Portland, Oregon Church  -  Affiliated with the Intercontinental Church of God and the Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association

SUBJECT:  Nudity

QUESTIONS:  Is nudity, in and of itself, wrong?  What about classic nude art?  What if watching nudity, in some forms, does not cause me to lust or sin, is it then okay?

ANSWER:

The whole area can have pitfalls if one does not really think about it.  There are several aspects to consider here.

I went to the Internet and put in all kinds of search parameters, under the headings of "nudity" and the "Bible".  I was not too pleased with most of the sites I toured, as they did not fully address the complexities of the question and subject.

I believe that the key here is the specific, unique individual.  Each of us is different.  One person may never have a lustful thought, regardless of the example of nudity.  Another may have lustful thoughts viewing a bare, female foot.  The key to answering this question is not to focus on the subject of nudity, but rather the heart of a person we are discussing.  Having handled this, we can add a few comments about the nudity itself.

What all mankind; what each human who has ever lived, must do someday is stand before Jesus in judgment.  In the judgment, God will be looking at one thing........the sub-total of the heart.  Remember that at that moment one stands their final judgment, they will have been introduced to all truth and had the Holy Spirit (the power of God) in them.  All negative things, such as lust and sin hurt the final product of the heart.  Positive things such as Godly principles (Galatians 5:22-23) make for good character...Godly character.  For firstfruits, the time of judgment is now in the Salvation Process they were called to after repentance, baptism and the laying on of hands to receive the Holy Spirit.

Once a person enters into the Salvation Process (repents, keeps the law, overcomes sin, invokes the power of the Holy Spirit, becomes more like Christ and remains in the Process), he or she must do everything they can to keep making forward progress in that Process.  They cannot, for example, allow lust, in any form to enter the mind.  Lust often leads to sinful acts.  So, the key for the individual is to ascertain that which incites or excites the lustful feelings and avoid them.  Notice what the Bible says...

1 Corinthians 6:18-20
18 Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that commiteth fornication sinneth against his own body.

19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

Each person must identify those negative elements in his or her life and take the appropriate steps.  Now, having said this, we can make some comments about nudity itself.

Most nudity in most movies and television shows are designed to excite lustful feelings. They are designed to entice.  We know this.  We can say the same things about certain nude photographs.  We can say the same for semi-nudity in magazine ads.  When it comes to classic art, we have to go back to the individual.  To some, classic art nudity is not a problem; to others, it could very well be.

The pitfall here is self-deceit.  We cannot pretend that something does not affect us in some way, when it actually does.  We also have to think about the example we set by having nude materials such as movies or magazines.  Same for viewing certain kinds of movies and even television programming which is becoming progressively worse.
 

Portland, Oregon Church  -  Affiliated with the Intercontinental Church of God and the Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association