Why Athanasius?

If you are a student of early Christianity you will remember that Athanasius argued against Arius in the 1st ecumenical Council. The position that Athanasius took was that Christ is fully God and fully man. While he was not the first to hold this position he was the first to develop a succinct argument for this position.

The reason for choosing to blog under the name Athanasius is that the Biblical position on nudity has been misrepresented in the Christian community. I believe that the Bible teaches, and therefore I need to support, the position that there is nothing inherently wrong with the human body being naked.

The fact that someone might be unclothed cannot logically be tied, without other information being presented, to sin. To do so would be the same as saying that each time you shower, bathe, go to the doctor to be examined, or even sleep (if you do so in the nude) you are sinning.

Conversely, you do not have to be naked to sin (see the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5 -7).

How you dress or not dress is not the issue. What is in your heart is how you will be judged (Matthew 5:28, 6:21, 9:4). Therefore, anything you do will be judged on why you did it not just on what you did.

In the next post I will discuss how I came to the position that being nude around other people was not inconsistent with what I believe about the Scriptures, Christ, and my position before God. I hope that you will read these posts with an open mind realizing that is the Spirit of God who convicts and leads people into truth.

Your position may or may not change based on the arguments presented in this blog. However, please understand that all of them are written from the perspective that each of us is growing in Christ and has started from very different places. What you are experiencing your Christian walk is not necessarily what I, or anyone else, have experienced. All I ask is that you present your arguments with love in Christ and understanding that you have to answer to God for your position just as I.

Athanasius