Gay Rights and the Christian Church?

First, we must understand that the entire discussion of homosexuality being sin or not, or being morally right or wrong, has everything to do with the fundamental belief in the truth of scripture (or not) as presented in the Holy Bible and how we view our relationship to God on the basis of that understanding. What I mean is, if you do not believe that the bible is in fact the Word of the living God, then it is only another man-made document that may or may not be of some historic or social value dependant entirely on the opinion or perspective of the reader, and certainly open to anyone's speculation, evaluation or interpretation. If however, you do believe that as the scripture says, it is "God-breathed", you have an entirely different situation. If it is God's own word, then we either line up with what it says, or we stand opposed to God Himself. "And this is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, and men loved darkness more than the light because their deeds were evil." (John 3:19) If we understand this, then we also understand what a contradiction of terms the title of this article is.

If anyone does not believe that the bible is divinely inspired by God and His very word, then there is absolutely no reason for any argument. What reason is there to expect that any person who is without God and who has no understanding of God and His ways would agree with God about their sin or about anything else for that matter? So then, the conflict is only with those who claim that they have knowledge of the God of Scripture, but who still prefer to live in sin. Now, anyone who truly knows anything about the God of the bible at all, knows that He is holy and that He commands all who would have a relationship with Him that they also must be holy. (I Peter 1:15) To say anything to the contrary is an undeniable admonition of one of two things; total ignorance or total deception. Let us thoughtfully consider the words of the apostle Paul to the Corinthian believers; "I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner - not even to eat with such a person." (I Corinthians 6:9-11)

If anyone claims to know or believe in Jesus Christ and the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; the God of the bible, and that they believe the bible to be the truth, it is still possible to be ignorant of many of the things contained in the bible simply for lack of exposure or study. Jesus said, "Why do you call me Lord, and do not the things that I say?" "Not every man that says to Me, "Lord, Lord" will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven." (Matthew 7:21) And what is the will of God? "This is the will of God, even your sanctification; that you should abstain from sexual immorality." (1 Thess 4:3)

When Jesus was accused of casting out demons by the power of Satan, He responded by stating that a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. Similarly, if God commands that we are to keep the marriage bed holy, and then looks the other way (so to speak...) when two men who He created for union with women commit the unnatural and perverted act of sodomy (which is, by the way, what homosexuals practice) that is specifically condemned by God, it would effectively demonstrate the union of light with darkness, which simply cannot be. There are those who claim that they have a "loving relationship" with a member of the same sex. You can certainly have love for someone of the same sex, but if it includes sexual intimacy, it is a clear perversion of what God intended - which is obvious from nature itself. (See Leviticus 20:13 and Romans 1:18-27)

You don't have to do any elaborate searching to find the account of the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gommorah in the book of Genesis to know how God views the practice of homosexuality. (Genesis 19:1-25)

So then, the conclusion of the matter is this; if we want to have a relationship with the God of the scriptures, we must align ourselves with His word. If we want to continue in our immorality and still remain merely "religious" we may, but at the cost of having anything genuine. Of course this applies not only to homosexuality, but to any evil that we might choose to practice as a way of life. If we attempt to get around the word of God, we must consign ourselves to the practice of redefining terms like the word "immoral" in a way that will excuse our sinful conduct; but then we must exchange the God of Abraham for a substitute that is more in keeping with the standards that we have established for ourselves, a God of our own imagination - a lie. We must sacrifice reality for deception and reap the consequences.

Can a homosexual or a lesbian find peace with God? Certainly! But they must do what everyone who truly turns to God must do. They must repent of their wicked and sinful lifestyle and begin to live in a way that is pleasing to God as defined in the holy scriptures. We are all born in sin and with a propensity toward sin and evil of whatever type or category it might be. We are all faced daily with the same decision; I must choose God or my sin, but I can't have sin in my life and not expect God's correction and judgment if I am unwilling to turn from it. "Truly these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent." (Acts 17:30)