Don't ask don't tell...if you're a Christian

I know we all may be finding the homosexual intrusion into American & world culture tiresome. And the discussions about it are even more so. Worst of all, we are not of this world and the homosexual lobby is winning. Will win eventually.

Nonetheless, we always continue to proclaim God's glories and urge one and all of the pagans to repent, and then we exhort for for one and all of the brethren to adhere to His standards. He is God, holy and high, and He knows best. It is as simple as that.

Romans 1:18-32 shows us the process of a downward progression of a culture when the majority of its populace refuses to repent. Please bear with me as I post the entire passage.

God’s Wrath on Unrighteousness

18For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world,g in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

24Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

26For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

28And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

The NASB says of the last verse that they give "hearty approval" to them that practice those things.

Hearty approval.

This aspect of the hearty approval statement indicates not just individual sin, and not just collective sin, but also enticement into sin. In addition, giving hearty approval to sin involves a tipping point. This involves peer pressure and groupthink. When a group practicing the sin increases in numbers, at a certain point, there is more pressure to perform the sin than there was to hide the sin or not engage in it at all. The original people or group doing the sin paid the shame price in the culture for having been found out, but after a while the shame wore off and more and more people fornicated, were adulterers, homosexuals, lesbians, bigamists, prostitutes sex workers (see? we don't even call them prostitutes any more let alone whores).

Remember back in the day when premarital sex was talked about in hushed whispers? When a mother bearing an illegitimate child was hustled off to another location because she (and the father) had brought shame onto the family? When homosexuality was a considered a perversion and never discussed, let alone approved of? Now there are television shows which feature gays in 'marriages' as normal, men in marriages to multiple wives, lesbians casually kissing on television. The hearty approval is that the ratings of these television shows and movies get higher ratings with this kind of content in it.

We've seen this since the 1950s with premarital sex. We've seen this since the late 1960s with fornicating outside of marriage and with adultery. No-fault divorce  is one of the major causes of the former. We've seen this with homosexuality since the 1970s. In the 1980s with the advent of cable television and a wider latitude for exposing the audience to worse language, bloodier violence, and more sex. By the 1990s the tidal wave of sin in the world being reflected on tv and other media, and then reflected back to approving audiences was firmly entrenched. 1993's movie with Tom Hanks (Philadelphia) about an HIV-positive homosexual man was Hollywood's first mainstream movie with a gay as the main character as sympathetic. Cut to 20 years beyond that date and we are awash with an upside down world where sin is heartily approved of and those not wishing to participate in sin are the odd ones out.

Now we have a pastor of a conservative Southern Baptist church changing his mind on the issue of homosexuality being sinful (he says it isn't) and is accepting of his gay son's lifestyle. He calls himself a "gay-affirming pastor" but it is just being sin-affirming. And a sin-affirming pastor is an oxymoron.

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! (Isaiah 5:20)

In just 20 years, half a generation, we've gone from President Clinton's "Don't Ask Don't Tell" being about homosexuals in military service to don't ask don't tell about Christians in military service.

Wretched Radio brings us this photo of a greeting card section of Walgreen's


And this one really hurts.

Sir Elton John says Jesus would support gay marriage: 'He was all about love'
Sir Elton John has said he believes that Jesus would be a supporter of gay marriage.   The “Daniel” singer, who hopes to marry filmmaker David Furnish next year, said he thinks that the Christian figure would have supported the union of gay members of the clergy.  Speaking to Sky News on the same weekend as the London Pride parade, Sir Elton said: “If Jesus Christ was alive today, I cannot see him, as the Christian person that he was and the great person that he was, saying this could not happen.  “He was all about love and compassion and forgiveness and trying to bring people together.  “And that is what the Church should be about.”

Nope I was wrong. This next part of the above article hurts worse.
But the chart-topping artist said that the Church deserved credit for the progress that has been made in recent years. He heaped particular praise onto the Archbishop of Canterbury and Pope Francis, whom he described as a “wonderful” man who had stripped back church teaching to reveal its fundamental message of love.
Yes. They heartily approve.


Comments

  1. For anyone who has occasion to witness to those in the LBGT community (assuming that's still what they wish to be called), and gets hit with the old "I was born this way" or "God made me this way" line, here are a couple of thoughts to keep in your back pocket that might be helpful if the opportunity arises:

    * * *

    1. We are ALL "born this way"...and that "way" is SINFUL. We just don't all necessarily commit the same sins. So you were born with the natural desire to have romantic or sexual feelings for the same sex? Welcome to the club. I was born with the natural desire to look at members of the opposite sex with lust in my heart. And the fact that I was born that way doesn't justify it--it's still SIN. That means I'm just as much a sinner as you are, and so just as much in need of the Savior and the forgiveness and reconciliation to God that He made available through faith.

    2. God didn't MAKE us the way we are, He sent His only Son to SAVE us from the way we are. God didn't make us sinful, He made us perfect--and WE disobeyed. WE rebelled against Him. WE sinned. WE did that, but God had a plan from the beginning to rescue us from our helpless situation, and that plan revolves around His Son Jesus. Let me explain...

    * * *

    As the sun sets on the Age of Grace, it's getting harder all the time to witness to members of the homosexual community. What really saddens me, however, is the fact that so many in mainstream churches today are playing right into Satan's hands by being so preoccupied with wagging bony fingers of condemnation at the behavior that they forget those people are sinners in need of the Savior...just as we all once were.

    Hope someone finds this helpful.

    (Love the cartoon at the bottom. That's become the mainstream media's bread and butter--calling evil good and good evil.)

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    1. Thanks Greg, this is really good. I appreciate it.

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  2. Homosexuality is everywhere isn't it? It's all part of the homosexual agenda, which you can read about here - http://library.gayhomeland.org/0018/EN/EN_Overhauling_Straight.htm

    Elton John's 'Jesus' certainly is not the Christ we find in the Bible. I find it odd that he says 'If Jesus Christ was alive today'...Elton John is clueless to who Jesus Christ is. The homosexual community does see this as some sort of 'we are winning' game. However, the Bible tells us wickedness will increase, not because God and His people are losing the war on sin, but because it must be so right before our holy Lord returns. It is a sign of His coming and not a sign of Christians losing! Matthew 24:12 and 2 Timothy 3:13 are texts that specifically state the deterioration of man.

    To say a homosexual is born that way is proven false in Romans 1:26-27. Here is a partial look at verse 26, 'for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature'. 'Natural' is defined by Thayer's Greek definitions as 'produced by nature, inborn'. 'Use' is defined as 'of the sexual use of a woman'. God instills in all of us from the start the natural use, which is found in Genesis 2:24. It is when the sinner exchanges that which comes natural for the unnatural that leads to homosexuality. This sexual sin is not birthed from love, as they claim. It is birthed from a lust, as verse 27 states, 'burned in their lust one toward another'. To burn is to inflame deeply, it indicates the rage of lust. 'Lust' is from the Greek 'orexis'; Vincent's word studies notes this about this particular usage, "Only here in the New Testament. It is a reaching out after something with the purpose of appropriating it. In later classical Greek it is the most general term for every kind of desire, as the appetite for food. The peculiar expressiveness of the word here is sufficiently evident from the context."
    Homosexuality is a sign of the downward spiral of society; from idolatry to immorality to perversion.....all of which leads to judgment.

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    1. Hi lyn, I like your analysis of Romans 1:26-27. And science backs you up, too. Genetic researchers *still* cannot seem to find that elusive little "gay gene" that many in the homosexual community keep yammering about. Hmm...I wonder why.

      My point is simply that as far trying to witness to members of the LBGT community is concerned, the fact that there's no such thing as a gay gene ultimately doesn't matter that much--if they insist on believing there is, no argument (scientific OR biblical) will convince them otherwise. People will grasp at anything they can to justify their sin, when what they need to do is realize they are sinners in need of His saving grace.

      I just want to remind us that as believers, if we let ourselves get too too sidetracked on the specifics of the behavior, we can lose sight of that. And if we lose *that*, we lose *them*.

      Excellent post.

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    2. I agree Greg, I have a nephew who is in bondage to this sin, along with many others. My sister insists it's genetic! That's why I dug deeper in God's word to try and show her how wrong she is. Sadly, she won't listen and doesn't even speak to me at this time, but I keep praying for her and my nephew. I wasn't directing my post as a response to what you said Greg, I was thinking of my sister when I hammered out my comment.

      You are right, it doesn't really matter whether there's a gay gene or not; God has stated in His word this particular sexual sin is an abomination...period. You are right about getting sidetracked too, I've debated homosexuals who insist that Jesus never spoke out against homosexuality, that the word 'homosexual' isn't found in the original language, that God only forbid homosexuality as it concerned temple prostitution, etc. It seems the rabbit trails they try and take you down are endless! As you state, it can be very distracting, we MUST pray for patience, wisdom, understanding and humility to rule and reign in our hearts as we speak His truth.

      Many blessings to you!

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    3. "I wasn't directing my post as a response to what you said Greg, I was thinking of my sister when I hammered out my comment."

      God bless you, Lyn! I'm *really* happy you said that, because for a brief moment I was afraid that my possibly less than careful wording had somehow ignited yet another argument that I absolutely did not mean to ignite. I seem to have a tendency to do that from time to time because sometimes I type faster than I think.

      Thanks!

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  3. Sir Elton said: “If Jesus Christ was alive today, I cannot see him,…”

    Revelation 1:18 “I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.” (KJV)

    ‘sir elton’s' worldly christ IS dead which is why ‘sir elton’ cannot see the One and only Living Water Who could save him – John 3:3 “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” CANNOT SEE - the spiritually blind don’t see the ‘alive for evermore’ Christ of the Bible which is why they also don’t see that same Lord Jesus ‘holding the keys of hell and of death’.

    I know some are getting tired of talking about the 'pink agenda' but that is what they want us to do - get tired and forget about the children who are being indoctrinated into this depraved culture right from kindergarten upwards and it is getting worse. They truly are in a horrific battlefield and don't know it. This rapid decline is rising as fast as these young minds can absorb and propagate this depravation. As adult believers we have the blessing of the more sure Word of God but oh these children…being passed through the ‘fire’ 2 Kings 17

    With a heavy heart...

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  4. I read the article about Elton John, and as I did something occurred to me. You know, it's one thing to reach out in love and share the Gospel with those God brings into our personal spheres of influence. It's one thing to be prepared to lead someone to see that we are all born sinners and that our only hope is to admit that fact, humble ourselves before God in repentance, and ask God for the forgiveness His Son purchased for us with His blood.

    But there's something else here. We should also be prepared to simply stand up and say "No! That's wrong!" We should be prepared to use whatever opportunity God provides us with to make it known to the world around us that there is a holy God in heaven who hates sin, and that He will not be mocked. Even if nobody listens. Even if nobody cares. Even if nobody repents. Even if people smirk behind our backs (or to our faces). Even if the world calls us Bible thumpers. I actually taught that word to one of my English conversation classes here in Taiwan a few weeks ago. =:)

    We should take a stand in whatever way God gives us against the worldly arrogance that thumbs its nose at God and calls Jesus a "Christian person." Are you kidding me?! No, Elton, Jesus wasn't a "Christian person"...He was *the Christ*--God in the flesh. And your knee will bow before Him and your tongue will confess Him.

    There's a time to witness, and there's a time to be a witness. I pray that God would help me to do both.

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  5. Greg comment: "There's a time to witness, and there's a time to be a witness. I pray that God would help me to do both."

    Amen Greg. Thanks for the strong reminder. We DO need to be ready in and out of season and not soften the message. When our hearts beat for the last time we stand before the Lord and there is no more chance for repentance. And that is a very weighty knowledge that should cause our bones to cry out to warn everyone!

    But if I say, "I will not remember Him or speak anymore in His name," Then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire shut up in my bones; and I am weary of holding it in, and I cannot endure it. Jeremiah 20:9 (NASB)

    For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. Acts 4:20 (KJV)







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  6. Stated,

    “...I've debated homosexuals who insist that Jesus never spoke out against homosexuality...”

    The Gospel of John records Jesus to be God (John 1:1). If one does believe Jesus is God, if one does believe Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8), and if one does believe all Scripture is breathed by God (2 Timothy 3:16), then all we have to do is look in the Bible and see if God ever spoke concerning the practice of homosexuality. For by doing so, we’ll then also see what Jesus has said on the subject as well:

    “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination” (Leviticus 18:22).

    “If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination” (Leviticus 20:13).

    “They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error” (Romans 1:25-27).

    “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate (those who practice homosexuality), nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).

    Now, does this really sound like Jesus was silent on one of the critical issues of our time.

    Further stated,

    “...I've debated homosexuals who insist that.....the word 'homosexual' isn't found in the original language...”

    True, but Paul did know the word malakos (Gk) which is translated, effeminate or soft. This is the word to denote catamites, those who allowed themselves passively to be used in anal intercourse.

    He also knew the word arsenokoites (Gk) which is translated, sodomite, a active male homosexual. It is a compound noun formed from arsen, "male" and koite, "bed." Thus, an arsenokoites is a man who lies with another man.

    "...Be not deceived, neither...malakos (effeminate) nor arsenokoites (abusers of themselves with mankind)...shall inherit the kingdom of God" (I Cor. 6-9-10).

    Mario

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  7. This article speaks truth so much truth here. Homosexuals desire to have their sin accepted as we see them succeeding in their plight. It is no secret that most churches have accepted the sin of divorce which includes adultery and no longer call it out for what it is. Most churches do not want anyone to feel bad in this area and the end result would be church members lost and less money filling the plates.

    Divorce in the church is a touchy subject for in my church, over 50% of the attendees are divorced with several married multiple times. We shout amen and applaud our pastor when he condemns homosexuality as it hasn't permeated most of our families, and these sermons stroke our little god persona (we have the TBN false teachers and preachers heavily promoted in my church) as express the self serving excitement of our own religiousity.

    And there is never a prayer said during the service nor a call for prayer in the printed bulletin for those in bondage to homosexuality. No, not one prayer for a hurting people. The prayer closet of the heart is silent.

    My intent is to not cause trouble here as homosexuality is a sin and condemned to hell is no repentance and belief on our LORD Jesus takes place. This is Scriptural.

    My concern is that the church does not preach and teach, promote nor embrace the institution of marriage as defined by our LORD. Marriages are NOT built up in our churches, nor are they nurtured through instruction from our Scriptures, so we go it alone and do our own Bible studies to show ourselves approved. We have pastors encouraging their counselees to get divorced (in my community anyway), we have pastor's children who have been married multiple times so it may be difficult for pastors to preach God's Word in this area, we have divorced people sitting in our pews who secretly desire to undermine marriage and families due to the unhappy and ungodly state of their own marriages, we have family members secretly hating their children's spouses lying and slandering their name in communities desiring divorce for their own children/brother/or sister (and claim to be Christians), we have people of all age groups, not just our youth anymore, living together before marriage, and in the older generations, as a replacement for marriage until their dying day......

    And the churches are silent regarding the pandemic of divorce here in our country. They are silent on people living together (fornicating) before marriage, they are silent on the sin of the thoughts....the lusting and adultery that goes on within the mind that no man sees, but God knows.......

    Our churches have embraced divorce and all of its excuses for doing so, most of which are unbiblical reasons for doing so. And since God has given man over to depravity, it is a matter of time before the institutional church system as a whole-the 501c. 3's who have already wedded the beast system- will fully embrace homosexuality.

    In closing, I sat under a woman in our own church, during praise and blessing time, rant and rave that her and her husband debated several homosexuals in a bar, telling them they were living in sin. Only to discover she was living her third marriage and her husband was on his fourth. And the pastor sat silent once again......

    God, oh God, forgive us for neglecting your Word and not praying as we should.

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  8. The Pope has not changed a single doctrine of the Catholic church. He cannot, it is impossible to do. The fact that Elton John THINKS the Pope has gives credit to his insanity.

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    1. Well, there have been changes to doctrine by popes, if not Francis - yet. Papal infallibility wasn't dogmatically confirmed as doctrine until 1869, and Pope Paul 6 made changes to the liturgy in the 1960s even though the liturgy was codified as doctrine in the 1500s by Pius. The pope can do what Xerxes did, because the emperor's decrees could never be changed either (something Haman was banking on) for countermand his original statement by issuing another statement topping the first one. though I agree Francis likely wont' do that.

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