tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694749190352504306.post2657822676859168058..comments2024-03-27T02:22:55.403-07:00Comments on The Biblical Naturist: Naturist by Biblical Conviction??? — [Part 3]Matthew Nealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13422612844080337155noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694749190352504306.post-78298505261387808112015-05-25T12:47:20.648-07:002015-05-25T12:47:20.648-07:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Israelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694749190352504306.post-46741497299589848612014-04-16T23:09:59.940-07:002014-04-16T23:09:59.940-07:00Thanks for your comments, Klaas.
It sounds like y...Thanks for your comments, Klaas.<br /><br />It sounds like you've discovered and experienced the truths taught at http://mychainsaregone.org ...<br /><br />Praise God for the truth that sets free!<br /><br />I believe there is a very good answer to your wife's concerns about how naturism--or more accurately, a biblical understanding of the meaning of our bodies--is of great help in our effort to impact the world for Christ and truth. It is not simply a selfish pursuit to live according to what is biblically true... and there is nothing that will so compellingly draw people to the kingdom of God as those who live contrary to both the values of this world, AND the false man-made "rules of righteousness" that "religious" people have created. Such rules do not bring freedom, but only keep people in bondage. <br /><br />I could expound on this quite a bit, and I probably should do so in a blog post one of these days... but at the moment, I'm not sure when I could get around to it. Thanks for the idea, though... <br /><br />-- MattMatthew Nealhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13422612844080337155noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694749190352504306.post-42791917701584866722014-04-16T14:38:16.930-07:002014-04-16T14:38:16.930-07:00Thanks for this 3 part series on your biblical con...Thanks for this 3 part series on your biblical conviction regarding naturism. Because of this blog and certain websites regarding naturism, viewing the crown of God's creation in its naked form I have begun on the same path as you. Accepting nudity for what it is, simply nudity and not porn, has actually broken the power of porn in my life. I didn't have an addiction to it, but rather a keen desire to view. Afterwards, I would feel guilt and shame simply viewing the naked form and sometimes porn. (Of course with porn the guilt was warranted). Then there came the repentance, asking for forgiveness, receiving it but only to do it again a week or two later. This truth about nudity has broken that desire, now that I realize that the desire to view the beauty of His creation is natural and honoring to Him. (not porn just to be clear).<br /><br />My wife has also read this blog and sees the truth of it. Yet this is a direction she is unwilling to take since there are more important issues that need addressing. Her passion is children and christian education that teaches creation as truth and not evolution. Her point is, how does naturism, in our worldview of bringing Christ to the lost, help in doing that? She says that this pursuit is selfish does nothing to draw people to God's kingdom. How would you answer that?<br /><br />Since embarking on this journey of naturism I can personally say that it has drawn me closer to God. Jesus said, you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. Therefore, as Paul says, Stand fast therefore in the liberty in which Christ has set you free and be not entangled again in the yoke of bondage. This I am doing. <br /><br />I am not ashamed to say that I have chosen this way. I have been a Christian for 46 years. Have a degree in Christian ministry, been a pastor, and as well started a christian charity. Not bragging, just making a point that my desire has always been to serve God with all my heart and this is just the next step in my journey with Him. Praise the Lord. <br /><br />Klaasnaturist newbiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16933750546676144277noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694749190352504306.post-47729175878445292452013-07-29T22:00:27.329-07:002013-07-29T22:00:27.329-07:00I have just finished reading these posts and I am ...I have just finished reading these posts and I am in literal awe of the depth and clarity of expression you have used in explaining your convictions. Many of my own studies and contemplations have touched on the same scriptures and ideas you have expressed, but you have delineated your convictions in an absolutely clear and understandable series. Thank you. Please keep the posts coming!Lelandnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694749190352504306.post-82233495755904323352012-03-12T19:56:05.594-07:002012-03-12T19:56:05.594-07:00Taterschmidt,
Thanks for you kind comments.
Abou...Taterschmidt,<br /><br />Thanks for you kind comments.<br /><br />About Matthew 5:29-30... Let's make a few observations about what Jesus says...<br /><br />First of all, we have to take note of the fact in verse 28 that Jesus did not say that "looking" at a woman was the problem, but looking "with <i>lust</i>" was the problem. So if we start with that fact, it will inform our understanding of verse 29.<br /><br />Secondly, are we really to believe that Jesus is recommending self-mutilation as a means of pursuing righteousness? I don't think so. In reality, neither the gouging of an eye and the cutting off of a hand would really have any sure impact on the avoidance of sin. I can look with lust at a woman with one eye as easily as with two. Any sinful activity that I could do with one hand, I could do with the other.<br /><br />Furthermore, Jesus made it pretty clear in Mark 7 that nothing outside a man can defile him by going into him. Nothing eaten, nothing seen (either way, it's outside going in). Rather, He told us that defilement comes from the heart. And we're certainly not told to rip our hearts out! <br /><br />Finally, Paul notes that one of the hallmarks of a man-made (false) "rules of righteousness" is that they include "severe treatment of the body" (Col. 2:23). Such rules and pursuit of righteousness is not of God.<br /><br />Consequently, I don't think it is consistent with logic or with Scripture to take these words of Christ literally. <br /><br />I think Christ's point is that we should take the issue of personal sin in our lives so seriously that we are prepared to take drastic steps to address it. We tend to excuse sin instead... but we would never be so cavalier about cutting off a hand or gouging an eye.<br /><br />Ultimately, if someone is so committed to overcoming sin that they would ponder such acts, they're committed enough to actually overcome their sin rather than mutilating their own body.<br /><br />But in answer to your question about it being better to avoid social nudity if they are incapable of avoiding lust... I would suggest that that is never the case. Would anyone ever say that they are incapable of avoiding lust when the see any woman's face? Without any doubt, the face is more beautiful than the rest of her body... it's just that we never see the rest of her body, and we've been taught to interpret the sight of it as a sexual experience.<br /><br />Seeing someone naked in a socially nude context simply is not a sexual experience. Someone may well <i>imagine</i> that they would be incapable of being in that context without lust, but the reality is that very soon after someone is in the context, they will experience how sexually mundane it really is. Only if someone <i>wanted</i> to treat it sexually would it be so for them.<br /><br />This is one of the most surprising realities of social nudity. Just read the stories of people who have tried it... they expect it to be difficult, but their experiences consistently defy to their expectations.<br /><br />— MatthewMatthew Nealhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13422612844080337155noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694749190352504306.post-88972762936360211612012-03-11T22:55:35.577-07:002012-03-11T22:55:35.577-07:00This is a great article as are the two before it. ...This is a great article as are the two before it. I am impressed with your research and praise God that more people actually 'study' and not just 'read' the Bible. One thing that I'd add, though: you say averting your eyes isn't conquering lust, but merely suppressing it. What do you think of Matthew 5:29-30? If someone is incapable of avoiding lust in such a setting as social nudity, do you believe that it would not be better to just avoid that situation altogether, at least just temporarily (for spiritual strengthening)? I would interpret that Jesus had implied that gouging your eye or removing your hand covered both physical and mental imagery, or merely used it as a metaphor to describe all actions. I also believe that He implied that maiming yourself was less of a consequence than being sent to hell (Matthew 10:28). This is my understanding and not my projected implication of Scripture. <br /><br />I don't disagree with you about biblical views on nudity, I am simply curious about your take on these verses on the subject of uncontrollable lust (Matthew 5:29-30). May God's will bless!Matt Hickeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02532784643576126802noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694749190352504306.post-78558239204631593112009-10-05T09:58:04.794-07:002009-10-05T09:58:04.794-07:00I notice that when Jesus told men to not "loo...I notice that when Jesus told men to not "look upon a woman to lust after her" did two things.<br />One, he did not tell us we cannot look upon a woman. He just told us not to look up her <i>to lust after her</i>.<br />Second, he did not qualify the woman and her state of dress (or lack of). It was a directive on <i>men</i> to control how they think about and view women.<br /><br />boyd allen<br /><a href="http://christiannaturism.blogspot.com" rel="nofollow">Christian Naturism Blog</a>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694749190352504306.post-13993666705839598232009-09-27T16:13:21.595-07:002009-09-27T16:13:21.595-07:00E. Stanley Jones was not a naturist by in means al...E. Stanley Jones was not a naturist by in means although many things he said fit well with the moral philosophy of traditional naturism. About a sexualized view of the body and a "bouncing your eyes" mentality, I think his comments on Matthew 5:27-28 are particularly pertinent: "Jesus stands for reverence for the personality of the woman. In one place it is said of Jesus, "He laid his hands upon her: and immediately she was made straight." When the hands of a good deal of modern teaching are laid on woman, immediately she is made crooked. Jesus insisted that she not be a means to a man's ends, but that she is an end in herself, and must be treated as such. Looking on her as a sex-being and that alone is adulterous thinking. The whole of the purdah* idea, while ostensibly to protect the purity of the woman, looks on woman only as a creature of sex, and is therefore essentially adulterous in its thinking. The holiest among the Pharisees were called "the bleeding Pharisees." They went around with their eyes on the ground, lest they look on a woman, and as they were constantly bumping against trees and posts and walls, they had bleeding foreheads—hence holy. How sane and yet how severe Jesus was! He lifted up men's eyes to look frankly at life, but in that freedom there was the restraint of an inner purity.<br />— E. Stanley Jones in <i>The Christ of the Mount</i> (Abandon: Nashville, 1981), p. 148-149. <br />*("purdah" is the Hindu and Islamic custom of keeping women fully covered with clothing and apart from the rest of society)David L. Hattonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01328716551685859425noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694749190352504306.post-8954512340338290662009-09-27T08:54:39.698-07:002009-09-27T08:54:39.698-07:00Not to "pile-on" the "Everman's...Not to "pile-on" the "Everman's Battle" but...<br /><br />I have those same problems with it that you do. I did some internet searches and ran across <a href="http://www.psychoheresy-aware.org/emb112.html" rel="nofollow">this</a>. It amazes how quickly we abandon (or forget) grace, especially God's grace and re-adopt rules or works based faith.<br /><br />Thank you for your contributions here.J Fnoreply@blogger.com