GAY TRUTH

Now that we Christians have had two weeks to cool our jets a bit, we can reposition and recalibrate ourselves. Events like those transpiring last Friday provide opportune times of reminder for God’s people of our mission. When some of the more powerful human courts in the world express their fallenness, and the grandstands of culture erupt in praise, Christians are handed an occasion to be reminded of what we’re doing here on earth. Humanity is still fallen. Jesus is still risen. Christians are still commissioned. Being bestowed with every spiritual blessing from heaven means we have a responsibility to be a blessing on earth. One helpful place to go for biblical instruction on the matter is the Apostle Paul ’s exhortation to the Colossian church. These believers lived in a culture which clashed with the biblical worldview. Things like homosexuality and unfriendly political stances were the norm. So, how did God , through the pen of the Apostle, shepherd his people to respond? “W

English: Lot and his daughters flee Sodom, as in Genesis 19:17, illustration from "Sunrays" published 1908 by the Providence Lithograph Company (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) The witnesses of the Old Testament and ancient Jewish society have implications for a view of homosexual orientation and behavior that can be described as biblical: 1.      Homosexuality violates the creation order and patterns for male and female roles and for marriage (Genesis 1–2). It arises from the same internal rebellion as did the Fall recorded in Genesis 3 . 2.      Homosexual rape is the only sin described in the events surrounding the fall of Sodom as a special judgment of God ( Genesis 19 ).            3.      That homosexual rape was the sin of Sodom is the only interpretation that fits the larger literary context and structure of the narrative about the covenant God made with Abraham.            4.      Homosexuality is the sin of the incident at Gibeah (Judges 19–20).           

Peter's conflict with Simon Magus by Avanzino Nucci, 1620. Simon is on the right, dressed in black. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) I am sick and tired of this “who am I to judge?” silliness. Only God can judge the state of the human soul. But it is pure humbug to suggest we cannot and should not judge human behavior. Reluctance to judge moral behavior is the inevitable consequence of moral relativism and moral subjectivism that has eroded confidence in the ability to determine objective moral truth on which sound judgment is based. Judgment is an essential component of the exercise of authority. If you do not have the courage to judge, then you should avoid positions of authority. Not being judgmental is a curse of our age. When I cautioned my teenagers not to hang out with so and so, the standard response was “Oh, Dad, you are so judgmental!” Not to judge is a dereliction of duty that afflicts so much of the Church’s hierarchy. It obscures our Lord’s message, sows confusion am

voor box uitsnede monstrans (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) I’m a Catholic male and same-sex attractions are a part of my story. However, it has recently been written onto my heart that I might be called to marriage—with a woman. What? Let me explain… Not About Therapy This has nothing to do with therapy with the objective to change from “gay” to “straight.” I’ve never done that, and I have found peace in knowing that the Church is not trying to get me to pursue that. This has, however, come to be after many years of continuously striving to say “ Yes ” to God , and “Yes” to growing in virtue (in particular, the virtue of chastity, which I struggled with for most of my life). I came to desire a chaste heart because I desired holiness, and I desired holiness because I desired to unite my heart with the heart of Jesus Christ . This desire came about because I first experienced the love of Christ through  someone like   you ; someone who simply loved me where I was at in my

Heterosexual and homosexual pornography is out there, and it’s not going away any time soon. So to help your kids guard against it, you have to prepare them. According to Josh McDowell , author of books including “Evidence which Demands a Verdict” and “ More Than a Carpenter ,” who has turned his attention of late to the devastation of pornography on our culture and the Church, this may rank among the greatest threats to Christianity we’ve ever seen. Explaining why he decided to tackle the issue of pornography, Josh said in an interview with John Stonestreet of Breakpoint how he sensed a barrier to his apologetic work which had nothing to do with the Faith itself. “I am an apologist,” says Josh. “I set forth positive reasons why to believe, in order to see young people come to Christ . But about five or six years ago, I kept sensing that there’s a problem out there. When I would interact with young people, something had become a barrier. I realized it was intrusive and pervasiv

Image via Wikipedia B y Elodie Ballantine Emig Corinth was known for its immorality. Even the Corinthian church, the local body of Christ , was plagued by immorality. In a letter not preserved for us in the Bible, Paul exhorted the Corinthians not to associate with fornicators (see I Cor. 5:9). Alas, Paul did not mean pagan fornicators, but rather fornicators within the church itself.  Apparently the church, which was almost exclusively made up of Gentiles rather than converted Jews , had no problem with the concept that Christians are free from the Old Testament law.  In fact, a faction within the church was beginning to doubt Paul’s spirituality, possibly because he still obeyed much of the law. Despite the fact that Paul had planted the church (ca. A.D. 49-51) and had remained in Corinth for 18 months, his relationship with church members was more than a little strained by the time he wrote I Cor., some three years later. The church members had misunderstood Paul’s first let