As Christians from across the globe flock to the Holy Land in time for Christmas prayers and ceremonies, some in the community in Nazareth are seeking to reaffirm the historical importance of their town by erecting a statue of Jesus that would tower more than 100 feet above the city, SIA reports.
The idea for the statue comes from Bishara Shlayan, a Christian merchant seaman who lives in Nazareth, the childhood home of Jesus. Shlayan has seen the demographics of Nazareth change considerably in recent years, with the Christian community becoming a minority while the Muslim population has grown to 70 percent of the 80,000 residents of the northern Israeli town.
"Slowly, but surely, the Christian identity in Nazareth is beginning to disappear," said Shlayan, noting that signs in the main square declare that "There is no power but Allah."
Even though statues and pictures of humans are strictly forbidden according the Bible, Bishara Shlayan seems determined to erect Jesus’s statue to say "No" to the rise of Islam in this historical town.
In Exodus 20:4-5, we read, "You shall not make unto you any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: You shall not bow down yourself to them, nor serve them…" In addition, it is most often the case that the image or statue itself becomes the object of worship, and this would be breaking the First Commandment (Ex. 20:3): "You shall have no other gods before Me."
Surprisingly, we see that the Koran and the Bible coincide in the issue of statues and pictures. Both clearly indicate that it is forbidden. However, Christians are prone to follow their emotions, not what Jesus commands them to do.
Shlayan is raising money for the project, but recently got what may be even more important backing: Israel’s Tourism Minister Uzi Landau gave him the green light, saying, "Start it, and we will bless it."
But they need to know that a statue is something upon which God's curse descends, regardless of their Israeli backers' green light, and it will cause Christians neither to increase in numbers nor in faith, no matter how big the statue is going to be.
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