Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. 
(1 Corinthians 6:9-10, NASB)

Talking Loud But Saying Absolutely Nothing That Will Convert Sinners

The issue of professing Christians who are openly practicing the lifestyle of homosexuality and yet still claim to be in right relationship to God should now be front and center for discussion within the Body of Christ. This coming on the heels of well-known “Christian” singer Ray Boltz who recently made a rather shocking announcement in Washington Blade: Gay And Lesbian News, Entertainment, Politics And Opinion. Boltz informed the Body of Christ that he is unrepentant in his practice of the sin of homosexuality.

In addition, as you can see in the Apprising Ministries article Clay Aiken: Another Gay “Christian” this American Idol favorite and professing Christian has also just come out as a practicing homosexual in the current issue of People magazine. And so we now think back to January 23, 2006 over at the Out of Ur  blog from Christianity Astray Today magazine where prominent Emergent Church theologian Brian McLaren wrote:

Usually when I’m asked about this subject [of homosexuality], it’s by conservative Christians wanting to be sure that we conform to what I call “radio-orthodoxy,” i.e. the religio-political priorities mandated by many big-name religious broadcasters. Sometimes it’s asked by ex-gays who want to be sure they’ll be supported in their ongoing re-orientation process, or parents whose children have recently “come out”… (Online source)

Well, looking again at Brian McLaren’s non-stand about homosexuality (or about anything else for that matter), you need to understand this. There is little chance that McLaren is ever going to come down on the side of what the Bible actually says about this forbidden and sinful lifestyle because of his own views concerning the inspired texts of Holy Scripture. You should know that McLaren sees the Bible in a very allegorical “Alexandrian School” approach to Scripture so he would not readily see what it clearly appears to be saying when simply read at face value.

But that’s not good enough for these new reimagined Gnostics and their supposed superior mystic spirituality. And much of this has to do with the Emerging rebellion against Sola Scriptura going on within postevangelicalism and its spiritually deadly dance of deception with a neo-pietism fueled by the spurious Spiritual Formation of Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic Richard Foster. The sad fact is we are now witnessing the rise of a Cult of Richard Foster who, with an able assist from his spiritual twin ordained Southern Baptist minister Dallas Willard, is spreading corrupt Contemplative/Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM)—a core doctrine of the Emerging Church from its inception—deep within rapidly apostatizing evangelicalism.

However, I happen to be a former Roman Catholic whom God in His mercy chose to deliver from the religious bondage of the Church of Rome into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. So the Protestant Reformation has much meaning to me and as I have said many times before this spurious so-called Spiritual Formation with its unbiblical practice of Contemplative/Centering Prayer—itself a type of Eastern transcendental meditation for the “Christian”—is a false approach to Christian spirituality really rooted in the asceticism of apostate Roman Catholicism.

Subjective Centered On The Self Interpretation Of What We Wish God Had Said

Men and women, it’s critical for you to keep in mind that for one to even be a practioner of CSM they would first have to put themselves at odds with the Lord’s Reformers who rejected these Roman Catholic mystics now so romanticized today by the Emergent Church and postevangelicalism as apostate i.e. not Christians. So one might imagine my surprise, as I point out in Ravi Zacharias Answers “Can A Person Live A Sincere Christian Life As A Homosexual?”, when this prominent “Protestant” evangelical apologist literally gushes as he is lavishing his praise upon a recent apostate Roman Catholic mystic.

Yet in that piece you can watch for yourself as Ravi Zacharias emphatically states “One of the greatest saints of recent memory was Henri Nouwen.” But this disastrous drift from Sola Scriptura within the visible church today is no light matter at all. For one thing it’s opened the door for a kind of Christian version of the Untouchables in the near worship of evangelical icons such as Zacharias, Way of the Master’s Ray Comfort and Emerging Church pastor Mark Driscoll—he of the juvenile Junior High antics in the pulpit.

More specifically to the postliberal Emergent Church and the issue of practicing homosexuality those who are involved with the “spiritual disciplines” of CSM e.g. like McLaren, his disciple Rob Bell, and his friend Emerging Church Pastor Doug Pagitt, have clearly jettisoned Sola Scriptura in favor of a highly subjective, neo-orthodox (at best), and existential (feelings-oriented) approach to Holy Scripture. And that’s why in his post at Out of Ur  McLaren goes on to opine: 

Most of the emerging leaders I know share my agony over this question. We fear that the whole issue has been manipulated far more than we realize by political parties seeking to shave percentage points off their opponent’s constituency. We see whatever we say get sucked into a vortex of politicized culture-wars rhetoric–and we’re pastors, evangelists, church-planters, and disciple-makers, not political culture warriors. Those who bring us honest questions are people we are trying to care for in Christ’s name, not cultural enemies we’re trying to vanquish.

Frankly, many of us don’t know what we should think about homosexuality. We’ve heard all sides but no position has yet won our confidence so that we can say “it seems good to the Holy Spirit and us.” That alienates us from both the liberals and conservatives who seem to know exactly what we should think. Even if we are convinced that all homosexual behavior is always sinful, we still want to treat gay and lesbian people with more dignity, gentleness, and respect than our colleagues do. If we think that there may actually be a legitimate context for some homosexual relationships, we know that the biblical arguments are nuanced and multilayered, and the pastoral ramifications are staggeringly complex. We aren’t sure if or where lines are to be drawn, nor do we know how to enforce with fairness whatever lines are drawn.

Perhaps we need a five-year moratorium on making pronouncements. In the meantime, we’ll practice prayerful Christian dialogue, listening respectfully, disagreeing agreeably. When decisions need to be made, they’ll be admittedly provisional. We’ll keep our ears attuned to scholars in biblical studies, theology, ethics, psychology, genetics, sociology, and related fields. Then in five years, if we have clarity, we’ll speak; if not, we’ll set another five years for ongoing reflection. After all, many important issues in church history took centuries to figure out. Maybe this moratorium would help us resist the “winds of doctrine” blowing furiously from the left and right, so we can patiently wait for the wind of the Spirit to set our course. (ibid.)

A Real Teacher Sent By God Teaches What God Has Said

O yes, at first glance that all sounds so very pious, does it not? Actually it also sounds a lot like Emergent Church promoter and pastor Dan Kimball as well. In the AM piece Dan Kimball An Effete Christianity Is Nothing To Be Gay About I discuss a recent Christian Post (CP) piece lauding Kimball who “believes people at his church were not shocked [about same-sex marriage] partly because of their openness in discussing marriage and homosexuality.” However as I said before; so what. This is also true of many other Christian churches who still faithfully preach the full Word of God and yet unlike so much of postevangelicalism it doesn’t require us to shy away from teaching God’s absolute sovereignty over His creation.

As a matter of fact John MacArthur—hardly a friend to Christian compromisers—preached a series covering same sex sexuality called Homosexuality and the Bible not so long ago. The truth is that CP article, and the Out of Ur post by McLaren referenced above, are perfect examples of these loquacious leaders in the Emergent Church who are continually blethering on about some abstract Christians and church leaders who supposedly aren’t really in touch with the culture. And certainly not to the great extent to which these Emerging mystics claim they are.  But in the end, the fact remains that there are many fine pastors of Jesus Christ who dearly love people with the shepherd’s heart our Lord has given to them.

And you know, somehow they still manage to preach the whole counsel of God while having nothing to do with the counterfeit Christianity of the postliberal cult of the Emerging Church, which now brings us back around to the very heart of the matter. Because Kimball and McLaren are in fact spreaking from the flesh (the world) the Bible tells us what they are really bringing forth is the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them (1 John 4:5). But to quote that noted pop philosopher Jackson Browne there are lives in the balance; indeed, the eternity destiny of the souls of these people is at stake.

So a word to the wise; don’t let yourself be taken in by fools like McLaren with their centered on the self (mankind) viewpoint of the world as illustrated below where he says:

Perhaps we need a five-year moratorium on making pronouncements. In the meantime, we’ll practice prayerful Christian dialogue, listening respectfully, disagreeing agreeably. When decisions need to be made, they’ll be admittedly provisional. We’ll keep our ears attuned to scholars in biblical studies, theology, ethics, psychology, genetics, sociology, and related fields. Then in five years, if we have clarity, we’ll speak; if not, we’ll set another five years for ongoing reflection. After all, many important issues in church history took centuries to figure out. Maybe this moratorium would help us resist the “winds of doctrine” blowing furiously from the left and right, so we can patiently wait for the wind of the Spirit to set our course. (ibid.)

However, what McLaren seems to have missed is that the wind of the Spirit has already set our course e.g. in the text with which I opened this missive — Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. So tell us messers McLaren and Kimball just what exactly are these “scholars in biblical studies, theology, ethics, psychology, genetics, sociology, and related fields” going to tell us which might happen to have escaped the attention of our Creator? 

No, the absolute Truth is that in Romans chapter one we are informed that the LORD God Almighty’s patience will (and possibly now has) run out. In verse 26 we read — Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. It should be obvious enough we are being told here that what we will read next would be considered shameful lusts by the Creator. And notice that this has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with a particular culture, but rather, with what God Himself as Creator judges universally to be shameful lusts. The b part of verse 26 — Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.

The logical question that should arise now is: What are these natural relations women exchange here for unnatural ones. God the Holy Spirit anticipates this question and then provides our answer in Verse 27 — In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. We see then — In the same way as the women the men also abandoned — or exchanged — national relations with women for unnatural ones. So now we can understand that according to the created order, the LORD God Almighty—very the Creator of the universe Himself—has in fact defined “natural” sexual relations to be that which occurs between one man with one woman after marriage.

As a result therefore Scripture then defines sexual activity between members of the same sex as being “unnatural.” And this is also reinforced in the b part of verse 27 — Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. Now we can put all of this together and come to the realization that according to the Bible God refers to sexual relations between members of the same sex as shameful lusts. Homosexuality is also said to be abandoning natural relations and being inflamed with lust (a sin in and of itself) for a member of one’s own sex. Verse 27 lists this among indecent acts and clearly refers to homosexuality as perversion.

Men and women, there is just no way around what these texts are saying because this passage of the Bible concerns proper sexual conduct for men and women—period. This is part of the created order itself and so it would apply to all mankind regardless of cultural mores of any generation. If we really do care about others then we’re going to tell them the truth. And if you actually love Jesus Christ then you’d respect His Word and teach to His creatures what He has said. So when all is said and done the question becomes: Brian McLaren and the Emerging Church, what’s so hard about that?

See also:

TONY JONES AND THE EMERGENT CHURCH: “CHRISTIAN” GAY IS A-OK

EMERGENT CHURCH OPENLY ACCEPTS PRACTICING HOMOSEXUAL “CHRISTIANS”

PRACTICING HOMOSEXUAL BISHOP GENE ROBINSON: “THIS IS WHERE GOD IS LEADING THE WHOLE CHURCH”

ROB BELL ON THE ISSUE OF HOMOSEXUALITY: MUM’S THE WORD

EMERGING CHURCH: “GAY AFFIRMING PASTOR” JAY BAKKER ON A MISSION FROM GOD