The Deflection of the Homosexual Issue

The Presbyterian Church of America has voted to ordain practicing homosexuals and lesbians. Let the red meat frenzy begin as those of us who know that is unscriptural rally to affirm each other's adherence to Scriptural authority and integrity. It has become customary to use the falling away of others as evidence that we ourselves are walking in accordance with God’s Word. The more egregious the compromise in others, the greater it can be railed against and provide cover for our own sins and Scriptural compromise. Typically, abortion and homosexuality are considered the best diversions that keep us rallying around the sins of others while ignoring the egregious sins that plague the most “orthodox” among us. Of course we tacitly admit to being imperfect in measures just soft enough to soothe our doctrinal consciences, but not loud enough to interfere with our spiritual slumber.

Against the backdrop of the glaring departure from Scripture in the PCA, I would like to look internally at our own “camp” and allow the Spirit to ferret out the foxes, large and small, and confront us with our own compromises. We love to do thorough spiritual surgery on others, but how eager are we to lay down upon the operating table and allow the only authentic and true Surgeon to take His redemptive scalpel and penetrate the layers of protective self righteous tissue and expose the sins that remain alive and well within our own hearts? If being like Jesus only required being anti-abortion and refusing to ordain practicing gay people, we could retire from our journey and claim “We’ve arrived!”

The church will never experience a revival as long as we are content to parade the sins of others and refuse to take a painful inventory of our own discipleship apart from comparing ourselves with others. If our “discernment” is passionate and robust when it is aimed at others, but is very dispassionate and unenthusiastic when we speak of our own sins, then our “discernment” is nothing more than self serving research that accommodates the flesh and quenches the Spirit. And most of the discernment wing of evangelicalism is obsessed with doctrinal detours, but blind to the very real compromising practices of hedonism, nationalism, and open displays of self righteousness camouflaged as “contending for the faith”.

These discerners should thank God for those who commit abortion, or suggest homosexuality be accepted, or even malign the exclusivity of the Lord Jesus Christ, because if it were not for them they might not have anything about which to write. Surely the orthodox community’s sins are not legion enough to provide subject matter for entire discernment ministries. Oh we have our faults, and no one is perfect, but please do not lump us in with those whose sins are so easily identified. God must have His hands full with the PCA and the Rob Bell’s of this world, and given the scope of the falling away in general, our sins and powerless manifestation of Christ must be dealt with at another time when there are less pressing issues. (painful satire)

And yet like Achan we have become partakers of the fallen culture in direct violation of God’s written Word, and hidden it deep under layers of doctrinal orthodoxy. We save up money for our own pleasure, we borrow money from the heathen, we live beyond our means, and we join hands with the fallen sons of Adam over issues of morality and money which diminish, and at some level deny, the realities of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And let us bear our portion of the responsibility for the state of the church and of the culture in which we live. Perhaps it was the benign, innocuous, and lifeless expression of western Christianity that made men like Rob Bell and Rick Warren susceptible to deception as they searched for a deeper reality but found a deeper deception. If Luther were alive would he not find at least 95 issues with which to nail upon every evangelical church door today? But alas, the sins and compromises of others have pacified us into believing that an orthodox statement of faith serves as exculpatory evidence that both clears our name of serious wrongdoing and crowns us as Christ’s faithful servants.

The truth is that we have become fans of Jesus rather than followers. I speak about us - you and me - not the emergents or the seeker churches or the purpose driven people, no, us. If we truly desire to become followers of Jesus Christ we must read again the New Testament in its entirety in the space of two weeks or so. And as we read, we need to ask the Spirit to let us see things that we have forgotten to look for. We need to allow the words to uncover our own hearts and expose our own sins, without the sins of others diluting the seriousness of our own enormous foxes.

In the midst of a fallen and hedonistic culture, the life of a true follower of Jesus should be unmistakable and rather dramatic in its revelation. If our lives are not startling in the midst of such darkness, then where would they be? But like a man whose cancer will take his life in 5 years criticizing a man whose cancer will kill him in days, so does the church love to critique those whose rebellion is much worse than theirs. If you are satisfied with the level of commitment you now employ, and if you believe Christ is being glorified through your living sacrifice, then disregard this post. But if there are things that have struck a chord within your heart, then it is you to whom I speak.

Holy Spirit do what only You can do.