"In The News," a column in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, (9/30/97), reported that Brazil's leading religious artist, Claudia Pastro, had accepted the Vatican's invitation to give Christ a "face lift" for the third millennium and that he plans to design an "evangelizing, dynamic Christ" as opposed to a "suffering, despairing Savior" and to give him "a more universal look with Asian, black, white, and Indian traces."

Isaiah describes Christ as having "no form nor comeliness" and "no beauty that we should desire Him" and as one "despised and rejected of men" so that "we esteemed him not" (Isa. 53:2-3). His genealogical records (Matt. 1:1-17; Luke 3:23-38) clearly show him to be of Jewish not multi-racial descent. It is not the physical features of Christ but what he did and taught us to do that makes him our Savior.

Pastro's proposal to give Christ a new image, one different from Isaiah's, isn't something new. For generations men have been doing this by face lifting his teaching to make it pleasing to others. Consider the following as an example of this.

The Holy Spirit painted the Lord's church as his spiritual body (Eph.1:22-23) stated that he has but one (Eph. 4:4; 1 Cor. 12:20) and that he reconciles us to his Father in it (Eph. 2:16), But men have given a face lift to the biblical picture of the Lord's church and make it appear as a composite of denominations, with different names, doctrines and practices, and as of being of no importance in our being reconciled to God. This image of the Lord's church is as adverse to the Scriptures as is Pastro's proposed new image of Christ.

Biblical pictures need to be left as painted by the Lord (2 John 9; Gal. 1:6-8).

Guardian of Truth XLI: 23 p. 19
December 4, 1997