To Cover or Not to Cover Part 2: full transcript and answers

▶ 0:00 Genesis 1:26, we got to make it clear that both were made in the image of God. See, Paul knows this, but he didn’t bring out the fact that the woman was made in the image of God also. See, Paul knows this, but he didn’t bring it out. Why? He is concentrating on these male egos that he is going to bury here in a couple of verses. “Let us make man in our image.” There’s the plural: “let us.” God didn’t say “I will,” He said “let us.” The Godhead is plural. Do you understand that? Jesus was back there at the beginning. “Let us make man,” mankind; it’s not man, male; it’s mankind. A lot of words for man in the Bible is mankind, the human race. It’s not male at all. “Let us make the human race in our” what? “Image.” There’s the plural again: “our” is plural. “After our likeness, and let them have dominion.” So God created man. Verse 27, “in His own image, male and female created He” what? “Them.” And both of them what? Were made in the image of God, the likeness of God, and had dominion; they had rulership. Yes. Jeez.

▶ 1:39 Now more ego, self-important arguments: “for the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man; neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman was created for the man.” Man, he’s really got him going. Genesis 1:28, “God blessed” what? Plural: man and woman. And God said to what? “Them,” plural, man and woman, Adam and Eve: “Be fruitful, multiply, replenish the earth, subdue it, and have dominion and authority over every living thing.” We got to understand that the woman was given the same blessing, but Paul left that part out. Why? He’s feeding these guys. They’re really feeling good right now. Yeah, man. “Get that babushka on your head. Woman, keep quiet in the church. Woman.”

▶ 2:43 Now verse 10, “For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels.” Now, folks, nowhere in the Bible does it say a woman’s got to have power over her head because of the angels, and you got to watch your translations here. Here’s a good example: the New King James, the NIV, New International Version, the Living Bible, the Amplified Bible, the American Standard Bible all say “power” is the sign of the husband’s authority, and that’s a big mistake. If you’re going to deal with angels, you don’t want a sign, you don’t want a symbol, you want power. Are you there? And see, we read our Bible and we just accept; we don’t dig. King James has it right, the Darby Bible has it right.

▶ 3:48 The word “power” there is the same word that the Bible uses all through, showing that there’s supernatural power, there is authority. Okay, in Matthew 9:6, “the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins.” Now do you want Him to have a symbol of that, or you want Him to have the power? The power. All right, Matthew 10:1, Jesus gave His twelve disciples power over unclean spirits, and to heal all manner of sicknesses, and to preach. Did He give them a symbol of power? You know, here’s a dove, here, go preach, you; a symbol of a dove, or symbol of a fish, or whatever we symbolize? No, He gave them power. He gave authority.

▶ 4:45 Matthew 28:18, “All power is given unto Me in heaven and earth.” Does He have a symbol of power? Does He have power? Is He the authority over all the earth? You see, He is. And listen to this, Luke 10:19, “I give you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions,” talking to us, “and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” Now do you want a symbol of power or do you want the power? Yeah. The Devil don’t care if you got a symbol. He doesn’t care if you wear a cross; it doesn’t bother him a bit. What he cares is who the strong man of your house is. Jesus Christ is living in you, and he can’t do anything without Jesus’s permission. That’s power. And so he’s really got these guys right where he wants them, right?

▶ 5:44 Now, angels. What angels? We know there are angels of God, messengers that minister to us, isn’t that right? Hebrews 1, yes. Okay, that, you know, if the angel comes to a woman to minister to her and she doesn’t have a babushka on her head, “Yeah, oh, I can’t come. You know, oh, I can’t talk to you, you don’t have a covering.” I mean, what kind of wimpy angel is he? See, when the angel came to Rebecca and showed her about the two boys that she had, and didn’t reveal it to Isaac, it doesn’t say anything about, “Well, she’s got a covering on her head, so I can talk to her,” or “If she doesn’t have a covering, I can’t talk to her.” Come on. Angels could care the least; they’re spirit beings. Are you with me? Okay, but Satan is as an angel of light. Whoa, that changes everything, doesn’t it? He acts like an angel of light, and he’s not.

▶ 6:51 Does she need authority or a symbol of authority when Satan comes to tempt and seduce and test her? She needs authority, and she needs a husband with authority. She don’t need no husband with a symbol of authority. “I’m a delegated authority; I’m a big deal, bud.” We need some action in this home. Amen. That husband needs authority; he needs power. Okay, I want to get this cord over there. I can push, kick, push, and nothing is happening. And this is what a lot of people think leadership is: just beat people up, push them, kick them around, get moving. But if I just lead this cord, it follows me. No effort, no nothing. I get it where it belongs, we both get there, and the key, husbands, is to be a leader. Do what Paul said: follow Christ, and your wife will have no problem following you. You try to push your ways on her and force your ways on her, and especially when they’re your traditions, she’s got no choice but to follow Christ. Now that was good. Amen. Same with a pastor of a church. If you want your church to get to the high mark of the calling of God, lead them into it. Don’t beat them up every Sunday; lead them there. That way they can reject you for leading, but they can’t reject you for bullying and pushing and being lord over you. That’s a good place for an amen. I told you this Paul’s good.

▶ 8:58 Now Satan has angels, Satan and his angels. Another word for angels is messenger. Okay, when these little demons come around trying to mess with you and all that, do you need a symbol of authority or do you need real authority? You need the real thing. Husband, we need to get with it in the home. We need to get under that power of Christ, and a woman needs to be under the power of Christ, and as a team nothing’s going to mess with that home. Hallelujah. And we both lead these kids in the ways that are right. Now John the Baptist was called a messenger. John’s disciples were called messengers. Jesus sent His disciples to a Samaritan village to announce He was coming there, and it says they were messengers, and when they got there and said, “Jesus has come,” they said, “We don’t want Him,” and so they rejected the messengers because they rejected the One who sent the messengers. And if people reject you, it’s not you they’re rejecting; they’re rejecting the One that sent you with the message.

▶ 10:16 Now Satan has children, the children of the wicked one, and Matthew 13, the parable of the sower. So demons aren’t really your big problem once you get Christ; it’s these people that follow Satan, and they come up with their own traditions, their own doctrines, their own way of doing things, and you need authority to withstand them. You need authority to reject their message. Ain’t that right? And a scarf isn’t going to do nothing. You know, I got a scarf on me, man, Hitler ain’t going to bother me, I got a scarf.

▶ 11:04 Now Paul concludes these ego arguments. He’s going to conclude that these things prove nothing. I told you he set them up to pop their balloon, and he’s going to prove it by pointing to them that all things come forth from God. “Nevertheless,” but however, “neither is the man without the woman, and the woman without the man, in the Lord.” Say “in the Lord.” In the Lord. See, when we come to Christ, this nonsense is gone. “For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman.” Men, you didn’t get here unless some woman brought you into this world, so let’s just get your ego back down to earth. Ain’t that right? Ain’t Paul good? Yeah. All of a sudden, bam, man, they went from up here to right below the rug real quick.

▶ 12:09 “But all things are of,” come forth from who? God. Everything comes from God: the prayer, the prophecy, the traditions, the customs, the rules, the laws, the image, the likeness, the glory, the dominion, the authority, all come from who? God. Now I know you guys knew all this stuff. I’m just boring you with warmed-over meals here, but look here, it’s backed up also in the Scriptures. Galatians 3:27, “As many of you have been baptized into Christ have” what? “Put on Christ.” In water baptism you kill the sinful nature. Water baptism is not a symbol, an outward sign of an inward work; it is an inward work God does. Things in water baptism that you need to know: the old nature of man, of sin, is put to death, and the new creature, the man of righteousness, Christ, we put on Him, comes out of that water. Amen. Water baptism is important. We identify with the death, burial and resurrection of Christ.

▶ 13:31 “There is neither Jew nor Greek.” Greek is a non-Jew, a heathen, unbeliever. “There is no bond or free”: slave. They had slaves there in Corinth, and masters over them. He says you in God, He don’t look at a slave when they come in; He don’t look at a Gentile, a non-Jew. You know, an African comes in or an Asian comes in, God don’t see that, because in Christ these things just don’t happen. “Neither is there” what? “Male nor female.” Wow, he’s plain English there. Amen. “For you are all” what? “One in Christ Jesus. And if you be Christ’s, you’re Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise.” Heirs of the image, heirs of the likeness, heirs of prophecy. It says in Acts 2 that “upon your sons and daughters I will pour out My Spirit,” and the son and the daughter, the male and the female, shall what? Prophesy. That’s why that utterance was good today. We should come to the house of God with something to give, not just get. See, you’re contributors. We are heirs. We have authority, we are under authority, we inherited it all, and together we can do great things in the earth. Amen.

▶ 15:30 Now Acts 10:34 said God is “no respecter of persons.” And this message is getting long, but I got to get this out. Women have experienced mistreatment from people taking Scriptures and twisting them for a long time and misinterpreting them. Long hair, you know, you can’t cut your hair, you got to have long hair; you can’t have styled hair; you can’t have jewelry; you can’t wear pants because men wear pants; you can’t speak in church services; you can’t have a leadership position; you can’t be a pastor. And look, a prophet is higher than a pastor, I don’t know if you know that, and she can prophesy. See, the reason men like that is they don’t want a woman to tell them what to do. Well, don’t that show you you got a heart problem? If the woman is a real leader, Deborah was a real leader, the men did what she said. When Barak was told to go out and defeat the army, he said, “I ain’t going anywhere unless you go, lady.”

▶ 16:43 So here’s Deborah right on the front lines. Man, go get them, boys. Yeah, yeah, whip them, man, beat these guys down. She was on the front lines of that battle. Are you there? Hallelujah. And yes, it’s used a lot less, but it’s still used, and let me tell you, if God depended on men to get everything done in the kingdom, we wouldn’t even be where we’re at today, because men are just big talkers and not doers. That’s the truth. They like to sit there. “Oh yeah, hallelujah, let’s go witnessing.” “No, I’m going to watch football.” You know, “Let’s learn an instrument and let’s prophesy unto the Lord.” “No, no, I’m going to learn how to eat pretzels while I’m watching football.” But boy, when you ask the man anything, he knows it all. Hallelujah. Aren’t you glad you came to church today? They don’t read the Bible, they don’t pray, they don’t learn anything, they can’t even pay attention in Bible studies, you just ask them anything and they know it all.

▶ 18:14 Now women in our nation, early part of our nation, could not own property. If they had kids when they divorced, they didn’t get the kids. It was unheard of; you couldn’t do it. You’re a woman, you don’t know how to raise kids. They couldn’t hold political office, they couldn’t vote, they couldn’t be a leader in the workforce, they couldn’t be a leader anywhere. They couldn’t be educated above eighth grade, because they’re just there to take care of the home. And that’s, I mean, that’s true in our nation. Yeah, and yet history is filled with women ministers. John Wesley’s movement, the Methodist movement, had many women preachers and leaders. The Quakers and the Baptists had women leaders till the turn of the twentieth century, when somebody came in, twisted Paul’s Scriptures, and said women got to shut up, and the Baptists and the Quakers accepted it. But the Pentecostals came along at that time, and the Salvation Army, and the Pentecostals had a black leader at Azusa; blacks could not rule over whites back then, do you know that? But when God’s into something, there is neither Jew nor Gentile, Pentecost or Protestant or whatever, black or white; they were just touching God, and everybody wanted God, and women helped him lead the church on Azusa Street.

▶ 19:50 And in the Pentecostal churches women had a part, most of them anyway. The holiness movement came along. The head of the Salvation, Booth, he got convinced that women should not be preachers. The head of the Salvation Army started the Salvation Army, and then he met this woman called Catherine. And man, you know, remember back there, the woman is the glory and the splendor of the man, the brightness of the man, and we like our women with hair and fixed-up hair. Huh. Yeah. Now you go back to Adam and Eve. Adam, the Bible says, he named all the animals, and yet he couldn’t find a helpmate for him.

▶ 20:49 We’re going to talk about the glory and the splendor of the man. And then God took a rib out, made a woman, woke Adam up, and brought the woman to Adam. Naked. I mean, wow. Can you just see, man, he lit up. I mean, those lions and tigers did nothing, the fishing did nothing. Man, when this, what? And she’s new, she’s naked. Then God brought her. [unclear] And this is where Adam got the first idea of a fig leaf. Man.

▶ 21:41 Yeah, man, he had things in him he didn’t know was there yet. And then God’s given them this big long sermon like I’m giving you today: “Replenish the earth, you know, subdue it, have dominion, I’m making you my likeness in your image, I want you to replenish the earth.” And man, you can just see Adam: “I wish he’d hurry up and shut up. I’ll get [unclear] busy with replenishing this here if he leaves.” And she’s over there [unclear] this guy’s turned on, man, and she’s over there, takes a flower and puts it in her hair. Man, he’s all worked up, and she’s worked up because he’s worked up. Now she’s saying, “When’s this guy going to get done telling us all this? We got to get busy fulfilling replenish and fill the earth.” So when Booth married, guess who he married? Catherine. And guess what? She was a woman preacher.

▶ 22:50 He don’t believe in women preachers. They got a big clash at the beginning, and these two get married. Did she stop preaching because her husband didn’t believe in women preachers anymore? No way. She just kept on doing what she was doing before they got married. And so one day Booth said, “I’m going to go down, check this thing out,” so he goes down to listen to his wife preach, and he came back converted. You see, the evidence was there, the proof was there. People got saved, people got touched, the Word worked. It didn’t matter if it was a woman or what; what matters is God moved and He used the woman. So the proof is there. And so Booth threw his women [unclear] preach doctrine right out the door with one visit, and it was his own wife.

▶ 23:45 See, you can’t argue with the evidence, and if they haven’t got anything to say, then shut up. “We can’t have women speaking,” because women want to speak, they got to have something to say, ain’t that right? “I’m a woman, I’m tired of being beat down all these years, I want to preach.” “You ain’t got anything to say.” “I know, but I’m a woman, I got to make up for all these years of getting persecuted.” Yeah, now you’re going to persecute us, we got to sit there and listen to you say nothing. Anyway, Lutheran, Calvin came up with this “women can’t preach” stuff, and a lot of people fell for it.

▶ 24:38 Now Paul gives the answer to the question. Okay, judging yourselves: is it proper that a woman, a wife, pray unto God covered or uncovered? Okay, now here it is again. Paul’s always using this word “judge,” and yet out there in the world they’re saying, “Judge not, let [unclear] be not [unclear].” They take one Scripture of the Bible they don’t even believe in, yet they take the one Scripture when we try to tell them, “You got to change your way,” and, you know, “You judge not, lest you be [unclear], man. Don’t be judging anybody.” And Paul’s always telling us to make judgments, isn’t he? And he’s telling you now, you judge, you make a decision: is it proper that a woman pray and prophesy uncovered, unveiled? “Doesn’t nature itself teach you if a man have long hair it’s a shame to him?” Now when I was a young Christian, you know, I read the books and all that, and the first thing I read about this verse is nature teaches you, the animal kingdom teaches you. And I thought, “Wow, yeah, that’s great, men can’t have long hair because of the animal kingdom.” And the first animal I went to was the lion.

▶ 25:53 And the lioness had no hair, and the lion had all kinds of hair, long hair. I go, “That didn’t work.” I didn’t go any further; I just, it didn’t work. But when I began to look at this word, it doesn’t mean that kind of nature, it means origin, the birthing. You see, us men are birthed with certain things about us, and the women are birthed with certain things about them, and this long hair does not mean long hair as just long hair. All right, he repeats it, and it’s only used two times in the Bible, this word “long hair” here, two times. But if the woman have long hair, you see, it is a glory, a splendor to her. Now here’s the difference: the long hair there is a tassel, a lock, a decorated lock, an ornamental. Women do things with their hair that us men don’t have it in us to do. Are you there?

▶ 27:14 I mean, when I married Rebecca, she was a gorgeous woman, and she had this hairstyle. Man, I tell you, if she’d have been baldheaded, I’d have went right on by. Why? Because he’s showing us it’s, we’re born, women were born to make their hair attractive and, you know, to decorate it and do things with it. Men weren’t born for that, and it’s got nothing to do with the length; it’s got to do with why they do it. See, no man goes around doing things to their hair. It’s in their right mind that women do, and if they did, they still wouldn’t look good, and I’ll show you that in a minute. And here he answers their question: “her hair is given to her for a” what? “Covering.” She don’t need a babushka, she doesn’t need a scarf, she doesn’t need a veil. Her hair was given to her by God. That’s her splendor, that’s her brightness, and men like her for it. Hallelujah.

▶ 28:43 Now when the hippies were here, they used this to beat the hippies up, and you can’t do that. It’s got to do with what women do with their hair and the look they have. I mean, when Rebecca walked down the street, man, she turned all heads with that hair and that face of hers, and every, wow. Wow. You shave her head and they would know about it, they’d be looking all right. Amen. Now isn’t Paul good? I mean, he gave them a bunch of nonsense to bring the truth to them, and they fell for it, just like you have been falling for it all these years reading these Scriptures. Here is a Jewish couple back in Christ’s day; they both have a covering on their head. All right, here is a Greek couple. Okay, you see the little decoration she’s got, these little curly things hanging down, and this braid going across the front and all that. That’s what women do. They think up these ways to, yeah, get their men all excited, in love with it, and we love it.

▶ 30:08 Okay, here’s an Asian couple. Now check that guy. I mean, what’s that thing on his head? Good Lord. But look at his wife, man, she’s got long hair, and it’s all, I mean, oh wow. Here’s the Egyptians during that time. Look at her hair, it’s real long. His hair is long. See, her hair is long, and it’s got little tassels, little decorations at the end. And here’s some more long hair, and a guy has longer long hair too, but not as long, and, you know, not styled. Are you there? And here’s the real agents of civilization. We got Steven Tyler there. He’s got long hair and puts a little gray streak in it or something like that, and none of us men would ever want to kiss him. But look at that lady by him. They both have long hair, but wow, [unclear]. See, that’s what Paul’s talking about. The woman’s hair was given to her by God, not only to excite that man, but that’s what God did to women, made them special in that area, and he says their hair is their covering, they don’t need anything. And then he’s really going to lay them out. You ready for this? I mean, he’s going to lay them out good. He’s got them that their natural hair is their covering.

▶ 31:50 Hebrews 10:19. Before he lays them out, I want to confirm what Paul said. “Therefore, brethren, have boldness to enter the Holiest” where God is, by the what? Blood. Anything about a covering? No. The blood of Jesus is our covering. Okay, “by a new and living way which He has consecrated,” He has set apart for us, “through the veil, that is, His flesh.” See, He took the beating, He took the nails in His hand, He took the spear in His side, He took the crown of thorns. He is our covering. We go in by His blood, we go in by that body that took the pain and all that; we go in that way. “Let us draw near, and having a High Priest over the house of God.” He is the High Priest, He is the Shepherd. Amen, He is the authority. “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith,” having our, number one, going back to number one, “hearts sprinkled”, they sprinkled things in the Old Testament with the blood, “from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.” That’s water baptism and the washing of the water of the Word. And we can go in. It doesn’t matter if we got long hair, short hair, coats and ties; that ain’t got anything to do with it. It’s do we accept the blood, do we accept His sacrifice of His body, do we accept His authority, and we can go in, and we can touch God, and we can be used of God.

▶ 33:18 And this covering thing was a silly issue. And then here’s his final answer, after saying the woman’s hair is her covering. This is his final answer. He says, “If any of you seem to be contentious,” quarrel, “some question in this, we have” what? “No such custom,” tradition, rule, “neither the churches of God,” not only the Corinthian church but the church in Jerusalem, the church at Antioch, and all the other churches. There is no commandment that women have to do anything but pray and prophesy.