WWUTT 2215 Q&A How to Live Longer, Communion Before Baptism, Women and Head Coverings

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If we obey God's word, will we live longer? Can you give your children communion before they are baptized?

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And does 1 Corinthians 11, 1 -6 really mean women must wear head coverings in church?

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The answers when we understand the text. This is when we understand the text, a daily

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Bible commentary that we may be equipped for every good work in Jesus Christ our Lord. Please tell others about our ministry at www .tt

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.com. Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky, who is not in studio with me now, but she will be joining me later.

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I'll explain that here in a moment. But first, let's come back to the Proverbs as we've been doing some

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Proverbs at the opening of our Friday episodes. This is Proverbs 3, verses 1 -4, and I'm reading from the

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Legacy Standard Bible. My son, do not forget my law, but let your heart guard my commandments.

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For length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you.

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Do not let lovingkindness and truth forsake you. Bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart, so you will find favor and good insight in the eyes of God and man.

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Now, it may not be that a person who is a Christian turns out to live longer than everybody else.

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It would kind of seem like what's being said here in Proverbs 3 means that Christians should live longer than other people.

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Well, even Christians get into accidents and die early or will contract diseases, get cancer and things like that.

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But generally speaking, we can avoid some of those harmful behaviors that might shorten a person's life if we commit ourselves to God's way.

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So again, verse 1, do not forget my law, let your heart guard my commandments.

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For length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you. So a person who desires to go the way that God would want us to go might prolong their days a little bit longer than another who is, say, drinking most of the time or maybe doing drugs or even engaging in risky behavior.

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But there's also another aspect to this in that we who are in Christ Jesus live forever.

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Maybe our length of days won't be very long while we are here on this earth, and indeed that's really the case for everybody.

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Something that I'm noticing as I'm getting older is that I really don't live as long as I thought

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I would. I mean, I'm over 40 now. When I started this program, I was 34,

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I was just in my mid -30s at the time. Even in my 20s, you know, you feel invincible, you feel like you're going to live forever.

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No, now that I'm in my 40s, I'm kind of looking at it going, I don't live as long as I thought. Like if I only live another 40 years, if I'm fortunate,

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I'm about at the halfway mark here and that's not very long. Feels like these 40 some odd years have gone quickly.

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How fast are these next 40 years going to go? So we don't live as long as we would like to think that we do.

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But if we are in Christ Jesus, our sins are forgiven and we are promised that we will live forever with him.

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So indeed, in this respect, we will have length of days and years of life added to us.

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Do not let loving kindness and truth forsake you. In other words, these things should characterize us.

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We love truth and because we love the truth so lovingly given to us by God, then we are likewise going to demonstrate his loving kindness in our lives.

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And then we will find favor and good insight in the eyes of God and man.

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We have the favor of God. And then likewise, there are people who will appreciate us, like us for our loving kindness.

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Maybe they don't even know God, but they know that there's something about us that is not like the way the rest of the world lives.

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Thank you for joining me for this Friday edition when we take questions from the listeners and you can submit those questions to when we understand the text at gmail .com

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Becky and I are doing something a little bit different this week. She's not joining me on this episode, which you might've noticed when you pulled up as a little bit shorter than the

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Friday episode usually is. She's going to be on with me for the second half, which will actually air tomorrow.

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So I'm just doing half the Friday episode today, the Q &A and then for the

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Saturday special, it's going to be a continuation of this Q &A. That's the arrangement we worked out because it was so late on Thursday and she didn't think that she could make it, especially not a whole hour.

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And so I said, fine, I will do it. Don't worry about it. You go to bed and then we'll find a way to make it work out where we will record this on Friday and then she'll get on for the

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Saturday episode. Still responding to your questions though. And once again, the email address is when we understand the text at gmail .com

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or you can send us a voicemail. Go to the website www .utt .com

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and you'll see the voicemail tab there in the menu. You click on that and you can record us a voicemail either from your phone or from your computer.

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We love to literally hear from you. We're going to have a voicemail today and I'm also going to play one with Becky tomorrow.

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So she'll be on to answer my other voicemail here. But here's the first voicemail.

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This is from James. And here is James's question. Hi, Pastor Gabe, I had a question concerning communion and baptism.

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My oldest boys are seven and five and in conversations we have had, and if I'm handling

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Romans 10 correctly, I would be led to believe that they are saved. Recently, I have even started presenting communion to them in service at our church.

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My question comes to the baptism part. Since they are not baptized, am I wrong in presenting communion to them?

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Did I require them to be baptized first? They're not asking to be baptized right now, and I don't want to make it a bigger deal than it actually is.

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I'm not trying to downplay the importance of baptism, but I don't want them to do it legalistically. Thank you both for your time.

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I appreciate your question, James. I'm going to I'm going to make a confession here that most of you are probably not aware of.

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In fact, I don't know that I've ever said this before on this broadcast. Twenty two hundred plus episodes.

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I've never said this before, but I used to give my children communion before they were baptized.

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And why did I do that? It was simply out of ignorance. I'll tell you, the reason that I did it was actually a response to something fundamentalist that was going on in my church.

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And I'm using fundamentalist in the pejorative way, not in the historic way, the way that Jay Gresham Machin used to use it.

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But anyway, so so there's this this aspect of fundamentalism in which things that are not key doctrinal issues will be elevated into essential doctrinal issues.

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And we were having a certain conflict in our church. This would have been going on in 2014 or 15, somewhere thereabouts.

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And it would have been shortly before I actually started. This broadcast was when this was going on. So there was there were some people that were in our church that used to be fundamentalist.

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They came from a fundamentalist Baptist background, and they were really, really die hard about not giving communion to your children.

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And I think at some point, ages started getting attached to it. So like a child should never even take communion until they're this age.

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And it wasn't anything doctrinal. They weren't tying it into anything biblical. It was completely emotionally driven, but nonetheless binding consciences of one another in the congregation and saying your child shouldn't be partaking of communion until they're baptized.

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That was the way it started. But then, like I said, it started it began to get even more legalistic.

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So I just simply said with communion, it is up to the parent. The parent decides whether or not to give their child communion.

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I'm just telling you what I was doing 10 years ago. That's not the way I advocate for it now, but this is what was going on then.

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So I was just saying that a parent knows whether or not their child is a believer. So if you're certain that your child is a believer, then you should let them take communion.

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And in defiance of those fundamentalists who were causing the problems,

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I let my children take communion. Now, it wasn't like I was standing them up there in front of everybody and trying to to give a what for to the fundamentalists.

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I just did not see any cause or reason not to give them communion. Now, my nine year old daughter actually still remembers this because this would have this would have gone on for a couple of years after that.

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So even, you know, 2017 or 18 or somewhere in there when I stopped doing it. So she has since asked me why she can't partake of communion anymore.

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And that's when I told her that really communion, the Lord's table is for those who are followers of Jesus.

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And you show that you are a follower of Jesus by being baptized. It's not that being baptized saves you, but it is demonstrating that you have been buried with Christ in your sins and risen again to new life.

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So you have communion with Jesus. If you're if you have communion with him in his baptism, then you have communion with him at his table.

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So that's why as Baptists, especially from the Baptist conviction, we want to say that you should be baptized first, a baptized believer before you partake in the

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Lord's table. Now, if you go back to some of the earliest Christian documents, these are extra biblical documents.

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Granted, it's not what we have in the pages of scripture. So this is not divinely inspired.

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But you go to something like the Didache and the Didache was written either in the late first century or the early second century.

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Some some people put it as early as the late first century, which means it may have been written by disciples of the disciples.

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So in the Didache, it is said of the Lord's table, let none eat or drink except those who have been baptized in the

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Lord's name. For concerning this also did the Lord say, give not that which is holy to the dogs.

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That goes back to Matthew seven. Now, again, the Didache is not a binding document in the sense that it does not dictate for us exactly our practice according to the command of God, since this is not divinely inspired.

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And to give you another example of this, the article that's right before that, right before discussing who can partake of the

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Lord's table, it says, let not your fasts be with the hypocrites, for they fast on Mondays and Thursdays, but do your fast on Wednesdays and Fridays.

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Is that morally binding? Is God telling us that we should fast on Wednesday and Friday? No, that's and see there you can see how they were motivated sort of the same way that I was motivated to defy the fundamentalists.

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The hypocrites fast on Monday and Thursday so that you don't show yourself to be in league with them. You need to be fasting on Wednesday and Friday instead.

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And that's yeah, that's nothing that is a command of God that we therefore need to be following.

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But just to consider the way that they thought of communion and who could partake of communion in that first century church, it was those who had first been baptized.

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So that needs to be the discipline, I believe, in our churches as well. Now, you're not condemning your children if they have partaken of communion or the

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Lord's table before they are baptized. But that should be the proper order, because, again, as Romans six three tells us, do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

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OK, keep that in mind. We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the father, we, too, might walk in newness of life.

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And then what does the Apostle Paul say in First Corinthians chapter 11 concerning the proper practice of the

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Lord's table? He says, as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the

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Lord's death until he comes. So everything in the proper order, first of all, your baptism, that you would be baptized with him into his death and then raised to walk in newness of life and then walking in that new life, you continue even through the practice of communion to proclaim the

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Lord's death until he comes. Now, these are the ordinances. I know that the Roman Catholic Church wants to say that there's more ordinances than two, but there's two ordinances.

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It's baptism in the Lord's table, and that should be the proper order baptized than the

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Lord's table. Now, how about when I took communion away from my kids and I said that they couldn't do it anymore until they were baptized?

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Well, that opened the door for me to therefore have a discussion with them about why that is important.

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And we've had some good conversations there. My nine year old daughter now is starting to say to me,

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I really want to be baptized because I am a follower of Jesus and I want to partake of communion again.

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So remembering this, this has stirred in her heart a desire to want to come back to the table.

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And maybe it will be the same for your children as well. Now, there was a book that was written by Mez McConnell called

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Preparing for Baptism. That's a book that we have taken some of our youth through at our church.

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And I'm going to take my nine year old through this book to prepare her for baptism.

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So maybe that is something you want to consider. Check that out as well. Pick up the book

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Preparing for Baptism by Mez McConnell, which you can find on Amazon Christian Book. If you've got a local

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Christian bookstore that you want to support, go to them and they'll be able to order it for you and read that for yourself, too.

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So as a father, you're preparing yourself in how you can guide your children in understanding both of these ordinances, baptism and the

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Lord's table. Now, I'm not one who says that your kids have to reach a certain age before they can understand this and therefore be baptized and partake in the

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Lord's table. That's really not me. This is where I would say that you as a parent should be able to recognize this in your own children.

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Are your children producing fruit? If you were to ask your child, what does it mean to take up a cross and follow

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Jesus? Would they have an understanding of that? Can they articulate that?

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Do they know that kind of sacrifice or dying to self in order to follow Jesus?

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And these are some things that as you're discipling your kids, you can help them through help them to understand that so that they know what that means and can therefore articulate it and confess what is in their heart, that they are a follower of Jesus.

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They are ready to lay down their lives to follow Christ and they want to demonstrate it through baptism.

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Then praise God for that. And there's no age limit on that. Nothing. Nothing in the Bible tells us that a child can't be beneath this certain age in order to be baptized as long as they are confessing faith in Christ.

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Jesus said that the kingdom belongs even to such as these.

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This next comment, this comes from a fellow by the name of Reed. And since I just mentioned

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First Corinthians chapter 11, let's go back to that chapter a little bit earlier in the chapter. What's the subject that Paul first talks about at the start of First Corinthians 11?

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Head coverings. Yep, you got that right. So here we go. Reed says, Greetings from Fresno, California.

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I recently came across your what podcast, listened to a few episodes, and I thought, well, hey, this guy is not a flaming liberal.

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Well, good. I'm glad I passed the sniff test there. So I kept listening. Consider that a compliment,

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Gabe. Not sure if you'll take the time to read a long email like this, but even if you don't,

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I am doing this to glorify God. Amen. I listen to a few episodes that you did when you tackled head coverings a couple years ago.

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Note, a minority of men even dare to touch that passage. I'm thankful that you covered it, but that's not a compliment.

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You're supposed to cover it. And I know you know that already, brother. I covered the topic myself back in 2022, around the time that our little

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Reformed Baptist Church began. We were only five families. And since then, we've gotten smaller.

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Our teaching elder fell into the full preterism heresy. Yikes. When we confronted him on it, he ran from us.

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Horrific stuff. Actually, I was immediately thrusted into the position of having to do most of the teaching in the church.

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Anyway, brother, I just wanted you to get a few details about me before I comment on your teaching.

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Number one, much of what you said on head coverings was good, in my opinion. Thank you for the effort that you put forth to explain verses two through sixteen.

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But I do believe you should be challenged to reexamine your position. You seem to miss a crucial point within the passage in corporate worship.

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God's glory, man, is to receive congregational attention. And this is really important.

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Man's glory woman is to not receive attention. Thus, women are to be covered and woman's glory.

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Her hair is also to be covered. Thus, a cloth covering, for example, covers the man's glory and the woman's glory, which makes perfect sense because the focus is on God's glory.

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Also, this is a tradition that is to be practiced at a certain time during prayer and prophecy. And in a certain place, the corporate gathering, wherever it may be, that really should impact one's view on whether hair is the actual covering

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Paul's requiring. Generally speaking, hair isn't taken on and off each week for worship.

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And you didn't touch the fact that if the covering is hair, verse five doesn't make a lick of sense.

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And if we just don't know what Paul really meant by the symbol in covering, why was there so much church unity for nineteen hundred years?

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Much more could be written. But in my last sermonette on this topic, I gave sort of a summary slash outline to the congregation and I've attached it for your edification.

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I pray that it may cause you to rethink your position. Well, I sure appreciate that read.

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Now, before getting to the response that I sent to read, let me read first Corinthians 11, verses one through 16, just to kind of refresh your memory on what we read here concerning head coverings.

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Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ, Paul says. Now, I praise you because you remember me in everything and hold firmly to the traditions just as I delivered them to you.

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But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man and the man is the head of a woman and God is the head of Christ.

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Every man who has something on his head while praying or prophesying shames his head. But every woman who has her head uncovered while praying or prophesying shames her head, for she is one in the same as the woman whose head is shaved.

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For if a woman does not cover her head, let her also have her hair cut short. But if it is disgraceful for a woman to have her hair cut short or her head shaved, let her cover her head.

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For a man ought not to have his head covered since he is the image and glory of God. But the woman is the glory of man.

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For man does not originate from woman, but a woman from man. For indeed, man was not created for the woman's sake, but a woman for the man's sake.

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Therefore, the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head because of the angels.

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Nevertheless, in the Lord, neither is woman independent of man nor is man independent of woman.

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For as the woman originates from the man, so also the man has his birth through the woman.

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But all things originate from God. Judge for yourselves. Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered?

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Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him?

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But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her. For her hair is given to her for a covering.

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But if one is inclined to be contentious, we have no other practice, nor have the churches of God.

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All right. Now there's the passage. So let me share with you the response that I sent to Brother Reed.

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I said, Greetings, brother. Grace to you and peace from God, our father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Thank you for reaching out. I will have to go back and listen to that lesson myself because I do not remember exactly what

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I said. I appreciate your attachment and your recommendations, and I will leave this email in my inbox to take it up at a later time.

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I do hold the position that Paul was not talking about hair as a covering, but an actual covering over the hair.

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However, I exercise a lot of grace regarding the passage because there are some unanswered questions, regardless of whether head coverings were a practice in the church for 1900 years.

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I grew up in the South in the 80s where women wore big hats to church.

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That was a head covering. Until I became a pastor, the church I attended the longest was

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Mennonite and many of the women still wore those little bun covers that for them was a head covering.

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But Paul never explains what a head covering is and how it is to be worn. The Corinthians knew exactly what he was talking about, but we don't again going back to the very beginning of that in first Corinthians 11 to he says,

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I praise you because you remember me and everything and hold firmly to the traditions just as I deliver them to you.

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So when he talks about head coverings in one through 16, some of those things are assumed because the

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Corinthians had already heard him teach on those things. Unfortunately, an instruction concerning head coverings is never mentioned anywhere else.

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Also, depending on your translation, some limit the instruction for wives and other translations seems to say that it's for all women, just like I have read here from the

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Legacy Bible. I think the first time that I taught on this topic, I was reading from the

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ESV and then the second time from the Legacy of Memory Serves. But anyway, going on in the same chapter, we have instructions regarding the

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Lord's table, and even their instructions are kind of vague. Can the bread be leavened or must it be unleavened as Jesus and the disciples certainly ate it?

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The cup is just called the cup. Do its contents have to be categorized as fermented wine or does the mere juice from the grapes suffice?

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Just as we exercise this level of liberty concerning the elements of the table, so I also exercise liberty concerning head coverings.

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Anyway, I'm probably rehashing stuff you already heard me say. When I last taught through First Corinthians 11,

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I was an associate pastor in a Southern Baptist church in the church. I now pastor a reformed

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Baptist congregation by confession. As you noted, some of our women do wear head coverings.

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My daughters, in fact, love to do so, but it's not mandatory. I do thank you for listening and for taking the time.

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I appreciate the resources. And like I said, I intend to read and listen. God bless you in your ministry, my friend.

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And I will pray for you after I hit send. And I hope God will bless you with some wonderful fruit.

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So there was my response to Brother Reed. Another point, something I didn't say to read, but going to First Corinthians 1110.

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Therefore, the women ought to have a symbol of authority on her head because of the angels.

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See, that's a confusing reference as well. Some think it has to do with angels, the angels of God watching us as we worship, even present to see the way that the people of God give glory to his name.

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But there are others that think that the reference to angel is just simply messenger because that's what the word means.

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That's how it's translated. And so, therefore, it could be in reference to the one prophesying, as talked about there in this section.

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That a woman cannot prophesy with her head uncovered, a man should not prophesy with his head covered.

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So whoever it is who is prophesying might be referred to as a messenger. And therefore, that that same word that's also translated angel is applied since you have a message that is going out in congregational worship.

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Again, that's another section, another verse in this section that tends to be kind of confusing.

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So because there's some unanswered questions there, we should just exercise liberty when it concerns these things.

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However, if you are convicted that you should wear a head covering ladies, then by all means do so and don't let anyone in the congregation look down on you because you do.

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So as we read in Romans chapter 14, as for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions.

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Don't quarrel over opinions. But let's encourage and build one another up in love, as I appreciate

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Brother Reid doing in the email that he sent to me. All right. This concludes part one, the first half of our

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Q &A and God willing, we'll come back to part two tomorrow and I'll have Becky along with me.

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If you would like to give a donation to the program, you can pay palace when we understand the text at Gmail dot com is the email address that's connected to our

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PayPal. And as always, we thank you for your support. Even just telling somebody else about this ministry, it means a lot to us.

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Let's conclude here with prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for these questions that we have heard, the things that we have read.

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And I pray that we are constantly seeking after your truth, that we may be grown in the things that we read in your word.

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Jesus prayed on our behalf. Father, sanctify them in your truth. Your word is truth.

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And just as we read, as we were drawing from Proverbs, may we not forget the law of God, but hold the commandments close to us and walk in a manner that is pleasing and glorifying of you.

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It's in Jesus name that we pray. Amen. Gabe is the pastor of Providence Church in Casa Grande, Arizona.

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For more information about our ministry, visit Providence Casa Grande dot com. Join us again tomorrow as we continue our