PART I – THE QUEERING OF A NATION
It was the early summer of 2015, the 26th of June; that season when the Supreme Court of the United States issues its rulings. That year the Court handed down its decision in Obergefell v Hodges that legalized same-sex marriage in all 50 states. This was big – an earthquake that forever changed the cultural landscape. They had achieved the plan. The Gay community jubilated. The plan had worked. (More on that later.) President Obama declared it “a victory for America.”[i] And sin was celebrated and ensconced as a legal right on par with the guarantees etched in the Bill of Rights.
Since then both the acceptance of the sin and the depth of the social disorder has increased exponentially. First we saw the manifestation of the LGBTQ phenomenon. Then came runaway ‘genderism’ – that says that we all fall into a “spectrum between male and female.” One source lists 63 genders. [Well, I guess they’re only off by 61.] And it’s not just that many people believe this. It is the fact that they DEMAND that you believe it too – and sometimes there are penalties if you don’t. A doctor in England lost his government job and ruled “unfit to work” when he suggested that gender is determined at birth.[ii] [God had something to say about that too. Genesis 1:27: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” (KJV) And through it all, the momentum is moving toward full and unqualified acceptance of this new ethic. Support for same-sex marriage has gone from 27% in 1996 to 67% today. “Gallup has found that more than 10.4% of LGBT adults are married to a same-sex spouse. This means that Americans are more likely to know someone who has married a same-sex partner, and the visibility of these marriages may be playing a role in overturning some folks’ previously held opposition to their legal status.”[iii] In addition, more people are identifying as part of the LGBTQ community. In 2012, Gallup found 3.5% of Americans claiming that status. By 2017 the number had gone up a full percentage point.[iv] That’s over a 77% increase. A third poll found that “50% of U.S. adults say people are born gay or lesbian.” [That’s not quite what the science says, but we’ll delve into that later in the series.] Thirty percent cite environmental factors.[v] [vi]
This ‘Great Gay Wave’ is often helped along by the liberal wing of the Church, sometimes officially and sometimes by its prominent members. Enter former President Jimmy Carter, who famously described himself as “born again” and often wears his faith well. During an interview promoting his new book the he answered a query of whether Jesus would approve of Gay marriage. “I believe Jesus would. I don’t have any verse in scripture … I believe that Jesus would approve gay marriage, but that’s just my own personal belief. I think Jesus would encourage any quote love affair if it was honest and sincere and was not damaging to anyone else. I don’t see that gay marriage damages anyone else.”[vii] [In the same interview he opined that Jesus would not approve of abortions – but then listed some exceptions including rape and incest.] President Carter got it all wrong on this issue. We can’t look for answers in our own opinion but in the word of God. Franklin Graham posted a wonderful response on Facebook that addresses the issue perfectly. “He is absolutely wrong when he said Jesus would approve of gay marriage. Jesus didn’t come to promote sin, He came to save us from sin. The Bible is very clear. God destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because of homosexuality. God defines sin in His Word — it’s not up to our opinion, the latest poll, or a popular vote. What is very troubling is that some people may read what President Carter has said and believe it, whether it was this week or from a video 3 years ago that is now recirculating. God loves us and gives us the truth in His Word. He warns us of the serious consequences of sin.” The Rev Graham then went on to quote Romans 1:24-27. “Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.”
Couched in Graham’s answer is the crux of the issue – and it drips with prophetic significance. America is becoming like Sodom and Gomorrah. Those ancient cities dripped with sexual sin, perversion and homosexuality. It was accepted and celebrated. Genesis 19 describes how the men of Sodom got together in a gang to attempt to perform homosexual rape on two angels disguised as men. These angels were guests of Lot – and God told Lot to flee after these events. God’s judgment quickly followed. “Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven.” (Genesis 19:24) (ESV) [There now exists scientific evidence that the account of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is no fairy story. The likely sites have been identified and “excavations in the area point to falling burning debris.”][viii] But here’s the prophetic take on the whole thing. Jesus warned his disciples what the days would look like before His return. “Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all.” (Luke 17:28-29) The days of Lot were filled with sexual perversion. Jude 1:7 confirms the reason behind God’s judgment. “Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.”
Stepping Back: A Foundation of Forgiveness
So yes, America is transforming and, in many ways, has been transformed. And yes we are a nation that now celebrates sin; celebrates the flaunting of the will and the laws of God. But I think we need to step back here and understand what we as Christians need believe. We are all sinners, saved only by the grace of God. And homosexuality is not the only sin or the worst of sins that keeps us away from God. Consider these two scripture passages. First, 1Corinthians 6:9-11: “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.” Now look at 2Corinthians 5:21. “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
There’s the good news! God has sent His only Son to purchase forgiveness for His children. For “whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) Bible believing Christians must beware, when approaching this subject of homosexuality not to condemn the sinner along with the sin. That level of judgment is God’s provenance alone. In that passage from 1Corinthians quoted above, homosexuals and sodomites are excluded from the Kingdom of God…but only right along with adulterers and thieves and drunkards. It is axiomatic that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) Yet there is that good news. Notice how this all works. “The unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God.” Yet if you repent of that life, (drunkenness, thievery, sodomy, – whatever it is), there is the promise of forgiveness. But “such were some of you. But you were washed” and sanctified and justified. We are all called to repent! “If you love Me, keep My commandments,” said Jesus in John 14:15. Then this promise is given in verses 23 & 24, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep my word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words.” Jesus said again in John 7:16, “You will know them by their fruits.”
So there you have it! We are all sinners, – called to repent. If we are truly His, if we are truly “born again” (John 3:3): We will strive to keep His word. Here are Jesus words as recorded in Mark 2:16. “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” But first we must recognize that we are sinners. We must show the fruit of repentance. Therein lies the rub, – repentance. It must be the sinner’s desire, (and remember, we are all sinners), to change. Listen to the words of 1John 1:8-10. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”
But it is precisely in this point that the homosexual community falls short spiritually. In an effort to bury their guilt they have redefined the nature of their actions. They pointedly reject the notion that homosexuality is sin; despite what the Bible clearly states on the subject. So they seek to normalize their actions, claiming they have no choice, that it is a pre-determined sexual preference – and therefore that they are just another oppressed minority. But to God, it is sin! And unrepented sin damns. So it is no act of kindness to wink in toleration or approval at the act. In fact, it is spiritual cruelty of the 1st degree: For it is a matter of eternal destiny!
[i] Supreme Court Declares Same-Sex Marriage Legal In All 50 States, NPR, June 25, 2015
[ii] Geoffrey Grider, HATE SPEECH: CHRISTIAN DOCTOR DAVID MACKERETH IN UK FIRED AND DEEMED ‘UNFIT TO
WORK’ FOR CRIME OF SAYING GENDER IS DETERMINED AT BIRTH, NTEB, July 8, 2018
[iii] Two in Three Americans Support Same-Sex Marriage, Gallup, May 23, 2018
[iv] In U.S., Estimate of LGBT Population Rises to 4.5%, Gallup, May 22, 2018
[v] More Say ‘Nature’ Than ‘Nurture’ Explains Sexual Orientation, Gallup, May 24, 2018
[vi] A good summarizing article on these polls was found at: The Stream, Acceptance of Homosexuality Grows, Even Among
‘Conservatives’, May 28, 2018
[vii] Jimmy Carter says ‘Jesus would approve of gay marriage’ but not abortions, The Independent (UK), July 9, 2018
[viii] John Black, Sodom & Gomorrah – Scientific Evidence, Ancient Origins, April 19, 2013
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