TOSS the CROSS

        My next act attempt at shocking you would be addressing this problem of wooden crosses scattered all over the planet.  I’m not doing this for fun,  but once I learn something in Scripture from GOD, it is imperative that I share it, lest I be held accountable for someone continuing in a tradition  that could very well be an abomination to the Almighty.  Some people who read this won’t care, because you’ll say that I’m being ridiculous, and that’s fine.   For those others who are sensitive to GOD’s Holy Spirit and leading, not wanting to commit any kind of offense to The Most High,  you may not sit in that pew looking up at that cross again without wondering if it offends GOD.  

I’m calling it a carved image, because that is what it is. It is wood carved out of a tree, which grows from the earth.  That one hanging up in front, over the baptismal, or the one on the top of the steeple, or the one with Jesus still on it, (the Crucifix), or the one hanging around your neck right now, could it be the exact kind of carved image GOD meant in that second commandment to not create any carved image.   As usual, when I heard this from a Messianic Rabbi that I’ve been listening to, as of late, of course, I want straight to the Scripture.  I got right to  the Hebrew,  and I investigated his claim, and by golly, I got the SHOCK of my life. I’m still not recovered from this.  Let's take a closer look at Exodus 20:4.

     As you can see in this verse, (of anything) is parenthesis, because the Hebrew word for image in this verse could lean more toward man or animal, as in gold calf?  However, by inserting the word    כֹּל  (kol) in there, that now covers the WHOLE gamut of images or likeness of ANY thing on earth below or heaven above.  For you protestants who thought that the Catholic statutes were an abomination, you might want to rethink that about your giant empty cross that you bow down to when you make your way up to the altar on Sunday morning, for an altar call and meeting time with Jesus.  Crucifying someone on the cross was considered the most shameful way of executing the most vile of criminals.  Jesus, our Savior, subjected himself to dying the same manner of murderers, thieves, and societies most iniquitous degenerates who would be sentenced to die a horrific death. 

Would you hang a giant wooden noose up over your baptismal in your mostly black congregations?  I dare say, no you would not.  Well, could GOD sees the cross as if it is a noose to us.  Open your Bibles and count how many times GOD condemns His people for crafting idols of the surrounding pagans and incorporating them into the Temple.  Now for those of you who actually know something about the Bible, you'll say that GOD instructed Moses to carve an image similar to an almond branch for the lampstand, and cherubim with extended wings over the Mercy seat.  Those are carved images, right?  Yes, they are.  However, GOD told them to build them for the Tabernacle.  GOD never told anyone that I know of to carve the image of the "noose" Yeshua gave up his life on and put it up in churches all over the world, calling these church buildings GOD's house, or the house of the LORD, which they are most definitely not.  GOD destroyed the one place on earth that He dwelt with His people.  After that, His Holy Spirit dwells within us, so essentially, we are the "house of the LORD," and very mobile, not buildings of mortar and stone. 

     GOD wanted His people to stand out and be different from the surrounding pagan nations. He did not want His people to resemble in any way the detestable ways of pagan polytheism of the pagan nations around them.  I spoke to my daughter about this, and she said, and I quote, “I always thought of it as a guillotine type symbol, anyway.”)  No more accurate way to describe it.   The carved image of the cross has for so long been a part of Christianity over a thousand years, and we have been conditions to (love) “worship” the carved image.    It’s going to require a whole new way of thinking to see that wooden cross, or that metal cross on your neck, or earrings the way GOD sees it.  Remember, GOD doesn’t think anything like man, and man can’t think anything like GOD. (Isaiah 55:8-9) Therefore, what GOD hates, man usually loves. What man loves, GOD usually hates.  One must learn to think on a completely different level when it comes to what GOD may want or like in us.  Most likely, what GOD wants or likes in us makes no sense to us, because we are but mere mortal humans incapable of thinking in GOD's higher ways.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying we should hate the cross, we are grateful for what Jesus did on it, but should we have that graven image around our necks? Are we are no different than the Israelites who bowed down to pagan idols, incorporated pagan rituals and even temple prostitutes into the Temple services.   I did some research to see just when the cross became a symbol of Christianity, and wouldn’t you know it, it is the fault of that tyrant emperor Constantine. He didn’t just make Christianity legal, and stop the persecutions, he made it the official religion, thus f0rcing it upon all of his subjects, whether there was a regeneration of the soul or not.  He incorporated their pagan practices, symbols, idols, and rituals into his new church in order to ease the transition for the polytheists of Rome.

Contrary to popular belief Jesus did not invent Christianity, Constantine did.  The Greek word for church in the Gospels is not  what we do (are) today.  The Greek word, (: ἐκκλησία, ας, ἡ) ekklésia  is what Jesus said he was his bride.  That Greek word means called out ones, whereas, Constantine converted forced conversions and began the practice of building  oikodomé  which means a building used for spiritual enhancement. GOD destroyed the central worship center when He put the Gospel in legs and arms as the new mobile Temple, meant to spread, not gather.  For further references you can read those blogs.

 This is going to take me some time to adjust our thinking to because we’ve so accepted the carved wooden image as a symbol of the love Jesus had for us for 1600 years.  Nothing changes that that love or act of self-sacrifice, it is too much for us to grasp.   I hated to be the bearer of bad news, but that giant wooden cross hanging up, in your oikodomé  buildings could just be an abomination to GOD.  Are we willing to take that chance?  Here something else to think about. How many people are wearing crosses on their bodies but not walking as Jesus walked?  Doesn't that cheapen the symbol just a little to you?