2Timothy 3:1-5 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!
After the recent news of Jennifer Knapp declaring that she was both gay and a Christian, the flood gates have opened and other Christian artists are following in their footsteps by declaring they are also gay. This morning I read an article in the liberal press New York Times describing singer Ray Bolt’s recent declaration that he has been struggling with his homosexuality for decades.
There are a variety of sins that every human being struggles with throughout their life, this writer himself included. The entire purpose of Jesus coming to earth to take the body of a man and become one of us was to demonstrate that righteousness was possible, and that sin can be defeated and is always forgivable.
The single element that was required by the Lord was a sincere repentant heart. Without an acknowledgment of sin and a sincerity to turn from it, there is no forgiveness. We live in a day of “sloppy agape” in which people are taught and believe that God loves them so much that He will accept them in their sin and chosen lifestyle. It is true that the Lord does love every person that has or will be born on this earth, that is the reason Jesus came for us. It is also true that the Lord hates sin, all sin, regardless of whether a person struggles with lying or with homosexuality. Sin does not have degrees of seriousness, it is all a falling short of the perfection that God created us to posses.
Moral perfection is not a suggestion by God, it is an absolute requirement. “Without holiness no one will see the Lord”, the Lord declares. Then we see just how impossible that holiness is for a fallen human being such as we and the situation seems hopeless.
The reality is that Jesus sacrifice shows us two very critical things: One, that God loves us so much that He was willing to give us that which was most precious to Him, His Son. Second, that God hates sin so much that it took such a great sacrifice to pay for it, His Son.
When Jesus died, He was paying for the sins of every person throughout all time. When any person sincerely comes to Jesus in repentance and a desire to turn from that sin and follow Jesus, they have the complete and utter forgiveness of every sin they will every commit.
In the sixth chapter of Romans, Paul declared:
Romans 6:1-6 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
When we receive Jesus forgiveness and begin a new life, we should continue in this new life. Certainly everyone of us will continue to struggle with those same sins that we have already been forgiven of. The mastery of sin does not come in this lifetime, but only when finally by death we are separated from them. Jesus living inside us gives us the ability to overcome sin time and time again.
The problem today and is a tremendous sign that we are living in the last days, is that Christians think that it is now acceptable to allow sin to be an acceptable part of their lifestyle. It is not, never has been acceptable, never will. Whatever the sin is, it must be continually repented of, and a new start began everyday. This is why the Bible speaks of the Lord’s mercies being “New every morning”, because we need forgiveness and mercy from the Lord every morning as we daily repent from our own personal sins and begin again.
Paul wrote that in the Last Days this thought and manner of life would change and that people who claim to follow Jesus would begin to tolerate their sin and those of others. The Lord has not changed, people have changed the world of God and made it of no effect.
The Bible is very specific that those who tolerate their sin and continue to live in that sin as a part of their lifestyle, wihout repentance and a desire to turn away from those sins, will not be a part of the kingdom of Heaven.
1Corinthians 6:9-11 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 homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
Notice that the sin of sodomy, or homosexuality is just one of those sins that if it is unrepented of, will prevent a person from obtaining Heaven for their eternal life. That is not the opinion of this writer, that is what is clearly stated in God’s Word. Either we believe what the Word of God says or we don’t. We cannot pick and chose the scriptures we like and ignore the ones we do not like. It is all the Word of God and by believing it and doing what it says we have eternal life.
Notice that at the end of 1 Corinthians 6:11, that the Holy Spirit says that “Such were some of us…” The list of sins here that will prevent a person in the lifestyle of these sins, from obtaining Heaven, are problems for most of us. It is not the occasional falling into these sins that prevents us from obtaining Heaven, it is the choice to accept these as acceptable and continue in a lifestyle with these sins that causes the person to forfeit their eternal life.
The struggle with every sin will continue for all of us, but we cannot surrender to the thought that they are acceptable, that is un acceptable to the Lord. We must by daily struggle and repentance, continue to fight against every sin and when we do fall to their power, get back up, repent and turn away again day after day until finally the Lord comes for us an sets us free even from the presence of these sins in or life once and for all.
Ray Boltz, Jennifer Knapp, the Lord has placed you in the forefront of the battle with sin and you have not been faithful. Get back up from where you have fallen, repent and turn away from your sins and you will be forgiven. Then get back in the struggle along with the rest of us and allow Jesus mighty power to help you with your struggle. You are no better, nor worse than all the rest of us and you are in great need of our Great Savior’s power to help you with your sin. Yes it is your sin and it must be repented of if you want o obtain the goal of eternal life
by Jesus sacrifice. Do not be deceived, those who practice these things and continue without repentance will not obtain eternal life.
The following is the very sad news of Ray Bolt’s public declaration that his sin is not really sin and that God will accept him in his sin…
Rob Robinson
By Samuel Freedman
On the cusp of summer in 2004, more than a year into his latest tour as a Christian pop star, Ray Boltz took a break for what was supposed to be a family vacation. All through the previous months, plying the country with two semi-trailers and a dozen musicians and crew members, playing hits like “Thank You” and “The Anchor Holds,” Mr. Boltz had felt something unbearable, something paralyzing.
Carol Boltz, his wife of 30 years and his best friend, sensed the isolation and yet could not reckon itscause. The life Ray was leading, after all, was the life they had set out on together way back when he was a teenager with a guitar at a Christian coffeehouse near their Indiana hometown. That life had brought awards, gold records, a comfortable home for their four children.
So she gathered herself and asked him what was wrong. “If I tell you about certain things I’m going through,” he told her, as she recalled in a recent interview, “you won’t love me anymore.”
She told him nothing could change her love. But then she asked something else. Was Ray thinking of hurting himself? Yes, he answered, he thought about it every day.
More depressed than ever, Mr. Boltz returned to the road for the final months of his tour. He was promoting an album called “Songs From the Potter’s Field,” and many of them described the sensation of being broken. That was a standard enough theme in Christian music, because it implied that even the shattered could be made whole by Jesus.
Only Mr. Boltz knew the specific kind of damage he meant. He was gay, and he had been trying not to be gay since his teens, and he had inhabited and indeed thrived in a fundamentalist Christian culture that instructed him he could pray to be delivered from his affliction, his sin. By now, in his early 50s, he had stopped believing that godly intervention could change who and what he was.
Around Christmas 2004, in the midst of a family dinner, Mr. Boltz’s son Phil asked, “Daddy, what’s wrong with you?” This time, Mr. Boltz told the truth: “I’m gay.” His wife and his children, startled though they were by the revelation, told him they still loved and supported him. Such emotions were not exactly echoed by his fans, especially after Mr. Boltz publicly disclosed his homosexuality in a 2008 article in The Washington Blade, a gay newspaper.
Now, after more than five years of self-imposed absence from stage and CD, Mr. Boltz has reached a musical and religious destination. As an openly gay man, living in a gay-friendly part of South Florida with his partner, Franco Sperduti, he has released his first album since coming out.
It is called “True,” and its songs talk about same-sex marriage (“Don’t Tell Me Who to Love”), bias crimes (“Swimming Hole”), and conservative claims that there is a political “agenda” for gay men and lesbians (“Following Her Dreams”).
Most indelibly, several of the songs aim to reconcile the gay identity Mr. Boltz has acknowledged with the Christian faith he refuses to disavow. In “Who Would Jesus Love,” the lyrics ask,
Would He only love the ones
Who looked the same as me
Would He only offer hope
When He saw similarity
Would He leave the others waiting
Like a stranger at the gate
Would He discriminate.
These days, Mr. Boltz performs just with his guitar, while Mr. Sperduti serves as booking agent. His recent gigs have included a gay pride celebration in Long Beach, Calif., and liberal Christian churches from Anchorage to Austin. Both his producer, Joe Hogue, and his opening act, Azariah Southworth, are Christians who have come out.
“When you start to live an authentic life,” Mr. Boltz said in a recent interview at home in Fort Lauderdale, “you stop pretending. When I started writing these songs, I didn’t know if it’d be for a record. I didn’t know if anyone would even hear these songs. But I realized I could write whatever I want, and that opened up the floodgates.”
One of the earliest listeners was Carol Boltz, who continues to operate Mr. Boltz’s Web site. He sent her each demo, just guitar or piano and voice, as an e-mail file. “When I hear these songs,” she put it, “I hear Ray’s heart.”
Mrs. Boltz also realizes better than anyone how many former fans vehemently object. She fields the e-mail messages that pour into the Web site, the ones that say, “We will be destroying all your cds cassettes etc immediately” and “Instead of converting to man-love, why not goat love?”
Such wrath, much of it couched in fundamentalist theology, helps explain why so few Christian musicians have dared to come out. That decision threatens, virtually promises, to estrange them from both the religious culture that nurtured their art and the loyal audience that provided their income.
Jennifer Knapp, a Christian singer-songwriter, did announce on “Larry King Live” last month that she is a lesbian. And the young gospel star Tonex described his process of coming out in a February profile in The New Yorker. Still, the Christian-music closet remains a crowded place, the cost of emerging from it so punitive.
Mr. Boltz, though, can attest to what is gained. Amid all the hateful e-mail messages that he receives, there also come ones calling him a “role model of honesty” and thanking him for being “instrumental in me finding the Lord.” One correspondent, who described himself as a conservative Christian age 52, recounted nearly committing suicide before coming out.
“I don’t believe God hates me anymore,” Mr. Boltz said during the interview. “I always thought if people knew the true me, they’d be disgusted, and that included God. But for all the doubts, there’s this new belief that God accepts me and created me, and there’s peace.”
