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)

This Issue Tearing Apart Mainline Denominations Is Coming To An Evangelical Church Near You

For going on three years now here at Apprising Ministries Ive been covering the issue of a growing acceptance within evangelicalism that the deviant and sinful lifestyle of having sexual relations with another of the same sex, i.e homosexuality, is a viable one for the regenerated Christian.

What makes it so difficult to discuss the issue of practicing homosexuality is the huge straw man erected whenever the subject is brought up. The argument that’s almost immediately raised goes something like this: “Why single out this particular sin while ignoring the sins of injustice, pride, hypocrisy, and so on and so on…”

If you’re not careful to sidestep here and to stay on point, then you’ll only end up in what I refer to as wrestling with the snake. As soon as you focus on one area it then twists you around to another, and before you know it, you’re far away from the subject you’re actually attempting to discuss.

Concerning homosexuality, we must remind people that this is sin of a sexual nature, which immediately sets it apart from the other sin mentioned above. The way we know can know it for certain is because God actually tells us this Himself through His inspired Apostle Paul:

Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. (1 Corinthians 6:18)

Note carefully how the Holy Spirit chose to set all other sin apart from sexual immorality, which itself includes all sexual relations outside of marriage—whether it be homosexual or heterosexual. And as I’ve pointed out before Jesus of Nazareth—our Creator— defines marriage when He informs us as the:

Pharisees came up to Him and tested Him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that He Who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?

So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” They said to Him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” (Matthew 19:3-7)

So in the case of homosexual activity, it will always be outside of the marriage covenant from a Biblical standpoint; and therefore, is among the sexual immorality we are told to flee from. As The Lutheran Study Bible puts it concerning 1 Corinthians 6:18:

Sexual sins uniquely involve sinning against others with the body as an instrument, in contrast with gluttony, drunkenness, etc. ((Edward A. Engelbrecht, Gen. Ed., The Lutheran Study Bible,  [St. Louis: Concordia, 2009], 1954.))

Ironside adds:

Many philosophers and teachers would tell you that how you use your body does not make any difference, for it is merely physical… That was the essence of the philosophy that was being taught in Corinth,… As men and women having physical constitutions we belong to Christ.

Our bodies are to be used in devotion to Him. Since our bodies are “members of Christ,” how can we take the members of Christ, these bodies of ours, and defile them by using them for unholy purposes?” ((H.A. Ironside, 1 Corinthians, [Neptune: Loizeaux, 2001], 119, 120, 122.))

Sadly, we in the Body of Christ are being forced today to single out the sexual sin of homosexuality because the neo-liberal cult operating in the Emerging Church aka the Emergent Church is attempting to make this deviant lifestyle into a viable one for the evangelical Christian.

Don’t you kid yourself; the EC is right now working hard to make affirming homosexuality an issue within your own mainstream evangelical church—and sooner than you may even think. Just consider that  Andy Stanley Takes Jab At Christians shows the progress their evil influence has made.

I’m afraid things have only gotten worse as you’ll see in Andy Stanley Avoids Gay Issue in Last Sermon of Controversial Series. Therein Christian Post contributor Anugrah Kumar tells us:

Weeks after leaving some Christians wondering about his stance on homosexuality, Pastor Andy Stanley avoided explicitly addressing the issue on Sunday during his weekend message.

In his final message of an 8-part sermon series on what it means to be Christian, Stanley, who leads North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Ga., did not use the words “gay” or “homosexuality,” but reminded the audience what he mentioned at the beginning of the series – that Christians had a “branding problem.” (source)

Being a mainstream evangelical, Stanley gives us real cause for concern because, not only did he avoid addressing the issue of homosexuality itself, he sounds more like Living Spiritual Teacher and EC guru Brian McLaren than anything even remotely resembling an evangelical Christian:

Christians, he said, are viewed as being “judgmental, homophobic, moralists” who think they are the only ones going to heaven and who “secretly relish the fact that everyone else is going to hell.” (source, emphasis mine)

Leaving aside that the term Christian was originally a derisive term because pagans were not at all enamored with believers in Christ, I can tell you Stanley’s own bias concerning the church is showing. Do you know even one genuine believer in Christ who is out there secretly relishing that “everyone else is going to hell? I know I don’t.

But the fact is, only those who are regenerated by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in the finished work on the Cross by Christ alone, are “ones going to heaven.” How do I know this; because Jesus Himself said so:

“I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins… I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 8:24; John 14:6)

That’s pretty plain; so, for all of his pious blather as he courts the friendship of the world (cf. James 4:4), Andy Stanley’s jab at Christian believers is actually a swing and a miss. Just a couple of weeks ago I showed you that, to no one’s real surprise, now finally Rob Bell Comes Out Gay Affirming.

As I close this out, then there’s what we find out in Southern Baptist Jonathan Merritt Outed As Gay? Not unexpectedly, in what I see as a “good ol’ boy” network within the SBC, the matter was brought to Ed Stetzer’s blog where, it seems to me, the situation involving Merritt was given a political spin and swept under the rug.

I’ll tell you many younger evangelicals are waiting for same-sex marriage to be recognized as a legal marriage (it’s likely a matter of time) and then their argument will be homosexual relations within “marriage” cannot be considered sin; to such as these, it’s considered their escape clause from the sin of sexual immorality.

And we draw closer to a major evangelical coming out as homosexual detonating this debate in the mainstream.

Further reading

• ROB BELL AFFIRMS GAY “CHRISTIANS” & BRIAN MCLAREN IS REALLY HAPPY
• HOMOPPRESSION IS AS BAD AS HOMOPHOBIA
• JAY BAKKER CRITIQUES KEN SILVA AT RELIGION DISPATCHES