Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael The Disciple
Amen. I will go as far as to say I believe there WOULD BE A REVIVAL if Apostolics repented of the doctrines of men in the area of dress code.
Like teaching women are in sin by wearing their hair long...but not necessarily uncut.
Men with beards are rebellious, perhaps gay or drug users, and if not still not worthy to stand on the sacred platform.
If one would say revival is getting more people in Church just these two things IMO would bring tens of thousands of hungry believers in.
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So I have a question. If beards and dress standards is keeping us from revival ... why hasn't there been a revival among people who left the UPC and had hair cutting parties and grew their beards out like Duck Dynasty? From what you and Aquila claim, beard and dress standards are hindering "tens of thousands" of hungry believers. So where's this revival among those liberated from the awful beard prohibition and dress standards?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Aquila
True. I've watched people's eyes in church as they begin to hear some standards. It's obvious that they came for Jesus, genuinely experienced Him... and then we force the cookie cutter mold on them and tell them if they really love Jesus, they'll dress like they just stepped out of a 1950's clothing catalogue. People aren't stupid. Most know their Bible enough to know that it doesn't command such.
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It's not true. It's a lie from hell that if we just relax our dress standards, tens of thousands will come in.
I know personally of a church in another state whose Pastor made a big deal about letting his license expire and pulling the church from the UPC over dress standards. He gave the same kind of stupid argument. Claimed that dress standards were so early 1900s and if they just let them go, multitudes upon multitudes will flood in and there will be revival.
After losing a lot of families initially, they did eventually have people come in who brought the numbers back to where they had been. But the last I checked (and it's been a couple years) the church was still at the same number. There was no multitudes of people who flooded the church in revival. The lead Pastor has a goatee. The two associates have a goatee and beard. The youth/college pastor has a full beard and the worship pastor has something of a beard trying to grow on his face. A couple of the wives have bobbed hair and others in the church have layered cuts.
But that's not all which changed...
See, it's never just the dress standards which changed. I have never found a church which removed dress standards and stopped there. Almost all eventually begin watering down salvation.
Here's the SOF on Salvation from their website today:
"""Salvation is freely offered to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer."""
"""There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord."""
The Holy Ghost is no longer required as part of the new birth. Instead, it's part of the maturation of the believer, of which some will experience speaking in tongues.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Aquila
Is it any wonder that we loose so many new converts? We had an Evangelistic revival once years ago. Nearly 30 people were baptized and filled with the Spirit. I'll allow you to image how many were still attending in 6 months.
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Hold up. You cannot honestly claim that the lack of retention was due to dress code and beard prohibition.
Most churches are ill-prepared to handle a large number of new converts. That's just a fact. You have a church of 150, of which maybe 50 are actively involved in giving Bible Studies, going on visitation and other things; but they saturate neighborhoods with flyers and suddenly the church has 30 or more baptized and filled with the Holy Ghost in a weekend series of services. Unfortunately, there are a lot of churches which aren't prepared for it. And consequently people fall through the cracks. They have a life-changing, new birth experience, but then go back to their jobs and old friends and without the church having a plan of action for retaining new converts, the majority will likely fall away.
This has nothing to do with beard prohibitions and dress standards. This is about being unprepared and not having something in place for new converts.