Philippe

Hello everyone.

I always wanted OkChrist to have a logo, but it never happened until now.
 
Here is the story behind our new logo for your enjoyment.

I find it most interesting… the story behind the making of our logo…

Philippe Paquette

Many years ago, I asked my eldest son, Luc-André, who happens to be an outstanding creative Website Designer, a fantastic Photographer, and a genius artist, to create a logo for Ok Christ. But he rightly told me that “generally, websites don’t have logos.” Good point. So, I shelved that idea. 

I would very much eventually like to make YouTube Christian videos, and if I ever do, then a logo would be cool to have. At this moment, this remains an ongoing hope, and it is in the Lord’s hands. This logo could also be used on our website.

This time, I did not want to ask my son since I had the impression that he was not interested in creating a logo, so I approached professionals and paid them for their services.

I commissioned a logo, but I was not satisfied. Eventually, twelve logos were presented to me, but they all had the missing “je ne sais quoi.” I was not content. I was longing for that “KISS” principle. When I shared my experience with my gifted son, Luc-André, he inquired why I did not ask him to create a logo. I replied that I had asked him years ago (in 2000), and he did not remember that event and offered to make me a logo. 

The following is his creation, and I love it! It is beautifully simple with so many meanings.

The colours

The colours Purple and Gold are of interest.

Purple

Purple takes two seemingly diametrically opposed shades — blue and red — and brings them together. In the case of Christ, blue reminds us of where He came from and where He is – Heaven, and red is a sad remembrance of the giving of His Life for our redemption – His blood.

Purple also declares “Majesty” and “Royalty” in the Bible. 

In Antiquity, Purple was the most valued of all the colours of the spectrum. Purple was acquired from the Mediterranean’s murex sea snail’s glands, requiring a lengthy and laborious task since each snail, the Tyrian purple shell, can only produce a single draw of the purple fluid when poked. 

One pound of the Tyrian Purple requires four million snails! The Phoenician (meaning “the land of the Purple“) city of Tyre is located by the Mediterranean, seen in today’s Lebanon.

In the Old Testament, God required that the Tabernacle and the Temple and the High Priest’s garments have Gold and Purple as their colour signature along with red and blue.

Also, in the New Testament, the Gospel of John (Jn 19:2, 5) and the gospel of Mark (Mk 15: 17, 20) mention that our Lord was given a purple robe by Pilate’s soldiers to symbolize the colour of kings – a way to mock the “King of the Jews.” 

On his second missionary trip, the Apostle Paul baptized Lydia and her family from the city of Thyatira (an established City known for its purple dye fabricks). Thyatira is known today as Akhisar, the Manisa Province of Western Turkey. Lydia is mentioned as a seller of purple. Acts 16: 14.

Purple dye was highly prized and worth a fortune. Today, the price of one single pound of Tyrian Purple is worth $1,233,518US. You read that right. Over a million dollars for a single pound. Compare that to the price of 1 pound of gold today. Approximately $21,350US. We, therefore, can deduce that Lydia was a very wealthy woman. Understandably, she would also have a large house, large enough to house Paul, Luke, and possibly others to live for a time in her home. Acts 16:15.

The colour purple became proscribed during Queen Elizabeth I’s reign. She banned the colour for the common folk. It was to be exclusively used by the wealthy upper class or persons with royal status. https://www.express.co.uk/news/royal/1194594/queen-elizabeth-ban-purple-meaning-royal-family-news

“The rich man, in the parable, was clothed in purple” (Luke 16: 14) *(1)

Gold

“Gold symbolizes divine righteousness… The ark of the covenant was covered entirely in gold (Heb 9:4), and Jerusalem will be of pure gold (Rev. 21:18) as its street (Rev. v21).” *(1).

The design

When Luc presented me with this logo, he had attached a few notes:

 1. It refers to the Christian symbol (the fish). 

2. The form is made in the shape of an “O” and a “K” intertwined together. 

3. The beginning of the logo (purple) forms a C (for Christ).

4. The tail also forms a cross at an angle. 

5. The inner shape of the o forms a blood drop.

6. The fonts are rounded – it creates balance. 

7. The logo’s colours represent the colours of God (Purple and Gold)

8. The cross/fishtail endpoints to the “t” in “Ok Christ,” where Jesus died on a cross.

 

9. Historically, the long tail allegedly tells the right path where Christians would meet when it was illegal to worship Jesus. The fish indicates the way to our Savior, who died on the cross for our sins and thus points to the path of Salvation.

10. The logo also gives the idea of a starting point and an ending point. (From heaven to earth).

11. The logo is also similar to the symbol of eternity.

The fish symbol

We know that “fish” in Greek is spelled “ichthus.” This word also becomes an acronym for “Jesus Christ, son of God, Savior“. This symbol was used as a secret handshake amongst early Christian believers.

Discovery

A week or two after receiving my son’s logo, I accidentally stumbled on an archaeological article that claimed a revolutionary discovery. This outstanding disclosure premiered in September 2021 on Curiosity.  This discovery is what Archeologist calls “a wonder moment.” This sighting points to evidence that some Roman soldiers who had oppressed Christians had become Christians themselves and were secretly worshiping Jesus in a cave near Jerico in Israel, less than three kilometres from where the Roman army (30 legions = 180,000 soldiers) was garrisoned. The year is 70 AD. The archaeologist was Yuval Peleg. On the walls of this significant “church cave” was an image of a cross carved into the stone wall. Next to the engraved cross was the image of a fish. Most probably the oldest engraved Christian fish symbol ever discovered. We speak of a time when history and archeology as well as the manuscripts of the book of Revelation, establish that John the Apostle (and others) was still alive.

It occurred to me how similar this very early symbol was to my son’s logo. They are surprisingly almost identical.

But how do we know that this emblem on the stone walls was from Roman soldiers?

Along these symbols were other Roman army graphic representations, including the well-known Sun-shaped Roman emblem and a logo of the Roman military standard known as the Aquila. Also found was the carving on the walls of a Roman banner of an eagle with its wing spread wide in the shape of an upside-down Triangle. A Roman Army established representation. All signs suggest that this cave was a Church for Roman Christian soldiers who adopted the new faith simultaneously as they destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem. This secret assembly was happening as some of the Apostles were still alive—an outstanding archeological discovery. *(2)

So there you have it—the story of Ok Christ’s logo. 

Be blessed, all.

Maranatha!

• *(1) “Gold” & “Purple”, ref.: E. Richard Pigeon, Ph. D. – AMG’s Comprehensive Dictionary of New Testament Words, 2014, Published in Chattanooga, TN, U.S.A.
  
• *(2) Curiosity Stream, Decoding the Ancients – S1E6 – “The Roman Army’s Secret Christians”, Documentary,
  (Information revealed to the public Q4, 2021).