own.  I don't want to go to any gathering in soiled or ragged clothing (e.g. clothing in which I have been working and sweating all day long), but there are times when I am caught having to do just that because of unforeseen circumstances.  Nonetheless, the clothing I would be wearing would not cause others to doubt my Christian testimony or cause others to doubt my understanding of Christian separation.  The clothing would be modest and not reflecting a worldly, careless or slouchy demeanor, or indicate that I am more interested in my own comforts and relaxation than in Christ's Holy Name.

We teach our children to be ready to work and minister for the Lord, in both inward consecration and outward testimony, not from the time they exit the house, but [12]from the moment they exit their own bed chamber.  Christian modesty and [13]demeanor are important.  We don't want to make visitors to our home have to guess at what we are prepared to engage during the day.    Further, there is a great value in the preparation that one takes in the mornings toward facing others, even regarding one's immediate family members. The discipline required to present one's self with Christian demeanor sets a tone and establishes direction for family and for all who we may meet early in the day.

When I was a security police dog handler in the U.S. Air Force, we stood what was known as guardmount.  Guardmount was the inspection of our uniform and equipment at the beginning of our shift of duty.  We arrived at the designated place and lined up in ranks at attention, and were given the command to stand at parade rest (to better control patrol dogs while in rank) to undergo inspection.  I don't remember ever seeing security policemen polishing their boots on the way to guardmount.  We didn't put our shirts on when we were approaching the inspection area.  All of us were ready for inspection when we left our room in the barracks.  There's an important discipline in all of this.  We were ready and nobody questioned our intentions on account of our dress.  Our uniform and demeanor exhibited our purpose and direction.  Not only did it have effect on our own minds, but it worked on the minds of all around us - esprit de corp.

Discipline of the Chamber or Secret Place

Not all Christians have a lot of money to spend on clothing.  [14]All Christians, however, can practice modesty and face the world with Christian demeanor.  Ready to serve means read-up in our Bibles (Psalm 91:1; Proverbs 9:17; Song of Solomon 2:14), prayed-up (Matthew 6:6), forgiven-up (beginning the day without bitterness in our spirits toward others. Ephesians 4:32; Hebrews 12:15), and uniformed-up; ready at any time instantly to go minister to others without concern that either our spirit or our outward appearance or habits may distract from our ministering (see Romans 12:7).  This is all discipline of the chamber or closet or secret place.

We are certainly not talking about the uniformitarianism practiced by sects such as the Amish, Old Order Mennonites or Missouri German Baptists.  We are also not talking about the drab and homely dress of the Russian Baptists. Although the dress standards seen practiced by those and other like groups are indeed modest, standards have come to be practiced more for the preservation of their sect than for the testimony of Christ or for just the purity of their children.  Not only so, but these sects are mostly unapproachable to the unconverted: that is, they have neither the Gospel message nor the burden with which to minister to any outside of their sect-making the witness of their modesty practically useless, evangelistically speaking.  What we are talking about herein is scriptural Christian modesty and demeanor and readiness to serve in our every-day walk: not creating robots or automatons or closed unapproachable societies, or Pharisees.

Romans 13:14

But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.

We are talking about dressing properly, and here is a verse that tells us what to put on.  I know full well, my critics, that putting on the Lord Jesus Christ will be done in Scripture reading and prayer, and not in the putting on of material apparel.  But can anyone please tell me what will be the result of putting on Christ, if it doesn't reflect in our modesty and demeanor and what may enhance our testimony for this Christ, our Lord?  And doesn't anyone find it at all curious that the Holy Spirit chose words like "put ye on" just after a negative instruction that involves physical modesty and purity (v. 13)?

Making no provision for the flesh, either our flesh or that of others, is the instruction. Why would Christian wives and daughters want to dress in such ways that invite the fleshly eye of any men; making provision for the flesh of men who are not their husbands?  Clothing that is tight around, and accentuates, the parts of the female figure that are to be reserved for only one man in their life-one husband-is providing for someone's-the wrong person's-flesh.  Clothing that may direct the eye (i.e. pants, form-fitting knit tops, slit skirts) to a woman's or young girl's hidden parts (or those parts that should be hidden) is providing for someone's flesh in an ungodly manner.

Low cut tops, synthetic knit tops, T-shirt tops that form to the figure or are so sheer that they allow a view of underclothing, provide for someone's flesh by attracting the eyes of men.  Yes, yes, critical spirits, I have been around the world enough to know that a filthy dog will lust after a 4X4 gate post, no matter how you try to hide it in shrubbery. And a wicked man will lust after a pure woman even when she is dressed with all purity (2 Peter 2:14).  But there are also professing Christian women who are neither discreet nor circumspect, and do, intentionally or not, attract the eyes of simple men, actually inviting their lust.

We instruct our daughters that their dress standard-modesty as well as style-should actually be a [15]put-off (a dissuader; a discourager) to men.  That is, a man of untoward (lustful) intentions should very quickly get the impression, "That girl would not give me the time of day.  That girl would not cooperate in my brand of fun and amusement.  That girl would not be interested in my advances in the least.  It would be much easier to look elsewhere for a girlfriend."  A man of upright Christian intention should very soon gather, "I had better seek the Lord first, and then the girl's father, if I am to have any hope of getting to know this Christian young lady."  The dress standards seen in the overwhelming majority of churches in our day accomplish nothing but to provide an invitation to date our daughters...and sometimes our wives!!

1 Corinthians 6:19, 20

What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, 

For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

Yes, the Christian's mortal body is a temple.  The holiest Person in the universe resides in this temple.  The purpose of a temple is not to bring attention to itself in either gaudy extravagance or in shameless exhibition. The exterior of the temple ought always to be fashioned and groomed in a manner that will not bring reproach upon the Possessor and Owner of the temple.

The temple which is the Christian's earthy body is part of an entire purchased possession-purchased at Calvary (Ephesians 1:14).  Although it is still sinning while on this earth, the Purchaser is very interested in it.  The Owner is interested in its effective testimony for God's glory during its sojourn here in this world. Then the Owner is interested in its future change-its ultimate sanctification; its glorification (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 1 Corinthians 15:51ff; Philippians 3:12-21; 1 Timothy 3:16).  If the Purchaser-God-is so interested in it, and if the purchase of it for a future sinless likeness to the Son of God was part of Christ's suffering Cross-work, then what should be our present interest in it?

No, we shall never eradicate the sinful nature of our flesh (our body) before our translation in the air.  The sinless perfection doctrine of the holiness movement(s) is heresy. No, we can not ourselves make our body holy by wearing certain clothing or wearing our hair in a particular fashion.  What, then, is our positive duty to God with regard to our earthy body?

• 1. A Christian can agree honestly with God about [16]Divine ownership of his or her body.
• 2. A Christian can decide and determine to be honest with God about whether his or her apparel and habits are designed for his or her own pleasure and comforts, or rather for the purpose of glorifying Christ and being an effective witness to others.

Ira D. Williams, concerning the proper wearing of attire by servants of the Lord, asked the question, [17]"What then ought to be done?"  Her answer in points was:

(1) Aim directly at pleasing God. (2) Aim at promoting the health of the body. (3) Let the dress be made so as to promote neatness, tidiness, simplicity, and good taste; not slouchily or repulsively. (4) Dress so that a sound reason can be given for every article. (5) Let your dress be a rebuke to fashion and extravagance, and a model worthy of imitation. (6) Do not be afraid to profess religion by your dress. Do not shrink from the singularity of being right in this particular.

1 Thessalonians 4:3

For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:...

Please return now to the definition of "sanctification" and know the word well.  Sanctification, then, will prevent fornication.  Do we not want to abstain from fornication? Do we not want our children to abstain from fornication?  Then we must ask: Do our clothing styles tend toward worldly mindedness, or rather toward godliness?  Do our clothes and demeanor attract others to our selves and to our flesh, or do they cause others to consider principles of a much higher order?  Do the clothes our daughters wear suggest potential sexual availability to men, or do they say "You won't find any here, Sir!" (?)

Do our sons dress so as to suggest that they are on a hunt for females?  Does their demeanor and walk reveal an "I'm cool, Baby!" mindset or rather an "I'd like you to know Christ" vision?  Do our sons want girls to think they are "hunks" only waiting around for an invitation to play for the Boston Celtics, or does their appearance suggest that they are in training to hear the Voice and instructions of a holy God for enlistment in His royal service?  Do our sons seek to be the Jimmy Dean (1950s), Elvis Presley (1960s, 1970s), John Travolta or Sylvester Stalone (1980s), or the Bruce Willis (1990s) of our church congregation?  If not, then what are those fly-eye sunglasses, hip-hugging jeans, half unbuttoned shirt with sleeves rolled up above the biceps, gold chain necklace and trick-knee step??  Macho, huh?! Or do our sons have a heart to be manly but meek in a godly way?

And that takes us to verse 4....

1 Thessalonians 4:4

That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;...

This word "possess" is used in the sense of [18]maintaining or keeping in a condition (usually specified) of control or tranquility ; - said of one's self, one's mind, soul, feelings, etcetera ; as to possess yourself under all trials.  That is, to enter into and influence powerfully or to control ; to dominate ; actuate ; - said especially of evil spirits, passions, thoughts, ideas, etcetera ; as, What could have possessed him to act so?  He was possessed with rage.  Those which were possessed with devils. Matt. iv. 24.

So, what possesses your vessel, Christian?  Do you possess your vessel, or does your vessel possess you?!  What possesses your vessel? Hollywood? The Rock-N-Roll, Rap music and the entertainment industries?  What possesses your vessel?  Whatever your friends or classmates might think about your clothing?  Whatever's "Cool?" The fashion magazines or department store catalogues?  What possesses your vessel, Christian?  Whatever Michael Jordan wears?  What possesses your vessel, Christian? Whatever makes you environmentally comfortable?!  Whatever is easiest to work in?

From Personal Embarrassment

When my family first arrived in the Philippines in 1998, I was asked to go along with one missionary to visit another who was confined to a local hospital with some disease that I can't now remember and from which the missionary recovered just fine.  I went along, and entering the private room saw a man lying on top of the bed sheets in terry cloth shorts-very short- and a T-shirt.  A woman in the same room was sitting in a chair with white shorts-very short-something like what tennis players wear on the court; so short that in a sitting position they exposed the thighs nearly all the way to the crotch.  These were missionaries in their late forties; perhaps fifty.  The manner of dress on this missionary wife was her usual summer time manner in public.  I was embarrassed-very embarrassed.

Some time later, that missionary telephoned us and asked if we would like to accompany them to a shopping mall in Manila.  By that time the hospital incident was not fresh in my memory. We accepted, as that missionary had transportation and we needed to pick up a few things.  When they arrived at our house, the wife didn't get out of the truck, so we didn't notice what she was wearing until we arrived at the mall.  When we all got out of the truck, we could then see that the wife was wearing tight knit slacks.  This one hundred-sixty pound (seventy-three kilogram) woman charged forward to walk up a flight of steps to the front entrance immediately in front of us.  When I looked up, there was an overweight posterior right in my face.  What I was forced to view by this inconsiderate woman was something akin to thirty pounds of rice in a twenty pound bag.  As my pastor might describe, it looked like two Tomcats fighting in a burlap sack.  This kind of presentation to those to whom she was not married was neither Christian courtesy nor Christian modesty.  These missionaries had wrongly-possessed vessels, and there was neither sanctification nor honor in what others were forced to view.  Just because the skin itself is covered by some kind of fabric does not mean that the wearer thereof is modest!

Christian Slouches?

One of the most unfortunate illustrations of dispossessed or wrongly possessed vessels anywhere on this earth is found in the dress and demeanor of those (individuals and nations) which have idolized the sport of basketball.  There is little else that indicates a careless attitude, hopelessness, and lack of vision than what you see when men wear basketball jerseys and shorts all day long, everywhere they go. Some of these young men probably actually think that Patrick Ewing wears his team uniform every place he goes! The very appearance betrays everything that Christians are supposed to represent to this world.  The devil, through idolization of a sport and its celebrities, has produced a generation of slouches!!

What is a slouch?  A [19]slouch is one who walks, stands, or sits in a careless, ungainly, loose-jointed manner and has a clownishly careless attitude.  The root words of slouch are slug (worm) and sluggard (lazy individual). Other related words are lag, slack, slow, sluggish, languish, lagger (a loiterer, and idler, one who moves slowly and falls behind).   Slouchy dress and demeanor indicate lazy carelessness, shiftlessness, or indifference.  These characteristics should not be found among God's people.  And if not, why would Christians want to be found in apparel that symbolizes slouchy-ness?  In the Philippines we even observe preachers, who are supposed to be God's men dressed in basketball jerseys and shorts and walking around that way in public.  This is sanctification and honour?!   These preachers will say, "But we are trying to win the young people by playing basketball with them."  Aha!  Sure, sure!  Winning the young people to what?!  It denies the truths and principles of God's word to use the methods of this wicked world to do the work of our holy God.

1 Timothy 2:9, 10

In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel,....

All right, let's stop right here for a moment, because I have already heard the noise of worldly professing Christian women in the background, madly beating on the wall yelling, "...man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart."  (1 Samuel 16:7).  People who quote these kinds of verses, of course, never defer to the context. In fact, they don't even know where the verses are found.  But they, like the devil himself, will use God's words to justify their own wickedness.  Their hearts are no more right with God than their outward appearance is!

The fact is, God gives instruction about the Christian's adornment and apparel precisely because man does look on the outward appearance! Men will gladly look at anything you want to reveal by and through your clothing, women!  They will gawk just as long as they can at the brazier, brazier straps, slip, slip straps and other underclothing you let them see through your immodestly sheer or tight blouses and dresses!  Worldly women, by trying to sound as if they have a handle on the Bible, make our point very well! Christian women! Men are looking at your body in public!  Do you get it?  Do your teenage daughters get it? Do the young ladies in your household understand what men pay attention to when adolescent women reach the blossoming years?  How tight are those tops and sweaters? Yes, the Christian is to be concerned about what he or she wears and how it influences others round about.  We are indeed supposed to question the testimony that our clothing presents.

Immodest Apparel

Let's consider and judge these modern items of female fashion that are quite acceptable to the world today, but are in reality very provocative and seductive, if we are honest:

• 1. Slacks or jeans on girls or women that form to the shape of the thighs, pelvic area and/or buttocks, accentuating the female form, and revealing the line of the underclothing against the flesh beneath, and viewed by males in public. What slacks don't do this?

• 2. Slacks or jeans on girls or women that form to (what are supposed to be) the hidden parts of female genitalia and viewed by males in public.

• 3. Dresses or skirts that are tight fitting and form to the shape of the thighs, pelvic area, buttocks and/or bosom, accentuating the female form and revealing the line of the underclothing beneath, and viewed by men in public.

• 4. Dresses or skirts that form to the shape of the pelvic area or buttocks and accentuate the female motion and [20]gait to be viewed by males in public.

• 5. [21]Spandex and other knit sports clothing that form to the shape of the thighs, pelvic area, female genitalia, buttocks, and bosom, and accentuate the female motion and gait to be viewed by males in public.

• 6. Short dresses, skirts and short pants that attract the eye of the male to the legs of the female. Yes, yes! That is exactly what they are designed to do, and that is what they accomplish! The hem of skirts and dresses should fall well below the knees in the front as well as at the back, in any posture-standing, sitting, kneeling. We insist that the hem line on our women folk in our house be no shorter than mid-calf in length when sitting.

• 7. Slits up the sides, back or front of skirts or dresses that are designed to expose the thigh and attract the eyes of males, just like Peeping Toms trying to see if they can get a view around the edge of a curtain in a woman's bedroom window. Women, don't try to pretend that you don't know that this is the purpose of slits in skirts and dresses. If your dresses were cut properly to fit modestly, slits would be unnecessary.

• 8. Tight fitting knit tops that form to the shape of a woman's bosom and attract the calculating eye of the male who is interested in size and shape.

• 9. Low-cut tops that are designed to give hopes to the Peeping Toms. Yes, again, that is the intended design of the manufacturer. If you have to hold the neckline of your blouse or top every time you board or light a bus, [22]jeepney or tricycle, or merely bending over, then you need to ask yourself whether your top or blouse is designed to attract Peeping Toms.

• 10. Sleeveless tops that also give hopes to the Peeping Toms. Also, sleeveless clothing that is cut to reveal the full shoulder, often including several inches of the back of the shoulder. As stated correctly in [23]The Sin Of Bathsheba:

Sleeveless blouses always reveal too much. Little as you may be able to understand it, your underarms, and the parts of your chest or your back which immediately adjoin them, are very attractive to a man; and a sleeveless blouse cannot but help display these parts.  You must also bear in mind that others will see you from all angles and in all positions, and the armholes of a sleeveless blouse will often allow a man to see inside the blouse, especially when your arms are uplifted or outstretched, thus displaying part of your chest, and probably some of your breast.  The same is true of a short sleeved blouse which has very large or loose sleeves.  This may be perfectly modest as long as you keep your elbows at your sides, but as soon as you raise your arms you create an opening through which a man may see inside your blouse, and this is a great snare to his heart.  Remember you are a woman, and cannot see yourself as a man sees you. I am a man and know what it is to be tempted with such sights. And if only the weakest of your brethren might be tempted by your sleeveless or loose-sleeve blouses, ought you not to deny yourself a little comfort or of fashion, and conceal your body a little better for his good?

      In more recent years, we have noticed a sleeveless style of women's clothing that is not open, nor does it allow a view inside the clothing, but fits snug around the shoulder and underarm. It is, in our opinion, in the "muscle shirt" category, and is designed to give the female a brawny, masculine appearance (tending toward lesbianism!), making it as immodest by definition as any other sleeveless design.

• 11. Sheer fabric clothing that reveals the underclothing or shape, size and movement of what ought to be the hidden parts of the female. Ladies and Girls ought to wear slips that cover and are long enough, too. [24]"Finally reject any material of a very course weave: wear clothing not netting."

• 12. Lightweight clothing that is translucent, through which light reveals shape. This is where the wearing of slips or other proper undergarments is necessary.

I asked my wife to help me in the wording of the items above.  While working on this it was mentioned that weight-that is, overweight-also decreases a woman's ability to be modest in her apparel. Some women have to go to Omar the tent maker to have clothing cut full enough to be modest.  There is no virtue in being big! Obesity is not a good testimony for Christ.  What's the answer?   Stop eating meals in the evening after your exercising has ceased.  Refuse the cake and donuts.  Stop eating all that white [25]rice just before you go to bed, which tends to hang heavy on a female's upper torso and arms.  Breakfast is golden, lunch is silver, and supper is lead.  And white rice at 9:00 p.m. is mercury.

....with shamefacedness....

Shamefacedness is an excess of modesty.  Yes, modesty in the excess.  More modesty than we really imagine to be necessary.  That is the instruction of the Scriptures themselves.  Because "evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse..." it will require an excess of modesty to guard the purity of our children.

Some women dress right on the edge-the borderline.  Their apparel is not quite indecent enough for them to be singled out and denied a place in most church choirs nowadays, but it is certainly not shamefaced-it is not really modest by God's standard-modesty to the excess.

Of course, you will hear the women who complain that scriptural dress standards are hot and uncomfortable.  When body weight is under control, the proper natural (100% cotton, for example) light-weight and light-colored fabrics are used, and the clothing is cut to be loose-fitting, then modest clothing can be cooler and more comfortable.  The problem is not really with the apparel-it is with the heart and the will.  Have you already forgotten?  "....the LORD looketh on the heart."

When we serve in frigid northern China and Maritime Russia women often ask, "How can your wife and daughters wear skirts and dresses in minus forty degree temperature weather?"  "Don't they have to wear pants (trousers) to stay warm?"  It is excess of modesty that hides the fact that under the multi-layered wool skirts are wool leggings and fleece-lined high-top boots.  My wife and daughters are probably warmer than are men in the same environment.

My family and I are from the more temperate climate of the United States.  But we have learned to live and to dress modestly in both the extremes of cold found in Siberia and in the tropical heat of the Philippines.  God's standards of modesty can be kept any place on God's earth when the purposes of modesty are understood and the heart of the Christian is right.

....and [with] sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array;....

Sobriety is having a serious attitude toward these things. Sobriety has to do with sound or superior judgement and inner self-government; self control.

Christian women are not to substitute fancy hair styles, jewelry or expensive items of clothing for modesty itself.  Christian women are not to be gaudy.  Gaudiness is immodesty because it calls attention to the flesh instead of calling attention to the hidden man of the heart-Christ.

Makeup can also be a gaudy attraction to the flesh and invite the baser desires of a male toward the female.  Harlots (prostitutes) use makeup along with jewelry and immodest dress to attract males.  We notice the popularity of makeup particularly among women in their fifties who have lost their youthful skin tone, and their girlish size and shape (too much white rice late in the evenings over thirty years, you know). They have wrinkled faces and/or flabby chins.  They hope to use makeup to restore some kind of youthful beauty.  Well, most of the time it really doesn't work, does it?  It is obvious that there is a woman that cannot age gracefully and is resentful of the fact that she is no longer twenty or thirty years of age. Here is a woman who was never taught the principles of Divine ownership or Lordship. Death is coming and she is making herself up as a model for the undertaker's craft when they lay her in the coffin.

Even when excess makeup on women doesn't necessarily arouse a man's lust, it can still call attention to the wrong things.  Sometimes the makeup is so heavy and thick that onlookers must wonder if the woman is auditioning for the Peking Opera or a Japanese mime play.  Mabeline or Avon must never fear bankruptcy as long as women wear their pancake as thick as a pancake.

      ...adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety;...

      But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works.

Christian woman, what do you profess?  Do you profess to be godly? If not, why not?  Why isn't godliness important to you?  If you are saved by grace, the very same grace is teaching you that you "should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope,..."  (see Titus 2:11-14)  Now, once again, what do you profess?  If you don't have godliness to profess, then you have sin to confess.

Is Short Hair On A Woman Immodest?

Short hair on a woman generally indicates at least two things:

• 1. She is not under subjection to her head (her own husband or father), at least not in her own heart. 1 Corinthians 11:3,4

• 2. Hence, she is more susceptible to attacks by angels (unclean angels; spirits; devils). 1 Corinthians 11:10.

If it is against nature (the order as God created it) for a man to have long hair (1 Corinthians 11:14), and is a shame unto him, then it is also against nature for a woman to have short hair, and it is a shame unto her (v. 6, 15).  "...If the woman be not covered (have long hair), let her also be shorn;,,,,"  A shorn head is a shame as it is like the prostitutes on the streets.

"But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given to her for a covering." (1 Corinthians 11:15).  So, for a Christian woman wanting to "glorify God in [her] body and in [her] spirit," short hair is not an option.

1 Peter 1:14

      As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:

When you were lost and without Christ in ignorance of the Gospel of His Grace, what did you lust after?  How does your current level of modesty and your Christian demeanor parallel or coincide with the fashion of your former lusts?  Note the issue is indeed "fashion."  Come on, women, when you were lost in sin, didn't you lust to look like, or to be like, or to have the popularity of some actress, model or public figure?  Hey, men, be honest!  Didn't you want to dress like or fashion yourself to be like some actor or sports star?

1 Peter 1:15,16

      But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;

      Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.

            I heard the late Dr. Gordon Carpenter (Kansas City, Missouri; Trenton, Georgia) once say, "The Scriptures do not instruct us to do holy things-They instruct us, 'be ye holy.'"

            "...in all manner of conversation;..."  Does this include dress and demeanor? We believe it does.  Your "taste" in dress, if you will, certainly does indicate your manner of life to the inhabitants of this wicked world.  All right, so your lost neighbors don't necessarily think you are evil seeing the way you dress.  But let us ask you, Does your (excess) modesty and refusal to walk in lock step with this world's fashions give pause to your neighbors and prompt them to consider why this world is an abhorrence to you?

            Christian, do you not realize the importance of holiness?  How holy is God?  Is that not enough reason for us to be holy?

1 Peter 3:1-6

...ye wives...

      While [disobedient husbands] behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear

      Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel;

      But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.

      For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands:

      Even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement.

Chastity.  Purity.  These are to be the conversation of wives.  The adorning on the outside ought not to distract from the wives attempts to point husbands and others to "the hidden man of the heart" - Christ!  A meek and quiet spirit is in the sight of God of great price. A haughty or brash or bossy or authoritative or masculine or noisy spirit in a female is of no value to God whatsoever, and invokes God's judgment upon nations (Isaiah 3:16-24; Jeremiah 4:30-31). So, do any still want a female President for the United States?

Models for womanhood are the holy women of the old time (Old Testament): Sarah (Genesis), Manoah's wife (Judges), Hannah (1 Samuel), Abigail (2 Samuel), Esther (Esther), The woman described in Proverbs chapter 31, Anna (Luke), Mary the sister of Martha and of Lazarus (Gospels), others.  And some from the New Testament are available: Dorcas (Acts), Timothy's mother and grandmother (1 Timothy).

The Issue of Trousers (Pantsuits or Jeans) on Women

Deuteronomy 22:5

The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God.

One great problem with trousers or pants on the female is that they tend to affect the movements, walk and gait of the female in her everyday work and concourse.  Women in trousers tend to become less feminine and more masculine.

Another problem is that trousers on a woman tend to attract the male eye to parts of her female form and figure that should be reserved for one man-her husband.  Women in pants, jeans or shorts tend to become less conscious and more careless about how they sit and how they hold their legs when sitting.  In pants, young women (particularly) tend to be very loose and tend to open their legs in invitation to the male.  In skirts and dresses, they are more likely to hold their legs together and be guarded in their deportment.

Skirts and dresses are safer.  The flowing design of a skirt or dress on a woman (who is careful about her weight) makes it easier to guard and hide the parts of her female figure that should not be accentuated for a shamefaced appearance.

We realize that the modest and discreet wearing of clothing and proper manners of sitting and walking are areas of necessary training.  A woman can have a very sloppy and indiscreet demeanor even in proper attire.  A girl requires training in manners and etiquette from an early age.  Again, this is part of what Titus 2:3-5 is all about.  Older women in the church have a ministry to younger women in these areas.

Now someone will no doubt pose the question: "What if my daughter goes horseback riding?  How can she do this in a dress?  Well, ladies used to ride horses side-saddle in dresses.  All right, do you want to know the view of this father of adult and teenage daughters?  Take a full-cut skirt (of denim or other durable fabric) that has seams in the front and back, and that does not hug the hips.  It should be mid-calf or longer in length.  Then take a panel of light but durable (say cotton) fabric, and sew it, inside, down the front seam edge (seam allowance) and down the back seam edge.  That is, one leg will be on each side of the inner, unrevealed panel.  The panel should be of enough material so that it will not decrease the fullness of the skirt.  It will extend from the bottom of the skirt upward to reach between the thighs.  This simple panel will allow a young lady to ride a horse or a bicycle (or engage in other activities) modestly, as the breeze or motion of the animal or bike will not expose the thighs.  The panel will hold the skirt in a covering position.  My wife, reading this, reminds me that our sixteen year-old daughter has ridden horses in wide skirts even without such a panel as we've described, and has done so modestly.  The key words are: wide skirt.  Hip-hugging skirts are not for riding horses, but then, Christian ladies and girls don't wear hip-hugging skirts, at all, anyway, do they?  (sarcasm)

Titus 2:3-5

      The aged women likewise, that they be in behavior as becometh holiness,...

      ...That they may teach the young women...

To be discreet, chaste...

The "aged women" have a ministry in the church!  This booklet contains an outline of much of that ministry.  First, the behavior of the aged women must be "as becometh holiness."  Then, they are to teach-yes, hold class-formally or informally, for the younger women of the church on the subjects of discretion and chastity.  These words and subjects are fairly well defined in this work.  "Aged women" who will not undertake this ministry are disobedient to the word of God, and they are watching the generations after them slip off into the wickedness of this world.  They are sitting idly by as the churches where they are members decay into worldliness.  Their failure in this ministry is a tacit approval of the carnality of the churches, as well as a contributing factor to homes having no testimony for Christ.

Proverbs 7:10-12

      And, behold, there met [a simple one] a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart.

      (She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house:

      Now is she without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait at every corner.)

Some girls in churches are dressed like harlots (prostitutes).  I dare say that most, if not all, who read this book have seen harlots in big cities like Manila, New York, Hong Kong.  Just look at the way they dress to allure the eyes of men!  Now be honest!  Hasn't this attire become popular fashion even among women who are not actually working to deliberately sell sexual "services?"

Have we not noticed high school girls, who do not really intend to be known as harlots, hanging around on street corners with boys?  The modern street corner has become the fast food restaurant, the shopping mall and the Internet café.  Girls sit around at McDonalds and [26]Jollibee with boys (even with sodomites-[27]bakla and tomboys!), inciting passions while they exchange cellular phone numbers.  Training for harlotry; one day they may be selling.

Leviticus 18:6-17 (& see 20:17,19)

(Please see the long text on pages 2 & 3)

God does not approve of nakedness any more than drunkenness or covetousness or idolatry.  The Lord's churches have no business promoting or sponsoring activities that tend to promote nakedness, such as swimming parties, where people take their clothes off.  With all that the churches have to do in this world to bring the lost to Christ and edify the children of God, why(?), may I ask, would a church be interested in activities that would be a stumbling block for weak believers, and produce temptations even for mature Christians?  Do we lack so much in discernment?  I'm afraid there is no such discernment left in the churches of our day, generally.

Isaiah 47:2

Take the millstones, and grind meal; uncover thy locks, make bare the leg, uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers.

      Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and I will not meet thee as a man.

Please read the entire context of this passage.  Note that "mak[ing] bare the leg, uncover[ing] the thigh" are included in the Scriptural concept of "nakedness" and "shame."  These are characteristics of that nature of things that brought God's judgment.  Alright, just pray about it, Christian, will you?

The Christian's Understanding of the

Unisex and Sodomite ("Homosexual"/"Gay"/"Fag"/"Dike")

([28]kabakla-an)

Movements

...we are not ignorant of [Satan's] devices.

2 Corinthians 2:11

In Manila and other cities in the Philippines, we have noticed effeminate male nursing students lunching and frolicking with female nursing students. We have noticed vary many males wearing female style tunics.  I have been curious about how they actually button up, but there is no doubt that these garments are a female, effeminate cut, being worn by male nursing students.  Are all of these male students sodomites? We can not determine this, although most of them are effeminate.

Know ye not  that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,...shall inherit the kingdom of God.

1 Corinthians 6:9,10

Upon inquiry among some of those students I learned that the styles of nursing uniforms are intended to be "a-sexual" or "unisex."  One girl told me that the teaching is that with a unisex style of uniform, female patients are more comfortable with male nurses and aids.  Another told me that many female patients are more comfortable with "gay" (that is, sodomite) male nurses.

So we see that whether clothing is feminine or masculine or "unisex" does steer or lead minds and attitudes.

We also see, on a daily basis in the Philippines, women dressing to approximate the male just as close as their own figure will allow.  And many women are so barrel-shaped from too much white rice at ten o'clock p.m. that their female form can be hidden quite easily.  Their hair is cut short with a male-style taper; off of the neck and off of the ears, and parted just like a man. We see these women as police and traffic enforcement officers.  We see them as helmet-wearing construction workers.  We see these women in male business attire, carrying briefcases, waiting for trains on the Metro Rail Transit platforms.  We see females dressed like off-hours male lumberjacks and electric company linemen.

Femininity is lost from the females!  What does it produce?  I can tell you, most definitely, that it produces confusion in the minds of children who need to see the biblical distinctions that God created (Genesis 1:27; 2:21-24).  This confusion further tears down the barriers against sexual perversion-it removes resistance to a sodomite mentality in individuals and in the society as a whole.  Yeah, it encourages sodomy and lesbianism!  Yes, confusion of the sexes and their roles will encourage sodomite luring, experimentation and entrapment.  Such confusion is created through the use of attire.

Our children need to be taught early that.....

[29]HOMOSEXUAL SEX IS AN ABOMINABLE SIN.

"Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination."   Leviticus 18:22.  See also Leviticus 20:13, Genesis 19, Romans 1:18-32, I Corinthians  6:9-11, I Timothy 1:10, and Jude 7.

GOD HATES ALL WORKERS OF INIQUITY.

"The foolish shall not stand in thy sight, thou hatest all workers of iniquity."  Psalm 5:5.  See also Leviticus 20:23, Leviticus 26:30, Deuteronomy 32:19, Psalm 5:6, Psalm 11:5, Malachi 1:3, Matthew 7:23, and Romans 9:13.

JESUS CHRIST IS THE SON OF GOD, AND HE CAME TO EARTH TO DIE FOR ALL, AND HE DID DIE FOR ALL, BUT ONLY THOSE WHO BELIEVE WILL BE SAVED.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."  John 3:16. See also John 13:1, John 17:9, Ephesians 5:25, etc.

DON'T CLOSE YOUR EYES, HEART AND MIND AND CHOOSE BLINDNESS AND IGNORANCE INSTEAD!  DON'T DEVELOP A REPROBATE MIND!  DON'T STAND BY AND DO NOTHING WHILE YOUR OWN CHILDREN DEVELOP A REPROBATE MIND!

"Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again, He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them."  John 12:39,40.  See also John 10:11,26, Matthew 11:25,26, Acts 13:48, Romans 9:19-24,  etc.

THE ONLY HOPE THAT [SODOMITES] HOMOSEXUALS HAVE IS TO HAVE THE UNAMBIGUOUS TRUTH PREACHED TO THEM, AND PERHAPS GOD WILL SOFTEN THEIR HEARTS AND GRANT THEM REPENTANCE TO DEPART FROM THEIR SIN AND NAME THE NAME OF CHRIST.

"Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity."   II Timothy 2:19. See also II Timothy 2:24-26, Psalm 5:5, I Corinthians 6:9-11, Acts 17:30, Jude 22,23, etc.

THERE IS A HELL WHERE ALL UNBELIEVING SINNERS WILL RESIDE FOR ALL ETERNITY.

"And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh."  Isaiah 66:24. See also Mark 9:44, Luke 16:23, Revelation 20:15.

IN SUMMARY, SODOMITES ARE....

.... wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly (Gen. 13:13), are violent and doom nations (Gen. 19:1-25; Jgs. 19), are abominable to God (Lev. 18:22), are worthy of death for their vile, depraved, unnatural sex practices (Lev. 20:13; Rom. 1:32), are called dogs because they are filthy, impudent and libidinous (Deut. 23:17,18; Mat. 7:6; Phil. 3:2), produce, by their very presence in society, a kind of mass intoxication from their wine made from grapes of gall from the vine of Sodom and the fields of Gomorrah which poisons society's mores with the poison of dragons and the cruel venom of asps (Deut. 32:32,33), declare their sin and shame on their countenance (Isa. 3:9), are shameless and unable to blush (Jer. 6:15), are workers of iniquity and hated by God (Psa. 5:5), are liars and murderers (Jn. 8:44), are filthy and lawless (2 Pet. 2:7,8), are natural brute beasts (2 Pet. 2:12), are dogs eating their own vomit and sows wallowing in their own feces (2 Pet. 2:22), will proliferate at the end of the world bringing final judgment on mankind (Lk. 17:28-30), have been finally given up by God to uncleanness dishonoring their own bodies among themselves, to vile affections, and to a reprobate mind such that they cannot think straight about anything (Rom. 1:23-28), have wholly given themselves over to fornication and gone after strange flesh (Jude 7), must be pulled as faggots from the fire (Jude 23), and have no hope of Heaven unless they repent (Rev. 22:15). They need to hear this truth if they are to have any hope of deliverance, faith in Jesus Christ and salvation (I Timothy 4:2-4).

The nation's young people are being taught in the public schools to be "tolerant" of those with "alternative life styles."  Sodomy (homosexuality) is not a lifestyle, but rather a death-style.  It is the first and greatest means of the transmission of the H.I.V. (AIDS) virus and other common sexually transmitted diseases.  It is also a means of the spread of numerous other kinds of diseases, adverse physical conditions and damage to the body.  The God who created male and female did not make the human body to function as the sodomite perverts seek to make use of it. It causes damage physically, morally and spiritually. Yet, the Philippines public allows the wicked and abominable sodomites to parade in the streets and even publicly befriend young people in public places such as fast food restaurants.

We often witness sodomites, transvestites and otherwise effeminate males sitting with high school students in fast food restaurants such as McDonalds, Jollibee and other places; laughing and joking; propagating their effeminacy and moral wickedness.  Often we see groups of female classmates, and among them will often be one or two effeminate males using female gestures and tone of voice.  These female young people do not understand that they are serving as the teachers and models for a wicked pervert who will further invoke the judgment of God upon this nation.  What does God say in His word (the Bible) about effeminate (sissy, girlish) males?

            "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind [sodomites],

            "Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God."  1 Corinthians 6:9.

Look at the list!  You will see the wicked criminal element among which God, Himself, places effeminate males.

One very major reason there is such an epidemic of sissy-girlish-effeminate men in the Philippines is because of the powerful matriarchal culture that exists here.  So many women are not ashamed of their brawny masculinity.  So many cut their hair short and in a manly style - so many wear manly looking business attire.  So many women in the Philippines are the de facto heads of their homes, leading their husbands around as if they are children or servants, or even like pets!  The women's rights movements of the West and of the United Nations have invaded the Philippines.  Many Filipinos bewail the influence of western nations in the life and culture of the Philippines-they like to think of themselves as distinctively Filipino-proud of it!  Yet Filipinos tolerate the blatant and brazen immorality, perversion and wickedness produced in the west and exported to the Philippines through the film industry, the Rock-N-Roll music culture and the United Nations (UNESCO).  The women's rights movements are all a part of this.

GOD ORDAINED THE MALE-THE MAN-TO BE THE HEAD OF THE WOMAN!

            "...and thy [the woman's] desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." (Genesis 3:16)  "But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God." (1 Corinthians 11:3).

Every nation that rebels against the ordinance of God in this matter reaps the consequences by raising effeminate and sodomite sons!  Then God will judge and destroy the nation that raises and tolerates the effeminate and sodomite males!

DO YOU REALLY WANT FILTHY EFFEMINATE (SISSY, GIRLISH) AND SODOMITE MALES SERVING YOUR FOOD AT RESTAURANTS ??

If you were aware of the utter pigpen filth practiced by sodomites (something like the filth of dogs in the streets in subdivisions where you live and work), you would shun their service.  Do you really want to place in your mouth food that is handled by people of such debauchery and filth?  And how can you be sure that those effeminate males who work at the counters at McDonalds, Jollibee, Greenwich and other restaurants aren't sodomites who practice such filthy acts?

A NATION SEEMINGLY FULL OF PARENTS WHO HAVE GIVEN THEIR CHILDREN OVER TO PEOPLE UPON WHOM GOD HAS PRONOUNCED JUDGMENT

Parents!: Do you know where your children are after school?  Do you know who their friends are?  Do you know who sits with them at the fast food restaurants?

We observe openly sodomite cross-dressing transsexuals sitting with groups of uniformed high school students in restaurants in Lipa City and Batangas City-exchanging cellular phone numbers, laughing, joking.  What is their purpose?

Sodomites cannot reproduce-they must recruit!!

Sodomites cannot reproduce-they must recruit your sons...your sons!  Sodomite teachers in public schools will teach that it is acceptable for men to have sex with men.  They must recruit your sons!  Pro-sodomite film and TV producers must constantly make light of sodomy in their wicked arts.  They must get you to giggle and laugh at sodomy and effeminacy so that you will become tolerant and accepting of filth and wickedness.  This is because the sodomites intend to recruit your sons!

Again we ask, do you know where and with whom your children spend their time?!  Who is influencing their moral mindset?  Can you be sure that the public schools are not being used to erode the morals of your children and teach acceptance of and tolerance toward sodomy to your children?  What about the Catholic schools where so many priests are sodomites?!

PREVENT THIS WICKEDNESS IN YOUR OWN FAMILY

You and your entire family need to be regenerated - saved by God's Grace through the Person and redemption work of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Without Christ, you will spend all of eternity with sodomites.

Admit to God, your Creator, that you are hopelessly lost; a violator of His Holy Law and an offender against His Holy Person.  "...Jews and Gentiles,...they are all under sin; As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood: destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes." (Romans 3:9-18)

You say, "That doesn't describe me."   Friend, your high opinion of yourself is that from which you need repentance.  It is a stumbling block preventing you from being saved.  When you admit to God that you are on your way to Hell and that you deserve to go there, God will let you fully understand the righteousness you need-the only Righteousness that can secure your eternity with God.  That Righteousness is Christ's own, which is given as a free gift to those who believe correctly about themselves and about what Christ did for sinners at the Cross.

Christ died for your sins-all of them!  Christ died in your place-as your substitute in the judgment of God for sin.  "[Christ] his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed." (1 Peter 2:24) "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: (1 Peter 3:18)

If you will admit your hopeless, sinful condition before a Holy God, repent of your own self-righteous efforts to earn salvation by your own merit and religion and believe that the sufficient payment has been made for your sins by the death of Christ, you may know eternal life.  God the Holy Spirit will change you and make you think right about the issues of life, including those discussed in this booklet.

YOU MUST OBEY GOD CONCERNING YOUR HOME AND THE REARING OF YOUR CHILDREN

You must read the Bible-believe it-obey it concerning the proper education and training of your young people.  If you refuse or ignore the truth of God's word with regard to sodomy and sodomites, your family and your nation is subject to very grave consequences.  God will judge your nation for its wickedness and refusal to obey the Bible.

DO NOT TOLERATE SODOMY IN YOUR SOCIETY !

Tell the restaurant managers that you don't want sodomite or effeminate males handling your food.  Don't accept their service.  Stand up and declare what God declares in His word.  Know where your children are-who is teaching them-what they are being taught!

FATHERS!  Watch the behavior and friendships of your sons-they are in danger! If they are becoming effeminate in speech, gestures and manners, they will be targets of the sodomites and trophies of abomination.  It is up to you to correct this.  God will hold you accountable!

Evidence That Leaders in the Philippines Business Community Accept Effeminate Males and Filthy, Perverted Sodomites Without Fear of Moral Rebuke.

Philippines Air Force Captain Edward Montero recently wrote to [30]McGeorge Food Industries (McDonalds Philippines) in Manila to remonstrate the company's practice of employing effeminate males and sodomites.  The following is from the letter to Brother Montero of one Butch E. Salaya, Customer Services Consultant, dated January 24, 2002.  Note that it appears to be a standard published (in their manual) answer.  In other words, the words are not original, but are at least trained-apparently taken from a manual of, for example, "How to answer the public when you receive questions on certain hot-button issues."

With regard to your concerns [about sodomites working in McDonalds restaurants], we are an equal opportunity employer. Our employees go through a rigid selection process to determine the most qualified person for the position. McDonalds believes that employees and applicants for employment should be treated fairly and without regard to race, color, sex, religion, national origin, age or any other prohibited basis.  We continuously strive to maintain an environment in which everyone feels valued, accepted and rewarded as an integral part of the team.

[31]IN PERILS OF SODOMITES

(A Published Tract)

"But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly."  Genesis 13:13

Murder is not uncommon in the Sodomite community.

Research on the five leading U.S. serial killers in the [32]A.P. article indicates they are all homosexuals.

These five leading serial killers are: 1) Donald Harvey (37 murders); 2) John Wayne Gacy (33 murders); 3) Patrick Wayne Kearney (32 murders); 4) Dean Corll, Elmer Wayne Henley and David Owen Brooks [acting together] (27 murders); and 5) Juan Corona (25 murders).  These statistics are from The New York Times.  The New York Times mentions some additional homosexual serial killers not included in the A.P. article.  These include Bruce Davis of Illinois (28 murders) and Stephen Kraft (16 murders).  William Bonin (14 murders) is listed by both the A.P. and The New York Times as a leading serial killer [that] is homosexual.  The most celebrated of the recent homosexual killers, of course, is Jeffrey Dahmer of Milwaukee.  Dahmer was implicated in 17 serial killings."                             -The Wanderer

This does not mean that all sodomites are serial killers.  It does mean that the leading serial killers are [all] sodomites.

To the foregoing list of Sodomite killers we must add two more serial killers. Henry Lee Lucas and his partner Otis Toole were both Sodomites.  These two boasted of committing 600 murders.

Otis Toole never made it to the death chamber.  In 1990 another inmate killed him.  Henry Lee Lucas was executed June 30, 1998 in the State Penitentiary at Huntsville, Texas. (New York Post, 6/18/98)

The Nazi executioner Ludwig Tiene in Auschwitz was a murdering Sodomite. ([33]WCU article)

That the Sodomite community has been and continues to be a source of murderous sexual violence is a fact which has been covered up by the modern press.  The case of thirteen-year-old Jesse Dirkhising is one case in point. Dirkhising was bound, gagged, and tortured to death by two Sodomite men in Benton County, Arkansas on September 26, 1999. Yet the mainstream press has refused to give Jesse's death a scintilla of the coverage it has given the case of Matthew Shepherd, the young homosexual who was killed by two strangers with whom he left a Wyoming bar.

Another recent example of sodomite violence covered up by the press is the December, 1999 arrest of two men in Pakistan. A December 7, 1999 Associated Press story reported that the men were being held for the molesting and murder of at least 100 children who were then put into barrels of sulfuric and hydrochloric acid.

Another recent story given little play in the news media has been the case of the Sodomite Colombian man who has confessed to molesting and killing 140 children: Alfredo Garavito.

...murder which is all too commonly committed by members of today's New Sodom. Volumes could be written to further document the disproportionate violence of all kinds perpetuated by the homosexual community.

On a final note, one might well ask: Why on the average do homosexuals tend toward violence so much more than the rest of mankind? The answer is found in the Bible.  Romans 1:24 says that God gives Sodomites...'up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts,...'  Romans 1:28 tells us concerning such sexual perverts, 'And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient.'

Those Sodomites are doing the lusts of their father the devil, as Christ said. The bewildering thing is that Christians and other moral people in this country are so naïve in their dealings with the homosexual community and of the need to recriminalize homosexual acts.  (ibid)

(end tract)

-----------------------------------

What does the subject of sodomy have to do with Christian modesty and this booklet in particular?  The laxity and indifference in standards of Christian modesty and demeanor in our times is an encouragement to the proliferation of Sodomite acceptance in society.  By neither taking a stand against the 'normalization' and 'legitimization' of Sodomy, nor being light and salt in our Christian public standards and bearing, we tacitly approve of the overspreading of Sodomite wickedness.

The Trust of Modesty

I was recently reminded of a family that lived on the adjacent block in the neighborhood where I grew up from birth to age eleven.  The family's name was Owens.  Tall, lanky, redheaded, freckle-faced Kenneth Owens was a classmate of mine at Ruus (public) Elementary School. We became friends due to our interest in brass musical instruments.  Kenneth played the trombone and I the trumpet.  We often practiced together and played duets.  My family and I knew that Kenneth was positively much different from my other classmates, and Kenneth's parents were much different than most other adults in the neighborhood.  It was somehow a difference to be trusted.  I was allowed to be with Kenneth and allowed to spend time in the Owens home without question.

One day my parents were asked if I could accompany Kenneth to their church for one evening of a revival series.  Kenneth was asked to play his trombone for a special number and he wanted to play a duet with me.  My parents consented, and the Owens family picked me up in their car.

The Owens' church was a Four Square Gospel (Old-style Pentecostal) church.  I discovered church that night that was anything but boring.  Everything that happened in that meeting kept my eyes wide open!  The dullest music in the service was that of us two eleven year-old horn blowers, but all present made us feel like we had really glorified the Lord.  It was the first time I ever heard "Amen"s, shouting and spontaneous testifying and singing.  It was my first sight of people raising their hands to the Lord or in motions that gave encouragement to the preachers and to the singers.  I was amazed and not a little frightened by the ones who took off running or threw themselves on the prayer altar.  My comments here are in no way meant to suggest that all of the doctrine was correct in that Four Square Gospel church.  I learned later that it was, of course, not all-correct.

Those people, however, were definitely not of the modern charismatic movement(s) we see today.  I learned later that most of those people were from families who had moved to California from southern Kansas, Oklahoma and northern Texas during the dust bowl (drought) days of the 1930s. The old-fashioned Pentecostal Holiness movement was where they had found anchor for at least several generations.  Their music was the old-fashioned hymns of the Christian faith.  The preaching was meant to burn sin out of people-the preachers would preach the Hell out of you.  These Pentecostal women wore full-cut dresses near to their ankles.  There were no chests being exhibited, and no arms could be seen above the elbows, either.  There was no jewelry, and if there was makeup, it was very discreet.  The young, unmarried women displayed long beautiful hair, some of them had hair that reached the backs of their legs.  Most of the older or married women had their hair up on top of their head or tired (tiered) around the back of their head. There were no veils on women-they believed 1 Corinthians 11:15 in their King James Bibles, literally.  Amen!

Those Pentecostal men were equally modest.  Few men wore neckties.  Few had suits.  Most had either white or plaid long sleeve shirts buttoned all the way to the neck: no T-shirts, no pullover golf shirts. They wore full-cut long trousers and all wore either black or brown dress shoes.

The dress and hairstyles of those folks did not make them holy.  God did not accept them on the basis of their attire.  If any were children of God, they were "accepted in the beloved" Son of God on the basis of His merits and Blood, just as any other sinner has ever been accepted.  I'm sure that among those Pentecostal people there were Pharisees at heart.  I am equally sure that among them were also some folks of a humble, consecrated spirit.  Point: neither salvation nor position in Christ is determined by what you wear or how you fix your hair.

Consistency of Testimony

There was, though, a characteristic about those people that I have learned is very valuable in this life as we serve the Lord.  That characteristic is consistency of testimony. Stability.  Unlike those of the modern Charismatic movement, the folks I have described above did have a consistency in their walk. The way we saw those Four Square church members in their meetings was just exactly how we saw them in the supermarket and at the post office.  It was how we saw them at the filling station.  It was how we saw them in the malls.  It was how we saw their children in school, and them at the PTA meetings. It was how we saw them in the parks on Independence Day (American, July 4th) or in their yards mowing the grass, tending the garden, painting the fascia boards or washing their cars.  And their countenances were the same.  They talked openly about the Lord-to each other as well as to their neighbors.  We saw them reading their Bibles (they all had King James Bibles) on the bus and in the waiting room at the dentist's office.

I learned that the modesty and consistency of those Pentecostal people engendered trust.  Yes, trust.  Their neighbors trusted them with their belongings.  Parents trusted them with their children.  My parents (father, Roman Catholic; mother, Baptist) could not articulate the reasons they had for trusting the Owens family, but if they knew that I was at the Owens home after school, they didn't worry for a moment about my activities.

Yes, modesty and consistency engenders trust.  People will trust us more readily when we Christians are not merely riding the trends of our society and culture-or worse, the trends of Hollywood, the television entertainment industry and the sports world.

After I came to trust and know Christ (December, 1977), and after I was in the ministry for a few years, I met many old-fashioned Baptist people who had the same character, modesty, consistency and stability that I had seen as a boy in those Four Square church folks.  I didn't meet many separated, modest, consistent Baptist people in California (although there must have been some).  The Baptist people I have met who understand something about consistent trust-engendering modesty and purity have been mainly in the Carolinas, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Virginia, that is, throughout what many people have termed "the Bible Belt."  Since my own conversion and call to the ministry, I have often thanked the Lord for people who could be trusted for sound Bible doctrine as well as in other practical issues of life.

Professing Christians who don't pay attention to what Hollywood stars are wearing are more likely to be trustworthy.

Professing Christians who ignore the entertainment industry as a model for dress and behavior (as well as styles of music and spoken vernacular) are more likely to be honest with you.

Professing Christians who don't give any heed to the fashions of sports celebrities are folks less likely to cheat you and take advantage of you.

A Professing Christian young man who wears his ball cap sideways, because black professional sports stars or entertainers wear them that way, should not be given the time of day regarding practical issues of life.  His conversation is in this world, not on things above.

Professing Christian men who think life is wearing a numbered basketball jersey and court shorts, because all his buddies wear them or because he finds his idols on the professional basketball teams, should not be taken too seriously, especially if you are looking for help in the Christian ministry.

Professing Christian women who cut their hair short, because that is the style of the modern educated and liberated woman, should not be allowed one hour alone with your daughters.  They are neither spiritually nor intellectually safe - and perhaps not even morally safe - with your daughters.

CHRISTIAN: If you think that style and manner of dress (and hair) has no connection to attitude, vision and purposes eternal and temporal, you are sadly mistaken and ignorant of Satan's devices.

When Rules Governing Modest Dress & Behavior

Become Necessary

We don't like to make rules.  We don't want to make rules.  We would rather hope that Christians could learn to "serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter."  (Romans 7:6)  Let's be frank, however, and admit that professing Christians in our day have grown dissatisfied with and weary of old-fashioned, God-honoring holiness.  We have lost the fortitude to stand among our friends and relatives and truly be different for the cause and testimony of Jesus Christ.  We now take the paths of least resistance and fewer questions about our Christian peculiarities.

Rules become necessary when...

• 1. ...dress and behavior affects the testimony of the church (or family) in the world.
• 2. ...dress and behavior affects the testimony and/or character of a particular work of God (i.e. a particular ministry of the church or a seeming move of God) in the church.
• 3. ...the absence of rules or known standards tend toward earthly corruptibility of the church (or the family), or tend to allow the blending of the church with the world in the eyes of those who are without (as well as those who are within).
• 4. ...the absence of rules or known standards tend toward a confusion of purpose in the minds of God's people (I am thinking most particularly of young people), or tend to cause departure from Scriptural, spiritual objectives.
• 5. ...rules would tend to edify weaker or less mature believers in the work, while the absence of rules would tend toward stunted growth (hence worldly-mindedness or what I call "cultural cling") in the spiritual life of young or weak believers.

Why do schools, companies and organizations in the Philippines and many Asian countries require specified uniforms on students, workers and members?  While serving in Hong Kong in 1992 and 1993, we noticed that the most modestly dressed young ladies in the Colony were middle and high school girls in school uniform.  Why would these public(!) schools mandate these uniforms, even to the length and fullness of the skirts, the styles of sleeves and neckline?  It is because even the unregenerate education system in Hong Kong knows very well that regulated modest dress on young ladies will cause the least amount of distraction, and help to limit (though not totally eliminate) boy-girl exchanges during school hours and activities.  The full-cut skirts, half or three-quarter length sleeves and tight necklines on girls draw the minimum attraction from boys across the classroom and schoolyard.  By the same token, the half-sleeved, white shirt and tie, and dress slacks on the boys produces the minimum in "hunk" and "macho" attraction.  When we arrived in the Philippines, we noticed that public and private schools have similar regulations of dress.  Many companies have similar rules.  These kinds of rules are borne of a discipline that is meant to help accomplish a known objective, by eliminating a distraction from, or stumbling block in the way of, that objective.  Are the public schools in the Philippines and Hong Kong wiser than God's children in these matters?

Our seeming praise of school uniforms is not meant to suggest the use of uniforms for church, family, school or for society.  With Christian judgment used in Christian undertakings, Christian modesty and demeanor can be achieved without uniformitarianism.  Christian means, in this sense, the possession of the Holy Spirit and having access to His wisdom and discernment.  Christianity is not to be equated with sets of rules.  Christian parents need to kneel together and pray over the purposes and objectives God would have fulfilled in the family - in the upbringing of the children.  Most of the time, professing Christian families have objectives far below those that would yield ultimate glory to Christ, and this determines the (low or absent) standards which tend toward worldliness in appearance and demeanor.

Yes, rules are sometimes necessary, and woe be unto the person (often a local church pastor) who is caught in the position of having to "lay down the law." His popularity ratings will plummet, regardless of his God-ward heart motives and genuine love for those who demonstrate a need to be regulated.  He will be labeled "legalist!" "Pharisee!"

At What Age Should Children Learn Modesty?

Why not dress our baby girls in modest length dresses from birth?  Yes, dresses all the way to the heels.  You say, "But the stores don't sell dresses for new-born or infant girls."  What you mean, then, is that you will have to learn to sew clothes for your baby before she is born, or very quickly afterward.  Why not get our children accustomed to godliness from the time they exit the womb?

Yes, we know that you will put your baby girls in pajamas and sleepers.  But when they are awake and begin to move around, and sense what is touching their skin, why not let them feel a dress hem touching the back of their little calves so that dresses and skirts are not strange to them later?

Why do professing Christian parents think that everybody wants to see their babies naked?  Why are baby girls taught to expose their flesh from infancy?  Why are girls taught to wear sleeveless and T-strap dresses by Mom dressing them in sun dresses when they are one, two and three years of age?  If you teach your two year-old girl that it is all right to expose her shoulders, back and chest wearing a sun dress, then what has she learned?  When she is fifteen years old, she will be exposing her shoulders, back and chest to fifteen year-old (and older) boys!  You say, "But the girls understand the difference when they reach adolescence."  If they understand the difference, then why are the girls all over your city still exposing their shoulders, back and chest into their teenage and adult years?!  Yes, they learned to expose their flesh at age two!  And they never did learn any difference between two and fifteen.  And further, why should they be taught that there is a difference?  Nakedness is nakedness whether it is at two years of age or twenty-five years of age!  If you approach it this way, you can eliminate the struggles and trauma of correcting the habits of immodesty when your daughters begin to develop into adult women.

Nakedness is nakedness whether it is among females or males.  Why do we tolerate men exposing their naked torsos to either our sons or to our daughters?!  Why do men think they are cooler working in the sun with their shirts off?!  When a man takes his shirt off, the sun easily evaporates all moisture from his skin.  The cooling capabilities of the body's perspiration are eliminated.  The sun beats upon the dry skin and damages the skin cells.  Color pigment does not alter this  phenomena.  Men in any part of the world who remove their clothing while working under the hot intense sun are more susceptible to skin cancers.  A light-colored cotton shirt serves as a barrier to the damaging rays of the sun, and helps the skin to retain its moisture.  Any breeze that God may send along will be a blessing as it cools the moisture under and permeating the cotton cloth.  No covering-no moisture for the breeze to cool.  More importantly, our daughters don't need to see the nakedness of men; nor do our sons need to see it.

Why do professing Christian mothers allow their daughters to expose themselves even among each other?  No, it is not cute or amusing for girls to gaze upon the private parts of other girls.  It opens the door and temptations toward lesbian (female to female sexual perversion) behavior.  The same is true for little boys exposing themselves to other little boys.  Sodomy, being so endemic in the Philippines, one would think Christians would be more circumspect. 

Why would a professing Christian mother disrobe her little daughter in a department store isle in sight of others-in front of boys, too, to try on apparel?  What is she teaching her daughter?  Why would a professing Christian parent wash his or her naked children outdoors at the water spigot for the world to view?  In the Philippines, especially (but likewise anywhere in the world), parents ought to know that sodomites and pedophiles are taking advantage of this type of exhibition.

Good habits can be practiced that make modesty easier later on.  Examples include:

• 1. Mothers can learn to be very discreet in the way that they nurse their children when in public.
• 2. Baby diapers can be changed away from the view of others.
• 3. Little boys can be dressed in knee-length or longer pants and trousers from infancy.
• 4. Little boys can also be deliberately dressed in half-sleeve shirts or modest T-shirts rather than tank top or sports court tops. Little boys certainly need to wear a shirt of some kind and not be allowed to run around with a naked torso.
• 5. Little boys can be taught to use a comfort room (rest room) and not to urinate in a public place.

We have, unfortunately, witnessed public urination all over Asia (except in Hong Kong where it is not permitted at all), but no where as disgraceful as in the Philippines, where teenage boys have done this directly in the middle of the road as our van (carrying teenage female passengers) approached.

• 6. Mothers can teach their daughters how to sit properly in public (modest demeanor). That is, daughters should know how to control their legs and arms to guard themselves from men who are looking for an invitation to practice what is in their perverse hearts (see Mark 7:21-23). Trousers and shorts on a girl do not encourage her to be conscious of the need to guard her chastity. Trousers and shorts, by their very design, give away the view of the female form and, thus, ultimately weaken her resolve to guard herself.

Recently in a shopping mall in Alabang (Metro Manila, Philippines) we witnessed a tall girl, who appeared to be about thirteen years old, with (we assume) her mother and perhaps the second woman was her grandmother.  The girl was wearing white short shorts.  She was very free with the movement of her legs-sometimes crossing one ankle over the other knee; sometimes spreading her legs widely and stretching them out so that her heels were touching the floor and her toes pointed upward.  The openings in the shorts were loose and she would reveal far too much.  Well, she was revealing far too much even to reveal her thighs to men, but I mean she was giving an exhibition! I had to change my own seating position so that I would not be facing her.  This young teenager was perhaps not even conscious of what her immodest dress and demeanor could invite. Maybe she was aware!  The two adult women accompanying her were obviously not concerned about how the girl exhibited herself in public.  This girl, I would guess, has rarely worn a skirt or dress except for her school uniform, if that.  One thing is certain: no older woman has spent time with this girl to teach her how to guard her purity.

Even two year-old girls can be and must be trained in proper demeanor.  Yes, very little girls can be taught etiquette and propriety.  It does take conscious effort on the part of mothers and the elder women in the church.  It takes time and it requires dedicated practice sessions with little girls, something like this:  "Now, Martha, you sit in this chair, and let us see you sit for ten minutes today.  Please sit with upright posture, knees together, and feet flat on the floor.  You may hold and read this book while you sit.  Please sit very still and quiet, and I will tell you when ten minutes has passed.  Then you may go and play."  This positive training can begin with five minutes per day and increase up to an hour or even more.  During these sessions, the child can read, or be read to, or can memorize Scripture.  The child may listen to some Gospel or other wholesome (classical, folk, other) music.  Or the parent or other adult can have a real conversation with the child for a change.  This type of training is beneficial and recommended for young boys as well.  Let us caution that it is very difficult to begin this after age nine or so-but it still may be instituted if necessary in children even older than nine.

In the training exercise just described, stillness and quietness are essential elements (see 1 Peter 3:4; 1 Thessalonians 4:11).  If the legs sway back and forth, or the feet are "dancing," or if the child whines, then you have not reached your objective.  Yes, [34]corporeal discipline-[35]the rod-may be necessary, and if necessary, then use it.  The earlier this discipline is instituted, the easier it is to achieve effective results.

The question we ask is: At what age should our children learn modesty?  Our answer is: Our children should learn modesty from the time that they are born our children-from birth!  Doing so will save Christian parents much grief when their children are fifteen and sixteen years of age.

Closure

After more than fifty pages of text, we have not in any way exhausted the subject of Christian modesty and demeanor.  We hope we have introduced enough principle to provoke you to pray earnestly about your walk with the Lord and your conversation in this world.

It is not our heart's desire to destroy the reader's Christian liberty. Brethren and Friends, we are burdened for your children and your family.  Some fears are healthy. Fear of the sodomite onslaught on our generation is one very healthy fear.  Fear of our children exposing themselves to wickedness because of lack of discernment in these matters is another healthy fear.

      This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.

      For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,

      Without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, [36]incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,

      Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;

      Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

2 Timothy 3:1-5

Christian, we beseech you by the mercies of God to labor to protect your home in these last days.  Protect your children.  Use your Christian liberty to edify other of God's people and the church.  God's grace be upon you.

[1] Pluralism. def.  3 a: a theory that there are more than one or more than two kinds of ultimate reality b: a theory that reality is composed of a plurality of entities  4 a: a state of society in which members of diverse ethnic, racial, religious, or social groups maintain an autonomous participation in and development of  their traditional culture or special interest within the confines of a common civilization  b:  a concept, doctrine, or policy advocating this state.  Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition, 1993, 1998. 

      In other words, a pluralistic society is one in which there are no absolutes.  Truth so-called or reality so-called is determined by competing and antagonistic special interests, including false religious interests and persons and groups that promote moral wickedness (sodomites, women's' movements, etc.).

[2] Mormonism (the so-called Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, L.D.S., Salt Lake City, Utah, USA) and the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (R.L.D.S., Kansas City, Missouri, USA) are good examples of religious movements that attract the world as clean, virtuous, respectable people-good, hard-working citizens, and all of that.  Their doctrine, however, is antichrist and damnable.

[3] There are some exceptions to the rule in a few localities.  One example is a pastor in north Florida, USA, whom God has apparently used to (almost single-handedly) keep his entire county "dry" (meaning alcoholic beverages may not be sold by the drink) for many years.  Thank God for that, and yet the paradox is that the families in his own church are weak, and there have been many separations and divorces over the same years.

[4] Merriam-Webster's English dictionaries and those of most other companies published after 1935 should be used very carefully and with some suspicion.  The Humanist Manifesto (I.) was out and in raved acceptance and circulation by that year.  Humanism (the official state religion of the United States of America) has swept the education elite (the de facto ruling scholars union) in the United States and all other English-speaking nations, and will be seen in the modern dictionaries, encyclopedia and other reference books of the West, particularly.  Whereas the 1828 Noah Webster's, the 1913 Webster's New International, and the Oxford Unabridged retain the examples of usage from the Holy Scriptures (KJB), such references quickly began to be withdrawn after 1935, especially from dictionaries commonly promoted and used in schools.

[5] "Judeo-Christian" is one of the most faulty descriptions that can be given to America, but it is one clung to by politicians, educators and preachers alike.  We suppose "Judeo" comes from the fact that the Ten Commandments and further moral code from the Pentateuch (Five Books of Moses), which certainly did direct the morality of America for 150 years or so, is handed to us from the Hebrew Scriptures of the Old Testament.  "Christian" comes from the fact that the founding fathers and their documents and declarations were the fruit of the influence of King James Bible preaching from the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries.  The concepts of liberty that formed the basis of law for the American republic were heard from the pulpits of Congregational, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist pulpits in those early years.  There would be no Bill of Rights amending the Constitution for the united States of America had it not been for the insistences on liberty made by Virginia Baptists in 1787.

[6] Very many national pastors preach a nationalistic Christianity and nationalistic set of church principles that mingle Bible truth with cultural expediencies.  God doesn't work with mingled Seed, however, and so we must declare that what exists in most Baptist churches in the Philipines is not New Testament Christianity.

[7]   We ask that our readers pay special attention to this particular part of the definition:..., modesty springs no less from principle than from feeling, and is manifested by retiring, unobtrusive manners, assuming less of itself than others are willing to yield, and conceding to others all due honor and respect, or even more than they expect or require.  Note that principle is to guide feelings.  Style of apparel for the Christian is not just a matter of personal taste or comfort.  The choice of our clothing also has to do with conceding to others all due honor and respect.  This is included, we firmly believe, in the admonition to believers regarding Christian courtesy: "Finally, be ye all of the same mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous:..."

[8] Study Psalm 144:12 (with its context) for how we ought to view the testimony of our daughters. Few Christians-fewer "fundamentalist" Baptists- take God's words seriously in this matter.

[9] So the first two definitions in the Webster's New International, 1913, along with that of Noah Webster in 1828 are said to be obsolete and archaic, are they?  Is it not strange, then, that the very first definition found in the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition, 1998 is exactly : 1 obs : CONDUCT, BEHAVIOR.   The definition of Noah Webster is still the definition used in the American courts at least as late as 1951, according to Black's Law Dictionary, Fourth Edition.  So while still maintaining this as an obsolete definition, the dictionary editors cannot get around your King James Bible or do otherwise than to give God's definition as the first one that students of English come across in 1998 and beyond!

[10] Modesty rail.  A solid wooden (or other) rail or wall perhaps 32 inches high which separates the choir on the platform in a church building.  This rail is so called because it hides the legs of any (especially female) who sit on the front row of the choir.

[11] "body language."  The use of gestures of the arms, legs or entire body to suggest attitude, personality or demeanor.

[12] We have learned that our children's practice of the general principle of the [bed]chamber being the boundary with regard to modesty in dress has helped them to avoid being embarrassed or being an embarrassment when staying in other people's homes or while attending camps or camp meetings.

[13] DEMEANOR, n. Behavior ; carriage ; deportment ; as decent demeanor ; sad demeanor.  Milton.

CARRIAGE, n.  [Definition No.] 6. In a moral sense, the manner of carrying one's self ; behavior ; conduct ; deportment ; personal manners.   Bacon.  Dryden

7. Measures ; practices ; management.   Shak.

DEPORTMENT, n. [ Fr. deportment.]  Carriage ; manner of acting in relation to the duties of life ; behavior ; demeanor ; conduct ; management.    Swift.

MANNERS, n. plu.  Deportment ; carriage ; behavior ; conduct ; course of life ;  in a moral sense.

Evil communications corrupt good manners.   1 Cor. xv.

2. Ceremonious behavior ; civility ; decent and respectful deportment.

Shall we, in our applications to the great God, take that to be religion, which the common reason of mankind will not allow to be manners ?      South.

                                            Noah Webster, 1828

Behavior ; deportment ; carriage ; bearing ; mien.

His demeanor was singularly pleasing.        Macaulay.

Bearing, n.  [Definition No.] 2. The manner in which one bears or conducts one's self ; mien ; behavior ; carriage.

I know him by his bearing.            Shak.

Websters New International Dictionary, 1913

[14] We are taking into account new believers in primitive tribes in such places as South America, the Pacific islands and other places, where clothing and material to produce clothing are not always available immediately at the time of the conversion of these precious children of God.  We believe, however, that the issue of modesty does strike the conscience of Christians even in primitive settings where nakedness is the common daily appearance.  These things are matters of Christian growth and edification.  God can and will provide for His children to fulfil all His will in these regards, even in tribal churches. We recognize the need to proceed with all grace toward these brethren.

      What we are and should be concerned about with regard to our topic here is not so much tribal people coming out of darkness to light, but the fact that nations which have had Light for centuries are now rejecting the Light (Scripture and its precepts) and  returning to the morality of the jungle-the wickedness of the idolatrous pagan.  Such is the case with England, the United States, Canada and Europe.

[15] This in no way implies that women or girls have to be ugly or unbecoming or ridiculous in their attire.  Women can indeed have beautifully designed clothing that is modest and shamefaced, and direct the view of all to the Savior-the hidden Man of the heart.  This should be included in the teaching ministry of elder women to younger women in the churches.  What is wrong with Christian Modesty Design and Sewing Classes?!

[16] Apart from the subject of Christian modesty and demeanor, which is the focus of this booklet, Divine ownership of (even) our body is a subject that needs to be taught to our children when they are very young.  This teaching needs to continue unabated through the youthful years.  We believe these things of "peer pressure" and "generation gap" are actually artificial psychological coverings over wickedness-the wickedness of the heart.  The young person who understands the Lord's ownership of his or her body (and yes, they can understand it from early childhood) avoids fixations upon their body relative to what others their own age think about them and their appearance.  Amazing! So many want to insist that children can understand the Gospel at age four and be saved!  And we agree that four year-olds can indeed be saved.  Now I insist that nine and twelve year-olds can understand Divine ownership of their body, and to the extent that "peer pressure" is all but eliminated, and people think I am crazy to suggest it.  Do they really mean to say that a child can understand the work of the Cross of Christ and yet not be taught the work of the Holy Spirit in the believer?  Divine ownership (Okay, Lordship, if you will), can indeed be grasped by children.  It is not necessary, in the least, for young people to go through rebellious years and break their parent's hearts.

[17] Taken from the syllabus The Virtuous Woman, The Christian Fellowship, Route 1, Box 137 B, Long Branch, Texas  75669 USA.  Contents from this syllabus for your further study are available free from The Christian Fellowship or from Asia-Pacific Scripture Study Association as the Lord provides.

[18] Webster's New International Dictionary, 1913

[19] Webster's New International Dictionary, 1913

[20] gait.  1:  a manner of walking or moving on foot.  Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition, 1993, 1998.

[21] "Spandex" is a brand name, and is used also to describe generically a type of synthetic elastic fabric that is popular to many sportsmen, particularly cyclists, gymnasts and skaters.  It is a cling fabric that can appear to be painted on.

[22] jeepney.  For those reading this who have no knowledge of the Philippines, a jeepney is a vehicle fashioned after the appearance of a military jeep, elongated and oversized, and most commonly  used for transporting passengers as a means of public transportation.  Jeepneys are also used to transport goods.

[23] The Sin Of Bathsheba is an article by an unknown "Brother in Christ" and published in The "Hiding" Place.  We quote from it here as it appears in the syllabus The Virtuous Woman, The Christian Fellowship, Long Branch, Texas.

[24] ibid.

[25] Rice at every meal in the Philippines is no longer just an economic necessity (inexpensive protein and energy starch) as it might have been in the past-it is culture.  It seems that even middle class and wealthier Filipinos don't accept pastas, potatoes or breads as substitute starchy  staples for rice.  Rice is really an institution of culture.  We once hired a Filipino carpenter for several days.  I instructed my daughters to feed him a very good lunch, which they really did!  On the table were two meats, salads, stir-fried vegetables, macaroni with cheese, boiled buttered potatoes and bread.  The carpenter looked over the spread-all his, and much more than he could possibly eat-and he responded, "Where's the rice? I must have rice, please."

      Our own pricing reveals that white rice is no longer really cheaper than good varieties of unpolished, brown and red rice.  Eating rice at every meal is not sinning, Amen!  But what is it about a mind set that it refuses to improve the nutrition potential by insisting upon white polished rice, and refusing unpolished, brown or red rice?

      We know a Filipino man who claims to be well trained in reflexology (from Chinese medicine and mystical arts), vitamin therapy and preventative medicine and nutrition.  We watched him at a church dinner as he lifted the lid from a pot of unpolished brown rice, then the lid of an adjacent pot of polished white rice.  Which was his choice?  He went without question for the white rice!  We questioned him to the effect, "Don't you agree that the unpolished  brown rice is healthier and isn't that your interest-keeping people healthy?"  He was irritated that we had even asked the question, and he refused to entertain it.  I wouldn't trust that man with my health.

[26] Jollibee.  The name of a Filipino national fast food restaurant chain.

[27] bakla. ,Tagalog colloquial, Sodomite (male);  tomboy.  Filipino English colloquial, Lesbian.

[28] kabakla-an.  Tagalog colloquial, sodomy.

[29] The information here on sodomy (homosexual sex) is printed and available in tract form from  the Asia-Pacific Scripture Study Association.  It includes some material written by Baptist Pastor Fred Phelps of Topeka, Kansas, USA, and some written by the author of this booklet.  The tract is modified for local Batangas Province, Philippines application.  Disclaimer: Our use of a limited amount of material from Pastor Fred Phelps in no way constitutes an endorsement of his overall ministry.  Phelps is a Reprobation Doctrine hyper-Calvinist, and we suggest no involvement in his ministry.

[30] Christians reading this can write to McGeorge Food Industries, Inc., 17^th Floor, Citibank Center Building 8741 Paseo de Roxas, Makati, Metro Manila.  Their Fax number at publication is +63-02-815-4543.

[31] From the published tract by the same title.  Editor and publisher unknown.  Asia-Pacific Scripture Study Association intends to reprint this tract in the Philippines.  Write to APSSA for availability.

[32] A.P., Associated Press International organization.

[33] WCU, Perhaps, World Correspondants Union.

[34] Too much sugar or other chemicals in the child's blood and tissues make positive training in stillness, quietness, etiquette and demeanor very difficult indeed.  If a child just cannot sit still for an increasing period of time, and the rod seems ineffective, the content of the child's diet may be one of the problems.  Cut out the sugar, candy and other sweets.  Replace the sweets with raw fresh vegetables and fruits.  Cut out the packaged snacks, especially those with food colorings and preservatives.  All of these things can produce hyperactive reactions in children.

[35] the rod.  Study and memorize Proverbs 13:24; 19:18;  20:30; 22:15; 23:13,14; 29:15,17.  Also see our book, Pauline Instruction for the Home.

[36] INCONTINENT, a. [ L. incontinens.] Not restraining the passions or appetites, particularly the sexual appetite ; indulging lust without restraint or in violation of law ; lewd.   Noah Webster, 1828