These have been the most read articles on Delight in Truth through January 22, 2013:
Rick Warren on Homosexuality: “not everything natural is good…”
What Would it Be Like to Hold Baby Jesus?
Theology 101: What is Double Predestination?
Tag Archives: homosexuality
Religious Intolerance in America
We have arrived here no matter how tolerant we claim to be as a nation.
The first amendment to the US Constitution states:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
In light of pastor Louie Giglio’s force-out from giving the benediction at Obama’s second inauguration because he holds (or held) to orthodox biblical teaching like millions of Americans do, I ask, what happened to our intrinsic constitutional right to hold differing religious beliefs and opinions?
Why is Giglio who holds (or held 15 years ago) the belief that homosexuality is sin being forced from the public square?
This has nothing to do with separation of Church and State. They are separate entities and we do not dispute that, therefore that argument goes out the window. This has to do with the fact that many Christians view alternative life styles as sin based on Scripture.
The very people who preach tolerance to conservative Christians are the ones guilty of intolerance now.
Obama needs to stand up to his left-wing supporters and outline the fact that the Constitution’s vision is one of pluralism. They ask us to “coexist” on bumper stickers, and now we ask the same.
But I am afraid this situation developed because of truth. A commentator called me mr. Truth probably because I hold tight to Biblical truth. Truth does one of two things: it either convicts the sinner toward repentance or it hardens him/her. In the case of gay activists it is obviously the latter.
They have gone as far as twisting Scripture to declassify homosexual relationships as sin. I believe that deep down, nature is revealing to them the sinful aspect of such relations, and they are trying to gain the approval of Christians who hold to historical and correct interpretation of the Bible, as if such approval would make things right.
As born-again Christians led by the Holy Spirit are become a shrinking minority in the US, it is imperative that our constitutional rights are preserved and we are not forced out of the public square. But it probably is too late for that. Endorsing biblical views on sin and depravity got us labeled as bigots, even though we do not try to force our views on anyone. It is a matter of personal faith, and we evangelize to those who are willing to listen.
So I ask again, who are the intolerant ones if not the ‘activists of tolerance’ who led to a forced withdrawal by Giglio?
Less Americans Believe Alternative Life Styles are a Sin
In just 14 months there was 7 point drop in the percent of Americans who believe that homosexuality is a sin from 44% to 37%.
LifeWay Research conducted these studies, and their president commented that the country is rapidly shifting position on this issue, partly due to president Obama’s “evolving” view on gay marriage.
“There is little doubt that the President’s evolution on homosexuality probably impacted the evolution of cultural values. This is a real and substantive shift, surprisingly large for a one-year time frame – though this was hardly a normal year on this issue’
These findings are revealed in the wake of pastor Louie Giglio’s withdrawal from the presidential inauguration prayer. The White House has already announced that Giglio will be replaced by a pro-gay pastor as a means to not alienate anyone.
Christians believers who hold to the inerrancy and infallibility of the Bible will now be a rapidly shrinking minority in the US.
I am writing this to warn the body of Christ of our status in modern society. Even though the Constitution gives us the right to believe the Bible as it is written, without taking Romans 1, 1 Corinthians 6, and many other pages out, we will be labeled as bigots, anti-social retros, and obstacles to progress.
Will this lead to religious persecution? I believe yes. Especially if Congress working with this Administration takes up “hate-speech” legislation which will prevent preaching from church pulpits from the above mentioned Bible passages.
At this point I do not envision pastors being put in jail for preaching against homosexuality. But there is a real possibility of other legal methods being used to curtail religious freedom and free speech if such legislation is used. Canada has already experimented with “hate-speech” legislation, and pastors there have confessed they are being pressured to not expose anti-sin views from the pulpit.
The world is changing. Views are evolving. A constant and confusing flux of public opinion is inundating us everyday.
Despite this we must remain anchored in the Word of God. Anchored in Truth.
Louie Giglio Withdraws from the Inauguration and… the Gay Debate
In another half-meant attempt to extend an “olive branch” to evangelicals, Obama asked Passion City Church pastor Louie Giglio to give the prayer at his 2nd inauguration as a reward for Giglio’s social work to end modern slavery.
After initially accepting with enthusiasm, the pastor released this somewhat apologetic and confusing statement:
“Due to a message of mine that has surfaced from 15-20 years ago, it is likely that my participation, and the prayer I would offer, will be dwarfed by those seeking to make their agenda the focal point of the inauguration. Clearly, speaking on this issue has not been in the range of my priorities in the past fifteen years. Instead, my aim has been to call people to ultimate significance as we make much of Jesus Christ.”
He was referring to a sermon from what he wants to make it seem like a long, long time ago, when he used to preach against the sin of homosexuality.
He now wants to withdraw from the spotlight. A reasonable conclusion is that he does not wish to defend or debate the biblical truth he once proclaimed in the public square.
On one of the hottest issues threatening to split churches and spread false teaching, Giglio, one of the most recognizable faces of the American Christianity, wishes to remain silent.
Historic Christianity demonstrates that men of God have not been silent on issues of sin. Jesus Himself did not withdraw from the debate on sexual immorality in Matthew 19. Paul did not shy away from labeling homosexual relations as unnatural and idolatrous in Romans 1. Peter was bold in addressing immorality and false teaching in 2 Peter 2.
Even Rick Warren did not withdraw himself from the debate, he actually craves it making the rounds an all the popular talk shows exposing a lukewarm position on the nature of homosexual relations.
Why is Louie Giglio backing down? Why won’t he deliver a firm inaugural Christian prayer to God in the name of Jesus (not in the name of Islamic prophet Isa like Rick Warren did in his inaugural prayer) and let the storm rage around him?
I love the Casting Crowns song lyrics which highlight the storm around us:
And I’ll praise You in this storm
And I will lift my hands
For You are who You are
No matter where I am
This was the opportunity of a life time for Giglio to stand up for God and for biblical truth in front of an audience of hundreds of millions, and he blew it! It would have been an eternal testimony… I am so disappointed…
Is “Christianity Today” Christian?
I have tried to follow the magazine Christianity Today (CT), but every other time I read an article there it seems like it is written either from a secular standpoint or by someone who might not be a Christian. Really nice image being portrayed by a so-called Christian magazine…
Case and point, the editors just came out with their 2012 CT Music Awards. I love Christian music, so I was excited to see check out the top Christian artists of the year. But the top 12 albums of the year include names like Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Rait, and Bob Dylan.
Most of the names there are secular with the blasphemous Springsteen leading the pack. His famous concert tirades mocking Christians and mocking God are now being rewarded by CT with a top 12 status! Reformed rapper Lecrae somehow made it at the bottom of the list. 🙂 This is the explanation for their choices:
“Our annual best albums list includes the usual mix of clearly Christian and “secular” music. The loosely defined criteria for making the cut is essentially this: The album should indicate some sort of spiritual search, a quest for life’s meaning. Sometimes the music comes from an orthodox Christian worldview, and sometimes not.”
It is no longer about a quest for the God revealed in the Bible… the Bible that Christians from Christianity Today should believe as God’s inerrant and infallible Word. It is now about “some sort of spiritual search.” Is Christianity now reduced to Universalism?
This is just a symptom of the counterfeit Christianity prevalent in CT.
CT’s stance on homosexuality is readily apparent by the large amount of articles with relatively friendly positions toward the gay agenda. They frequently include topics on gay membership in church and ordination of gays in ministry.
They have previously endorsed a definition of marriage as that being between a man and a woman, but with lukewarm stipulations: “Far more than the protection of the legal definition of marriage, our society needs a fresh understanding of marriage.” A fresh understanding? Really? I guess what Moses wrote in Genesis and what Paul and Peter write in the New Testament about marriage is too old fashion.
The Bible calls on believers to separate themselves from the world, because as Jesus said even though we are in the world we are “not of the world.” We cannot follow CT’s example in endorsing positions that require us to have to serve two masters. Since Dylan is on their top 12 list maybe they should listen to his song “Gotta Serve Somebody.” Since Paul quotes a pagan poet in Acts 17, I will quote Dylan here to prove this point:
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody
The words of apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 6 ring truer then ever in this era when the church is increasingly mixing with the world:
“14…For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? 15What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? 16What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God”
I question if Christianity Today is really Christian.
A Closer Look at Romans 1: the Nature of Human Relations
Rom 1:26 “Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.”
I will preface this article by saying that the Bible forbids us from hating any group of people. We are commanded to love our neighbor, and at the same time to preach the truth about God’s love, and the repentance from any and all sin.
Whenever an in-depth look is undertaken into any Bible passage, one must use a word-for-word translation like the ESV or the NASB, and possibly look at the Hebrew or Greek text using tools such as Strong’s dictionary among others. We will take a look at this passage and focus on the way apostle Paul uses the derivatives of the word “nature” in the context of homosexual relations.
One of the most important points of the gay agenda is to proclaim the idea that homosexual relations come naturally to the persons who subscribe to that orientation. This has been implied even by some evangelical leaders like Rick Warren… but not in so many words. A closer look in Romans 1 reveals that same-sex relations are not only sinful, but they are against nature the way God ordained it.
The context of Romans 1:18-32 is very important because it further solidifies this position. The theme here is God’s wrath against the depravity of mankind, making the point that idolatry is unnatural. It says that men committed an unnatural act in that they “exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man. (verse 23)” We see the contrast here between the natural and the unnatural, the glory of the immortal God and the images resembling mortal man, respectively.
Paul points to the transition between the natural worship of God, and the unnatural worship of man and idols. He also points to how men unnaturally “exchanged the truth about God for a lie (verse 25).”
Continuing in the same pattern of natural vs unnatural, Paul gives an example of human depravity: homosexuality. Just like the exchange of the “glory of the immortal God” for idolatry, and truth for lie was presented earlier, Paul now presents two more unnatural exchanges:
1. The phrase “their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones” references lesbianism as being unnatural, therefore against nature
2. The phrase “men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another” references homosexual relations among men and specifies that these men abandoned the natural state, that is the relationship ordained by God between man and woman in Gen 2:24. Paul makes a clear case that an unnatural relationship is now taking place between members of the same sex.
The final analysis is the result of depravity: “the due penalty for their perversion” which is the result of God giving “them up in the lusts of their hearts.”
Romans 1:26-27 is abundantly clear that homosexuality is not only sinful, but unnatural in the context of human relations ordained by God. The argument that homosexual desires are natural, as any other sinful desire like lust, hate, anger, and greed directly contradicts Romans 1 Scripture.
Related click here: Can one repent of these unnatural desires?
Rick Warren on Homosexuality: “not everything natural is good…”
I do not dislike Rick Warren. He is a big celebrity, a nice guy, and almost everyone in this country seems to like him. But there lies the problem… You cannot be a pastor who proclaims the Gospel, and at the same time make sinners feel good, because the Word of God is a two-edged sword that must convict the sinner and lead him to repentance.
Continuing his wildly successful book tour, Warren again presented false teaching on the issue of homosexuality while being interviewed by left-wing host Piers Morgan.
Morgan: “Do you personally believe that gay people are born gay? Or, do they become gay? Are they made gay?”
Warren: “You know what — I think the jury’s still out on that. It wouldn’t bother me if there was a ‘gay gene’ found,”
“Here’s what we know about life: I have all kinds of natural feelings in my life and it doesn’t necessarily mean that I should act on every feeling. Sometimes I get angry and I feel like punching a guy in the nose. It doesn’t mean I act on it. Sometimes I feel attracted to women who are not my wife. I don’t act on it,”
“Just because I have a feeling doesn’t make it right. Not everything natural is good for me.”
Going against biblical truth, Warren strongly implies that homosexuality is natural, which ultimately means it is furnished by the Creator. This is the agenda that the gay community has been pushing for years in suppressing the truth found in the Word of God, and Rick Warren seems to be fanning their flame.
Let’s get back to the Bible to see what Paul really teaches about the natural vs unnatural aspect of homosexual relations in Romans 1:
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 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.
28 And 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.
The problem here is that Rick Warren knows this passage in the Bible. He also knows that if he reads this passage on Piers Morgan’s show, his book will no longer $ell in that audience.
It is so difficult to serve both God and Mammon.
Delight in Truth 
