Sign of the Cross

'By the sign of the cross, on the contrary, all magic is stayed, all sorcery confounded, all the idols are abandoned and deserted, and all senseless pleasure ceases, as the eye of faith looks up from earth to heaven.” Athanasius, Incarnation, 31		 Sign of the Cross




Preview

  1. Preview
  2. Protestants And the Sign of the Cross
  3. Why Early Christians Made the Sign of the Cross
    1. Spiritual Seal
    2. Confession of Faith
    3. Identification With Christ
    4. Living Sacrifice
    5. Sanctify the Day
    6. Focus on God
    7. Resist the Devil
  4. Review
  5. Sources


Ancient Tradition

“While the origin of the sign of the cross is obscure, it is evident that the early Christians saw it as an integral part of an ancient tradition. The second century apologist, Tertullian (c. 160/170-215/220), defended Holy Tradition by pointing to the sign of the cross as an example of an ancient custom all Christians shared in… If the sign of the cross was considered an ancient practice in Tertullian’s time circa 200, we can infer that it was in use in the first half of the second century and possibly as early as the start of the second century soon after the Apostles died.” Arakaki, “Protestants”

Usage

Fingers - Multiple Modes

Catholic Orthodox
Five Fingers Spread - Five Wounds of ChristThumb, Index & Middle Finger – Trinity
Ring Finger & Pinky- Dual Nature of Christ
Left Shoulder to Right ShoulderRight Shoulder to Left Shoulder


When We Cross Ourselves, Mentally We Say, [Orthodox] (Slodboskoy, “Sign”)

‘In the name of the Father, (Catholic = Nominus Patri)
and of the Son, (Catholic = Felli)
and of the Holy Spirit. (Catholic = Spiritus Sancti)
Amen.’ (Catholic = Amen)

Thus we express our faith in the All-holy Trinity and our desire to live and labor for the glory of God. The word Amen means: in truth, truly, let it be so, so be it.”

Protestants And the Sign of the Cross

Protestants and the Sign of the Cross

At the dawn of the Reformation, many Protestant groups rejected using the Sign of the Cross.

The Second Helvetic [Latin for Swiss] Confession, Chap XXVII

CEREMONIES AND RITES. Unto the ancient people were given at one time certain ceremonies, as a kind of instruction for those who were kept under the law, as under a schoolmaster or tutor. But when Christ, the Deliverer, came and the law was abolished, we who believe are no more under the law (Rom. 6:14), and the ceremonies have disappeared; hence the apostles did not want to retain or to restore them in Christ's Church to such a degree that they openly testified that they did not wish to impose any burden upon the Church. Therefore, we would seem to be bringing in and restoring Judaism if we were to increase ceremonies and rites in Christ's Church according to the custom in the ancient Church.
Hence, we by no means approve of the opinion of those who think that the Church of Christ must be held in check by many different rites, as if by some kind of training. For if the apostles did not want to impose upon Christian people ceremonies or rites which were appointed by God, who, I pray, in his right mind would obtrude upon them the inventions devised by man? The more the mass of rites is increased in the Church, the more is detracted not only from Christian liberty, but also from Christ, and from faith in him, as long as the people seek those things in ceremonies which they should seek in the only Son of God, Jesus Christ, through faith. Wherefore a few moderate and simple rites, that are not contrary to the Word of God, are sufficient for the godly.”

The Sign of the Cross

We Baptists, as descendants of American Protestantism, generally reject the sign of the cross as a Catholic, superstitious ritual. However, the Sign of the Cross appeared long before anything like modern Roman Catholicism emerged. Whether or not it is a superstitious gesture depends on who is using it, and how and why they are using it. Today we have “Honk If You Love Jesus” bumper stickers, “Got Jesus?” tee-shirts, ichthus belts, and John 3:16 hats. The illiterate, pre-Gutenberg early church used the Sign of the Cross instead for both witness and worship.

Invisible Traditions

Every branch of Christianity I’ve looked at has …
  • Traditional practices and traditional Scripture interpretations they recognize as traditions.
  • Traditional practices and traditional Scripture interpretations they don’t recognize as traditions. In their minds, these practices and interpretations are straight from God, not passing through any cultural filter. (For instance, the morning Devotional Time many Christians base on "Seek you first the Kingdom of God" (Matthew 6:33) interpreted to mean "Seek you first thing in the morning the Kingdom of God")

Why Early Christians Made the Sign of the Cross

Why Early Christians Made the Sign of the Cross

Most of the following list of reasons are from Stephen Beale’s web article "21 Things We Do When We Make the Sign of the Cross." I have omitted some as not applicable to the Early Church and re-ordered the remainders. The numbers you see in front of some reasons are Beale’s numbers.

Spiritual Seal

In Life of Antony, Athanasius uses the words “sign of the cross” for both the symbolic gesture Christians made and the spiritual seal God has put on us that demons can see and recognize.

The Sign of the Cross as Spiritual Seal – Biblical Roots (Not Prooftexts; Permissive Texts)

  • Ezekiel 9:4 (NIV) "and said to him, “Go throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it.”
  • Revelation 9:4 (NIV) "They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads."
  • Revelation 14:1 (NIV) "Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads."
  • Revelation 22:4 (NIV) "They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.”
Seal Ourselves in the Spirit (Outer Correspondence to Inner Reality) (Beale, “20”)

20. Seal ourselves in the Spirit. In the New Testament, the word sphragis, mentioned above, is also sometimes translated as seal, as in 2 Corinthians 1:22, where St. Paul writes that, ‘the one who gives us security with you in Christ and who anointed us is God; he has also put his seal upon us and given the Spirit in our hearts as a first installment.’ In making the Sign of the Cross, we are once again sealing ourselves in the Spirit, invoking His powerful intervention in our lives.”

Mark Ourselves for Christ (Beale, “17”)

17. Mark ourselves for Christ. In ancient Greek, the word for sign was sphragis, which was also a mark of ownership, according to Ghezzi. “For example, a shepherd marked his sheep as his property with a brand that he called a sphragis,” Ghezzi writes. In making the Sign of the Cross, we mark ourselves as belonging to Christ, our true shepherd.”

Soldier on for Christ (Beale, “18”)

18. “Soldier on for Christ. The sphragis was also the term for a general’s name that would be tattooed on his soldiers, according to Ghezzi.”

Tattoo USN Tattoo USMC Tattoo AA

Confession of Faith

The Sign of the Cross as a Confession of Faith – Biblical Basis (Not Prooftexts; Permissive Texts)

  • Matthew 10:32 "Therefore, everyone who will acknowledge me before others, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven.”
  • II Timothy 2:2 “What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”
Witness To Others (Beale, “21”)

“21. Witness to others. As a gesture often made in public, the Sign of the Cross is a simple way to witness our faith to others.“ Beale,

“Diocletian, as being of a timorous disposition, was a searcher into futurity, and during his abode in the East he began to slay victims, that from their livers he might obtain a prognostic of events; and while he sacrificed, some attendants of his, who were Christians, stood by, and they put the immortal sign on their foreheads. At this the demons were chased away, and the holy rites interrupted. The soothsayers trembled, unable to investigate the wonted marks on the entrails of the victims. ... At length Tages, the chief of the soothsayers, either from guess or from his own observation, said, There are profane persons here, who obstruct the rites. Then Diocletian, in furious passion, ordered not only all who were assisting at the holy ceremonies, but also all who resided within the palace, to sacrifice, and, in case of their refusal, to be scourged.” Lactantius, De Mortibus Persecutorus, Chap X

“Bold Witnesses…Signing Themselves…Openly and Publicly” (Akashi, “Protestants”)

“In Lecture 4 of his Catechetical Lectures Cyril exhorted his listeners not to be ashamed concealing their faith in Christ but to be bold witnesses for Christ by signing themselves with the cross openly and publicly. ‘Let us, therefore, not be ashamed of the Cross of Christ; but though another hide it, do thou openly seal it upon thy forehead, that the devils may behold the royal sign and flee trembling far away.  Make then this sign at eating and drinking, at sitting, at lying down, at rising up, at speaking, at walking:  in a word, at every act.  For He who was here crucified is in heaven above.  If after being crucified and buried He had remained in the tomb, we should have had cause to be ashamed; but, in fact, He who was crucified on Golgotha here, has ascended into heaven from the Mount of Olives on the East.’ (NPNF Vol. 7 p. 22)”

Confess Our Faith – A Mini-Creed in Gesture (Beale, “10”)

10. “Confess our faith. In affirming our belief in the Incarnation, the crucifixion, and the Trinity, we are making a sort of mini-confession of faith in words and gestures, proclaiming the core truths of the creed.”

Recall the Incarnation (Beale, “5”)

5. “Recall the Incarnation. Our movement is downward, from our foreheads to our chest “because Christ descended from the heavens to the earth,”

Affirming the Trinity (Beale, “7”)

7. “Affirm the Trinity. In invoking the name of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, we are affirming our belief in a triune God.”

Reaffirm Our Baptism (Beale, “14”)

14. “Reaffirm our baptism. In using the same words with which we were baptized, the Sign of the Cross is a ‘summing up and re-acceptance of our baptism,’ according to then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.”

Identification With Christ

The Sign of the Cross as Identification With Christ – Biblical Basis (Not Prooftexts; Permissive Texts)

Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Remember the Passion of Our Lord (Beale, “6”)

6. “Remember the Passion of Our Lord. Fundamentally, in tracing out the outlines of a cross on ourselves, we are remembering Christ’s crucifixion”

Crucify Ourselves with Christ (Beale, “12”)

12. “Crucify ourselves with Christ. ’Proclaiming the sign of the cross proclaims our yes to this condition of discipleship,” Ghezzi writes.’”

Remake Ourselves in Christ’s Image (Beale, “16”)

16. “Remake ourselves in Christ’s image.  Ghezzi … concludes that we can view the Sign of the Cross as ‘our way of participating in Christ’s stripping at the Crucifixion and his being clothed in glory at his resurrection.’ Thus, in making the Sign of the Cross, we are radically identifying ourselves with the entirety of the crucifixion event—not just those parts of it we can accept or that are palatable to our sensibilities.”

Living Sacrifice

The Sign of the Cross as Living Sacrifice – Biblical Basis (Not Prooftexts; Permissive Texts)

  • Matthew 22:37 “He said to him, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.”
  • Romans 12:1 “Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship.”
“We Touch Our … (Slodbosky, “Sign”)

forehead, for the blessing of our mind,
our stomach, for the blessing of our internal feelings, [the move downwards from forehead to stomach also represents the Incarnation]
then our right and left shoulders, for the blessing of our bodily strength.”

Salute

Commit the Whole Self to Christ (Beale, “4”)

4. “Commit the whole self to Christ. In moving our hands from our foreheads to our hearts and then both shoulders, we are asking God’s blessing for our mind, our passions and desires, our very bodies. In other words, the Sign of the Cross commits us, body and soul, mind and heart, to Christ.”

I view the Sign of the Cross as a sign of submission to Christ, akin to a military salute.

Sanctify the Day

The Sign of the Cross to Sanctify the Day– Biblical Basis (Not Prooftexts; Permissive Texts)

Matthew 6:33 “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.” does not specifically say to start your day with a devotional remembrance and re-commitment to God, but from the earliest days Christians have done so. Nowadays, many Protestants start their day with Bible reading and prayer. In the pre-literate, pre-Gutenberg era, making the Sign of the Cross and praying was a major part of that devotional.

Sanctifying the Day with the Sign of the Cross (Beale, “3”)

3. “Sanctify the day.  the Sign of the Cross sanctifies our day. 'At every forward step and movement, at every going in and out, when we put on our clothes and shoes, when we bathe, when we sit at table, when we light the lamps, on couch, on seat, in all the ordinary actions of daily life, we trace upon the forehead the sign,' wrote Tertullian.”

Open Ourselves to God's Grace (Beale, “2”)

2. “Open ourselves to grace.  The Sign of the Cross prepares us for receiving God’s blessing and disposes us to cooperate with His grace.”

Focus On God

The Sign Is Itself a Prayer (Beale, “8”)

“Pray.  The sign is itself a prayer.”

Focus Our Prayer on God (Beale, “8”)

8. “Focus our prayer on God. One of the temptations in prayer is to address it to God as we conceive of Him—the man upstairs, our buddy, a sort of cosmic genie, etc. When this happens, our prayer becomes more about us than an encounter with the living God. The Sign of the Cross immediately focuses us on the true God, according to Ghezzi: “When we invoke the Trinity, we fix our attention on the God who made us, not on the God we have made.‘”

Resist the Devil (Sign of the Cross As An Offensive and Defensive Weapon)

The Sign of the Cross to Resist the Devil – Biblical Basis (Not Prooftexts; Permissive Texts)

  • James 4:7 “Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
  • Romans 12:21 “Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good.”
  • Colossians 2:15 “And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”
Invoke the Power of God’s Name (Beale, “11”)

11. “Invoke the power of God’s name.”

Ward Off the Devil (Beale, "19")

19. “Ward off the devil. The Sign of the Cross is one of the very weapons we use in that battle with the devil.” Beale, “21”

“It is the Sign of the faithful, and the dread of devils:  for He triumphed over them in it, having made a shew of them openly; for when they see the Cross they are reminded of the Crucified; they are afraid of Him, who bruised the heads of the dragon.  Despise not the Seal, because of the freeness of the gift; out for this the rather honour thy Benefactor.“ Cyril, Catechetical Lectures, 13, cited in Arakaki, “Protestants”

“All That Wars Against Us Is Cast to the Ground” (Arakaki)

“St. John [Crysostom] also exhorts his listeners to sanctify their minds and their souls through the sign of the cross… ‘This therefore do thou engrave upon your mind, and embrace the salvation of our souls. For this cross saved and converted the world, drove away error, brought back truth, made earth Heaven, fashioned men into angels. Because of this, the devils are no longer terrible, but contemptible; neither is death, death, but a sleep; because of this, all that wars against us is cast to the ground, and trodden under foot.’ (Gospel of St. Matthew, Homily 54, NPNF Vol. 10 p. 336)”

Christus Victor ( Slodboskoy, “Sign”)

Christus Victor. "The Cross is the weapon―or sign―of Christ’s victory over sin and death.”

Repel and Conquer Evil (Slodboskoy, “Sign”)

"The sign of the Cross gives us great strength to repel and conquer evil and to do good”

Sources