OPINION: Letter to the Editor: "The" Straight Answer For Homosexuals

I have been asked many times, “What do you think about homosexuality or homosexual marriage?” I always give a straight answer. Homosexual sex is a vile wretched abomination in the sight of a holy God. There you go, that is a straight answer. How are we doing? You say, “What about the homosexual’s civil rights”. Listen, a moral wrong is not a civil right. I believe in individual civil rights, but the notion of homosexual rights is merely the clever co-opting of language by the homosexual agenda which has sought to make homosexuality the new black. But homosexuality is a behavior. Add to that, the behavior is immoral. What if a pedophile said he believed in pedophile rights and launched a campaign for such? He could also claim he is born that way and he can’t help what he likes. He could also say that he isn’t hurting anyone if the child agrees to it. As of right now, most Americans would say pedophile behavior is wicked, sick, and immoral. As of right now the majority of people would agree that moral wrong is not a civil right. But as the case of increased acceptance of homosexuality, the day may come when that could change. Groups like NAMBLA (North American Man/Boy Love Association) already desire to lower the age of consent and there are advocates who see pedophilia as a normal expression of human sexuality. But it, like homosexuality is not normal, but is perverted. Again, the straight answer is that a moral wrong can never be a civil right. Perhaps you are already furious and think I am a homophobe, bigot, and a hater, and you would call me a closet homosexual which has become an off repeated lie as a tactic on anyone who opposes homosexuality. Rest assured I am not a homosexual and I am as straight as an arrow and will not be intimidated. I also am not a bigot. I am discerning and discriminating between right and wrong. Am I a homophobe or a hater? No I am not afraid of homosexuals but yes I hate homosexual sin. I guess that makes this a type of hate speech. That is another straight answer. Romans 12:9 says, [Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.] You can’t love good without hating the opposite. You can’t love righteousness without hating wickedness. You can’t love little children and not hate child molestation. You can’t love unborn babies and not hate abortion. You can’t love God without hating what God hates. Psalms 97:10 says [Ye that love the LORD, hate evil: ]. If you don’t hate evil, you don’t really love God. The love for one is mutually exclusive to the love of the other and necessitates the hatred of its opposite. That is why so many homosexuals openly voice their hatred for God, for Jesus, and for Christians. It is a conflict between light and darkness, righteousness and wickedness, good and evil. Yes I am a hater but I am a lover. Everyone is. What matters is that you love what God says you are supposed to love, and hate what God says you are supposed to hate. Don’t get good and evil flipped, for Isaiah 5:20 warns, [Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!] Don’t approve of what God condemns. Love righteousness and hate sin. Why be so proud and oppose your Creator? Who are you to redefine His righteous moral law? That is another straight answer.

I am not the homosexual’s enemy, nor do I consider myself such. Rather I consider myself, as a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, really the homosexual’s (or any other sinner’s) best friend. As a Christian I will love you enough to tell you the honest truth. I don’t have to argue with you (if you are homosexual) that homosexuality is a sin. You already know it. You have a conscience that tells you this is terribly wrong. Your conscience may have become seared and hardened by repeated sin. You have tried to drown out the voice of your conscience by the noise of entertainment, music, alcohol, drugs, and company of others. If you are quiet and alone and think about what you are doing and what you have become, you know it is wrong. I don’t have to argue with you, you know it deep down inside. That is why you’re angry at this article and why homosexuals demand societal acceptance and legalized homosexual marriage. Agaig how are you doing? Respectfully and directly I have given you again another straight answer?

Let me give you some biblical truth to prick your conscience and further inform it of how exceedingly wicked homosexual sin is. The Bible says in, Leviticus 20:13, [If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death. . .] The sin is bad enough that the death penalty was prescribed for it. Also notice that the sin of homosexuality is described in the Hebrew text as t vah which is translated as an abomination, and speaks of that which is utterly abhorrent and thoroughly reprehensible to God. Not all sins are considered t vah, but the sin of homosexuality is shameful, disgusting, and morally reprehensible. That is why in Romans 1:26-27 the sin of homosexuality is described with the terms, unnatural, degrading passions, and indecent acts. In Genesis 18:20 the Hebrew adverbs m d k vah which literally says their sin guilt was very heavy, or exceedingly heavy. The English renders the passage, [And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous;] Homosexual sin is very grievous and the weight of guilt very heavy. Likewise in Genesis 18:20, [the men of Sodom were sinners exceedingly before the Lord]. Again the adverb m d, exceedingly describes this sin. There are degrees of sin. In Genesis 19:13 when the angels came to destroy the city of Sodom for its widespread homosexual sin they said, [For we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the LORD; and the LORD hath sent us to destroy it.] Here the word, gathl h, great describes just how terrible this sin is. God poured out His wrath upon the cities of Sodom and Gomorah because homosexual sin is exceeding wickedness. In Jude 7, [. . . just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.] The Lord uses the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah as an example of the fact that Hell still awaits unrepentant sinners. Notice also in the passage that the text states that they committed gross immorality and went after strange flesh.

These terms like the others above describe the degree of moral perversion that is the sin of homosexual sin. It is not uncommon to hear someone less biblically informed say or imply that homosexual sin is no different than any other sin for after all sin is sin. However these fail to take into account what the Bible has said about the degrees of sin and perversion as seen in the passages above. Enough with all the glossing over the extreme wickedness of this sin as if it were not perverted and exceedingly offensive to God. The truth must be told with a straight answer. The New Testament in addition to the passage in Jude mentioned above also is clear in its condemnation of homosexuality in 1 Timothy 1:8-10 and Romans 1:18-32. Also in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 the Bible says, [(9) Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, (10) nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. (11) Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.] Above the New American Standard Bible uses the words effeminate andhomosexuals. Actually the Greek words for these two terms are , malakos and , arsenokoit s respectively and these terms both refer to those who commit homosexual acts. The difference in the two is that the Bible is being very specific and pointing out that the homosexual man who plays the role of the woman (which is the meaning of the first term translated effeminate) and the homosexual man who plays the role of the man (which is the second term translated homosexuals), are both engaged in wicked homosexual sin. This teaching countered the cultural belief at the time among some Greeks. A belief shared by many in prisons today, who wrongly think that only the man playing the role of a woman is committing homosexual sin. Bu both roles in the sinful and shameful act are specifically condemned in the Bible as well as lesbian sin in Romans 1:26 when the text states, [For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural.] This sin involves going against God's natural design. It is a perversion and unnatural. All forms of homosexual sex is immoral, unnatural, wicked, destatable, and just plain wrong. Both the Old Testament and the New Testament comndemn the practice as a wicked sin. That is thestraight answer.

Is there any hope for the homosexual? Again the straight answer is absolutely yes! In the above discussed passage in 1 Corinthians 6:11, we find these words, “Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” The passage says, “were some of you”. The word “were” is past tense. They used to be this way, living this way, but not anymore. The verse goes on to state that the former lost sinner now saved, is washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. In the verse, three things are said to happen to the former homosexual (or any sinner) now saved and changed. First he is washed. God cleans a person from all guilt and defilement. Do you want to be clean from the guilt of your sin? Do you want to be forgiven? You can be through the blood of Jesus Christ. The blood of Jesus Christ God's Son cleanses us from all sin. This is true for those who repent and trust Christ as Lord and Savior. Denying your guilt and looking for an excuse for sin and saying you can't help it, or you were just born this way is unacceptable. Seeking an alibi for sin is the worst thing you can do. Rather, admit your guilt before God and your need for forgiveness and turn to Christ and be washed clean. A second thing God does at the moment of salvation for the homosexual (again or any other sinner) is He sanctifes the person. The word sanctified means to be set apart. This is akin to the idea of holiness and santification where a person is set apart and consecrated to God for God. That is what holiness is. God not only cleanses the sinner, but He does an inital work of sanctification whereby He sets the sinner apart to Himself in holiness. The initial act of sanctification is followed by life of growth in progressive sanctification where the saved person grows in Christ likeness and holiness.

When a person then gets saved he is initially changed by the Lord and set apart from the world to God. He is made a new person, with a new life, with a new set of godly desires, and with a new spiritual power to obey rather than live in bondage to sin as before. When a person becomes a true Christian and is saved, he is radically changed from within. That is not to fail to say that a true Christian can be tempted, and he also will not be sinless or perfect in this life. Yet the truth is, is that a genuine Christian is radically changed and has the Holy Spirit living inside of him giving him this new life and new desires and new motivation and new power to overcome the temptations of sin. So he is sanctified in a real and practical life changing way. A third thing that God does for a person when He saves them also found in 1 Corinthians 6:11 is that God justifies the person. A saved person is justified. To be justified means to be legaly declared rightous before God. This justification of the sinner comes at the moment he believes and trust in Christ as Lord and Savior. Those justified are credited with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. No one can earn the righteousness of Christ. It is given freely as a result of Christ atoning death on the cross and His victorious resurection from the dead. Jesus accomplishes our justification and when a person is saved, God sees the person who has Christ as his Savior and is in union with Christ, as having the imputed (credited) righteousness of Christ. Christ took the sinners sin on the cross. The person now saved takes Christ righteousness just as Christ took his sin. This is the great exchange and how a person is saved by Jesus and forgiven. This is why Christ died on the cross to bear the sin of sinners. Also Christ gives sinners His righteousness as a result of His victorious resurection from the dead. The result is that for those saved, God sees the once wicked sinner as completely righteous with a rightousness that he is given and credited with though he did not earn it himself. This is what it means to be justified. Now the straight answer sum of all three points above in 1 Corinthians 6:11 is that God washes the sinner (be it a homosexual or anyone elese), He also santifies the sinner and sets him apart for holiness. This is the promise of a changed life. And thirdly God also legally declares the sinner as perfectly rightous by an act of justification through the name of Jesus and the Spirit of our God. That is the wonderful news of the Gospel. The good news is that homosexuals can be both forgiven and yes they can be changed.

The straight answer is that if you are homosexual you can be changed (as with anyone else in bondage to some other sin). Christ has the power to save you. Run to Jesus! I promise you on the authority of Scripture that the blood of Jesus Christ God’s Son cleanses sinners from ALL sin no matter how wicked. You can be free of guilt, you can be forgiven, and you can even be changed and made new. Read the Gospel of John. Repent and trust Jesus Christ while there is time! Jesus is Who you need. Jesus is the answer for sinners. HE is "THE" straight answer.