Many teach that the woman’s head covering spoken of in the Bible is only a cultural issue.  Those who say this are dead wrong.  The Bible appeals to principles of creation rather than culture in prescribing that women cover their heads.  Though some might think that it couldn’t matter if they walk around with a covering on their head or not, the Bible says the following:

1 Corinthians 11:7: “For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.”

Some teach that the Apostle Paul’s closing words in directly addressing the woman’s head covering in 1 Corinthians chapter 11 mean that it is not something which churches should contend for nor insist upon.

1 Corinthians 11:16: “But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God.”

Paul is rebuking those who contend against the woman’s head covering- not those who contend for it.  Paul himself had just been contending for the woman’s head covering and rebuking the impropriety of a woman not covering her head.  

1 Corinthians 11:16 is a statement that a faithful church of God doesn’t let those who contend against the necessity of the women in the church covering their heads to prevail nor back down from insisting on head covering for women for any reason.

There are some who believe that women should cover their heads during church meetings- but not at other times.  These should consider the following:

1 Corinthians 11:5: “But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoreth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven.”

We read the following later in 1 Corinthians:

1 Corinthians 14:34: “Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law.”

Though this isn’t necessarily a reference to absolute silence at all times during the church meeting, it is rebuking women taking authority in the church meeting through instructing the congregation and/or praying before the congregation.  Therefore, 1 Corinthians 11:5 could not be a reference to the operation of a church meeting.  

This logically means that women should cover their heads outside of the church meeting as well as within it.

I believe that it is logical to conclude in reading the Apostle’s direct instruction on head covering that public representation of God’s ordained order is the main issue in relation to head covering- or at least a major issue in relation to it.  Several statements within 1 Corinthians chapter 11 point to this.  

I believe that is why it is right for women to cover their heads in public as a general rule- while also not treating the head covering in a superstitious way by thinking the head covering ought to be worn all the time- even in an informal, non-public settings (and I’ve known of people who wouldn’t even take the head covering off except to wash their hair- that seems unnecessarily scrupulous and is also missing the point of head covering).

Some say that the head covering prescribed in 1 Corinthians 11 is the woman’s hair itself.  They will often point to the following verse to make this claim:

1 Corinthians 11:15: “But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.”

One problem with the claim that the woman’s long hair is her covering is that the claim contradicts everything else which the Bible teaches about head covering.  But does that mean the Bible contradicts itself?  No- and that brings up another problem with those who claim that the women’s hair itself is the Bible’s prescribed head covering.

The word for “covering” in 1 Corinthians 11:15 is a different word in the Greek text than the word in the Greek which is used in the prescription of the women’s head covering elsewhere in the chapter.  

This is another example of why even the best English translations of the Bible can be insufficient sometimes and why the original languages ought to be consulted.   There could have been another word used to describe the hair in 1 Corinthians 11:15 in order to prevent confusion.  The rest of 1 Corinthians 11 demonstrates that the woman’s long hair itself ought to be covered- even though there is a sense in which the hair itself might be considered a covering.  

The hair could not be the prescribed covering for the woman.  Note the clear distinction which the Bible makes between the woman’s hair and the prescribed covering for her head.

1 Corinthians 11:5-6: “But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoreth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven.  For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered.”

Returning to the often twisted statement in 1 Corinthians 11:16, churches which don’t teach and practice head covering for women in public are in sin for allowing misrepresenting of God’s order.  

Occasionally a woman is faced with a dilemma because she wants to cover her head like the Bible says, but her pastor or her husband does not want her to.  

In the case of such a pastor, not only does he not teach head covering and command it to be practiced among the women in his congregation- he even opposes those that heed the Bible’s counsel on head covering.  He is not a faithful shepherd.  One should not be at his church anyways since that would be like following a blind man.

In the case of a husband who resists his wife covering her head, it should be considered that wearing the head covering is supposed to involve a testimony of submission to God Himself.  Even a woman without any male headship in her life due to the circumstances should still cover her head.  

Even today, I believe that the more conservative churches in America consider Feminism to be a bad thing.  Yet Feminism’s impact has also hit the same churches very badly as a general rule.  

Feminism is especially deceitful and dangerous when it is prevailing somewhere where its impact is denied.  

It is normal in churches today for women to say they are submitted to God and the male authority in their life- while they practically act like Feminists.  They will often say they don’t need to actually wear a head covering because they claim to be submissive to God and male authority in their life from their heart- yet they don’t actually cover their heads.  The Bible’s prescription for head covering doesn’t persuade them to do it and the male leadership in their life doesn’t insist that they do so either (shame on them- they should echo and enforce what the Bible commands).  

In churches today unsubmissive women get away with their Jezebel ways while both they, and the male authorities in their lives, often glory in how submissive the same women are.  This is Feminism, Gnosticism, and hypocrisy all rolled together.

Some might justify not covering their heads by saying that they’ve known unsubmissive women who wore head coverings anyways.  Yes, and these tend to drop their head covering as soon as it becomes socially acceptable to do so within their social circle and/or when the novelty of wearing the head covering fades away for them.  

There are plain groups such as the Amish, Mennonites, and Hutterites which have retained the practice of head covering- even though they are unbiblical in several other ways (and even certain subgroups of these have abandoned head covering recently).  

We should strive to be faithful to everything in Scripture- and not use the culture around us nor the subset of society which we were raised in (or previously entered into) to justify retaining anything that goes against true Bible doctrine and its faithful application.  Those who do this will likely leave or get kicked out of previous religious communities they were part of.  Yet they will also not be basing what they are doing on the approval of others.

Galatians 1:10: “For do I now persuade men, or God (my note- persuade here is a reference to whom one seeks the approval of)?  or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.”

Speaking then of not basing what we are doing on the approval of others, and of not just blindly following the culture around us, that doesn’t just apply to those raised in tight knit religious communities.  That applies to everyone.  The corruption of the culture around us is why head covering as prescribed by the Bible seems so strange and foreign to many today.  

Women covering their heads in public used to be a normal thing, even in America- until Feminism greatly took a hold on society.  

Churches have caved in and catered to Feminism’s impact and the overall increasing decadence of society.  Head covering seems not only foreign to most churches now, it also seems crazy to implement (like many other Bible doctrines and concepts).  Church leaders have cared more about money and their reputations. They have erred in many, many ways in being governed by self-preservation and the vain pursuits of a comfortable life and of being liked.  

The masses of people, within and without church walls, have followed vain pursuits themselves and been led astray by the flood of lies and bad influences which have come upon the world in a shocking way and at a shockingly rapid pace- the result being the moral corruption of mankind to an unspeakable degree.  

Those who would be faithful to Christ have to turn against this tide and lay down their lives in standing for Biblical truth and righteousness.  

God has not changed His standards to accommodate man.  He never will.

Head covering is not the only thing which modern societies have generally regressed in relation to.  Ancient Greek and Roman cultures, which were influencing cities like Rome and Corinth when the Apostles wrote letters to churches in these cities, were actually accepting of many things which the Bible says are sin- including sins related to Sodom and the alphabet people.  

Those who call themselves progressive now are typically aiming in the wrong direction.  They are rather promoting regression to heathen ways which are especially harmful and which put those who embrace them in the express lane to destruction.

Aaron’s email is: [email protected]

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