Sadly there are many nutters amongst us, giving the faith a bad rap.
When you have an interactive website, you never know what sort of comments will come your way. While many folks send in sensible, rational, and well-informed comments, plenty of folks send in something much different. Unfortunately you will get all sorts of loony tunes offering absolutely nutty remarks.
Most of these comments of course never see the light of day on my website. They are just too idiotic and ludicrous. And the really sad bit is this: so often these comments come from those who call themselves Christians. They can offer some of the most moronic and patently false commentary you will find.
They really need to repent and start using the brains God gave them for his glory. At the moment all they are doing is being a lousy witness, bringing Christ and the gospel into disrepute, and turning off many – both Christians and non-Christians.
As mentioned, when you have a site like this which is fully interactive, you daily get all sorts of interesting comments appearing in your inbox. I have to moderate each one before allowing them on my site. Right now I have 71,000 approved comments
There have probably been another 5 to 10 thousand that have been rejected for a whole variety of reasons, including violating my clearly-stated commenting rules. Usually these comments go straight into the bin. I probably should have saved some of the more bizarre ones that have come in over the years. They all might have made for an interesting book!
Let me offer another doozey that came in today. I just got a guy informing me of this: “Pants on women are not going to make heaven.” He went on to say this: “A rapture dream only 123 people out of the entire country USA go to heaven.”
He also said this: “the entire holy Bible KJV means exactly what it says.” And the post of mine that he sent his comment to had nothing to do with what he was rambling on about! All up it was one of the more strange and dopey comments I have seen for a while.
Let me very briefly respond to some of his bizarre remarks. As to the women and pants issue, he offered a number of Scriptures to “prove” this. None of them had anything to do with the issue except for one: Deuteronomy 22:5: “A woman must not wear men’s clothing, nor a man wear women’s clothing, for the LORD your God detests anyone who does this.”
More on that in a moment. But one could first respond by saying, ‘Hmm, I did not know that pants could – or could not – go to heaven!’ The fact that he struggled writing a coherent sentence in plain English should sound the alarm. But the point he was trying to make was simply foolish – for several reasons.
First of all, I don’t really think that most guys were wearing pants when that passage was written by Moses. I am sure that Mo and Co were wearing more traditional ancient near eastern garb at the time – and that was not pants. As one site correctly notes, “From archaeological evidence, it is known that the earliest types of clothing were wrap skirts or aprons for both genders.” https://dailyhistory.org/When_did_Men_Start_Wearing_Pants%3F
And as Wayne Jackson remarks:
We should recall, however, that in biblical times, clothing for males and females was different only in styles and details, not in kind. Men did not wear trousers and women did not adorn themselves with skirts and blouses. While it undoubtedly is true that God wants some sexual distinction apparent in men’s and women’s garments, it is not legitimate to say that all women’s pants are wrong or, for that matter, that Scottish kilts are sinful for the men of that culture. A woman can be feminine in a modest pant-suit (cf. 1 Tim. 2:9-10) and men can still be masculine in a robe-like garment as in some Near Eastern countries today. https://www.christiancourier.com/articles/365-does-the-bible-forbid-women-to-wear-pants
And as most serious Old Testament scholars will point out, while the passage is somewhat enigmatic, the main emphasis of it seems to be a warning against transvestism, and indirectly a warning against homosexuality. Let me cite just one representative expert. J. G. McConville comments on this passage as follows:
In the law against transvestism, the woman must not wear ‘an item suitable for a man’. The term is general, and therefore not strictly clothing. Indeed, it can have military connotations, which fit here with the word used for ‘man’ (geber, often man as warrior). The man must not wear female dress. The concern is either to discourage homosexuality, or to prohibit transvestite practices found in Canaanite and Mesopotamian worship. The latter is suggested by the word ‘abhorrent’ (cf. 12:31).
So whatever exactly this passage is primarily about, it is NOT about women going to hell if they wear pants. Talk about reading into the text! And talk about woeful ignorance of the cultural practices of the day. And talk about a failure to consider the original languages.
One can also note this guy’s remarks about those who will make it to heaven. I am actually surprised that he claims 123 Americans will make it there. Given his cultic views, it is more likely that just one or two will get in. As to the KJV bit, while there can be some folks who try to somewhat rationally make the case for KJV-Onlyism, there are far too many nutters out there running with this nonsense. So this guy is the gift that just keeps on giving.
But I am not just picking on him. As I say, I get far too many really strange and ridiculous comments coming in to my site – too often by Christians. They really need to try to learn how to think, to read, to study, and to show themselves approved. Just running with stuff found on flaky websites and the like is not how they should be proceeding here.
They really should be much slower to speak – or to comment, and much more willing to do some serious study of Scripture, as well as basic theology. Otherwise they will keep on doing damage to the cause of Christ with their unhelpful and unbiblical remarks.
And that helps no one.
[1096 words]