How does Frost close his case? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.
Let’s start with the first quote of Frost:
Earlier I have shown that the typical “proof” texts for today’s religious purdah do not actually command clothing, and now we have just seen the Bible go a step farther by showing how God has both allowed and even directly commanded, caused, and personally modeled nakedness on multiple occasions.
Frost, Aaron. Christian Body: Modesty and the Bible (p. 127). UNKNOWN. Kindle Edition.
I have found these cases to be problematic and not ONE TIME has Frost interacted with a biblical scholar in this. Frost was the one who said at the start we should listen to the scholars. It’s strange to say that and never mention one of them. Is it because all of the scholars would disagree? Then why? Could it be the data is not in his favor?
The only case I can think of God commanding nudity publicly is in Isaiah, and that was to shame. God often did cause it, but that was also for shaming. Also, I am not convinced Jesus was nude and even emailed Jewish scholar in first century Jewish burial practices Jody Magness about this who told me the body would have been buried in wool most likely.
Frost goes on from here to say:
If the unclothed body was truly indecent or was somehow responsible for creating lust, there would be scores of passages scattered all through the Bible making reference to this sinful and corrupting influence of nakedness, and these passages would command that we should take steps to keep the body hidden for this reason. However, in all the passages that mention nakedness and all the passages that deal with lust and sexuality there is not a single passage that frames nudity as a moral issue, and there is not a single passage that suggests that clothing is a spiritual virtue of any kind or that covering the body is a useful defense or protection against lust.
Frost, Aaron. Christian Body: Modesty and the Bible (pp. 129-130). UNKNOWN. Kindle Edition.
But this is how a fundamentalist reads the text. It needs to be explicitly stated or else it’s not true. Frost told us at the start also to watch the assumptions we bring to the text and yet he is blind to his, that if something is true, the Bible must explicitly state it.
The Bible does not state background knowledge often. There is no text telling people how much they need to eat or how much water they need to drink or how much sleep they should get. People don’t need text on what causes them to sin. They already know.
Also, in the overwhelming majority of these passages, nudity is seen as shameful, and this is Scripture. I have no reason to think Frost has any understanding of honor and shame. There is a real danger when he thinks our society anyway should be a one-to-one parallel with the biblical one. An individualist society is not at all like a collectivist one. An honor-shame society is not like a guilt-innocence one.
Many cultures have existed with very minimal clothing standards or no clothing at all, and yet in many cases these cultures have held much more wholesome standards of moral purity even without the help of our religion.
Frost, Aaron. Christian Body: Modesty and the Bible (p. 131). UNKNOWN. Kindle Edition.
Yet, Frost doesn’t realize that the clothing commanded in the Bible is mainly for that reason. Purity. Clothes were there to show everyone what your social status was and what your identity was in the society. One example is virgin daughters would wear special robes to show they were virgins. It is also irrelevant what many cultures have done. Many cultures have also survived without our technology and have not had to have cars and have eaten bugs. What matter is what is our culture like and how is it like the culture of the Bible? How is it different?
He also says that for some boys and men, the sight of a naked woman or even the thought of one can be immediately sexually arousing even outside of a sexual context. Is this a problem? Could it be that God made the human female form to be alluring to the male and the human male form to the female? What if this is a feature and not a bug? What if women were made to be beautiful and some of that beauty was saved only for their husbands and vice-versa for men?
He then says the modesty approach has caused the rash of pornography. Um. Don’t think so. Pornography exists because the heart is sinful and if they weren’t degrading women through porn, they would degrade them through another means. We had several centuries of Christianity where pornography wasn’t the issue it is today. The cause of our sin is not we have a culture that wears clothes. The cause of our sin is that we have a culture that denies Christ. The solution is not to remove our clothes. It is to remove our sin. It is not to take on the nude form. It is to take on the form of Christ.
And then finally we read:
At this point the Biblical stance has been entirely laid to rest. Anyone still stubbornly insisting that Biblical Christianity must require clothing is simply stuck in irrational legalism in rebellion against God’s revelation. Such a person cannot claim to be following the Bible or Christ in this regard.
Frost, Aaron. Christian Body: Modesty and the Bible (p. 137). UNKNOWN. Kindle Edition.
What does one say to such arrogance as this? It could not be that someone could look at Frost’s work and find it lacking, like I do? No. The problem cannot be Frost. If anyone disagrees with him, then they are in rebellion against God’s revelation. Frost can hold his opinion all he wants to, but the moment you claim that if someone disagrees with you, then they are in open rebellion against God and not following Christ, then you need to take a big slice of humility. This is the way cult leaders begin and cultic personalities begin. Frost should say that his conclusion is that this is what the Bible says, but he welcomes any criticism in case he is wrong.
As I have often said, when I meet a person who cannot conceive that they are wrong in anything, I find it hard to think that they are right in anything.
In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)
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