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Both the cross and the fish are
ancient symbols of the Christian faith. The cross
represents the suffering and death of Jesus Christ for the sins
of the world.
The fish is an appropriate sign for
at least a couple of reasons. For one, Jesus promised the
first disciples (who were fishermen by trade) that He would make
them fishers of men.
More to the point, however, is the
use of the image of a fish to identify the secret meeting places
of Christian believers during early years of persecution.
The fish image was a logical choice when we understand that the
Greek language was one of the very first languages of the
Christian faith (along with Aramaic and Latin), and that the
Greek word for fish worked perfectly as an acrostic or acronym
for the Greek phrase, "Jesus Christ, God's Son, Savior."
These days, Christians in many parts
of the world (but not all) are able to meet and worship openly,
without much threat of persecution. Even so, the fish
still remains one of the great symbols of our faith, reminding
us of central elements of genuine Christian belief: that Jesus
Christ really is God's eternal Son, who became flesh in order to
walk among us and to save us from our sins. Thank God that
we have such a great Lord who willingly gave Himself so that
anyone and everyone might be saved.
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