Posted on 07/10/2017 7:45:55 PM PDT by marshmallow
I recall reading a few years ago a commentary by Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY, about the Jewish law in Leviticus regarding tatoos. FWIIW, he said that this particular law (1 of 600+ in the Old Testament) was a ceremonial law for the Jews, not a moral one for Christians.
Same here. I think a big ol’ USMC on our upper arm in green with red filled in letters makes a better statement.
Yeah, about Leviticus... The tattoo verse is often quoted out of context. The scroll also says some pretty pointed things about pork and shellfish, mixing fibers in textiles, and facial hair grooming which don’t get nearly the same press. Agree to all of it as written or don’t quote just the parts you like to shame others with as gospel.
Since Christ is The Word, and the Bible is the Word of God, shouldn’t we at least take into consideration what He has clearly said would please Him?
God does not change from Genesis through Revelation. Our understanding is what is flawed.
God’s Law does not change according to the whim of the moment. It serves three, at least, purposes: it reveals the nature of God since it stems from Him, it shows us that we cannot obey God perfectly and that we need a Savior, and it shows us how we can please God, i.e. what behaviors would make Him happy.
To be sure, we do not honor the Sabbath the way we should, but we can try, confess when we become aware of our sin, and receive forgiveness. And, try again. But our failure, does not give us license not to try, and especially not to disobey. We should try all the more.
I do not often say this, but you are an idiot, doing what you say others do. Take your “scroll” and dissolve.
A decade and a half posting on this forum and this is the first time I’ve been personally attacked and called an idiot. Either I didn’t make my point clear or something has changed among the community here. I hope it is an honest misunderstanding.
Leviticus sets down a heap of rules for Jews to follow. For some reason, Christians occasionally cherrypick verses to shame otherwise like minded christians into silence. I don’t cotton to that. If you are an old testament as written take it all Christian or Jew, by all means follow your beliefs. If you are engaging in Burger King religion, picking some verses to follow while ignoring others, you should look at the meaning behind the text further. Some rules were written with a very specific behavior and circumstance in mind, and the basis for ignoring those rules tenuous. I was raised in a church that operated as a sanctuary for sinners not a country club for saints, your experience may have been different and that’s OK, but I ain’t no idiot and I’m keeping mah scrolls.
BS
Tattoos are considered by traditional Christians to be idolatrous.
I see more tattoos at the beach than I did in the Army and that’s just the girls!
> I especially hate seeing a lovely young lady in the prime of her beauty, and then see a big ugly tattoo all over her arm like some fat truck driving slob. So sad.
I see that all the time here, and it’s incredibly sad. Just yesterday I saw a girl working at take-out food joint, she had the sweetest looking face, and an incredibly ugly tattoo all up the length of her arm. And for some reason she also had the voice of a 40-something woman, even though she couldn’t possibly have been older than 21.
I wonder what the chain of events to have such a sweet girl mar herself in this horrible way were. They must have been pretty traumatic.
That was an old covenant standard for the Jews. Leviticus also says you can't eat pork, shellfish or fish with no scales. It also requires daily sacrifices in addition to over 500 ceremonial, dietary and worship regulations - do you contend that we, as Christians, are bound by all these rules? Even when Jesus specifically said otherwise? I personally abhor tattoos and would never have one. But, I'm not about to say that New Testament Christians commit any kind of sin by having one.
quote-That was an old covenant standard for the Jews. Leviticus also says you can’t eat pork, shellfish or fish with no scales. It also requires daily sacrifices in addition to over 500 ceremonial, dietary and worship regulations - do you contend that we, as Christians, are bound by all these rules? Even when Jesus specifically said otherwise? I personally abhor tattoos and would never have one. But, I’m not about to say that New Testament Christians commit any kind of sin by having one.
Circlecity, all those ‘natural’ laws in the Old Testament have a ‘spiritual’ application as well.
There is a spiritual reason for things.
why did men have beards and why are tattoos were forbidden. and why animals, like swine, were unclean.
But it deals with the spiritual. It deals with His Order, His Government, His Kingdom, His authority. His ways. His Thoughts.
Skin is a natural covering- it covers our flesh and bones and blood. It’s a protective covering.
But it has a spiritual application to its covering as well.
The beard of a man is a natural covering- but it has a spiritual application to its covering as well.
You discuss the Old Covenent, but Paul taught men not to cover their heads while praying or prophesying.
Paul taught women to cover their heads while praying or prophesying. Those also are ‘coverings’.
In the natural, those don’t seem like too big a deal- an to some, that is Paul doing some woman hating.
But in the spiritual, they do mean something. Paul understood that.
First the natural, then the spiritual.
Even for those dietary laws.
Natural Swine being unclean in the Old Testament may explain why demons entered ‘about 2,000 natural swine’ and led them to their deaths
Wonder if people see those swine in a spiritual sense or just as a natural animal.
In one sense, the world has seen about 2,000 swine years sense His Resurrection.
the same ‘about 2,000 cubits where man(Israel) had to keep distant from His Ark of the Covenant-Joshua 3:4)
If one sees their natural ‘body’ as a spiriual temple of the Holy Spirit, they may start to get spiritual eyes to see things their natural eyes cannot.
and why Israel was taught to do what they were taught to do- and why.
the tattoo one gets may have nothing to do with the physical mark on their body.
But the spiritual mark it leaves. and the defilement of the temple.
The swine one eats may not have little to do with the natural pig in the pen that ends up at the restaurant or the grocery store. It will end up being digested and ends up exiting the body through the backside opening.
But when demons enter spiritual swine and one eats and consumes that- it too ends up being delivered out of the backside opening.
Brings to mind a graphic picture of someone ‘speaking from their backside opening’ after they’ve digested their unclean teachings, doctrines, etc.
We would be blessed to have spiritual eyes that can see beyond the natural.
Only He gives them to us.
Because Only He gets the Glory!
And most of those spiritual applications were fulfilled with advent of Christ.
quote-And most of those spiritual applications were fulfilled with advent of Christ.
circlecity,The Advent of Christ- The Word Made Flesh.
The Lamb.
In His Word, Physical Israel was delivered by the bondage of slavery, by blood of the lamb on Passover.
In the same ‘like’ way, Spiritual Israel gets delivered by the bondage of sin, by the blood of the Lamb on Passover.
First the natural, then the spiritual.
Physical Israel wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, and died in those 40 years, before reaching the Promised Land.
Spritual Israel is wandering in the wilderness today and has died for ‘40’ years (40 x 50 jubilee cycles=2000 years) before reaching the Promised Land of eternal life.
first the natural, then the spiritual.
Physical Israel experienced a 30,60,100 while in that wilderness.
The Lamb details 30,60,100 in a foundational parable in His Word, to Spiritual Israel.
first the natural, then the spiritual.
The Advent of Christ brought about a Spiritual Israel that is following the same pattern Physical Israel followed- just in a higher spiritual way.
first the natural, then the spiritual
patterns repeat.
He tells us the ending from the beginning.
Even as far back as Adam.
The First natural Adam fell asleep and had his side opened up - that was a shadow and picture of Christ’s falling asleep and having His side pierced and opened.
With the First Adam, it brought forth a rib that was formed into a Bride.
With the Last Natural Adam,Christ, it brought forth blood and water.
Given that pattern in His Word, and my premise and Pauls, of 1st the natural, then the spiritual, it may be declaring to us that the Spiritual Body of Christ will find itself falling asleep.
Just as Christ fell asleep on the cross.
But instead of natural blood and water coming out of His side this time- it will be spiritual blood and water. spiritual bone of His bone and spiritual flesh of His flesh-a Bride.
And the Body of Christ did get raised on the 3rd day, as First Fruits for those who have fallen asleep.
The Advent of Christ was as much of a beginning, as it was an end.
Just like His return will be as much of a beginning. as it is an end.
First the Natural, then the Spiritual.
Paul didn’t tell them to ‘keep the Feast’ of Passover to remind them of Physical Israel, Moses and Egypt and the lamb.
It was a call to remind Spiritual Israel of the Lamb and what He did for the entire world on that same day, Passover, when He died for our sins. Our Passover Lamb.
And btw, after 30 days in the wilderness- after 30 days from being delivered by the blood of the Lamb, Physical Israel was fed manna from heaven.
It came on the 16th Day of the 2nd month.
The Lamb was slain on the 14th day of the 1st month and raised on the 16th Day of the 1st month- A Day Called the Feast of First Fruits.
a month later from the slaying of the Lamb, He was feeding Physical Israel the bread from heaven.
The 16th- The Same day, a month earlier, when The Word Made Flesh, the Bread of Life, was raised to become first fruits for those who have fallen asleep.
First the Natural, then the Spiritual...
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