Category: worldliness

LGBTQ+ Pride: a Celebration of Self-Deception … the Grand Delusion

The “Pride” movement and all its related celebrations and parades present themselves and are planned and embraced as acts of kindness, inclusion, affirmation, etc. – yet they are sadly little more than proclamations of corruption and perversion – human depravity. It all emanates from a worship of pleasure that is saturating society – indeed, its roots are nothing other than the god of self. And inherent to all sin is an inescapable condemnation and guilt – the soul of every human being ultimately knows that sin violates it in some way. Yet, rather than seek freedom in forgiveness, the demand of self is to persist in gratification of its desires – further compounding its weight of guilt. And the greater the burden of condemnation becomes, the louder the cry and demand of the rebellious heart for someone … no, everyone, to affirm and justify it.

Even many who claim the name of Christ have been deceived into believing that they are demonstrating love for LGBTQ+ individuals by affirming their sinful lifestyle with the language of acceptance or support or even love. Yet one of the most poignant characteristics of authentic, Holy Love is that it “does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth” (1 Co 13:6). Now, the broader context of 1 Corinthians 13:1-7 also serves to emphasize that we as Christians cannot be arrogant or rude or unkind toward any, let alone those in sin… especially those in sin who are against you! (Luke 6:27-33) We must love as Jesus loved us! (John 13:34; Mark 12:30-31)

Subsequent to the description given by the Apostle Paul of “dishonorable passions” wherein “women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men” (Ro 1:26–27), he continues enumerating other behavior that characterizes those who reject God. Then Paul emphasizes the depth of their depravity in that “they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them” (Ro 1:32).

All of this behavior seems eerily indicative of the “strong delusion” that God will send on those who “refused to love the truth… so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (2 Th 2:10–12).

Beware and be forewarned – you who identify as and live the LGBTQ+ lifestyle, as well as you who affirm them – God has proclaimed your condemnation! Your end will be delusion and destruction! Repent of your sin and receive the forgiveness and salvation freely offered through the blood of Jesus (1 John 1:5-10; Rev 1:5) to all who will believe! Don’t succumb to temporal desires, however powerful they may seem, in exchange for eternal suffering and death. Your true identity can only be made complete and whole in and by the God Who created you in His image – only He can restore that image (Col 3:7-10) to what it was intended to be and know… true freedom from all condemnation and guilt (John 8:10-11; Ro 8:1), and eternal fellowship (1 Cor 1:9; 2 Cor 13:14; 1 John 1:6-7) with God the Father, through His Son, in the power of His Holy Spirit dwelling in you.

Jesus’ Intolerance

“Not all tolerance is godly, and it is Christ-like to be intolerant of certain things. Not taking a side on this issue is to take a side. To decide it is a matter of indifference is to risk having Jesus against you.”

Same Sex Relationships: Should We Just Agree to Disagree? (by Sam Allberry) speaks clearly and succinctly… especially to the churches that have gone astray, are indecisive, or just want to be tolerant (whatever the motives or rationale may be).

Same sex behavior is irrefutably sinful and in conflict with marriage as designed and intended by God. This is no mere secondary doctrinal issue…rather, those who practice such behavior and are unrepentant will not inherit eternal life in the kingdom of God. Furthermore, Jesus explicitly condemns and is against those whose teaching leads into sexual sin.

What does my Christian identity look like?

Reading Leviticus 23:37-38 this morning, I had to pause and reflect on what daily Christian living looks like…

“These are the appointed feasts of the LORD, which you shall proclaim as times of holy convocation, for presenting to the LORD food offerings, burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, each on its proper day, besides the LORD’s Sabbaths and besides your gifts and besides all your vow offerings and besides all your freewill offerings, which you give to the LORD.”

In just these two verses from Leviticus, there is a snapshot of how thoroughly the lives of the Israelites were identified with and defined by their covenant relationship with YHWH God. Yet, in this age, Christianity seems to welcome a part-time relationship with the Creator, its Savior and King. Now we are certainly not under the Mosaic law. But, in ignorance and even selfishness, we demonstrate a certain neglect of its purpose and beauty … for it reveals the holiness of God and our rightful place as humble subjects of our King, living in abandonment to any other … our lives utterly saturated with the recognition and worship of the One, the Almighty God, our Lord and Savior Jesus, in the power and presence of the Holy Spirit! Indeed, by the Spirit of adoption, our hearts cry out to God our Father and Jesus our Brother … and at the same time we are a Holy Priesthood unto our God! May every aspect of our daily lives proclaim our identity in Christ Jesus. May our salt and light in this world be a sweet aroma before God … the incense of His Holy Love working in and flowing through us.

The Unnatural Lifestyle — Naturally Reasoned

That which is most natural — in its purest, originally created sense — is precisely that which honors and worships the Creator as God alone. As the Apostle Paul began his theological treatise to the Church in Rome, isn’t it interesting that the Old Testament is not his initial or explicit point of reference? Rather, he argues from the natural revelation of God — declaring that mankind had always had all that was necessary to honor and worship its Creator. But humanity rejected God as He had revealed Himself to them in nature — choosing their own foolish wisdom, denying the glory of the Creator and worshipping mere creatures, denying the truth about God in favor of a lie. Because they rejected the naturally clear revelation of God, in His wrath He gave them up to the unnatural … “to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.” (Ro. 1:26-27) And not only this, but all manner of ungodliness and wickedness.

Here we stand, thousands of years hence — the benefactors of the manifold revelation of God, not only in nature, but in Scripture and the incarnate, crucified, and resurrected Christ and His Church and the Holy Spirit … and the rejection of God as He reveals Himself continues and increases ever more pervasively and perversely. The world has fallen so far away from the goodness and glory in which it was created that the plague of deception can no longer even be recognized by many if not most. That which is truly and rightly natural, as God intended, is so far from where creation is today. This is clearly evidenced by behavior that is against or contrary to nature, including sexual perversion such as homosexuality. Not only is such behavior prevalent, the efforts to celebrate and normalize such seem to prevail increasingly.

If the unnatural lifestyle is what you have chosen, repent and confess your sins to God Who is faithful and just to forgive you and cleanse you — making you His own in Christ and filling you with His Spirit of Love.

Christian brothers and sisters, the call remains today as it was to the early Church — stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught (2 Th. 2:15); stand fast through faith (Ro. 11:20); stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God (Co. 4:12); hold firm to the trustworthy Word (Ti. 1:9); hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory (Ja. 2:1); hold fast to the hope set before us (He. 6:18); hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He Who promised is faithful (He. 10:23).

God’s promise to Joshua is ours today — “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (He. 13:5). Jesus assurance stands eternal — “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

Citizenship

Kurt Tucholsky, a German-Jewish writer of the early 20th century, once said, “A country is not only what it does – it is also what it puts up with, what it tolerates.”  History tells us how corrupt, God-less leadership along with an indifferent, deluded, and/or ignorant populous led Germany to the reign of Hitler, Nazism, and the Holocaust.

I can’t help but then think, what has America become already?

We have our corrupt, God-less leaders.
We have our indifferent, deluded, and/or ignorant populous.
We have our -isms.
We have our holocaust—57 million murdered babies and counting since 1973.
What will America become?

Of even greater and eternal consequence is the sad reality that this speaks to the Church as well … what have we become already?

We have our corrupt leaders who only serve and worship the god of this world, teaching what appeases their own conscience, appeals to the flesh, and draws a crowd—or at least doesn’t offend too many.  Bonhoeffer, in The Cost of Discipleship, states “Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline. Communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ.”

We have our indifferent, deluded, and/or ignorant populous that has no knowledge of being born-again in Christ Jesus or being sanctified and transformed in the Word and Spirit.  What passes for Christianity is comfortable for them—makes them feel good or at least better about themselves.  Yet, Almighty God will have nothing to do with what they offer as service or worship.  Cain had his own ideas about worship and found them unacceptable to God.  Nadab and Abihu offered unauthorized/illicit fire in worship of God and were killed on the spot.  Jesus tells of those who will stand before the throne of judgment declaring their great works in His name, only to discover that He never knew them.  Similarly, He tells of those who, whether in religious piety or pure self-interest, failed to lovingly care for their neighbors and find themselves banished into eternal punishment.

We have our -isms … and factions and divisions and cults and, ultimately, there will be the apostate church.

We know what will become of all humanity for God declares the end from the beginning in His Word.  The eternal question, then is, what will become of me?  Where is my citizenship?  Is the Kingdom of God the Kingdom of my Father in Heaven?  Does God know me as His child?

If my citizenship is where it belongs, then my King has made my mission clear.  “[Y]ou shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:30-31)  “[T]he hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.” (John 4:23)

In understanding how my citizenship is to be lived out, I hear Paul’s admonition to the churches of Ephesus.  “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.  To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints” (Eph. 6:10-18)

Saltiness vs. Worldliness

In Deuteronomy 7 as God is reminding Israel of their covenant relationship – that He has chosen them of His own divine will and made them His own – that He redeemed them, rescued them, and has blessed them – that He is a faithful and just God … He warns them to cleanse the land of the pagans who are an abomination to Him and have rejected Him and serve false gods.  One statement in particular stands out to me: “Your eye shall not pity them, neither shall you serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you.” (v16)

In having compassion on those mired in the depths of sin, we need to be wary of being ensnared directly in their sin or even, through the best of human intentions, being more concerned about their feelings than the state of their soul.  In directly evangelizing with the Word of the Gospel for the salvation of the soul, so long as that is preeminent, there can be much less likelihood of this trap.  However, when a social gospel takes precedence … when social justice and caring for the physical or emotional aspects of the individual gain priority over the salvation of the soul, we begin to lower our defenses.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus warns of maintaining this spiritual effectiveness.

13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. 14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (Matt 5:13-16)

Sadly, in Revelation we see an example of a church that has lost its saltiness … whose light is fading into the darkness around it.

“And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. “ ‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2 Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. 3 Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you. 4 Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy. 5 The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. 6 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’  (Rev 3:1–6)

We must live out the salvation placed within us and do so in the midst of a lost and broken world.  We must let the Light of Divine Love shine through us.  Indeed, we must love the whole person as God does.  But we must be ever diligent, in humble obedience to the Spirit, to never let our saltiness be overcome with worldliness.  May our reputation – we who bear the name of Christ – be that we are alive in Him … and may His knowledge of our souls bear witness to the same.