Question: Dear
Greg,
Yesterday’s sermon in church regarding tattoos has stirred a debate in
our home and I need your help to clarify a couple of things.
1.
Based on Leviticus 19:28 and 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, would someone who
2.
If so, how does this differ from ear piercing?
3.
How can we apply one law from the Old Testament and discard others,
The resistance I am getting is this: it is not for us to say that it is
wrong because it is open to interpretation and up to the individual and their
relationship with God. My position
is that it is a cop-out to justify a position and by forming a complete picture
of God’s word we get a clear message that this does not honor God with our
body.
Where can I find in the New Testament about the laws that were abolished:
i.e. sacrifices, etc.? There are
numerous verses about Christ fulfilling the law and not eliminating it, but I
was told the things like sacrifices and mixing crops were specifically
mentioned, and I can’t find it.
Thanks for your help, it is greatly appreciated.
Tom
Answer: Dear
Tom,
The comments you make at the end of your question are the ones most
germane and critical to this question. The
new covenant is not 50% old—it’s not 60-40, 80-20, or even 95-5. It is all new. All
of it.
We cannot decide which old covenant laws, prohibitions, statutes,
ordinances, etc. are “in effect” and which have been nailed to the cross.
No human being can do that—no minister, no priest, no scholar—for it
is clear that nothing in the old covenant is binding/required for the Christian
today, simply because it is in the old covenant.
There are laws and principles in the old covenant that teachings of the
new covenant are based upon, but when they re they are clearly enunciated in the
New Testament. If they are not,
then there is no clear mandate that Christians have to pick and choose from the
old covenant, and to teach that some of the old covenant is required for
Christians, while other parts are not.
Upon what do I base this? Books
like Romans, Galatians, Hebrews—passages like Colossians 2:13-15, 2
Corinthians 3:7-18, etc. Much more
could be said on this topic, but I’ll leave this summary.
To specifics. Ear piercing,
cutting hair, mixing crops, mixing fabrics, tattoos.
What often happens in the Christian context is that sincere and
well-intentioned Christians, church leaders, pastors, etc. decide that they need
to make a statement about a social or cultural trend.
They realize that they should base their convictions upon the Bible, so
they do. They will find a place in
the Bible that agrees with their a priori conclusion.
This practice is called proof-texting—or script-torture.
Example. When the Beatles
first became popular, some Christians were convinced that their music was at the
very best bad, at the worst evil, and condemned the Beatles by saying that long
hair is a shame to a man, quoting a passage in 1 Corinthians.
But 1) that is not what the passage in 1 Corinthians means.
2) even if it did, there are many cultural difficulties with determining
what constitutes long hair for a man. For
example, Roman men, at the time of the writing of 1 Corinthians, wore their hair
much shorter than did the Jews of Palestine.
The Beatles, and their music, may have been good, bad, or somewhere in
between—but to try to make the Bible line up behind cultural values we prefer
is not a good practice.
The issue you mention is another. Tattoos.
The prohibition you note in Leviticus has to do with a specific practice
that had religious overtones—not the practice that most men and women
(specifically popular with the young) find appealing today.
We should not try to infer the Bible (and hence God) agrees with us, when
in fact the Bible is silent.
I personally happen to believe that a young man or woman who gets
multiple tattoos, who looks like the NBA star Allen Iverson, is one day going to
wish he or she had not covered their body with these markings.
Scarring your skin with the name of a boy or girl friend who may well not
wind up as your spouse is not a smart long-term decision—but for those who
only live in the moment, it seems exciting.
Perhaps the concern of a message, a sermon, a discussion ought to be
about long-term consequences of decisions that we make today—and how we all,
young and old, need to keep that principle (which is biblical) in mind.
In Christ,
Greg Albrecht