Question:

Pastors’ response: The bible did not say anything about Tattoos and that’s true for a reason but I am going to read to you the information that you have in the scripture and then explain further to you. And am going to read to you from Leviticus 19:27 “Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalth thou mar the corners of thy beard. Vs 28 “Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD.” Now I want you to notice what you have in verse 27 and verse 28, I want to read that from the Amplified version there are several other version that said the same thing listen to this Leviticus 19:27 (Amplified) “You shall... Read More Pastors’ response: The bible did not say anything about Tattoos and that’s true for a reason but I am going to read to you the information that you have in the scripture and then explain further to you. And am going to read to you from Leviticus 19:27 “Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalth thou mar the corners of thy beard. Vs 28 “Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD.” Now I want you to notice what you have in verse 27 and verse 28, I want to read that from the Amplified version there are several other version that said the same thing listen to this Leviticus 19:27 (Amplified) “You shallt round the corners of the hairs of your heads nor trim the corners of your beard”. That’s very interesting you are not supposed to trim the corners of your beards and you shouldn’t round the corners of your hair, why? Let’s read again Leviticus 19:27 (Amplified) “You shall not round the corners of the hairs of your heads nor trim the corners of your beards”. This really interesting it looks like there is not context but let’s read further in Verse 28 “Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD.”<br> <p>Now referring to Tattoos as some versions picked on this, to say this has to do with Tattoos Where he says nor do print and marks on you meaning print any marks on you. Who is he talking to and why did he say this? There are two things I want to pick here, the question was not can we use Tattoos? The question was what does the bible say or teach about it? So you have to have the focus on what the question is and the two areas I want to look at here is, the first thing that I said there was the bible doesn’t say anything about it, Why? If for example in your country there was a law or a certain kind of task had been imposed by the government that was now a law that that particular task must be paid by everybody or people of a certain class. If after a few years, that law is abrogated and you are no longer to pay that task, can you say that the law says to pay that task? Does the new law say anything about that task? All that you see is that all the law concerning that task has been abrogated. It will be wrong to say that the new law teaches about the task or tells you to pay the task or say something about the task, the only thing he says about it is been abrogated. That’s what the new law says, so in the same way when you review this scripture where it talks about the marks that you put on your body. The context primarily was actually doing it for the lead but there is so much about it but the most important thing is the bible tells us that this law has been abrogated, it’s been abolished and ceases to be therefore it cannot be used to teach that God had said something against or for whatever that was, it’s been abrogated that’s what the bible teaches, so it doesn’t make any sense to read it and say God has said this against Tattoos, he didn’t say it against Tattoos because he said it to Israel against Tattoos for the dead that’s actually what he said. Now I want to read to you a better rendering, a better translation that puts it in the right context for you. This is from the contemporary English version and it reads like this from the 27th verse into the 28th verses Leviticus 19:27 (CEV) he says “I forbid you to shave any part of your head or beard or to cut and tattoo yourself as a way of worshipping the dead.” So it was about shaving your hair for dead or trimming your beard for the dead. God was not saying don’t shave your hair, don’t trim your beards because you goanna have to put the two together if you are thinking that God said don’t use Tattoos then he definitely then said from the previous verse don’t trim your beards because is the same thing but the context was don’t do this for the dead. That’s what is important here don’t do it for the dead and he is not talking to you, he was saying this to Israel not to the church, this was part of the Law of Moses. And I want to read to you what the bible says about the Law here so you can understand and this has nothing to do with you. The Law has been abrogated, it’s been abolished. It doesn’t make sense to quote this and say this what the bible teaches about, No the word of God taught this to the children of Israel years ago before Jesus came fulfilled the Old Testament and abolished it. The bible doesn’t teach this anymore, he doesn’t teach this anymore than it teaches you not to trim your beards.<br> <p>Now In want to read to you from the 14th verse of the 2nd chapter of the book of Ephesians and I am reading to you from the CEV, Ephesians 2:14- 16 (CEV) “Christ has made peace between Jews and Gentiles, and he has united us by breaking down the wall of hatred that separated us. Christ gave his own body to destroy the Law of Moses with all its rules and commands. He even brought Jews and Gentiles together a though we were only one person, when he united us in peace. Vs 16 “On the cross Christ did away with our hatred for each other. He also made peace between us and God by uniting Jews and Gentiles in one body”. And that is remarkable he says that he gave his own body, he gave himself in that 15th verse he says to destroy the Law of Moses with all his rules and commands. The king James says Let me read that to you “For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Vs having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;”. So he fulfilled the Law and abolished it that’s what he did, now in many of this things what the bible teaches really is about purpose and excess. For example, in the issue of drinking, it talks about purpose and excess, why do you drink and when you drink should you drink excessively God says no, he doesn’t want you to drink excessively this are the teachings of the scriptures when the bible talks about touch not, taste not, handle not all of this things he says they are to perish the use. So, let the scripture, let the doctrine of Christ control your thinking, control your ideas, control your understanding and open your heart to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Understand it, learn it, study the word and be not entangled again by the yoke of bondage. Now does this teaching say use Tattoos No, we are saying that the word is not telling you about Tattoos anymore he told the children of Israel and the law is over, so he is not encouraging you to therefore go and do it. For example, when the word tells you “be not drunk with wine when is excess be filled with the Spirit” does that mean since he says don’t drink it excessively we might as well go into the bars and do all of this, that’s not what he teaches no, it just means that to understand purpose and moderation. It teaches moderation in your dressing, it teaches moderation in your hair, it teaches moderation anywhere you go, in the things you do, even in your food it doesn’t tell you what food to eat and what food not to eat but it teaches you moderation. So, this is what you have to learn to understand in the scriptures Let no one use the bible to mislead you. Understand it in the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ, Now in the 19th verse of the same book of Leviticus, the bible says Leviticus 19:19 “Ye shall keep my statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind: thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed:” that means you don’t let your cattle mix with some other beast, alright to produce a hybrid and then he says thou shall not sow thy field with mingled seed: meaning you cannot sow beans and corn in the same field. Now that’s very interesting, now he goes on Leviticus 19:19 “…neither shall a garment mingled of linen and woolen come upon thee”. That means you cannot wear and clothing that’s linen and woolen mixed together, like you have 65% cotton and 35% polyester and so on. This Law says you are not supposed to where such a thing it should not even come upon you. Now, if you were to ask someone what does the bible say about wearing a garment of linen and wool mixed together, you say does the bible say anything about that. Well the bible did say something about that many years ago to the children of Israel and that Law has been abolished just like all the other parts I just shared with you. So this is just to help you understand that you cannot isolate the scriptures and make a doctrine on them and what the bible tells us in things like this if you already have Tattoos in your body don’t feel condemned because someone is pulling out a scripture and using it to condemn you and if you do not have Tattoos don’t pursue Tattoos you see, let everyone be fully convinced in his own heart that’s the way you live with Christ. Whatever the Lord tells us not to do we must not do. Whatever he says we should do we should do but whatever he has giving no clear instruction about be fully persuaded in your conscience, that’ what the scriptures teach. May God guide your understanding God bless you. Less