SINFULLY LONG EYEBROWS
By Curtis A. Pugh
Bocsa, Romania

“But it shall be on the seventh day, that he shall shave all his hair off his head and his beard and his eyebrows,
even all his hair he shall shave off : and he shall wash his clothes, also he shall wash his flesh in water, and he
shall be clean” (Lev. 14:9). Nobody has become more divided than Baptists. And no Baptists have become more
divided than independent fundamental Baptists, but independent, sovereign grace, landmark, missionary
Baptists are making great strides toward taking away the championship from the independent fundamental
Baptists in this area!

Let me borrow from Brother Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, “Would to God ye could bear with me a
little in my folly: and indeed bear with me” (II Cor. 11:1). I am going to write some stupid things to try to say
some very serious things: read on, please.

Now Brothers, we are missing out on some good preaching against some sins that even the independent
fundamental Baptists have not yet mentioned. Three of these sins are mentioned in the verse at the beginning
of this article. Never mind the historical, scriptural setting for this verse; we just want to apply it today. Let us
examine these three terrible sins that plague some of our Churches today. These three sins are not usually a
problem to younger men or to women at all, but only to older men. First of all we need to warn our Churches
and our members about sinfully long eyebrows on men. As men get older, their eyebrows often begin to grow
longer and must be shorn else these brothers will be guilty of having long hair! Whether it is on the head or on
the face, men must not have long hair! And we must remind our Church members that they must be careful how
they remedy this sin. It is, after all, a sin for a man to allow his eyebrows to be plucked or arched as women do
for this is an effeminate act just as effeminate and sinful as using mousse or hair spray or a hair dryer on the
hairs of your head! Why I can remember when a man was considered effeminate if he sprayed that sticky stuff
on the hairs of his head or dried them with a woman’s hairdryer! Listen! We have let some things get by us. We
have let some things slip! Many preachers of years gone by preached against men wearing hair oil and they
preached against the effeminate, sinful practice of men parting their hair down the middle of their heads as
women do. Oh how far we have fallen in our standards on these and other matters! We are allowing effeminate
men in our Churches and some of the pastors are involved in these hideous sins!

Now you have to go to the original Hebrew to find the other two sins: you see Strong (good Methodist that he
was) in his concordance tells us that the Hebrew for eyebrows is actually two words, one meaning “hair” and
the other meaning “protuberances” or “eminent places.” So God did not mean just the eyebrows in our text
above, but any hairy protuberance that might be found on the face of a man. This brings us to the second sin of
older men: long ear-hairs! We just cannot have independent, sovereign grace, landmark, missionary Baptist men
running around with sinfully long hairs sticking out of their ears! After all, it is a shame and a sin for men to have
long hair! And the other protuberance that can be a source of sin is, of course, the nose and those sinfully long
nose-hairs that some brothers sport! We must take a stand against these instances of sinful behaviour that are
creeping into our Churches! We need to hear fiery sermons in our Churches on these hot topics! Long hair, un-
shorn hair, is a sin on a man whether it is on his head or his eyebrows or his ears or his nose!

Some of you may remember a sermon tape that was circulated a few years back. It was a message by the Rev.
Doctor G.I. Barber. This man was a genuine authority on the subject of hair, having been a barber in the military
and having obtained his Doctor’s degree in Hair-ology from Hyles-Anderson College way up north somewhere. He
pointed out many good things, and if I remember correctly, he said that it is not the length of the hair only, but
also that (1) location, (2) direction and (3) intention are involved. A Baptist preacher can allow the hair on the
side of his head to grow to 8 or 10 inches (or more) in length so that if you saw him when he first got out of bed
with that long hair down over his collar, you would say that he had sinfully long hair. But if that preacher combs
that long hair up, around and over the bald spot on the top of his head, it is not a sin, because that is what
some Baptist preachers do. I’m glad Bro. Barber helped me to understand these important distinctions.

We independent, sovereign grace, landmark, missionary Baptists have a lot to learn from our independent
fundamental Baptist neighbours! Before I was scripturally baptized, I fellowshipped with a group of independent
fundamental Baptists. I thought myself a Baptist and was received among them as a Baptist. I remember on a
couple of occasions meeting a Baptist pastor from a northern state. His church was what I considered to be a
large one of at least 400 members. He had “biblical standards of separation” and these were enforced as law in
his church. No preacher was allowed to preach in his church if he wore coloured shirts, bell-bottomed trousers,
wire-rimmed glasses or facial hair of any kind. (Well, he obviously made an exception for eyebrows, ear hair and
nose hair, but those issues had not back then been exposed as the great sins that they are!) He said about
those preachers who wear cowboy boots, “I wouldn’t let a man that wears ‘preachin’ boots’ walk across my
platform.” He went further – no one could even be a member of his church if they owned or rode a motorcycle!
Now this wasn’t some cult – this was an independent fundamental Baptist church in America and it may still hold
to these “biblical standards of separation” for all I know. Now Brothers and Sisters, we need to move forward in
that direction as independent, sovereign grace, landmark, missionary Baptists. We need to take some strong
stands against these outward sins. Remember: “… for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the
outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart” (I Sam. 16:7). God may look on the heart, but man
looks on the outward appearance and we need to be concerned about what man sees! After all, that is more
important!

Now let me talk to you about a delicate matter. I remember as a boy growing up in eastern Oklahoma that there
were some Pentecostal and Holiness churches that taught it was a sin for a woman to shave her legs or under
her arms. Now this is an area that our kinds of Baptists have not even begun to preach against! Probably we
should see to it that the wives of the pastor and deacons be appointed a committee to inspect the legs and
underarms of the sisters to see if they are in conformity to the “biblical standards of separation” that our kind
of Baptists will maintain if we can get them to take a stand against these kinds of sin. If many of our Baptist
Sisters were to visit among the “repenters” (“evangelicals” including Baptists) here in Romania these Romanians
would not think that our Baptist sisters are saved. In Romania, Baptist women almost universally wear a head
covering to services, wear absolutely no makeup, wear no jewellery (well, sometimes a plain wedding band and
a wristwatch are approved), and in some places, little if anything that might smell of perfume. Such things are
regarded as sinful and worldly! Among many of these “repenters” here it is viewed as a sin for ladies to wear
high-heeled shoes because such shoes are designed to accentuate the beauty of a woman’s ankles and calves. I
have preached in Baptist Union churches here in Romania where the “biblical standard” was that nobody wore
jewellery – even wristwatches or wedding rings – and it was regarded as a sin for a man to wear a necktie
(because it points to hell). But at the same time, every man who speaks from the platform absolutely must wear
a coat! Now these are real standards and we need to fall in line, Brothers! Think of all the services you have
been to and never heard a sermon preached against these things!

Upon visiting a few years ago in Siberia I learned that the “Unaffiliated Baptists” (not the Baptists that have
recently become fully independent and whom some of our Churches help financially, but the older group) have
their own “biblical standards of separation.” I think neckties for men and jewellery are forbidden and I
remember for sure that the men must wear a certain style of hat with a specified brim size. Any variation is
sinful! Furthermore, “Unaffiliated Baptist” women are prohibited from eating bananas “because of the sexual
overtones.” Now we independent, sovereign grace, landmark, missionary Baptists are a long way behind these
churches. We need to do some speedy catching up!

I hope you have borne with me a little in this “folly.” Let me lay aside sarcasm and write seriously for a little
while, for that is my intention.

I am sure of one thing: men and women of the best intentions are on both “sides” of the separation issues that
are in danger of dividing our kind of Baptists! I do not mean to be critical of or to “put down” anyone, but I fear
that Christian liberty and love for the Brethren is being lost. When I think how the Lord said, “By this shall all
men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:35), I wonder what our testimony
is and shall be if our love cannot overlook a Brother’s differences with us on the less weighty matters.
Remember Jesus said, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and
cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have
done, and not to leave the other undone” (Matthew 23:23). A legalistic, hair-splitting attitude (pardon the pun)
is an enemy of true spirituality in our Churches. We can become so concerned with the outward appearance
that we forget what is truly important and refuse to give a Brother or Sister time to grow in grace and
knowledge or to honestly differ with us.

Let me illustrate with this story. A visiting pastor was being shown through the newly constructed auditorium
of a Baptist church. As the host pastor was showing him around, they came to the newly purchased organ. The
host pastor proudly announced, “We don’t allow any woman who wears trousers to play this organ.” The visiting
pastor asked a profound question, I believe, when he said, “Would you allow a woman to play your new organ if
she gossiped - maybe just a little?”

Now I am not going to tell you what I believe about women wearing trousers and men wearing kilts, or
preachers wearing robes, etc., but I think the following incident speaks volumes to the point I am trying to
make in this article. An old preacher friend now in glory told the following story about a Baptist church in which
he preached a special meeting. They were a small church and struggling to exist. The pastor took what he
believed to be a biblical stand against ladies wearing trousers and some of the members took what they
believed to be a biblical stand in favour of allowing women to wear trousers. As a consequence of both parties
trying to take a biblical stand, the church split. Now the church was even smaller! One day the deacon’s wife
made a remark to the pastor’s wife – she said something about her pajamas. Shocked, the pastor’s wife cried
out in horror, “Ahmmmmm, You wear pajamas!” And so the church split again! I think the old preacher was right
when he said to that pastor in his best North Carolinian, “It ain’t nobody’s business what my wife wears to
bed.”

I remember when more than one Baptist church (not our kind?) had neat little signs on the church doors telling
ladies they could not enter if they were wearing trousers! Think about that! Some lost woman who might not
have even owned a decent, modest dress and who was ignorant of our super-spiritual “rules” is somehow
interested in Christ and the Gospel. She puts on the cleanest and best trousers she owns, walks up on the steps
of a Baptist church and there in black and white is told she cannot enter to hear the Word of God preached
because her clothing does not meet the “biblical standards of separation” held by that church! Who do we think
we are! Listen to me! That lost woman coming into your Church or mine in a pair of trousers is NOT going to
hurt you, compromise your spirituality, or ruin your testimony! (It may hurt your reputation with that bunch of
legalistic, self-righteous preachers you run with, but it won’t hurt your testimony – and if you don’t know the
difference between your testimony and your reputation with that bunch, you may be beyond help!)

Brothers and Sisters, we better be careful what we do. I know God is sovereign and that all things are
accomplished according to His eternal plan – but I also know that God uses means to accomplish His ends and so
also does the devil. I am told that the gangster, “Scarface” Al Capone attended for a time a Baptist Sunday
school when he was a young boy. He was so badly behaved that the teacher eventually told him to leave and
never come back. Say what you will, I would hate to have been that teacher! I know, God evidently never
planned the salvation of that gangster, but it was not God that drove him away from hearing the Gospel!
Somebody (the devil) used the “means” (that Sunday school teacher) to run Al Capone away from a Baptist
Church! Men and women are accountable for their actions, including things they say and do, that would hinder
people, even children, from hearing the Word of God!

What is the answer? Shall we continue to divide? In doing so we will disrupt the fellowship that exists between
our Churches and hinder the work of Churches in missions, publications of papers and books, schools and
institutes and other scriptural works because we will not cooperate with those who differ with us on this very
weighty matter, i.e. “the length of a man’s eyebrows.” By that I mean that if we find ourselves in disagreement
on some of the less weighty matters of the Word of God and we allow these things to hinder the work of God,
we are being used as somebody’s means, but I think we are not being used of God. I remember Brother Milburn
Cockrell saying to me on more than one occasion that the basis of our cooperation as Churches in various
enterprises is based on two things: (1) the doctrine of grace in salvation and (2) church truth. To demand
conformity to personal beliefs and preferences so as to make them the basis of fellowship and cooperation is to
go beyond the Scriptures.

Consider what the Holy Spirit had to say in Romans 14:1-20: “HIM that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to
doubtful disputations. For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs. Let
not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for
God hath received him. Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or
falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand. One man esteemeth one day above
another: another esteemeth  every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that
regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not
regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he
eateth not, and giveth God thanks. For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether
we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die,
we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the
dead and living. But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall
all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to
me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Let us
not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an
occasion to fall in his brother’s way. I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean
of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean. But if thy brother be grieved
with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died. Let not
then your good be evil spoken of: For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace,
and joy in the Holy Ghost. For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men.
Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another.
For meat destroy not the work of God…” Surely this portion of the Word of God has much to say not just to the
relationships within a Church, but to all of us in our inter-Church fellowship and cooperation. May God help us!