By Apprising Ministries correspondent Mike Ratilff of Possessing the Treasure

You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. (James 4:4 ESV)

During my trip to Oklahoma at the end of April into the first part of May I received a request from a publisher for permission to quote from one of posts in a book they are about to release. What surprised me about that was that the press date is just a few weeks away and they are just now getting around to asking me for rights to use my copyrighted article. The name of my article is Homosexuality is a Sin, which I originally posted on May 11, 2009. The entire article is reposted below. They do need my permission to use my article. It bothered me that they were trying to rush this through. The name of the book they are publishing is Issues that Concern You: Homosexuality. I tried to contact the permissions coordinator for the publisher to tell them that I would grant them permission only on condition that I approve of how my article is used in their book. I have not heard back.

The reason I brought this up is that my friend Ken Silva posted an article today on his blog about the Presbyterian Church USA caving in and voting to allow openly “gay” clergy in their denomination. Here is the link to that post. One by one, we are seeing so-called Christian leaders and their denominations going apostate and this “cause” is usually one of the top reasons they are compromising. Once that slide into apostasy starts into accommodating political correctness it is just a matter of time before “gay rights” becomes a major agenda item that will do what it did to PCUSA. However, as the article blow shows clearly from God’s Word, homosexuality is a sin and there is no way that Christians can embrace it as something that is not and still expect to be within the will of God.

Here is my article from 2009:

Homosexuality is a Sin

by Mike Ratliff

You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination. (Leviticus 18:22 ESV)

Last week I found myself watching a special on PBS about the relationships between Winston Churchill, FDR, and Josef Stalin. Afterwards I did some research into the history of the Communist Party in Soviet Russia. One of the early leaders of the Bolsheviks was Leon Trotsky. After the death of Lenin, Trotsky came into conflict with the Bolsheviks who supported Stalin. He had to leave the country. He wrote articles in hiding that attacked the policies of the Stalinists. One of the “strategies” of Trotsky that was rejected by the Stalinist was “Continual Revolution.” He was a true Communist. According to Marx’s Communist Manifesto, Communism is the goal, but in order to reach it Capitalism must be replaced with Socialism and eventually done away with completely in order to bring in a pure Communistic state. Trotsky was a true believer, while Stalin was more pragmatic. What has this to do with Homosexuality? The ”Gay Rights” movement is constructed according to the principles of Leon Trotsky’s “Continual Revolution.” It’s true believers will never stop until they achieve their goal of complete societal acceptance of Homosexuality as a protected minority with all the same legal rights as non-homosexuals, but with the added protection from the Federal and State governments to ensure it.

There is a huge push in the visible Church right now to ‘remove the stigma’ of homosexuality as a sin. When I hear directly from a pastor like Rick Warren that he has ‘gay’ friends and believes that the Church should not be so ‘judgmental’ and so accept them as fellow members in our churches, I know that he has compromised and is using his own standards of holiness and righteousness instead of those given to us by God, which we have in His Word. Homosexuality is nothing more than a sexual perversion, which is forbidden by God.

You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination. (Leviticus 18:22 ESV)

If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them. (Leviticus 20:13 ESV)

For those who say the Bible doesn’t address Lesbianism, Paul does so very well in the following passage.

Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. (Romans 1:24-27 ESV)

Homosexuality, whether between women or men, is an abomination to God. The Hebrew word translated in Leviticus 18:22 as abomination is תּעבה or תּועבה. This word refers to something that is morally disgusting or an abominable idol. God sees idolatry as the righteous see what is perverse. Sex is subject to idolatry just as is money or possessions. With all of the emphasis we have today on sex it most certainly has become an idol to many.

Homosexuality is a sin. Therefore, men and women can be delivered from it in repentance by God’s grace and power. However, we must never forget that there are no exceptions in who will inherit the kingdom of God and who will not. The unrighteous will not, while the righteous will. The unrighteous are marked by sins strictly forbidden by God. On the other hand, those truly in Christ will not be among those who practice these things. Christians are regenerate and are, therefore, new creations. They are not perfect, but they will never be at peace with anything in their lives that carries the stain of unrighteousness. They have a drive to be holy as God is holy.

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-10 ESV)

Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted. (1 Timothy 1:8-11 ESV)

Please notice that there are those who profess to be Christians, but who are deceived. These deceived ones attempt to open wide the narrow gate of salvation to include those who are practitioners of the ways of the world. We desperately need men in our pulpits in this day to stand firm on the fact that sin is what cost our Lord Jesus Christ his life. Not His sin, for he was sinless, but the sins of all those for whom He died. How can we continue to love the sins from which or Lord’s shed blood saves us? God’s grace is beyond our comprehension, but His Word tells us plainly that even so Christians are called to be holy, and learn to walk in righteousness.

I overslept this morning so I listened to a different lineup on Bott Radio than I am used to. This morning instead of John MacArthur as I drove in, I listened to “Focus on the Family.” Today’s broadcast was an interview with Carrie Prejean and her mother. In the part I heard, I distinctly heard her say that she actually has many ‘gay’ friends and has no animosity towards them at all. She contends that those who are all up at arms at what she said about marriage being between a man and a woman are those who are demanding legal rights for men to marry men and women to marry women and have that legally protected just as marriage between men and women. No mention was made of the subsequent issues with her semi-nude pictures and breast augmentation surgery. The main thrust of the discussion was about “tolerance.” If those demanding tolerance will not give tolerance to those who disagree then they are simply violating Christ’s command to Judge Not! At least, that is the gist of what I heard as I drove through very heavy traffic this morning.

Are we supposed to demand tolerance for our faith from the world or are we supposed to be salt and light in it? Do you see the hypocrisy that creeps into Christians when they compromise with the world? I reject Political Correctness and so should all who take up their crosses and follow the Lord daily in self-denial. Political Correctness is what shapes the vanilla, empty, effeminate institutions in our time that call themselves churches. God is calling His people to stand firm and never compromise no matter how costly it may be. Our preachers must preach the Word no matter how Politically Incorrect it may be. Homosexuality is nothing more than a sexual perversion and we must not compromise on this at all. I would hate to be those Christian leaders who have compromised in their ministries in order to maintain their Political Correctness. They will have to give an account to our Lord when they stand before Him.

Soli Deo Gloria!

The original appears complete with a comments section right here.

See also:

THE SIN OF HOMOSEXUALITY IS DIFFERENT

JAY BAKKER CRITIQUES KEN SILVA AT RELIGION DISPATCHES

JESUS DOES CONDEMN HOMOSEXUALITY