It’s The Blood

There is a tendency in us humans to associate ourselves with success whether national, familial or individual. The opposite is true of disappointment as we try to move as far away from it, afraid that it might taint us.  We like to associate ourselves with successful people and we look for a way to establish something of a nexus between ourselves and the originator of the successful exploits. Trying to associate ourselves with a successful person is not really that hard. We can always find something that associates us with them no matter how nebulous. However, trying to disassociate ourselves from a disappointment or someone who has done something terrible can be extremely hard. Or practically impossible. In that regard, no matter how much they want to, the Germans can’t deny that Adolf Hitler was one of them or that the Germans started World War II.

Megyn Kelly, a Fox News anchor recently made a statement on her programme the Kelly File on the Fox News Channel to the effect that Santa Claus and Jesus were both white. She later said the comment was made tongue-in-cheek. However this was not before there was a huge outcry on both the conventional and social media. I have no intention of talking about Santa Claus as delving into the history of mythical creatures or human is not really my thing. My concern is about the person whom billions of people both living and dead call the originator of their faith.

When I read about the comments from Ms. Kelly, I went online and I read several articles and comments made about the colour of undoubtedly the most famous person that ever walked the face of the earth. There were those that postulated he was black, white or some other colour. There were even comments referencing books written on the subject, especially one written by Jeremiah Wright, President Obama’s former pastor. Reading all those articles, the major emotion that coursed through me was not one of anger or humour. All I felt was a sense of overwhelming disappointment.  I felt disappointed that people could try to reduce the impact that Jesus and his teachings had made on the world to the colour of his skin.

I don’t know about the other people who identify themselves as Christian but I can say that I have never put much thought into what colour Jesus was. In fact, it’s never been something that has agitated my mind and I doubt if it was something that agitated the minds of Martin Luther or John Knox. I also do not think it is something that agitates the minds of most Christians.    For people to even try making it a topic of discussion is beyond my understanding. To even start a discussion about what colour Jesus was diminishes and obscures the real reason why he came and what he did. To talk about his skin colour to my mind somehow diminishes the impact of his sacrifice on the cross to redeem us from our sins. I do not follow Jesus or call myself a Christian because of his skin colour. I call myself a Christian and I follow him not because of his skin colour but because I realise I need help with my sins. I follow him because I realise he came as a gift from a loving God who sent him to me to help me find a way back to God. There are several reasons why I follow him and none has to do with his skin colour.

I wonder why people would be fixated about a person’s colour. Would his colour diminish or accentuate a person’s message? Would a person’s colour determine whether or not we would listen to his message or follow him? Would a person’s colour tell us what kind of person they were? Are we so inherently racist that we judge the content of what a person says based on the pigmentation of his skin? Does his skin colour lend greater credence to his message? If we cannot see past a person’s colour to the content of his message, might I suggest that we are definitely prime candidates for washing in his blood.

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelson publishers.http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU000194087/Deceptio.aspx and LOST, BUT FOUND available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/. You can follow him on Twitter @Cruz_JCReal. 

Clash of Cultures

I Kings 18:27 "And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till blood gushed out upon them." KJV

I have always been wary of any type of culture projected by the world and its systems. What surprises me is the fact that most Christians are not. In fact, Christians are the most enthusiastic adopters of new things the world brings in, forgetting that they are not of this world. The Bible says we are not to love the world or the things in the world but a lot of Christians don't seem to understand that.

I have always wondered what people see in tattoos. Before people think that I'm an elderly person who doesn't understand young people's fads, let me say that I am an adult male in my thirties. My wariness and lack of understanding has to with the fact that in the process of obtaining a tattoo, blood is spilt. The Bible says that the life of a person is in the blood. Hence any procedure that means my blood is going to be spilt or dealt with any way is something I don't want to go through. Especially when the procedure is not one that is necessary or life saving. A point I have made before which I will continue to make is that I have looked at my Bible and I see nothing about conservative or liberal there. The only definition I see from the Bible is that of Christian. And that is what I am. A Christian who believes wholly in the Bible as the infallible word of God.

The story is told in I Kings 18 about the prophet Elijah's contest with the prophets of the Canaanite god of fertility, rain and harvest, Baal. Elijah had previously prayed to God and no rain had fallen for the past three and a half years. He had disappeared out of sight and God has used raven and a widow to feed him while the whole land was experiencing a famine. At the three and a half years, Elijah showed up in Israel and challenged the prophets of Baal to contest to see whose god would answer the cries of his prophet. When the prophets of Baal prayed and he did not answer, Elijah taunted them by asking them to pray harder as perhaps Baal was sleeping or had gone on a journey. Now agitated, the Bible says "And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till blood gushed out upon them."

For me, the whole tattoo thing looks too much like what the prophets of Baal did, cutting themselves deliberately. It even seems worse to me when I think of what it’s supposed to be all about. A tattoo is supposed to be cool, hip and all about aesthetics. In short, it’s all about vanity. Which makes it even worse. People are cutting themselves to a new god, the god of cool. The god of vanity.

The Bible says we should test all spirits whether they are of God. Spirits not only exist in people, they exist as the force behind movements and waves and cultural phenomenon. Most of what is taken as culturally normal today does not align with the Bible. Yet we adopt them unthinkingly. As a result, Christian culture is being subsumed in secular culture and its getting hard to know who is a Christian and who is not because we are all so alike. And that is sad.


JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBow Press (www.westbowpress.com), a division of Thomas Nelson Publishers.