Expert: Dr Eddy Cheong - 7/21/2004

Question
I feel a tug on my heart..

In the Bible (old testament) when the people came to pray to the Lord they covered their shoulders and head. Where does it say that it should not be done any longer?

‘‘Make for yourselves tassels [g'dilim] on the four corners of the cloak [k'sut] that covers you'' (Deuteronomy 22:11 MBV).

The command noted from Deuteronomy 22:11, is that it is to be a k'sut, or covering, and it is emphasized twice to be a ‘‘cloak [k'sut] that covers [k'sut] you.''

‘‘You shall keep My statutes...a garment of mingled linen and wool shall not come upon you'' (Leviticus 19:19). ‘‘You shall not wear a garment of different kinds, as of both wool and linen'' (Deuteronomy 22:11).

Tell me .. are we, the people on earth wearing garments we should not be waring? Are we going againts the law of the Lord? and following the inovation of man's way, that is leading us to the wrong ways of life?

Blessings - geno


Answer
Below please find an article on veiling which I wrote. I hope it answers your question...
VEILING
1 Cor 11:3-5
3 Now I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. 4 Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head. 5 And every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head-it is just as though her head were shaved.
NIV
We must remember that God's order of things differs from that of the world. Our thoughts and actions must conform to scripture and not the other way around.
The order of headship and authority is reflected in the following sequence: God the Father-Jesus the Son-Man-Woman. ANy attempt to challenge this order of authority is rebellion or witchcraft.The Man's head reflects the Image and Glory of Christ, whilst that of the woman's reflects the Glory of Man. Therefore to show that the woman has her husband as the head according to God's order of things, she should in a sense "cover" her head. By covering her head she is more or less acknowledging that she has no 'head' of her own but submits to her husbands' headship. I hope we are clear up to this point.
1 Cor 11:6-10
6 If a woman does not cover her head, she should have her hair cut off; and if it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair cut or shaved off, she should cover her head. 7 A man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of man. 8 For man did not come from woman, but woman from man; 9 neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. 10 For this reason, and because of the angels, the woman ought to have a sign of authority on her head.
NIV
To re-emphasize the point again, according to verse 9 above  "A woman ought to have a sign of authority on her head."
1 Cor 11:12-16
13 Judge for yourselves: Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? 14 Does not the very nature of things teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him, 15 but that if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For long hair is given to her as a covering. 16 If anyone wants to be contentious about this, we have no other practice-nor do the churches of God.
NIV
Nature (in its perfect form) reflects God's creative will. The hair of a man grows faster than that of a woman and Nature intended this for two purposes, viz,
1. To make Man distinct from Woman (For He created Man and Woman and not something in between). Deut 22:5 says explicitly that a Man should not wear a woman's clothing and vice versa. There is nothing wrong with a woman's clothing except for the fact that God intended that a Man should look like a man and a woman like a woman.
2. To allow her hair as a covering or sign of authority upon her. So verse 15 above says "Long hair is given to her as a covering and followed by we do not have any other practice in the churches of God (paraphrased)". God gave woman long hair as a covering or sign of authority on her head. There is no command or need to wear a headscarf or veil.
Even in the Old Testament there is no explicit command for a woman to be veiled. The examples of veiling in the Old Testament showed that it was a custom among the Jews to veil their women but there is no command in either Testaments pertaining to veiling.
If the above argument stands then it is imperative that a woman must have long hair (let us not split hairs and try to define what is long for what is outward is just a reflection of the inward. In other words, if a woman is rebellious she will insist that her short hair is actually long). It follows from this argument that a Man must not have long hair because nature has not bestowed this on Man and secondly in order to reflect the image and glory of Christ the Man must leave his head "uncovered" i.e. his hair must not be long to cover this glory. I hope so far that the explanation is clear. Since we are at this point it is worth mentioning that the demons mentioned in revelation 9:8 had women's hair. It is also no co-incidence that rebellious pop musicians and the like, love to sport "long hair".
Rev 9:8
8 Their hair was like women's hair, and their teeth were like lions' teeth.
NIV
I am sure some at this juncture some would like to bring up the point that Jesus had long hair. The Bible never mentioned the length of His hair (but did mention that he had a beard (Isaiah 50:6). Do not be carried away by so-called "inspired" portraits of the Lord. No one living today knows exactly how the Lord looked like physically (the Bible does imply that he was ordinary in this sense) . I would like to mention that the New Testament has a different emphasis from the Old. In the Old Testament, Esther, Sarah, Bathsheba were mentioned as being physically beautiful but the New Testament does not mention beauty at all when referring to the female disciples of Christ (in fact there was no mention of any beautiful women at all in the NEw Testament). Following this line of thought we should take note that the Apostle Peter in 1 Peter 3:3,4 admonishes us to put inner beauty above outer beauty. Not that the latter is unimportant but that the spiritual must take precedence over the natural in the SPirit filled disciple.
Coming back to long hair, I am sure that the Lord had hair in accordance with Paul's teaching in 1 Corinthians Chapter 11 because it is essentially the Lord who wrote the book of Corinthians.
Hope the above clarifies everything.


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Cheong Seng Giap
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