Page 4 - The Standard Volume 2

CONSECRATION
As we strive to align ourselves with Christian Scripture, it is important that we are well informed so as not to do things merely based on a feeling or a personal viewpoint without regard to Christian teaching. My heart's prayer is to help all, male and female, to see the importance of basing their Christian practice on Scripture and the truthful record of the historic Church. The Christian Scriptures give us the infallible Word of God and the record of Christian history shows us how the Church has historically received, interpreted, and practiced what the Scriptures teach.
THE EARLY CHURCH FATHERS
With respect to Christian veiling or head covering, do you realize it is a historical and verifiable fact that the church unanimously observed it since the 1st Century? This was attested by multiple writers throughout the first centuries of Christianity. For example, an early Christian author and church father named Tertullian stated, in his day (he lived from 150–220 A.D.), the Corinthian church (whom the Apostle Paul sent two letters to in the New Testament) was still practicing head covering. He stated the following:
“So, too, did the Corinthians themselves understand [Paul]. In fact, at this day the Corinthians do veil their virgins. What the apostles taught, their disciples approve.” (Source: Tertullian (A.D. 198) Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. 3 p. 688)
Augustine, a Bishop of Hippo, (354–430 A.D.) writes,
"It is not becoming, even in married women, to uncover their hair, since the apostle commands women to keep their heads covered.” (Source: Saint Augustine (354-430), Selected Letters Translated by J. G. Cunningham, Letter 245)
THEOLOGIANS OF OUR TIME
We’ve all been influenced by what is called the “Protestant Reformation”, a break from the Roman Catholic Church, based
Archbishop Wayne R. Felton
upon Biblically justified convictions whereas the Romans departed from the faith and would not receive the call to repent. Therefore the Church had to reform in order to remain true to the Scriptures and THE faith which was once delivered unto the Saints (Jude 1:3). Yet, even they, of which most Churches in the United States stem from, taught and observed the practice of veiling for women and unveiling for men.
Martin Luther, one of the more popular reformers of the 16th Century and founder of the Lutheran Church, encouraged wives to wear a veil during public worship. He stated in his writing on Eve and the nature of women the following:
“The wives of the greatest lords, such as kings and princes, take part in no governance, but alone the husbands. For God said to the woman, ‘You shall be subject to your husband, etc.’ The husband has the governance in the house, unless he is....a fool, or unless out of love and to please his wife he lets her rule, as sometimes the lord follows the servant’s advice. Otherwise and aside from that, the wife should put on a veil, just as a pious wife is duty-bound to help bear her husband's accident, illness, and misfortune on account of the evil flesh. The Law withholds from women wisdom and governance. St. Paul saw this in 1 Corinthians 7, when he says, ‘I charge you—but not I; rather the Lord,’ and in 1 Timothy 2: ‘I do not permit a woman to teach, etc.’” (Source: Martin Luther, Table Talk #6567; quoted in Luther on Women: A Sourcebook, p. 31)
This is an exceeding far cry from what some Lutherans practice today! How can one say they are “followers of Luther” and ignore his clear teachings?
John Calvin, a reformer that many Baptists and Reformed churches hold allegiance to also taught women should wear head coverings in public worship. He said:
4 THE STANDARD | January 2020