Adventists, Tattoos, and Things That are Unclean

You have heard it many time. People judging others on tattoos because they just know The Bible forbids them. They are quick to read Lev 19:28:
"Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the Lord."

So there. Plain as day. They got you! Unfortunately, these people only have themselves. They take a verse out of context and wield it like a Biblical weapon. Let's actually read the verse before along with this verse. Lev 19: 27,28:

^"27 Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard.
²⁸ Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the Lord."

Whoa! What about that beard thing? Funny, just heard a chap with a beard brag about calling someone out for having tattoos! And his beard was round!

Why do we never tell men to not trim the corners of their beards? Or their heads? Do we detest tattoos so much, that we allow beard cutting? How hypocritical!

In fact, the whole chapter and book of Leviticus is chock full of do's and don'ts. But we ignore 99.99% of them!

Reading Leviticus is quite an eye opener. Many things were unclean. Not just pork. Somehow, pork has been shamed in something special. But who made the choice to allow other unclean things?

A woman during her menstrual period was unclean and was to follow strict rules and be cleansed.


Also heard a man say that The Bible is not ambiguous and we need to not use it to justify tattoos. They are flat out wrong and we need to be firm.

Well now. The pharisees had Jesus on the same points when He was gathering grain. After all, if Adventists indeed think The Bible is NOT ambiguous, then we must not allow Jesus to gather grain on The Sabbath. A clear violation!

The very verses we use to justify our condemnation of others, were used on Jesus.

It begs the question. have we been freed by Jesus, or not?

The sanctuary service was reserved for good looking males without blemish. No cripples. Do we have that rule for our head pastors? Why not? The Bible is not ambiguous.

The Bible is not ambiguous. The Bible is interpreted by men. It is our interpretations that are ambiguous.

Beware what verse you use to judge people with. They may well answer you the way Jesus' answered the pharisees.