I recently finished reading an article on my iPad by Kirsten Powers who is a freelance writer for USA Today. There were so many inaccuracies and untrue statements about the Bible and Christianity, I thought I should make some sort of rebuttal here on Bible Prophecy Update.
The main thrust of Ms Powers article was to defend same-sex marriage on the basis of her imagined hypocrisy of Christians today.
She begins by saying that “some Christian leaders are rethinking their approach to this issue...”
Ms Powers then attributes an increase in teenage suicide rates amongst those who profess to be gay, as being the fault of Christians who proclaim the truth of God’s Word. “But why did it take multiple suicides to make a Christian group realize that heaping condemnation and judgment on others is not it’s job?. A reading of the Gospels would teach you that in about two minutes...”
Kirsten then reminds us that the reason that satan was kicked out of heaven was because of his pride, not because he was gay.”
The approach that Ms. Powers takes to Biblical truth is common amounts those who do not know what the Bible really teaches, nor have a correct understanding of what the intention of the Law of God is genuinely for.
Jesus often condemned the Pharisees for their twisting of Biblical truth because He said: You neither know the Scriptures, nor what they were intended for…
Mark 12:24 Jesus answered and said to them, “Are you not therefore mistaken, because you do not know the Scriptures nor the power of God?
The purpose of the Biblical laws regarding the prohibition of homosexuality were not to condemn men and women, nor to restrict them from enjoying a happy and satisfying life. God’s laws are written from the perspective of the Creator of all person’s, knowing what will harm their life and what will enhance their life.
God did not create two men or two women to be in a sexual union. He created a man and a woman and under the commitment of a marriage for life, they have unrestricted enjoyment of all sexual pleasure. It is a constant mistake of man that when he perverts the intended purpose of what God Created, he believes that his alternate view is just as acceptable as God’s original purpose.
The reason that so many young people are taking their lives today while living the gay lifestyle, is that the life of a lesbian or homosexual is a perversion of the intended purpose for their life. Human beings know inherently in their hearts when they are doing something wrong or unnatural. When we go against what we know is correct or true, it harms our own soul and brings a heavy self condemnation upon us.
In the first chapter of Romans, as Paul is about to take us all on a course in legal principle, for sixteen chapters he begins to make his case that all human beings are “Without Excuse” when it comes to their acceptance of Jesus Christ as the answer to the sin issue.
In verses 19-27, Paul describes the fact that all persons are created with a knowledge that God exists, and that everyone has the ability to know the difference between what is right and what is wrong. When a human being perverts the true intention of Creation, this sets up a self destructive mechanism inside that person that eventually totally depraves their mind and alienates them from the God who made them:
Romans 1:19-27 because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.
When a Christian writer such as myself, simply declares what God has already said in His word about the sin of Homosexuality, we are seen as judgmental, unkind and unloving. Nothing could be further from the truth. If we know the truth and do not declare it to people who are perishing eternally by their unwise decisions, then we are in part guilty by knowledge, of allowing a person to be harmed.
The Lord declared in the Book of Ezekiel that if we warn people and they do not repent, He will release us from all guilt. But if we know the truth and do not declare it to someone who is perishing, He will also hold us accountable:
Ezekiel 33:2-34 “Son of man, speak to the children of your people, and say to them: ‘When I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from their territory and make him their watchman, when he sees the sword coming upon the land, if he blows the trumpet and warns the people, then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, if the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be on his own head.
Ezekiel 33:6 But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand.’
Ms. Powers makes a statement that “if people really want to use the Bible as our governing legal documemt, then we need many constitutional amendments, including one that bans divorce except in the very narrow circumstance the Bible permits it.”
Again, not knowing what the original intent of marriage was, Ms Powers misunderstands the Law of God in prohibiting divorce. From the beginning before man fell, it was the sole purpose of God that one man and one woman would marry and live in this unbreakable bond of commitment for life. It was upon the fall of man that it became impossible for man to always keep the promise of marriage for life. God did not change his original intent, he simply covers the sin of divorce by the same blood of Jesus Christ that He also covers all of man’s sins.
We should never think that because man cannot do what God intended, that it is God’s fault for making such an unreasonable law to begin with. Since when is a lifelong commitment of love and faithfulness, an unreasonable request? Would not Ms Powers or any other human being cherish someone who was committed to love them and them only for the rest of their life?
When the Pharisees asks Jesus why Moses allowed men to write a certificate of divorce when he wanted to end a marriage, Jesus told them this:
Matthew 19:4-6 And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”
Matthew 19:7-8 They said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?” He said to them, “Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.
It was the original intention of God that in order to best benefit a man and woman, that they should take a mate for life, and thereby enjoy the wonderful benefits of a lifelong commitment of love and faithfulness.
It was because of the hardness of man’s heart that he was not able to do what God asked him to do. Even though that lifelong commitment between one man and one woman was God’s ideal, He is currently bearing with the sins of men in all long-suffering…
It is man’s fault that his life is in such a moral mess. It is the fault of those who choose the homosexual lifestyle that they made the wrong choice. It is the fault of those who would not keep their promise before God and his mate to stay married for all the days of their life. It is not God’s fault, nor is His law wrong or too hard. It is only because of man’s unwillingness and stubbornness that He does not want to do what is required.
Finally Ms Powers made an observation that the divorce rate among evangelicals is almost identical to that of atheists or agnostics. It would be wise to do some of her own research in these statistics before actually publishing what she has “heard” from others.
The actual statistics, according to Barna Research group is that amongst those who hold the Bible to be the Word of God and claim that they have had a “born Again” experience with Jesus Christ, their divorce rate is less than 26 percent. Those associated with a non Christian faith had a divorce rare of over 38 percent.
The statistics of “Christians having the same rate of divorce as Atheists or Agnostics” that Ms Powers quoted, were from those who “Claimed to be Christian”. There is a tremendous difference between someone claiming to be a Christian and actually being a follower of Jesus Christ.
Jesus said this:
Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
It is not simply to call Jesus “Lord” that makes someone a genuine Christian, it is to “Do the will of the Father concerning Jesus Christ.
When the people came to Jesus and asked Him what they must do in order to please God, Jesus said this:
John 6:29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”
The One that God “Sent” to save the entire world, was His Son, Jesus Christ. The Only One that God sent to pay the price that all men owed to God for their sins, is the Lord Jesus Christ. There is Salvation in no other name, for there is no other name given among men by which we must be saved, except the name of Jesus Christ.
When a person comes into a genuine relationship with God by repenting of their sins and coming to Jesus Christ as their own Savior and the one to whom they are looking towards to purify them of their sins, that person is “Born Again”. Not as in their first physical birth, but a second spiritual rebirth that makes a person a brand new creation. These who are truly “Born Again” are the ones that delight in doing what God’s Word says to do, and are the ones who have the lower divorce statistic observed by the Barna Research Group.
The Bible is clear also, that just because a person is Born Again Spiritually, they still live in the same old body that loves to sin, and will still struggle against sin until the day their body dies. We should never make the mistake of thinking that a person who claims to be Born Again, yet still commits an occasional sin, is a hypocrite and liar. All past, present and future sins were paid for by Jesus death on the Cross, and only after confession of any ongoing sin, after the day of being Born Again, can a person continue to walk in close fellowship with God.
When John wrote in 1 John chapter 1, that we must continually confess our sins in order to stay in fellowship with God, he as speaking to those who have already been Born Again, not to the unsaved.
1 John 1:7-9 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
The reason today that freelance writers and those who make commentary in their columns, are inaccurate in their observations of the Bible and true Christians, is that they do not know or understand for themselves what the Bible teaches. I do not necessarily blame these writers, as it is the fault of pastors in churches all over the world, who have not learned the Bible for themselves, nor are they teaching all of the Word of God to their congregations.
When anyone seriously determines to read, study and understand all of the Bible as a single book, they will correctly be able to understand why God said and did the things written in the Bible. A person who has not given proper study to the Bible is not any more qualified to make observations such as Ms Powers has made, than I am qualified to make observations about Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, of which I do not comprehend or understand.
Rob Robinson
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