Then God said, "Let us make man in our image,"  Gen. 1:26

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.  Gen. 1:27

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.  Gen 1:31

What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?  You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.  Psalm 8:4,5

How great are your deeds O Lord:  I sing for joy at the works of your hand.  How great are your works, O Lord, how profound your thoughts!  Psalm 92:4,5

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.  Psalm 139:14

You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay!  Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, "He did not make me"?  Can the pot say of the potter, "He knows nothing"?  Isaiah 29:16

"Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker, to him who is but a potsherd among the potsherds on the ground.  Does the clay say to the potter, "What are you Making?'  Does your work say, "He has no hands"? Woe to him who says to his father, "what have you begotten?' or to his mother, What have you brought to birth?'  "This is what the Lord says - the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker: Concerning things to come, do you question me about my children, or give orders about the work of my hands?  It is I who made the Earth and created mankind upon it."  Isaiah 45:9-12

Yet, O Lord, you are our Father.  We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.  Isaiah 64:8

But who are you, O man, to talk back to God?  "shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?'  Romans 9:20

Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?  If anyone destroys God's Temple, God Will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple.  1st Cor. 3:16,17

Do you not know that your body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?  You are not your own;  you were bought with a price.  Therefore honor God with your body.  1st Cor. 6:19,20

For we are the temple of the living God.  2nd Cor.6:16

For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 1 Tim. 4:4

To those that are pure, all things are pure, but to those who are full of sin and do not believe, nothing is pure.  Both their minds and their consciences have been ruined. They say they know God, but their actions show they do not accept Him.  They are hateful people, they refuse to obey, and they are useless for doing anything good.  Titus 1:15,16

You may be thinking that you have positive, pure, wholesome, and accepting attitudes toward the human body.  Do you?  Do you feel that way about the human body when it's unclothed, or only when it's "decently" clothed?!  If you are a Christian today in the United States you most likely believe that the unclothed human body is obscene, indecent, the source of impure lust, and completely unacceptable accept perhaps when you are in private bathing or alone with your spouse.

Rom. 14:16 says "Do not allow what you consider good to be spoken of as evil."  I don't just consider the human body to be good (clothed and/or unclothed) God does!  Everything else God created by giving a spoken command, but not us or our bodies, which shows how important we are to God.  He spoke the day, the night, the stars, moon, sun, and earth into existence.  He spoke dry land and sea into existence.  He spoke all the plants and animals into existence, including beasts that roam the land, birds that fly through the air, and fish that swim the seas.  But humanity He made with His own hands, physically shaping the human body out of the dust of the ground, physically breathing life into the human body and creating a beautiful garden where we could live in Him, naked and unashamed.  After God created humanity physically making the human body and breathing life into it, He said it was not just good, but "very good.”  In spite of this the predominate teaching about the human body (especially the unclothed body) among Christians has been that it is obscene, indecent, and the source of impure lust, this is an insult to God and a satanic lie that must be exposed.

What God created and said is very good should not be spoken of as evil!  To believe that God's creation (itself) is in anyway obscene, indecent, or the source of impure lust clothed or unclothed is reprehensible and dishonors its creator.  There is no excuse or Scriptural defense for believing this.  It is a lie from Satan intended to devalue the worth of God's creation (and thereby also the creator) while keeping God's children in greater bondage to shame and impure lust.

Impure lust comes from sinful, disobedient thoughts, not the body.  However if all you've been taught about the body is that it's indecent, and if the context you've most often encountered nudity in is sexual, it is likely that you have never questioned that belief, you simply accepted it.  If you believe that the unclothed human body is indecent it is my prayer that you will change that destructive belief.  I pray also that you will reclaim the knowledge that the human body (clothed and unclothed) is "very good" and nothing to be ashamed of, as God said it was when he created it.

It is inconsistent and contradictory to say the body is good and decent clothed, and obscene or indecent unclothed!  Such contradiction only leads to confusion, conflict, and unhealthy, destructive attitudes about the body.  It is double minded (dualistic) thinking.  The Bible says that God hates double-mindedness and that those that are double minded are unstable in all they do.  James 4:8 says:  "Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double minded."

So what can you do to purify your heart and thinking regarding the human body?  The obvious place to start is with your beliefs.  If you now believe that any part of the human body is indecent or obscene (covered or uncovered) you need to change that belief.  A good place to start is with the scriptures listed above that establish God's creation as good.

Belief needs to be backed up with action.  Faith without action is not only dead, but right action builds up and increases faith.  A good place to start is at home alone and with your family learning to become comfortable with and accept yours and others bodies in a non-sexual way both clothed and unclothed.  However in this society where we are bombarded with messages equating nudity with sex, I do not feel that keeping nudity at home among family only gives a broad enough perspective to effectively combat those messages.

While it is not my intent to promote nudist clubs I do believe that non-sexual, social nudity is vitally important in shaping more positive attitudes about the body today.  (I'd prefer to see the situation that created the need for nudist clubs eliminated.)  If the context you've most often encountered nudity in is sexual that is what you are conditioned to associate nudity with.  Since public nudity is not accepted (and is in most places illegal in today’s society) nudist clubs can be a very valuable resource.  They allow people to experience non-sexual nudity in a much broader social context then alone or with "family only" and thus more effectively help change attitudes and responses toward the human body.

The situation that created the need for "nudist clubs" (i.e. few if any ways to experience non-sexual nudity) did not exist as much before the industrial revolution and Victorian era.  Before that time non-sexual nudity was far more commonplace simply as a practical matter of daily life.  There was simply a less privacy for nudity in a world were whole families usually slept together and had no indoor plumbing.  Swimming suits were first developed in the mid 1800's before that time publicly swimming nude was accepted (as it should be again) even among presidents and kings.

Far more importantly, while pornography has existed for thousands of years (in some form), there has never been the easy access to, mass availability, and abundance of it in history as there is today.  Nudity has become so strongly associated with sex and porn in our society because the lack of non-sexual nudity fuels the sexual exploitation of it by default.

Many people don't seem to realize that the repression of nudity in non-sexual contexts invites it's sexual exploitation and causes people to have more sinful thoughts about the human body! Yet, the Bible talks about this type of situation in many places such as when Paul says in Romans 7: 7b&8 "For I would not have known what is was to covet if the law had not said, 'do not covet.'  But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire."  Likewise the suppression of non-sexual nudity, by law etc., has produced the mass sexual exploitation of it.

This situation is urgently pointing to the need for wholesome, positive ways for people to fulfill their interest in the body.  Normal, non-sexual, nudity fills that need and reduces the desire for pornography.  The problem with pornography isn't nudity, the problem is how it uses and exploits it, arousing sexual desire outside of the context for which God designed it.

Pornography demeans and cheapens both the body and sex, reducing them to objects solely for selfish gratification.  It often stimulates destructive, abusive, selfish, unrealistic, and unattainable sexual fantasies in those who view it.  It takes what God meant to be beautiful, precious, and shared in love, and makes it something cheap, and selfish, that can be taken, even forced.  Pornography feeds on and exploits suppressed interest in the body and sex.

Social, non-sexual nudity satisfies interest in the body in a wholesome, positive way.  Acceptance of non-sexual nudity is more needed and essential now, than ever, to counteract the negative influence of pornography.  It is time that nudity is redeemed for wholesome purposes, from those who would malign or exploit it.

Perhaps you are starting to sense why this issue is important.  Clearly promoting negative, attitudes toward the human body has not honored God or served to help us respond to it in a more Godly way.  The journey you may have started here is a journey that will likely strongly challenge long held beliefs, but one that could free you from a Satan inspired lie.  It is a journey that I am very thankful I took.  One I pray you will undertake seeking truth regarding what is the most Godly (and spiritually helpful) way to view the human body and nudity, as obscene and indecent, or as God made and therefore inherently pure and decent. 

David Blood

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