Response to "Warning from the Bible to Christians who think its okay to tatoo your body"

The day before I posted on the subject "Warning from the Bible to Christianswho think its okay to tatoo your body" on both this blog and my facebook and I received wonderful response for it and so I thought I would add a little bit to it. Below are the quotes and responses I have received and my comment concerning them.

Tony Thomas 27 “‘Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard. So, Christians shouldn't cut hair or beard eh??

 

Sorin Dorneanu Leviticus 19:27 You shall not round off the hair on your temples or mar the edges of your beard.

Tony, I do not know if you believe in God or if you profess to be a Christian. But God, in His supreme Wisdom, does not give a command in vain. All His instructions involve Holiness, which means that Christians are not to live as the unbelieving world, in the likeness of their pagan ways.

Leviticus 20:23 "You must not live according to the customs of the nations..."

To any man that at first approaches God's Word, it seems ludicrous and puzzling. But God says that the fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom. When a man earnestly and wholeheartedly begins to seek God, it is ONLY then that he shall understand God's ways.

Lev. 19:27 is in reference to the customs of the Egyptians, Arabs, and other foreign nations living during the time. They used to show honor to their gods, their deity, by cutting the hair away from the temples in a circular form, so as to leave a tuft on the top of the head. This is done when anyone makes his temples, behind his ears, and his forehead alike, so that the circumference of his head is found to be round all about, as if they had been cut with a bowl. In this manner the Chinese, Turks, and Hindus cut their hair to the present day.

Additionally, the hair was much used in divination among the ancients, and for purposes of religious superstition among the Greeks.

God is thus saying : Do not live like unbelievers because God will deal with you accordingly.

Charles Allison The only problem is Jesus himself didn't follow the laws of Leviticus and Deuteronomy. 

"I tell you in truth, there is only one commandment: love thy neighbor"

The laws of Leviticus and Deuteronomy were social governing laws of the Jews not commandments of God. They were provided for social context. Saying not following them is a sin is like saying "speeding on an empty road is a sin" It just doesn't make sense.

My response to the above

God has separated us for Himself and as such we are to lead a holy life just as He is holy not living according to the ways of this world but according to the ways of His Word for us. Colossians 2:8 says, "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ."

I will begin with this verse - 2 Tim 3:16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. This would mean that from the start of the Bible in Genesis i.e. “In the beginning…” to Revelations last words “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen.” were all God breathed and are useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. God’s words are perfect and so are His laws. In fact God is the embodiment of perfection that we in our fallen nature can never comprehend let alone become. It is an imperfect man that cannot fulfill the requirements of a perfect law that required the Grace of God to be revealed in His time so that the requirement of that perfect law may be fulfilled in us through Him. 

When God created man, He created him in His own image and likeness, why even the very breath of life in us was “God breathed”. If God wanted us to have tattoos or piercings on our body, every new born should be born with it, we don’t have to give God a helping hand with anything. Besides by doing that a Christian is blaspheming the very image and likeness of God. 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 says”Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.” This verse is an echo from the past when Solomon created the first temple of God Ref. 1 Kings 9:3-9 “But if you or your descendants turn away from me and do not observe the commands and decrees I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land I have given them and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. Israel will then become a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples. This temple will become a heap of rubble. All who pass by will be appalled and will scoff and say, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’ People will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the Lord their God…” Stephen in his last words recounted the words of the prophet “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me? says the Lord. Or where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all these things?” Yet this the same God who does not desire and whom anything that we create can never hold, the same God desires and has chosen the very work of His hand “Adam” to be a temple of God. That is why the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. Question would be, are you glorifying God by putting tattoos on your body? Or are you glorifying yourself and blaspheming God? Did man by falling from the glory of God, lose the tattoos and piercings that was originally on Adam which must have been on God as well since Adam was made in the image and likeness of God. And by carving images and piercings, man is trying to regain the nature he was in before he fell? If the answer is yes to the above, you must question which god you serve or if you serve any god at all!

But you can push that aside by quoting, "I tell you in truth, there is only one commandment: love thy neighbor" How do you know that you are loving your neighbor in the way God wants you to? You have conveniently chosen a verse to suit your needA young man once asked which is the greatest commandment of all. “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” My question then is, stating that there is only one commandment i.e. by loving your neighbor as thyself would it mean that it is a greater commandment than loving your God? And by adhering to loving our neighbor can we leave out the commandment to love God? But if Jesus is right by stating “Love the Lord thy God with all your soul, all your heart and all your mind” then how can you know that you love your God or how can you show your love to God? Maybe Jesus words, “If you love me you will keep my commandments” is muddled by a lot of other things that our ears are itching to hear. But what are your commandments my Lord, we may ask. For this we might need to refer to “All the Law and the Prophets” at least in the sense of holiness to God rather than pushing it aside as civic or ceremonial laws pertaining to a nation some 4000 years back.

I quote, “Saying not following them is a sin is like saying "speeding on an empty road is a sin"” True, speeding on an empty road is not a sin in the worldly sense. I say worldly sense because there are laws of the land and God has asked every Christian to even obey those laws. He has also mentioned in the Bible the only time that the law of the land was not adhered to was when it was against the commandments of God concerning the holiness of His children. Speeding on an empty road is not a sin in the worldly sense, but even from the worldly standpoint it can also land you six feet under. In the part of the world where I am right now people have died, speeding on an empty road! May not be sin by worldly standards but sure is definitely a gamble with your life. Do you want to take a gamble on your spiritual life or just follow the Word when it says “Be ye Holy as I am Holy”?