Christ Centered Lessons
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Tuesday, April 30, 2013 – Homosexuals are NOT Heroes |
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The name Jason Collins has been in the news this week because he announced to the world that he is a homosexual. I’m not sure why he thought anyone cared or needed to know that he chooses to live a perverse lifestyle but he made the announcement none the less. I was shocked while listening to the liberal media discuss his “announcement” that one of them called him a “hero!” A hero? I looked up hero in the dictionary and I find the meaning to be, “a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities.” What brave deed has this man done? What noble qualities has he brought to bear? NONE! Mr. Collins is not a hero but a sinner.
The movement to legitimize homosexual behavior has enjoyed unparalleled success through the years making inroads into virtually every aspect of our culture. We have only begun to see the devastating results. With the support of the mainstream media, government, academia, the public school bureaucracy and many others, the relatively small, but well-funded homosexual community has exerted an influence in our nation that is grossly disproportionate to its numbers.
Let me repeat that the influence the homosexual community has been able to exert is disproportionate to their percentage of the population in the United States. The 2000 census sheds even more light on the subject. The overall statistics from the 2000 Census Bureau revealed:
>The total population of the U.S. is 285,230,516.
>The total number of households in the U.S. is 106,741,426.
>The total number of unmarried same-sex households is 601,209.
Thus, out of a population of 106,741,426 households, homosexuals represent 0.42% of those households. That is less than one half of one percent! In Hollywood terms, if we were to start a new television sitcom, and wanted to accurately portray homosexual ratios in society, we would need 199 heterosexual actors before we finally introduced one homosexual actor.
It is not overstating the case to suggest that the homosexual movement poses one of the greatest threats facing our nation, our children, and our way of life. Historians have long noted that no nation survives the removal of sexual constraint, which results in the sanctioning of homosexuality.
The promotion of homosexuality is, of necessity, at the same time a movement against Christianity. There are “homosexual churches”, the largest being the Cathedral of Hope in Dallas with over 2,000 members. Cathedral of Hope’s senior “pastor” Michael Piazza in his book Holy Homosexuals says, “Yes you can be gay or lesbian and Christian. You can be a happy, healthy, and holy person God created you to be.”
That raises an obvious question: How do people who profess to believe the Bible justify their support for a practice, which the Bible unequivocally condemns? Embracing homosexuality requires radically redefining God and his Word. A promotion of Piazza’s book says the author “challenges us to look at God from a different perspective.”
They urge us to “read the Bible again with new eyes and listen to the Holy Spirit with new ears.” But my friends, only by reinventing God himself and redefining his love as acceptance of all behaviors (which essentially replaces the true God of scripture with the false “god” of pagan hedonism) can homosexuality be “harmonized with God.
God established the first family in Genesis 2 when he created a mate for Adam, a woman, and commanded them to multiply. No man has ever improved on this arrangement. We see in Genesis that God created heterosexual marriage as the foundation of the family (this is affirmed in the New Testament by Jesus and Paul). God places the sexual relationship within the bounds of heterosexual marriage.
Sociologists, psychiatrists and marriage counselors all affirm the value of good homes and families to society. The home is the foundation of society. The quality and stability of family life directly affect the religious, moral, educational and governmental facets of our nation. As the home goes, so goes a nation. We as Christians should understand that it is not homes, but Christian homes and Christian families that exalt a nation (Proverbs 14:34).
When a home is not a Christian home, husbands and wives are left vulnerable to temptations, deterioration and corruption. Children can also be defrauded of earth’s greatest heritage.
There are several arguments homosexual defenders will throw out to you which seek to justify this very blatant sin. We will answer these argument based on the Bible. I will provide you hyper links to more robust articles highlighted in blue for your further study.
Can homosexuality be explained by genetics? Is this behavior influenced by nature or by nurture? Are they inborn or learned? Some individuals believed that the answer would be found hiding amidst the chromosomes analyzed in the Human Genome Project.
On April 14, 2003, the International Human Genome Consortium announced the successful completion of the Human Genome Project—two years ahead of schedule. The press report read: “The human genome is complete and the Human Genome Project is over”
The one piece of information that never materialized from the Human Genome Project was the identification of the so-called “gay gene.”
The human X and Y chromosomes (the two “sex” chromosomes) have been completely sequenced. Thanks to work carried out by labs all across the globe, we know that the X chromosome contains 153 million base pairs, and harbors a total of 1168 genes (see NCBI, 2004). The National Center for Biotechnology Information reports that the Y chromosome—which is much smaller—contains “only” 50 million base pairs, and is estimated to contain a mere 251 genes.
As the data began to pour in, they allowed scientists to construct gene maps—using actual sequences from the Human Genome Project. And yet, neither the map for the X nor the Y chromosome contains any “gay gene.”
This link provides you multiple opportunities to study further on the subject.
In an effort to affect public policy and gain acceptance, the assertion often is made that homosexuals deserve equal rights just as other minority groups—and should not be punished for, or forbidden from, expressing their homosexuality, specifically in the area of marriage. They say the fight for the acceptance of homosexuality is compared to “civil rights” movements of racial minorities.
The question of what marriage is will not be decided by the state courts, the federal courts, or the Supreme Court. The question of what marriage is has already been decided by God. The institution of marriage involves a covenant between a man, a woman, and God. Man and woman, by mutual consent, enter the arrangement. But the procedure, in order to be valid, must be consistent with divine law.
Homosexuals will argue like this: “Just as a person cannot help being black, female, or Asian, I cannot help being homosexual. I was born this way, and as such I should be treated equally.” Skin color and other genetic traits can be traced through inheritance patterns and simple Mendelian genetics. Homosexuals are identified not by a trait or a gene, but rather by their actions. Without the action, they would be indistinguishable from all other people. It is only when they alter their behavior that they become a group that is recognized as being different and in God's eyes a perverted people!
William Lee Wilbanks, a professor of criminal justice, has written about what he calls the “New Obscenity”: “It’s not a four-letter word, but an oft-repeated statement that strikes at the very core of our humanity. The four words are: ‘I can’t help myself’...By ignoring the idea that people face temptations that can — and should — be resisted, it denies the very quality that separates us from the animals.”
Unlike the animals, human beings are subjects that act, and not merely objects that are acted upon by biological and social forces. Our glands do not govern us! We are incorrectly defining many “bodily necessities” as biologically inevitable when they are actually contingent on our wills.
The American Psychiatric Association has voted to remove homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses. After a decade-long study, sex researchers have concluded that homosexuality is neither a physical or emotional illness, nor is it a genetic disorder; rather, it is a learned behavior. Dr. Jerry Bergman states: “It is not understood exactly what learning produces a gay sexual orientation, but because this behavior is learned, it is most likely learned from other homosexuals.”
For those who accept the Bible as the authoritative, inspired Word of God, the controversy over the morality of homosexuality is easily settled.
Rom. 6:12 - Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.
Homosexuality is wrong (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). The Bible describes it as strange fornication (Jude 7). It is extreme rebellion against God’s design of humanity as male and female (Romans 1:26-27). Both the Old and the New Testaments are very straightforward in their condemnation of male and female homosexuality. It cannot be overlooked and it is time that we are disturbed by the kind of rebellion that brought down fire from heaven!
The Scriptures unequivocally condemn homosexual behavior. From the creation account we learn that God’s plan for sexual fulfillment is for one man and one woman to be joined together as one flesh in marriage; ANY other sexual activity is fornication, a sin which the brings the judgment of God.
Genesis 2:18-25 - And Jehovah God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him. And out of the ground Jehovah God formed every beast of the field, and every bird of the heavens; and brought them unto the man to see what he would call them: and whatsoever the man called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And the man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the heavens, and to every beast of the field; but for man there was not found a help meet for him. And Jehovah God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof: and the rib, which Jehovah God had taken from the man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And the man said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah serves as a frightening warning to any people who would become so permissive with regard to sexual immorality that it would sanction the depravity of homosexuality.
Genesis 19:1-28 shares with us that two angels come to Sodom and stay at Lot’s house. Picking up in Verse 4: Now before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both old and young, all the people from every quarter, surrounded the house. And they called to Lot and said to him, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them carnally." So Lot went out to them through the doorway, shut the door behind him, and said, "Please, my brethren, do not do so wickedly! "See now, I have two daughters who have not known a man; please, let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them as you wish; only do nothing to these men, since this is the reason they have come under the shadow of my roof." And they said, "Stand back!" Then they said, "This one came in to stay here, and he keeps acting as a judge; now we will deal worse with you than with them." So they pressed hard against the man Lot, and came near to break down the door. But the men reached out their hands and pulled Lot into the house with them, and shut the door. And they struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they became weary trying to find the door. Then the men said to Lot, "Have you anyone else here? Son-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whomever you have in the city-take them out of this place! "For we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before the face of the LORD, and the LORD has sent us to destroy it."
Later, the Mosaic law would describe homosexuality as an abomination which was like other forms of sexual immorality, punishable by death
Lev. 18:22 - Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.
Lev. 20:13 - And if a man lie with mankind, as with womankind, both of them have committed abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
Some dismiss the Old Testament texts as irrelevant to our time, but the New Testament is equally unambiguous.
Paul, in Romans 1 beginning in verse 24 talks specifically about this perversity Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
Paul portrays the depravity of the Gentiles to be result of their abandonment of the knowledge of God they “exchanged the truth of God for a lie” (V 25) and refused to have God in their knowledge (v 28). The increasing acceptance of homosexuality in our own culture is a symptom of the deeper problem of the movement away from a theistic to a secular worldview. It is an alarming indication of the degree to which Americans have forsaken the objective standard of morality – grounded in the nature of God and revealed in his Word.
I Cor. 6:9-10 - Or know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with men, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
Denying accountability for our actions is nearly our national pastime: The smoker claims he “can’t” quit, the gambler claims he is “addicted,” the adulterer claims he was “driven” to it, the homosexual claims he was “born” that way, the murderer claims he was temporarily “insane.”
The need for repentance is often obscured by the notion that we can’t change without therapeutic “help.” Satan would like us to believe we are helpless, but that is a lie
James 4:7 - Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
We do not have to be the passive victims of sin. Our behavior ought to be the result of our decisions, not our conditions. We never have to sin!
1 Cor. 10:13 - No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.
James 1:12-15 - Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death
People look in all sorts of places when they struggle with sin in their life, but what we really need is the Great Physician who says to us, “Do not let sin reign in your mortal body” (Rom. 6:12).