"Times they are a changing"

divorce
marriage to an unbeliever
the beach
women dressing in mens clothing
men looking like women
women preachers

 

The beach? Not sure what that means, were Christians to avoid beaches?

Preachers wearing tropical shirts and flip flops in the pulpit.
Tattoos and piercings
Coffee and doughnuts in the pews (sorry the pews are gone )
Corvette on stage (Ed Young Jr.)
Mega churches

 

Yes the beach was actually preached against at one time. The reason being the lack of modest clothing. Interestingly today since you never hear such preaching the immodest clothing now is seen in the church. Not to the extent of bathing suits, but still immodest by some. Another thing that was preached against was the pill.

 

bobbed hair
Cards
Drinking coke (Bottle gave the appearance of drinking alcohol)
Pants on women
movies
HBO and cable
dancing

 

I've seen most of those issues preached on here on the board in the past couple of weeks... :thumbs:

The bigger changes that I've seen are the return to a scriptural basis for what it is that we do to serve God and a missional worldview, even in the USA where church extension was the rule of thumb for a couple generations.

 

I dunno...I've never seen anyone dance and shop.

Usually, they're doing one or the other.

 

Everyone seems to be avoiding homosexuality, which is now widely accepted as normal. They're even being allowed to marry and adopt children. Laws are passed to protect this perverted lifestyle.

 

How about barring certain races from church membership? How many churches have abandoned that old path?

 

Say "pants on women" and you will open a whole can of worms.

I can think of a very encouraging sign in the past 50 years - the proliferation of Bible translations that have been made with the latest manuscript and textual evidence. These Bible translations really help open up the Word of God to the average reader. I know that it has for me.

 

Used to be taught to dress our best, whatever that was, to honor the Lord. Now local preacher ridicules anyone who dresses up.

Used to be taught to avoid immodest dress including in the media.
Now local preacher ridicules folks if they deny going to certain movies. (Does he go and take attendance? Do they just have higher standards than he does?)

 

The removal of pew rents, spittoons, and the common cup of wine for communion.

 

I am not as old as Berean, but I do remember when almost all businesses were closed on Sunday.

I always wore a suit to church with a little bowtie. I haven't seen a bowtie in ages.

There was no air conditioning and we all had fans. It was natural to see hundreds of waving fans in church in the summertime. They often had bible verses written on them.

Back then girls and women wore dresses all the time, not just church. I miss that, in my opinion women are far more attractive in dresses.

 

Hopefully all of them. There's a difference between rejecting sin and rejecting people. I've been in churches with people of all nationalities and colors and have NO problem with it. How many people we worship with who are living in blatant abominable sin is anyone's guess, but God knows and does not just wink at it and accept the sin--neither should we.

The days of everyone dressing like the gender they really are and others being able to tell the difference are long gone. I don't know how many times I've wondered, "Is that person male or female?" Try as hard as I may, I am often not able to tell. What is wrong with men and boys looking like men and boys, and women and girls looking like women and girls?

I was watching a TV show last night, and I was not able to tell if one person was male or female. It wasn't until one cop said "he" that I knew. No "he" didn't have any breasts, but then I've seen women who didn't seem to have any. He looked way too pretty to be a guy.

 

Most of the things discussed so far were taboo years and years ago, but someone mentioned tattoos and piercings. That is an area that was taboo just 10-15 years ago and within a short period of time they have become mainstream, even in the church. It's amazing to me how quickly our culture changed in just this one area. Probably deserves a thread of its own, but I'm curious how such a ridiculous shift in culture occurred so dramatically in a short period of time.

 

People who are members of my church go out looking for expert tattoo artists who can enscript Hebrew and Greek Scripture (and other biblical imagery) onto their skin. They accept that the piercings and tats mark them as "bondservants" and wear that distinction with whatever pride is allowed humble slaves of Christ.

Check out David Platt, Radical... Worth a read, and it will shake up many an existing church (and prayerfully, their pastor!).

 

What about inter racial marriages? I remember being taught in the South that we were to maintain the "Purity of the races" and that a mixed race child was an abomination to God.

I have not heard anything like that in years now. That was certainly a good one to get rid of.

I also remember quite a few sermons from my youth that denouced not only shopping but eating in restaurants on Sunday's. All those Christians eating out were making others work on the Lord's day.

Anyone else remember sermons based on Lev 19:19 that told us cotton/polyester blends were of the devil.

I think most of the changes I have seen have been positive.

 

Sounds like you have members of your church that really wanted tattoos and invented some "biblical" reasons to get them.