My good friend Matthew Neal is now on Twitter. Consider this your invitation to go give him a follow, @BibleNaturist. You’ll be glad you did.
One of the things he’s done recently is a series of tweets called #BibleNudityNotTaughtInSundaySchool. I’m not sure if he’s done with it, but if there’s more coming, you can catch it on Twitter. Here’s what he’s done so far in the series. Enjoy!
Follow @BibleNaturist on Twitter for more!
Aching for Eden 
This stuff is lethal, delivering a fatal blow to our cultural aversion to life as God intended! It’s not the nude form God created that’s offensive, but mankind’s perverted use of it. Thank you, Matthew. Thank you, Phil.
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Cultural aversion is a good way to put it!
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In over 50 years of paying attention in church, I’ve not heard one sermon deal with this.
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Such a sermon would make people leave, so it’s too big a risk for preachers. I’m not saying this is correct; it’s just what is most likely true about most. It takes a bold preacher, firm in his convictions to take that risk.
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There’s other to topics where we would be happy for the preacher to preach stuff which would cause people to leave. When I have conversations with people, I don’t say directly that I think that nudity is good. But I do try to put questions in their minds which will make them uncomfortable and hopefully make them come back.
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We know a pastor who several years ago got arrested for preaching and writing about the importance of being unashamed of the bodies God created us with. The pastor preached exactly Matthew Neal’s posts found on this page.
What his family and church has been through has been astonishing and apparently it’s not over. He says when God calls a man to preach & minister the truth, the power of that truth can often be measured in the opposition to it. He also said “the power of a man is his pure love for others.” That first night in jail, he stood completely naked before his jailers and forgave those who did this to them. His forgiveness sent shockwaves throughout the jail and community. God really does call us to carry our own cross.
Please know that ministering this message about us being created in God’s Image is a great calling. The enemy is terrified of it. Don’t shrink back. Instead, violently advance the Kingdom of God as He directs you with the Truth.
Thank you for what you are doing here on this site. Very important.
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Wow, that’s incredible. Thanks for sharing that here. We take the calling seriously. There’s a lot of ground to recover that the enemy has taken.
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Update about the pastor who was arrested for preaching about being created in God’s Image: after 3+ years that included 26 months of house arrest, all charges have been dropped and as of last Thursday are now being expunged. His team of attorneys said that they have never heard of charges like these ever being dropped in his state. Even if a man is innocent, he always goes to prison. God didn’t have to have the charges dropped or expunged, but He did. In the very beginning of his ordeal and knowing that men accused of these things always go to prison, the pastor was firm: “I will not agree to any plea deal. I will not lie for them. I will not carry their sins. Jesus Christ already did that for them.” One of the men in his church remembers the pastor telling the men “I want God to completely exonerate me from all charges.” The pastor knew how important it was for the people of his church and his wife and children to see God deliver from the impossible. But the man from his church said it sounded like a pipe dream. Their church and others are quite encouraged in their own faith having witnessed that God is serious for His people. Please continue to hold onto the truth and wield the Word of God in this message that we are created in His Image to powerfully rule and advance His Kingdom. Defeat the lie of the fig leaves! Thank you for engaging in the battle with this very truth on your site.
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Absolutely awesome news! Thank you for the update and thank the Lord for His mercy in this case!
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GLORY TO GOD! HALLELUJAH!
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AMEN! GLORY TO GOD! The shame that is associated with nudity is NOT from God, but the enemy of our souls! It certainly IS okay to look at EVERYTHING God created! Even penises, scrotums, female breasts, and labia!
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Very much agree with you, Jeffnkr. This brings back the terrible memory of my days in junior high school where I and my friends ‘rated’ girls’ body parts. We came from the thinking that the naked body and sex were somehow forbidden, to be shielded from us that made body parts bad to be seen but lusted after. We really hurt girls and I wince after all these years later what I did to them just by commending and condemning their bodies because of how I sexualized the naked female body for my own self-gratification–female bodies that would never be for me, but for other men whom God had long determined beforehand would enjoy how He created their own wives. Thankfully it is godly sorrow I have, and I’ve prayed many times over the decades that their husbands would rescue and heal their wives from what I did, and rejoice in the very ones God created just for them, who were never meant for me.
Thankfully God rescued me before I married. I learned that since God is very good, then how He created my wife must be very good, too! Thus, I have thrilled with every part of my wife because He created her so perfectly just for me. And how God has ensured that I’ve had an increasing thrill with my wife as we have grown old together is to me God proving He truly did do an astonishing miracle in me.
So, now, I do the opposite from what I did in junior high school. I refuse to look away from the bodies God so thrilled at creating and rejoice with Him how He made all those wondrous parts, the breasts, vaginas, feminine curves, and even the penises and scrotums as you said. He has made us so wondrously that it now seems almost like a sin to not notice the parts that distinguish us as male and female, and give Him glory and thankfulness for what He personally, from His heart, perfectly made. After all, He did create us in His Image and, so, noticing and thrilling in how He created each part is thrilling in who He is. Thank You, Lord God, for rescuing me. Alex.
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Well said! Thanks for sharing, Alex.
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How about more book reviews?
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Been trying to finish up the release of my own book which features many others. After that, I hope to do just that! Thanks.
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Mathew, Phil, this is a good start, thanks, and well done.
But this argument didn’t work with my spouse. No matter.
I note that in 1 Corinthians, at least part of the New Testament was penned while Paul and Luke were “gymneteuo.” King James translates this as “Naked”. How much of the new testament was written in the nude?
One of my biggest concerns has to do with Genesis 3:21. Today, I heard a pastor preach that it involved an animal sacrifice, but the Hebrew word used there was not laqah (to take) it was asa, to make, the same word He used to describe how he made the animals (e.g. Genesis 1:25). There was no sacrifice involved in that. These coats are the ones we wear into the shower. We’ve been messed up by watching the Flintstones, I guess. Adding to God’s word is a fearful thing.
This view of our skin as that given to us by God is specifically described in Job, especially verse 10:11. I think Paul also describes it that way.
Finally, the events in Genesis 9:21-23 have been raised. The wording there sort of suggests that seeing ones father naked is bad enough to cause Noah to curse one of the offspring of Ham. But the wording kind of implies something sexual had occurred. My guess has to do with male sexual arousal. An uncircumcised member extends to make naked a normally hidden part of the male anatomy. This might be what was meant.
It also ties into circumcision which is required as a sign to indicate you have exposed yourself to God. This permanently exposes that hidden part of men. Later on, we read of God’s desire for a circumcised heart. God wants us to avoid hiding ourselves from Him, as Adam and Eve had done, and to rather open ourselves up to him. Isn’t that what confession is? Seen this way, clothing, except when required for protection and warmth, is sort of an affront to God. This makes the idea of “Sunday Best” almost as weird as using the rainbow to represent pride.
Taken as a whole, our entire society is generally “tin foil hat” insane, and you can probably think of other reasons to support that claim. (Is not Romans 1:18-32 prophetic?)
However, my thoughts on nudity got me in trouble with my own church leadership. So I keep my ideas to myself, and recommend that to others. We have more important concerns, like helping others to find Christ, and staying out of the news. No one wants to be reported as “Florida Man found naked…”
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Jim,
You are correct when you say that something sexual happened when the incident occurred involving Ham and his father, Noah. In Leviticus 18:8 and 20:11, the commandment is to “not lie with thy father’s wife; it is THY FATHER’S NAKEDNESS.” In Genesis 9:22, it says “Ham saw his father’s nakedness.” In Genesis 9:18 & 9:22, it says that Ham is the father of Canaan.
In Leviticus, chapter 18, the phrase, “uncover the nakedness” is a euphemism that means to have sexual intercourse. Since in 2 verses, close together, we’re told that Ham is the father of Canaan, and that Ham “saw his father’s nakedness” it could be that Ham had sexual intercourse with his mother.
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