In our Sunday School Class at IBBC-Riverside church, we are
studying through a work book titled "The ABCs of Christian
Growth" and recently we were in the "Questions Often
Asked" section. Anyone who has ever tried to witness to
non-believers, or help a new believer mature in knowledge of God's
Word - knows there are certain questions which will most always be
asked.
Questions such as: "What happens to infants and young children when they die?" ~ "What is the age of accountability?" ~ "Is abortion right or wrong?" and other questions about homosexuality, predestination, is hell a real place, etc.
And, there is one question that I suspect even most Christian believers have asked, at least to themselves: "What did Jesus really look like during His earthly ministry?" That made me think of a blog and Friends Ministry eNewsletter I posted several months ago titled "What Did Jesus Look Like?" prompted when someone posted a Star Wars looking Jesus on Facebook.
You can read that earlier blog at: http://www.billdory-christian-ministries.blogspot.com/2016/08/what-did-jesus-look-like.html
We all know that, in the Christian community, there are differing beliefs regarding paintings which supposedly represent Jesus Christ. In the early 1990s I was reminded of that in a personal way. My mom was in the hospital in my hometown of Sheffield, Alabama. During my visit with her, we talked about the Christian faith and I wanted to give her something to cheer her up and brighten her hospital room.
Because of my step-father, she had been in a cult church for twenty years - and had not really heard the real Gospel or had an opportunity to become a true believer. To fast forward for just a moment, by the grace of God I was able to remedy that before she passed away on February 22, 1994, and I know she went to be with the Lord.
Wanting to give her something which would keep Jesus Christ on her mind, I drove to different Christian bookstores in my hometown area looking for a small painting of Jesus Christ I could leave on her night stand - just to remind her that Jesus Christ is always there for her and He wants her to become a child of God.
Because my hometown area is predominantly Baptist and Church of Christ oriented - none of those book stores sold paintings of Jesus Christ. Eventually, in the Mars Hill Christian school bookstore I did find a large flip chart envelope which had a drawing of Jesus Christ coming out of the tomb in glory. I purchased the package, left the flip charts for the school to use, and trimmed the envelope to get the drawing of Jesus Christ. Then I stopped at a local K-Mart store for a frame - and took that framed drawing to my mom's hospital room.
Over the years she kept the framed drawing in her home and after she was promoted to heaven, I brought the drawing home with me. I still have it hanging in my office - to remind me of my Lord and of my mom.
Many feel that having such a drawing or painting is worshiping an idol. And, others of us view it like having a photo or painting of a loved one - to remind us of that loved one when we are not together. But not to be worshiped in any way.
When I was stationed in Korea in 1956-57, I took photos of my wife and children with me. I hung them by my bed to have a feeling of being close to my family, a reminder that one day soon we would all be together again. When I look at my mom's drawing of Jesus Christ, I am reminded that one day He, my mom, and I will be together, for eternity.
Three paintings of Jesus Christ which I like are:
On the other hand, I can understand and agree with most Protestant churches that too many people might have a tendency to build an altar and worship such paintings. I have seen this so often in Roman Catholic homes - and it could happen in Protestant homes if our Bible and our leadership were not diligent in warning us against such things.
So, I suppose it is as the apostle Paul teaches us in 1 Corinthians 8 that eating meat sacrificed to a false gods, i.e., idols, is not in itself wrong - for false gods are not real. But, if weaker brethren, or new believers in Christ, sees us doing that and are misled - then we have sinned against those brethren and against Christ.
We can replace that meat sacrificed to idols with paintings of Jesus Christ in our discussion - and the same applies. If it offends our brethren or misleads new and weaker believers in Christ - it is best to abstain. For me, I could never worship any painting, Christ or otherwise - just as I would never worship photos of my wife, children, and grandchildren. When we are not together, they are in my heart and the photo brings them closer. But, I will honor and protect the feelings and beliefs of my brothers and sisters in Christ - for I do not want to offend or mislead them.
With that said, what did Jesus Christ really look like? No one knows. And I am sure that God established it this way so that no one would be worshiping His image instead of worshiping Him. That, in my heart, is the true intent of Exodus 20:4-5, "You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; . . ."
Yet, if we do, as I am sure most of us have, attempt to imagine what Jesus did look like during His earthly ministry - what evidence do we have to suggest His appearance? Was He white, brown, black, yellow, red? Was He dark skinned or light skinned? Was He tall, dark, handsome, muscular, and fit as a fiddle? We will not know until we see Him face to face one day, when we will then be like Him (1 John 3:2).
But, we do have some clues. From science, we know that our skin color is determined by the amount of melanin pigment in our skin.
So, since the time from Adam to Noah, and from Noah to Nimrod, took place in the Middle East - we have to assume that their level of skin melanin was normal, the average for all mankind at that time, brown. Not too long after Noah's flood, after 3 or 4 generations in Ham's line, Nimrod was born. Fast forward a few years and Nimrod, who had become a leader of people, decided they should build a tower, or temple, which would reach into heaven.
We see several problems by this time. If you recall, in Genesis 1:26-28 God created man in His image and told them to be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth. Yet here the sons of Noah - Ham, Japheth, and Shem - and all their people were still clustered together in the land of Shinar, settled in, and deciding to pull a Lucifer trick and build a tower into heaven.
God steps in once again to make a correction in His creation:
We know from Biblical history that Ham's descendants migrated toward Africa with its hot and harsh environment. For protection against the harsh sun, their bodies produced more melanin pigments - resulting in darker skin colors.
Japheth's descendants migrated into what has become Europe, a much milder and cooler environment. Their bodies produced fewer melanin pigments - resulting in lighter skin colors.
And, Shem's descendants populated the Middle East where this all began. Their melanin pigments stayed basically the same, in the normal or middle range - resulting in tones of brown skin colors.
Adam to Noah, from Noah to Abraham, from Abraham to Jesus Christ, all happened in the Middle East. We know that Jesus Christ came to earth as the Incarnate God in the lineage of Shem. Therefore, Jesus Christ would have been brown skinned.
What else can we know about Jesus Christ? The average height of Jewish men in His day was about 5'1" to 5'6" tall. Researchers using the Shroud of Turin (which we know is very, very questionable) shows Him to be 5'11" to 6'0" tall. In the Bible we are told that King Saul was tall and handsome. We are told of the giant, Goliath, 9 foot tall. We are told, in Luke 19, that Zacchaeus was so short that he had to climb a tree to be able to see Jesus as He walked by.
But nowhere in the Bible do we read of Jesus being tall, standing above the crowd in physical stature. So, we must assume that He was of average height - about 5'1" to 5'6" tall.
Because He was a carpenter, I believe he would have had a well toned, healthy looking body, maybe somewhat muscular. I know that looking at Him a person would have seen love, compassion, true understanding, and affection.
So, that is how I would picture Jesus Christ - an average looking man, with a well toned, somewhat muscular brown body, who exuded love and compassion. And, that is why I have always liked the paintings I show in my collage below.
Please keep in mind that this is my opinion, based upon the research I have done - so you have to decide for yourself, "What did Jesus Christ really look like?"
And, you have to decide for yourself if you are comfortable having a painting or drawing of Jesus Christ in your home. I would never want to push my thoughts on this issue upon you. You are my Christian brethren and I respect your beliefs.
God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,
Bill
Questions such as: "What happens to infants and young children when they die?" ~ "What is the age of accountability?" ~ "Is abortion right or wrong?" and other questions about homosexuality, predestination, is hell a real place, etc.
And, there is one question that I suspect even most Christian believers have asked, at least to themselves: "What did Jesus really look like during His earthly ministry?" That made me think of a blog and Friends Ministry eNewsletter I posted several months ago titled "What Did Jesus Look Like?" prompted when someone posted a Star Wars looking Jesus on Facebook.
You can read that earlier blog at: http://www.billdory-christian-ministries.blogspot.com/2016/08/what-did-jesus-look-like.html
We all know that, in the Christian community, there are differing beliefs regarding paintings which supposedly represent Jesus Christ. In the early 1990s I was reminded of that in a personal way. My mom was in the hospital in my hometown of Sheffield, Alabama. During my visit with her, we talked about the Christian faith and I wanted to give her something to cheer her up and brighten her hospital room.
Because of my step-father, she had been in a cult church for twenty years - and had not really heard the real Gospel or had an opportunity to become a true believer. To fast forward for just a moment, by the grace of God I was able to remedy that before she passed away on February 22, 1994, and I know she went to be with the Lord.
Wanting to give her something which would keep Jesus Christ on her mind, I drove to different Christian bookstores in my hometown area looking for a small painting of Jesus Christ I could leave on her night stand - just to remind her that Jesus Christ is always there for her and He wants her to become a child of God.
Because my hometown area is predominantly Baptist and Church of Christ oriented - none of those book stores sold paintings of Jesus Christ. Eventually, in the Mars Hill Christian school bookstore I did find a large flip chart envelope which had a drawing of Jesus Christ coming out of the tomb in glory. I purchased the package, left the flip charts for the school to use, and trimmed the envelope to get the drawing of Jesus Christ. Then I stopped at a local K-Mart store for a frame - and took that framed drawing to my mom's hospital room.
Over the years she kept the framed drawing in her home and after she was promoted to heaven, I brought the drawing home with me. I still have it hanging in my office - to remind me of my Lord and of my mom.
Many feel that having such a drawing or painting is worshiping an idol. And, others of us view it like having a photo or painting of a loved one - to remind us of that loved one when we are not together. But not to be worshiped in any way.
When I was stationed in Korea in 1956-57, I took photos of my wife and children with me. I hung them by my bed to have a feeling of being close to my family, a reminder that one day soon we would all be together again. When I look at my mom's drawing of Jesus Christ, I am reminded that one day He, my mom, and I will be together, for eternity.
Three paintings of Jesus Christ which I like are:
"The Head of Christ" by Warner Sallman (1941)
"The Great Shepherd" by Simon Dewey (2001)
"The Lord Is My Shepherd" by Simon Dewey (2001)
On the other hand, I can understand and agree with most Protestant churches that too many people might have a tendency to build an altar and worship such paintings. I have seen this so often in Roman Catholic homes - and it could happen in Protestant homes if our Bible and our leadership were not diligent in warning us against such things.
So, I suppose it is as the apostle Paul teaches us in 1 Corinthians 8 that eating meat sacrificed to a false gods, i.e., idols, is not in itself wrong - for false gods are not real. But, if weaker brethren, or new believers in Christ, sees us doing that and are misled - then we have sinned against those brethren and against Christ.
We can replace that meat sacrificed to idols with paintings of Jesus Christ in our discussion - and the same applies. If it offends our brethren or misleads new and weaker believers in Christ - it is best to abstain. For me, I could never worship any painting, Christ or otherwise - just as I would never worship photos of my wife, children, and grandchildren. When we are not together, they are in my heart and the photo brings them closer. But, I will honor and protect the feelings and beliefs of my brothers and sisters in Christ - for I do not want to offend or mislead them.
With that said, what did Jesus Christ really look like? No one knows. And I am sure that God established it this way so that no one would be worshiping His image instead of worshiping Him. That, in my heart, is the true intent of Exodus 20:4-5, "You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; . . ."
Yet, if we do, as I am sure most of us have, attempt to imagine what Jesus did look like during His earthly ministry - what evidence do we have to suggest His appearance? Was He white, brown, black, yellow, red? Was He dark skinned or light skinned? Was He tall, dark, handsome, muscular, and fit as a fiddle? We will not know until we see Him face to face one day, when we will then be like Him (1 John 3:2).
But, we do have some clues. From science, we know that our skin color is determined by the amount of melanin pigment in our skin.
Our skin color is caused by the pigment melanin, and this is controlled by two pairs of genes that geneticists refer to using the letter designations Aa and Bb, where the capital letter represents dominant genes and the small letters represent recessive genes. "A and B," being dominant, produce melanin in good quantity - while recessive "a and b" produce only a minor amount of melanin.
Hence, our coloration depends upon the number of black and white alleles (typically we have two alleles for a single trait, one being inherited from each parent). The color genes express themselves in only one place – specialized skin cells called the melanocytes – that produce granules of melanin that are delivered to neighboring cells.
Eve was made from Adam's rib and was thus a clone of Adam [Genesis 2:21-22]. They would therefore have had identical genes for melanin production. If they were both AABB, they would have been Negroid and produced children of only the darkest of Negroid coloration. If this were the case, the world's population today would be entirely Negro. Yet, In fact only about 10% of the world's population is Negro, so we can be certain that our first parents were not of the AABB combination.
By the same argument, if Adam and Eve had both been aabb, all their children would have been aabb meaning that all their descendants would be the lightest Caucasoid possible – there would be no other colors. Clearly, this is not the case, so by a process of deduction we can conclude that Adam and Eve were heterozygous, each having two dominant and two recessive genes, AaBb. They would thus have been middle-brown in color and from them, in one generation, children in various shades of brown would have been produced.
These color differences were likely amplified following the business at the Tower of Babel [Genesis 11:1-9] when the human gene pool was divided. Loss of genetic information in an isolated population is well known and a problem to breeders of pure-bred dogs, horses, and other animals. It seems that one population group that migrated from the Tower of Babel suffered a greater loss of the genetic information required to produce the melanin and became the Caucasians.
The bottom line is that Adam was not white nor black - but a good middle brown. (What color was Adam? http://www.creationmoments.com/content/what-color-was-adam)
So, since the time from Adam to Noah, and from Noah to Nimrod, took place in the Middle East - we have to assume that their level of skin melanin was normal, the average for all mankind at that time, brown. Not too long after Noah's flood, after 3 or 4 generations in Ham's line, Nimrod was born. Fast forward a few years and Nimrod, who had become a leader of people, decided they should build a tower, or temple, which would reach into heaven.
We see several problems by this time. If you recall, in Genesis 1:26-28 God created man in His image and told them to be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth. Yet here the sons of Noah - Ham, Japheth, and Shem - and all their people were still clustered together in the land of Shinar, settled in, and deciding to pull a Lucifer trick and build a tower into heaven.
God steps in once again to make a correction in His creation:
Genesis 11:7-9, "'Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.' So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth."
We know from Biblical history that Ham's descendants migrated toward Africa with its hot and harsh environment. For protection against the harsh sun, their bodies produced more melanin pigments - resulting in darker skin colors.
Japheth's descendants migrated into what has become Europe, a much milder and cooler environment. Their bodies produced fewer melanin pigments - resulting in lighter skin colors.
And, Shem's descendants populated the Middle East where this all began. Their melanin pigments stayed basically the same, in the normal or middle range - resulting in tones of brown skin colors.
Adam to Noah, from Noah to Abraham, from Abraham to Jesus Christ, all happened in the Middle East. We know that Jesus Christ came to earth as the Incarnate God in the lineage of Shem. Therefore, Jesus Christ would have been brown skinned.
What else can we know about Jesus Christ? The average height of Jewish men in His day was about 5'1" to 5'6" tall. Researchers using the Shroud of Turin (which we know is very, very questionable) shows Him to be 5'11" to 6'0" tall. In the Bible we are told that King Saul was tall and handsome. We are told of the giant, Goliath, 9 foot tall. We are told, in Luke 19, that Zacchaeus was so short that he had to climb a tree to be able to see Jesus as He walked by.
But nowhere in the Bible do we read of Jesus being tall, standing above the crowd in physical stature. So, we must assume that He was of average height - about 5'1" to 5'6" tall.
Because He was a carpenter, I believe he would have had a well toned, healthy looking body, maybe somewhat muscular. I know that looking at Him a person would have seen love, compassion, true understanding, and affection.
So, that is how I would picture Jesus Christ - an average looking man, with a well toned, somewhat muscular brown body, who exuded love and compassion. And, that is why I have always liked the paintings I show in my collage below.
Please keep in mind that this is my opinion, based upon the research I have done - so you have to decide for yourself, "What did Jesus Christ really look like?"
And, you have to decide for yourself if you are comfortable having a painting or drawing of Jesus Christ in your home. I would never want to push my thoughts on this issue upon you. You are my Christian brethren and I respect your beliefs.
God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,
Bill
No comments:
Post a Comment