How can Christian men shave?

Question

Creationists want to reform schools on the belief that the universe was created in six days, as Moses first book says. But Moses third book also says that one shall not eat porc, hare or any bird. But eating grasshoppers is okay (they have two wings and four legs). It also says that boys must be circumcised 8 days after birth and that men must not cut their hair or shave their beard. How can Christian men take only a part of what they call a holy book? What kind of religion is that?

Answer 1

What you see in the old testiment is basically the ortodox Jewish religion. The new testiment is the Cristian religion. They have many merging areas but there are differences - primarily in rituals and codes of cleanliness which are stricter in the Jewish faith. You are looking at moseic law. In the Christian view, alot of those religious codes you are seeing were replaced when Christ was born. Christ explains it many times that he fulfilled the old moseic law.

BTW, I personally think grasshoppers are yummy when fried to a light crisp.

Answer 2

What you are quoting is something that applied to the Old Covenant. The Bible is obvious about a New Covenant. It was even stated in the Old Testament that there would be a New Covenant. It didn't imply it, it stated the New Covenant boldly and proudly. The Book of Jeremiah states this:
Jeremiah 31:31
"The time is coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.

It wasn't going to be the same as the Old Covenant, because all the Old Covenant did was expose us humans as derelict, we were incapable of living by the Law of Moses. Anytime one of us persuaded that we are sinless, all we have to do is go back to the Books of Exodus, Deuteronomy, Leviticus and Numbers and pick a page to read - it will show us that we are not so perfect. We shouldn't think that we are. We are all sinners, but the New Covenant puts us in the Law of Grace. That's turns out to be the one that man needed. Because attempting to live by 613 Laws from the Old Covenant would be impossible for any of us to do.

So how can Christian men shave? Like any other man who shaves. We are not under the Law of Moses.

Answer 3

The Universe was created in a week but it says In the Bible One of Our days is a thousand of God's ...........(its like a lot more) And since the times of the Old testament ONE thing has not changed and thats the ten commandments which are different .........They are the ten rules to keep and the rest of the world ( will change and You think God didnt know that).......Many places I have worked dont allow beards ... How can u make a living.. unless your working at 711.........

Under the tenth commandment was there an eleventh that said
Thou shall not shave thy beard until Thy finnally trip On own beard
NO
times have changed The Ten Commandments havent.. .and the ways back then arent practiced after Jesus Came He gaves us a ltittle more insight on what really matters

Answer 4

First off Moses was not talking about Christians, but to the Jews. Second, when Jesus came to this world, and lived as a man for 30 years, and shed his blood on the cross at Calvary, He fulfilled the Old Testament. Allot of the Old Testament was for the behalf of the Jews, and not a means of salvation. For instance, eating pork was because they didn't know how to prepare it properly, and people were getting sick, and even dieing. Now today, we can eat pork without the fear of food poisoning. Circumcision was for cleanliness, and nothing else. If you are not a Christian, you just wouldn't get it, but being a Christian IS NOT about rules, religion, or denomination, being a Christian is about your personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and nothing else. We as Christians aren't perfect by any means, but we recognize that, and are not here to condemn someone for there beliefs whether they believe or not, or believe in something else. Jesus tells us threw out the New Testament that if we don't believe in Him, then we condemn ourselves. The choice is up to you and you alone to believe what you want. But is it right that you condone someone else for what they believe just because it is different then what you might, or might not believe. Yes, we are humans, and we can get defensive about our belief in Christ, but like I said we are only human.

Answer 5

Your first question is easy--one pass or stroke at a time, or one orbital motion if I use my electric shaver . Seriously, you seem to have taken parts of the Old Testament, specifically some parts dealing with the nation of Israel on their journey to Canaan, and trying to project this onto those of us living many years after the fact.

Remember that things are different because of Jesus Christ and His crucifixion. He came to fulfill all the Law of Moses, including shaving laws, dietary laws, and so forth. His message is "Believe and be saved"--no need to try and follow all the commandments, that nobody could keep anyway! Please read the book of Galatians, and Acts chapter 15 for additional information. In fact, why not read more of the New Testament? You'll find it most interesting, I'm sure.

Now as to your last two (rhetorical?) questions, Christian men are not required to live under a set of laws that are not applicable. Suppose you live in the United States, and are an American citizen. Would you have to obey the laws of, say, Germany or France if you live in America? Surely not. In the same way, Christians today look back at what the Jewish people had to live with and can rejoice that Jesus took care of all of it. And really, it's not a religion at all--it's faith.

Answer 6

The Bible states in Leviticus 19:27 that "Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard." Talmudic rabbis understood this to mean that a man may not shave his beard with a razor with a single blade, since the cutting action of the blade against the skin "mars" the beard. Because scissors have two blades, halakha (Jewish law) permits their use to trim the beard, as the cutting action comes from contact of the two blades and not the blade against the skin. For this reason, most poskim (Jewish legal decisors) rule that Orthodox Jews may use electric razors to remain clean shaven, as such shavers cut by trapping the hair between the blades and the metal grating, halakhically a scissor-like action. Some prominent contemporary poskim maintain that electric shavers constitute a razor-like action and consequently prohibit their use.

Christians don't follow the OT laws because they believe Christ fulfilled the laws.

Answer 7

The Christian Barber

There was a barber that thought that he should share his faith with his customers more than he had been doing lately. So the next morning when the sun came up and the barber got up out of bed he said, "Today I am going to witness to the first man that walks through my door."

Soon after he opened his shop the first man came in and said, "I want a shave!" The barber said, "Sure, just sit in the seat and I'll be with you in a moment." The barber went in the back and prayed a quick desperate prayer saying, "God, the first customer came in and I'm going to witness to him. So give me the wisdom to know just the right thing to say to him. Amen."

Then quickly the barber came out with his razor knife in one hand and a Bible in the other while saying "Good morning sir. I have a question for you... Are you ready to die?"

Answer 8

First of all, the Earth and Heavens were created in six days, it doesn t say Universe. Second the "six days" may (I m not sure) not actually mean normal 24 hour days but much longer periods than that. Third, the old law that says we shouldn t eat pork still applies today, most Christians haven t realized this yet. About shaving, it doesn t say we can t cut our hair, it says we can t trim the sides of our beards and grow long hair.

Answer 9

Have you read more of the bible?

In the New Testement, Jesus came. He came to fufill the law. You see, the law is impossible to keep. We have to throw ourselves on God's mercy and grace, if we want to be accepted by Him.

Anyway, returning to your question. Christian men can shave because after Jesus the gate was thrown wide open and anyone could become a Christian - jews or gentiles. And God didn't expect the Gentiles (everyone who isn't a jew) to keep the Mosaic law... because God looks at our heart, not our outward apperance (whether bearded or not) and what comes out of us (our words and actions) is more important that what goes into us (what we eat - chicken, beef or pork or lentils!)

And, to address your first point, I don't think creationism should be taught in secular schools as scienctific theory, because it's not. I'd like to see evolution taught as theory (it is still a theory, right, not fact?). I'd like to see belief systems taught in the appropriate lessons as a valid way of living your life, not as myths believed in only by morons - because their not!

Sorry, long answer!!

Answer 10

You shall not shave around the sides of your head, nor shall you disfigure the edges of your beard: To do this was to imitate pagan customs of that day; today, Jewish orthodox men are conspicuous by their untrimmed beards and long, curly locks on the sides of their heads.

c. Cuttings in the flesh for the dead, nor tattoo any marks on you: These were also pagan practices God wanted Israel to separate from. The trimming of the hair, the beard, cutting, and tattoos were all connected with pagan rites of mourning.

i. Part of this message to us today is that what our culture thinks and how they perceive things is important. If some clothing or jewelry or body decoration would associate us with the pagan world, it should not be done. This is a difficult line to draw, because the standards of culture are always changing. Some modern examples of changing standards are hair length and earrings for men.

ii. In Paul's day, in the city of Corinth, only prostitutes went around without a head covering - so it was right for the Christian women of Corinth to wear veils, though not required to by the letter of the law (1 Corinthians 11:5-6).

d. Do not prostitute your daughter, to cause her to be a harlot: To prostitute your daughter in this context probably means to give her as a ritual prostitute at a pagan temple; this was of course forbidden, though in the eyes of the pagan culture, it was a religious thing to do.

e. Mediums and familiar spirits: These were ways the pagans sought to contact the dead or other spirits; this was a doorway into the occult, and strictly forbidden - those who seek after these things are defiled - "made dirty" by them.

i. "In some Near Eastern societies such mediums would dig a small hole in the earth to symbolize a grave, and then put offerings in it to attract the attention of the person whom the medium desired to contact." (Harrison)

ii. The word for familiar spirits comes from a root meaning "to know" "perhaps referring to the occultic information which the practitioner of necromancy purported to have." (Harrison)

iii. "Not only are all real dealers with familiar spirits, or necromantic or magical superstitions, are here forbidden, but also all pretenders to the knowledge of futurity, fortune-tellers, astrologers, and so forth."