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Should Christians get tattoos, and is it Biblical?

I was in a discussion not so long ago about tattoos, and I was asked about the historical view on this practice. It wasn’t something I had looked into before from a Church Fathers point of view, so it was an interesting topic of study. In my searching, I found this article from a Catholic site which seems to give a pretty interesting overview of some of the views about tattoos in the earlier centuries. The following is a quote about a Church Council in the context of native Britons, who still practiced tattooing at that time for pagan ritual, something which Tertullian also gives a fleeting reference to around 213 AD in his On the Veiling of Virgins, ch. 10....

Fasting: A spiritual and physical discipline

...days-from-pagan-lies-ash-wednesday-and-lent-2/ http://www.catholiceducation.org/en/culture/catholic-contributions/history-of-lent.html http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf204.xxv.iii.iii.iii.html http://www.goarch.org/chapel/calendar/ http://www.infoplease.com/spot/easter1.html http://www.thedidache.com http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/07157.htm https://www.buzzsprout.com/3196/52849-fasting-for-divine-intervention-fasting-edition-45 http://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/105/1050354.htm https://bible.org/seriespage/chapter-3-fasting-through-patristic-era  Lent Reading/Devotional Plan: My Book series: 40 Days with the Fathers  http://www.churchyear.net...

Jesus was a pagan copy, and other Christmas myths

...It's that time of year again when certain groups of people like to share memes and videos that apparently "prove" Jesus to be a carbon-copy of ancient Egyptian gods. This has been debunked so many times, yet it's still so pervasive on social media, mindlessly shared over and over again. This myth about Jesus being a copy of other pagan "dying-and-rising gods" doesn't have its roots in Egyptian legend, but rather in the claims of a film called Zeitgeist. A quick search online will bring up many websites which have gone through the claims of this film with a fine tooth comb, and debunked each one. Here's one such example, which lists out the major claims and giv...

Ancient Amulet Rewrites History Of Christianity In Europe

...ominantly pagan society. This find not only enhances our understanding of early Christian history but also highlights the resilience and faith of believers during times of persecution in the Roman Empire. Similar amulets from this era typically contained inscriptions with elements from Christian, Jewish, and paganism all blended together. The important aspect of this inscription is that there is a noticeable lack of reference to Yahweh, angels, or any local pagan deities, highlighting the exclusive Christian nature of this amulet. This not only underscores the devotion of the wearer but raises a lot of questions about Christianity in what was once the cultural...

Christians and the Coronavirus (COVID-19)

...even the pagan critics of Christianity sit up and take notice. The Emperor Julian in 362 AD wrote about how the “atheists” (i.e. Christians) demonstrated better virtue and benevolence than his own people and priests did, and to their shame, because the Christians not only looked after their communities, but the wider population and strangers too! While this quote isn’t specifically related to a time of pestilence, it serves as a good example of the general attitude of early Christians in normal times: …why do we not observe that it is their benevolence to strangers, their care for the graves of the dead and the pretended holiness of their lives that ha...

The Historic Practice of Abortion and How Ancient Christians Responded

...speaks of pagans “exposing” their children and how they get taken up by compassionate passers-by if they get found in time. Children were often exposed, Lactantius (c. AD 304) explains, if the parents were “too pious” to strangle their newborn infant! In 361, Roman Emperor Julian the Apostate wrote a letter to the pagan high-priest Arsacius complaining that the Christians were showing up the state by being too kind to everyone with their acts of charity! …why do we not observe that it is their benevolence to strangers, their care for the graves of the dead and the pretended holiness of their lives that have done most to increase atheism [Christianity...