PROPHETIC SIGNIFICANCE:
There is a vital connection between the prophesied apostasy ("falling away") of the end times and the rise of
homosexuality and other kinds of sexual confusion. These are symptoms of a society that has departed from the teaching of God's Word.
It is our desire to show love and compassion while being honest about what the Bible says
regarding this topic.
Notice: Sources often remove their news links after a period of time. Some of them move older stories to a subscription-only section. Even if the
story is no longer on line, our summary will still be available on this page.
Aug. 29, 2016 - An examination of over 200 leading, peer-reviewed studies from social science, psychology, and biology shows that most homosexuals
were not "born that way."
Gay teens were not destined to a life of homosexuality. Longitudinal studies of adolescents showed sexual orientation often changed
over time. One study found 80 percent of male adolescents who reported same-sex attractions no longer did so as adults.
A federal judge in Texas is blocking for now the Obama administration's directive to U.S. public schools that transgender students must be allowed
to use the bathrooms and locker rooms consistent with their chosen gender identity.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday blocked a transgender student who was born a girl from using the boys' bathroom, staying an order
from a lower court in Virginia pending a possible appeal at the high court.
A Virginia school board asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to block a transgender male from using the boys restroom when he comes
back to school in September until the high court decides whether to review the case.
Virginia is not alone in its opposition to the new requirements that schools allow transgender students to use restrooms conforming to their gender identity. At least a
dozen other states have sued the federal government over the issue.
June 19, 2016 - The California assembly is likely to approve SB 1146.
Religious freedom advocates say it’s just another attempt to advance the LGBT agenda by removing the ability of schools to determine
their own criteria for selecting students and personnel and establishing codes of conduct.
Jun. 13, 2016 - Former Presidential candidate Ben Carson told a meeting of Christians,
Now, I don't have anything against gays and lesbians. You know, Christ died for them just like he died for everybody else. Our
Constitution protects them just like it protects everybody else. ... Everybody gets equal rights but nobody gets extra rights."
A Virginia school board plans to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether the Obama administration went too far in directing the nation’s
schools to let transgender students use bathrooms of their choice.
The Gloucester County School Board considers the Obama administrations' recent instructions to the nation's
schools an overreach of power that violates student privacy.
May 16, 2016 - Several leaders in the black community oppose the idea that the fight for transgender rights is like
the civil rights movement in the past.
Americans are being asked to believe that the effort to normalize and legitimize transgenderism is the same as the long struggle for
civil rights in the U.S. American Family Association's public policy analyst Abraham Hamilton III says they're nothing alike.
May 14, 2016 - David Kupelian, managing editor of WND and best-selling author of “The Snapping of the American Mind,” reacts to Friday's
decree from the Obama administration calling for all schools to allow students who claim transgender status to use the
bathrooms and lockerrooms of their choice.
“The whole transgender issue, which represents the politicization and forced celebration of a severe mental illness –
and now, shoving it down the throats of hundreds of millions of Americans, including her school children – is literally insane,”
May 14, 2016 - Conservatives are outraged by the immoral overreach of the Obama administration's decree that all schools must allow
transgender students to use bathrooms of their own choice.
Rev. Franklin Graham saying he hoped "school districts across this nation will defy President Obama and his administration's radical
progressive agenda to promote and advance the sin of homosexuality and the LGBT agenda."
Meanwhile, a letter from Congress to the White House calls for the edict to be "rescinded immediately."
The Obama administration will send a letter to every public school district in the country telling them to allow transgender students
to use bathrooms and locker rooms that match their chosen gender identity, as opposed to their birth certificate.
The order does not have the force of law, but it threatens the loss of federal funds for schools that do not comply.
The Justice Department and North Carolina filed dueling lawsuits Monday over the state’s controversial “bathroom” law, with
the Obama administration answering an early-morning lawsuit filed by Republican Gov. Pat McCrory with legal action of its own.
The Rev. Franklin Graham has strongly condemned Mayor Bill de Blasio's call for a boycott of popular fast-food chain Chick-fil-A...
just because its Christian owners believe in the biblical definition of marriage.
Apr. 8, 2016 - Pope Francis’s long awaited document on family life is said to be:
... an exultation of traditional marriage while recognizing that life, in his own words, isn’t always “perfect.” Yet rather
than judging, he commanded, the church should be a pillar of support.
Mar, 31, 2016 - Governor Nathan Deal vetoed The Pastor Protection Act (House Bill 757). Evangelist Franklin Graham denounced the governor's decision:
"House Bill 757 would have protected pastors from having to perform same-sex marriages and would have protected churches
from being forced to use their facilities for ceremonies against their religious beliefs."
Mar. 26, 2016 - Georgia Governor Nathan Deal faces a difficult decision. Should he sign a bill from the Georgia legislature that would
protect pastors from performing same-sex marriages and give churches the right to deny use of their facilities for things outside their religious beliefs?
Reverend Franklin has called Christians to pray for Georgia’s chief politician because the National Football League supports homosexual activists,
and is threatening to remove Atlanta from its list of potential Super Bowl locations if the bill becomes law.
Jan. 15, 2016 - After a conference called by Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, the Episcopal Church (American branch of Anglicans) were
sanctioned because of its acceptance of gay marriage.
Episcopalians have been barred for three years from any policy-setting positions in the Anglican Communion while a task force is formed that
will try to reconcile conflicting views over sexuality in the 85-million-member family of churches.
Homosexuality and the Bible
by Ron Graff pdf version
The need for love and compassion
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 1 John 4:8 (NIV)
The message of the Bible is a message of love. God is love itself, and those who claim to know Him must also be loving. Jesus' own example was the supreme gift of Himself by dying for us on the Cross.
The need for honesty about sin - Sin separates us from God
God has other attributes too. He is not only a loving God, but He is also Holy, Righteous and Just (Exodus 15:11; Psalm 99:9; Psalm 119:137; Psalm 89:14). In His righteousness He warned that the penalty for sin is death (Genesis 2:17; Ezekiel 18:4; Romans 6:23). Our sin results in spiritual death, which is separation from God (Ephesians 2:1).
- All have sinned
What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin.
As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one;
there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.
All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one." Romans 3:9-12 (NIV)
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, Romans 3:23 (NIV)
- Jesus came to deliver us from sin and its power
Jesus often went out of His way to reach out to people who were caught in the trap of sin. In the well known case of the woman brought to Him in adultery, He said, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." In His great love He was able to offer forgiveness because He was also going to satisfy the demands of Justice by dying for her. He did not deny that she had sinned. In fact, He said, "Go now and leave your life of sin" (John 8:7-11).
- Homosexual behavior is sinful
The Bible is very clear about the fact that homosexuality is sin. Here are some of the key passages on the subject.
Even in the first book of the Bible homosexuality was shown to be wrong.
They called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them."
Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him
and said, "No, my friends. Don't do this wicked thing." Genesis 19:5-7 (NIV)
This happened in the city of Sodom. Immediately after this God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone. The type of sexual activity practiced by these people is called sodomy to this very day.
Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable. Leviticus 18:22
This was included among the laws which were given to Moses. In addition to being wrong, it was called "detestable." In some translations it is translated as "an abomination."
Homosexuality is also condemned in the New Testament.
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.
They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator-- who is forever praised. Amen.
Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.
In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. Romans 1:24-27 (NIV)
This can only describe homosexuality. It is given by the Apostle Paul as part of a four-step decline of morality which leads ultimately to "depraved minds," or the inability to distinguish right from wrong. This moral decay has characterized many previous civilizations, resulting in internal collapse rather than external conquest.
Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders
nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 (NIV)
The Greek word for homosexual in verse 9 is arsenokoites which means "having sex with a male." It is one of many categories of people who "will not inherit the Kingdom of God." The good news is, for people in all of these categories, that if they give their lives to Jesus Christ they will no longer be these sorts of people.
Realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous man, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers
and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching,
1 Timothy 1:9-10 (NAS)
The same Greek word (arsenokoites) is used here as in the previous passage. In the American Standard Version it is translated "abusers of themselves with mankind," and in the King James Version it is "them that defile themselves with mankind." Again, it is in the company of other serious offenses.
The point of all this is not that it is the only sin, or the worst sin, but if one claims to believe the Bible, it simply must be admitted that homosexuality is a sin, not just one among many acceptable lifestyles.
Even if it could be proven that there is some genetic proclivity to homosexual behavior (and the evidence for this is far from convincing), it would still be in the same class as every other sin since the Bible makes it clear that we all have a predisposition to sin. God's grace is greater than all our lustful urges, so those who know Christ as Savior may be delivered from any sinful habit.
Christians who help homosexuals are performing acts of love, not hate
Those who accept a literal interpretation of what the Bible teaches about homosexuality are often vilified as purveyors of hate. They are called "homophobes," or "those who fear homosexuality." To be honest, there are some who use the Bible as a front for hateful activity. They are not balanced. They do not allow God's love to motivate them.
However, most evangelical Christians have a sincere desire to help all people experience abundant life in Christ. They are usually active wherever people need help: providing food and shelter for the poor, drug and alcohol rehabilitation, assistance to prisoners and victims, aid to people suffering famine or disasters, comfort to the elderly, and whatever else they can do to share Christ's love.
There is a strong movement among some evangelical groups to offer assistance for those who would like to break away from the homosexual life-style. Thousands have responded, accepting Christ as Savior and embracing the Bible as God's literal Word. A series of advertisements have chronicled some of the success stories of these people. They have been carefully worded, in order not to inflame anger, but to offer love and hope to those who are interested.
Still there are people who are brutal and prejudiced. The tragic death of Matthew Shepard caused some homosexual activists to blame these organizations for "providing an atmosphere of hate" which contributes to this violence.
Conclusion The proper attitude for a Christian
Bible-believing Christians do not have the option of ignoring the stern warnings about homosexuality. But we can, like Jesus, be motivated by love in our contacts with people who are living in that life-style. It is the loving thing to do to share Christ with them and to be honest with them about what the Bible says. Compassion and assistance should be extended to them and to their families. We should pray for them. Our sins have been forgiven. Theirs may be also if they turn to Christ.
