ISSUE #6 // AUGUST 2024
MOMENT OF TRUTH
What if the Body of Christ no longer represents Christ?
Taking Christ out of Christianity
Today I address what has to be one of the greatest fallacies and widespread delusions that has ever gained a foothold in the Christian church: the ever-expanding LGBTQIA+ ideology.
But before I get into it, let me remind the reader that there is a very great difference between true Christianity – which seeks to follow in the footsteps of Jesus and yields to His leadership as the head of the church – and the unspiritual, distorted version of Christianity which is all too commonplace today, expressed through worldly practices and the opinionating of its many institutions (churches, schools etc.). In short: the church has, for the most part, represented Christ very badly.
The Bible is incredibly clear that sexual sin is something that God takes seriously. There are dozens of places I could refer you to but let’s jump to one of the most sobering, Revelation 21:8 (NKJV): ‘But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.’
‘Sexual immorality’ is a broad term. Simply put it is the abandoning of sexual purity and sexual expression within the boundaries of a biblically defined marriage relationship (Matthew 19:4-5).
Jesus told his followers they were the ‘salt of the earth’ and the ‘light of the world’. But many Christian leaders today are deepening the darkness by endorsing the transgender ideology which leads to sin. Jesus went on to say that salt that has lost its flavour will be thrown out and trampled under foot (Matthew 5:13). Christian leaders and institutions that have ‘lost their flavour’ in this way are no longer able to preserve society from corruption and decay and have become worthless.
‘But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’ For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.’
These simple words of Jesus, from Mark 10:6-9 (NIV), show us how he envisaged sexuality: He created two sexes (or genders, if you prefer), male and female, and when a God-fearing man and woman marry, a wonderful and powerful union is forged between the two.
That is the original design and foundation, and this true marriage reflects the image of God (Genesis 1:26-28) and the relationship between Christ and his bride, the true church (Ephesians 5:25-32).
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
‘The end result of the newly defined tolerance is that it weakens and dilutes the church’s strength, morphs it into society, and removes its uniqueness in the world.’
JACK HIBBS
In Romans 12, the apostle Paul wrote that we should not think and act like the world, like those who don’t know God; instead we are to become beautiful people as we change our thinking and beliefs to align with His. Those who have faith in Christ are ‘in the world but not of the world’ (John 17:14). At least that is how it is supposed to be. So why are Christian leaders trying to adapt the faith to fit in with the world’s latest ideas? Are they trying to avoid a few awkward conversations and keep up the numbers and offerings in their churches? (If they were living authentic Christian lives they would not need to resort to such measures!)
I have heard some – desperately clutching at straws – try to argue that times have changed, adding that the practice of homosexuality is only condemned and forbidden in the Old Testament. This argument is not only flawed but inaccurate and only reveals the biblical illiteracy of those who make it. Take Romans 1:26 (NIV) for instance:
‘Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.’
And the Old Testament is still very much relevant to us today. Yes, we are living under a new covenant, but that does not mean that God no longer cares about morality;
Jesus himself said that he came not to abolish the law of Moses, but to fulfil it (Matthew 5:17). The last I checked, the Ten Commandments had not been dismissed as ‘out of date’ or ‘old fashioned’. They are still the bedrock of the legal systems of the Western World.
And Jesus did not relax them, on the contrary, he ‘stepped up’ the moral laws of Moses, saying for example that if you look on a woman with lust you have already committed adultery with her in your heart. He set a new standard for morality, calling us to be ‘imitators of God’ (Ephesians 5:1-2, 1 Corinthians 11:1). We are now, through knowing Him, empowered and enabled by grace to live godly lives (Romans 6).
The many acrobatic attempts to re-interpret, skew and distort scripture to fit in with today’s secular thinking, are futile. It doesn’t work that way. God is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). And in the moral laws given by God, he makes it extremely clear that alternative forms of sexual expression are a gross abuse of our bodies and something he detests (Leviticus 18:22). The passage of time has not changed this.
And before you accuse me of hate speech and start calling for censorship, consider who is walking in love: the one who shouts loudly to warn that the bridge is out, or the one who says ‘drive on friend, all is well’ when the bridge is indeed out and the driver is carrying their passengers to certain destruction.
‘…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. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools…‘
ROMANS 1:21 (NIV)
FACT OF THE WEEK
According to a 2021 study by George Barna Group, 27% of those 18-37-year olds self-identifying as Christian also self identify as LGBTQ.
And 29% of those 18-37-year olds self-identifying as non-Christian also self-identify as LGBTQ.
