The Ten Commandments of Holiness

But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy (1 Peter 1:15-16).” 

I learned holiness in Pentecostal churches which got their's from the Weslyan Holiness Momement of the 19th Century.  So for me, holiness was was following the Ten Commandments of the Holiness Movement which were given to us from the very hand of God (not really, but believe me when I say, they were treated like they were from the hand of God).  So here they are:

And God spake all these words saying, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, out of the house of bondage.

1.  Thou shalt not have alcohol before me.  Thou shalt not drink it in the bars or the restaraunts, or in your homes, and especially not in the communion cup.  For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that drink alcohol; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and drink non-alcoholic beverages.

2.  Thou shalt not use profanity; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that swears.

3.  Remember to wear long dresses that are not colorful.  Keep them holy and not holey.

4.  Every day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God:  thou shalt not dance, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy pets, nor thy friend that is within thy house: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: the Lord thy God did not dance on any of those days.

5.  Thine women must not cut the hair: that their hair may be long upon their backs which the Lord thy God giveth them.
 
6.  Thou shalt not wear make up.
7.  Thou shalt not listen to Rock and Roll.
8.  Thou shalt not smoke.
9.  Thou shalt not go to a movie.

10. Thou shalt not gamble. Thou shalt not gamble for thy casino's jackpot, thou shalt not gamble for thy  country's powerball, nor the state's, nor shalt thou play cards, nor look at any thing that looks like gambling.

The reasons I heard as a young Christian for these unwritten rules:

1.  I was told that in the Bible days, there was new wine (which is non alcoholic) and old wine which has fermented and turned into alcohol.  Jesus and other Bible characters only drank new wine.  Unfortunately for this line of thought, Hosea 4:11 suggests that new wine may have packed a punch.  New wine was any wine under a year old and was inferior to the older wines which tasted better.  By the way, non-alcoholic wine (grape juice) was invented in 1869 by Thomas Welch who pasteuized grape juice to keep it from fermenting.  He did this so communion would be without alcohol, but his church didn't like Welch's grape juice and kept to regular wine.

2.  I don't know the history to the ban on swearing, and I don't know why it is considered bad among many Christians.   Neither have I ever heard any sermons on it that I remember.  The Bible does emphasize the importance of words and what one says.

3.  Peter tells women to dress modestly without focusing on makeup for their beauty, but this can also be interpreted as, "focus on the inner qualities more than the outer."   Holiness followers (Pentecostal and non-Pentecostals) are veering more and more away from the extreme modesty they practiced in the past.  So although some churches still require long and colorless dresses, others have abandoned this practice entirely.

4.  I hear that dancing is erotic and leads to sex, so it is bad, unless it is in a church service, with a good hymn, and carries little or no rythm to it.  Dances that are encouraged were the shakes, the jitters, the swoon, the jumps, the passed out on the floor, and the run around the sanctuary shouting and praying in tongues.  This rule is also changing in many of the churches as new generations enjoy and practice dancing outside of the church.

5.  The apostle Paul said a woman's hair should be long because it is her glory and covering because of the angels.  This has been interpreted differently, and the only one

6.  Same as number 3.

7.  Rock and Roll was the music that came from Africa and was the music of choice when Israel worshiped idols (when Moses came down from the mountain he heard noise in the camp).  No kidding, I actually heard a well known Pentecostal preacher say that the noise he heard, coming down the mountain when Israel was worshipping another god at the base of the mountain, was rock and roll music.  Rock and Roll is the cousin to Country Music (both branched off from the Blues), and was and is accepted by all as good music.  In fact, Southern Gospel is solidly Country and has always been accepted without question. 

8.  Smoking is bad for you.  Not many would argue with this.

9.  Going to a G rated movies somehow supports the X rated ones.  At least that is what I was told.  I think this came out of the fact that some of the early silent movies played in the same theaters that held burlesque shows on other nights. 

10. Gambling is considered evil too, moreover, playing cards were of the devil with roots in evil images.  When I went to school we were not allowed to have playing cards, so everybody brought Uno.  I think cards are now accepted, although I can't confirm that.

These were the rules that kept me holy, seperated, and apart to God.  Even while many of these fell apart and are disintigrating in most Pentecostal and Holiness circles, there was still the pressure to keep these rules - not because they were biblical but because of their witness to non-believers.  I was taught that if a non-Christian saw me go to a movie or dance, he or she would be hindered from becoming Christian.  The same is true for any one of these.

On the other hand, if they saw that I avoided dancing and drinking, they would so want to become like me and become Christian.

Like I said, most Pentecostals and Holiness believers are changing, and many of these commandments are no longer important.  When I recently visited some of my old schools, I saw that kids were allowed to go to movies, play with real playing cards, and dress normally.

Pentecostals and other groups are still admonishing Christians to dress modestly, keep from getting drunk, keep to good movies, avoid addiction to gambling and so on.  I think that they are rightly seeing that using wisdom and moderation is better than following rules that are losing their meaning.

WHY THE CHANGES?

1.  I think many Holiness and Pentecostal churches are moving away from their list of taboos in part because large churches and the mega churches do not have as much control on behavior as small churches.  As more and more Christians flock to big churches, there is far less acountability and less demand on living a certain way.  Nobody watches, nobody keeps tabs on what you do or how you live, so the need to conform is no longer there.   As a result, swearing, drinking, gambling and smoking are not always frowned upon - they may be ignored or effecitvely hidden; but the are not the evil they once were. 

2.  Any group that comes into contact with another group leaves changes in both groups.  As the Holiness groups came into contact with the outside world, both were changed, and both continue to influence each other, so women are wearing make up, cutting their hair and wearing fashionable clothes.

3.  The reasoning behind many of these commands are falling away.  Rock and Roll is no longer the music of sex and drugs and Satan.  It is every day music in almost every office.  Christian Rock and Roll permeates the churches and is even played as worship in many churches.  Theaters that play G movies no longer play the X rated movies.  And slowly each generation is abandoning many/most of the basic 10 Commandments of Holiness.

I sometimes wonder what will happen to Christianity if there is another revival like that of 1858 or the Welsh revival of the early 1900s.  Will we see some of these commandments make a resurgence?  No doubt, some commandments will not return, but we may see others come back in force.

MY PREDICTION

Even though the 10 Commandments of Holiness will further disintigrate in the next few years or decades, there will be a revival of some of them years from now.

I think drinking in moderation will be emphasized and drunkenness will be put away from the churches.

Smoking will continue to lose popularity with church goers.

As a revival hits the churches, I think we will see less swearing among Christians (especially at their homes).

Gambling, while accepted in moderation, will lose its popularity during time of renewal.

While dancing and movies will continue to become more and more acceptable, Christians will visit the dance halls less than normal.

Rock and Roll will not go away, but will become more and more accepted in Christian circles, even in church worship.  Eventually, other forms of music will threaten to drown out Rock and Roll, but there will always be come backs. 

Finally, as revival sweeps the churches, I believe that hymns will become more popular, even among the young.

Anarchy, the Judges, God's Government

GOD'S POLITICAL SYSTEM

Throughout the hundreds of years the Bible was written, only 2 eras followed God's design for government.

The first was the era from Moses to Samuel.  During this 200 year period, Israel had no king except God. The form of government was called a Theocracy. 

Beginning in the desert with Moses, Israel set up a tent for God called a tabernacle.  Whenever Israel moved from place to place, the tabernacle was set up in the center of the camp, which was where kings usually set up their tents.  But there were no kings in Israel because God was their king and that made Israel a Theocracy.

Because there were no kings in Israel's Theocracy, there were no standing armies and no armory to speak of.   As a nation, Israel was supposed to depend upon God for protection and direction.  This left Israel incredibly vulnerable, so from time to time, neighboring nations invaded, took cities, stole crops and cattle and did whatever they wanted.

Israel saw this as a sign that the local gods were not pleased, so they intensified their dedication to these gods only to find things getting worse.  Eventually, when they realized that the local gods were incapable of or unwilling to helping them out, they turned to God who then helped them by raising up a military leader (called a judge) who led them into battles that would help deliver them from the foreign pillages. 

After battles were won, the people served God for the life of the military leader/judge.  When the judge died, the people went back to the gods of the past.  And when the judge died, Israel was without a central leadership until once again a new deliverer would be needed, and was propelled into leadership. 

In this Theocracy, prophets and priests were crucial, because they were God's messengers who gave people and the nation whatever message God had for them.  On the other hand priests took care of the tabernacle, and eventually (in Samuel) took a more prophetic role by speaking for God.  Compared to kings, prophets and priests had very little power.

After about 200 years of this, for the sake of personal survival, Israel began copying the nations around them in 2 consecutive steps:

1.  In Samuel (a priest), they began looking for continuous leadership - expecting that his sons would take his place when he died.  Even Samuel himself accepted this unspoken and unwritten deal by planning and preparing his sons to follow him in leadership.

2.  Realizing Samuel's sons were neither good leaders, nor capable of protecting them from ever growing threats on every side, the people demanded that there would be a king chosen who would raise up a standing army with real weapons that were designed to kill people.  Their neighbors were already building their armies under their kings, leaving Israel legitimately vulnerable and scared.  The people saw the need for the strength that only a king and his trained army could give.  And so after 200 years of Theocracy, Israel started a Monarchy with their first king who was Saul.  And when Saul became their king, God's choice of government ended.

In Anarchy and Christianity, Jacques Ellul points out that this 200 year time period best reflects what we would today call Anarchy which is not the type of Anarchy described by today's conservative radio political blasters.  The Anarchy that Ellul describes is closer to that of the type that flourished in Europe and Russia and somewhat with  many of the U.S. workers almost 100 years ago.

This type of Anarchy seeks to get rid of every part of the political state (whether it is Communist, Capitalist, or Socialist) and give power of political decision making to the people. 

During the time of the Judges, the Bible says that there were no kings, so everybody did what was right in their own sight.  Ideally speaking, during that 200 years, God was their king, with prophets serving as messengers and priests serving as God's house servants; but in reality most of the time, people ignored God and thus were on their own, living very closely to a pure Anarchy.

When the people turned to a king in order to protect themselves, the Bible makes it clear that this was a rejection of God's form of government for His people.  Nevertheless, even though it was not God's will to change governments, God gave in to the people and supported Israel's decision, letting them know that having a king was not the ideal government that they all thought it would be.

This whole episode in the Bible tells me two things:

1.  God wants us to trust Him more than standing armies, nuclear weapons and a strong state.    This is something very few people of today would allow, agree with, or put into place; even though it is in the Bible.

2.  God will support and work with most governmental systems we put in place.  After some warnings and some hurt feelings, God blessed and supported the Monarchy Israel wanted.