The Ribbon of Blue - Dress Reform

Many requests keep coming for more of this study and so prompts the printing of a third edition. The booklet first appeared under the title “The Christian’s Dress.” The need has in no wise abated, but rather the glaring indecencies of dress have alarmingly increased. “Never did vice lift its deformed head with such boldness as now.” 2T-346.

This brochure is devoted to inspired statements (comments and emphasis are my own –Kate Queen) concerning fashion, unhealthful and immodest dress, but is by no means inclusive. We should understand that “the reform dress” and “dress reform” are two different things. God does not now ask that His people cut their garments by patterns which He gave in the early days of the church, but He is sending us message after message concerning simple, modest and becoming apparel which He requires of His people at all times. As important as this subject is, yet it will never carry persuasion unless the love of God is manifested. “Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.” Ephesians 6:24.

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“But I read where God says, “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgressions, and the house of Jacob their sins.” Isaiah 58:1. In Great Controversy at bottom of page 459 it says that every one who has received the light of truth has been set as a watchman unto the house of Israel. Our message is to be as direct as was John the Baptist’s message. He did not mince with words, but he did lose his head. Neither did he go to the priests and rulers and ask if he might proclaim his message. He was a type of those who will give the last warning message. I venture to share with you at the risk of rebuff, rejection, or censure, plain statements from the Word of God concerning the subject of dress. “Reproach and fury are more desirable if they are the result of speaking the truth in love.” I can only leave the consequences with God. It was Martin Luther who said, “Here I stand, I can do no other; may God help me. Amen.” “The truth must not be muffled now. Plain statements must be made, unvarnished truth must be spoken.” “The truth is not to be withheld from ministers or men in positions of responsibility for fear of incurring their displeasure.” “Shall we, uninspired men, take the responsibility of placing our stakes, and saying, ‘This shall not appear in print?’ ” TM-295. “Those who present the truth for this time should not expect to be received with greater favor than were earlier reformers.” GC-144.

“In this fearful time, God’s faithful preachers will have to bear a still more pointed testimony than was borne by John the Baptist.” 1T-321. If we believe the Spirit of Prophecy as we say we do, there can be no offense in examining the subject of dress. We should never condemn or seek to destroy, but rather to set a good example and to educate from God’s word. However, there comes a time when the floodgates are down and the lateness of the hour demand that a voice be raised in clear trumpet-like tones.

“Christ is ashamed of His professed followers. Wherein do we bear any resemblance to Him? Wherein does our dress conform to Bible requirements? I do not want the sins of the people upon me, and I will give the trumpet a certain sound. For years I have borne a plain and decided testimony upon this subject, in print and upon the speaker’s stand. I have not shunned to declare the whole counsel of God. I must be clear of the blood of all.” 4T-647.

“I saw that the axe must be laid at the root of the tree. Such pride should not be suffered in the church. It is these things that separate God from His people.” 1T-136. The subject of dress is a matter which the church has been delegated by God to deal with – vested with the highest authority in heaven or on earth. “Israel has been asleep to the pride, the fashion, and conformity to the world, in the very midst of them. They advance every month in pride, covetousness, selfishness, and love of the world.” Ibid. –136. “God will have a people separate and distinct from the world. And as soon as they have a desire to imitate the fashions of the world, that they do not immediately subdue, just so soon God ceases to acknowledge them as His children.” Ibid. 137. “As I saw the dreadful fact that God’s people were conformed to the world, with no distinction, except in name, my soul felt deep anguish....Said the angel, as with sorrow he saw the professed people of God loving the world, partaking of its spirit, and following its fashions; ‘Cut loose! Cut loose; lest He appoint you your portion with hypocrites and unbelievers outside the city.” “While you make yourself appear like the world, and as beautiful as you can, remember that the same body may in a few days be food for worms. And while you adorn it to your taste, to please the eye, you are dying spiritually. God hates your vain, wicked pride....” “Oh, the pride that was shown me of God’s professed people! It has increased every year, until it is now impossible to designate professed Advent Sabbath keepers from all the world around them.” 1T-131-137. “Those who do not have moral courage to leave the fashions of the world, and imitate the self-denying life of Christ, are ashamed of Him, and do not love His example.” “We must not yield one inch to the customs and fashions of this degenerate age, but stand in moral independence, making no compromise...” 5T-78.

“If God’s people had not greatly departed from Him, there would now be a marked difference between their dress and that of the world.... The line of distinction between them and the Israel of God must be more plain or the curse which falls upon worldings will fall on God’s professed people.” “Your pride, your love to follow the fashions of the world, your vain and empty conversation, your selfishness, are all put in the scale, and the weight of evil is fearfully against you.” 1T-189-190. “There is nothing so offensive to God or so dangerous to the human soul as pride and self-sufficiency. Of all sins it is the most hopeless, the most incurable.” COL-154. If the above statements are truly inspiration (and they are), and if they mean anything at all to us, why is it that we never hear about them? Vanished from both the press and the pulpit. If many of our sisters receive “the curse which falls upon worldlings,” where will the responsibility rest? The majority of our people do not study the Testimonies and they never hear these solemn messages from the desk.

“Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue: And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the Lord, and do them; and that ye seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to go a whoring: That ye may remember, and do all my commandments, and be holy unto your God.” Numbers 15:38-40. In commenting on this Scripture Sr. White says: “The dress reform is treated by some with great indifference and by others with contempt, because there is a cross attached to it. For this cross I thank God. It is just what we need to distinguish and separate God’s commandment-keeping people from the world. The dress reform answers to us as did the ribbon of blue to ancient Israel.” 3T: 171. The “ribbon of blue” told the enemy nations around them that these were God’s people. But what do we have today? A bedlam of resentment. “There is a spirit of opposition to the plain word or God and to the testimony of His Spirit.” 5T-79.

“And when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned: and no man did put on him his ornaments. For the Lord had said unto Moses, Say unto the children of Israel, Ye are a stiff-necked people: I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment, and consume thee. And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by the Mount Horeb.” Exodus 33:4-6. “What is our condition in this fearful and solemn time? Also, what pride is prevailing in the church, what hypocrisy, what love of dress, frivolity, and amusement, what desire for the supremacy.” EGW in R&H March 22, 1887. Are conditions today better or worse? “They advance every month in pride.... it has increased every year...” “Our continual backsliding has separated us from God.” “The Testimonies are unread and unappreciated.” Read 5T: 217 and on.

The chapter entitled “The Seal of God” in Volume five of the Testimonies, beginning with page 207, describes the little company who are “sighing and crying for the abominations that are done in the land. But more especially will their prayers arise in behalf of the church because its embers are doing after the manner of the world.” By reading all of the chapter you will see that it is this “little company” who will be sealed with the seal of the living God. “Despise not prophesyings” for this gift has been placed in the church for our perfecting. Ephesians 4:11,12. When our belief is anchored in this wonderful gift we will not b tossed to and fro by the changing hairdos, hemlines or form-fitting clothes. The church today has the example of the apostasy of the fist house of Israel to study, and since our light is greater we will be held far more accountable than they. Because we were called out by God in 1844 to be His chosen people, does it mean that we will eve be so regardless of the way we neglect the messages He has sent us? “Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art though turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?” Jeremiah 2:21. We cannot go to the sanctuary on the holy Sabbath to worship God without being confronted with indecently dressed members of the church and if she has a part on the program her Babylonish garments are carried up to the sacred desk which has been dedicated to the worship of the true God. “O modesty, where is thy blush?” “Wherefore, as I live, saith the Lord God; Surely, because thou has defiled my sanctuary with all thy detestable things, and with all thine abominations, therefore will I also diminish thee; neither shall mine eye spare, neither shall I have pity.” Ezekiel 5:11.

“Pride feels no need, and so it closes the heart against Christ and the infinite blessings He came to give.” LU-137. When we reach that sharp focus-do or die-those who are straddling the fence will have to lift only one foot to be entirely on the side of the enemy. “Those who have step by step yielded to worldly demands and conformed to worldly customs will not find it a hard mater to yield to the power that be...” 5T-81. We are stumbling over the very blessing which heaven has placed in our path to humble and would our pride.

On the Sabbath as we see our sisters come onto the rostrum so immodestly dressed and take their stand at the sacred desk, my mind goes back to Exodus 20:26. “Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine alter, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon.” Nakedness does not always mean nudity (devoid of all covering). When God called Adam and Eve in the garden after they had sinned and after they had made for themselves aprons of leaves, He asked, “Who told thee that thou was naked?” or scantily clothed. Webster’s Dictionary gives a number of definitions, among them: scantily supplied or furnished; devoid concealment or disguise, visible to the eye; open to view.” Moffatt’s translation of Exodus 20:26 reads: “...and you must never mount on steps to mine altar, lest you expose your limbs.” We can see all of this on the street and at the theater. But Fashion says “UP” and her slaves obey. Seeing what we see on the rostrum, we can better understand why God says do not go up by steps. I pray that He does not send fire down to consume us. “A modest, godly woman will dress modestly.” 4T-643. “He taketh no pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy.” Psalms 147:10,11. How nice it would be to see a brother and some schoolboys on the rostrum instead of seeing women and girls dressed like a harlot. We should raise our voice and close the door against this immodesty instead of electing such members to office in the church and placing them on display – a mingling of the common with the sacred. Protestors are very annoying to those who have nothing to protest. “The people of Israel, and the priests, and the Levites, have not separated themselves from the people of the lands, doing according to their abominations, even of the Canaanites.... yea, the hand of the princess and rulers hath been chief in this trespass.” Ezra 9:1,2.

If I were the mother of young children today, I would be compelled to keep them with me during the Sabbath School. I could not consent for them to sit in a class with a lady teacher dressed as the majority of the Sabbath School teachers are dressing today. It is a mingling “of the knowledge of good and evil”.

“As we see our sisters departing from simplicity of dress, and cultivating a love for the fashions of the world, we feel troubled. By taking steps in this direction, THEY ARE SEPARATING THEMSELVES FROM GOD and neglecting the inward adorning.... Satan invented the fashions in order to keep the minds of women so engrossed with the subject of dress that they could think of but little else...THEY ARE CONFORMING TO THE WORLD IN THE MATTER OF DRESS; and while they are doing so, souls whom they might have helped by letting their light shine in good works are strengthened in their unbelief by the inconsistent course of these professed Christians.... Especially should the wives of our ministers be careful not to depart from the plain teaching of the Bible on the point of dress...Fashion is constantly changing and our sisters follow in its wake.... The Lord is displeased with the pride manifested among His professed people. He is dishonored by their conformity to the unhealthful and immodest and expensive fashions of this degenerate age. Thus has been developed the pride of heart indulged by a people that profess to have come out from the world and to be separate.... I HAVE BEEN SHOWN THAT THE MAIN CAUSE OF YOUR BACKSLIDING IS YOUR LOVE OF DRESS...FASHION IS DETERIORATING THE INTELLECT AND EATING OUT THE SPIRITUALITY OF OUR PEOPLE. Obedience to fashion is pervading our Seventh-day Adventist churches AND IS DOING MORE THAN ANY OTHER POWER TO SEPARATE OUR PEOPLE FROM GOD. All exhibitions of pride in dress, which is forbidden in the word of God, SHOULD BE SUFFICIENT REASON FOR CHURCH DISCIPLINE.... There is a terrible sin upon us as a people, that we have permitted our church members to dress in a manner inconsistent with our faith. We must arise AT ONCE and close the door against the allurements of fashion.” 4T: 628-648. Take the time to read all of these pages. “When will the voice of faithful rebuke be heard once more in our church?” P & K –141. Let us ever keep in mind that obedience is the highest form of worship. “It is a shame to our sisters to so forget their holy characters and their duty to God as to imitate the fashions of the world.”

“Will not those professing to be followers of the meek and lowly Jesus clothe themselves in modest apparel, adorning themselves with good works, as becometh women professing godliness? Great neglect has been shown in the matter of bringing our church members up to the standard of the Bible in this matter. After admonition, after time for Bible study and reflection, those who are walking contrary to the Scriptures, and will not reform, SHOULD BE SUSPENDED FROM THE CHURCH. The church is weakened, her power is enfeebled, her influence is limited, because church members fail to live in accordance with the directions of the Bible. The example of those who follow the fashions of the world has a disastrous effect upon other members of the church.” EGW, R&H, June 2, 1891. Wives and daughters of ministers and leaders being “suspended from the church!!!” Can you imagine? “The Lord does not now work to bring many souls into the truth, because of the church members who have never been converted and those who were once converted but who have backslidden. What influence would these unconsecrated members have on new converts? Would they not make of no effect the God-given message which His people are to bear?” 6T-371.

“The church is in a great degree responsible for the sins of her members. SHE GIVES COUNTENANCE TO EVIL IF SHE FAILS TO LIFT HER VOICE AGAINST IT.” P&K-651. Not only do we fail to lift our voice against this vulgarity in dress, be we can scarcely open one of our periodicals without seeing pictures of our women and girls in just enough covering to come within the law. I have several such pictures taken from Adventist publications in my possession. “Would that every minister might realize the sacredness of his office and the holiness of his work, and show the courage that Elijah showed.” Ibid. -142. “BUT IF THE SINS OF THE PEOPLE ARE PASSED OVER BY THOSE IN RESPONSIBLE POSITIONS, His frown will be upon them, and the people of God, as a body, will be held responsible for those sins.” “THEY VIRTUALLY SUSTAIN AND JUSTIFY THE SINNER AND ARE ALIKE GULTY and will just as surely receive the displeasure of God for they will be made responsible for the sins of the guilty.” 3T: 265-266. “Not until the day of final accounts will it be known how great is the responsibility of men in holy office, and how terrible are the results of their unfaithfulness.” GC-640. Oh, how serious are these words. “Where are God’s watchmen who will see the peril and give the warning?” TM-296. “Where is the voice of stern rebuke?” Read Isaiah 9:16. Is there no Phineas among the ministry? The dikes are all down and the flood waters have engulfed us. Why is it that we never hear anything about dress reform from the pulpit? “Satan is constantly devising some new style of dress...and HE EXULTS WHEN HE SEES PROFESSED CHRISTIAN SEARLY ACEPTING THE FASHIONS THAT HE HAS INVENTED.” 4T-634. “it was the adversary of all good who instigated the invention of the ever-changing fashions.” CH-91.

Jesus cannot come to receive unto Himself His waiting saints, nor the righteous dead be released from the grave, until a people are made ready by perfect obedience to every line of instruction given us. The goal of the Gospel is to restore fallen man to the plane occupied by Adam before the fall. There is no other reason for our existence. Clothing was given to our first parents as a covering (protection) not to outline the human form and not for ornamentation. The present slavish idolatry of dress is a moral disease. Certainly today’s style of scant clothing is utterly lacking in artistry, distorting all sense of beauty, and is designed by Satan himself to entice the opposite sex. They are plainly a bid for attention and are not in keeping with a meek and quiet spirit. “Their dress say; ‘Look at me; admire me’”. 4T-645. Self-worship is the basis of all sin. It used to be that men had to pay to see women’s legs, but now all they have to do is to go into the house of God on the Sabbath. Free exhibition to anyone who care to look. Some will say that they don’t mean to put on a show – not trying to attract attention. If they are not, then let them PROVE IT. Does the ministry refuse to speak to us on this subject because their wives and daughters are dressing like the world? Or is it because they do not believe the Spirit of Prophecy? Or could it be that they have word from higher up not to offend the ladies? For if they did some would refuse to go out soliciting when the “gold rush” (Ingathering) is on. This would never do. There has to be a reason for their silence on this subject.

How sad it is that some mothers in Israel, after rearing a family of children, are cutting the hair, going to beauty shops, raising the hem line and the like. When one has been climbing upwards over a period of years, and suddenly goes backwards, in the English language we would call the descent a “fall.” What can be expected of our young people? “Mothers set the example for their children and, by so doing, sow seed that will spring up and bear fruit. The harvest will be plenteous and sure. That which they sow, they will reap.” “There will be no failure in the crop.” 1T-134. “As the twig is bent, so is the tree inclined.” “It would be better for us to never have seen the light of the truth than to profess to accept it an not be sanctified through it.” 5T-620. And the church, instead of rebuking, too often encourages evil. Recently I heard a minister (returned missionary) say from the pulpit that when we get to heaven an angel will not be standing at the gate with a yardstick in his hand to measure the ladies skirts. Condoning.

God cannot use a church dressed in the garments of Babylon to give the Loud Cry. “It is only those who are following the light already given that can hope to receive the further illumination of the Spirit.” 5T-705. “Those who come up to every point, and stand the test, and overcome, be the price what it may, have heeded the counsel of the True Witness, and THEY WILL RECEIVE THE LATTER RAIN and thus be futted for translation.” 1T-187. When the Sunday law is passed and the commandments on tables of stone are retrieved from the cave (P&K-453, 187; 4SG-114) and the third angel’s message swells into a loud cry, can we imagine our sisters just from the beauty shop with their bare arms and legs, formfitting clothes, short skirts, slacks, shorts, and spike heeled shoes hurrying “from place to place” giving the last warning message and calling the people to come out of Babylon before the judgments of God fall? O, my friend, their appearance will conform to the message they bear! “Said God to Joshua: ‘Thou cans not stand before thine enemies UNTIL ye take away the accursed thing from among you’”. 3T-267. The latter rain will not be bestowed on any individual who has not previously gained the victory over every sin.

God sends us the message that those who adorn themselves will never see His face (1T-136), yet this solemn message is not proclaimed to the people. Ladies are elected to church office wearing rouge, lipstick, wigs and with bare legs up above the knee. “Conscientious objectors?” what do we object to? Think of this; “The watchmen are responsible for the condition of the people.” 5T-235. “I have been shown that unbelief in the Testimonies has been steadily increasing as the people backslide from God. It is all through our ranks, all over the field.... There are only a FEW who, like the stars in a tempestuous night, shine here and there among the clouds.” 5T-76.

“On one side of the line is the self-denying follower of Christ; on the other side is the self-indulgent world love, pandering to fashion...On that side of the line the Christian cannot go.” MB-82. “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith.” “Love not the world, neither the thins that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” 1 John 2:15.

“I am filled with sadness when I think of our condition as a people. The Lord has not closed Heaven to us, but our own course of continual backsliding (“steadily retreating toward Egypt,” 5T-217) has separated us from God. Pride, covetousness, and love of the world have lived in the heart without fear of banishment or condemnation. And yet the general opinion is that the church is flourishing and that peace and prosperity are in all her borders.... Doubt and unbelief in the Testimonies of the Spirit of God is leavening our churches everywhere. Satan would have it thus. The Testimonies are unread and unappreciated. Light has been shining from His word and from the Testimonies, and both have been slighted and disregarded.” This was written in 1882. What is our true condition today? Better or worse? “Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the Lord. And they come unto thee as thy people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness. And lo.... they hear thy words, but they do them not ...And when this cometh to pass (lo it will come,) then shall they know that a prophet hath been among them.” Ezekiel 33:31-33.

“If the professed people of God find their hearts opposed to this straight work it should convince them that they have a work to do to overcome if they would not be spewed out of the mouth of the Lord. Said the angel: ‘God will bring His work closer and closer to test and prove every one of His people...Individuals are tested and proved a length of time to see if they will sacrifice their idols and heed the counsel of the True Witness. If they will not be purified through obeying the truth, and overcome their selfishness, their pride, and evil passions, the angels of God have the charge, ‘they are joined to their idols, let them alone.’ And they pass on to their work, leaving those with their sinful traits unsubdued, to the control of evil angels.”1T-187.

“Why is it so hard to lead a self-denying, humble life? Because professed Christians are not dead to the world., IT IS EASY LIVING AFTER WE ARE DEAD....They have a disposition to dress and act as much like the world as possible and yet go to heaven.” 1T-131. “I saw that the words, the dress, and actions should tell for God.” Ibid. 132. “God hates your vain, wicked pride and He looks upon you as a whited sepulcher, full of corruption and uncleanness within.” Ibid. 134. “They should let their dress be modest, different from the world around them.” Ibid. 135. “ I saw that the outside appearance is an index to the heart. Such pride should not be suffered in the church. Israel have been asleep to the pride, and fashion, and conformity to the world, in the very midst of them.” Ibid 136.

“The time that you spend standing before the glass preparing the hair to please the eye, should be devoted to prayer and searching of heart.” 1T-162. Do you think the time spent in beauty shops getting the hair cut, crisped, curled, waved, and banked up high, applies here? Also, how are we going to answer to God for the money spent there? Think seriously. Our permanent waves, curls, and wigs will not shelter us in the day of God’s wrath. We are pronouncing our own doom as surely as did the first house of Israel. Our mode of dress and hairstyling is anything but in the direction of humility and self-denial. Many of our sisters do not have the money to frequent the beauty shop but the desire to look like the others is in their heart so they do the best that they can with their “home treatment”.

“What is our condition in this fearful and solemn time? Also, what pride is prevailing in the church, what hypocrisy, what love of dress, frivolity, and amusement, what desire for supremacy!....We have not the first reason for self-gratification and self-exaltation.” R&H, March 22, 1887. Let’s face the issue squarely. New men with modern thought have well-nigh annihilated the standards cherished and practiced by the pioneers. One by one the foundation timbers have been removed and truths have been smothered for lack of proper ventilation. Yet in every age God has had His “seven thousand” who refuse to bow the knee to Baal. They have been despised, branded as fanatical, and the ire of Satan will be aroused against them at this time more than at any period of the world’s history. “Mark this point with care: those who receive the pure mark of truth, wrought in them by the power of the Holy Ghost, represented by a mark by the man in linen, are those ‘that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done’ in the church.” 3T-267. “Many are going directly contrary to the light which God has given to His people, because they do not read the books which contain the light and knowledge in cautions, reproofs, and warnings. The volumes of the Spirit of Prophecy, and also the Testimonies, should be introduced into every Sabbath-keeping family.... and be read again and again.” 5T-681. “It is Satan’s plan to weaken the faith of God’s people in the Testimonies. Next follows skepticism in regard to the vital points of our faith, the pillars of our position, then doubt as to the Holy Scriptures, and then the downward march to perdition.” 4T-211. Can we afford to be without them? “The very last deception of Satan will be to make of none effect the testimony of the Spirit of God.... There will be a hatred kindled against the testimonies which is satanic.” 1SM-48.

“It was not alone the sin of putting to death the Son of God that cut them off from salvation, but their persistence in rejecting light and the conviction of the Holy Spirit.” I pray do not resist the power of the Holy Spirit that brings the truth of modest dress to your heart – do not choose the styles of today which are an abomination to the Lord. Surrender this pride and make a firm covenant with God that henceforth nothing shall be hung on this mortal frame (nor omitted from it) that does not meet the instruction given us. “If there be first a willing mind, a way to the sanctuary will be found.” Special Testimonies, Series B, # 2&7, pg. 21. “He publishes His law, His penalties....” sets before us good and evil and leaves it with us whom we will serve.

“Those who turn away from the light God has given, or who neglect to seek it when it is within their reach, are left in darkness.” GC-312. “God shut Moses out of Canaan, to teach a lesson which should never be forgotten, - that he requires exact obedience.” P&P-479. What a lesson this should be to us.

We read and hear a lot said about the second coming of Christ (and what a glorious truth it is), but we leapfrog right over the sin problem and the preparation that must be made. We seem to think that we will go into the kingdom without obeying the messages God has sent to us. “A belief that does not lead to obedience is presumption...When the doctrine we accept kills sin in the heart...we may know that it is the truth of God.” MB-146.

Our sisters are sent out in missionary endeavors while dressed exactly like the women of the world are dressed – sent forth to represent the Seventh-day Adventist church! “Many a soul who was convinced of the truth has been led to decide against it by the pride and love of the world displayed by our sisters.... all heaven is marking the daily influence which the professed followers of Christ exert upon the world...Remember we must all answer to God for the influence we exert.” 4T-641. And we are pleased that the world is recognizing us. Just how gullible can we Adventist be? “The church has conformed to the world’s standard and therefore awakens no opposition.” GC-48. No matter how you slice it, we can come up with only one truth, i.e.: “The outside appearance is an index to the heart.” 1T-136. It is well to remember this quotation when we are brought glowing reports of conversions among students in our schools. “Repentance is genuine when reformation takes place.” Special Testimonies, Series B, #2&7, pg. 23. “If the heart is right, your words, your dress, your acts will all be right. True godliness is lacking.” 1T-158. We are told that Matthew 7:21-23 applies to Seventh-day Adventists. Read these verses. If every person in the whole wide world were to be baptized into the Adventist church, it would not bring Jesus down from heaven. “Not by might, nor by power” but only as we allow the Spirit to God to come in and cleanse the soul temple from every idol.

We are living on the borders of the heavenly Canaan, the eternal world, yet we find the church dressing like the world and seeking is favor. Messages come telling us to strip ourselves of these abominations, but will we do it? Yea, we have only contempt for the dress reform message. God considers us obedient only as we obey ALL the light that He has placed before us. Matt. 4:4; James 2:10. This would embrace unconditional surrender of our wills to the instruction given on dress. “He had those in view who were living near the close of time when He said: “take head to yourselves’” 3T-63. Our beloved prophetess tells us that Isaiah three applies to these last days “and the reproofs are given to the daughters of Zion.” “The church must be purged and it will be.” “When we reach the standard the Lord would have us reach, worldlings will regard Seventh-day Adventist as odd, singular, strait-laced extremists.” FCE-289. We are so pleased that after all our bending backward, the world is not recognizing us. Some one has said, “There’s a lot of blubber on a whale for the minnows to nibble.”

I recently visited at one of our oldest colleges and saw many of the girl students wearing pants. Read Deut. 22:5. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He cannot condone today what He condemned at the time Moses was instructed to write this. This is our portion of “meat in due season” – fresh food for today, and not something brought out of storage. “This style of dress God would not have His people adopt. It is not modest apparel, and is not at all fitting for modest, humble females who profess to be Christ’s followers. God’s prohibitions are lightly regarded by all who would advocate the doing away of the distinction of dress between males and females.... God designed there should be a plain distinction between male and female dress, and has considered the matter of sufficient importance to give explicit directions in regard to it.” Disease and Its Causes, (EGW) 108-109. A resident of the town told me that during summer school both young men and young women played on the campus wearing shorts. Since then I have seen with my own eyes the same thing on academy campuses here in my native southland. “So Christ sorrows and weeps over our churches, over our institutions of learning, that have failed to meet the demand of God.” 8T-67. There was a time when this would not have been allowed. There was also a time when no young woman could teach in one of our schools or enter nurses’ training class with bobbed hair. But now it is all through our ranks and ministers’ wives have cut their hair and are frequenting the beauty shops. What has happened that has turned an evil of yesterday into an accepted practice of today? What does Laodicea say to all this? “Times have changed.... He is too merciful to visit His people in judgment.” 5T-211. We have so many modern, plausible excuses. “Take heed that no man deceive you.”

“I have been shown that the principles that were given us in the early days of the message are as important and should be regarded as conscientiously TODAY as they were then.” 9T-158. “I would that people might see the inconsistency of our being God’s commandment-keeping people, a peculiar people, and yet feel that we must copy after the world in order to make our work successful. Loma Linda Messages, 184. Friends, this is worth thinking about at a level deeper than current discussion. “But the sins that control the world have come into the churches, and into the hearts of those who claim to be God’s peculiar people...They find pleasure in dress and the indulgence of appetite. The things of the world are their idols.” 5T-456. “Oh, what a day is before us! What a sifting there will be among those who claim to be the children of God.” TM-163.

“All who leave the common track of custom, and advocate reform, will be opposed, accounted mad, insane, radical, let them pursue ever so consistent a course.” 2T-377. Our God is a “jealous God” and as He witnesses rebellion toward the messages sent to us, He longs to have all of our affection. The glory has departed, the time is here when the temple, the altar, and them that worship therein are to be measured. As we enter the final conflict, His true church (“faithful souls,” AA-11) will line up fully with dress and health reform and they will be a peculiar people – not only in the eyes of the world but “peculiar” among their own brothers and sisters in the church. How sad to know that the majority of our dear people will not conform to these instructions. The straight testimony of the True Witness is not longer heard rebuking worldly dress and pleading that it e put without the camp. “I asked the angel why simplicity had been shut out from the church, and pride and exaltation had come in. I saw that this was the reason why we have ALMOST been delivered into the hands of the enemy.” 1T-114. As we look over the congregation today and see the bare arms and legs and the freakish hair styles, we wonder if the word “almost” now belong in the test. “...they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to pollute it.” Jeremiah 7:30.

“Let no soul complain of the servants of God who have come to them with a heaven-sent message. Do not any longer pick flaws in them, saying, ‘They are too positive; they talk too strongly.’ They may talk strongly, but is it not needed?” TM-410. “Those who have step by step yielded to worldly demands” will be sifted out when the final test comes.

Who among us will dispense with garments so tight that they bulge at the seams; see that their limbs and those of their children are covered and clothed warmly; refrain from modern hair styles; wearing sensible shoes; eliminating corsets and any under garment which bolsters certain parts of the body and crowds others? “The female form should not be compressed in the least with corsets and whale bones.... that the lungs and heart may have healthy action.” Disease and Its Causes, EGW, pg 110. “Will my sisters accept this style of dress and refuse to imitate the fashions that are devised by Satan and constantly changing?” 4T-640. May God help us to preserve our bodies in as perfect a state as possible. Parents will have to see to it that their children’s’ limbs are warmly clad. It can be done without making them an abomination in the eyes of the Lord. Read Deut. 22:5 AGAIN. “He would have us understand how to govern our family, how to control our children, to command our household to keep the way of the Lord.” A deletion from Testimonies to Ministers, first published in R&H Feb. 18, 1890. “I do not speak unadvisedly when I say that the way in which women clothe themselves, together with their indulgence of appetite, are the greatest causes of their present feeble diseased condition.” Disease and Its Causes, 110-111.

“This is no trivial matter to be passed off with a jest. The subject of dress reform demands serious reflection and much prayer.” 4T-461. “God holds mothers accountable for the diseases their children are compelled to suffer. Mothers bow at the shrine of fashion, and sacrifice the health and lives of their children. Many mothers are ignorant of the result of their course in thus clothing their children. But should they not inform themselves, where so much is at stake? Is ignorance a sufficient excuse for you who possess reasoning powers? You can inform yourselves if you will, and dress your children healthfully. Parents may give up the expectation of their children’s having health while they dress them in cloaks and furs, and load down those portions of the body with clothing where there is no call for such an amount, and then leave the extremities, that should have special protection, almost naked. The portions of the body, close by the life springs, need less covering than the limbs which are remote from the vital organs.” Disease and Its Causes, 98. “Leaving the arms and limbs insufficiently protected has been the cause of a vast amount of disease and premature deaths. There is no reason why the feet and limbs of your girls, should not be in every way as warmly clad as those of your boys.” Ibid. 99. “IT IS A SIN IN THE SIGHT OF HEAVEN FOR PARENTS TO DRESS THEIR CHILDREN AS THEY DO. The only excuse that they can make is, it is the fashion. They cannot plead modesty to thus expose the limbs of their children with only one covering drawn tight over them. It is no excuse for those who style themselves reformers. Because everybody around you follow a fashion which is injurious to health, it will not make your sin a whit the less, or be any guarantee for the health and life of your children.” Ibid. 100. We are told that Satan invented the style of leaving the limbs exposed. Read it in Volume 2, page 532 of the Testimonies. Little children are taught by their mothers to worship at the shrine of Fashion, but of the beautiful garments of Christ’s righteousness, they know little. BLIND and NAKED they limp through life, never knowing the meaning of the world modesty. “The eyes of God’s people seem to be blinded, while the church is fast drifting into the channel of worldliness.” 4T-513. “Fashion is constantly changing and our sisters follow in its wake.” Ibid. 630-631.

How sad that we are baptizing people into the church who have had little or no instruction on the subject of dress. It is said that they will learn about theses things after they come in but who is there to teach them when there is no distinction between the church and the world in the matter of dress? Instead, the gap broadens. These new members are elected to church offices, have a vote in decisions that are made and the results is a drift further and further away from revealed truth. They are kept too busy doing “the Lord’s work” that there is no desire or time to study the Testimonies. They are kept spiritual babes for the rest of their lives.

The subject of healthful and modest dress is one that should have been settled with each of us long ago, helping in our search and understanding of deep and glorious truths concerning the prophecies so applicable to this hour. We are led to wonder why these plain, pointed truths given to us by God’s own messenger, are never presented from the desk and why they are not freely spoken of among our people. It seems that this wine of truth must be put in “new bottles” and carried to the altar without the camp where it can be partaken of freely without fear of criticism – out where there is not willful transgression carried on in the midst of great light and truth. The glaring indecencies of women’s dress in our time have calloused us and prepared the way for immorality. The word of God councils the church today to wear the beautiful raiment of Christ’s righteousness. Will she do it? Our only safety is to lay hold of this truth of dress in its simplicity and fashion our lives accordingly without waiting for the organization to advance. We have lived so long under worldly environment that our thinking is warped and biased. “The mind is educated to familiarity with sin.” MLT 87. “He made the infinite sacrifice, not only that sin might be removed, but that human nature might be restored, re-beautified, reconstructed from its ruins, and made fit for the presence of God” 5T-537. How precious this statement is.

On this day of atonement as the people of God look by faith through the open door into the Most Holy place of the heavenly sanctuary, they are given the clearest revelation of the law of God of any generation in the past. “There was seen in his temple the ark of his testament.” Rev. 11:19. This generation will be more acutely aware of sin in all its forms and will guard every avenue of the soul that their characters may be confirmed “blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Corinthians 1:8.

A storm of persecution hangs over us today and when it breaks God’s enemies within the church will renounce their faith and join the opposition. The church as we know it today will be so worldly at that time that she cannot give the message when it swells into the Loud Cry. “...her members have so far departed from Him that He cannot accomplish His will through them...the means employed must be in harmony with His character.” 5T-189.

But looking beyond the smoke and the din of the battle, we see a “little company” emerging who do not look like the world – they have been divested of all earthliness, have sacrificed the gain of the world and the fellowship of the church in order to stand free in Christ Jesus. This is the time for the finishing of the work of the Advent movement and also the time for the outpouring of Satan’s counterfeit upon those who are drifting toward the “cage of every unclean and hateful bird.” Rev. 18:2. Of necessity there will be a purging. At that time we shall be better able to number the strength of Israel. “I have been shown that the greatest reason why the people of God are now found in this state of spiritual blindness is that they will not receive correction.” 3T-255. “Faithful” church members defying God’s Testimonies! Comparing the way our sisters are dressing today with statements presented in this brochure from Inspiration, we get a rather chilling insight of our retreat toward Egypt. “The church has received warning after warning. The duties and danger of God’s people have been plainly revealed. But the worldly element has proved too strong for them. Customs, practices, and fashions which lead the soul away from God, have been for years gaining ground. In defiance of the warnings and entreaties of the Holy Spirit; until at last their ways have become right in their own eyes, and the Spirit’s voice is scarcely heard.... Those who are not wholly consecrated to God may be led to do the work of Satan, while yet they flatter themselves that they are in the service of Christ.” 5T-103.

The church is to make herself beautiful in the robes of Christ’s righteousness. “Awake.... O Zion: put on they beautiful garments.” Isaiah 52:1.

“The Lord calls for a revival of the straight testimony borne in years past.”

“Cast ye away every man the abominations of the eyes, and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt.” Ezekiel 20:7.

“No matter how zealous men may be in their observance of religious ceremonies, the Lord can not accept them if they persist in willful violation of one of His commandments.” P&P-634.

“Those who worship at fashion’s altar have but little force of character.... and their lives accomplish no worthy end.” 4T-644.

“All I can say is, take up the light which God has given you, and follow it at any cost to yourselves. This is our only safety.”

Lip service without obedience is no more acceptable than was the offering of Cain.

Yes, so peculiar that “the man clothed with linen” places a mark upon them as belonging to God. They are sealed.

“From what was shown me, but a SMALL NUMBER of those now PROFESSING to believe the TRUTH would eventually be saved-not because they could not be saved, but because they WOULD NOT be saved in God’s own appointed way.” 2T-445.

“The people of God” and the “professed people of God” are two separate groups.

“The knowledge of our state as God views it, seems to be hidden from us.” Read 5T-84, top of page.

“The remnant shall be very small and feeble (‘or, not many’ margin).” Isaiah 16:14 These words speak for themselves.

“As we near the judgment, all will manifest their true character, and it will be made plain to what company they belong.” 1T-100.

“And it shall come to pass.... that I will punish.... all such as are clothed with strange apparel.” Zeph. 1:8.

“Some will not bear this straight testimony, they will rise up against it, and this will cause a shaking among God’s people.” 1T-181.

“Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?” Galatians 4:16.

“Laodiceans are the people who profess to believe present truth.” Read 4T-87.

“Think ye that God will receive, honor and acknowledge a people so mixed up with the world that they differ from them only in name?” 1T-287.

“Those who are uniting with the world, are receiving the worldly mold, and preparing for the mark of the beast.” 5T-216.

“God destroys no man. Every one who is destroyed will have destroyed himself.” COL-84.

“Do not, my sisters, trifle longer with your own selves and with God.” 4T-647.

“Whatever Christ asks us to renounce, He offers in its stead something better.” Education-296.

“Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?” James 4:4

“We must consent to be poor and despised among men, until the warfare is finished and the victory won.” Testimonies for the Church-77.

“Them that sin, rebuke before all, that others also may fear.”
1 Timothy 5:20.

Women, girls, you hold the key to the door of earth’s moral standards. How are you going to use it?

Every precious promise that God has given is on condition....”If ye will obey my voice indeed.”

“What we do not overcome, will overcome us, and work out our destruction.” SC-33.

“The present generation have trusted their bodies with the doctors and their souls with the ministers.” CH-37-38. Read all of this paragraph – informative as well as humorous. Unguided by the Spirit of God, it is not safe to become a doctor, not is it safe for the patient.

“Whatever God’s Word condemns, that reject even though the whole world adopt and advocate it.” MLT –71.

“Whenever men choose their own way, they place themselves in controversy with God.” LU-182.

“When we make any reserve we are leaving open a door through which Satan will enter.” LU-222.

While Mercy lingers and before the sweet Spirit of God forever takes flight, let us repent of our insubordination, asking God to take the love of the world out of our vain and proud hearts. We cannot love the fashions of the world and love God at the same time. In deepest anguish for His people Jesus has been pleading His precious blood at the Mercy Seat for over one hundred and twenty-five years now and His suffering will not cease until His people are willing to come into line. “Spare thy people, O Lord.”

These profound quotations, leaping as tongues of fire from the Sacred Page, come down to us from the One who is Himself the source and author of truth - THE GREAT I AM. It is my prayer that through this feeble endeavor we may study and give time for reflection to the subject of dress and that our hears will respond to the voice of God. Friends, something will have to give.

“Oh, that thou hadst known, even thou, in this thy day, the things that belong unto thy peace! Oh, that our people may, as did Nineveh, repent with all their might and believe with all their heart, that God may turn away His fierce anger from them!” 5T-77-78.

Compiled by

AA=Acts of the Apostles; CH=Counsels on Health; COL=Christ’s Object Lessons; DA=Desire of Ages; Ed=Education; FCE=Fundamentals of Christian Education; GC=Great Controversy; LU=Love Unlimited; MB-Mount of Blessings; MLT=My Life Today; P&K=Prophets and Kings; P&P=Patriarchs and Prophets; SC=Steps to Christ; SG=Spiritual Gifts, Volumes 1-4; SM=Selected Messages, Vol. 1 & 2; T=Testimonies for the Church, Volumes 1-9; TM=Testimonies to Ministers.

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The above study was given to us many years ago, and has been out of print for a long time. We recently typed it into the computer and hope that you all receive the blessing from it that we have.