“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the Kingdom of Heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.” (Matthew 23:13)

If You Truly Loved Someone, Then You Would Care Enough To Tell Them The Truth

A couple of years ago in his Courage and Compassion on Homosexuality Dr. Al Mohler, “Author, Speaker, President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary,” pointed out:

The church’s engagement with the culture involves a host of issues, controversies, and decisions–but no issue defines our current cultural crisis as clearly as homosexuality. Some churches and denominations have capitulated to the demands of the homosexual rights movement, and now accept homosexuality as a fully valid lifestyle. Other denominations are tottering on the brink, and without a massive conservative resistance, they are almost certain to abandon biblical truth and bless what the Bible condemns.

Within a few short years, a major dividing line has become evident–with those churches endorsing homosexuality on one side, and those stubbornly resisting the cultural tide on the other. (Online source)

Just a year before that Emergence Christianity theologian Brian McLaren had written:

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” … Perhaps we need a five-year moratorium on making pronouncements.

In the meantime, we’ll practice prayerful Christian dialogue, listening respectfully, disagreeing agreeably… We also need to be wise. And loving. And patient. (Online source)

By now many already know that McLaren’s friend, and fellow Emergent, Tony Jones apparently feels he has been “loving” and “patient” long enough. In the Apprising Ministries article Emergence Christianity Theologian Tony Jones And His Unrepentant Homosexual Christians we reminded you that last November he announced his own “it seems good” when he said:

I now believe that GLBTQ can live lives in accord with biblical Christianity (at least as much as any of us can!) and that their monogamy can and should be sanctioned and blessed by church and state. (Online source, bold his)

A couple of months later Jones would also introduce us to practicing lesbian “Christ-follower” Adele Sakler, co-leader of Richmond Emergent Cohort, who also heads up the Emergent Church group Queermergent as well; so For Emergence Christianity Out Goes The Bible And In Comes “Queer Christians”. It’s also interesting to note that Sakler is close with Peter Rollins, a friend of Emerging Church icon Rob Bell. Because Bell is so influential now within evangelicalism AM has written to Mars Hill Bible Church, where he is “teaching pastor,” asking what his position is re. homosexuality.

But as you can see in Rob Bell We Want An Actual Answer To Your Position Concerning The Practice Of Homosexuality all we received is a nebulous form letter. This issue happens to be close to me because I have family, and friends, who are involved in practicing homosexuality, which the Bible condemns as sinful and deviant behavior. We can clearly see, from the above, that this alleged new reformation [read: de-formation] of Christianity—morphing into something now known as Emergence—is embracing the homosexual lifestyle as acceptable behavior for the Christian.

I don’t always see eye-to-eye with Dr. Ron Rhodes, but he was very kind to me when I was just starting out in ministry, and he is a solid evangelical scholar. The point being, he’s certainly not someone we would ever call a radical. In his helpful quick reference guide Homosexuality: What You Need To Know Rhodes is dead-on-target when he says:

In a Bible-believing evangelical church, church discipline is appropriate for a person living in unrepentant homosexual sin. If a member of a church chooses—without remorse, and without willingness to change— to remain a practicing homosexuality, then it is appropriate that this person be put out of fellowship with the rest of the church as a means of church discipline (Mathew 18:15-17; 1 Corinthians 5:11-13). The goal is not punishment but restoration to right living. (emphasis his)

Men and women, we have a very serious problem currently brewing within the mainstream evangelical community of the visible church. Not only is Emergence Christianity embracing those unrepentant in their practice of homosexuality, but as you can see here, in addition the Emerging Church is openly and aggressively promoting people who are living in sin as in the case of Adele Sakler. Am I suddenly a mean-spirited unChristian Pharisee to say so; no. Should we embrace a heterosexual professing Christian who’s living in open adultery; no. Isn’t sin, sin anymore; today in evanjellyfish, no.

So indeed we should be sad for “gay Christians” because they are being lied to; and those who continue to do so are really the ones who are the hard-hearted Pharisees slamming the door to the Kingdom in the face of these who need Jesus. Having once been one of those trapped in my sin and feeling so helpless, in my song Hellbound, I would later write to the Church, “They need Jesus just as much as you do.” Dr. Walter Martin (1928-1989), whom Dr. Ron Rhodes once worked with, used to say: “It’s not unloving to tell the truth; you can get in a lot of trouble for doing it, but it’s not unloving.”

John Lanagan, who is a dear friend of mine saved and delivered by Jesus, knows this issue of homosexuality; John knows it very well, and, he knows it quite personally. I’ll close this piece echoing his heartfelt plea:

A division is occurring within the very House of God, within the very Body of Christ. Homospirituality has made its entrance, first through mainline Protestantism, then through the increasingly bold leaders of the Emergent movement. The Holy God looks down upon us all. He sees, and is longsuffering, and will do as He has promised.

All around us are the unsaved. They are in Alcoholics Anonymous, convinced “god” is whatever they please. They are in nursing homes, in wheelchairs, with eternity getting closer and closer and closer. They are the homosexuals and lesbians  the world celebrates and placates.

When will we send missionaries to these people? When will we remember that we too were unsaved sinners? (Online source)

See also:

APPRISING MINISTRIES: SHOCKING NEW EVIDENCE JESUS CONDEMNED THE PRACTICE OF HOMOSEXUALITY

MOST MAINLINE PROTESTANTS SAY SOCIETY SHOULD ACCEPT HOMOSEXUALITY

“GAY BISHOP” GENE ROBINSON SAYS GOD LEADING CHURCH TO CONTRADICT SCRIPTURE

BRIAN MCLAREN WITH GOOD NEWS CONCERNING “THE HOMOSEXUAL QUESTION”

EMERGENT CHURCH OPENLY ACCEPTS PRACTICING HOMOSEXUAL “CHRISTIANS”

WE FEEL HOMOSEXUALITY IS NOT A SIN

REJECTING SOLA SCRIPTURA OPENS THE DOOR FOR LESBIAN EPISCOPAL PRIESTS