As I've said for awhile now, war has been waged on Christians. It's been going on for many years now and we haven't had the will or the understanding, so we've been losing. We'll continue losing unless things change. We need to wise up.
Here's a
start of what we need to know:..........................
How should we respond to a movement whose fruit, the Bible warns, is a society “filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness…envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable [and] unmerciful”? (Romans 1:26-32) How can we love these “enemies” (Mathew 5:44) while at the same time “overcoming evil with good”? (Romans 12:21). The rise of this “gay” movement represents one of the toughest moral (and political) challenges the church has ever faced, and we cannot confuse our duty to love the sinner with tolerance for the evil institution that movement has created. The Christian response to its agenda must be one of uncompromising opposition. Our duty to be salt and light to society, and to love our neighbors as ourselves, compels us.
“gay” activists and their allies use the accusation of hatred as a weapon, not because they believe it is true (they know that most of their opponents do not hate them), but because it is a very effective tool of psychological manipulation -- especially when used against Christians.
They accuse Christians of hating homosexuals simply because they know it puts them on the defensive, which gives them a psychological advantage in fighting Christians for control of the culture. It's a calculated and cynical tactic, designed to turn Christians’ greatest strength into their greatest weakness.
“Gay” activists will be satisfied by nothing less than the total capitulation of the culture to their agenda. In facing this challenge, Christians must be prepared to do good works, to love and minister to homosexuals, without receiving public credit.
We must resist the temptation to compromise our Biblical values to “earn the respect” of our accusers or silence their criticism. Such a response is not only personally self-destructive, it also doesn’t work. Their implied promise to respect our compromise is a trap laid to ensnare the gullible and the weak-of-faith.
Christians have a reputation for being among the most gullible members of society because our desire to see the good in others makes us more vulnerable to exploitation by deceivers. The Lord, knowing that we are like sheep among wolves, specifically warns us to be “wise as serpents but innocent as doves” when we try to have an impact on the world (Matthew 10:16). Scripture also warns us that unrepentant homosexuals, being the very epitome of “reprobate” thinkers, are “filled” with deceit. (Romans 1:26-32).
As much as we care for individual “gays” and lesbians we may know as family members, neighbors or co-workers, and as much as we want all homosexuals to be saved and delivered from their bondage to sin, we cannot ignore that our “gay” activist adversaries are some of the “wolves“ we were warned about. They are cunning and relentless pursuers of their own selfish interests, which they cannot achieve without first defeating us.
Why should the “gay” agenda concern every Christian? Because it is rooted in a philosophy that is the antithesis of everything we stand for, a philosophy that is even now supplanting our values in the hearts and minds of our neighbors throughout Western Civilization. The “gay” goal for society is to replace Judeo-Christian sexual morality (monogamous heterosexual marriage and the natural family) with an alternative moral system that embraces “sexual freedom.” They know they can have no real acceptance in a society which restricts sex to authentic marriage, so “gay” activists have worked, literally for generations, to destroy marriage-based culture -- by aggressively promoting heterosexual promiscuity and fostering hostility against the chief opponent of promiscuity, the Christian church. As respect for family values and Christianity has declined, their own political power, as champions of “sexual freedom,” has increased proportionally.
We have watched the destructive consequences of “sexual freedom” unfold in Western Civilization for many years now without recognizing the “gay” movement as its driving force. Now the church must wake up to the reality that the so-called “culture war” is, more than anything else, a contest between the opposing and contradictory philosophies of activist homosexuals and Christians. And we must act accordingly, despite the fact that they, and those they have duped, will call us “haters.”
Q. What is the “gay agenda”?
A. Gay activists say their goal is social acceptance. However, in all of the Bible-based religions (Judaism, Christianity and, indirectly, Islam), sexual conduct is forbidden outside of monogamous heterosexual marriage. So logically, to achieve acceptance, “gays” must promote an anti-Biblical morality. Thus, their necessary goal is the replacement of Biblical sexual morality with some other moral system that allows “sexual freedom.” In other words, especially in “Christian” America, the agenda of the “gay” movement is to defeat Christianity. For an actual list of specific action items in the “gay” agenda see their published "List of Demands" from 1972 and 1993 in Section 4.
Q. What does God command about homosexuality?
A. God commands that sexual behavior is to be limited to heterosexual marriage. All sex outside of marriage -- adultery, fornication, homosexuality -- is forbidden because of the destructive consequences of these sins. Special warnings against homosexuality are given many places in Scripture, including Genesis 19, Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13, Romans 1:24-32, and I Corinthians 6:9-11.
Q. Does God make some people “gay?”
A. God does not cause a person to sin (James 1:13), but he allows each of us to face the temptation to sin (1 Corinthians 10:13). “Being gay” means that one is tempted by same-gender sexual attraction. Homosexual attraction is just one of many forms of temptation that can affect human beings. Does God make people greedy? Lustful? Prideful? Does He make them thieves? Gossips? Idolaters? The answer is the same for all: no.
Q. Is homosexuality a choice?
A. People don’t usually choose their area of weakness, but we each choose whether or not to give in to the temptations that beset us. Homosexual temptation does not justify sexual self-indulgenceany more than anger justifies murder. God does not cause people to have no choice in behavior that He condemns.
Q. Is homosexuality “normal” for “gays?”
A. “Gays” are not created differently from everyone else. They have heterosexual bodies, with reproductive organs which are designed to make babies. Their sexual urges originate in the same chemical processes in their reproductive systems as everyone else. But for various reasons their sexual “orientation” gets focused in the wrong direction. Orientation is a state of mind, not a biological imperative. Some people are born as hermaphrodites or “intersexuals,” whose bodies are not distinctly male or female due to a birth defect (they have both sets of genitalia). However, the argument for “gay” normalcy is not bolstered by the existence of these unfortunates, but is in fact weakened, since the “intersex” condition is unarguably a physical deformity whose degree of severity is measured by comparison to the normal heterosexual template. In other words, the exception proves the rule.
Q. Can sexual orientation be changed?
A. Any state of mind, no matter how deeply rooted, is subject to change based on the strength of the desire to do so. Biblically we know that “nothing is impossible with God” (Proverbs 23:7) and that ex-“gays” have been a part of the church from the beginning (I Corinthians 6:9-11). Homosexuals can change both their behavior and their orientation. Ex-“gay” organizations and health-care professionals have helped many thousands of people all over the world to restore themselves to a normal heterosexual orientation. In fact, the majority of those who develop same-sex attraction in adolescence experience a spontaneous realignment to a heterosexual orientation over time
Q. Is it wrong to discriminate against homosexuality?
A. Discrimination based on race or skin color is morally wrong because there is no legitimate reason for it -- the criteria are both morally neutral and immutable. Such discrimination springs from irrational prejudice. However, homosexuality involves voluntary sexual conduct that has negative personal and social consequences. It is perfectly reasonable and responsible to discriminate against homosexuality on religious, moral, sociological and public health grounds. As the Scripture states in Ephesians 5:11, “[H]ave no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.”
Q. Can children become homosexual?
A. Young people copy the behaviors that they see around them, and the more homosexuality is practiced openly and promoted as a normal and healthy behavioral option, the more young people will experiment with it. Any form of conduct will increase when it is legitimized in popular culture (consider the bizarre phenomenon of tongue-piercing). This simple fact alone debunks the “gay” theory that “homosexual orientation” is an innate, biologically predetermined condition And this is an enormously important observation, because if “homosexual orientation” is not innate (and “gays” have never even remotely succeeded in proving that it is), then it is somehow acquired -- meaning that a great many children in the current generation are at risk of becoming homosexual.
Q. Isn’t homosexuality OK if “gays” really love each other?
A. The attempt to legitimize homosexuality by recasting it as form of romantic attraction ignores the fact that romance is a part of most illicit relationships. Is it acceptable for men or women to abandon their spouses and children because they’ve fallen in love with someone else? Hollywood may consider “true love” as a justification for adultery and other non-marital sexual unions, but God doesn’t.
Q. Why would “gays” promote heterosexual immorality?
A. Every act of sexual sin by heterosexuals serves the “gay” interest by lessening the public will to uphold public morality (no one wants to be called a hypocrite). The best example of “gay” promotion of heterosexual immorality is seen in their aggressive defense of the abortion industry. Obviously, homosexuals cannot have an “unwanted pregnancy,” yet in my extensive experience, the majority of “pro-choice” street activists at abortion clinics are homosexuals. This is so because they know that preserving the heterosexual’s option to destroy unborn life is essential to maintaining “sexual freedom” as a social norm. If heterosexual women lost their choice to legally kill their unborn offspring, the resulting inevitable shift of emphasis from self-gratification to family responsibility in such a large section of the population would change the entire culture. “Gays” are also notoriously prevalent in the pornography industry.
Believers cannot expect to persuade pro-“gay” opponents. Self-evident truth is its own proof, but at the same time is so foreign to the reprobate mind that there is no common ground possible in a debate between truth-loving and reprobate thinkers. We speak completely different languages. As the Scripture teaches, Christ, who is Truth (John 14:6), and is the designer “through whom all things were made“ (John 1:3)), is “foolishness to those that are perishing,” (1 Corinthians 1:18). Importantly, people with a reprobate mind aren’t necessarily unintelligent, it’s just that their fundamental beliefs are wrong and thus their conclusions about things are not sound.
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Redeeming the Rainbow - Scott Lively