The religious world has many fantasies, all invented by its leaders. Their practical purpose is none other than to trap their followers with sophistry and evil beliefs. Let's try to talk about a few that come to mind.

Let's start with some Jewish practices and traditions that are used today. Use of quipa, talit, peiot, etc. There is no biblical mention of its use. But it has become a fad and its use has been adopted as the norm by followers of Judaism. I'm not going to give their meaning, leaving those who don't know to search through the sources that can give them definitions. There are also the daily practices of prayers and candles; washing hands with the systematic practice of putting water on them three times; and many other things that I don't know about, but that the Jewish people know about. Even evangelicals have adopted some of these practices and introduced them into their celebrations. Judeo-Christian religions have adopted a mixture of pseudo-Christian and Jewish practices. This is the case of the Messianic Jewish religions, whose women wear veils when participating in rites in temples and congregations.

Incidentally, with regard to the veil, I think it's the result of a misinterpretation of what Paul says in his epistle to the Corinthian believers. Where he says that a woman should not pray with her head uncovered. I Cor. 11:13.

I'm going to put the full text on the subject addressed by the apostle Paul, in order to show the misunderstanding of those who opt for this practice of wearing a veil.

1 Corinthians 11:10 Therefore a woman ought to have a sign of power on her head for the sake of the angels. 11 But neither is the man without the woman, nor the woman without the man, in the Lord. 12 For as woman comes from man, so man comes from woman, but all things come from God. 13 Judge among yourselves: is it decent for a woman to pray to God uncovered? 14 Or does not nature itself teach you that it is dishonouring for a man to grow his hair long? 15 But for a woman to grow her hair long is honourable to her, because her hair was given to her instead of a veil. 16 But if anyone wishes to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor do the churches of God.

The text is not difficult to understand, although for the natural man it is veiled because of Solomon's failure to fulfil what God says in Proverbs 2:1-4.

Paul is not referring to the wearing of a cloth veil, but to the woman's hair. And he means that Christian women shouldn't cut their hair, or even shave it, because that would be as if she had a bald head. This is in relation to God.

             The proof of this is in verse 15, where it says that God gave the hair instead of the veil.

On one occasion God told us that on earth we call it hair, but in heaven it's called a veil.

So just replace the word veil with hair, and you can improve your understanding of what the Holy Spirit means through the apostle Paul in this biblical text from his epistle (doctrinal letter) to the Corinthians.

Remembering what the Lord told us about hair, when He did it using a vase in a prophetic way, He asked a young woman why she had cut off her veil. And he said that because she had done so, she would be cast into outer darkness that day.

It's interesting that what is primary and required by God, such as the decalogue, the ten commandments, men have relativised, or rejected and neglected to practice and fulfil. While things that aren't even secondary have been placed as if they were an obligation imposed by God. It is not in vain that the Master said that the religious of his time "swallowed a gnat but swallowed a camel". Mt 23;24.

When we express the need to fulfil God's law, there are those who are bothered by this and say that not only that, but that we have to keep the 613 laws given to the people of Israel. They ignore what the Holy Spirit says through the Apostle Paul in Eph. 2:15 and Col. 2:14. He speaks of "commandments of ordinances" written in a book, referring to the ordinances written by Moses in a book. These laws were given to the people of Israel, with the intermediation of angels (Acts 7:53), and were valid for a time, having been abolished by Jesus, since they were temporal laws intended for the people of Israel as the people of God, and when they were in their own territory and had a theocratic government.

This is what Jesus said about the religious leaders of his time: "They laid heavy burdens on men's shoulders, and they were not willing to lift them with their hands.  Mt 23:4.

Guarulhos-SP, 04/02/2023

Oli Prestes

Missionary

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