Christian Living
Toleration and Acceptance of Homosexuality, A Rendering of God's Holy Word
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An extremely poignant issue currently faces numerous Christian denominations in the United States, those popular mainstream churches that have long-held the doctrinal position that homosexuality is ungodly and a vile sin. The devilish winds of political and humanistic change are blowing strongly upon these religious organizations, and it’s going to be quite interesting to see which of them are going to continue opposing homosexuality and its deviance, or, like the Boy Scouts and a few large, questionably Christian, churches, issue declarations of acceptance to homosexuals and their immoral behavior. Some large churches that have opposed homosexuality as doctrinally ungodly since their 19th Century inceptions have, since 1999, changed their doctrines to say that they accept “gays” into their membership, and to offer them full fellowship and leadership positions. Even some churches that have based their strict theological doctrines on what they claim are modern-day revelations from God, which they insist they’ve received continually on a regular basis, have reversed their long-held, supposedly, sacred doctrines rendering homosexuality as a vile sin. In the early 20th Century, these churches were refusing membership to homosexuals on the basis that such immoral behavior was utterly sinful. Nonetheless, since the beginning of the 21st Century, these same churches have brazenly flip-flopped in their doctrines as though God suddenly changed his mind about the nature of sexual sin and the strict doctrines he commanded long before Sodom and Gomorrah. Leaders of these churches have had the gall to publicly make such statements as, “Now we have gays in our churches. They are wonderful people!” These thoroughly pragmatic church leaders have gone on to proclaim such nonsense as, “we will take no action against homosexuals unless they commit sexual sins.” Does this statement contain an apparent contradiction in terms?
Now, let’s see if I’ve got it right. Homosexuals are people who fully believe in having sex with people of their own gender, men with men, and women with women. These are people who have done more than just think about having intercourse. In order to be considered homosexual, people must engage in the filthy practice. Homosexuals believe that sodomy and other deviant sexual behaviors are perfectly okay. Moreover, according to the current national statistics, over 95 percent of convicted, and un-apprehended, sex-offender pedophiles are, either, bisexual or homosexual. Furthermore, approximately 89 percent of all openly practicing homosexuals are bisexual. That is, they find sexual satisfaction homosexually or heterosexually. Hence, if the foregoing is true, which it is, Christian churches that accept homosexuals into their membership are loudly affirming that God has changed his mind and, now, approves of homosexuality, which their cannons of scripture, the Holy Bible and extra-biblical revelations, such as were produced by the Seventh Day Adventist Prophet, Ellen G. White, do not, in any way, reflect. Specifically, the Seventh Day Adventists, to their credit, have not accepted homosexuals into their midst, nor have they tolerated homosexuality to any extent, as have other denominations claiming the right to receive divine revelation. The International Seventh Day Adventist Church has even issued a proclamation to the world, as shown below:
“Seventh day Adventists believe that sexual intimacy belongs only within the marital relationship of a man and a woman. This was the design established by God at creation. The Scriptures declare: "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh" (Gen 2:24, NIV). Throughout Scripture this heterosexual pattern is affirmed. The Bible makes no accommodation for homosexual activity or relationships. Sexual acts outside the circle of a heterosexual marriage are forbidden (Lev 18:5-23, 26; Lev 20:7 21; Rom 1:24 27; 1 Cor 6:9 11). Jesus Christ reaffirmed the divine creation intent: "'Haven't you read,' he replied, 'that at the beginning the Creator "made them male and female," and said, "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh?" So they are no longer two, but one'" (Matt 19:4 6, NIV). For these reasons Seventh-day Adventists are opposed to homosexual practices and relationships.”
Denominations currently claiming to be Christian, which have formerly boasted about their divine authority to receive continuing revelations from God (but also currently proclaim that Almighty God is a changeable deity and has, now, condoned homosexuality) are treading on very thin ice. As clearly indicated in the biblical scripture references of the aforementioned Seventh Day Adventists’ proclamation to the world, homosexuality cannot possibly be construed as a godly human behavior. That is, if you believe the Bible. The so-called Christian denominations and sects that wrongly sway one way or the other in their doctrines and beliefs, according to the existing political winds, might find their toleration for sin appreciated by earthly government and prevailing human culture, but not by the God of Israel, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus has said, “Even so, every good ‘tree’ bears good fruit, but a bad ‘tree’ bears bad fruit. A good ‘tree’ cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad ‘tree’ bear good fruit. Every ‘tree’ that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore, by their fruits you will know them (Matt. 7:17-20). Therefore, is a religious denomination such a symbolic tree? I would have to say that it is, according to Jesus’ words. Now, I am not saying that the Seventh Day Adventists Church is the “one and only” true church of Jesus Christ, even though Adventists, and other churches like them, believe that they are. What I am saying is that the abhorrence of homosexuality by the Adventists is, but, one good fruit that the denomination bears, even though it may also bear some bad fruit. Hence, we know, by Jesus’ words, that any church claiming to be Christian, which accepts homosexuals into its membership and condones their behavior, is not of God, and a bad tree. This analogy is hardly like two, supposedly Christian churches being different with respect to the act of baptism, or whether wine or grape juice is used to symbolically commemorate the atoning blood of Jesus Christ. As far as baptism is concerned, the Methodists believe in sprinkling, and the Baptists believe in immersion. Some churches don’t believe, at all, in water baptism. Does this make one of them wrong, and one right? I personally believe that baptism by the Spirit of God is what is ultimately necessary. Baptism by water is an outward evidence of an inward faith, so either form of water baptism would be correct depending upon the belief and faith of the person baptized. There is a world of difference between asserting, on the one hand, that condoning homosexuality is of God, and drinking grape juice instead of wine is blasphemy.
Perhaps the current state of the modern world, especially that of the United States, in regard to the greatly increasing popularity of, and toleration for, homosexuality, is much like the gradual corruption that, over time, made the ancient cities of Sodom and Gomorrah so heinously wicked. I personally believe that Sodom and Gomorrah were ancient cities once like numerous present-day U.S. cities, such as New York, Houston, San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle, and others. They began as small communities composed of God-fearing followers of Christ, and, over time, became large metropolitan areas composed of very changeable human beings, who, much earlier, had begun to tolerate sin for the sake of carnal human nature. These people slowly, but surely, became inured to sin and its sad consequences. It was much like the transition from the godly abhorrence of adultery, as a terrible sin and crime, to its toleration and acceptance as a normal human urge. The fact that homosexuality is not mentioned in the Ten Commandments, and that adultery is denoted and penalized, creates the impression that God Almighty had already clearly established that homosexuality was forbidden long before Moses, and that adultery only, and specifically, applied to a female wife cheating on her male husband, or a male husband cheating on his female wife. The homosexual community today has the galling impudent chutzpah to suggest that, since the God of Israel permitted Lot’s daughters to commit incest with their father (Gen. 19:35-38 RSV), he, Almighty God, abruptly changed his mind about his moral laws after he rained fire and brimstone from heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah. These very deviant people fail to realize that free mortal agency was bestowed limitedly upon the ancients to commit sins. The biblical record written by Moses, the first five books of the Old Testament, was a history of what happened, good and bad. Nowhere in the Book of Genesis is it written that God permitted, and sanctioned, what Lot’s daughters did to their father, by getting him drunk and having sexual intercourse with him. We do know, however, the commandments given by the Lord God to Adam and Eve about human procreation. Those commandments were still in effect at the time Lot fled Sodom according to God’s command.
Adultery was also defined by British common law as a crime, against God, per the Ten Commandments, and against nature; and harsh penalties were imposed on those people who committed adultery by British law. As such, adultery was criminalized, per common law and statute, in the 13 original American colonies, those colonies that eventually became the first 13 States of the United States. This was because the Ten Commandments, handed down from God to Moses, were regarded as much a Christian cannon of law, as it was Jewish. This Christian regard for the Ten commandments was based upon the fact that Jesus Christ taught that obedience to the Holy Law (the Ten Commandments) was as essential as a Christian’s obedience to the law of love and his faith in the sacred resurrection. But Christ, through his Apostles, also taught that loving him, and children, meant abhorring sin, and not associating intimately with sinners. When Jesus associated with sinners, while he was upon the earth, his purpose was to call those sinners to repentance, not to sympathize with them, and to endorse their sins.
Nonetheless, over time, the law proscribing adultery was decreasingly enforced by those in power to enforce it. The law was on the books, but it was meaningless. Why? When the chief enforcers of the laws proscribing adultery, such as city mayors, U.S. senators, U.S. representatives, U.S. Presidents, wealthy CEOs, and police chiefs, were, themselves, breaking such a sacred law, they had the human power to declare, on earth, that such a law, created by God, was void and unenforceable. Yet they did, and currently do, this at their own spiritual peril, because the law will always be regarded by God as eternally enforceable. Most people understand, but don’t care, that the Almighty God of heaven and earth has given his children, through Jesus Christ, the perfect law of liberty, to do anything they want to do, to sin or not to sin. This freely allows all God’s children to accumulate enough rope (sin) to hang themselves, for God’s judgment will not be at the moment a male husband or a female wife commits adultery, like it was anciently. The judgment of God will come by way of the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ, when he comes again to the earth for that specific prophesied purpose.
In like manner, human beings (all children of God) who practice, promote, encourage, and defend homosexuality, personally or as a church or other organization, are creating the rope with which they will be eventually be punished. The rope is symbolically accumulated sin, and the punishment will not be by hanging, but by the everlasting fire of hell, which will spiritually burn seven times hotter that any earthly fire in order to torment those resurrected children of God adjudged to be cast into that lake of fire, called hell. The current choice available to all of God’s children is to resist all immoral sin and to cling, for dear spiritual life, to the commandments of Jesus Christ. It’s a choice that may not be popular on earth, but God will smile and the angels of heaven will rejoice, when a sinner turns from the error of ways, and choices to serve, and obey, God. It’s much like how the prophet warrior Joshua responded to the Tribes of Israel, in Josh. 24:14 (RSV).
“And if you be unwilling to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
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