Christian Philosophy: Everyone Has a Philosophy. It's The Lens Through Which They View The World and Make Decisions. (24 page)

Despite how badly some want to attribute biological causes to homosexual behavior, no biological causes have ever been found. The media has overstated the implications of research and misinterpreted other data, but—as the American Psychological Association openly states—homosexuality cannot be defined as genetic or a condition of birth.

Many factors influence the shaping of our identity, but the bottom line is that homosexuality is a choice. Some people might be more tempted by homosexuality than others, but that doesn’t make the choice of engaging in homosexual behavior any less immoral. In the same way, adultery is always wrong—no matter how great the temptation or how significant the environmental influences.

The apostle Paul wrote that no one engaging in a homosexual lifestyle will inherit the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9). Therefore, we know that homosexuality is a choice—not an innate condition. So it is important for Christians to speak the truth in love, rather than keep quiet and let people be deceived into believing that homosexuals aren’t responsible for their choices. To keep quiet about the immorality of homosexuality would be contrary to God’s command:

“Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him… but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord.”

Leviticus 19:17-18

I don’t think I would need to spend much time convincing you that murder is immoral; we all intuitively know it is wrong. But the gay lobby has been so successful in promoting homosexuality as normal behavior that many Christians no longer view it as immoral.

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) has intentionally sought the endorsement of faith communities to increase the public perception that homosexuality is normal, and they have gained credibility by associating their agenda with established Christian denominations. Some denominations have even appointed homosexual men and women to leadership roles. This is in direct opposition to ministers who are being vocal about the immorality of homosexuality. The NGLTF says, “…it is [imperative] that the LGBT rights advocates work with and within communities of faith to reclaim from the right wing the true meaning of moral values,”
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which shows they are intentionally infiltrating the church to undermine biblical values and promote the acceptance of homosexuality.

The gay lobby has been so successful at distorting the biblical perspective that we now have churches promoting the gay agenda—even though Scripture unambiguously denounces homosexuality. I understand having compassion toward people who are caught up in destructive behaviors and wanting to reach out to help them, but to endorse and promote homosexuality, you have to oppose the Word of God. This shocks me, but I have learned that there are many religious people who don’t let the Word of God affect what they believe.

The story of Sodom very clearly reveals God’s view of homosexuality. God sent two angels down to Sodom, and when Lot saw them, he invited them into his house to have a meal and spend the night. Scripture says that many of us have entertained angels unaware (Hebrews 13:2), which means they don’t always appear with wings and halos above their heads. So the angels who visited Lot apparently looked like human beings, and every man in Sodom wanted to have sex with them.

But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter: And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.

Genesis 19:4-5

The King James uses the verb “know” to refer to sexual relations, but some other translations render the passage more explicitly: “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them” (NIV). Lot was repulsed by their demands and tried to stop the citizens of Sodom from accosting the angels. The angels struck everyone blind (Genesis 19:11) and led Lot and his family out of Sodom. Once they were safe, God rained brimstone and fire from heaven as judgment to destroy the entire city (Genesis 19:24). You simply cannot read the account of Sodom and think that God approves of homosexuality.

But God isn’t striking homosexuals or adulterers dead anymore. Under the New Covenant, there is a cure for sin. Our born-again spirits make it possible for God to relate to us with mercy and grace. In the same way, we are called to deal with all sinners by grace, no matter what kind of sin they are caught up in—but that doesn’t mean we ignore wrong behavior.

Christians can commit the sin of homosexuality in the same way that they can get addicted to pornography or commit adultery, but there is no such thing as a church that promotes adultery, pornography, or lying and stealing. Christians might do some of those immoral things, but we don’t build churches around embracing and promoting destructive behaviors. So why are people forming church groups that promote homosexuality?

I have a few friends who have committed homosexual acts. They are still friends and I love them. I have helped them through those difficulties. God paid for the sin of homosexuality through Jesus, so He is not going to send people to hell just for the sin of homosexuality. The sin of rejecting Jesus is what sends people to hell (John 16:9). The sin of homosexuality is forgiven because of Jesus’ sacrifice, but God’s Word is clear that homosexuality is wrong.

If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.

Leviticus 20:13

Again, under the Old Covenant there was no cure for the sin of rebellion; whether it was homosexuality, adultery, or children rebelling against their parents. In the Old Testament, death was often the punishment for such rebellion. It was a way of getting the destructive behavior out of society in the same manner that a doctor cuts a cancerous tumor out of the body. It was done to prevent further spread throughout society and total separation from God. But we live under the New Covenant now, and faith in Jesus is the cure for all sin. We can be forgiven for things for which Old Covenant believers did not receive forgiveness.

Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.

Acts 13:38-39

God isn’t striking people down for sin anymore, but sin is still wrong. Sin is deadly, you shouldn’t indulge in it—and homosexuality is a sin. Scripture actually calls it the act of a dog (Deuteronomy 23:17-18).

As I said, I am not against people who are caught up in homosexuality, but I am against the sin. Scripture says it is ungodly, and Christians don’t need to make apologies for having the same opinion as God. People engaged in homosexuality are perverting God’s creation, and He hates it. He doesn’t hate the individuals. He loves them so much that He died in their place and took the punishment for homosexuality. Gay people are forgiven, but God still hates the sin because He knows how damaging it is.

The reason homosexuals are pushing so hard to be accepted by society is because, in their hearts, they know homosexuality is wrong (Romans 1:18-21). They might say they don’t feel any guilt because they have always been gay, but it isn’t true. I believe God’s Word more than what they say (Romans 3:4).

Every time you disobey your conscience, you put a little distance between you and God. By choosing sin, you push God away, and every time you step away from your intuitive knowledge of what is right, you put a layer of insensitivity between you and the Lord. Eventually, you can become so insensitive that it’s like your conscience has been seared by a hot iron (1 Timothy 4:2). This is what the Bible calls being reprobate—no longer under conviction of sin. But homosexuality isn’t the first step someone takes on the road to being completely insensitive to God; it’s one of the last.

The hardening of your heart is a progressive process. It starts by not glorifying what God has done for you, then you move to not being thankful, and finally your thoughts and imagination begin to work against you (Romans 1:21). At that point, you have begun a downward spiral through choices and actions that make you more and more insensitive to God. After which Scripture says,

Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

Romans 1:24-25

Idolatry isn’t just falling down to worship a statue. You can worship money or any other number of things. Covetousness is idolatry (Colossians 3:5), so physical possessions can become your god if you worship them. Everything in the media and pop culture is geared toward creating covetousness inside of you. It is the average condition of people today, and the Bible calls it idolatry.

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: 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.

Romans 1:26-27

I don’t think it is inferring too much to say that the recompense spoken of here is the damaging effects of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. Not that God sent those diseases as punishment. God created laws to govern the earth, and ignoring those natural laws has consequences. If you jump off a bridge, you are going to fall. Likewise, sexually transmitted diseases are the natural result of sexual perversion. Then the Scripture says,

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.

Romans 1:28

This is saying that God withdrew conviction from people who didn’t want Him around. Jesus said that no one goes to the Father unless the Spirit draws them (John 6:44). It is not human nature to seek God, He has to draw us, and people can go so far in their rebellion against Him that God eventually stops trying to draw them to Himself. When that happens, a person becomes reprobate—he has no knowledge of the truth, and he doesn’t care. (Don’t worry, if you are afraid that you might be reprobate, then you aren’t. Any desire to be right with God means that He is still drawing you into relationship with Him. So if you desire relationship with God, you’re not reprobate.)

I think we have a lot of reprobate people today who just don’t care about God or what He thinks. Hitler bragged, “I have six divisions of SS men absolutely indifferent in matters of religion. It doesn’t prevent them from going to death with serenity in their souls.” But their serenity wasn’t proof they had nothing to fear, it was an indication that they were reprobate. Their conscience was seared as with a hot iron. As soon as they died, I guarantee you they were wishing they hadn’t been so indifferent. Unfortunately, we see those kinds of people rising to positions of leadership in businesses and politics all over the world today.

Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: 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.

Romans 1:29-32

Some of these things are not only allowed, but encouraged in our society. Yet they are all listed as wrong behaviors that move a person toward becoming reprobate. This is the list in which homosexuality finds itself. It is a sin, and it’s one of the very last sins in a progression of things that move us away from God toward becoming reprobate. You don’t want to go there, and anyone who is practicing homosexuality is flirting with pushing God away for good. The apostle Paul wrote,

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

1 Corinthians 6:9-10

The phrase translated “abusers of themselves with mankind” is the Greek word
arsenokoitēs,
and it means a sodomite, a homosexual, or “one who lies with a male as with a female.” This scripture specifically states that homosexuals will not inherit the kingdom of God. Other scriptures also clearly condemn homosexuality:

Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine.