Quote Originally Posted by jade84116 View Post
What do you think of the UPCI's holiness standards? What do you think of their refusal to serve in the military or politics?
Why is it then that whenever oneness pentecostals teach about “holiness” they teach about rules for the way you look? “Don’t wear jewelry, don’t wear make-up, women can’t wear pants, men can’t wear a beard.” Some even teach that if women wear open toed shoes they will go to hell! I can’t find any scriptures in the Bible that support these claims. The ones used to support these claims are used out of context, or are misread. In fact, Ezekiel 16 shows that God does not have a problem with jewelry. Peter said, (my paraphrase) “let your beauty before God not be your outward appearance”; he did not say, “don’t wear gold.” If he did, then we shouldn’t be wearing clothes either (1 Peter 3:3). In the same light, Leviticus 19:27 says that men MUST wear a beard. When did God change his mind on that and say, “You can’t serve me if you have a beard?” The only proof for most of the “holiness standards” is misused scriptures. While we are on the subject (which so many are curious about), oneness pentecostals use a scripture from the mosaic law (Deut 22:5) to say that women should not wear pants, however they ignore another scripture from the mosaic law (Lev 19:27) that requires men to wear a beard. The point of Deuteronomy 22:5 is to ensure definition between the sexes; men should look like men and women vice versa. Why? Both the old and new covenants were representative of marriage contracts. The man has a specific role in the marriage contract, which is representative of God, and the woman has specific roles likewise which are representative of the church. If the lines between the sexes are blurred, the definitions of the contracts between God and humanity become blurred. Therefore God gave commandments to ensure we don’t blur these lines. What could be more manlike than keeping the beard God gave you?
In Colossians 2:20-23 Paul asks (my paraphrase), “If you really believe that Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice, then why do you follow man-made rules that you think make you look holy; but they really have nothing to do with true holiness?”
1st John 5:3 says, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.” What are the commandments of God? The ten commandments? Jesus said that the greatest commandment was “HEAR, O ISRAEL! THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD; 30AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.' 31"The second is this, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' There is no other commandment greater than these." If you look at the ten commandments, you will see that the first five have to do with how to love God, and the second five have to do with loving others; which is exactly what Jesus said. Read the 15th Chapter of John. That is as good a summation as I can find. Do you really love God? Do you really love your fellow man? If not, are you really being holy like God wants? AND, does a dress code in any way make you more holy (according to scripture)?