Can men with tattoos be saved?

[rockytopva]

A featured thread asked.... Can men with a mullet haircut be saved? In which my reply was yes as hair can grow back. What about tatoos? Tatoos can become a permanent part of your body. What about people with all that satanic stuff tattooed on their body. Can they be saved? What would be your council? I would caution against tatoos as they are intended to be permanent parts of your body and not removed. And people change in time. What is tattooed on your body today may not reflect who you are tomorrow.

 

[Josho]

Hahahha I just started a thread about man buns!

 

[rockytopva]

Will the mark of the beast be a tatoo? I worry that there is an extent where a tatoo can be a bad thing. Sins, haircuts, beard styles can all be remedied. But tatoos remain and are difficult to remove.

 

[Josho]

Corrected the spelling of the thread title.

I suppose one could ask too, is the mark of the Lamb going to be a tattoo?

 

[Pearl]

Of course they can.

 

[Pearl]

A featured thread asked.... Can men with a mullet haircut be saved? In which my reply was yes as hair can grow back. What about tatoos? Tatoos can become a permanent part of your body. What about people with all that satanic stuff tattooed on their body. Can they be saved? What would be your council? I would caution against tatoos as they are intended to be permanent parts of your body and not removed. And people change in time. What is tattooed on your body today may not reflect who you are tomorrow.

Tattoos are on the outside of the body as are blemishes of any sort but God looks only at the heart.

 

[rockytopva]

Tattoos are on the outside of the body as are blemishes of any sort but God looks only at the heart.

I will like that! Thanks! I am of a generation who did go for the tatoos. Any kind of council here is helpful.

 

[Episkopos]

Can one save his own skin?

 

[farouk]

I will like that! Thanks! I am of a generation who did go for the tatoos. Any kind of council here is helpful.

Around here (Bible Belt), it is common, especially among evangelical Christians, for the girls under about 40 to have religious tattoos. More do than don't, especially when you get to the under 30 crowd. I hardly know any female at church that is under 30 that does not have a tattoo.

forums dot thewelltrainedmind dot com

 

[rockytopva]

I head someone once say... "I met a Christian man that had many inappropriate tattoos: explicit images, nazi symbols and others. I asked why not get them removed? He said he kept them so he didn’t forget where he was when Jesus saved him, and not judge others by appearances. He also used them as a way to initiate conversations about the gospel. I have rarely met someone so dedicated to the cause of Christ. There was no pretense with him. He was all Jesus, all the time. I heard several years ago that he had died of cancer (he was in his 40’s). I was saddened, though I really didn’t know him. I am reminded, because of him, that to judge the lost because they are acting as lost people is to forget where I was when Jesus found me and saved me. Peace to you"

And I had to give that one a like!

 

[farouk]

I am of a generation who did go for the tatoos. Any kind of council here is helpful.

@rockytopva Well, they still do. More than ever. It used to be man thing; though now in North America apparently 59% - 70% or more of parlor clients are female. My wife and I talked to a young lady with the whole of John 3.16 tattooed on her wrist area; it was her favorite Bible verse and mine also; and I'm sure other conversations have arisen - and indeed will arise - as a result of her willingness - like you - to use a parlor. If some ppl don't like tattoos and/or don't like other ppl to become tattooed, them they don't have to like it or to get any themselves. Frankly, though, so many ppl do; and this is just self-evident. (2c...)

 

[FHII]

I got my first and only tattoo when I was 25. I was told it was addictive, but for me it was not. I didn't become an active Christian until 33.

It's old, faded and doesn't look as great at age 50. I don't regret it as it was a sign of my youth as a child and as a young adult. But it isn't an accurate representation of me today. I can still bring out that attitude, but it's hidden and no longer the real me.

Have I thought about getting more tattooed? Sure. But I don't feel as compelled as I did. How about a Christian themed tattoo? Yea... Thought about it and have a great idea for one. But its not going to increase my spirituality.

I belong to a unique Church... Probably 75% of the congregation have tattoos, including myself and the Pastor! So we don't look down on it, nor do we celebrate it beyond, "WOW! GREAT INK!".

 

[amadeus]

Can one save his own skin?

How important is one's own skin to God? After the fact of disobedience when God comes upon them and Adam...

"... said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked?" Gen 3:10-11

"Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them." Gen 3:21

"Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and hast fenced me with bones and sinews." Job 10:11

Should we now knowingly change [defile?] the covering given to us by God? How important is our skin and all that we are to God?

Why did/does He want us covered? Why did/do we need a covering? Is it OK for us to knowingly change [defile?] the covering from the way that it was when He gave it to us?

Is it really now our decision to make whether or not to permanently change [defile?] this skin, this covering, which is His?

"What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." I Cor 6:19-20

 

[amadeus]

Tattoos are on the outside of the body as are blemishes of any sort but God looks only at the heart.

Yes, God looks at the heart but part of the contents of our heart are what we have done with all that He has given us and why...

We cannot change the past, but today should always belong to God. The decisions we make should all be to make us more like Him and to please Him. Does God not care what we have done since we have become His children?

 

[farouk]

I got my first and only tattoo when I was 25. I was told it was addictive, but for me it was not. I didn't become an active Christian until 33.

It's old, faded and doesn't look as great at age 50. I don't regret it as it was a sign of my youth as a child and as a young adult. But it isn't an accurate representation of me today. I can still bring out that attitude, but it's hidden and no longer the real me.

Have I thought about getting more tattooed? Sure. But I don't feel as compelled as I did. How about a Christian themed tattoo? Yea... Thought about it and have a great idea for one. But its not going to increase my spirituality.

I belong to a unique Church... Probably 75% of the congregation have tattoos, including myself and the Pastor! So we don't look down on it, nor do we celebrate it beyond, "WOW! GREAT INK!".

@FHII It really is very widespread, like you say. So many Christians have tattoos.

FYI, this quote - like lots - shows just how prevalent it is:

Around here (Bible Belt), it is common, especially among evangelical Christians, for the girls under about 40 to have religious tattoos. More do than don't, especially when you get to the under 30 crowd. I hardly know any female at church that is under 30 that does not have a tattoo.

forums dot thewelltrainedmind dot com

You are absolutely right when you say, if you get more ink in a Christian theme, it won't make you more spiritual. But many Christians simply use ink as a well proven pragmatic means of expressing something of what they believe, in the likelihood that it will - whether very occasionally or frequently - be a talking point with ppl.

Like I've mentioned, my wife and I talked to a young lady with the whole of John 3.16 tattooed on her wrist; it was her favorite Bible verse and mine also and it simply worked -evidently - to get us talking.

As you would know...right?

 

[FHII]

@FHII It really is very widespread, like you say. So many Christians have tattoos.

FYI, this quote - like lots - shows just how prevalent it is:


forums dot thewelltrainedmind dot com

You are absolutely right when you say, if you get more ink in a Christian theme, it won't make you more spiritual. But many Christians simply use ink as a well proven pragmatic means of expressing something of what they believe, in the likelihood that it will - whether very occasionally or frequently - be a talking point with ppl.

Like I've mentioned, my wife and I talked to a young lady with the whole of John 3.16 tattooed on her wrist; it was her favorite Bible verse and mine also and it simply worked -evidently - to get us talking.

As you would know...right?

Well it's not wrong... But I am not going to do it as a means of evangelism. If others so, fine.

 

[mjrhealth]

A featured thread asked.... Can men with a mullet haircut be saved? In which my reply was yes as hair can grow back. What about tatoos? Tatoos can become a permanent part of your body. What about people with all that satanic stuff tattooed on their body. Can they be saved? What would be your council? I would caution against tatoos as they are intended to be permanent parts of your body and not removed. And people change in time. What is tattooed on your body today may not reflect who you are tomorrow.

Maybe we need to start another for men with hair...

 

[amadeus]

If some ppl don't like tattoos and/or don't like other ppl to become tattooed, them they don't have to like it or to get any themselves. Frankly, though, so many ppl do; and this is just self-evident. (2c...)

It is also self-evident for anyone with "eyes to see" that most people, which must include a very large number bearing the label of Christian are not very Christ-like in their life styles in the United States and in the Western countries sometimes called Christian. It has been named "creeping worldliness" by more than one minister of God. It has creeped into the people and the churches bearing his name. Things seem for the many in these 'churches' to be running in just the opposite direction from what Isaiah was saying here:

"To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.
But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken." Isaiah 28:12-13

Line upon line, here a little, and there a little... farther away from God's Way, from the highway of holiness!

Justifying ourselves to do what our flesh wants instead surrendering ourselves and asking the Lord it is that He wants are two very different things. Which one do you suppose is what God wants to see? King Saul when confronted by Samuel, the prophet, sought to justify himself by saying it was what the people wanted. King David when confronted by Nathan, the prophet, said simply, "I have sinned" fully expecting to die, for that was the penalty due him according to the law.

"One little tatoo for the Lord and one little tatoo for me and it will all balance our in the end"...or?

"Just one little tatoo with the right words from the Bible and that will make up in the balance for what I am not giving to God".

"Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have: I am the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt." Lev 19:36​

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"A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight." Prov 11:1​

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"A just weight and balance are the Lord's: all the weights of the bag are his work." Prov 16:11​

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"Divers weights are an abomination unto the LORD; and a false balance is not good." Prov 20:23​

What does God expect from us? "

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." Rom 12:1-2

 

[rockytopva]

Maybe we need to start another for men with hair...

Sorry about that. @Josho and I started the threads about hair about the same time.

 

[farouk]

...And people change in time. What is tattooed on your body today may not reflect who you are tomorrow.

PS: @rockytopva In the case of true, saving faith, this would of course be sometimes permanent; and a faith based tattoo would thus be of permanent import, so to speak.