Sermons

Claiming Jesus Had Short Hair

176 Comments

An SFL reader passed along the first half of this booklet which contains one of the great sermons our time by none other than the late Dr. Jack Hyles.  I hope that it is a blessing to your heart and a rejoicing to your bowels. Click on the links below to read it in its entirety.

(Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4)

176 thoughts on “Claiming Jesus Had Short Hair”

  2. When was this “sermon” written? I mean, from the dated references, like “hippies” and “the Beatles”, I’m guessing (hoping) sometime in the late 60’s. However, judging from my own fundy experience, this could have been written last week! 😆

    1. ooo, ooo george know this one…

      “George Washington had long hair.”
      “Jesus was not George Washington.”
      “Therefore, Jesus did not have long hair.”

      Fundie logic simple! 😎

      1. Like your logic!

        I have one other fundy option:

        We have no photographs of George Washington, only paintings.
        Paintings are done by painters who are notoriously liberal and reprobate.
        Thus if painters painted GW with long hair, they were probably deliberately trying to tarnish his reputation!
        Conclusion: GW had short hair.

      2. Well, we probably shouldn’t pledge to the American Flag since Washington, Adams and Jefferson had ponytails. They couldn’t have been that godly.

  4. I guess I don’t get it… I don’t care for Dr. Hyles, but I think he makes his main point – no one seems to be addressing that. Yes, he is grasping at straws to “prove” that Jesus had no beard (of course He did, as is testified in the prophecies concerning Him).

    No one here seems to have taken the trouble to refute his main points; that God **does** care about our outward appearance, and that men should have short hair. He seems to have established this from Scripture pretty well.

    I read a bunch of name-calling, but no one seems to be willing or able to dispute his main theme.

    1. Why is it that eveyone who takes on the long hair/ short hair debate never reads all of what paul had to say on the matter in 1 Corinthians 11:16, “But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God.”

      1. That’s the problem with translations, they are very helpful but not completely accurate. The word used there does not necessarily translate as “such” some translations use the word “other”, which gives a different view of the whole thing. If we, for argument’s sake, say that the verse is meant to say “if someone doesn’t like it well then we just won’t do it” then we have to assume that Paul just decided to write a whole 12 verses (granted they weren’t numbered then) for no real purpose whatsoever just to say hey, what I just said… doesn’t matter.

    2. Guilt Ridden
      You will get a wide range of opinions here and mine is just one. The problem is not the premise it is building a religion around the small point. HAC would go on to say the hair cannot touch the ear, tapered in the back, no facial hair etc. The dress must be so long, not tight etc. The church will then use these gauges to determine your spirituality. Followers fall into these mind traps without even realizing it or thinking it through. I remember when a singing group came back from visiting a church and was asked how was the church. The reply was, “It was a good church but the woman wore pants”. This statement always stuck with me. What does it mean?

    3. This article by Bassenco/Jeri sums it up well.

      Does God care what we look like? Yes, he wants us to be modest. Beyond that, I don’t think he really cares whether, for example, a man’s hair touches his ears, or whether a woman’s hair doesn’t cover hers.

    4. If GOD really mindes long hair on men then why would he make them even NATURALLY CAPABLE OF GROWING IT LONG in the first place ? Why wouldn’t he, as CREATOR, just make it so male hair would NATURALLY CEASE TO GROW AT A CERTAIN LENGTH ? THAT would be MY dispute.

  5. I have a beard, have had it for about half of my lifetime, and right now I need a haircut. Folks like Hyles hammer the point that Paul’s rules about short hair are relevent for today, yet would probably the Gifts of the Spirit ended with the formation of the Canon of Scripture and are definitely NOT for today…. a christian should present a good appearence to the World but it is easy to codify that into a set of rules by which a Christian’s Holiness is measured and whether they Pass or Fail. For the record I also have tattoos, don’t own a suit (had one years ago and wore it 4 times), and seldom wear a tie, even to church. Huh! Some Christian!

    1. Update: I recently shaved my head. My hair has been receding for some time and in the last few months it was starting to get thinner on top at an alarming rate so I decided that if I was going to go bald I would embrace it on my own terms and go the whole way 🙂 I have kept my beard, though, and now I look like Walter White from “Breaking Bad”. I even wear the same kind of Hat. (and I come from a Chemistry/Biology background too) Most people I’ve encountered seem to like the look. Even Christians.

  6. Growing up in the 70’s, my Fundy home church had a barber on duty every Sunday morning. Almost every Sunday when a male went forward during the altar call for salvation, they got a short haircut (buzz cut) before the pastor baptized them on the spot. We got to see first had “Old things are past away, all things are become new!”

    2. You mean the Barber broke the Sabbath by WORKING? Shame on him and shame on the church for allowing it!

  7. Hmmmm, You might be onto something there. About that same time I remember lots of sermons on the dangers of the Hari Krishnas lurking in the local international airport. “Don’t let your teenagers be alone at the airport and get pounced on, brainwashed and captured by the Hari Krishna.”

  8. Jack Hyles was a sick freak. A monster. While he was writing all his crap and putting hundreds under oppressive abuse, he was living the life of a pervert. And he passed it all along to his son. Disgusting.

  10. I happened upon this site by accident. I’m sorry that I did. I didn’t know Jack Hyles personally, nor did I know John Rice or any other well-known preacher for that matter. However, I cannot believe some of the awful and judgemental things that folks have said on this site. I realize they are just opinions but at first glance I thought that mostly Christian folks were commenting. Then I read comments like Laurie’s. People like this who make horrible judgements about another, regardless of who they are, delegitimize your entire web-site. It probably would be different if there were just one – but no there are many. Any honest, thinking person could not find any meaningful material in this hateful barrage of insults and personal judgements. Maybe I’ve got the site all wrong. I’m willing to admit that’s a possibility. However, I don’t think this is the case and my first visit has become my last.

    1. Joe, if I’m mistaken, it seems that you are tossing judgments as well. You have no idea the people behind this site, what they’ve been through and whether or not they are a believer or no.

      I would be careful before you start judging to whom you are throwing judgments at. Many people on this site have been abused, mistreated, and hurt by fundamentalism and what you would call “Christian”.

      I would suggest looking past the sarcasm and satire, and open your mind to the fact that maybe, just maybe, this site is therapy from an ugly world disguised in religion.

      I am 36, and I was born into it. I know, and so many other people do.

      “He who is without sin, cast the first stone”

  11. I remember this one from the late Sixties/Early Seventies. A LOT of people got bent out of shape (and spent much time and energy PROVING otherwise) over whether Jesus had hippie-long hair. Lots of heat, not much light.

  13. 1 Cor 11:14 Does not even nature itself teach you, that,if a man have long hair it is a shame unto him?

    Jesus would not have broken our fathers laws. The truth can only be unveiled to those who the father has chosen. The Gate to destruction is wide.

    1. The word there for “nature” actually refers to societal norms and customs. Which makes more sense, as men’s hair does not naturally grow short — they have to make it that way.

      Interestingly, that’s the same word that’s used for “nature” in Romans 1:26-27 (which, again, makes more sense, as homosexuality and bisexuality do occur in nature).

  14. love the Plato reference . . . and the irony that JH himself was the one in the cave 🙄

  16. He refers to Thoreau’s “writings to Walden”. Does he not know that Walden was a pond and that the book was not addressed to it? Oy. Nevermind his highly faulty logic about how the emperors had short hair so of course everybody in the Empire had short hair, including Celts and Gauls and Jews… Who hated the emperors. This same logic could be used to argue that Jesus wore togas…

  17. If GOD really minded long hair on men then why did he make them even NATURALY CAPABLE OF GROWING IT LONG ? Why wouldn’t he, as CREATOR, just make it so that male hair would NATURALY CEASE TO GROW AT A CERTAIN LENGTH ? And what about a guy who’s stranded on a boat or raft in the middle of the occean and doesn’t have access to scosors and a razor ?

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