Sunday, January 24, 2021

Is Piercing One's Self or Having One's Self Pierced Compatible with God?

In the history of the world and then the more specific history of the United States, new beliefs and practice begin that differ from what was previously believed and practiced.  Those beliefs and practices are either corrections or improvements to what was previously occurring or they are perversions, corruptions, or deterioration to or from what was previously occurring.  What is unique to United States history more than most cultures in the history of the world is that the United States culture has been shaped by the Bible.  If they are corrections or improvements, someone should go to the Bible for the defense or change.  The present belief and practice is bad and needs to be changed and this is why.

When I say, "piercing," it's this:

a form of body modification . . . the practice of puncturing or cutting a part of the human body, creating an opening in which jewelry may be worn, or where an implant could be inserted.

Piercing in the United States is a change of belief and practice.  You have not seen piercing in almost the entire history of the United States.  It's not that piercing never existed.  It wasn't accepted in the colonial America and the United States.  So, is it a correction or improvement, or is it a perversion, corruption, or deterioration?  When people began piercing themselves, did they go to the Bible to find this new belief and practice, or was it a movement of rebellion or paganism?

Someone might observe that changes occur all the time in a culture, for instance, something like handwriting, to typewriter, and now to computer.  It's a silly argument, but I'm going to deal with it, because it is the normal kind of argument piercers might use.  Using a computer for word processing is an improvement to handwriting.  It is faster and neater.  However, that isn't a cultural change that one can deem is right or wrong.  It's not wrong to handwrite or type or word process.  It is a better or easier way of doing things.  It has no inherent meaning if what you are reading is in handwriting or through word processing, any more than reading something on a tablet or on paper.

Piercing isn't an improvement on the human condition like the polio vaccine.  It isn't a better, more secure window. that keeps out the rain and the cold.  Piercing expresses something, means something, that is a departure or deviation.  We know from scripture that these types of practices arise from belief.  They are filled with meaning.  God warns about such practices.  They aren't neutral.  They reflect on a worldview.  In Leviticus 19:28, God warns:

Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I [am] the LORD.

This could apply directly to piercing, and is surely the reason American culture had an aversion to piercings.

If I see someone with piercings, I don't think that pulling the implement out will bring a right relationship with God.  Not piercing doesn't get someone to heaven.  Obviously, the heart yields this behavior.  The piercing manifests on the outside something on the inside.  I'm more concerned with the inside, but that doesn't mean ignoring the outside.  If a person has it right on the inside, you'll know it by the outside.  The former precedes the latter.  The latter, however, will necessarily follow though.

The new covenant is a corollary to the old.  God still wants obedience.  It's enabled by a new heart.  Piercing is a manifestation of the old heart.  This is a person who says he has faith, but piercing is not showing that faith by his works.  It matters.  It isn't turning from idols to serve the living and true God.  You can't serve both God and mammon.  Piercing is mammon.

I see professing Christians, who call themselves Jesus followers, propagating their piercing more than they do Jesus, if they do Him at all.  They are ashamed of Jesus Christ, but proud of their piercing and other forms of worldly expressions.

God created male and female.  He created them obviously different.  He did a good job by His own perfect assessment in Genesis 1.  He expects male and female both to wear things, even as God Himself made garments for Adam and Eve to put on for the sake of modesty.  God doesn't tell either male or female to pierce.  That didn't start with God.  Mankind started piercing itself on its own.  Is it right for people to pierce themselves for whatever purpose they have for doing so?

Piercing is more than a form of jewelry, but it is a form of jewelry.  God doesn't promote jewelry, but it is regulated in scripture.  Not all of it is right.  1 Timothy 2:9 instructs:

In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array.

Here Paul says, not, "not with . . . gold, or pearls."  When the Bible says something about it, it says, not.  This is not that women can't wear jewelry, but the problem is with wearing, not with not wearing.  The same is seen in 1 Peter 3:3:

Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold.

These texts never even regulate men, because men are assumed not to be wearing these decorations.  Why are men wanting to decorate themselves like women with jewelry?  Think about it.  Women wear these things, not men.  That is in scripture.  That's why in the United States, men would never consider wearing an earring.  This didn't originate with godly men.

Piercing is new in the history of the United States.  Even as recent as when I grew up, it was controversial for a woman to be pierced and no men were pierced.  I remember men being pierced for the first time when I was a teenager in the 1970s.  Girls were never pierced.  They would only be pierced as a kind of point of reaching womanhood and then only once in each earlobe, and even then it was disputable among Christians.

Jewelry itself is not prohibited.  It is regulated.  It is an adornment, an accessory, like a decoration.  The goal is to allow the beauty of God to shine through.  This is where the simple single earring in the lobe of each ear has become acceptable in a mere supplementary way.  This is not to make a statement or express a philosophy.  It is for a woman and pertains to beauty within the nature of a woman:  feminine, dainty, delicate, splendid, and ladylike.

Multiple piercing and piercing all over various body parts is new in the United States and it corresponds to an ungodly trajectory in the culture.  It wasn't spawned by a growth in godliness.  Even for women, piercing only once in each earlobe even was frowned upon until the 1960s.  Men being pierced associated itself with the unisex movement.  It was entirely rejected by churches.

When I see a man with piercings, I still reject it as both unisex and pagan.  Personally it makes me sick.  I abhor it, when I see it.  Multiple piercings are significant of reprobate culture and depravity.  Amanda Porterfield in an entry within Religion and American Cultures: an Encyclopedia of Traditions, Diversity, and Popular Expressions reports that after World War 2, piercing began increasing in popularity among the gay male subculture.  That's where piercing of men started in the United States.

Piercings obviously mean something.  People want them.  They get them.  When they do, they're sending a message.  Even the world says that the piercings mean rebellion.  If you google the two words, piercing and rebellion, you'll get almost three million results, and dozens of articles.  It's a self-attesting truth.  A male piercing and all multiple piercing is a kind of rebellion, even according to the world.  Is this what should characterize a Christian?  Is it sacred?  Does it distinguish someone as profane and worldly, characteristics to be avoided for a true believer in God?  Does it matter if a Christian is worldly and presents himself in a profane way?  Of course it matters.  It dishonors God.

Many times children growing up in a Christian home start piercing in contradiction and in rebellion against their parents.  Apparently, they are showing their liberty or authority.  They don't have to do what they're told.  They want to embarrass or shame their parents with their appearance.  That's a big reason they're doing it.  They might still say they're Christian, especially with the state of evangelicalism today.  They have left the belief and practice of their parents.  They should consider what God told Moses in Leviticus 19:1-3:

1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 2 Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy. 3 Ye shall fear every man his mother, and his father, and keep my sabbaths: I am the LORD your God.

Right after, "ye shall be holy," God says, "ye shall fear every man his mother, and his father."  Young adults don't want to fear their parents.  The parents are horrified by the piercings.  This isn't God's will.  Adult children don't have to get pierced.  If their parents don't want that, they shouldn't do it.  It's something simple not to do.  God wants them to respect that in their parents and it is understandable their parents don't want it.  These childish adults though think having their own way is more important.

Some parents are afraid to show disapproval of piercing.  They don't want their children angry with them.  This is an unbiblical role reversal.   As Leviticus 19 above indicates, the children should fear their parents, not vice versa.  Adult children today really do want their parents afraid, so that their parents will pander to them.  Piercing is an expression of this rebellion.

Perhaps a child grows up in what he or she thinks is a suffocating environment, so that he or she feels nowhere to turn, is trapped.  Other people, their young friends, tell them they're ripped off, like Eve in the Garden of Eden was told by Satan.  Parents say, no, you can't do that.  Piercing shows the adult child controlling his or her own body.  No one will tell this person what to wear or what to do.  This lack of submission shows rebellion, immaturity, like a two year old throwing himself on the floor when a parent says, no.

The piercing is not a solution for the liberty some adult child seeks.  It's actual entrapment.  Even though the intention might be to show freedom, it actually shows bondage.  Satan is winning this one, even if the parents act like they've lost.  Jesus was pierced for our liberty.  That's where true freedom comes.  People are only complete in Jesus Christ.  Our piercing is His piercing.  He and his grace bring liberty not to sin, not to conform to the world.

Jesus Christ is who and what a true believer will show.  Associating with Jesus means separating from the world, revealing a difference between the holy and the profane.  The Christian is commanded as a reasonable sacrifice to the Lord, not to be conformed to this world.  Piercing conforms to the world.  It is not compatible with God.

13 comments:

  1. Absolutely! ❤️

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  2. A preach I sat under for a number of years pointed out that the first 3 times men wear earrings in the Bible, they are idol worshiping enemies of the LORD.

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  3. Sorry, "Preacher", not preach.

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  4. Thanks for the thought-provoking article. I have a couple questions that came to mind in reading it. I am just looking for some clarity. My wife had her ears pierced long before we met, but none of my daughters have pierced ears. This, this topic has been on my mind at times.

    Am I correct that you do not believe any type of piercing is sin? In the OT, the freed slave desiring to remain with his master was to have his ear pierced. It was not for adorning but a type of marking to identify him. Other OT passages mention women having or receiving earrings or such (I believe Rachel was one example). So, I am thinking you would not say all piercing is prohibited.

    This leads to the next question on where the line is drawn. If the goal post was no piercings at all on women in the past but now we say that one in each ear is okay, isn’t that moving the goal post due to culture and not Bible? Where is the line on jewelry, biblically? I am a missionary in Eastern Europe and there are many in evangelical circles who consider any type of jewelry (even wedding bands) to be worldly. Could you clarify on where you feel the line is? You said the Bible doesn’t prohibit all jewelry but does the excess. But what is moderation to one may seem like excess to another. Thoughts? Thanks!

    David

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  5. Hi David,

    Do we just outlaw a simple women's earrings, one hole in the love of each ear, based on what scripture says? I would support a family choosing that. For a whole church, I haven't led that way. Eliminating all of it would be simple. I draw the line at pagan culture and gender design. Men, no. Women, something modest. It will take judgment or discernment. The trend is ungodly and pagan, as I've explained, and this is intended to persuade in that way.

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  6. A friend of mine from many years ago became involved with the "Plain Church Movement". I think that is what they were called. They were a loss of salvation / works cult. A little like the Amish, I suppose. He began to teach no jewelry on women, no hair cuts (salons), drab only clothing, etc. We disagreed.

    I felt that Ezekiel 16 could be seen as an explicit approval of women wearing jewelry & nice clothes.
    Vs. 10 - Plainly nice clothing.
    Vs. 11-12 - Bracelet, Necklace, forehead jewel, earrings, crown.

    I certainly am not rejecting the NT commands concerning women's attire. But outright rejection of all adornment seemed wrong also. Thoughts???

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  7. Anonymous10:25 AM

    Interesting article. I believe jewelry has too much of a place amongst Christians and distracts from the true beauty. However some is fine biblically speaking. Can you explain how you view Ezekiel 16:9-14? It seems like God is condoning earrings. I lean towards no piercing but am always kept in check by this passage. Thoughts?

    Will

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  8. Hi Will,

    Verses such as those you referenced are an argument for earrings on women. I'm not arguing against that. I'm arguing against the kind piercing I described in the article, which parallels the pagan, the profane, the worldly that scripture warns against. I believe the piercing culture is that. Wearing simple earrings as I've said, I'm not arguing against those. I actually allow for that. It's the multiple piercings and then piercing all over the body. This is ungodly. I think it can be judged when it crosses a moral standard of God. The debate makes it seem to some that now anything goes if the one thing, simple singular earring in each lobe. That isn't an argument.

    Thanks.

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  9. Anonymous4:45 PM

    Ok thanks! Do you know if historically earrings were ever worn without a piercing? An argument I have heard is that when you pierce your body you are putting a hole that God didn’t put there. So they use that to say no earrings period.

    Will

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  10. Hi Will,

    Someone mentioned the biblical practice of the bondslave, who put the awl through the ear to create a hole. I think the earrings were hung in the OT and conservative Jews believe the same on that. It's the pagan piercing, multiple, men, etc. that are unscriptural, worldly, like described in post.

    Thanks.

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  11. Thomas Ross wrote a comment for this post on my following post on modesty, and in that comment I wrote this:

    Okay, so my post on piercings did want people to consider the piercing movement, that is pagan, and that men wearing earrings, a new development in culture, and then multiple piercings all over is ungodly. However, that understandable went to whether any piercing is wrong, a single spot on the earlobe to attach an earring on a woman. I'm fine with Thomas's position with his wife. It's definitely safe and will not dishonor God.

    As is so often the case with leaders of churches, we've got to come down with a practice for the church, where the line will be drawn. I've said that the Leviticus 19:28 is dealing with pagan practice, prohibiting this ungodly practice, and contrasting that with the modest decoration, especially in light of Ezekiel and the single hole put in the ear for the bondslave. 1 Tim 2 and 1 Pet 3, regulating female appearance, seem to be dealing with a worldly pagan direction in culture and tend to modesty, not complete elimination of these accessories. That's where we draw the line and why. I don't want this to take away from our opposition to this movement of piercing that is pagan and ungodly and not modest.

    You can go over to that next post to read this.

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  12. KJB161110:58 AM

    BTW, just to add to my comment from the other post where I accidentally put it, I can see the argument from piercing the ear of the bond slave. I would certainly not, say, advocate church discipline for someone who did not take the position of my wife’s father and our family practice.

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