We’ve heard it said that those who hold to head covering are “simple” and unskilled in Biblical exposition. The fact is, many of the brightest biblical scholars with prestigious degrees believe in this doctrine too.
When you are first starting your head covering journey, stories from women who already cover are a great encouragement.
When you are struggling to maintain the practice of head covering or feel alone in your practice, testimonies can be the light in a very dark place.
Satan comes to discourage us from keeping the commandments of God, but the Bible says that we can overcome Him by the word of their testimony. (Rev 12:11) Since 2013, The Head Covering Movement has kept an ongoing record of blog posts, news articles and videos that support our view of head covering1) There are a few mixed in that aren’t supportive of head covering which were still relevant to this site’s readers.
. While those posts have been helpful on a weekly basis, we know it’s hard to comb through an entire blog looking for multiple posts. So, to make it easier we’ve combined over three years of posts and put them in one place for you.
Bookmark this page and visit it often when you need advice, encouragement or clarity.
At a very young age, Joel responded to the Gospel message and became a disciple of Jesus Christ. As a young man, he felt God’s call to ministry and after graduating from High School he began working at his church. He served in whatever way possible and eventually became the worship leader and worked with the youth ministry. In 2008 he was led by the Lord to plant The Bible Fellowship a non-denominational church in Wimauma, FL. He has been pastoring there ever since. Joel and his wife Denaye have 3 children and are blessed and privileged to know and serve the Lord Jesus Christ.
>>> In addition to streaming this sermon above, you can also download it.
[Guest Author:This article was written by April Cassidy. If you’re interested in guest writing for the Head Covering Movement please contact us.]
Externals are easy. It’s easy to kneel in a position of prayer physically for a few minutes and read a chapter of the Bible each day. It’s easy to go to church every Sunday and sit in a pew. It’s a simple thing to eat a little chunk of bread and drink a sip of wine or grape juice at church during the Lord’s Supper. It’s not even hard to put on a hat or scarf.
Some people think that the externals are all that really matters. If you look like you are doing the right thing, that is enough.
God does want us to obey Him outwardly – but He is even more concerned with the inward motives of the heart. God desires me to obey Him outwardly, yes! Absolutely. But He wants me to obey Him for the right reasons and with the right heart. I can go to church three times per week, read my Bible daily, pray, dress modestly, and even cover my head. These are very good things. In fact, they are commands of God for believing women. But why am I doing these things? It is sobering to consider that it is actually possible to do all of these things and to be far from God or to not even know Him. Read more
April Cassidy runs a blog called “Peaceful Wife” where she writes encouragement to women on biblical womanhood. She’s also practices headcovering and shared her testimony with us here. I got an e-mail from April in August 2014 telling me that she had been picked up by a Christian literary agent . Shortly after I heard the great news that her book was going to be published through Kregel Publications. It’s almost a year later now, and her book “The Peaceful Wife” is about to release on January 27th.
Here’s the book description and cover:
What happens when a woman becomes the wife God desires her to be?
In today’s world, women are often rewarded for having type A personalities. Driven, demanding women achieve higher positions, better salaries, and praise for their ambition. They learn to be confident, take-charge leaders who can handle anything on their own. Yet when it comes to their marriages, those same traits can backfire. After all, no one goes into marriage hoping for a promotion. What is a wife to do?
April Cassidy knows this struggle firsthand. She thought she was a great Christian wife and begged God to make her passive husband into a more loving, involved, godly leader. Instead, God opened her eyes to changes that she needed to make, such as laying down her desire for control and offering genuine, unconditional respect–not just love–to her husband. The Peaceful Wife focuses on Cassidy’s experience and its life-changing properties, providing a template for others to follow.
Cassidy’s conclusions may be as shocking to readers as they were to her, but she backs up her own tale with stories from her blog readers, and also includes recommendations for further study. She walks through baby steps on how to change, addressing questions such as:
What is respect?
How can you show respect?
How is being respectful different from being loving?
In the end, The Peaceful Wife is a powerful path to God’s design for women to live in full submission to Christ as Lord.
One of the things we’re really excited about is that on page 171 she gives positive attestation to head covering. Here’s what she says: Read more
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981), minister of Westminster Chapel in London for 30 years, was one of the foremost preachers of his day. His many books have brought profound spiritual encouragement to millions around the world.
Transcript: “In the first epistle to the Corinthians in the eleventh chapter and the 10th verse, Paul uses these words, “For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels.” You will remember that he’s considering the question of women praying without their heads being covered. Apparently some of the women in the church of Corinth were taking part in prayer with their heads uncovered. And the Apostle tells them that that’s quite wrong. It’s not only wrong because a woman should have her head covered to show that she is under the authority of the man, but in addition to that he says to that she should be covered because of the presence of the angels. In other words, the Scripture teaches that when you and I are met as we are at this moment and when we’re met together in prayer that the angels of God are present and are looking upon us. And the woman is to be covered when she takes part in public prayer because of the presence of the angels. It’s a tremendous and a remarkable thing. Let us bear it in mind.”
Full Sermon: This clip is from his sermon “Good Angels” which can be downloaded here for free.
[Series introduction:This post is part of a series that examines what certain leaders in church history believed about head covering. Their arguments, choice of language and conclusions should not be misconstrued as an endorsement from us. The purpose of this series is to faithfully show what they believed about covering rather than only selectively quoting the parts we agree with.]
Saint Augustine (354-430 A.D.) served as Bishop of Hippo (modern day Annaba, Algeria). He is the pre-eminent “Doctor of the Church” according to Roman Catholicism, and is considered by many Evangelicals to be one of the theological fathers of the Protestant Reformation due to his teachings on salvation and grace. He is best known for his books “Confessions” and “The City of God.”
Augustine received a letter from his friend Possidius who was Bishop of Calama asking him numerous questions. One of those questions was should he (Calma) permit “ornaments of gold and costly dress?” Augustine told him that it shouldn’t be forbidden “except in the case of those who [are] neither [married] nor [intend] to marry.” He said this was because they “are bound to consider only how they may please God.” The rational he provided to allow those who are married to wear decorated dress was that they must “consider how they may in these things please their wives if they be husbands, their husbands if they be wives” (1 Cor 7:32-34.) So Augustine saw that looking good and attractive for your spouse was permitted. He did have one stipulation to this allowance though. He said, “with this limition, that it is not becoming even in married women to uncover their hair, since the apostle commands women to keep their heads covered.” So here we see that even though he permits married women to wear decorated dress, they are not allowed to uncover their heads. The fact that he said it was not becoming “even” in married women likely indicates that he believed single women were to cover their heads too. The fact he addressed a modern situation shows that Augustine believed that head covering was not cultural but was to be practiced in his day in Northern Africa. 1) All quotations from this paragraph are taken from “Letter 245” which can be read online here: http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1102245.htmRead more
