A friend recently attended the ladies Bible study of a conservative, evangelical church for the first time and probably the last. Not that she had
any problem with the study, which was looking at the life of one of
the disciples. It was the conversation on homosexuality which took
place after someone mentioned the case of the christian couple who
are no longer allowed to foster because of their christian beliefs. She
was horrified to hear how far Satan's deception had penetrated into
even this once-conservative denomination. Statements such as 'God
made people to be gay' and 'gay people are born that way' were made
as if they were fact.
Let
me just digress a moment to remind you what the actual facts are viz
- there is no scientific evidence that anyone is born gay
- there is no biblical evidence to support the view that God creates some people homosexuals
- there is no evidence that sexual orientation is fixed from birth
- there is evidence that people can and do change their sexual orientation – eg the book Setting Love in Order by Mario Bergner
Back
to the Bible study, although, by this stage, calling it that sounds like it could be a
breach of the Trade Descriptions Act since very little reference to
the Bible was being made in the conversation. Instead, a lot of
man-made wisdom was being touted as if it were gospel. The bottom
line seemed to be that God couldn't be very loving if he made people
homosexual and then denied them the chance to marry someone of their
own sex. Put like that, the argument that gay is OK sounds very
reasonable and those who took a biblical stand, my friend included, were left
feeling that they were being unreasonable and unkind.
However
the real bottom line is this – did God really say? (Gen 3:1) Just
as Satan deceived Eve by getting her to question what God had said,
and the motivation behind it, so he has deceived the poor women in
that Bible study. Instead of believing God's word they have believed
the lies of man and have elevated their own feelings and opinions
above the Word of God. They have quite literally exchanged the truth
for a lie (Rom 1:25). Either you believe the Bible or you don't.
There is no middle ground. That is the battle in these last days and
it is being carried into even formerly conservative evangelical
churches by those who call themselves christians but who are not.
There is only one way to answer such attacks – 'it is written'
(Matt 4:4).
