Not sure yet? Christian Naturism by Boyd Allen

Are you still not sure yet?

I know this is hard to believe. At first, I was kind of looking around, not at anybody in particular, but inside myself thinking, "Is this OK? " There would have been something wrong with me had I not been wondering. So it is with you and anyone else. So go ahead and feel a little doubt if you would like, especially if it gets you to come before God and ask Him. That of course is much more important than anything on this earth can be. But please, do read on:

Personally, as a physical human being on earth with not much else to go on, I love to be nude. Period. I don't know why, but I do. Some people will argue that it is sex that makes me do it! Well, sometimes sex does cross my mind. But it crosses my mind when I'm clothed too! And who said anything about sex anyway? The person who sees or knows I'm nude is the one who is thinking about sex. Not me! And that person is clothed! Shame on them for thinking like that!

As for those not yet convinced, maybe Naturism isn't for you. That's OK, we don't expect the world to jump in the next pool in the nude! However, should a Christian be involved in a nude lifestyle? Even if it is not OK for you, is it OK for others, especially Christians?

First of all, we need to understand who and what are Christians. Christians are simply people of all races and ages and nationalities that believe in a Savior named Jesus the Christ. Christ is not his last name. It is a title meaning "messiah" or savior of the world. He is acknowledged as God, King, Messiah, Savior, and Elder Brother, Lamb of God and many more titles. He means a lot of many things to many different people. But one thing we all have in common: we are all sinners needing a savior.

Can our works save us? Can we do something special to earn our salvation? That was a constant battle in humanity. It seemed that no matter how hard we try, we can never earn our salvation. It could be done in only one way, and that was through the sacrifice that Jesus made while he was on earth.

Then what? We should avoid sin at all costs. Yes, sin is something that continues to plague mankind. We still and always will need Jesus as our Savior.

Then is nudity sin?

Christians also look into the history of mankind dating way before Christ to guide them. That includes the creation account in Genesis, the first book of the Holy Bible. In this account, man was found to be created in the image of God. He was left in a beautiful Garden created by God in an area called Eden. The man, Adam, was given a woman whom Adam named Eve. They were both created by God, in Gods image and were both naked, that is, had no need of clothing. But because of sin, mans mind became corrupted and he thought that if he hid from God, he wouldn't have to face punishment. One of the ways he hid was to put on fig leaves over parts of his body. It didn't really say what part of his and her body, but we assume that it was the groin area.

When God returned to the Garden and found them hiding, he was very displeased. "Who told you that you were naked"? He asked. God did not sound pleased at all. So as part of the sacrifice that was needed for sin, God came up with the skin of animals.

These skins only covered Adam and Eve. They did not cover the sin. The animal sacrifice covered the sins, but did not cleanse them from sin. The skin was like a reminder that they tried to cover their bodies to cover sin. So God used the dead skin of a dead animal to remind us that death covers us and we carry around that guilt with death hanging over us until the Messiah comes to cleanse us. It seemed that God replaced our living skin that we were ashamed of with the skin of death, which we readily accepted.

It was only until the messiah, Jesus Christ came and died for our sins that we finally became cleansed. There is no more sacrifice for our sins. There is no more blood, no more skin and no more covering. Harsh beating broke Jesus' skin so the skin is no longer usable for a physical covering.

Today, people would say that God covered Adam and Eve because he didn't want them to "run around naked". Is that true? Or did God cover them to pronounce them condemned and as a reminder that their sins are not forgiven?

When we accept Jesus Christ as our savior, then why do we go back to the Garden and crawl back into the sacrificial skin as if we were not forgiven? And if God clothing Adam and Eve is a sign that we must wear clothes as all times, then should we also be wearing animal skins as well? After all, that is what He clothed them with.

If we accepted Jesus Christ as our savior and we no longer depend on the Old Testament Laws and Covenants to live by, then why are we depending on it for our dress? See "New Testament"

Either the Old Testament and its laws are no longer in effect, or we must keep the whole law. And if we depend on the sacrifice of animals and their skin to cover us, then we deny the sacrifice of Jesus.

But is it necessary to go nude then? Is it a sin to wear clothes? Does God want us to be naked again?

There is no law in the New Testament (NT) that says we must be nude. However, there is no law in NT that says a nude person is sinning either.

But does the NT say that we should avoid the appearance of evil? Yes. Then should we avoid nudity? Only if you believe that being nude is evil. But does being nude and associating it with evil alone make it evil?

There are many people who believe that drinking wine is a sin, yet Jesus Christ drank wine. There are many people who believe it is OK to eat pork, but the bible never technically said it is OK to eat pork. In fact there are more laws and commands against eating pork in the bible than there are about nudity. There is no where in the bible that says, "You may eat swine", yet, there is more swine being eaten today than beef, which has always been biblical to eat. There is no where in the whole bible that says, "Nudity is sin".

Again, should Christians associate with nudists? Is it really a sin? We have come up with many laws based on assumptions, then added other rules to those assumptions that are not scientifically or psychologically sound to try to support our laws. We must go to the heart of the individual. Is that person really going nude for the sexual pleasure? Or could it be true that the nudist may have a problem with clothing. Could it be true that the nudist may be offended or sexually aroused by clothing? If so, then clothing would be a sin to that person. You would be forcing someone to be tempted by sin by demanding clothing on a person as if it were law, yet there is no law in the bible, New or Old Testament supporting this enforcement.

Did you know it is true that Christian families in the early church were baptized nude? This went on for several hundred years! Did you know that it was common for people to fellowship with some people nude? Did you know that nudity was common in Christ's day? Yet nothing was ever said in the entire NT that even suggest disgust with the nude body. How? Why? It is probably because they had no problems with the idea of a nude body.

The Apostle Paul, one of the more well known and loved Apostle of his day, even wrote that we should run the race by throwing off that which slows us down. Now of course he wasn't talking about clothing literally, but he was alluding to the runners of the Olympics that ran nude. Now if Paul were offended by nudity, then he would have accused them instead of using them as examples. They also talked about the use of exercise. Exercises in those days were done nude. To exercise, to excise, to put off or remove clothing.

1 Timothy 4:7-8 "But reject profane and old wives fables, and exercise (gumnazo, 1128) yourself toward godliness. For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things..." The point here of course is to have a godly attitude and life. Exercise in Greek means to practice or train naked. It wasn't of course the naked part Paul was talking about but training the body. It just so happens, they trained in the nude and Paul had no problem with the idea.

Exercise in this context in Greek according to Strong's Concordance of the Bible is:

1128. Gumnazo, goom-nad'-zo; ('g' has a soft sound like "j" in June) from 1131; to practice naked (in the games), i.e. train. ("The games" is referring to the Olympics. Imagine us in the Olympics nude.)

1129. Gumnasia, goom-nas-ee-ah; from 1128; training, exercise.

1131. Gumnos, goom-nos; nude, naked.

Did you notice that gumnasia (1129) sounds a lot like "gymnasium"? That's right! That is where we get our word for gymnasium! And to think that it is a place to exercise or train in the nude! Remember that when you visit a gym next time.

Another question we need to ask ourselves, is what God created as good actually evil? We call a nude body, evil. Why? Probably because of association with something else that also had nudity involved. But that in and of itself does not make a nude body evil, only that which was done while the body was nude.

There is a statement in the NT that says to not get drunk. Ephesians 5:18 "And be not drunk with wine..." So people say it is wrong to drink wine. The bible does not say that. We say that. We associate wine with drunkenness, so we say, "If you drink wine then you are a drunkard." But that is not necessarily true. Jesus drank wine, and he was called a drunkard, though it is not true that he was a drunkard. He also ate, but they called him a glutton and we all know He was not a glutton. It is a sin to be a glutton, that is, someone who eats way too much. Yet we have no problem with not only eating, but also eating a bit too much. There is something said in the NT on eating too much. But we ignore that, don't we? How many of us go to an "All you can eat" establishment and do just that?

Just because someone drinks wine, does not mean they are drunkards or because someone eats food, they are gluttons, therefore I can safely say that just because someone is nude, does not mean that they are sexual perverts. It may only mean that they prefer to not wear clothes. Sometimes a cigar is only a cigar.

We cannot live out our lives in fear. People are in fear of being seen nude and seeing others who are nude. They actually believe that the nude person is out to get them! Actually, perverts have been around us all along, but they are disguised in the very same clothing that we wear! Gumnophobia: Fear of nudity.

Here are some disadvantages of wearing clothing:

Expensive. Time consuming. Places to hide things like guns. Places to hide things that are stolen. Environmentally damaging. Dangerous on the job. Very dirty. They hold in sweat. They accumulate and spread disease and germs much faster. They hide and trap bugs that eventually bite or sting. Vanity. Overheat in the summer. Fooling others into believing they are what they are really not.

There are much more.

OK, How about the advantages?

Protection from the sun and protection from the cold. Protection from the harsh environment and on the job protection.

That’s about it. But is that a reason to force clothing on others?

To force clothing on others for religious reasons is like forcing others to live like you do. To make others look evil because your thoughts are not proper, is not good. Just because you believe erroneously that somebody is doing sexually perverted things simply because they don't wear clothes, is not good thinking on your part. We may very well be appearing evil simply by covering in shame what God created and called good. Why must you force others to think like you do? That is a scary thought if you think about it.

Here is a question that the answer has only been assumed, but not carefully thought out:

What was Jesus Christ wearing when he came out of the tomb on that morning of His resurrection?

Many artists and plays assume that He was wearing a robe. But where did it come from? Why didn't the bible mention it?

When a body is buried, whether in the ground or a rock tomb, they are usually wrapped in strips of cloth. Their body is first stripped of clothing, then cleaned and herbs and spices put on the body. Then after that, they are wrapped in cloth. When the body is laid in the tomb, more spices are added to the body. That is to help cover up the smell of decay.

When the three women came to the tomb to finish the job of putting spices on the body that they started earlier, since they didn't have time to finish before the Sabbath, they found the tomb empty.

When they left in haste, they nearly ran into Jesus in the Garden. They thought that Jesus was a gardener working there. When Peter and the others came, they looked inside the empty tomb and found that Jesus had folded the cloth and left it in the tomb before leaving. That was the only thing covering Jesus' body when he was buried in the tomb. Again, what was he wearing when he left the tomb?

It is also common for workers of that day to work nude. Even Peter was known to work nude. A person working in the garden without clothing would not be surprising, therefore, if Jesus had nothing on when the women saw him there, they would naturally assume that he was a gardener, or at least a common worker. After all, Jesus always did look like the common man of his day. For further detail, see the article "Jesus, the Second Adam".

So my question here is, if Jesus and the Apostles can work nude, then why can't we? Are we better than they? Are we worse than Paul, who before his conversion, arrested and even killed early Christians? If he can be forgiven, so can we. If he can have a relationship with Christ, so can we. If the Christians of Christ's day had no problem with the nude body, then why do we?

Personally, I feel more relaxed and work easier when nude. At home, I don't feel as clumsy or hot and stuffy. I am going to get dirty no matter what I wear or don't wear. Why bother with the clothing? It will only get dirty too and it will hold in the hot moisture which in turn, grow germs and bacteria! Ever had a smelly foot? Ever wonder why? Your clothes are doing the same thing to your body as shoes do to your feet.

Clothing is that much more you have to wash other than yourself. Why bother? Was it necessary to pull out nice clean clothes, only to get them messed up? They have done nothing for you! See "Ecologically Sound"

And clothing certainly will not save you. Only Jesus Christ can save you.

I hope this removed all doubt, because in Jesus, there is no doubt or fear. Those who doubt, cannot please God. Only those who believe and trust in Him can really please God.

For further reading, go to "The Book of Romans". Also stay around for more listed below!

Join my BACN Forum for an interactive discussion on Christianity and it's role in naturism!

What is Naturism | Adam & Eve | New Testament Views | A Few Naked Words | The Second Adam

NEW! The Gospel According to a Christian Naturist

NEW! Nude Baptism | Pray For Christians | Modern Day Body Acceptance | God Said / Satan Said" | The Book of Romans

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