Boy, did I get in trouble when I wore that tee-shirt to church. I had a tee-shirt with a picture of Sallman's "Christ at the Door" painting (as seen here to the right) on the front. Under the picture the shirt read, "This is a lie."
I recently got into a bit of a discussion with a man who put a picture up at his website. It is a picture of a "Jesus" statue looking down and it has been altered to make it look like its head is bleeding. Well, okay, it wasn't a discussion. He was hopping mad. I was, and am still, sick with severe bronchitis, so I got hopping mad that he was hopping mad at me for just trying to inform him of something in Scripture he was ignoring. (Of course, it may not have helped that I asked him who was the statue on his website with the red paint coming out of its hair.)
I told him about the entire Second Commandment and he gave me the lamest set of excuses a sentient mind could possibly fabricate for disobeying God ever heard on the planet. However, those excuses are typical of those who wish to make up faces and hair styles, put them together in a picture, and lie to kids by telling them that what they have just made up out of whole cloth is "Jesus." It's a lie.
BUT, getting back to my banned-from-church tee-shirt...that tee-shirt was inexcusable, actually. The picture isn't a lie. It's an entire universe of lies.
Stay tuned as we mentally explore some of the myths about "Jesus" pictures and some of the myths these phonied-up deities perpetrate on the naive. Meanwhile, get out Exodus 20:4-6. There you will read the Second Commandment. It does NOT say, "Thou shall not make any graven images." If you think so, you may have been lied to in Sunday School. I was.
In Christ,
Phil Perkins.
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2 comments:
Greetings, Phil!
Just found your blog while doing a Google search. And I must say that I do agree with the sentiment expressed on your T-shirt. I get sick to the point of nausea when I hear people rip Revelation 3:20 so far out of context as to be virtually unrecognizable. And don't even get me started on "prayed to receive Christ", or "Ask Jesus into your heart".
A.W. Tozer felt the same way. If you haven't read "The Divine Conquest" (I believe it is also titled "The Pursuit of Man"), I would encourage you to do so. He writes:
...there are millions who have imbibed the notion that they hold in their hands the keys of heaven and hell. The whole content of modern evangelistic preaching contributes to this attitude. Man is made large and God small; Christ is placed in a position to excite pity rather than respect as He stand meekly, lantern in hand, outside a vine-covered door...He is the Fear of Isaac and the Dread of Jacob, and before Him prophet and patriarch and saint have knelt in breathless awe and adoration.
Well said, Four-Pointer. Now go all the way.
In Christ,
Phil Perkins.
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