The book, Facial Hair A Christian Perspective is a short read, with only 68 pages of material, excluding reference material and front/back cover. Published by Advance Ministries (An Apostolic Pentecostal resource) and written by a long time Oneness Pentecostal, Chancy Gore, it can be clearly stated upfront (spoiler alert) that this is not a Christian Perspective, it is clearly a denominational perspective and is heavily biased.

In fact, one of the evidentiary points in the book is a 1991 survey on facial hair (page 50, 51), not done on the public at large, but done only among United Pentecostal Church, International, members, in which they declare, “71% prefer to deal with businessmen who are clean-shaven.” In the world of polling and surveying, that would be called a ‘controlled result set’ and highly suspicious, to the degree that the results would be tossed.

Furthermore, the very first sentence in the forward demonstrates the lacking veracity of the work, calling in to question every subsequent page.

“As far back as Tertullian’s time (c 200 A.d.), the warning of facial hair has been a point of contention within the Christian church.”

The forward was written by J. R. Ensey, another well-known Oneness/Apostolic minister, in which he also states, “We all know that there is no scripture specifically denouncing the unshaven face, but…” (page 2) He continues to make the case that facial hair is incompatible with Christian living and the objectives of being a Christian.

Interesting enough, here are some points from Tertullian and his peers from the same era regarding facial hair – it could be said that the book was written, it was a point of the topic, but the direction of the argument defies the writing of this book. It is an interesting contradiction;

“This sex of ours acknowledges to itself deceptive trickeries of form peculiarly its own–such as to cut the beard too sharply, to pluck it out here and there, to shave around the mouth.” – Tertullian (vol. 4, p. 22)

“The nature of the beard contributes in an incredible degree to distinguish the maturity of bodies, or to distinguish the sex, or to contribute to the beauty of manliness and strength.” – Lactantius (vol. 7, p. 288)

“This, then, is the mark of the man, the beard. By this, he is seen to be a man. It is older than Eve. It is the token of the superior nature. . . . It is therefore unholy to desecrate the symbol of manhood, hairiness.” – Clement of Alexandria (vol. 2, p. 276)

“How womanly it is for one who is a man to comb himself and shave himself with a razor, for the sake of fine effect, and to arrange his hair at the mirror, shave his cheeks, pluck hairs out of them, and smooth them! . . . . For God wished women to be smooth and to rejoice in their locks alone growing spontaneously, as a horse in his mane. But He has adorned man, like the lions, with a beard, and endowed him as an attribute of manhood, with a hairy chest, a sign of strength and rule.” – Clement of Alexandria (vol. 2, p. 275)

“Let the chin have the hair. . . . For an ample beard suffices it for men. . . . The hair on the chin is not to be disturbed.” – Clement of Alexandria (vol. 2, p. 286)

Overall Theme of the Book

If my opinion of this book hasn’t been made clear yet, suffice it to say Facebook would block it as a source of Fake News, a modern trend here in 2020. If it was meant to preach to the choir, it does it well. If it was meant to be an intellectual, thoughtful, historical, and Biblically sound work, it ranks 0/10.

Primarily because the Author’s Preface starts with, “The primary object of this booklet is not to merely offer personal opinions concerning the issue of facial hair, but to provide an ample resource of informative material on the subject.” Ironically enough, the booklet is nothing but a stack of opinions. And Mr. Gore makes the intent clear, staying, “It is not our purpose to offer direction to those who do not profess Christianity in general or the Pentecostal persuasion in particular.

Furthermore, the author states on page 5, “While the Bible gives specific teaching and guidelines on men’s hair in I Corinthians 11:1-16, it is silent regarding the matter of the believer’s facial hair.“

Clearly, the theme is to superimpose the man-made commandments and principles of the Oneness Pentecostal Church/Holiness movement over Scripture, blatantly admitting this isn’t something God dealt with personally. Knowing that Scripture is the more sure word of prophecy, I tend to believe if God meant for this to be an issue, He would have been wise enough to deal with it.

Ironically, the author begins his premise of facial hair being a ‘mask meant to hide something’ early on in page 13, calling to the ancient Egyptian practice of shaving and then wearing fake beards as evidentiary to this point. And ironically, while most Christians would not look to the practices of pagans, Romans, and Egyptians as evidence of how Christians would behave…the author does this multiple times.

As the Roman empire had subjugated the Jewish world, the author makes the claim on page 20 that “One source mentions that the ‘cosmopolitan Jew probably was clean-shaven in the Roman manner.’ Since the first Christians were of Jewish stock, it follows that the early Christians were also clean-shaven.” This leads to comparisons made quickly, stating subsequently that the ‘distinguishing mark’ of heathen hordes was their barbaric beards and their twirled mustachios.

Speaking of Facial Hair, the author states, “Whatever the tides of heresy and compromise bring, however, God will have a holy, spotless, and pure bride to welcome Him at his appearing.”  (p20) – and most obviously, that spotless bride could only be the baby-smooth faces of clean-shaven Apostolic men…

Notice the cognitive dissonance…On page 19 the author states that Hellenism destroyed the Jewish faith (using the fact that the Romans/Greeks got the Jews to shave…) and then turns the argument around to claim that now beards were the indelible mark of heathenism and barbarianism…

And finally, the topic of whether or not Jesus had facial comes on pages 21,22. As one of the most ludicrous arguments made in the book (second only to beards being linked to cultism, the occult, and wizards and sorcerers on page 52 or that facial hair is an emblem of radicalism and non-conformity on page 42), it is a staggeringly ignorant and unbiblical argument.

Referencing the prophecy of Jesus Christ in Isaiah 50:6, where Scripture says, “I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.”, the attempt is made to claim that Jesus gladly ‘went to the barber’ so as not to have too much facial hair and be disgraceful.

One of the most insidious and ungodly statements in this book follows, as found on page 22;

“After all, even if Jesus had a full beard without marred edges as was the manner of the ancient Jews, would that justify a Christian man today to grow full beards, simply to be like the Lord?”

The short answer aught to be Yes – Christ was and is our prime example. As GOD manifest in the Flesh (John 1:14), our Lord most certainly would not have exemplified something He did not want his people partaking of.

The conclusion of the theme? Simply, that while the Bible does not teach this, it is clear that to this author, facial hair on men is against the principles of God’s Word, and even if our God manifest had facial hair, it is no excuse for us men to have it.

Furthermore, the author spends 68 pages appealing to pagan culture as evidence why Christian men should not wear facial hair, an appeal to culture…Ironically, as the Holiness movement is grounded in the philosophy that ‘you cannot use the changing winds of culture to show us how to dress or behave...’.

Audacious and Errant Claims

This section will list the most audacious and errant claims made in the booklet, and since I’m longwinded, I’ll leave this simply to a bullet point list with page # references.

• Facial hair seems incompatible with the spirit and objectives of Christianity (page 1)
• The Bible is silent on Facial hair, but the author still writes 68 pages to say why God does not want men to have facial hair. p2, 5, 6
• Clean is always put before shaven, and somehow that proves the point…
• They link the ritual of full-body shaving in the Egyptian culture to holiness…(even though Egypt is Biblically is considered to be all and exactly what God’s people were freed and fled from…) p13-14
• Hellenism is claimed to be the great downfall of the Jewish culture…including shaving clean like the heathens…but then later the same example is used as a reason early Christians would have been shaven, simply to be opposite of those around them… p18
• Clean-shaven faces became the Characteristic of Christians, even using a rumored (but blatantly false) story of the siege of Antioch in 1098 during the 1st Crusades, saying that ‘some bearded knights lost their lives because the invaders assumed that every Christian would be a shaven man.” ([25)
• The beard was a mask, saying that it “servers to conceal”, and that, “the Victorian beard was clearly a mask behind which weak flesh could [masquerade as] rugged individualism.“, as a quote from a Dr. Belcher (p48-49)
• The author posits that the “Five Associations of Facial Hair” is, 1) Anti-Establishment, 2) Cultism/New Age Adherents, 3) Charismatics (ironically, the author is a Pentecostal, which is a…Charismatic), 4) Philosophers, Thinkers and Possessors of Knowledge and Wisdom, and 5) Cultural Trends and fashions. (P52)