Date: October 2004 Title: “In the Beginning: Adam &Steve" (III)

       In the previous two issues, this column has examined homosexuality and Biblical Teaching.  Now, its time to draw some conclusions.

       Conclusion.  The Bible consistently identifies homosexual behavior as a sin.  It is NOT the “unforgivable sin,” but it is sin and continuing in its practice will exclude folks (even if they claim to be Christians) from the kingdom of God.  Homosexuals need Jesus and salvation.  They need to repent of sexual sin, as do others with different sinful “orientations.”  What is “Gay Marriage”?  Another bizarre invention of our humanistic and disoriented society.

       As for orientation, let’s be honest, many Christian heterosexuals have a lingering “orientation” towards fornication (sexual relations between unmarried people), and adultery (sexual relations involving a married person and someone other than their spouse), and/or pornography.  Heterosexual fornication and adultery are still just as much sexual “sins” as is homosexual behavior and continuing in these behaviors also will exclude folks from the Kingdom of God.^[1]  I know of Bible College personnel who have lost their positions for continuing sexual problems and a friend of mine recently commented that he did not like to go to the NACC because of all of the preachers he met with “new wives” (and they weren’t widowers).  Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart scandalized America a few decades back for their sexual immorality, but they were just the visible tip of the iceberg – the “Sexual Revolution” (late 1960’s) has infected American Christians far too much.

       On the other hand, Christians are supposed to take Biblical teaching about immorality and judgment seriously!  If you are in disobedience on this matter, then “STOP” right now and repent.  If you are married, then take seriously the “covenant loyalty” that you owe to the wife of your youth or husband!  Avoid/refuse adultery and chose to practice a long-forgotten mystical art called “self-control” (for many reasons) and resist the urge to act on your immoral “orientation,” whatever it is.  If you are not married, then keep yourself sexually pure and do not follow the pressures of our culture to enjoy sex without marriage – because heterosexual marriage is God’s provision for sexual expression (1Corinthians 7:1-9) and sexual immorality is serious spiritual business (1Thessalonians 4:1-8) – Read these passages!

       An oft-forgotten element in Christian doctrine is that we are no longer to let sin “reign” in our mortal bodies and “obey its lusts” (Romans 6:11-14), but we are to “put to death the deeds of the body” (Romans 8:12,13) – “daily” if necessary, in order to “stop sinning” (1Corinthians 15:31-34).  The “inner struggle” between Spirit and flesh that rages within us is supposed to be decided in favor of the Spirit (Galatians 5:16,17).  Sadly, many who wear the name ‘Christian” never chose to “die to sin” – they just “feel faint” once in awhile!  No matter what your sinful “orientation” may be, God calls us to deny ourselves and fight the good fight – often our own attitudes and desires and the pressures from the surrounding culture may be the battlefield.

       How should we react to homosexuality?  Well, it’s a sin and should be ranked in there with heterosexual fornication and adultery (of course, a lot of churches don’t take those latter two practices to be all that serious anymore – too many members, leaders, and preachers are guilty or want to be).  Sex is powerful and those “trapped” (or enslaved) to physical urges do have a struggle on their hands.  I have had to be around practicing homosexuals occasionally in a social setting and I don’t “preach at them” when I know they have already heard the Biblical perspective and rejected it.  However, when asked I state my view and remind folks that this is God’s universe, His Word is clear, and all of us are approaching death and judgment.  When homosexuals seek the Lord, tell them the same truth that you would tell people involved in any sin – continuing sin will exclude them from the heavenly kingdom (1Corinthians 6:9,10; Ephesians 5:19-21).  Continuing “temptations” and an inner struggle is likely, even after becoming a Christian (Galatians 5:16-18), because these are rooted in our own personal “appetites/desires” (James 1:13-16).  I still fight some of the skirmishes from time to time and so do all of you readers!  Proclaim and teach the “whole counsel of God” – treat homosexuality Biblically – it is a serious sin, but not the “unforgivable” one.  Jesus died for that sin as well as the ones the rest of us commonly do and think to be not as serious.  All of us need to repent of whatever there is in our lives that is clearly contrary to God’s revealed will.  When talking about marriage and divorce, Jesus noted that “from the beginning, God made them male and female” (Matthew 19:3-4).  And, in the beginning, God created “Adam and Eve” – not “Adam and Steve” – or none of us would even be here!