Quote:
Originally Posted by shamgar1
If we are to be separate in the classic Oneness Pentecostal understanding of the word, why are we not in cloistered communities?
Have we really "come out from among them"? Why do we only measure separation in terms of dress? Aren't there other areas we should separate ourselves from as well?
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There is a saying...that if you stand for nothing, you'll fall for anything. There is MUCH more to being separate from the world than dress (although dress is certainly important). But we also draw other lines. We say you shouldn't drink or go to bars. We say you should not cuss. We say you should not partake of tobacco, gamble, or engage in off-color humor. None of these things involve clothing issues.
There are a lot of people trying to water down the importance of holiness convictions regarding dress as though they were unimportant personal convictions or even simply antiquated preferences....but if the way we dress is so totally unimportant, then why did Paul (the anti-Legalist) and Peter both address these issues? They addressed them because they were issues even at the time of the primitive church.
I think a tremendous amount of this assault on conservative standards of dress has been the result of public television, movies, and worldly music. Separation starts in the home, in one's personal life...and you can't take the world's entertainment scene into your home (along with all of it's baggage) and keep it everything else intact...particularly when young people are involved. You can't parade the attractions of the world in front of them and ask them not to hear the call of the wild...while sitting in what passes for a Pentecostal living room.
The erosion of the standard against the wordly entertainment media has now progressed to an erosion of standards of clothing and modesty. And now we're seeing cussing, chewing tobacco, smoking, gambling, and social drinking being treated like "just personal convictions" that the church has no right to speak against with authority.
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