Jesus is a Tattoo Artist

One of the most talked about subjects in all of Christendom is not marriage, or if God loves gays or not, (Which any person who even has half a brain and has read the bible can obviously tell that he does.) nor is it how you should be baptized, (Though I would be willing to bet that God will accept them all.) but it is "You are going to Hell if you get a tattoo." Not only is this foolishness, but I can also prove, from the words of the Lord, Himself, that Jesus is a tattoo artist.

I can already hear people scoffing and yelling at the screen that I am a heretic, a blasphemer, and probably am going to Hell for even suggesting such a notion. However I would like to ask you two things. First, Says Who? Second, Who made you judge? I would also like you to prove it to me from the text of the bible, not what someone somewhere has said about what the verses mean. Not what you are told, but by what you have read.

I will start off with a simple verse that is often over looked because of its more famous precursor, but John 3:17-18 says "God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." That verse right there resolves all of the conflict of the topics mentioned above. It also tells you that God is loving you no matter what you put on your skin.

But I know you are now bringing up the Old Testament verse about marking yourself. Leviticus 19 says "Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD." Sure if you take it just at face value, you shouldn't get them. Oh you just put me in line, but I am as stubborn as a mule, I am going to step right back out and say this: Read what the verse means.

I guess you need to take it grammatically, the first part of the sentence says, Do not cut your bodies for the dead, big part of that is the subject that is still the subject at the end of the sentence, the dead. This is talking about how pagans used to cut and mark themselves in mourning. Sometimes it was something they were told to do by their gods, or sometimes it was an outward symbol of their sadness. It is logical and grammatically correct to take this subject and apply it to the rest of the sentence, put tattoo marks on yourselves. Again, shouldn't mark yourself for mourning the dead.

Also, if you use this verse, maybe you should look up one verse when it says "Do not cut the hair on the sides of your head, or clip off the edges of your beard." Yeah I am talking to you guy who has more facial hair than you deserve but cuts it all off because you think you look better with smooth skin. Yeah I am jealous of your awesome beard you so rudely cut every morning. Women, this is mentioned in the new testament about you in 1 Corinthians "But for a woman, if her hair is abundant, it is a glory to her; for her hair is given to her for a covering." or this one in 1 Timothy "And don't adorn yourselves with the external ornaments of curls of the hair, or of golden trinkets or of costly garments." Here you shouldn't even wear any kind of expensive clothing, let alone all those pretty rings or ever even curl your hair.

All of this falls back to the verses where it says, that our bodies belong to the Lord, he bought them, he owns them, he built them how he sees fit. We should be using them in ways that glorify God, not in ways that make us feel better about ourselves. I personally think if you are wearing stuff that is to show off your status amongst your peers is where the sin in all of this comes in.

I am getting off track now with beards and jewelry. Lets get back to tattoos. First I will bring up Revelation 22:4 "They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads" Okay so here we can read that when we finally see Jesus, he will put his name on our foreheads. This one He doesn't even need to write it, it just appears there when we see his face.

Revelation 3:12 says "The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will they leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on them my new name." I think this is a big one. Remember this is Jesus speaking, not only will He write the name of God on us, YHWH, or more than likely the complete name of the creator of all. I think that is one awesome tattoo. Jesus will also write the name of His city. I admit I am a little confused with this one, maybe its so we don't get lost? "If found please return to God in the city of God, Thank you." But then after we are marked with God's name and his city's name, he will also write on us His new name. 

Maybe you want to go back to the Old Testament for a minute. In Genesis 4, God worked his tattoo magic and marked Cain. Let's take a quick moment to look at the amazing amount of love God has. Not only did this man give God the second best offering, keeping the best for himself, but he also killed his brother. Then got defensive with God about it, but was scared people were going to kill him because he killed his brother. So even though later people would have been justified to kill him for what he did, God loved him enough to mark him so that people knew he was under God's protection. God loved him so much he kept him safe.

Anyways, in Hebrews, God says "This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel
after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts.
I will be their God, and they will be my people." God will write his laws on our hearts. I am sure some will argue this isn't really a tattoo, but I say it could be, we cannot see our hearts physically, and I am not even sure people really know their own hearts, so maybe this could be His laws are tattooed on our chest. That would look pretty cool. 

Back to Revelation, the 144,000 have both the Name of God and Jesus on their foreheads. Isaiah says in chapter 44 "Some will say, ‘I belong to the Lord;’ others will call themselves by the name of Jacob; still others will write on their hand, ‘The Lord’s,’ and will take the name Israel." (I think maybe I will get one on my hand that says The Lord's. That sounds pretty cool.

Thing is, we all have marks and scars that are like tattoos, some visible some not. All the arguing whether we should get tattoos is pointless. In the end, Jesus has taken any sin we had, have and will have, and took it all on himself. We are cleansed and renewed through Jesus. These arguments over the little details like this, only bring a separation and a loss of face when people look in and see that even God's people are not one. Some people may think, "What good is a God, when his followers aren't even able to agree on small things. 

Sometimes a well placed tattoo of a simple phrase or a picture can spark a conversation which could turn into a roaring fire in someone's soul. So sure, you might not like them, or you may, I don't know, but I do know that it really doesn't matter. God's love isn't going to be stopped by a tattoo.

 When I was looking for a picture to go with this, I found this video. Give it a watch, might be good for you.

And finally, one last thing. Jesus has a tattoo. Revelation 19:12 says "His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself." Rev 19:16 says "On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: king of kings and lord of lords." when talking about Jesus defeating the beast. Even the Old Testament is a.... testament to this fact, Isaiah 49:16 says "See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me." Yeah even Jesus has a couple. How can you argue with that?

Lightbringer

I recently finished the third book in the Lightbringer series by Brent Weeks and now left with anticipation for the fourth book. If you are unfamiliar with the series, you should stop reading this and go read that. If you don't want to go read that at this moment, then I'll explain some of it.

In the world in the book, there is magic. The people that can wield it are called drafters and they need sunlight to be able to use their magic. Magic is split up into colors, sub-red, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, superviolet. When a candle burns, a physical substance (wax) is transformed into light. Chromaturgy in the Lightbringer is the inverse: A drafter transforms light into a physical substance (luxin). Each different color of luxin has its own strength, weight, and even smell: blue luxin is hard, red is gooey, yellow is liquid, etc. But even as drafters change the world, the luxin changes them too, physically, mentally, and emotionally. Using too much it changes their eyes, when the color breaks out of the iris, they loose control and are usually put down.

In the books, the world was created by Orholam. And because I am curious, I just googled that name, turns out, if you write it as Or Holam it means the light of the world in Hebrew. As I read about some of the stuff they say Orholam did, creating magic, how the earth was made, and many other things that come up throughout the three books, I keep getting a feeling that it draws allusions to Christianity.

This got me thinking, What happens when a work of fiction is more Christian than some Christians out there. I recently posted something on my Facebook, a quote from the book.

""The moment of creation itself was a perfect word perfectly wedded to a perfect will. "

I found this to be very good at describing what the bible says about creation. God spoke everything into existence. When he was done, it was good, it was perfect like he was perfect. In this work of fiction, God can be seen talking, even if he isn't in it. It seems the fiction had more theology correct than some of the life long members of churches.

In these books, God has his hand in what everyone is doing, whether they believe in him or not. Yet some Christians seem to think that God set the world in motion then left it. Or worse, that every thing that happens is part of his plan, which negates the freewill that we have. But the truth is, God is working, He is working now even as you read this. He will use every bad circumstance if you allow him to use it, and use you. Maybe he is working on your heart, or a heart of a friend. But whatever it is, he is there, working, loving, and readying everything just for you. So be ready yourself,