Men and Women Swimming Together

If you are a student of the Message you will likely be aware that Brother William Branham spoke about “mixed bathing.” This is basically the terminology used to describe men and women swimming together in public. I want to look at a few quotes from brother Branham on the topic and then review it at length in the total thought of Scripture.

“182. See a woman, supposed to be a Christian, stretched out there on a bank, with mixed bathing, with a bathing suit on, stretched out there. I got two girls. I don’t say they wouldn’t do it. They say they’re getting a suntan. They’ll get a son-tan if I’m living. It’ll be a son of this. See? It’ll be the son of Mr. Branham, with a board about that long. I believe it’s wrong.” [1]

In this quote we have brother Branham speaking of a woman that claims to be a Christian; she is out in public among men wearing a bathing suit. At this point in time, in history, a bathing suit could be a one piece or a two-piece suit. It would have been very tight and very revealing. Not so much as today’s bathing suit would be, perhaps, but indeed still very revealing. It is a bathing suit in public, in a place where men and women are swimming together.

“Every dance hall, cut their hair, painted up like clowns, men out living with other men’s wives, flirting, running around on the street, mixed bathing, everything else. Sure. They forgive, they remit sins, in their own way, but their fruit shows what it is. Not right for them. No, sir. What they do? They wear shorts, cut their hair, wear make-up. Jesus said, ‘By their fruits they are known,’ the kind of seed that they are. There is what it is. Denominational seed gives denominational forgiveness. Exactly right.” [2]

In the above quote, we have mixed bathing listed with a grouping of sins that are openly allowed by the majority of Christian denominations.

“Used to be wrong for our Pentecostal women to go bathing in suits, and mixed bathing. It isn’t no more, see.” [3]

Here Brother Branham is lamenting the fact that Pentecostals used to have a higher standard that was preached across the pulpit. When you search “mixed bathing” there are seven occurrences of it. It is included in a list of sins, five of those times. Twice it is connected with a bathing suit. In two of the three occurrences we have included above the connection to a bathing suit is important. The reason that is so is because it is dressing immodestly in a public setting where others are dressed immodestly as well. God commands modesty in very clear terms in Scripture:

“In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array.” 1 Timothy 2:9

It is evident that Paul is encouraging women to dress modestly. It is impossible to be modest while wearing a swimsuit. Then, he writes that it should be modesty, characterized by shamefacedness and sobriety. Shamefacedness alludes to being shy or reverent. Your approach to dressing yourself is shy, not dressing in such a way as to reveal the body to others, but rather to cover it. Secondly, it speaks of dressing in a way that would be reverent to God. Sobriety denotes being of a sound mind. This shows that you have thought and prayed over how you dress. You do not merely follow the fashion and general trend of the world. Instead, you consider what Scripture teaches about how you dress. In other studies, we have illustrated that the Bible commands a woman to wear a dress or a skirt, not pants. And we found in Scripture that she should be covered from the neck to below the knee. Since modesty is commanded, it would follow that tight shirts and tight skirts are forbidden. This would obviously disqualify a bathing suit or bikini.

I want to offer some additional thoughts upon this subject. There are now companies that specialize in modest clothing and they offer workout clothes and modest swimwear. This is wonderful, but the proper perspective needs to apply. Just because you are modest does not mean those around you are. If you are amongst a group of people and they are dressed after the pattern of the world then you need to avoid that situation and not engage in swimming in public. Another situation could be you are at a public beach, but there are very few people there and it is very spread out. If you go with your family and all are dressed modestly and you can swim far away from others then, if your heart does not condemn you, it would be ok. Do not use this advice to say, “well, now I can swim in public, no problem.” That is not what is being expounded at all. It would also not be appropriate to have a church swimming party where men and women swim together, while all dressed modestly. As a side note, men are commanded not to wear shorts, by Brother Branham. Therefore, you should not wear swim trunks unless you have some type of pants underneath them.

The point of this is not to produce more rules, but rather to set forth a biblical standard for conduct. However, within this standard, you must follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. This does not mean that God will lead you to wear a bikini or a swimsuit in public because that would be contrary to his Word and the Holy Spirit never leads us to act contrary to the Word. The point is that there are many different situations and you may want to avoid some; you may feel others are ok. The point being is to follow the general outline that Brother Branham gives us in the fear and love of God.

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[1] 62-0121e , The Marriage Of The Lamb, Rev. William Marrion Branham

[2] 62-0318 , The Spoken Word Is The Original Seed, Rev. William Marrion Branham

[3] 63-1117 , Once More, Rev. William Marrion Branham