It is once again Pride month and as society celebrates LGBTQIA2S+, the desire for acceptance and inclusion has morphed into something much less benign and in fact leads down the road of depravity and threatens to drag the rest of us with it. As countless parades and celebrations unfold, the hubris of the gay pride movement goes well beyond acceptance and has created its own reality and values which are not shared by most of the population. Yet everyone is expected to march along.
Even “Christian” sources are being duped into claims that the Bible in unclear regarding sexual diversity and gender. Assertions that homosexuality is not sinful when practiced within loving relationships and that scripture must be considered in a cultural context have muddied the waters for those questioning same sex practices. These claims even go so far as to say that God only “began” by creating humans as male and female and that scripture does not indicate that God only created this binary and says nothing about gender.
Homosexuality in scripture is erroneously interpreted to be limited to sexual violence such as was the situation depicted in Sodom and Gomorrah, and in the case of the Levite and his concubine (Judges 19:22-26), while passages from Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 are regarded as culturally devoted to growing the population of Israel. Furthermore, when scriptures from the New Testament are cited, the argument is that they refer to younger men being exploited by older men in a non-loving manner or incest (1 Corinthians 6:9; 1 Timothy 1:10).
In order to advocate same sex relationships, proponents often bypass these passages of scripture and attempt to build a case based upon the notion that the church is the bride of Christ. Since the relationship between the bride and Christ does not hinge upon biology or gender it must be interpreted as two personalities integrating their lives. This egregious twisting of scripture rejects God’s intent and manipulates His word to be subordinate to man’s desires.
In an effort to justify their position, they reinterpret the Bible to reflect their specific cultural beliefs, and the LGBTQIA2S+ community holds Christians hostage by claiming that because God is love, He embraces LGBTQIA2S+ people into full communion through Christ as they are. This is simply poor hermeneutics.
Seek God’s Perspective Not Man’s
The correct theology regarding sexual ethics must be centered around God’s perspective, not man’s. God’s intent in having a man and a woman becoming one flesh (Eve was taken out of Adam’s body) through marriage was not strictly to love one another but to bear fruit and multiply. Sexual sin which constitutes sex outside of marriage, pornography, homosexuality, rape, lustful acts and even lustful thoughts, does not fit into mankind being made in God’s image.
The apostle Paul put it this way: “But since there is so much immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband.” (1 Corinthians 7:2). His point is that the flesh is weak and humans lack self control, therefore, marriage facilitates sexual fulfillment between men and women. When scripture is silent on the issue of homosexuality, the omission of the topic does not constitute an endorsement but rather it models the ideal for human sexuality.
Understanding that all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God is the basic premise from which to begin to discern the will of God in this debate. Secondly, understanding that God hates the sin but loves the sinner is paramount to determining our value in God’s eyes. It is important to note that when the Bible says that homosexuality is an abomination and detestable to God, it is speaking about behaviour, not people.
Our godless society overlooks the morality surrounding sexuality in scripture in an effort to diminish the immorality of our sexual culture that commercializes sex through entertainment, advertising, erotic art and literature, etc. Paul wrote, “Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.” (Romans 1:24). A godless society that has rejected God also rejects His word.
Paul then reveals, “Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.” (Romans 1:26-27). The antagonism between the terms natural vs unnatural illustrates God’s intent vs man’s disregard for that intent.
Many “Christian” denominations have succumbed to cultural pressure to reinterpret the Bible to suit society’s whims and sanctify homosexuality by performing gay and lesbian marriages and ordaining openly practicing gay and lesbian ministers. Put bluntly, they are false teachers preaching a false gospel to false Christians.
What Does The Bible Say?
2 Peter 2:4-9 warns of the serious punishment awaiting false practitioners: “For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgement; if He did not spare the ancient world when He brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if He respected Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard) – if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgement, while continuing their punishment.”
If that isn’t clear condemnation for this transgression, perhaps Jude‘s words will drive the message home: “There are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord. Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord delivered His people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home – these He has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgement on the great Day. In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.” (Jude:4b-7).
Pride Is The Premise of Perversion
A prideful heart leads to prideful actions and consequently sin, as depicted by Solomon in Proverbs 21:4, “Haughty eyes and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked, are sin!” Vanity leads to the perversion of mankind’s judgement and society’s self glorification stands in direct opposition to God.
Today’s narcissistic culture doesn’t want to be judged for its beliefs. The pride that is proclaimed in parades, endorsed by society and taught in elementary schools – condones pornography, the sexualization of little girls, gender dysphoria, the degradation of the traditional family and ultimately the pernicious erosion of truth. Everything is packaged as one big blue pill that society is being coerced into swallowing in the name of acceptance, tolerance and inclusion.
Isaiah 5:20 warns, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.” The pride of mankind has done this very thing. Rather than searching for what pleases God, society has chosen to please itself. Isaiah 66:2b tells us what pleases God. “This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit.”
Jesus sat with sinners and ate with sinners but he never approved of their sins nor did he celebrate their sins with them. As Christians the greatest act of love we can do for others is to encourage them to repent and come to Christ, not march with them down the path that leads to destruction. Out of love we must shine the light of truth upon the detour in the broad road. The path that leads to life is of no benefit unless one leaves the wide road and follows the narrow one.
There is enough grace for everyone and thankfully God’s love for humanity is greater than the additive and cumulative sins of all humanity. Paul reminds us, “But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 5:20-21). However, faith is requisite to receiving grace.
We are called to repent of our sins and believe in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He promises that all who call on Him will be saved and receive everlasting life. This requires humbling ourselves and surrendering to Him. Don’t let pride get in the way of salvation!
