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Christian Funerals -White Dresses In Churches: Unbiblical, Wrong -Officials Of Catholic And Christian Councils Must Respond To This

By Apostle Kwamena Ahinful
Opinion Christian Funerals  -White Dresses In Churches: Unbiblical, Wrong  -Officials Of Catholic And Christian Councils Must Respond To This
NOV 28, 2015 LISTEN

It is most unfortunate that some Christian pastors are misleading their churches to worship or do things against the practices or tenets of the Bible. The latest of such abominations is the wearing of white dresses – white cloths, white shirts and trousers, white smock over grey trousers etc. – into churches, especially for the Sunday Memorial Service!

Whichever pastor sat down and planned this white -attire practice during the funeral of a church member is a rotten Christian, a Satan's agent, who delights in gradually destroying the old -time Biblical purity of Christianity with the view to making it the devil's religion! Such a satanic pastor was able to convince his own church and other churches to wear white dresses during funerals of church members, and the practice appears to gain root far and wide. Right now, many churches are slavishly and irresponsibly following these white-dress fashions, rather uncritically, thinking they are doing the correct thing, whereas what they are doing is not biblical, but is rather quixotic and wrong.

Which part of the Bible says that when somebody dies, members of the church must be clad in white to attend his Memorial Service on Sunday? Where is it? I throw this question to pastors who have endorsed these white – dress practices to write to these newspaper quoting convincingly from the Bible to justify these freaks. Some time ago, I went to my other home-town Breman Esiam, in the Central region, to attend the funeral of my first cousin whom I traditionally called 'Sister'. During her burial service in the Catholic Church on Saturday, most of the mourners in the church were in black-black cloths, black shirts and black trousers! The whole atmosphere was funereal, and the funerary prayers and songs were very touching, whilst the funeral preaching by one of the three officiating ministers was exquisitely comforting.

But the next day, the whole mournful atmosphere which had strongly impacted an appropriate funeral touch on the people the previous day had vanished into thin air, rather becoming one of joy and triumph! Indeed the whole church auditorium was literally bedecked with white -white cloths, white shirts, white trousers, and white smocks! Ridiculously, the women were wearing black scarfs to suggest that they were in grieving mood! But why should they be in white and black attire? Wasn't that funny? But the Catholic Church at Esiam was not the only one exhibiting the all-white quixotry. As a journalist, I went out to see what was obtained in other churches-orthodox protestant and penteco- charismatic! And alas! The same all-white Memorial Services were being carried on. Truly, the same all-white funeral disease has become widespread in the country's churches and one is tempted to ask whether several of my fellow pastors don't really understand the import of Black and White colours as taught by the Bible? Or, is it because the all-white Memorial Service is now fashionable, so we should by all means catch up with that modern-day fashion, even at the cost of Bible norms?

Let me deal with the white colour first. In the first place, white is always correlated with light, especially, of the sun. And here, since the sun's light is untainted, its light is known as pure white. In other words, white stands for purity, hence Aaron's priests and later the priests of the Catholic Church appear in white cassocks to tell the world that they are sent to work for the pure and holy God above. Secondly, in the Bible, white denotes joy and merrymaking as can be seen in Ecclesiastes 9:7-8:'' Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy………………… for God now accepts thy works.(Therefore ) let thy garments (dress) be always white….'' .This simply means that since God has accepted your works, wear white dress always as a sign of joy and merriment. The logical question in this respect is that does the death of a church member signify that God has accepted our wish for him or her to die, so we should be in white dress and thus rejoice. Do we became joyful and thus dress white when our brother or sister is dead? If we are not joyful, why should we be in white dress, when the Bible expressly says that white is synonymous with joy and merriment? If someone dies and we prefer to be in white, aren't we telling the world that we are happy over his or her death? If so, are we not hypocrital Christians?

On the other hand; 'Black' is a symbol of mourning, death, calamity or affliction as Jeremiah 14:2 and Lamentations 4:8, and 5:10 show. Jeremiah's description is that ''Judah mourns and the gates thereof languish, they are black unto the ground (with black dresses they sit on the ground to mourn): and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up!!'' (Jeremiah 14:2). The Biblical argument is that black dress is for mourning, and white dress is for victory and rejoicing, therefore, it is absolutely queer and ridiculous to change this Bible teaching only to imbibe fallacious presumptions of some mentally depraved pastors who know next to nothing about Biblical theology. And I wonder why pastors and bishops who have theological training should forsake their Bible principles and accept to practise what the Bible does not endorse.

And again I wonder why the Catholic Bishops Conference, the Christian Council, the Ghana Pentecostal Council, the Council of Charismatic Churches, and the Spiritual Churches Council are silent over such unbiblical practices of women not covering the hair before they enter the church auditorium, and of church members being in white dresses during Memorial Service held the next day after burial, instead of being in black in accordance with Biblical tenets. It is my firm belief that these Christian councils are not there to condone erroneous Biblical practices: they are there to, among other things, safeguard truthful Bible practices of their various denominations. What, therefore are these councils doing over such shameful digressions of the Bible teachings? Councils of Christian denominations, why are you sleeping? Rise up to correct some ongoing mistakes! Rise up!

Coincidentally, the use of black attire, especially black cloths, has been a funeral norm in Ghanaian society for ages. The Akans, Gas and Ewes for instance, mourn for their dead in black dresses, sometimes with bands of red cloth wound around the wrist or hung on the shoulder. Some other mourners prefer being in red cloths, meaning that their ''eyes are red,'' that is, they are in serious dilemma and anguish over the death of their relative. The phraseology ''eyes are red'' is derived from the circumstance of the eyes becoming bloodshot or red-rimmed when there is too much crying or tears-shedding: and where tears are absent, the red band or red cloth is worn to denote the same serious dilemma and crying. The situation where wearing of black cloth (which is a sign of sadness) has a red band in addition can be seen as meaning a most serious synergy of anguish and confused mentality and mournfulness.

It is interesting to note that the Biblical meaning of being in a black dress (a sign of mourning and sadness) is the same as the Ghanaian understanding of being in black cloth (or black dress) which also denotes mournfulness. The same correlate goes with white dresses. The Bible imputes purity or holiness to its priests who wear white dresses, and joy and merrymaking to church members who put on white dresses, just as the Ghanaian culture ascribes purity to native priests or 'akomfo' who dress in white, and joyousness and triumph to war companies (Asafo) who used to put on white dresses after victorious wars or prescribes white dresses to those who have won court cases. The meanings of black and white dresses of both the church and the Ghanaian community are symmetrical and interesting; thus, it is a mark of ignorance or hypocrisy for some pastors to attempt to change the meaning to suit their own peculiar whims and caprices! Such pastors should repent, and ask their church members to use black dresses during Memorial Services.

The white-attire wearing practice during Memorial Services began with the death of very old men and women who had passed the 70 years Biblical prescription of ordinary livelihood on this earth. The argument then was that the deceased was old and had passed the three score years and ten, and therefore his death is comforting and joyful. Good God!! To those who don't know the calculation here, 'a score' means twenty. Three score years and ten is 20 x 3 + 10 =70 years. David therefore writes psalm 90:10 thus: 'The days of our years are three score years and ten, and if by reason of strength, labour and sorrow; it is soon cut off, and we fly away.'

Does King David urge that we should rejoice over the death of an oldie who had passed 70 years, reaching into the 80, and therefore be in white dresses in the church?

There is no such suggestion running through this text, not even a shadow of it! Therefore, the wearing of white dresses in churches because the deceased was old and beyond 70 years is not prescribed or endorsed by the Bible. It is indeed a Biblical aberrancy and is therefore wrong. The bible cannot teach us that white dress is for joy or merrymaking and then go on to ironically recommend or accept that when someone dies, his or her church members should forget the sorrows within 24hours and thus be white the next day for his or her Memorial Service!

Sorrows cannot die in one single day, only to be supplanted by joy the next day. This is the truth. Let various Christian councils stop these white-dress untruths being practised in our churches! And why is it that our enlightened church members and elders are not caring to question their pastors over this disgraceful and unbiblical 'white funeral' practice?

By Apostle Kwamena Ahinful

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