Homosexuality & The Gospel

Jesus is our model for the acceptance of other people.

Jesus invited people from all walks of life to come follow him.

He loved and he welcomed many. Yet Jesus’s words and demands

offended a lot more than they attracted, because Jesus would not

tolerate sin. He gave a stinging rebuke to the Pharisees and

scribes for their sins of oppression and pride, he scolded the

man he had recently healed at the pool of Bethesda for turning

back to sin, and after forgiving the woman caught in adultery, he

told her go and sin no more.

Jesus tells us that one cannot be his disciple unless one is

willing to forsake all, even his or her own life in order to

follow Him. The challenge to forsake everything is the same and

is yet very different for each of us, for we all have different

relationships, desires, lusts and passions some of which have

been with us since birth. On the day of Pentecost, when asked

what should they do to be saved, Peter replied, repent and be

baptized, everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ.

Homosexuality is discussed directly in the Old and New

Testament, and in both places it is referred to as sin. Chris

Glooser, one of the leaders in the Homosexual movement of our

denomination ignored this at our clergy meeting by saying,

"homosexuality was so insignificant that Jesus did not even

mention it in his teachings." Jesus does not mention rape,

incest, kidnapping or wife abuse, yet we would not argue that his

silence on the issues indicated approval of the actions. Jesus

affirmed his position on homosexuality by his open declaration

and admission of the Old Testament to be the word of God. Jesus

7 3 ��viewed the Word of God as as absolute standard for all behavior.

"He asked the religious leaders of his day, "why do you trans

gress the commandment of God because of your traditions."

The strongest condemnation of the practice of homosexuality

is not found in some obscure, insignificant book of the New

Testament. It is found in the book of Romans; a book which is the

core of Christianity and gives us the doctrine of justification

by faith. The Romans passage illustrates that the practice of

homosexulity spread because of a rejection or the true worship of

God. Romans 1:21-27 "For although they knew God, they neither

glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking

became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. {22} Al

though they claimed to be wise, they became fools {23} and ex

changed the glory of the immortal God for images made to look

like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. {24} There

fore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to

sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one anoth

er. {25} They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped

and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever

praised. Amen{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 rela

tions with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men

committed indecent acts with other men, and received in them

selves the due penalty for their perversion.

Those who desire to practice homosexuality seeks to distin

guish between the wild gay lifestyle with the multiple partners,

bath houses, fisting and golden showers to the lifestyle of two

7 3 ��

people who want to commit similar acts but limit themselves to

each other. The Bible does not make any such disticnction. The

Old Testament states in Leviticus 20:13 "If a man lies with a man

as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detest

able." The penalty for this violation was death. There are six

passages in the Sriptures that bear on homosexuality and it is

condemned in each of them. How can we overturn the word of God

and claim that both the Old and New Testament is in error, and

homosexuality is actually a gift from God.

The Bible teaches there is to be a separation between the

church and the world. In the world those who committ acts of

homosexuality should have the same rights as adulterers, fornica

tors, and any other sexually immoral group. The world sets its

own moral standards.

In the church however, those who practice homosexuality

should be offered the same standard of entrance into the kingdom

as any other group of sinners and that’s to repent of one’s sin

and submit to the authority of God’s word. Love demands that we

lead people out of darkness rather than encouraging others into