Posted on 03/30/2018 9:25:33 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
During a recent conference, Christian speaker Joyce Meyer made a biblical case for getting tattoos and admitted she has been thinking of getting one herself just to shut the mouths of religious people.
The video clip posted by Joyce Meyer Ministries on March 14 kicks off with Meyer explaining the difference between being holy and religious.
"Holiness is not legalism," Meyer declared.
She went on to explain that religious people have made a mess of holiness by putting a bunch of rules and regulations on people. She listed drinking, dancing, wearing makeup and more among those rules.
Meyer quoted Isaiah 44:5 in defense of getting permanent markings. The scripture says, "One will say, I am the Lord's; and another will call himself by the name of Jacob; and another will write [even brand or tattoo] upon his hand, I am the Lord's, and surname himself by the [honorable] name of Israel."
She also shared the counterargument often used to discourage believers from getting tattoos found in Leviticus 19:28: "Do not cut your bodies for the dead, and do not mark your skin with tattoos. I am the LORD."
Televangelist Pat Robertson, among others, has cited Leviticus to argue that getting tattoos is a "heathen practice."
"You look at the Bible, the people are told not to mark their bodies and cut themselves like the heathen did. Tattooing is a heathen practice, it is not a Christian practice," Robertson said in 2016.
But Meyer rejected the argument and contended that God also tattooed those He loves to Himself.
"The Bible says in Isaiah 49 that God has a picture of you tattooed on the palm of His hand," she maintained.
"I'm right on the verge of going and getting a tattoo," she added, pointing to her shoulder blade. "I thought I might as well just push all the religious people right off the cliff and just get it over with."
Meyer said her ink would say, "I belong to the Lord." She admitted that her husband pushed back a bit on her stance but they realized it was just a religious stance stemming from legalism.
Evangelist Christine Caine, seated in the front row of the meeting, can be seen rooting Meyers on as she expressed her interest in getting a tattoo.
"Why would I do that (get a tattoo)? Just to make religious demons mad, no other reason," she maintained.
"I lived in so much bondage from legalism," Meyer revealed of her past. "Everything in legalism is about something you can not do. Let me tell you something — it is not boring to serve Christ, it is so much fun and there's so much you can do and not only that, you can enjoy all of it!"
The Saint Louis native pointed out that in Ezekiel 16:9-13 there was a big celebration and God put earrings and nose rings on the Israelites.
"Here's the bottom line, it's all about your motives and how you are doing things. We can't look at the outside of somebody and decide for ourselves that they're an evil person ... That's why so many people today don't want anything to do with the church 'cause all they get is criticism and judgement," she concluded.
The clip finished with Meyer encouraging those in attendance to pursue holiness but in freedom.
Hillsong New York City Pastor Carl Lentz has also defended Christians getting tattoos and addressed the criticism he often receives about his own markings. "Biblical interpretation is huge right? So with tattoos not being allowed you mean Leviticus. We play both sides of the coin I think that is healthy. Like this paradox of scripture, interpretation is actually is part of our faith, the tension of it. So, on one hand, we say that is the Old Testament scripture, there is no New Testament verification of that. That law that had to do with slaves, that identified you as part of a tribe we don't believe that came through the cross," Lentz told World Religion News last year.
"We don't believe that when Jesus died and rose again that old Levitical scripture applied to our modern life. That is ridiculous," the Virginia native argued. "At the same time, there are some things we do believe follow through on the cross. So the way we break down we would literally put up the Old Testament and then put a cross in the middle and then we put up the New Testament and we say anything that comes through the cross is eternal. Anything that stops is Old Testament."
Making the case against tattoos, some Christians have cited 1 Corinthians 10:23, pointing out that the question isn't about whether tattooing one's body is a "sin." But it's more about whether it's "a good and necessary thing to do."
Will Honeycutt, a professor at Liberty University, believes that while "the Bible does not explicitly forbid tattoos," Christians should remember that "the Bible has a high view of the body as God's handiwork, which is not to be disfigured."
Also, he argued, one should not get a tattoo out of rebellion. Rather, "our primary motive for anything we do should be to glorify God."
"Are you seeking to direct people's thoughts toward God or yourself?" Honeycutt posed.
Sadly you are correct.
If I get a tattoo, i’m going to get one just to piss off people I hate. /s
It's getting so that NOT having a tat means you're a non-conformist. ;o)
If only we could get old, elderly white men to start sagging their pants so their underwear shows. ;o)
How long will this "trend/fad" go on???
Methinks the only tattoo that will matter will be “666.”
5.56mm
I went in the Navy after an Army stint and managed to avoid Tattoos for the same reason, I knew how they turned out in the end.
I didn’t assert anyone should care about my opinion.
I just said that Scholar-shopping is useless because it’s simple to find a scholar with whom you agree.
But appealing to “experts” reminds me of the Global Warming people. It’s what they always say - ‘my expert can beat up your expert”.
I think Ms. Meyer is trying too hard to be “cool”. She’s 74 years old! Her facelift was bad enough.
Christians have been getting tattoos when they visit the Holy Land for almost a thousand years
Then I assume you've never eaten pork, or lobster, or worn a cotton/poly blend, or cut your forelocks.
No non-kosher foods. Never check my clothing labels. But I did have to get the hair out of my eyes to see to drive.
Delores?
Lev 19:26-32 AV:
26 Ye shall not eat any thing with the blood: neither shall ye use enchantment, nor observe times.
27 Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard.
28 Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD.
29 Do not prostitute thy daughter, to cause her to be a whore; lest the land fall to whoredom, and the land become full of wickedness.
30 Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD.
31 Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God.
32 Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man, and fear thy God: I am the LORD.
I chose to cite Barnes because (amidst the voices of other commentators concurring) his words were fitting and concise in agreement with what the context says. Look at the above context; these are "shalls" and "shall nots", and the class of permanently stenciling one's skin is of the same order of defiling a church house or prostituting one's daughter.
So much for any "opinion" against that of my own (which you are quite free to criticize), and the findings of Barnes, Clarke, Henry, Wesley, Darby, and JFB.
Joyce Meyer is not a qualified instructor of righteousness, IMHO.
If she has one more chin lift she’ll have to start shaving.
I have 3 tattoos. Each a size of a pin prick. They aligned me into the radiation treatment system to treat my stage 4 cancer i had in my late 30s. Please forgive me. Will you forgive me? Do I need to get laser treatment? You seem to have all the answers and know Gods calling?
FO!
God says to not learn the way of the heathen (Jeremiah 10:1) But, just like liberals (who change the meanings of words), so has people that profess Christianity found “new meanings” for pagan practices.
Christ is Freedom. He said so (John 8:2)
Paul told the faithful in Galatia to stand fast in the liberty that is in Christ.
Not having to keep up with the world is freedom, not legalism.
LOL!
What do you find between the breasts of an eighty year old woman?
Her belly button.
Joyce Meyer is really wrong on this one.
Scripture does outright forbid tatooos.
Holiness is not legalism.
But if one doesn’t stand for what Scripture teaches, then he will fall for anything.
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