Please know that as a general rule, and a courtesy, we do not publish email without the permission of the sender.  However at the same time, all email sent to AM and Christian Research Network is considered the property of Apprising Ministries. The Lord knows I have spent much time these past four years privately answering emails only to have them bounce back because of a phony email address.

As has been pointed out previously, we may indeed publish unsolicited email for the purposes of edification, as if the case here. This particular letter is in response to Does “Gay Affirming Pastor” Jay Bakker Really Love Gay People?; and because Jay Bakker, as pastor of Revolution Church—where they want us to know they’re “sorry for being self-righteous judgmental bastards”—has a very sizeable following, no doubt there are others as confused as the author of the following: 

Jay Bakker doesn’t consider himself an emergent, so you might want to check that before you print that.

I know y’all may disagree with Jay or even be alarmed at what he says he has heard from the Lord. But I’d love you to give him the benefit of the doubt; that it’s love that motivates him to reach out to the lost and wounded. They would never be drawn to Jesus based on your love of the law.

I know your heart is in the right place, I know that we must love the scripture. I’m really glad you are out there on the watch. I’m just saying that there are people out there who are so wounded and angry at the church that they would never come to God based on an assessment of scripture.

Jay is making a big impact bringing those wounded people to the love of Christ. Please go ahead and continue to disagree with him. But please remember, he loves and serves Jesus just as you do. Thanks

Let’s just clear up a couple of misconceptions here. Like [insert Emerging Church figure here] when the moniker is not convenient for them once again we’re told, in this case, that “Bakker doesn’t consider himself an emergent.” Well, I never said he did; I simply placed him within the very broad circle of the Emerging Church aka Emergent Church, now morphing into Emergence Christianity, as did e.g. Zondervan/Youth Specialties in their Stories of Emergence and the Pacific School of Religion earlier this year.

Being that I’ve been led of the Lord to study apologetics, Comparative Religion, and non-Christian cults for 22+ years now I’m not one to “be alarmed” by someone claiming to hear from God, it happens all the time. As a modified cessationist, the questions for me are: What does said person claim that God spoke to them; and is it then in line with the text of the Bible, which is the only revelation we know for sure came from the one true and living God (see—Acts 17:11; 1 Thessalonians 5:19-21).

So the argument that I supposedly “love the Law,” in other words — for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life (2 Corinthians 3:6, NASB) simply doesn’t apply here at all. And have you noticed how often the Bible is errantly quoted by those who claim we shouldn’t “proof-text”; would that they heed their own advice. In any event, the author of the email refers to the following revelation by Bakker from a personal chat he says he had with the LORD God Almighty:

“The more I follow grace, the more I’m drawn to him [God], the more I’m willing to stand up for people being persecuted,” said Baker. “It sounds so churchy, but I felt like God spoke to my heart and said ‘[homosexuality] is not a sin.’ ” (Online source, emphasis mine)

And as I have said before, I’m not going to say that Bakker didn’t have a spiritual experience and hear from the seducing spirits behind the mythical mush god with the man-shaped hole in its heart. No, what I going to say is that I can tell you with absolute certainty Jay Bakker did not hear the above from the only God there is according to the Bible. It’s very simple: God says — “I the LORD do not change” (Malachi 3:6); and the LORD commanded — “You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination” (Leviticus 18:22, NASB), which means it is sin to do so.

Bakker then tells me, “I felt like God spoke to my heart and said ‘[homosexuality] is not a sin.’ ” This clearly contradicts the revelation in Holy Scripture; now remember that 2 Timothy 3:16 tells us — All Scripture is breathed by God, and we also know that Jesus Christ—the Creator God Himself in human flesh — is the same yesterday and today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). Now, it might come as a shock to some, but there is at least one thing that the Lord is actually incapable of doing — God, who cannot lie (Titus 1:2).

So no matter how sincere Jay Bakker may be; and I have no reason to doubt his sincerity, he is sincerely wrong; period. Above I’m told that, “Jay is making a big impact,” and I agree; he is. However as one who was given a pastor’s heart, and you may believe me when I say prior to being regenerated I had a heart that beat only for me, my real concern is the terrible impact—one with eternal consequences—that Jay Bakker is having by lying; even inadvertantly, to people who are unrepentant in their practice of sexual immorality (sin) with members of the same sex ( homosexuality).

See also:

BUT DO EMERGENCE CHRISTIANITY AND BRIAN MCLAREN REALLY LOVE GAY PEOPLE?

JAY BAKKER: ONE PUNK UNDER GOD AND THE EMERGING CHURCH

THE EMERGENCE OF EVANGELICAL INCLUSIVE ORTHODOXY AND EMBRACE OF GLBTQ CHRISTIANS

WHY NO CONDEMNATION FOR CHRISTIANS WHO ARE HOMOPRESSIVE?

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

ROB BELL, PETER ROLLINS, AND QUEERMERGENT’S ADELE SAKLER

RESPONDING TO PRO-GAY THEOLOGY