Doctrinal Studies

                                      HOMOSEXUALITY AND JUDGING.

On November 16, 1996, more than two thousand supporters of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement (LGCM) held a 20th anniversary celebration in London's prestigious Southwark Cathedral. The final service in the day-long event required a spill-over into a nearby hall. For 20 years this organization has pressed for the recognition of homosexuality as a natural condition which should not be condemned as immoral. One of its priorities is to press for the ordination of openly practicing homosexuals.

Though many Anglicans publicly opposed the event, several Church of England bishops gave support by their presence at the service.

The Presbyterian Church USA News (Nov. 20, 1996), reported that a blue banner over one of the stands at the festival declared: "Jesus Christ, he is the way -- we believe it, and we are gay."

According to Church Net UK, Anglican Bishop John Gladwin spoke at this anniversary, declaring "that the nature of human sexuality was a gift from God." He said that "society was self-deceived and deluded when it came to matters of sex, and what was required was a bit of honesty."

Retired U.S. Episcopalian Bishop Walter Righter was one of the speakers at the conference. Earlier this year Righter was cleared of charges of heresy for ordaining a "practicing homosexual." (We published an article at that time entitled "No Heresy in the Episcopal Church.") In London at the LGCM anniversary, Righter told the crowd, ""You are the prophets, you are calling the church to account. Keep the heat on." He said: "God made you the way you are and the Church has to recognise that. It takes an institution a long time." According to Church Net UK, Righter said that "this was time of shifting paradigms, and that there was no ethic for many of the new situations created by twentieth century society." He suggested that "a different paradigm might be relevant for gay than for straight relationships." He is wrong, of course. The Word of God is just as applicable to man's condition today as it was 2,000 years ago. Man's technology has changed, but his nature and his spiritual and moral condition have not. He needs the same salvation that he needed 2,000 years ago, and he needs the same Word of God that he needed 2,000 years ago. The fact that we are living in the computer age does not change the fact that sin is still sin, and sin is defined by the Holy Scriptures, not by society's shifting values.

Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, who claims to be an "evangelical," denied that by permitting the service in Southwark the Church of England was endorsing gay rights. That position is indefensible biblically and misses the real issue. For a "church" to allow heresy and sin to go undisciplined is disobedience to the Word of God. In 1 Corinthians 5:13 we have God's instructions to the churches in regard to dealing with unrepentant sinners. They are commanded to "put away from among yourselves that wicked person" (1 Cor. 5:13). Someone might protest, "But who are you to judge another person?" The answer is that it is not man who judges an unrepentant sinner. It is God Himself who does the judging, and He has already judged. He has judged that such be put out of the church until he repents and seeks restoration. The church simply obeys God and deals with the unrepentant member according to God's instructions.

To oppose the homosexual agenda, a coalition of "evangelical and traditionalist" members of the Church of England organized periods of fasting and prayer in 50 parishes across Britain.

The Bible teaches that homosexual acts are unnatural, immoral, and abominable before God. Homosexuality is not a natural condition. It is a product of man's sinful nature. Homosexuality is a sin, but it is not an unforgivable sin. Homosexuals can be forgiven and cleansed by faith in the blood of Jesus Christ. By the grace of God through the power of the new birth any sinner -- whether he be an adulterer or a drunkard or a homosexual or an idolater or a thief or a murderer -- can be saved and can become a new creation in Christ Jesus. The Lord Jesus Christ does not free men to sin; He frees men to be delivered from sin.

"Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God" (1 Corinthians 6:9-11).

               BODY MODIFICATION PROFESSIONAL SAYS IT IS DARK AND REBELLIOUS

- A former "body modification" professional resigned from the trade recently after reading David Kupelian's "The Marketing of Evil" ("Body-piercing pro quits after reading book," WorldNetDaily, Sept. 20, 2007). In an open letter to leading body modification websites, the man, whose name is not given in the WorldNetDaily article, admits that tattooing and body piercing is all about rebellion and observes that it is "getting darker and darker." Following is an excerpt from this letter: "I've been a faithful student of the Body Modification lifestyle for a decade now. I have performed countless piercings, scarifications, brands, implants, and a host of other less 'pop culture' procedures. ... You see, it's dawned on me that perhaps we (the Bod Mod culture) have become much darker than we intended. We all in some way or another come into this 'tribe' as it were, to rebel and fight on some psychological plane against someone or something, be it our individual parents, an establishment, or even society itself. ... I think back on some of the things I've been paid to do to people (and done to myself) at their own request and I think if someone accused me of doing these things to them without consent it would be undeniable torture. ... Self-inflicted castrations, lobotomies, amputations, disfigurement of every conceivable nature, suspensions--we do these things to each other and ourselves without a second thought. Could these acts truly be signs of a perpetually growing disease? Could the fact that our acts are becoming darker and darker, more and more grotesque be a sign that we are heading in the wrong directions? ... You see, it starts so innocently, so pure with a simple labret or cage in the ear, but in the tinniest increments it turns darker and darker until we are far beyond the innocence and purity of our beginnings."

                                              WHEN IT COMES TO CONTROVERSY

Many religious persons have a dread of controversy and wish truth to be stated without any reference to those who hold the opposite errors. Controversy and a bad spirit are, in their estimation, synonymous terms. And strenuously to oppose what is wrong is considered as contrary to Christian meekness. Those who hold this opinion seem to overlook what every page of the New Testament lays before us. In all the history of our Lord Jesus Christ, we never find Him out of controversy. From the moment He entered on the discharge of His office in the synagogue of Nazareth till He expired on the cross, it was an uninterrupted scene of controversy. Nor did He, with all the heavenly meekness which in Him shone so brightly, treat truth and error without reference to those who held them or study to avoid giving its proper appellation to those corruptions in doctrine or practice that endangered the interests of immortal souls. His censures were not confined to doctrine but included the abettors of false principles themselves.

And as to the Apostles, their epistles are generally controversial. Most of them were directly written for the express purpose of vindicating truth and opposing error--and the authors of heresies do not escape with an abstract condemnation of their false doctrine. Paul again and again most indignantly denounces the conduct of the opposers of the Gospel and, by name, points out those against whom he cautions his brethren. When Hymenaeus and Alexander erred concerning the faith and when he delivered them unto Satan that they might learn not to blaspheme, he did not compliment them as amiable and learned persons. Even that Apostle who treats most of love and who possessed so much of that spirit which was so eminently manifested in his Divine Master, does not avoid controversy--nor in controversy does he study to avoid severity of censure on the opposers of the truth.

In the examples of opposing error (left on record for our imitation) we perceive nothing of that frigid spirit of indifference which smiles on the corrupters of the Word of God and shuns to call heresy by its proper name. With what holy indignation do the Apostles denounce the subtle machinations of the enemies of the gospel! In vain shall we look among those faithful servants of the Lord for anything to justify that trembling reserve which fears to say decidedly that truth is truth--and error is error.

In what style, indeed, should perversions of the truth of God be censured? Ought they to be treated as mere matters of opinion on which we may innocently and safely differ? Or ought they to be met in a tone of solemn, strong and decided approbation? Paul warned Christians against men who arose from among themselves, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them--and instead of complimenting false teachers in his day, denounced an angel from heaven on the supposition of his preaching another gospel. And if an Apostle was withstood to the face, because he was to be blamed, are the writings of those who subvert the Gospel to pass without rebuke?

When the canker of the principles of neology [the use of new meanings for established words], derived from the Continent and from America, is perverting the faith of many and seducing them into the paths of error--which a spirit of lukewarmness and indifference to truth is advancing under the mask of charity and liberality, there is a loud call on all Christians to "stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the Gospel," to present a firm and united phalanx of opposition to error under every name--from whatever quarter it may approach. Should believers become unfaithful to their trust and be seduced to abandon their protest against false doctrines, they may gain the approbation of the world--but what will this avail when compared with the favor of God? But if (with prayer to God, in the use of the appointed means) they contend earnestly for the truth, then they may expect the gracious fulfillment of the blessed promise, "When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him."

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