Are tattoos acceptable according to Scripture

Lollard said:

" If you want to look at it from that view all of us worshipped satan by turning our backs on God."

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You bet bro. Only by the Grace of God are we not still serving satan. Isn't God Great!!

TasManOfGod said:

Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor any marks upon you: I am the LORD.

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This is one of several cryptic admonitions (like verse 27 of the same chapter, "'Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard.") that seem out of place. Some of them -- like Exodus 23:19, ""Do not cook a young goat in its mother's milk." -- are almost like suggestions. Who would think of doing that in the first place?

But, apparently, the cultural context associated these activities with worship of foreign gods. Some Ugaritic texts suggest that boiling a goat in milk was part of a Canaanite worship ritual. I don't have access to my library at the moment, so I can't confirm this, but I believe that the prohibitions against marking the skin or certain haircuts are also intended as prohibitions against worshipping foreign gods. Tatoos and haircuts per se are not intended to be forbidden.

Of course, it kind of depends on what kind of tatoo one plans on getting . . .

TugOwar said:

You bet bro. Only by the Grace of God are we not still serving satan. Isn't God Great!!

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Amen!!! We were freed for freedoms sake!!!

jaywalk said:

so I can't confirm this, but I believe that the prohibitions against marking the skin or certain haircuts are also intended as prohibitions against worshipping foreign gods.

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Yeah and if you before and after the verses mentioned like in Chapter twenty there would be none of us standing after the ninth through twentieth verses of that chapter. The first part of the chaopter deals with people and Molech who I believe was a foriegn God.

So, Tas, would me getting a tat of a tiny little frog mean that I am a frog worshipper???

TasManOfGod said:

Semantics is a flimsy excuse when you are standing before God giving an account

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Now look in a mirror and say that .

TasManOfGod said:

Semantics is a flimsy excuse when you are standing before God giving an account

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Hey I am the first one that will hit the floor and pray for mercy from the almighty when I am wrong. Somedays I should spend all day on the floor. What you call semantics, are actually attempts by people to put restraints on Gods' people where they do not belong.

You never answered about the fabric or the talk that Paul had with the Galatians in Chapter 3. I can give you many scriptures through out the New Testament that tells us that the law is good because it points out our sin, but we are not under its curse we are under the grace and mercy of God.

Does that mean we can do whatever we want? No, actually out of gratitude we should try to do all that we can to be just like Christ. But for me and my house I will not belike those foolish Galatians that tried to gain by the law what I already received by faith and the grace of God.

TasManOfGod said:

You might be
Why do you want a frog tat?
How many frogs ornaments do you have around your house?
I suppose I need some more information about you before I can determine what you worship but it sure sounds like frogs are right up there

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Wow, you figured me out, there's a giant statue of a frog in the corner of my living room and I light candles to it every night

The thread reminds me of this story :

"One of the teenage girls in our parish had a teeny, weeny tattoo of a rose done on her shoulder. The tattoo was perhaps one half inch square, barely noticeable. The girl's mother, upon discovering the tattoo -- during a coffee hour, no less! -- went berserk about it, calling her daughter a "hippie" [few hippies of the 60s had real tattoos, preferring body painting instead -- a fad which has long since died out in most circles] and a few other choice adjectives.
A few minutes later one of our Ethiopian parishioners walked by with his mother, an elderly woman with a cross tattooed on her forehead, as is often done among pious Ethiopian Christians. The girl pointed to the elderly Ethiopian woman and said, "So is she a hippie too?"
The mother was hard pressed for a response, especially in light of the elderly woman's well-known piety."

Taken from this website: http://www.oca.org/pages/orth_chri/Q-and-A_OLD/Piercing-and-Tatoos.html

TasManOfGod said:

You might be
Why do you want a frog tat?
How many frogs ornaments do you have around your house?
I suppose I need some more information about you before I can determine what you worship but it sure sounds like frogs are right up there

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And with that statement I hope people see how silly it is to continue arguing with you.

Jaywalk and others are quite correct that these laws were given to the Israelites because of the surrounding countries who used the practice of cutting and tattoo-ing to worship their foreign gods. Yahweh, as you know, says that they are to put no other gods before Him... and to tattoo or cut one's body would certainly constitute pagan worship.... in that culture, at that point in history.

This passage is just one of many culturally specific laws given by God to his people. Do we need to also discuss Paul's commands to cover your head and not wear jewelry? Oh- that's right... we understand that these were cultural, but not the tattoo law from the OT, right Tas?

I am proud of my tattoo, which I got after I was Christian. It is a daily reminder to me that I need to be living for God, for others, and not for myself. I spent hours in prayer before getting my tattoo, because I myself struggled with this verse, and wondered if it would dishonor God to have a tattoo... but when you really study it, when you actually understand that a tattoo can glorify God, then it is ok.

Tas, you are not able to get a tattoo, because it violates your conscience, and that would be a sin for you. I am able to get a tattoo, because I have reconciled this in my mind, and realize that God's command in the past is actually being honored by my tattoo- I am not worshipping or displaying a foreign god, but rather I am honoring Yahweh, which is what He was asking for in Leviticus in the first place.

TasManOfGod said:

You might be
Why do you want a frog tat?
How many frogs ornaments do you have around your house?
I suppose I need some more information about you before I can determine what you worship but it sure sounds like frogs are right up there

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dude, are you for real? Seriously lol

ischus said:

Jaywalk and others are quite correct that these laws were given to the Israelites because of the surrounding countries who used the practice of cutting and tattoo-ing to worship their foreign gods. Yahweh, as you know, says that they are to put no other gods before Him... and to tattoo or cut one's body would certainly constitute pagan worship.... in that culture, at that point in history.

This passage is just one of many culturally specific laws given by God to his people. Do we need to also discuss Paul's commands to cover your head and not wear jewelry? Oh- that's right... we understand that these were cultural, but not the tattoo law from the OT, right Tas?

I am proud of my tattoo, which I got after I was Christian. It is a daily reminder to me that I need to be living for God, for others, and not for myself. I spent hours in prayer before getting my tattoo, because I myself struggled with this verse, and wondered if it would dishonor God to have a tattoo... but when you really study it, when you actually understand that a tattoo can glorify God, then it is ok.

Tas, you are not able to get a tattoo, because it violates your conscience, and that would be a sin for you. I am able to get a tattoo, because I have reconciled this in my mind, and realize that God's command in the past is actually being honored by my tattoo- I am not worshipping or displaying a foreign god, but rather I am honoring Yahweh, which is what He was asking for in Leviticus in the first place.

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That's a very nice post!! Good for you. I haven't gotten a tattoo, mainly because I think I could never find one that I would want to have the rest of my life!!
My sister-in-law is an agnostic and we've had many conversations about God and christians in general. This has come up, since she has 4 tattoos. When she asked me about it, I just laughed at first, then I got kind of upset because it's the people who tell her what a sin it is that keeps her away from God. It can't be a sin for her, she's not a christian! And even if she was a christian, it wouldn't be a sin--as we are not under that law anymore. She sees that sort of judgement as hypocritical, and I don't blame her. I keep telling her not to judge Christianity by the christians, but how can she not? It's very frustrating.

As christians, we need to put such trivial things aside (such as body art) and concentrate on more serious problems such as christian unity and inequality.

We cannot possibly believe that Jesus Christ is Lord and came to redeem all mankind by His grace and love, but still accept the old law, which includes Leviticus 19:28

So, we have the old law, which we find in the books of Exodus, Leviticus and Deut. So this law was devided into 2 parts- consisting of a "moral code"- this is the ten commandments and the "civil/ceremonial precepts"- the moral code was the foundation upon which man is to realize his vocation to live int eh immage of God- it is to show us what is against the love of God, and what we neeed, to live in Gods immage. The commandments are used to show us our sins.

Now the second part was put in place to ensure that the Isrealites remained as a united people-set apart.

The problem w/ the old law is that it was imcopmplete. Now, this is not saying that the Old law wasnt part of Gods plan, or that it was unholy, rather it was necssarty for an "obstinate people who were both carnal and unspiritual." He wanted them to be aware of sin.

We have to beable to see, however, the weaknesses in the OLd law-
It does not forgive sins
And it relies on fear and punhisment, rather then love, which is God.

However the old law did provide righteousness by the sacrifice of clean animals to God- but through Jesus Christ's (the new law) death on the cross- he was the final, PERFECT sacrafice to redeem mankind.

"I do not nulify the grace of God; for if justification were through the law, then Christ died to no purpose"- Gal 2:21

"The ceremonaial and ritual absercances of teh old law were only indivations of a purer, more effective way of life"- as we see in the new Law, which makes most of the old law meaningless.

But this does not mean that the old law can be thrown out the window- we need to follow the ten commandments-why? Because Jesus says so, when asked what the most important law is (Matt 22:37-40)

We are no longer bound by certain parts od the Old law- like circumsicion or staying away from certain foods.

Obviously tats are not sinful and those who have them/get them are no succumbed to satans "wiles"- at least not because of the tattoos anyways

ischus said:

Jaywalk and others are quite correct that these laws were given to the Israelites because of the surrounding countries who used the practice of cutting and tattoo-ing to worship their foreign gods. Yahweh, as you know, says that they are to put no other gods before Him... and to tattoo or cut one's body would certainly constitute pagan worship.... in that culture, at that point in history.

This passage is just one of many culturally specific laws given by God to his people. Do we need to also discuss Paul's commands to cover your head and not wear jewelry? Oh- that's right... we understand that these were cultural, but not the tattoo law from the OT, right Tas?

I am proud of my tattoo, which I got after I was Christian. It is a daily reminder to me that I need to be living for God, for others, and not for myself. I spent hours in prayer before getting my tattoo, because I myself struggled with this verse, and wondered if it would dishonor God to have a tattoo... but when you really study it, when you actually understand that a tattoo can glorify God, then it is ok.

Tas, you are not able to get a tattoo, because it violates your conscience, and that would be a sin for you. I am able to get a tattoo, because I have reconciled this in my mind, and realize that God's command in the past is actually being honored by my tattoo- I am not worshipping or displaying a foreign god, but rather I am honoring Yahweh, which is what He was asking for in Leviticus in the first place.

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You are so very very right. Great pots!!

Enough of this. There is someone on this board asking for help with their faith. Did anyone notice or are we too busy serving ourselves?

I noticed and posted