Homosexuality is a subject the churches of America in general are very weak in. Some churches believe it is completely normal and acceptable. They believe that to stand against it was harsh and intolerant so in the name of “a loving God” they believe ‘who are we to judge’. They put “All are welcome at our Table” on their church sign. This really means, all are welcome except for a fire-breathing King James Toting Bible believer.
Other churches take the other extreme and preach a message of hate for both SIN AND SINNER ALIKE, and literally hold signs stating “God hates fags.” Yes, God hates the sin of sodomy, but he hates the sin of fornication, of adultery, of lust. It might not make sense, but a loving God loves the homosexual but will also still send him to an eternal hell if the homosexual never repents from his lifestyle. God loves them and is moving in people’s hearts to bring them the gospel so they can get saved. They are damned to hell if they die in their sin, but so was I. So were you if you were born again. Most will reject the gospel but so will most lost religious folks. And fornicators. And church members.
Yet other churches that say they believe the bible, correctly believe no homosexual can enter heaven, and preach the Gospel cures and saves sinners — yet act like atheists when it comes to this sin. Most churches that at least have a spark of righteousness left are full of unbelief and by their actions are convinced that homosexuals can not only never change but in all likelihood believe they are reprobates that can never be saved.
First, the bible teaches we are all wicked and in need of salvation. However, I will prove you don’t believe the justice of God is far nor that certain people can truly be saved. Jeffrey Dahlmer murdered and ate his victims. Ted Bundy tortured, raped and killed many young females before he was caught. Both from reliable sources seemed to have made legit professions of faith with some fruit of repentance and great sorrow for what they did. While it is possible that these were phony professions, if either of these men sincerely believed the gospel and God had convicted them for their sin, they are in heaven right now. And those they tortured and murdered who died LOST are in hell forever. That seems inconceivable unless we see how depraved we are, and how if we had grown up with the same set of circumstances and climate we could be just as capable as doing down as dark a road as them. All our DNA goes back to Adam. If you grew up in a head hunter family, you probably wouldn’t be a vegetarian.
In general the churches are weak at generating true conversions today that radically deliver a man from sin. They have the same weakened gospel that “reaches” the drunkard, the fornicator, and the sodomite. This gospel tends to produce very weak converts so they basically accept backsliding as the norm. So if the gospel you are preaching leaves drunkards in their sin, and fornicators in their sin, and sodomites in their sin, guess which group the church will try to avoid giving the “gospel” to? And this means that they only are comfortable reaching out to sinners who’s sins aren’t distasteful to them. Instead of addressing the gospel they are preaching to figure out why so many converts fall away to begin with.
I have studied this out quite a bit and feel I have some wisdom from the Lord in this area. I know personally some “ex-gays” and I am running into more and more “Gay Ex-churchers” as well as the “Gay and Proud”. It seems every chain store you shop at today has one or two “flaming effeminate queers” running their registers or in management.
First, my take on homosexuality is this. First it is a wake up to the church. Any sin we see in the world is a reflection of the church. It is primarily for us the church to wake up. Then we will have the answers to reach those outside the church. I heard God raised up Hollywood because the church is filled with actors. The same Preacher said God raised up homosexuality because Christians are in love with themselves. Whether that is a true statement, I just saw in line at Walmart more tabloid filth, this time the article was about actor Brad Pitt being a closet homosexual. Where men are in love with themselves, homosexuality is rampant. You won’t find narcissism stronger than in Hollywood. Except perhaps in the church!
I have seen a lot of famous actors etc “coming out” and everyone in the world takes that to mean it must be ok. However, what I think Hollywood represents is the end result of a man left to his own pleasures and lack of restrain. They are in love with themselves, and homosexuality is where it can degenerate to. The human desire lusts for more of the forbidden and giving into to that desire feeds the flesh instead of quenching the thirst. It is pouring gasoline on the fire when they are in desperation pouring gas on the flames in attempts to put out the ever burning they feel.
The book of Romans chapter 1:26-32 shows homosexual lust is the last step of a nation set on being it’s own god and there is a marked progression before God judges a nation. The sin fills the atmosphere of a nation, and seduces whoever it can find. The devil uses different bait to trap people just like a monkey trap. Monkeys are often caught by putting shiny coins or whatever in a jar with a opening just narrow enough for the monkey to put his unclenched hand through. When he does, he grabs the coins and now can’t get his hand out. And he refuses to let go of the coins to get free. That is how the devil snags the human race. For one it is a beer bottle they won’t let go of. For another it is pornography. For another it is a crack pipe. For others it is their religion. As a nation gets darker and darker, the things that have to grab for one’s attention have to be brighter and more seductive.
26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
So first, we need to look at sodomy, etc, as a symptom that America is set on it’s course of destruction. When a nation does not fear God, it starts off on a course with a taste for the forbidden and each progressive step is worse. The foundation is a lie that God’s way of sex only in marriage between one husband and one wife for life is “boring”. That lie is told by Hollywood, TV, media, etc. It can be found everywhere you turn and you can read the headlines at every check-out counter at Wal Mart.
John 8:44 says Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
However, the proof the “alternative” for God’s design does not work is the continuing lust for more the Bible warned about. For example in the 50’s we as a nation wanted pleasure. The “forbidden” satisfied in the sense that was as far as society pushed the envelope. What “satisfied” in general, was the high school sweethearts making out in the back of a car in the drive in. In the 60’s it was multiple partners and free love at Woodstock. In the 70’s it was porno theaters and the VCR for XXX films. In the 80’s and 90’s it was closet homosexuality and more perversion and the secrecy of the internet. Now you have in your face homosexuality, a fight for marriage rights, and demands they are treated with more rights than anyone else. You also have all kinds of barriers coming down and now almost anything goes. And God’s way is still mocked.
However, the individual homosexual still needs to know God saves sinners! It is one thing to face the militant gang set out to defend their turf. It is another to have a “homosexual Nicodemus” honestly come to you seeking hope. There are a greater number of kids growing up in church who get addicted to pornography, get molested, fall into fornication, struggle with masturbation, or have homosexual fantasies. They hide their sin because they feel no one else struggles like they do. There tends to be this shunning of sinners by those that commit the sins that make us uncomfortable. Monsters live in the dark.
There needs to be an atmosphere of acceptance from the church. Not for the sin, but for those struggling to be able to be honest and get compassion and get answers. Some of the church says you are fine as you are, embrace it! Some offer flippant solutions that don’t provide real deliverance. They either get disappointed because one side of Christianity will tell them they just need to pray and get delivered from the demons that are haunting them. They pray and feel better but that is not the permanent answer. Or they get “tougu love” and no compassion so they feel they must be a lost cause.
Homosexuality is a symptom that something is radically wrong and it will take some radically going beyond our shallow discipleship and shallow prayer lives to impact this generation. it is far easier to just be disgusted by their sin and not want to get involved.
Galatians 5:24 says And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
There is hope for the homosexual. Regardless of what the average church of America might believe.