2016 by Christine Pack at Sola Sisters* and reprinted with permission

Before I was born again, I had a number of homosexual friends, and for some reason, I often ended up being a sympathetic ear for them. This was before homosexuality was accepted as normal, as it is today, and many of them expressed to me that they wished they could do “normal life things” with their partners, such as openly hold hands, spend holidays with their families, be accepted by their families and friends, share medical benefits with their partners, etc. I had compassion for what I felt were great injustices that they had to endure.

Fast forward a number of years, and despite growing up in the Bible Belt, and despite my having attended church for years growing up, I finally heard the gospel message, the REAL gospel message, for the first time in a Baptist church as an adult. When I heard the gospel, I realized my sin against a high and holy God, and saw my need for a Savior. I repented in tears and believed on Christ’s atonement made on behalf of repentant sinners. I was so grateful for God’s loving-kindness, his mercy, and his compassion in making a way for sinners to be reconciled to Himself.

It wasn’t until some months into my Christian walk that I came up against the issue of homosexuality. In fact, I was still gay-affirming until I sat down with a Christian friend, someone who was more mature in the faith, and we went through the Scriptures together, and I could plainly see for myself that unrepentant homosexuality is a sin in God’s eyes. It is not one that is beyond his reach, as no sin is beyond his reach, but it IS a sin.

All that background means that I, and many other Christians like me, do not hate homosexuals. We have compassion for that sin in the same way that we have compassion for any other sin that ensnares a lost person (bitterness, anger, pride, etc.). It’s just that we bend the knee to God’s Word, and it says what it says, so I’m sorry if it’s upsetting to any of the homosexuals I know that I uphold what God’s Word says in this area, but I am constrained by my conscience to do so.

Now we’re living in a time and a world in which every kind of sexual sin is being mainstreamed and normalized. I feel for those ensnared in sexual sins who are being relentlessly told by the culture and the media that what they are doing is good and right, when in fact, sexual sin, ALL sexual sin, is wrong and is a sin against God, because it is God alone who gave us the proper framework by which our sexual appetites are to be satisfied, and that is in a faithful marriage between one man and one woman. Those who reject this truth are believing a lie.

“God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up 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. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.” (Romans 1:24-28)
“Woe to those who call evil ‘good’ and good ‘evil’…..” (Isaiah 5:20)

In closing, let me state that this article is not meant to comprehensively address how it is that Christians should respond to today’s LGBT agenda. Rather, I’ve posted a few links below to resources by others who have raised excellent questions for Christians to think through as we go forward in this Isaiah 5:20 culture.

■ Bruce Jenner Believes A Lie  – This first link is to a show from February 2015 by Dr James White of AOMinistries, in which he discusses former Olympic athlete Bruce Jenner, who has chosen to have surgery on himself in an attempt to turn himself into a woman. In short, Bruce Jenner is believing a lie. This will be sad to listen to, and my prayer is that those struggling with sexual orientation will first of all read what the Bible has to say about sin, and read about God’s holy nature, and then will repent and believe on Christ’s atoning sacrifice. When this happens, a person is given a NEW heart and NEW desires, to the great praise and glory of a merciful God who saves – and changes – lost sinners.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, all things have become new.” (2 Cor 5:17)

■ [UPDATED] James White On Same-Sex Marriage and the LGBT Agenda  – This link is to another interview with Dr James White. This interview, which kicked off the (rebooted) Iron Sharpens Iron show, is a sobering look at same-sex marriage, the current climate and the relentless push by the LGBT to normalize all gender issues. Show host Chris Arnzen and Dr White also get into other general discussion about the LGBT agenda and how Christians should respond to it, and how we should also start thinking about the future.

■ When God Abandons A Nation – The Iron Sharpens Iron interview with James White (linked above) also put me in mind of a very good sermon by John MacArthur from several years ago called  “When God Abandons A Nation.” In this sermon, Dr. MacArthur said (paraphrasing) that once you’ve gone past the sexual revolution, and you’re into the homosexual revolution, the culture is basically gone. Thus, the question is no longer, “What should we do so that God won’t abandon us as a nation?” but rather, “Now that God has abandoned the nation in which we live, how should we live?”

■ Gay Christianity Refuted – Here is a a link to a 2-part show by James White, and which addresses the claims made by a very attractive and articulate homosexual young man named Matthew Vines. (For those who don’t know who he is, Vines claims to be both unrepentantly homosexual and Christian.)

■   Which Way, Evangelicals? There is Nowhere to Hide and New OSHA Regulations Christians Need To Be Aware Of – These are links to recent blogposts made by Dr. Al Mohler.

■ The Transgender Con? Many “Transgender” People Regret Switch  – This link is to an article that exposes the high suicide rate among transgenders, a topic which is rarely mentioned in the liberal media, but is nonetheless true.

■ How to Survive A Cultural Crisis – This link is to an excellent blogpost by Mark Dever, pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist in Washington, DC. This is a great article for retraining our thinking to be more biblical, with subheadings such as: (1) Remember that churches exist to work for supernatural change, (2) Understand that persecution is normal, and (3) Eschew utopianism. And after all, if there’s anyone who is aware of the dangers of trusting too heavily in Christian activism, it is Mark Dever, located as he is, in our nation’s capitol.

* Update from Berean Research: While we believe the above article is factual and attributed correctly, we can no longer recommend this author as a biblically sound source for any Christian information.

See our White Paper on the Homosexual Agenda