Expert: Dr. Ronald E. Shultz - 6/21/2011

Question
Hello,
  I just read an article in a newspaper from a recent grad of Yale Divinity School who says that homosexuality is OK with God because only one man, the apostle Paul says it is sin and Paul also says in 1 Corinthians 11:14-15 that it is a shame for a man to leave his hair grow long or a woman cut hers short.  He said if Paul was so petty about hair length he was not qualified to judge homosexuals and if he is wrong about hair length he is also wrong about homosexuals.  This is very confusing.  While I see this grad trying to cut the bible up into acceptable and unacceptable pieces why does Paul say this about hair and does this grad have a point?

Answer
If you look at it in the context Paul was defining in the very beginning of the passage the eternal, non-changing roles of God to angels, God to man, man to woman.  God meant the genders to be separate and distinctive. Men and women were to have distinctive clothing and women were not to wear that which pertaineth to a man.  (Duet 22:5)  In Corinth, male prostitutes wore their hair long and in a feminine style.  Women cut their hair short to show that they were prostitutes.  In one of the temples a woman devotee had to either sacrifice her virginity to the priest or have her hair shorn or cut making her look like a prostitute.  That would be shame that would linger until she grew her hair back and possibly could have put her in harm's way if she refused the solicitations she would get, especially if the man was drunk.  Thus to forsake what was the natural order of men with short hair and women with long was a sign of debauchery or rebellion much like it became in the 20's when an opera singer bobbed her hair to throw off the last shackle of male dominance and the 60's when men grew their hair like women in rebellion to the "establishment."  

The woman's long hair was given to her as a covering and as a veil.  Remember the angels?  Look at Isa 6 when the angels are worshiping before the throne.  They have six wings.  Two they use for flight, two they cover their face and with two they cover their feet.  That is humility and submission represented.  The woman also is given her hair that can act as a veil when she prays and since it is with her always she can be ready for prayer and worship anytime anywhere.  If she loses a cloth covering she still has her hair.  Also, considering they wore long gowns (katastoles) when she kneels in prayer her feet would be covered as well and thus she is in the same attitude, at least outwardly, as the angels in worship.  My Mennonite friends really latched on to that imagery.

The external often betrays the internal though outward piety may not always indicate inward piety.  The demons described in Revelation have the face of a man (bearded) and the hair of a woman (long).  Man, sounds like the 60's doesn't it?  What happened in Corinth was that some were adopting the hair styles of the world without comprehending the meaning or why the genders should be distinct.  Paul denounced it and just like many other issues that people do not want to agree with they try and discount Paul's writings.   Women preachers call him a sexist because he said that women should not teach and that pastors are to be men.  Yet, Peter agreed that what Paul wrote was of God though even he sometimes found it hard to understand.  (2 Peter 3:16)

Paul was chosen by God to teach the Gentiles and was used to write most of the NT.  That makes it very hard to discount what he says about anything.  We are living in an age of apostasy.  Of course, everything he said is going to be disliked by someone.  Not only him, but every other man of God used to write Scripture.  No big deal, but if it is in the Book then it is the Word of God.  I really do not like the doctrine of Hell, but I was not asked if I liked it and I cannot change it.  I submit to the Word.  It does not submit to me or any culture.  The culture is to submit to the Word.  

Since God led Paul to speak to the hair issue and then issue a blanket statement that none of the Churches of God are to variate from the standard means we may not understand or think it trivial but we are to obey it nonetheless.  We still see the hair issue to this day and we have gone from the bobbed and rebellious of both genders and are headed towards androgynous hair styles meaning we went from gender reversal to gender neutering contrary to God's order.   So, is it a cultural issue of Paul's time or a satanic tactic that he uses throughout time and cultures especially in the end times?  

1 Cor 11:16 But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God. KJV

1 Cor 14:36-38

36 What? came the word of God out from you? or came it unto you only?
37 If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.
38 But if any man be ignorant , let him be ignorant. KJV

1 Cor 7:6 But I speak this by permission , and not of commandment. KJV

1 Cor 7:40 But she is happier if she so abide, after my judgment: and I think also that I have the Spirit of God. KJV

In the one place that it appears that it is only his opinion, he was given permission of God to say it thus meaning that God concurred with the statements or they would not have been allowed to be given.  He ends it the same way as saying it is his judgment, but he thinks he has the Spirit's consent to say so since he had permission of God for the whole teaching.

In the end, God was still in the midst of the writing so whether it was by commandment or permission it still carried the same weight.

The grad has no point except that of the axe he wishes to grind. Peter affirms Paul's ministry and teaching as also did the church at Ephesus who sent him out and also the Jerusalem Council when he was called to report to it.  He spent three years one on one with Jesus in the wilderness.  Do you really think God would allow him to be petty or nit picking when he was chosen to write what he did?  I don't think so.  If it is in there, it is the Word of God and His thoughts about every subject from cover to cover.  

May the Lord grant you wisdom and discernment as you minister to the unbelievers.