Compromising Positions

     Recently the President of Exodus International, a Christian organization that assists gay people who wish to renounce their lifestyle, blinked.  It had been a long-standing principle of this organization that an actively gay lifestyle is simply not conducive to a successful Christian life.  His new position is one that claims you may continue to actively pursue this lifestyle yet remain in God’s sovereignty.  What’s the problem with this seemingly agreeable philosophy?  Nothing except that it is flat out unscriptural.  It is in direct opposition to all references in the Bible surrounding this issue.  But, in the name of societal pressures and political correctness, the original “extremist” position has now been watered down to a bland pabulum so it tastes good for every palate.  Like most societal issues today, we tell God what our human reasoning thinks is right, and we expect that He will follow along with us like an obedient lapdog.

     In 2011 “megachurch” pastor, Rob Bell, wrote a best-selling book entitled “Love Wins”.  In his book, Bell flirts dangerously close to an ecumenical position of insipid apostasy.  While he doesn’t quite “come out” and say it, the inference of the book is—“Perhaps all roads lead to salvation.”  Sounds so harmonius, doesn’t it?  If this is the new policy of his self-proclaimed “Emergent” church, one should wonder from under which rock it “emerged”.     

     Now, I realize that our societal climate today is one of inclusiveness.  I myself find internal conflict in my desire to just “get along”, as in the infamous words of Rodney King, with relatives, friends and neighbors.  Unfortunately, this position is nowhere to be found in the Bible.  We are called a “peculiar” & “called out” people (1 Peter 2:9).  The road is “narrow” (Matthew 7:14) and the likening the Kingdom of God to “the eye of a needle” is found mentioned THREE times (Matt 19:24, Mark 10:25, Luke 18:25).  This frequency is meant as an underscore to us from God himself as in (!!!).

     As a Christian, we are to use Jesus as our role model.  He was utterly unpopular, rejected and eventually crucified.  Why should we expect popularity and acclaim?

Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.  If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.

~John 15: 20 

Yet in the name of mass appeal and best-selling novels, we continue to cave in. 

     We see this scenario played out today in the Geo-Political landscape in the land of Israel.  To placate and “get along” with the Palestinians and the worldwide community, Israel must keep “backing up” in terms of their borders.  As it is, they only control a miniscule portion of the planet in terms of their Arabic counterparts.  This, apparently, is never enough.  Nothing less than “wiping them off the face of the earth” is acceptable and has been clearly stated by many Islamic leaders.  Why don’t we believe it when these leaders bluntly and openly state this as their objective?  Israel is called a “tumor” that needs to be excised and its people swept into the ocean.  We MUST take an object lesson from watching this pressure on the Jews.  As God’s Old Testament covenantal people, they are constantly barraged on all sides by those wishing to limit their influence.  Why are we surprised that this is the ultimate evil desire for Christians as well? Remember, Hitler’s “final solution”?  He would not accept anything less besides complete and total obliteration.  So when we water down our beliefs in the name of “accommodation”, we are simply hastening our own demise.   

     In the TV documentary on Exodus International, Lisa Ling, the journalist conducting the interview, actually made this incredibly revealing statement:  “There are only 6 places in the Bible where God prohibits homosexuality”.  This remark struck me as a complete absurdity.  With incredulity I thought:  How many did she want?  What was the “magic number” for her to take God’s word seriously?  It would seem that if GOD himself said just once “Don’t do this”, and then went on to explain that it is a serious sin that causes death, one might sit up and take notice.  While I have deep empathy for the many sweet and caring people that I have met in my life ensnared by this lifestyle, I am still not prepared to say they have gotten it right and God is wrong.  I don’t wish to see them persecuted by society, yet neither do I wish to sanction their relationships with the holy sacrament of marriage.

     Ultimately, if taken to its logical conclusion, the rejection of God’s man/woman marriage plan results in the death of all mankind.  This is the penultimate “sanctity of life” violation as the human race would be unable to procreate in direct conflict to God’s commands to “be fruitful and multiply”.    

     As a sanctity of life advocate, I can see clearly how each compromise made over the years since Roe v. Wade has only lead us down a path of greater and more radically dangerous social change—up to an including the abomination of “partial birth” abortion and “sex selection” abortion.  There is no inviolable “line in the sand” with evil.  How much is enough compromise with wrongdoing?  Like Israel’s border struggles

—It’s always just a little bit more.

So…the next time some politically correct politician or some wishy-washy evangelical preacher says we need to compromise in order to have accord with our neighbors—Ask them:

Life or Death?

What exactly do they propose as the middle position? 

      

You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.  Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.

~Matthew 5:13-15

We shall be a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us, so that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword throughout the world.

~President Ronald Reagan (quoting from the words of John Winthrop to the Pilgrims in 1630)

Please join us in the Grassroots movement National Day of Repentance:

www.dayofrepentance.org
In honor of our Judeo-Christian heritage, Americans will pray and fast from Sunset on 9/25/12 through Nightfall on 9/26/12. This will also kick off 40 days of prayer until the 11/6/2012 election.