A Sign of the Times

I am finding that the modern culture is sneaking into the words and actions of my children. I find myself bristling at times and even have had to do some corrective teaching on a few subjects.


I am not exactly sure why the peace sign bothers me; it certainly is not a bad thing to want peace on earth, right? No, it is not - - as long as you understand that it is not possible! This symbol and hand sign are both anti-war sentiments, but the problem is that people are not the real instigators of war, it is Satan.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Eph. 6:12 NKJV
 
 
There will never be peace on earth until Satan is bound during the millennial reign of Christ on earth. Until then there will be selfishness, power struggle – and war. Sometimes the peace sign represents passivity and that is not right either. Just because we will not be able to abolish war, does not mean that we should resign ourselves to tyranny. Our constant fight against tyranny is symbolic of the invisible spiritual struggle.
(Update: Recently, a friend linked this website to her facebook. It explains the history of the peace sign and what it represents - it also confirmed my disquieted intuition about it.)                                      
http://www.teachpeace.com/peacesymbolhistory.htm
   
 
 
The Yin Yang symbol was also troublesome to me when I noticed my children innocently using it in some of their art.  My oldest child told me that it meant “there is a little bit of good in bad and a little bit of bad in good”.
Whoa!!!
Sometime I want to look it up and find out all that it represents.  In the mean time, I took that limited information and ran with it one day when my 11 year old showed me a picture that he had drawn using this symbol. I explained what Josiah had said about it. I told him that that symbol is ungodly because it contradicts scripture. The Bible says:

There is none righteous, no, not one… there is none who does good, no, not one.” (From Romans 3: 10-18) People are born with a sin nature and so we cannot help ourselves, we sin - so we are the “bad”. But God cannot sin – He is “Good”. “God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.”  (1 John 1:5 emphasis added) Our sin separates us from God (Who made us and LOVES us more that anything else in all of creation! "...For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?"  (2 Corinthians 6:14) That is why He came in the form of a man (Jesus) to absorb our sin, take our separation (possibly by going to hell - theologians don't agree), rise from the dead to shatter the finality of death, and resume His place in heaven to prepare a place for us so that can JOIN Him there! Jesus bridged the gap between our darkness and God's light!


As I was explaining this, my son caught on to the significance and began coloring in the white dot and erasing the black. “That is what it should look like.” I said.

 
Photo credit
Photo credit
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3 comments:

Candace Miller said...

Well drawn together, Latisha. I was not really aware of the second symbol, but you did well explaining to your son its evil connection. Your article also reminded me of another blight of our day revealed in Isaiah 5:20, 21 "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil, that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter. Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent int heir own sight!" Keep sharing the insights God gives you. They are so needed today.

Confessions of a Martha said...

Thank you, Mrs. Miller. I am finding that it is hard to be a parent in this age of history for that very reason.

joyfully2b4u said...

Hi, Latisha =)
When I teach about the yin-yang symbol, I also take my students to the concept of how there is no darkness in God. It sounds like you got the point across very well =)
You're right that there is more to the symbol than just that; and really, it's simply an incomplete truth (as all really good false religions are). I have found it an exciting challenge of modern times that we have access to information about more religions than just our own because it gives me a chance to see the truths that are universal and also to see how God's complete truth fills all the gaps that other religions leave.
The truth in the yin-yang symbol of light in dark and dark in light is actually seen in Rom 8:28 and how God does bring good out of all evil for us. It is also seen in Isaiah 64:6 where we find that all our good works are not good enough for God. Really, it's the human condition of imperfection. And that's where God's promises and His character are so amazingly different than ours. Nowhere in all creation (fallen creation, I might add) do we see anything so perfectly and completely absolute in its perfection. =)
I'll stop writing before this comment becomes a blog in its own right ;) but if you want some more info on yin-yang and the Daoist philosophy, I'll pop some in the mail to you--basically what I give my students when we study Daoism (also known as Taoism).

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