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Hi :) Just came across your journal rather randomly.
Do you think homosexuality is wrong? (I know, random again.)
Internet is a wonderful place for the collective gathering of minds....
I have a gay housemate. He's nice. I think the store clerk at the drug store is gay. I enjoy talking to him. I have nothing against homosexuals.
I believe in the Bible 100%. When I was applying for an internship placement, a teacher read my testimony of how I came to Christ off the Internet. He assumed I was against homosexuals because I quoted Romans 1 in how I came to Christ. You study Romans 1 and tell me how it hits you on the issue of homosexuality as a sin. I was not aiming for that issue, but it came upon me as a writer.
Tell me what you think of what Romans 1 has to say. You may read multiple versions and then I will discuss homosexuality further with you.
Hi,
Thank you for replying. I apologize that it has taken me this long to respond...busy season. I've actually studied this quite a bit because it's a subject that is important to me personally.
I've read a lot of different things about what Paul really meant...such as that he was actually speaking to pagans, etc.
I've found that different versions of Romans strike me differently. For example, in at least one of them it specifically says that men and woman turned over to lust without love. The addition of the "without love" speaks differently to me than it does without it.
I've also come across a lot of literature suggesting that Jesus fulfilled all of the Old Testament Levitican laws, so they no longer apply anymore. Under this assumption, if Paul were condemning same-sex relationships, he would be doing so in error. (There are other things that are brought up again in the NT--such as not eating meat that is strangled--even though that also shouldn't have continued as a law due to Jesus's coming. Later in the NT we are told that all foods are clean.)
I see what you mean by Levitical laws, however, Christ said He did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. Certain practices like animal sacrifice were no longer necessary since Christ came as the lamb of God-- the final sacrifice.
However, Christ did put breathe into the spirit of the law. He challenged us to take it to the next level. To not just not murder but not have hateful murderous thoughts. To not honor the Sabbath as just a meaningless day of tradition, but to take a day of rest and help your fellow man if neccessary.
Jesus came and put a spirit of practicality on law. Instead of obeying to be legal, He challenged to obey in spirit of thankfulness for Christ's love. Now, I don't consider giving into same sex attraction any bigger of a sin than anything else. I think of it actually quite self-righteous of people to focus all their energy on condemning someone when they have a multitude of sins they overlook in their own life. However, that doesn't change the principle that it is a sin and can be what separates one from God if they aren't willing to give it up.
What I mean by that is a man can struggle with any sin-- murderous attitudes, lust, unnatural lifestyles (i.e.-- adultery, homosexuality, incest, even pedophilia, addictions) and still enter the Kingdom of God. God looks at our heart. However, if we are 100% unwilling to even give up the sin to God-- to try not to sin, then we never surrendered our heart fully to Him to begin with. Whatever that sin is, it's more important to us than God. It is our God.
You have seen in some Scripture how it refers to those whose God is their stomache. Those people put one aspect of their fleshly desires above God-- just as someone who has same sex attraction would be doing if they did not avoid the sin of the flesh that they are prone to.
For an alcoholic, it may be whether to avoid alcohol. Though God does not beat up the alcoholic if he drinks, He still wants surrenderence and one day, with all submitted, God is faithful that this person will find freedom.
1 Corinthians 10:13
13No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.
If you look back in my journal, you can see that I had sin areas that I struggled with my entire life that there seemed no way out of. Alcohol, smoking, and pornography. I used these sins as an escape and there seemed no way out of them. I struggled with porn particularly as my sexual sin for many years-- even writing about my freedom for ministry but then finding myself stumbling again. Was I a non-Christian for my stumbling? No. Because I was making an effort that God honored.
I can confidently say that today, God has transformed my mind and allowed me to realize that my fleshly addictions and desires were tied up in pain from my childhood, in shame not dealt with that only Christ could take away. So now, I am not bound to these things. Though I realize they are still potential weaknesses and I have fallen once or twice since September 23... But God tells me that I am in Him. That He is day by day perfecting my faith.
Read this journal and see my frustrations and triumph in the Lord over the last 3 months...
And read what the Word of God says in Romans 8 considering the struggle with the flesh and walking in the Spirit.
And on the issue of whether same-sex relationships are natural or not. It depends on what you mean. A close friendship can be defined as natural. King David had a close male companion in a completely non-sexual way. Without the sexual element-- Broeback Mountain may even fall into this classification-- making it seem very natural. As Christians we are encouraged to find people of the same sex to relate to on matters that only the same sex can understand. This can bring closeness.
However, God orchestrated that marital, sexual relationships be pure and a model of His relationship with us. God, a serving, loving God of us, is the leader of the Church and gave His life for her. In the same way, males are to model God's unconditional love for females in a marital relationship. That is the goal though never perfect on earth. As we all who are in Christ, love Him because He first loved us unconditionally. No matter what we do wrong, He welcomes us.
In the Old Testament God had the prophet Hosea model this love. We are fallen like a prostitute who has no dedication to a man. Symbolic of God's love for us, God had Hosea marry a prostitute named Gomer. No matter what Gomer did, Hosea welcomed her back and challenged her to live faithfully with him. This is the wonderful purpose of our marriage here on earth-- to capture the mysterious beauty of the love between Christ and the church. The church seen as doing God's work and submissive to God in understanding that God is a loving servant leader.
Ephesians 5:22-33
Wives and Husbands
22Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26to make her holy, cleansing[b] her by the washing with water through the word, 27and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— 30for we are members of his body. 31"For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh."[c] 32This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
Thus, beyond the Bible outlawing homosexuality as an abomination in the Old Testament, Paul speaking on the issue in the New Testament with the understanding that everything in the Bible is 2 Timothy 3:16-18.
(2 Timothy 3:16-18 (New International Version)
New International Version (NIV)
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society
16All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.)
We can go on to read that there is a purpose in marital relationship between a man and a woman. That it's the natural relationship spoken of in the Word of God. One would think that if marital relationships between same-sex partners were natural, the Bible would offer similar instruction.
Thank you for taking the time to talk to me about all this. I am very willing to talk further.
God Bless you!
hi, randomconstructs pointed me in your direction and id love to natter to you about this whole issue if u wanted to be friends? I am a 21yr old female Christian who was healed a few years ago from being gay and is now straight! so have an interesting slant on this topic. x
natter is a English word, but not really American. ;) Thank you for responding though.
so im english! kinda to be expected ;) x | |
