Gay Rights Gone Wild!

If you want to see what happens when you don't have an answer to arguments against your position, and you desperately need to justify your sinful behavior, then listen to this segment of the O'Reilly factor. Yes, the opening images are disturbing, but at least try to stomach it, because what happens next at the church is even worse.

I almost wonder if we may have to get police officers at the door of church buildings in order to have services in the near future! However, this is not the only incedent. Here is another incedent made known to me by Dr. James White's blog:




There you go. Just take a cross, and throw it to the ground, and step on it like a bunch of animals. Then, these people have the audacity to yell "shame on you!" When I heard that, I couldn't help think of the very same passage Dr. White wrote at the end of his blog:

Isaiah 5:20-21 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil, those who replace darkness for light, and light for darkness, those who set up bitterness for sweetness, and sweetness for bitterness! 22. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, who discern in their own sight!

I think it is so providential that this verse is here because of the inability for secularism to account for morality. I mean, if this stuff is right, you might as well throw the Bible into the trash can. Yet, if it is not right, then you do you account for universal, absolute standards? How is it you can make sense out of universals in a universe that is inherently secular and imperical in character? Such is what happens when you are "wise in your own eyes." They know this, and they know that they only way they will get anywhere is by being bullies, and shouting anyone down who disagrees with them. Well, I could get four hundred body builders to shout them down too. Does that somehow prove something? Of course, it proves nothing at all. However, that is what you have to do when you are face to face with your creator day after day doing all kinds of abominations, knowing he exists the whole time, and knowing his wrath is against you for your sin. You have to suppress that knowledge, and that means that anyone who reminds you of that truth will just have to be shut up.

There is a simple solution for this, and that is the homosexuals repent and believe the gospel. However, as is the case with so much of society today, people love their sin more than they love God, and therefore, they will not repent. That is why we need to trust in an all powerful God who takes away the power of sin, frees people from bondage to their sin, and raises them to new life in Christ. Without the power of God to change peoples hearts and minds, we would be lost in this battle against this evil of homosexuality.

Short Radio Encounter with Albert Mohler

I had heard earlier in the week that Albert Mohler was going to be discussing is view that delay of marriage is a sin on his program today, so figured I would try to get a call in on the program. I couldn't get through the first time, but I did the second time.

Here is the link to the program. My call comes at about 17:45. I have to say, I am impressed with the way I was treated. I was treated very fairly. I had originally figured that calling in would give people a chance to hear the other side, but time was so limited, that it seemed like all we could do is make assertions. I figured on using the same argument I used against Candice Watters here, with regards to Genesis 2-3. The call screener told me to be quick, so I had to get a lot of information out in a very short period of time. Hence the misunderstanding at the beginning. However, I think that when I answered Dr. Mohler's question about why I believed marriage was a bad thing if I wanted to get married, he got my argument. All he could say about my interpretation is that it was "warped." I just wanted to say, "Prove it!" He threw out 1 Corinthians 7, and the reason why I found out that this is not the best arena for dialoguing about these things is because I had no time to respond to his presentation on that passage.

Now, some of the things Dr. Mohler said were really interesting. For instance, he tried to say he wasn't connecting marriage and salvation from sexual sin. Yet, as I have documented time and time again, Dr. Mohler has connected marriage and sanctification. One has to wonder if Dr. Mohler believes that sanctification is part of salvation. The only logical conclusion I can come to from hearing him speak is that salvation and sanctification are able to be separated, which has outragious implications for understanding the importance of sanctification within salvation itself.

Also, he said that I was going of topic by bringing up Genesis 2-3, because the topic was delay of marriage. Of course, what I found odd is, at the New Attitude Conference, where his sermon first popularized this idea that delay of marriage is a sin, he spent nearly the whole first half of the sermon on the topic! The reason why I chose this is obvious. If it can be shown that marriage and singleness are parallel in the text of Genesis 2-3, and, because of sin, it is not good for the man to be married just as it is not good for the man to be alone, then there is no reason to say that delay of marriage is bad because there is nothing inherently necessary about getting married. I really have no idea if Dr. Mohler really got that. Again, if I had more time, I could have pressed this.

Finally, this pushing of the idea that manhood=marriage was also bothersome. I figured that one was easy to challange, even though I felt I had very little time. However, I don't know how well it was heard. We were coming up on a station break, and the music was playing in the background. Dr. Mohler said that the Bible said that manhood=marriage, and I just said loudly and firmly, "where?". If it was heard, he never bothered to answer that question.

Also, he was very broad in his statements. He said things like "All of scripture teaches x." If there would have been more time I would have told him that, if all scripture teaches it, then it should not be hard to find a particular text that teaches it! These broad strokes were just all over Dr. Mohler's statements. The only specific he gave was 1 Corinthians 7, which I have dealt with before. The problem is it would have taken me more time to develop these things than the few brief minutes we talked.

Also, one of the things I have been increasingly very concerned about is the attempt to paint anyone who holds this position as a liberal. As I went through and listened to the first half of the program before my call, that came out very clearly. The interesting thing is that, before 1995, if you had stated this position to someone, they would have thought you were strange. Also with me is that I just let my track record speak for itself. I have defended inerrancy, argued against feminism, atheism, and written against abortion and homosexuality. I have the track record of being a committed, conservative, evangelical Christian. We need to keep doing this, and it will prove them wrong by our very actions.

I figured that this was the only way to get through to him to at least talk with him on this topic, and let his listeners know that there are other positions that conservative, evangelical Christians can hold besides his. That is why I made it clear at the beginning that I do agree with him on 95% of everything he says. I do respect the man. However, I pray that God would change his heart so that he repents of these ideas, and does not bind to the contience of God's people things that are not found in God's word. I would also be open to dialoguing with him more on this topic. However, his interest in dialoguing with a master's student in Hebrew and Semitic Studies is not probably going to be that high.

Addendum:

I have written the following suggestion to the editors of Boundless:

Hey Ted and Co!

I have a suggestion. Since you guys have the Boundless show webcast, why don't you invite some of the teachers you guys promote who believe that delay of marriage is a sin, and have Anakin Niceguy, myself, Andreas Kostenberger, or others who disagree with them on the Boundless Show to discuss our disagreements with them? Shows like this usually do really well in terms of downloads. It is a hot button issue anyway, and putting both sides next to each other will allow people understand the issues much more clearly. The only other times I see this issue discussed is in a thread like on the Line or on a call in talk program, and you either have a mammoth amount of material through which to sort [on the thread], or an extremely short time, at most minute and a half, to make your point [on a call in talk program]. A program with even a section like this would allow both sides to lay out their position, and discuss areas of disagreement, and thus, I think would be more edifying in terms of helping people understand the issues involved.

God Bless,
Adam
[http://puritancalvinist.blogspot.com]

I figure that this would be a much better idea for allowing both sides to lay out the issues. We will see what they say!

The Gay Rights Crowd Starting them Young

One wonders what good it is having a kindergartner sign a pledge card saying they will stop "discrimination" against gays and lesbians. However, the gay rights crowd seem so intent on indoctrination of our youth, that apparently one did just that, even though, as the article says, most kindergartners do not even know what "gay" means. Here is a picture of one of the cards signed from the Fox News website:



Thankfully, the school had enough sense to say that action should be taken against this teacher, however, only because the material was not "age appropriate." In other words, it was morally acceptable to do this with our youth, but only when they reach the age where they can understand.

This is the reason why we need to be very careful about our children's education, expecially in public schools. Private schools and homeschooling are the best. Also, we also need to encourage those who live in California to get out and vote for proposition 8. Unfortunately, we still have a long battle on our hands, and it appears that those who hate God's law seem content to teach others to likewise hate God's law, even if they are only a kindergartner.