Hope of Israel Ministries (Ecclesia of YEHOVAH):

by David Jeremiah

Homosexuality is almost as old as man. The first mention of it in recorded history concerns Lot and the well-known cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, over 4,000 years ago. The word sodomy, copulation with a member of the same sex, has become a byword for homosexuality and is obviously derived from that ancient city. Certainly there have been homosexuals in America since the early days of our country, But the militant and open flaunting of homosexual perversion is a relatively recent development.

The following are just a few of the many advances of the Gay Rights Movement in our country today:

* The Blueboy, a magazine some­thing like a homosexual Playboy, was published by Donald Embinder, a gay publisher. At the last check, the magazine had a circulation of over 135,000.

* 120 major corporations, including AT&T and IBM, have announced that they do not discriminate in hiring or promoting people because they are homosexuals.

* TV and movies are treating gay themes more openly and sympathetically. ABC's hit series Soap, for example, had two homosexual characters, one a macho football player.

* The Metropolitan Community Church, largely made up of homosexuals, is headquartered in Los Angeles and has 140 congregations and mission stations. It even sends out "missionaries" to organize new churches throughout the U.S., Canada, and Europe.

* Gay rights legislation is being sought that would elevate homosexuality to normalcy along with heterosexuality, give gays increased leverage to secure jobs on a quota basis, force the military and public schools to hire avowed homosexuals, and make it impossible for even church organizations to fire a homosexual if he or she were discovered after hiring.

In light of the growth of this movement in our country, we do well to ask what the Creator thinks of these things. When YEHOVAH God created the world, He established a fundamental distinction within the human race, reflected in the human body -- "male and female created He them" (Genesis 1:27; 5:2). It was YEHOVAH's plan for sexual relations to be in the form of man-woman union, man and wife becoming "one flesh" (Genesis 2:24).

Homosexuals and their defenders, who argue that all human beings have the right to self understanding and expression, reflect their determination to ignore YEHOVAH's design and replace His intended distinctions with their own desire.

Greg L. Bahnsen, in his book Homosexuality -- A Biblical View, puts this into perspective:

"Because man's sexual identity is defined by God, because his orientation is ordained by God, and because his sexual activity is circumscribed within a heterosexual marriage context, homosexuality cannot be viewed merely as a variant sexual preference or accidental variation within creation (akin to left-handedness). It is not a third natural sex or alternative sexual orientation in God's diverse world. Instead, it represents a choice, in some sense, to set one's desires and satisfy one's physical drives in a way contrary to God's appointment and creation. There is no natural homosexuality, for homosexuality is precisely a perversion of nature (understood as God's design for human relations). Homosexuals are made, not born; their disorder is developed contrary to their God-given identity, learned in opposition to the created order. Pursued in defiance of the marriage ordinance."

We are told in YEHOVAH's Word that the integrity of the family is violated by homosexual behavior: "Thou shall not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination" (Leviticus 18:22).

Leviticus 20:13 further underscores YEHOVAH's hatred for this sin: "If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them." From the law of YEHOVAH God, His verdict on homosexuality is inescapably clear.

In the first chapter of Romans, Paul teaches that the wrath of YEHOVAH God is revealed from heaven against those who turn from their proper relationship to the Creator, holding down the truth of YEHOVAH God, and practicing idolatry. Because they do this, says Paul, YEHOVAH gives them over to impure lusts, the dishonoring of their bodies. Men who give up YEHOVAH God are given up by YEHOVAH God to wander in moral pollution.

According to Paul, homosexuality is the cultural culmination of rebellion against YEHOVAH God. It is symptomatic of a society under judgment, inwardly corrupted to the point of collapse. Paul regarded it as the evidence of degeneracy that caused YEHOVAH God in His wrath to give up the nations.

What Should You Think of Homosexuality?

In light of the clear biblical teaching on homosexuality, what should be our attitude and position today? Below are several mandates.

1. Don't Be Put on the Defensive

We must refuse to allow the exponents of the gay movement to put us on the defensive. It is the homosexual who has stepped out of the revealed will of YEHOVAH God, not the heterosexual Christian. More than ever before, the moral Christian is being asked to defend himself against the unwarranted accusations of the homosexual. Someone has called their strategy "Rhetorical Terrorism." Two examples will illustrate their plan:

(A) "To be against homosexuality is to demonstrate a lack of love." C. S. Lewis once said, "To ask that God's love be content with us as we are is to ask that God should cease to be God: because He is what He is, His love must in the nature of things, be impeded and repelled by certain stains in our present character and because He already loves us He must labour to make us loveable." Love is at stake here. We must choose either to love sin or love YEHOVAH God. If we love YEHOVAH God, we will keep His commandments.

(B) "To judge a homosexual or his homosexuality is to be a bigot and thus displease the Lord." Viewing something as immoral is not the same as being a bigot. Is it customary to look on someone who condemns the killing of innocent people as a bigot toward murderers?

2. Don't Water Down What YEHOVAH God Has Said

We must refrain from any attempt to reinterpret the biblical evidence in light of our present culture. When our doctrine is adjusted by human wisdom or our examination of human behavior, we have destroyed the only authority YEHOVAH God has given us to guide our lives. If it is possible to reinterpret Scripture to endorse homosexuality, we can make it endorse anything anyone would like to do or believe. It is important that we base our practice upon our doctrine and not our doctrine upon our practice. Our standards are defined by the Word of YEHOVAH God. We can accept those standards or reject them, but we cannot tamper with them. What is at stake is not gay rights, but YEHOVAH God's rights.

3. Don't Accept the Notion That Christianity and Homosexuality Are Compatible

We must reject totally the idea that one can be a spirit filled Christian and a practicing homosexual at the same time. The biblical evidence will not allow that position. It is impossible to enter the Kingdom while rejecting and violating the standards of the King. We cannot maintain our Christian integrity if we condone what YEHOVAH God condemns. To recognize a gay church as a church in the biblical sense of the word is to degrade the term "church." You might as well have churches for fornicators, adulterers, and robbers. The church is called to bring back the straying sheep. We are not called to say to the straying sheep that they are okay in their wanderings and that we ordain their devious paths as alternate lifestyles.

4. Don't Give Up the Fight Against Homosexual Activism

We must reach out compassionately to those who are struggling to be free of the sin of homosexuality. Like the Messiah, we must have compassion on the sinner while at the same time we are condemning the sin. Dr. Melvin Anchell said that whoever decided to call homosexuals "gay" must have had a terrible sense of humor. They are lonely, guilty, often depressed people. Their only hope is YEHOVAH God's Truth, and we must be His caring ambassadors to them.

It is interesting to note that in the context of the three passages in which Paul addressed the subject of homosexuality, he held out the only hope of recovery for the homosexual as being in the person of the Lord Yeshua the Messiah.

The hope of the homosexual today is the same as it was in Paul's day. Yeshua the Messiah can and will wash away any sin. The sin of homosexuality is not a stain too deep to respond to the cleansing power of his blood.

Hope of Israel Ministries -- Preparing the Way for the Return of YEHOVAH God and His Messiah!

Hope of Israel Ministries P.O. Box 853 Azusa, CA 91702, U.S.A. www.hope-of-israel.org

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