Ray on Monday - GOLGOTHA

Question:
What does some outlaw bike group’s emblem, a pirate’s flag and Hitler’s elite army group have in common?

Answer. A skull!

This portrayal of death reveals a morbid fascination by many around the world. What are they trying to say? Death doesn’t frighten? It’s their destiny? They are in league with death’s partner, the Devil?

Are such people aware of the fact they are wearing a symbol mentioned in John 19:1?

‘Carrying his own cross, he (Jesus) went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha).’ Reading that you could almost imagine Nature belonging to the Death’s Head league.

On Golgotha death vented its fury on the Lord of Life. If rocks could smile I think the hill on which the cross was erected would have smirked. It would have seemed to onlookers that death had won. Golgotha had notched up another victim.

When the cross was driven into the top of Golgotha it was a death blow, not of the Nazarene, but of the skull. It symbolized Christ’s crushing of sin, judgement and death three days later. People have searched for the actual ‘place of the skull’. To my knowledge no place with any certainty has been found. Time, armies and development have eradicated the features. Another symbolic feature of defeat!

Golgotha is seeking a return to prominence today, pushed by the world, the flesh and the devil. The craving for power over the Lord of Life knows no abating. Its tactics are more than a mere tattoo. It includes opposition to the cross, or a sidelining of its importance. Groups exist with a determination to destroy the message of Calvary. On the 29th March this year, I read a report where the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia wants all Churches destroyed in the Arabian Peninsula. (I believe he would undoubtedly desire beyond there also.)

Bible believing disciples of Christ understand the ultimate destruction of the skull. In personal experience and at a future historical time the words of 1 Corinthians 15:54-57 are borne out.
Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where O death is your victory? Where O death is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Our symbol is the cross and a stone door rolled away from the tomb. Our message is about new life in Jesus Christ in time and for eternity. So we celebrate Easter because in Christ Jesus we have cast away the emblems of the skull. Now we live in the power of the cross!

Ray (delivered from the skull) Hawkins
Ray is giving away a copy of his new 31 Day devotional book, Captured by Calvary, on the International Christian Fiction Wrters blog. CLICK HERE and scroll to The Centrefold of the Gospel post last Tuesday, March 27th. The draw will be this Thursday evening AESTime. To enter please remember you need to leave a comment on the blog.