I’ve been asked about the issue of head covering during worship. Specifically, men in the Old Testament were required to wear something, and men in the New Testament are required not to. The issue is the term “covering”.
This isn’t really that complicated or spooky. This rests on what kind of covenant we are under. With the Covenant of Moses, Israel was under a distinct national identity. There was a human government and military authority, and wearing your hat in worship was a way of marking that you were under that covering. Because Israel rejected her Messiah, the Covenant was moved into a different level. Under the Covenant of Christ, we must shed all national identity in worship. Paul thought this was obvious (1 Corinthians 11:2-12).
Side note: Women are instructed to wear some kind of headgear precisely because they are under the covering authority of their husbands/fathers as their true “national identity” in the Lord.
There are some similarities in the US military, for example. While the military regulations have lots of details and exemptions when you do and don’t wear your military headgear, the basic principle is the same. The point is to show that you are operating under the authority of the US government. Thus, if a trooper is armed (“under arms”), then he keeps his hat on. A military policeman on duty is armed and operating under specific action authority that includes using that weapon, so he keeps his hat on at all times while in that status. Troops mobilized and armed for war keep their hats/helmets on even indoors. One of the alternative terms for headgear in the military is “cover” — you are acting under cover of government authority.
Oddly, the military has picked up on the New Testament requirement for men to remove their “cover” in Christian worship settings. Thus, even under arms, if there is a public act of worship for Christians (specifically, during public prayer), those involved remove their headgear.
Throughout the period of western Church History, a significant minority have taken this principle out of context. There have been moves to refuse all headgear all the time. The New Testament is rather pointed in that men must uncover the head only during worship. There’s nothing in the New Testament indicating you cannot operate under military authority outside of worship. But then, there’s a lot of silly rules out there arising from oddball interpretations of the Bible.
