By Doug Cox

I recently read an article from the Cumberland Times News which quoted some passages from William Loudermilk’s “History of Cumberland Maryland.” The article was written in 2020 about a strange story that happened in 1833 where a preacher reappeared, year after year preaching that a catastrophe was coming. The strange part was, he disrobed himself and ‘paraded the street in a nude state,’ while doing that. In the process, he was thrown out of a church (understandably), arrested (understandably), sent away several times (understandably) and at his final appearance was given lashes on his back.

According to the CTN article the preacher “…told observers that it was his duty to suffer, even from those he was trying to warn of impending tragedy.” Being moved by his determination and seriousness to complete his task, Cumberland allowed him to disrobe again and finish his message. The article says the preacher warned of coming fire and brimstone, then got dressed and left. The story goes on, one week later came the great Cumberland fire which destroyed one third of the town, following the same path the naked preacher walked.

Did you know naked preaching is nothing new. Isaiah the prophet was commanded by God to do it. You can read about it in Isaiah 20:2-4. It says “…the LORD spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, go, and remove the sackcloth from your body, and take your sandals off your feet. And he did so, walking naked and barefoot.” Isaiah did this for three years as a sign to the Egyptians and Ethiopians that the King of Assyria would, “…lead away the Egyptians as prisoners and the Ethiopians as captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.”

So, what can we learn from these stories other than people don’t listen to naked preachers? One thing is it magnifies the reality that people are very hard to reach. Until people want to hear the truth they won’t. And as far as Isaiah goes, he was called by God to give a visual of what was going to come upon the resistant and rebellious people because they refused to repent. I’m sure once in captivity the bare buttocked people wished they would have paid closer attention.

It’s interesting the Bible has more to say about nakedness. Sometimes it’s not just the preachers who aren’t wearing clothes. The apostle John when writing to the church of Laodicea says “…because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. Because you say, I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.” (Revelation 3:16-17 NKJV)

Let’s close with the Apostle Paul’s words found in the book of Romans. “This is all the more urgent, for you know how late it is, time is running out. Wake up, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is almost gone, the day of salvation will soon be here. So remove your dark deeds like dirty clothes, and put on the shining armor of right living. Because we belong to the day, we must live decent lives for all to see. Don’t participate in the darkness of wild parties and drunkenness, or in sexual promiscuity and immoral living, or in quarreling and jealousy. Instead, clothe yourself with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. And don’t let yourself think about ways to indulge your evil desires.” (Romans 13:11-14 NLT)