Posts Tagged ‘ruinstitute’
Is Homosexuality the Worst Sin of All?
Christians define sin as “missing the mark.” It almost sounds cute. Kyle lied so he missed the mark…Oops. Katy gossiped...Shucks, that was wrong. Randy was prideful…Yikes, better stop that.
But homosexuality? Whoa! That’s more than missing the mark. That’s an abomination! Homosexuals aren’t just sinners. They’re revelers consummating their reprobate mind. Someone please cite one of the Levitical prohibitions against homosexuality (preferably Leviticus 20:13 since it includes the death penalty) and say it in the King James Version for rhetorical effect.
And Christians don’t just think homosexuality is the worst sin. We act like it too. Christians who rarely cite scripture suddenly invoke Bible verses when the topic comes up. We get uneasy when gay men come to church, but we gladly welcome post-abortive women. We’ll move a lesbian who sits next to other females at youth group, but we won’t separate girls who gossip.
It’s no wonder the culture thinks Christians hate homosexuals. We give their behavior a unique status: the worst sin of all. And because homosexuals are committing the supreme evil, we treat them like pariahs.
As a result, not only do homosexuals think their sin is the worst, but they are the worst. They’re the chief of all sinners. That’s why our verbal antidotes like, “God hates the sin, but loves the sinner” are so ineffective. They only hear the word, “hate.”
We shouldn’t be surprised, then, when homosexuals get anxious around Christians. It shouldn’t shock us that they start their own denominations. These men and women still have spiritual yearnings, but because Christians keep them at arm’s length, they have no choice but to turn to churches with pro-gay theology that accept them.
Don’t get me wrong: homosexual behavior is a serious sin. I’m not trying to downplay the gravity of what they do. But the Bible doesn’t elevate its status above all other sins.
Although homosexual behavior was a capital crime under the Mosaic Law, so were blasphemy, false prophecy, adultery, bestiality, and many other sins. Under today’s New Testament teaching, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 places homosexuals among other sinners like thieves, drunks, swindlers, and fornicators. And 1 Timothy 1:8-11 lists them among liars, rebels, slave traders, and other sinners. There’s no special designation for any of these sins (although sexual sins are grouped together since they are sins “against the body” in 1 Corinthians 6:16-20).
Many homosexuals have come to Christ. But they didn’t do it because they believed their sin was the worst. Instead, they recognized their sin was an obstacle to fellowship with God. Making homosexuality the worst sin isn’t merely a peculiar theological mistake. It has practical ramifications that alienate men and women engaged in homosexual behavior. And it creates unnecessary offense to the gospel that’s already offensive.
This post is part of a series responding to common challenges on the topic of homosexuality. If you missed the first post (Did Jesus Never Say Anything about Homosexuality?), you can find it here.
Reflections on the Passing of New Atheist Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011)
Sinners Unaware
To expand my thoughts at the end of yesterday's post about the slow-moving nature of worldviews, I thought I'd post a piece I wrote a few years ago after reading a chapter called "Trusting the Theology of a Slave Owner" in A God Entranced Vision of All Things: The Legacy of Jonathan Edwards. It's a sobering reminder of our limitations as human beings in applying revealed truth to our practices:
Even as Edwards argued against the slave trade, saying it was wrong because we're all of the same human race, made by the same Maker in His image, and we ought not steal human beings and tear them away from their families, nor should we profit from others who do so—even as he argued this, Edwards continued to own slaves.
It's a scary thought that a man who knew God's word far better than I do and who spent far more time in prayer, study, and meditation than I do was blinded enough by his own sin and culture not to see a sin that is now glaringly obvious to us—that a man of such incisive and precise thinking could not see that he condemned himself with his own arguments against the slave trade.
His son, who was able to follow the logic of Edwards's arguments and the implications of his theology to the end, argued eloquently against slavery, not just the trade. But it took those of that next generation to finally work their way completely out of the blinders of cultural complacency.
It's difficult to see clearly and then fight against a sin you're already participating in. How much more so if your culture condones it! Our sin blinds us and distorts our perception (a frightening reality that ought to make us more careful about giving into temptation). Edwards had slaves, so he was not able to see the wrongness of it, and while he was ahead of his time morally in many ways, including in his arguments against the slave trade, his treatment of his slaves, and his inclusion of slaves as members of his church, we can see now how far he was from God's standard of perfect righteousness.
If this doesn't point out the need of all of us for a savior, I don't know what does! We are all desperately in the “sinner” category (a category which includes everyone but God) in ways of which we haven't even a clue. Edwards fought so hard for holiness in himself and mastery over his sin, and people around him would have considered him a very good man. Some who misunderstood the gospel probably thought he was good enough to get to heaven based on his works. But they could not even see the sin of slavery.
In the same way, as best as we try to conquer our own sin, there will be sins in our lives that we will never even recognize. This is a humbling thought to which we are forced to respond like Paul:
Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!... Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…. For what the Law could not do [i.e., make us righteous], weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Tomorrow I'll get back to the "Christianity As Science-Starter" series.
Life of Joseph
Comfort Food
Read the Bible in a year: Genesis 38, Psalm 41-43, Matthew 25
The life of Joseph is amazing. While it’s important to see that the story is a “type” of the life of the Savior, it has many practical lessons for us--from Jacob favoring one son above his others, to the power of jealousy and its predictable progression to murder. But what is thrilling about Joseph was his ability to patiently suffer while innocent, and then to forgive. Potiphar’s lusty wife destroyed his reputation and had Joseph thrown into prison, but there is no word of him angrily getting back to her after he was exalted politically. Perhaps he never had to, because she destroyed her marriage by running off with another slave. God knows. Then there’s the butler and baker episode, where Joseph was left to rot in prison, and the wonderfully forgiving attitude he had towards his nasty brothers, after he revealed himself to them. So take the time to study the life of Joseph, and watch not only for the parallels to our redemption in Christ, but for all the life’s lessons we can learn--and in doing so, save ourselves some pain.
Dessert
Copying the Healing Power of the Body
The body’s capacity of healing
itself of scrapes and cuts can be invaluable if applied to polymers composites used to build aircraft fuselage. “Self-healing plastics” is the name of a composite material in development by scientists. These plastics are made from hollow fibers and filled with epoxy resin that is released when the fibers are damaged with cracks or stresses.“Care more for a grain of faith than a ton of excitement.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
God Doesn’t “Remember”
Spiritual Breathing – Part VIII – Jan 24,2012
RU Institute
| T M Stafford | Worldview | Discipleship | Spiritual Breathing