As a pastor, I get questions about homosexuality all the time.  That's great!  I'm here to teach the Bible and I love chances to do it.

But you know what's not great?  You know what crushes my heart?  When Christians who know what the Bible says about homosexuality make excuses for it and pretend it's ok.  

Before you read any further, let me clarify that this beef I have here is with Christians who know what the Bible says about this.  So if you're an atheist, Buddhist, Flying Spaghetti Monsterist (is that what they're called?), or even a new Christian who just hasn't learned what the Bible says about this, then I'm not upset with you, but feel free to read this and see what I think and what the Bible says.  But if you are a Christian and have been for some time, then my beef is with you.  Read on and maybe I can convince you that excusing homosexuality is harmful and not helping anyone.  You may feel that your accepting attitude is a way to attract people to God, but you’re doing more harm than good by distorting the truth.

The Bible & Homosexuality

So I'm not going to spend a ton of time talking about what the Bible says about homosexuality.  The summary is that the Bible says it is a sin.  Is it the only sin?  No.  Is it the worst sin?  No.  Is it a sin?  Yes.  Who says?  The Bible.  Where?  Leviticus 20:13, Romans 1:26-27, and 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 for starters.  

If you want more info, feel free to read an article I wrote a while back on the topic.  Here's the link:  The Bible and Homosexuality You can also read my response to a guy who argued against my claims in that article, but it's pretty long-winded stuff: In Depth Comments

Common Questions/Excuses and Why They're Not Helpful

Here are some common excuses and questions I hear from Christians that are trying to find ways to be tolerant and accepting of homosexuality.  And here is why I think those excuses/questions fall short.

Why would God make them that way if he didn't want them to be gay?

Did He?  This is the whole Nature vs. Nurture argument and it hasn't been resolved.  Are people born gay because of genetics or are people gay by choice or perhaps because childhood events and other things have shaped them to be that way?  The jury is still out on this one.  While there are some studies that indicate homosexuality could be linked to genetics, there has been no conclusive proof.  We have not found and proved the existence of a "gay gene."  At the same time, there are studies that show that homosexuality is linked to your childhood development years.  For example, this study found that 46% of homosexual men were victims of childhood molestation while only 7% of heterosexual men were.  There is plenty to the debate, but at least this seems to indicate that there may be more to it than simply being born with a certain genetic makeup.

So despite the Gaga song, people may not be born this way.  But let's assume for the sake of discussion that they are.  Let's say that people are born gay as a result of a "gay gene" or something of that sort.  Does that automatically mean that God made them that way and desires for them to be homosexuals?  

If you say yes, then you have to follow that logic through.  That would mean that the way someone is born is the way God intends them to be, live, and act.  What about alcoholism, which has also been linked to genetics and heredity?  Does God want those born with an alcoholic disposition to live lives as addicts and drunkards?  What about those born with schizophrenia, dopamine imbalances that lead to depression, or the mental problems that drive some people to be serial killers?  

You see, the argument that being born a certain way means that God made you that way and desires you to live and act that way doesn't hold water.  From a biblical worldview, we see that God originally made the world and people perfect and sinless.  However, we chose to rebel against God and we chose to sin.  Since the fall, sin has contaminated everything.  That's why people are born with deformities, diseases, or tendencies like alcoholism, because we live in a fallen and twisted world, not because God intended it that way.  Through Jesus, God desires to redeem us and heal us and will one day set everything back to the way it was supposed to be.  Until then, nature is a very twisted thing and we shouldn't look to it to tell us what is right and wrong.  Where should we look?  To God's Word, which is pretty clear on this issue.

Doesn't God accept everyone?

Yes and no.  God is both inclusive and exclusive.  Here's what I mean by that.  The Gospel (the good news of salvation from sin and death through Jesus) is an open call to everyone who hears it (that's inclusive!) but it is also a call to acknowledge your sin and repent of it (that's kind of judgmental and exclusive) and it's only through Jesus (that's super exclusive).

Inclusiveness of the Gospel:  "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16)

Exclusiveness of the Gospel:  "Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'" (John 14:6)

Call to Repentance:  "'I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.'"  (Luke 5:32)

What I'm trying to show with all of this is that God does forgive and save anyone who comes to Him through faith in Jesus.  Salvation is offered to liars, the arrogant, homosexuals, and everyone.  But God calls us also to change our lives when we come to Him.  He calls us to repent of sin which means to turn away from it.  God accepts people of all pasts who come to Him for salvation through Jesus but He never accepts their sin.  He desires to cleanse them of their sin and help them change and live a life of repentance.  As the saying goes, "God loves you the way you are, but He loves you too much to leave you that way."

We're all sinners and God's grace will cover it

Paul dealt with that same excuse two thousand years ago in his letter to the Romans.  If there is total forgiveness through Jesus, then why does it matter if I keep on sinning?  If God truly does forgive and give grace to sinners, then why not let people keep living homosexual lifestyles?

"What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?  By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?"  (Romans 6:1-2)

Just think about this for a moment.  Would you apply this logic to a Christian who was living in any other sin?  Think of a Christian who is married and also has a mistress.  Would you say, "No big deal.  We're all sinners.  God's grace will cover it. He doesn't need to change or repent"?  What about a Christian who lies a lot to manipulate everybody?  What about a Christain with a drug addiction?  I'm pretty sure you'd call that person to change and repent.  You'd try to get them help.  But you wouldn't say, "Keep doing what you're doing!"  

So why should we pretend that this sin, homosexuality, is somehow different and special?
  
Why can't you just let them be happy, they're not hurting anyone

First, because a homosexual lifestyle will not lead to real happiness.  The Bible tells us that true joy is found only in walking with God. 

“Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1:8-9 NIV) 

Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:4)

True joy in life does not come from pursuing worldly pleasures like money, possessions, or sex.  It doesn’t even come from things that are worthwhile like marriage or children, though those things can certainly bring us some joy and happiness.  True joy that lasts and endures and deeply satisfies the soul can only be found in God and walking with Him.  When we live in a lifestyle of sin, whether it be homosexuality, alcohol abuse, affairs, or the like, we are robbing ourselves of true joy while chasing after empty wells to quench our thirst.  When we tell our homosexual friends that what they’re doing is fine, we’re leaving them to pursue empty joy rather than inviting them to find true happiness in God.

Second, people are being hurt.  People who live homosexual lifestyles, and Christians who excuse such behavior, are by example and word telling a watching world that this is a valid option for human sexuality.  Young teens are especially vulnerable here as puberty and hormones provide plenty of confusion about their identity as it is.  Seeing homosexuality lived out and hearing Christians excuse it will only lead more people to assume that this lifestyle is a valid option that will lead to a happy life and will not hinder their relationship with God. 

Third, children are being hurt.  God designed the family to consist of a mother and father.  There are unique ways that children need to be affirmed by a father that no woman can satisfy and, likewise, there are needs from a mother that no man can fill.  Gay couples who adopt children are not equipped to give that child the ideal home and care they need.  Children flourish most when in a home with a married mother and father.  Don’t want to take just my word for it?  Take a look at this study by Dr. Regnerus which indicates that children who were at some point raised by lesbian moms are at a 21% higher risk for sexual abuse (among other things) than children raised by a traditional family. 





Christians who excuse homosexuality are often unknowingly encouraging a lifestyle that will not lead to true happiness, encouraging young people down this road, and encouraging a behavior that harms adopted children, rather than calling people to Christ.

Final Thoughts

Look, I'm not advocating that we stand in people's bedrooms with a striped shirt and a whistle calling foul if two guys or two girls decide to sleep together.*  To some extent, people are just going to do what they want to do.

What I am saying is that we as Christians need to be consistent and honest about what the Bible says about homosexuality and we need to stop excusing what the Bible says about it!  God doesn't need you to clean up the scandal of what He said about homosexuality. God desires for you to speak for Him to the people around you.

We need to speak lovingly and truthfully.  We need to stop making excuses for sin so that those in a life of homosexuality will not wrongly assume that God approves or that they'll find happiness there.  We need to stop making excuses for sin so that those who are believers will not wrongly grow up thinking homosexuality is a viable option to pursue.  We need to speak God's truth to call people to repentance, faith, salvation, healing, and true happiness in God. 

*That referee joke was shamelessly borrowed from various Mark Driscoll sermons.  I like it and hope you did too.

Saw this video today and had to share it.  If you're looking for reading on this kind of thing, I've put some links below on things I've written.

• Cosmological Argument
• Design Argument
• Fine Tuning Argument
• Moral Argument
• Fulfilled Prophecies
  

"You keep quoting the Bible saying that sex before marriage, homosexuality, or whatever is sinful but Leviticus says not to eat shellfish or wear clothes made out of more than one fabric!  How come you don't obey those commands?  You can't pick and choose, that's hypocritical."

Have you ever heard anything like that?  How do you respond?  An old friend recently asked me why Christians use some laws in Leviticus to condemn homosexuality, but then we apparently disregard any of the laws in Leviticus or Deuteronomy that we don't like.  So what's the deal?  

First, let's start by agreeing.  I totally agree that it’s not right to pick and choose parts of the Bible.  Here are the parts I like and will follow and the rest can go in the garbage.  That's no good!  However, that's not what Christians are doing when it comes to Leviticus and Deuteronomy.

We Christians do believe the Bible is true and is God’s Word.  But that doesn't mean we believe that every sentence in the Bible is supposed to be taken in the same way.  Some portions are poetry, others are narrative, others are epistles, others are commands, moral laws, civil laws, prophetic, and so on.  We run into problems when we open the Bible to a random verse or passage and read it without understanding what context it is in.  We can end up taking the Bible in a way it wasn't meant to be taken.

For example, if you’re reading in Genesis 38, you’ll see that Judah sleeps with his daughter-in-law whom he thinks is a prostitute.  Randomly flip your Bible to that spot, and you could be in trouble.  If you take everything in the Bible as a command, you just might think God is commanding you to be like Judah and practice incest, prostitution, or both.  This portion of the Bible is narrative.  It is telling us what happened, not that we should go and do the same thing!  Or check out Isaiah 55:12 where it says that the trees will clap their hands.  This is a prophetic portion and uses poetic language like we would in songs.  It doesn't mean trees have hands or will clap.  It is driving at a deeper point, that all creation glorifies God.  Those are extreme examples, but they show the danger of pointing at a passage or verse without understanding what context it is in and what God intends us to do with it.  

So…what about the Levitical and Deuteronomical laws?  What context are they in?  These laws were given by God through Moses to the Israelites after that whole Red Sea thing.  The Israelites had never been their own nation before and now they have emerged from slavery to Egypt as free people inheriting the Promised land.  This is over a million people with no government or laws of their own.  So God gives them civil laws by which to run a nation that’s purpose is to honor Him and be an example to the Gentiles.  They were also given to point to Jesus, the perfect man who would uphold them all.  The majority of the Levitical laws were given in that context.  They are laws for the nation of Israel to follow.  They were never imposed by God on Gentiles (those who aren’t Israelites).  Even in the New Testament, when lots of Gentiles were becoming Christians, the older Jewish Christians eventually decided not to hold these new converts to the Jewish laws.  Jesus fulfilled these laws and as a result, the Bible itself tells us we don’t have to live under them anymore in Colossians 2:16-17.  

Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.  -- Colossians 2:16-17

If that’s the case, then what good are the Old Testament laws of Leviticus and Deuteronomy today?  Well, we don’t have to follow them to the letter, but they do teach us about the heart of God and give us principles for how we should treat one another.  For example, one biblical law tells us not to move large stones on our neighbor’s property (Deut 19:14).  What?  Big stones in those days were ways of marking where your property starts and ends kind of like we use fences today.  What we learn is that God cares about whether or not we are ripping our neighbors' off and we should respect their property. 

What about the Levitical laws of not mixing clothing fabrics (Lev 19:19)?  God was teaching the people to be different from the rest of the world and this reflects His own holiness (set-apartness or differentness) and His desire for His people to be holy.  We aren't under the law anymore so we don’t need to avoid mixed fabrics but we should seek to dress in a way that sets us apart from the world and is holy and pleasing to God.

What about the Levitical laws of homosexuality?  Well, as I’ve been saying, we aren’t under the law.  So we don’t go around stoning homosexuals to death.  But what does this law teach us about God and how He wants us to act?  It teaches us that homosexuality is a sin and not part of God’s plan for human sexuality and marriage.

Is that a crazy interpretation?  If all we had were the Levitical laws, then some might be able to argue that we aren't under the law and this law doesn't actually mean homosexuality is a sin.  But we have lots more than these Levitical references.  We have God’s clear design in Genesis of Adam and Eve.  We have God’s condemnation of Sodom and Gomorrah for their sexual perversions.  We have not one, not two, but three explicit and clear condemnations of homosexuality as sin in the New Testament in Romans 1:26-27, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, and 1 Timothy 1:10. 

I’m not trying to harp on homosexuality or say it’s the worst or only sin.  I’m just trying to explain how Leviticus is to be understood and why Christians still consider homosexuality a sin.  

So there you have it.  We don’t blindly point to any verse in the Bible and do what it says.  We read the Bible in its context.  If it is a command, then yes we obey!  If it’s narrative, then we try to understand what God wants us to learn from the story.  If it is national laws for Israel in Leviticus, then we understand we aren't under those laws but they can still teach us about God and how He wants us to behave.  I hope you've found this helpful.  Let me know if you have any questions!

I love debating theology and talking apologetics.  I love it when people bring me tough questions about God and hang out long enough to talk through the answers.  But what about this question?  What do you do with it?  How do you answer it?  Can God make a rock so big that even He can't lift it?

I've Only Heard It Two Ways

Tons of people have asked me this question and, as far as I know, its always been for one of two reasons.  More than half of the time that people ask me this question, its meant as a goofy joke question to stump you sort of like asking if the chicken or egg came first or like telling someone to repeat a tongue twister.  The goal is to have fun and watch people squirm through the riddle.  In this case, you don't really need an answer.  Talking it through is half of the fun and everyone is happy in the end.

Less often though, the question comes from a very different motive and goal.  There are some people who have posed this question of me as if it were the deathblow to any and all arguments for God.  They'll often add a word like, "BOOM!" at the end of the question to show just how much trouble you are in because they themselves have come up with the most clever, original, and effective proof that God is not real ever.  I exaggerate a bit, but has anyone ever brought this question up to you like this?  In this case, you kind of need to know how to respond in order to defend your faith.  So what can we say?

Proving God: Jesus' Testimony

We've looked at a whole lot of different things to examine the evidence that God exists.  Rather than turning to science or philosophy, today we are going to examine the testimony of a single witness.  Imagine you are on a jury in a courtroom.  A crime was committed and there are various witnesses being called to the stand.  There are two conflicting stories that emerge as the witnesses are questioned.  Half of the witnesses tell one story and the other half tell another.  Both stories cannot be true as they say completely opposite things.

So what happened?  How would you, as a member of the jury, decide?  Would you take into account the character of the witnesses?  Would it change the way you felt if you found out that one half of the witnesses were gang bangers and the other half of the witnesses were police officers with clean records?  What if one of the witnesses was Martin Luther King Jr. or Mother Theresa?  Would that sway your thoughts?  What if one of the witnesses who stood up to testify was Jesus Christ Himself?

Christy and I went out to see the second Sherlock Holmes movie on Wednesday at the two dollar show in La Grange (which is actually now the $5.50 show, but that's another story).  It was actually quite entertaining and a pretty fun ride.  Like the last movie, Holmes is a substance abuser with questionable morals.  Overall though, I'd recommend it.  Just make sure you watch with discernment.

What I love about these movies and the old school Holmes books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is the crazy deductive skills of Sherlock Holmes.  Nothing escapes him.  He can look at you and tell you what you ate for your last three meals based on some crumbs on your shirt, a stain on your collar, and a scent on your breath.  He can enter a room and tell you how many people have come and gone over the last 24 hours.  My favorite from this movie though is when he and his hyper intelligent brother try to out deduce each other.  They take one look at each other and start saying things like, "I see you bought a new bow for your violin."

Well, you've voted it in, so let's answer the question.  The Old Testament has lots of laws about slavery.  But why didn't God just make slavery illegal altogether?  He certainly could have by laying it out as, "Thou shalt not own slaves."  Instead, God lays out numerous laws in Deuteronomy and Leviticus that spell out how slavery was to work in Israel.  So why on earth is God supporting slavery instead of banning it?

Why is this important?  Because "intellectual" types who are opposed to Christianity, whether atheist, agnostic, or whatever, have claimed the Bible could not have been written by God because it contains moral outrages such as slavery.  They argue that slavery of any form is completely unjust and the fact that the Bible allows it proves that it could not have been written by a good God.  So what do you say to that?  Let me warn you, my answer is not short.