SHOULD CHRISTIANS WEAR JEWELRY OR COSMETICS

Should a child of God wear a wedding ring, a class ring, or makeup? Preachers are few who will put such a "touchy subject" into writing — but James R. Pence takes the reader straight into the Scriptures for God's answer.

Beginning with the lamentation over Lucifer in Ezekiel 28, Pence traces the origin of outward adornment to the fall of the anointed cherub, then follows the pattern through Jacob at Bethel, Israel at Mount Horeb, Jezebel's painted face, Isaiah's rebuke of the daughters of Zion, and the plain teaching of Paul and Peter in the New Testament. A second chapter presents historical evidence from Clement of Alexandria and the early church, showing that the first-century saints rejected jewelry and cosmetics — and that the wedding ring entered Christianity through Roman pagan custom.

Written with sincerity, love, and gentleness, this book calls believers beyond giving things up merely for church unity, and into a personal, Bible-based conviction: to lay aside the outward adorning and put on the hidden man of the heart, "the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price" (1 Peter 3:4).

Foreword by Rev. Howard Davis, D.D.