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.
BINGOOO!!!
We have a winner! ALWAYS read for yourself and take no ones word for anything. The devil tempted Jesus by misusing Scripture.
Do as you like.
Same here. She often talked about her husband in a mocking manner. He may be a total goof, but she is wrong to air her criticisms in her broadcasts.
“Wives, respect your husband” as the letter to the Ephesians instructs us.
Removing them is painful and expensive. They burn them off with a laser. To remove the ink, they must burn deeper than the needle went.
She went on to explain that religious people have made a mess of holiness by putting a bunch of rules and regulations on people.
All Christians are Christians...All religious people are not Christians...
Exactly! And he would just sit there and take that. I guess the money is worth the mockery to him.
Are those tattoos or veins? Dont have my glasses on ;)
If we tried hard enough, we could probably get that saying to catch on!
Bookmarked for the GRPL.
99.999% of all tats today are me-too stamps of the feeble minded.
How are Christians not under the Old Testiment?
Depends on the tattoo, and its placement.
Outstanding.
False prophet. Go ahead and get your tramp stamp, you can be trashy like so many other women.
And Jesus himself will write his name upon us.
Marking shows ownership.
Yes it does, but it takes study. Look to post 97 for some of it. Many commandments God gave man after the Flood, was addressed because of what the Nephilim were doing before the Flood. As an example, Noah was commanded to kill an animal before eating it in Gen 9:4. The Nephilim were cannibals. They had 6 fingers and 6 toes and 2 rows of teeth as well as being very tall. They were able to catch running animals and eat them as they were running. This is also where God said if we shed blood, by man will his blood be shed. Murder was rampant before the Flood.
Some study that you might find interesting is study the Rephaim, Emim, sons of Anack, and other races of Giants mention in Scripture. Og was the king of the Giants of Bashan. Goliath had 4 brothers and they were sons of Anack. Amos 2:9 speaks of the Amorites as giants. As the Hebrews were held captive in Egypt for 400 years, the Canaanites had those years to raise up giants to keep the Hebrews from reaching the promised land. The Devil knew the prophesy God gave Abraham when he was told they would be held against their will 400 years in a foreign land.
The 12 spies came back from exploring Canaan and reported that they were grasshoppers in their eyes. 2 men picked one cluster of grapes and had to carry it back with a stick between them. There were certainly more giants than Goliath in the Bible. They brought much evil to the earth as demonic blood changed the DNA of God's creatures. We were created in the image of God and the demons want to corrupt the seed of the woman,...Jesus. They killed all the babies when Moses was born to stop God's seed. They killed all the babies when Jesus was born to stop God's seed. When the Flood came, Scripture says ALL flesh was corrupted except Noah's. He was perfect in his generations. His wife however carried the corruption over to the new world.
Since Genesis 3, it's been about the "seed war" God declared. The seed of the woman would kill the seed of the Serpent.
These giants did evil things and tattoo's came from this. The Raphaim were called the "walking dead" and people worshiped them as gods. They dealt in black magic and taught it to their women.
You can also read the book of Jasher and the Book of Enoch for more information. These books were read by the Apostles of Jesus in His day, but were removed later. The Apocrypha was also part of the 1611 King James until about the 1880's. The Book of Enoch was mentioned by Jude and Jasher was mentioned in a couple of books in the OT. If they read it, why not you? It will explain a lot. Also get a copy of the Septuagint. Josephus also adds a lot to what the ancient Rabbi's taught back in the day.
Some studies....
Antiquities of the Jews book 5 chpt 2 vs 3.
2 Sam 21:20
Jasher 4:18
Jasher 2:19-20
The whole book of Enoch.
I’ve got one on my arm too, a square masted sailing ship that us sailors would get...back in the days before this tattoo craze. The tattoos sailors and marines used to get assuredly had nothing to with the godless rebellion we see today expressed in all these tattoos and rings in the the nose, eyelids, tongues, and God knows where else...which is going to lead to the taking of the mark of the beast 666.
Judging by what you said, the same for you.
Knowing what I know now as a Christian, I wouldn’t have even gotten that tattoo. As other posts here have pointed out, why defigure the body God gave us?
What I was getting at in my post, was the godless rebellion that lies behind this latest craze. Which, I believe, will take its final form in the mark of the beast.
The OT Law is not a law to us...It is a teacher...We will not go to hell for violating the law...Because there is no one who can live their life without violating the law at some point...
And that is why Jesus died on the Cross...He put all of our law violations, past, present and future on Himself...He payed it all...Once, for all time...We (Christians) are debt free...
Should we try to live by the Ten Commandments...Of course...The Commandments teach us what sin is...And the Holy Spirit within the body of Christians guides us to avoid that sin...Unfortunately, we don't always listen to him...
Wha....
...she looks like Jack Nicholson’s Joker!
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