It seems that Souter wants a religion that’s “safe for the whole family”.

While I will not that the lower part of the cross does not make the upturn…

Also, it is really hard to tell by a drawing what was reality back at the time of Jesus… But I see it more like this.

The top of the cross is where they nailed the sign to the top beam… it was not part of the cross but still formed the top of the “t” image.

Overall I think it really does not matter… I used to witness to JW’s and they would fight to the death that it was a pole… I would sidestep that and ask them if they agreed that Jesus was crucified and died and in a way that symbolized the tree the bible spoke of and they would agree… we then moved on to Who Jesus was and we did not get bogged down in the technicalities of what the Cross looked like.

iggy

The body slumps down enough, suspended by the arms, that the cause for crucifixion was nailed to the point where the cross-beam and the stake unite. In some cases, the nail used to hold the sign was also used to hold the cross-beam in place….

Example:

I had heard someone try to use the “T” versus the “t” argument to disprove Christianity.

Yet, in scripture it also stated that there was a sign posted above Jesus stating He was “King of the Jews” would for the top of the “t”.

I heard Chuck Missler state that the words on the sign itself may have formed the acronym YHWH.

Though some seem to dispute that…

iggy

The term “empty cross” seems like an oxymoron to me. You can make it look as neat and tidy as you want, but if you separate Christ from the cross you lose the meaning of the cross as a symbol.

Besides which, we’ve got the shape wrong -

1) It was a capital “T”, not a lower-case “t”.

2) The top of a cross was held in place by the body attached to it and to the stake. Without a body on it? Not really a cross…

3) Crucifixion was at eye-level (as it was as much a tool of political statements as of law and order), but I digress

On the surface that seems a great question… yet the tone of the child was that of horror… he was not seeing Jesus, but the violence and blood.

Though I think that the Cross as pictured is not as gruesome as TPOTC I would not let my children see TPOTC yet… they are too young to understand what is going on… They get Jesus died for their sin and rose again… but violence is just too graphic.

I will add that I would recommend TPOTC to anyone above the age of 8 as they can process the images better than my 3 an 5 year old.

iggy

The cross is an offense, and viewing a dying Jew on a cross is meant to elicit both revulsion and spiritual questions.

I’ve always liked the symbolism of the “rolling stone” as well. Maybe we should keep the crosses in the churches though; and just take them out of the cemetaries.

We are to be reminded of the price paid for our sins, but I think the empty cross symbolizes for me both death and victory…No?