I am being deadly serious here
A christian lady told me the other day that it is a sin to add to your natural appearance or take away from it. she told me adornments are a sin. she said that women go to hell for wearing make up or jewellery. she also believes hair dye sends you to hell. she says there are testimonies based on this.
Some other christians have told me that wearing perfume, heels of any sort (even low heels. as someone with a disability all i can wear is low heels! a,m gonna be toast then!), wigs, weaves, etc even wedding bands can send you to hell.
oh and you cannot bob or trim your hair if you are a woman. or wear trousers. because, you know, hellfire.
I have hirutsim due to severe PCOS, if i don't shave or wax my face, legs, arms etc then i become very hairy (in summer this feels uncomfortable like am wearing a hair shirt, hot and sweaty) . I assume armpit shaving is OK as is to do with hygiene. so is it a sin to shave as a woman? for my comfort rather than vanity? also i don't want to look ungroomed or scruffy. that will limit my opportunities in life badly.
also is tweezing eyebrows ok? not to change shape of the brow or thin them but just if i want to pluck any straggly bits out?? for sake of looking neat, tidy, respectable?
I cannot find a scripture about any if these things saying they a sin except the one about not letting your beauty be due to pearls or braided hair and i assumed those were not forbidding these things per se but saying "let not your adornment MERELY be outward as in the wearing of costly clothes, jewels, braided hair etc" Maybe it only an issue if you wear those things to show off "Look how rich i am" or for other vanity reasons.
Also, if we are saved by grace, by faith in Jesus blood alone, i know we have to live holy as a sign of our salvation, but we don't do holy things to BE saved. so why would wearing say a wedding ring actually send soemone to Hell??? unless these things are an idol, i do not see why a problem? or the jewllery or clothes are linked to occult rituals (in some countries certain amulets linked to witchcraft)
To be fair i have gooogled a few of these "I saw women in hell for wearing x y z" testimonies and some of those churches linked to them have some bizarre doctrines eg tithing is mandatory under the new covenant, so is sabath keeping. now i realise many Godly christians practice these things and find them helpful and that is great! but i was under the impression that they weren't conditions for salvation? one of the churches also claimed that their founder had a vision by God that they were the last days "Ark"- the one true church by which you can be saved???!! many of them believe any contraception including natural family planning is sinful and that medication of any kind is witchcraft (again, i guess am gonna burn).
i do want to live a holy life before God but all these demands are making me a bit nervous? i grew up under a differen tkind of christian legalism and also suffered an abusive parent who created a picture of God in my mind as a stern cold wrathful hateful God... i am having much healing for that and am ina church where the emphasis is on Grace saving us and holy living being a result of that grace and not being alwys easy but not being a burden of dos and don'ts....my past led me to serious mental breakdowns and my MH has improved so much since learning about grace and how much am loved by God. This woman said my church is false because they dont talk about the wrath of God and how we live to live perfect and with NO SIN to make the rapture (this kind of thing reminds me of my upbringing, so not good for the Complex PTSD and associated issues). i shared my testimony with her but she was like "oh God did nice things for you so you would walk on the narrow way with Him and actually get saved properly!" oh, ok, then. unfriend. block. pray God help me forgive her and get me back on even keel
But seriously this has got me thinking WHERE did this idea come from that Christian women are not to adorn themselves? when i googled this is ofund an american website that said wearing a dress with a patter on it (eg flowers, polka dots) is adornment and a sin. now i am ona limite dincome and cannot sew. i have had lessons but i have no gift for it. many of my clothes are patterned or have short sleeves or skirts are mid calf (am also tall. i love maxi dresses but hard to find ones for 34 inch leg in the UK on a low budget). so am i going to be the devil's fried bread then? or is this all a load of nonsense?!
