This
post is not about the LGBT community or how they view themselves. Although I do
believe some people are born with aberrant mental perspectives about themselves
and same sex attractions because of the continuing consequences of the fall, this
is not about that entirely. The main thrust of this post is about the blatant,
aggressive, and colossal self righteousness which continues to permeate the
moralistic, patriotic American evangelical community. It is a disgusting
display of moral and spiritual hubris which compromises the gospel and presents
believers as bastions of morality at the expense of redemption.
It is so very easy to say you believe in the fall of man
through a doctrinal perspective. That is so safe and avoids any dangerous
gospel outreach to certain classes of sinners. But if you truly wish to follow
Jesus outside the safety of the doctrinal camp and touch lepers, then you must
take your doctrine of original sin and death and juxtapose it upon the doctrine
of redemption by grace through faith. How did the church ever get to the point
of attacking certain lost sinners because they sin and demanding they change before
they are redeemed? The gospel has always been a lifeline to sinners worldwide
regardless of what sin they commit or what sinful agenda they are promoting. If
we cannot over look those things then we must also reject the cross.
Unless you are willing to risk your moral reputation you
will never touch all the citizens of the lost kingdom. If they criticized Jesus
for loving sinners with a portfolio of open debauchery and sexual sinfulness
must we avoid being judged unfairly because we also love the same community of
sinners? And the most despicable part of any unjust condemnation is that most
times it comes from the self righteous evangelical community that has been
captured by the political spirit that chooses sides Jesus never chose. Until
God takes me home I will not remain silent in the face of a safe gospel which
is comfortable from behind pulpits but recoils at the thought of being living
and loving gospel witnesses deep inside a western leper colony.
Once you have been redeemed through the gospel of grace
through Jesus Christ our Lord you should be filled with unspeakable
gratefulness as well as unspeakable humility. So how did the evangelical
community ever come to join hands with the hubris of politics and moral
crusades? How did we ever come to the place where we were rescued and yet
turned around to condemn those from whom we just came and who stand in
desperate need of a rescue themselves? It is mindboggling if you see it for
what it is. It goes against the mission of our Savior and it is diametrically
opposed to the life of Jesus and His gospel.
Peruse the internet and read the posts on conservative
blogs and news feeds which purport to be Christian. Most of them champion a
patriotic spirit as well as a moral crusade and a mission to save this fallen
culture. And yet millions of professing believers consume their message and
allow it to affect and infect their minds and hearts. And in so doing they move
further and further away from Christ and His gospel of redemptive love. To receive
the gospel of grace for your own soul and then present it on a plate of moral
condemnation to those still lost is self righteousness and hubris on a
breathtaking scale. But, sadly, it is the prevailing spirit in the western
evangelical community.
But that spirit can be openly identified as self
righteousness. It sits back and categorizes each leper according to their sin. Evangelical,
heterosexual adultery and divorce and remarriage is forgivable and demands no
crusade, but same sex attractions by lost sinners must be aggressively
confronted, not with the gospel of redemption, but with condemnatory rhetoric.
And this confrontation is so important to defending a lost and hedonistic
culture that joining hands with cult members and conservative unbelievers is
now acceptable. That is open rebellion to God’s Word and presents an affection
for a nation and a culture which is above any affection for God’s Word
regardless of all the inerrancy rhetoric.
Jesus had every opportunity to present His views on same
sex practice, and yet He used the judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah to judge the
heart of Pharisees and moralists. It surely was not that the Savior approved of
or condoned sin, but as was His common motive He often revealed a self
righteous heart as the worst sin of all. That was a common thread throughout
His life and teachings. And yet we seem to overlook the core of His teachings
so that we can construct a man made gospel which condemns lost sinners rather
than loves them a la the cross of Christ. And after decades of embracing such a
false ecclesiastical construct the church has become entrenched and imprisoned
by a deception which blinds the heart with moral and national blindfolds.
Because I believe in ministering to the LGBT community
with the gospel and not presenting myself as an adversary, many professing
believers want to know if I would marry a gay couple. You see, instead of
judging their own heart they judge mine. Of course I would never marry a gay
couple. But I would attempt to surrender to the guidance of the Spirit and love
and minister to them. It seems there is nothing more disconcerting to the
evangelical community than loving LGBT people without providing a doctrinal
portfolio complete with the rhetoric of condemnation.
For the record, I have long since cleansed my portfolio
from such unchristian rhetoric.
But just who are redemption ready sinners? Are they the
ones who have reformed themselves by the strength of their fallen flesh and
then deserve a gospel presentation as if it was icing on the cake? Are those
who press forward an agenda that promotes acceptance of their sin, are they
unworthy of divine love and the gospel? Must we condemn them so no one can
accuse us of being soft on sin? But let us examine the record. There was man
who dedicated his life to searching for followers of Jesus and killing them,
albeit not by beheading but by stoning. I guess we might consider that more
antiseptic and humane?
That man’s name was Saul of Tarsus. In today’s toxic
spiritual environment we would pray that troops would bomb him with accuracy
and kill him. Most churches would rejoice over such a scenario. But Jesus came
to Saul and saved his soul. I submit there is a great divide between the
ministry of Jesus and the ministry of a culture bound, nationalistic church.
Actually, in earthly terms, Paul was murderer and deserved death himself, and
yet Jesus saved him and anointed him to be the prophet of the gospel. Can you
imagine such a thing today? Believers by the millions literally hate Muslims
and gays and many others kinds of sinners. The majority of professing believers
in America approve of drone strikes in order to preserve our fallen way of
life.
The overarching point of my post is that the western
church has left the gospel of grace and now practices a gospel of moral law.
And we have culled out a few choice sins and made them our whipping boys. You
can take a glass of pure milk and add a few drops of arsenic and the entire
glass in undrinkable. It has become poison even though it is 99% pure milk. And
when you add anything to the gospel you compromise the entire thing and make it
carnal poison.
And just what is our definition of grace? Does it contain
small amounts of law? That is a contaminated gospel which straddles the fence
between law and grace. Let us cease from our attempts to reform lost sinners
and our self righteous moral phylacteries and let us live and preach the gospel
of redemption by grace through faith in Christ Jesus our Lord. It takes a deep
faith in Jesus in order to overlook the sins and see the souls.
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