Being that Apprising Ministries functions as an online apologetics and discernment ministry (OADM) we generally do not involve ourselves in political issues per se. However, there are those times when these kinds of issues will cross over into the theological arena.

By now you likely know World Vision to hire “Gay Christians in Same-Sex Marriages” as World Vision U.S. president Richard Stearns first announced:

World Vision’s American branch will no longer require its more than 1,100 employees to restrict their sexual activity to marriage between one man and one woman.

Abstinence outside of marriage remains a rule. But a policy change announced Monday [March 24] will now permit gay Christians in legal same-sex marriages to be employed at one of America’s largest Christian charities. (source)

Then the next day Dr Al Mohler would weigh in on the subject with his op ed piece Pointing to Disaster — The Flawed Moral Vision of World Vision. While I find myself disagreeing with Mohler more than I used to, here he got it right when he said:

Like all revolutions, moral revolutions are marked by events that signal major turning points in social transformation. Yesterday, March 24, 2014, will be remembered as one of those days. (source)

Well, not quite; because the day after Mohler wrote the above, it happened that World Vision Reversed Decision to Hire Gay Christians in Same-Sex Marriages. In its official statement obtained by Apprising Ministries we read:

In our board’s effort to unite around the church’s shared mission to serve the poor in the name of Christ, we failed to be consistent with World Vision U.S.’s commitment to the traditional understanding of Biblical marriage and our own Statement of Faith …

We also failed to seek enough counsel from our own Christian Partners. As a result, we made a change to our conduct policy that was not consistent with our Statement of Faith and our commitment to the sanctity of marriage.

We are brokenhearted over the pain and confusion we have caused many of our friends, who saw this decision as a reversal of our strong commitment to Biblical authority. We ask that you understand that this was never the board’s intent. (source)

Now, I happen to be one who has long been tracking the sinfully ecumenical neo-liberal cult of the Emergent Church aka the Emerging Church with its postmodern Progressive Christian theology—a Liberalism 2.0—that they often refer now as “big tent” Emergence Christianity (EC).

As I told you in Doug Pagitt and the Emerging Church Gay Agenda, the reason why I believe God moved me to begin covering the issue of the deviant and sinful lifestyle of having sexual relations with another of the same sex, i.e homosexuality, is because of these EC rebels against God’s Word.

For you see, the EC has already made acceptance of this sin of sexual immorality a prime hot-button issue for the Christian within the church visible. It’s also laid the foundation for a growing acceptance within evangelicalism that homosexuality is a viable lifestyle for the regenerated Christian.

Acting as  tip-of-the-spear for this area of attack upon proper biblical Christianity has been gay-affirming Emergent Church “pastor” Jay Bakker of Revolution:NYC. I did what I could do years ago to try and talk sense to Bakker as you can see e.g. in Jay Bakker Critiques Ken Silva at Religion Dispatches.

Here’s the bottom line: The very near future for foolish evangelical leaders who’ve embraced these EC apostates against the authority of the Word of God can be seen by looking at mainline denominations, who long ago gave in to the Cult of Liberalism and kicked out the proper Christian spirituality of Sola Scriptura.

As a result they are, right now, still being ripped apart by the highly divisive pro-homosexual lobby. It really doesn’t take a prophet to see that one by one, they will all fall. Well, mainstream evangelical leaders, this is your wake-up call; you’d better begin to prepare for the very same debates coming within your own halls.

Sadly, it’s going to be a huge surprise, and soon, when those evanjellyfish—unity at all costs—leaders find out the hard way that most professing Christians don’t hold to sola Scriptura at all. This is especially true within the growing sectors of the evangelical community practicing Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism and charismania.

Here’s how all this relates to Christian organizations like World Vision (WV); the tragic fact is, you will “soon” witness WV, and many others like it, also capitulating to captious culture in increasing numbers. From my experience monitoring “Christian” homosexuality these past years I can tell you it’s just a matter of time.

In my opinion, WV merely misjudged how much support there is in favor of so-called same-sex marriage at this point within the mainstream. So, as we keep an eye on the issue of homosexuality becoming an accepted lifestyle for the Christian, we’ll observe WV leaders sticking their fingers into the wind to check it’s direction.

Just as soon as they sense it blowing people’s opinion strongly enough away from what God has said in Scripture, and further toward what they “feel” He is saying now, we’ll see WV reverse their reversal. In On Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism and Charismania I already explained how this type of thing will come about.

It’s critical for you to understand that Al Mohler correctly shows us how this critical issue of same-sex marriage is not merely a political matter, No, it’s one that seriously needs to be addressed by Bible-believing Christians:

Writing to the Corinthian Christians, the Apostle Paul stated: “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]

The leader of World Vision U.S. now claims that the Bible is not sufficiently clear on the sinfulness of same-sex sexuality and relationships, but he also claims a “mission of building the kingdom.” The Apostle Paul makes homosexuality a kingdom issue, and he does so in the clearest of terms.

Of course, Paul’s point is not that homosexuals are uniquely sinful, but that all of us are sinners in need of the grace and mercy of God that come to us in the gift of salvation. Thanks be to God, Paul follows those words with these: “And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” [1 Corinthians 6:11]

The worst aspect of the World Vision U.S. policy shift is the fact that it will mislead the world about the reality of sin and the urgent need of salvation. Willingly recognizing same-sex marriage and validating openly homosexual employees in their homosexuality is a grave and tragic act that confirms sinners in their sin — and that is an act that violates the gospel of Christ. (source)

Mohler is dead-on-target here. However, you need to realize that the tide is going to turn hard against Christians refusing to acknowledge same-sex marriage because a growing majority of the people in this nation more openly embraces the deviant lifestyle of sexual relations with members of the same sex as morally acceptable.

This we would expect; but as I said above, the battle lines around this issue have already been drawn in the very heart of the professing Christian community. It brings me no pleasure to alert you that the front line is already moving closer to your own mainstream evangelical church than you likely know at this point.

Sadly, using your Youth groups and Young Adult ministries as spiritual guinea pigs, church leaders would make the tragic mistake of feeding them with the warped and toxic teachings of progressive/liberals masquerading as evangelicals, e.g. like the aforementioned Doug Pagitt and Rob Bell, who’re hostile to the Bible.

Now, just the same as with leaders in the Emerging Church and other unbelievers, the younger sectors of the evangelical community are approaching homosexuality by how they personally feel God wants us to deal with it. For instance, please make the time to consider the following from Jay Bakker.

In 2006 Bakker claims to have had a private chat on the subject of homosexuality with the LORD God Almighty Himself. Following is what Bakker told ABC  News about his alleged extra-biblical encounter with the one true and living God of the Bible:

(source)

You can almost hear the applause of a studio audience should Bakker drop that in an interview. The problem is, God said no such thing. God, Who does not change (cf. Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8) has already shared with us His thoughts concerning homosexuality:

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

No,  in our postmodern society with it’s “anything goes” attitude, this is not a popular stand for Christians. However, the Lord hasn’t asked us if we’d prefer a more sinner-friendly view. As I close this out, concerning the issue of same-sex marriage, I point you to Christ Jesus of Nazareth, Who is our Creator.

Therefore, Jesus is actually speaking below from the perspective of an eyewitness when He quite clearly defines His marriage covenant for us:

And 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)

It’s patently obvious that Jesus has just defined marriage as a male [man] to a female [woman], which is how the men to whom He was speaking understood it. So based upon what Jesus has just said, from a Biblical standpoint, we see that any homosexual activity will always be outside of the marriage covenant,

As such, homosexual relations are then to be considered among the sins sexual immorality from which God has told us we are to flee:

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. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord andwill also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! 

Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. (1 Corinthians 6:9-20)

This is what God has said; and it doesn’t matter at all what the professing Christian or the unbeliever feels about this. As Christians we must love precious LGBT souls, for whom Christ died, enough to tell them the truth. It is not unloving to tell someone the truth; however it is, in fact, actually hateful to withhold it from them.

Further reading

• HOMOPPRESSION IS AT LEAST AS BAD AS HOMOPHOBIA
• ROB BELL AFFIRMS GAY “CHRISTIANS” & BRIAN MCLAREN IS REALLY HAPPY
• THE SIN OF HOMOSEXUALITY IS DIFFERENT