Assemblies of God Pastor Sees Walkout after LGBT Rebuke

[ArcticFox]

So this pastor starts speaking about homosexuality and some people walk out.

“I want to be clear; anybody can come to my church. I don’t care what your lifestyle is, I don’t care if you’ve had a sex change. That’s not my issue. But don’t come in and expect us to rewrite the Bible to accomodate your life or your choices. I’m still going to preach the same message, because it is the standard-bearer, it is the plumb-line that everything else is measure against.”

From what I can see, every single Christian church is experiencing this. No surprise I guess, since there's such immense pressure form our culture to ignore God's word in favor of what's popular. This is where we start separating the wheat from the tares.

[Sstavix]

“I want to be clear; anybody can come to my church. I don’t care what your lifestyle is, I don’t care if you’ve had a sex change. That’s not my issue. But don’t come in and expect us to rewrite the Bible to accomodate your life or your choices. I’m still going to preach the same message, because it is the standard-bearer, it is the plumb-line that everything else is measure against.”

Preach it!

I support those who do take this sort of stance. The Bible is abundantly clear on the fact that engaging in homosexual behavior is a grievous sin. (Note the terminology - for those that believe that people are born homosexual, there's no condemnation. You can't control the way you are born. Engaging in the act, though, is where the sin comes in.) I find it puzzling when some churches decide that the Bible is outdated, or God's word doesn't apply, or whatever.

From what I can tell, these churches tend to take the approach of:

1) The church needs to adapt and change with the times. The Bible is great and all, but is not written for today's society or sense of morality. As a result, portions of it aren't even relevant, and should be changed or ignored.

2) If we adhere to the old ways, we risk losing congregational members. That includes their tithes and donations. In order to remain fiscally sound, we need to change our policies.

Sometimes it's one or the other, and sometimes it's a mixture of both. The one argument that I've never heard is this:

3) God has directly told me, the leader of this church and this congregation, that homosexuality is now OK. Just as God lifted the restriction on eating pork centuries ago, He has now lifted this restriction as well.

Oddly enough, this would be the only argument that I would accept as kosher. If a Christian church won't stand for God's word, then I have to wonder if it's truly Christian in the first place. Whose laws are they choosing to follow - God's, or man's?

[ArcticFox]

If a Christian church won't stand for God's word, then I have to wonder if it's truly Christian in the first place. Whose laws are they choosing to follow - God's, or man's?

Yup.

And sometimes it isn't even a matter of man's law. As was mentioned in the article, sometimes people are feeling torn between their church and a family member of friend who has embraced the homosexual lifestyle. There shouldn't need to be such an all or nothing choice. You can remain true to the Gospel and still extend love to your homosexual friends and family. It's true some churches push that conflict, but from what I can see most have the attitude of the church in this article.

[ccgr]

My pastor did a similar speech and my uncle walked out and hasn't come back since.

[skeer]

I totally agree that homosexuality is an action, not something you feel and can't change. It seems most sides are twisted the wrong way on this topic. There are people who misuse the word love, in one breath meaning a feeling you feel, the next an action you somehow can't control. I forgot where I heard it, but the Greeks had 3 words for love, the love of a man for a woman, the love of a man for his friend, and the love of a man for his god.

Then there are people who say the Old Testament is obsoleted by the New Testament. Yes some things no longer apply, such as going to the temple to sacrifice our livestock. But that doesn't mean we throw out everything. Some things still apply, and anything that doesn't directly apply anymore still has meaning that applies to us today. We may not have the Sabbath, but we should still have time set apart for God and a set some time away from work. I know some people who said they don't read the Old Testament because it's hard to understand, but it seems fairly easy if you read it, try to understand it, and give it a chance. Being stoned to death for picking up sticks on Sabbath doesn't make sense out of context, until you realize why people are picking up sticks: they are collecting sticks to build a fire, work which could have been prevented by forethought and preparation. Another example of something where trying to understand the meaning behind the verses would have prevented problems: the Black Death, mostly people not burying or properly disposing of their... bathroom visits.

Then there's the people saying God hates gays and all gays are going to hell, while ignoring the verses about how cheating on a spouse, working on Sabbath (or at least the reason for it), and not honoring your mother and father all have equal punishment under the Law: death. I'm not saying I'm innocent, but if we are going to judge people, we should be careful what measure we are using or it may backfire.

Interestingly, most of the people online who I've heard say God hates gays are themselves gays. It's kinda sad

[Lazarus]

Interesting that you don't see a problem with something as harmless as working on the sabbath being an offense punishable by death(or hell).

[ArcticFox]

Then there are people who say the Old Testament is obsoleted by the New Testament.

Yeah many do, though even if they were right, the condemnation against homosexual behavior is repeated in the New Testament.

Interestingly, most of the people online who I've heard say God hates gays are themselves gays. It's kinda sad

True, it is sad... though hardly surprising given the level of self-loathing experienced by a lot of people in that community. They blame Christians for it, of course... but as our culture has grown more accepting of their lifestyle, the rate of suicides within that community have not decreased.

[skeer]

@Lazarus Yes I agree that it seems somewhat harsh, even to me. But something that should be considered is that the people of those times didn't have government or unions to protect them. How can anyone afford to set apart time for God or family if everyone else is working sun up to sun down, every day of the year. The Sabbath is like a weekend to those people, a much needed rest.

In the New Testament, Jesus and his disciples gathered some gathered wheat to eat. Pharisees complained that they were doing work, but Jesus said the Sabbath was meant for man, not the other way around. God created the Sabbath to help his people.

Besides, if you knew something was clearly against the law and punishable by death, I'm pretty sure you wouldn't do it. You might question it, but you wouldn't do it. That's my opinion though, you might want a second opinion from someone around here

@ArticFox thanks for taking the time to read what I said There are some even more nitpicky people who say Jesus didn't say homosexuality was bad, Paul did. I don't buy that excuse though.

[Coals_of_fire]

had a friend that was gay even wanted me to me his best man too. I said no to that and I said i would not go to his wedding. as time came close he texted asking again if i would go to his wedding I said no God would ground me if I did. for what loving parent would not ground there children. after that i was called a hypocrite and been over a month since I hear from him and he is marryed to a guy. after he called me a hypocrite God lead me not to play on the minecraft server that was for me and him. a few days later my computer went bad and had to be restored so I lost the IP for that server. well God didn't want me to so to was a good thing . in restoring my computer (I brought it used and showed it had no wifi in it from the system reading). to my surprise my computer know had wifi when restored. praise God