The white Jesus
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Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His nature, Who is Himself God and has made Him known. Jesus also said, "If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him." Do you see something wrong with imagining what Jesus may have looked like - or looks like now? We are not to worship such images, to be sure 
Trying to get rid of all the images of Jesus circulating in the world would likely be a useless endeavor, though.
Trying to get rid of all the images of Jesus circulating in the world would likely be a useless endeavor, though.
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Well technically he wasn't white, The Jews lived in an area where being outside was pretty much all the time, As you can imagine even the jews were probably very tan many jobs even collecting taxes requires being outside. Also many churches depict him being completely ripped as if he was a body builder, he was a carpenter so yes he had rough hands and well build musceles as being a carpenter is no easy labor but he also wasn't this perfect chizzled body builder either.
As far as skin color goes in my opinion who cares? but as for a historical truth the Jews were very careful in keeping their blood lines, back then blood lines were very empathized so yes they probably were white but I doubt skin color has anything to do with salvation to God
As far as skin color goes in my opinion who cares? but as for a historical truth the Jews were very careful in keeping their blood lines, back then blood lines were very empathized so yes they probably were white but I doubt skin color has anything to do with salvation to God
You understand my heartbeat. Honestly, I didn't expect anyone to understand.
Thank you for your words and compassion. That really means a lot to me.
The image of Jesus is also irrelevant for me. I just have compassion for bitter people.
Your response is inspired by the Holy Spirit. I just felt the presence of God 🙌🏾.
Love is all they need.
Africans have done so many evil things and are still doing them even today. The leaders are greedy and corrupt etc.
Thank you for your words and compassion. That really means a lot to me.
The image of Jesus is also irrelevant for me. I just have compassion for bitter people.
Your response is inspired by the Holy Spirit. I just felt the presence of God 🙌🏾.
Love is all they need.
Africans have done so many evil things and are still doing them even today. The leaders are greedy and corrupt etc.
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Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His nature, Who is Himself God and has made Him known. Jesus also said, "If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him." Do you see something wrong with imagining what Jesus may have looked like - or looks like now? We are not to worship such images, to be sure Trying to get rid of all the images of Jesus circulating in the world would likely be an unsuccessful endeavor, though.
Trying to get rid of all the images of Jesus circulating in the world would likely be an unsuccessful endeavor, though.
Your answer had an element of truth but your way of explaining it became a stumbling block for me. I understood you after having read @Chester post.
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One more thing, I had witnessed and talked to a militant young black man at work and he usually made fun of me he didn't believe anything .. One day he mentioned blue eyed Jesus and asked me what color was Jesus and I told him I don't know but I think he was probably dark completion and dark eyes like the rest of the folks where He lived .. Years later I was at Lowes loading dock and he come up to me and said ''do you remember me'' I said no then he reminded me of the times I talked about Jesus to him and told me , actually I suddenly remembered him and blurted out ''you got saved'' .. I grabbed him up and was shouting, crying and jumping, spinning him around and he started crying .. The other people out there thought I was crazy and his wife sitting in his car was crying .. That was a great day ..
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I don't think it will affect salvation. It is ignorance, for sure, but it's one easily corrected by actually reading the Bible.
But observe that every race does this. Native Americans paint frescoes of Jesus like He was a Native American. In Asian churches He looks like an Asian. And black people like to paint Jesus black. White people painted Him white. What is my point. That everyone imagines a face of a person they haven't seen with a skin color they are used to the most. I'm saying it's not racially motivated and it is not malignant. If I am black and someone tells me a story about some person and I don't know how they look, I will be imagining a black person throughout the story, because that's how the faces of my immediate family look like and what I'm used to. Same if you ask people to imagine a fruit most will imagine apple, if you ask them to imagine a tool a big majority will say they imagined hammer. Same goes for an artist painting a fresco.
(church in Osaka, Japan, with a very Japanese looking Mary)
(Ethiopian Orthodox church frescoes)
(from a church in Beijing)
(Indian nativity fresco)
(traditional Orthodox frescoes, this one is in Russia, but also in my country and all Eastern Orthodox countries, represent Biblical characters with diverse tones of olive, some even very dark, which is correct as representation of Semitic skin color. And this is the iconographic canon in Orthodox church, colors vary slightly, it goes from golden/olive/ruddy (most commonly) to brown, I've never seen a pasty Jesus in an Orthodox church in my life.
Problem is that - and I might get hate for this, but pretty much this is American believers doing this - they only know a bit of Catholic tradition not even whole Catholic tradition and then act like they know all about most branches of Christianity or what "white men" do, and they go off the rails based on poor information and bias.)
(14th century Ethiopian church)
(The Apache Christ on the Mescalero Apache reservation)
(South Korean church mosaic)
(some more Ethiopian Christian art)
And I can go on and on, but I think I proved my point... I suggest American believers to get educated, no offense meant, Catholicism isn't the whole Christianity and is barely half of the early church, and not just in this area, American believers are still stuck in Reformation movement in ways, this goes for many areas of discussion and on many topics people just kneejerk to everything... Sorry if this came across as aimed at you, I did not follow all your posts to know your full stance on this matter, it's rather intended to a lot of people, I am a bit tired of watching people raving in utter ignorance about both basic human psychology and Christian iconography...
But observe that every race does this. Native Americans paint frescoes of Jesus like He was a Native American. In Asian churches He looks like an Asian. And black people like to paint Jesus black. White people painted Him white. What is my point. That everyone imagines a face of a person they haven't seen with a skin color they are used to the most. I'm saying it's not racially motivated and it is not malignant. If I am black and someone tells me a story about some person and I don't know how they look, I will be imagining a black person throughout the story, because that's how the faces of my immediate family look like and what I'm used to. Same if you ask people to imagine a fruit most will imagine apple, if you ask them to imagine a tool a big majority will say they imagined hammer. Same goes for an artist painting a fresco.
(church in Osaka, Japan, with a very Japanese looking Mary)
(Ethiopian Orthodox church frescoes)
(from a church in Beijing)
(Indian nativity fresco)
(traditional Orthodox frescoes, this one is in Russia, but also in my country and all Eastern Orthodox countries, represent Biblical characters with diverse tones of olive, some even very dark, which is correct as representation of Semitic skin color. And this is the iconographic canon in Orthodox church, colors vary slightly, it goes from golden/olive/ruddy (most commonly) to brown, I've never seen a pasty Jesus in an Orthodox church in my life.
Problem is that - and I might get hate for this, but pretty much this is American believers doing this - they only know a bit of Catholic tradition not even whole Catholic tradition and then act like they know all about most branches of Christianity or what "white men" do, and they go off the rails based on poor information and bias.)
(14th century Ethiopian church)
(The Apache Christ on the Mescalero Apache reservation)
(South Korean church mosaic)
(some more Ethiopian Christian art)
And I can go on and on, but I think I proved my point... I suggest American believers to get educated, no offense meant, Catholicism isn't the whole Christianity and is barely half of the early church, and not just in this area, American believers are still stuck in Reformation movement in ways, this goes for many areas of discussion and on many topics people just kneejerk to everything... Sorry if this came across as aimed at you, I did not follow all your posts to know your full stance on this matter, it's rather intended to a lot of people, I am a bit tired of watching people raving in utter ignorance about both basic human psychology and Christian iconography...
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I would start by listening. When we are too quick to speak we sometimes miss the real issue. Having Jesus represented as white/European was a power play to grant supremacy to the Europeans during conquests. I get the problem. I think instead of arguing we need to reframe things in terms of who he was and to agree that the artists of the time painted and sculpted Jesus to look like themselves. It pandered to their audience. If we are grounded in the truth of Christ and have an honest relationship with him, then we are in a position to share our beliefs if asked. Otherwise listening and empathizing goes a long way.
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I agree completely, I think this world is to conernec with appearance in general, I find it ridiculous how looks has such power in this world it makes me grateful I was born not good looking in this world. As far as skin color appearances and anything else about Jesus like I said before who cares? if he was aisan then so be it, if he was mecican who cares if he was black or white who cares as long as people love him for him I don't mind if people see him that way it isn't my place to judge
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